Contemporary – Page 31 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: The Dating Plan

Title: The Dating Plan
Author: Sara Desai
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 16, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Daisy Patel is a software engineer who understands lists and logic better than bosses and boyfriends. With her life all planned out, and no interest in love, the one thing she can’t give her family is the marriage they expect. Left with few options, she asks her childhood crush to be her decoy fiance.
Liam Murphy is a venture capitalist with something to prove. When he learns that his inheritance is contingent on being married, he realizes his best friend’s little sister has the perfect solution to his problem. A marriage of convenience will get Daisy’s matchmaking relatives off her back and fulfill the terms of his late grandfather’s will. If only he hadn’t broken her tender teenage heart nine years ago…
Sparks fly when Daisy and Liam go on a series of dates to legitimize their fake relationship. Too late, they realize that very little is convenient about their arrangement. History and chemistry aren’t about to follow the rules of this engagement.

Review:

Daisy Patel works as a software engineer at a startup company. When she’s at a tech conference to find funding, she runs into her old boss (who is now dating Daisy’s ex) and her aunt (who has brought an eligible bachelor to introduce to Daisy). Daisy runs right into a childhood friend, Liam, who she hates. Liam was Daisy’s brother’s best friend, but after he stood her up for her prom, she never heard from him again. In the spur of the moment, she kisses him to get away from her former boss and her aunt. When Liam realizes he needs a fiancé to get his inheritance from his grandfather, he asks Daisy to be his fake fiancé in exchange for helping her company. Daisy puts together a dating plan so they can convince their families that they are really engaged before they get married. It will take a lot for Daisy to forgive Liam for what he did to her when they were teens but they both need their fake engagement to work out.

The fake dating trope is one of my favourites. The characters have to keep many secrets from others and from each other. Some of these secrets were kept until the end, such as the real story behind why Liam didn’t go to the prom with Daisy.

I loved the families in this story. Both Daisy and Liam had large extended families who were involved in their relationship. Neither of their families believed they are actually getting married so quickly because it doesn’t seem like something they would do. Liam’s family was visiting following the death of his grandfather. They were a loud, funny, boisterous family. Daisy’s family was very big. She had relatives that worked all over the city, at every place she visited with Liam. It was so funny to see how she had connections everywhere. I really enjoyed seeing their large, entertaining families.

This was a fun rom com!

Thank you Berkley Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Other books in the series:

The Marriage Game

Have you read The Dating Plan? What did you think of it?

Review: Love in English

Title: Love in English
Author: Maria E. Andreu
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Ana has just moved to New Jersey from Argentina for her Junior year of high school. She’s a poet and a lover of language—except that now, she can barely understand what’s going on around her, let alone find the words to express how she feels in the language she’s expected to speak.
All Ana wants to do is go home—until she meets Harrison, the very cute, very American boy in her math class. And then there’s her new friend Neo, the Greek boy she’s partnered up with in ESL class, who she bonds with over the 80s teen movies they are assigned to watch for class (but later keep watching together for fun), and Altagracia, her artistic and Instagram-fabulous friend, who thankfully is fluent in Spanish and able to help her settle into American high school.
But is it possible that she’s becoming too American—as her father accuses—and what does it mean when her feelings for Harrison and Neo start to change? Ana will spend her year learning that the rules of English may be confounding, but there are no rules when it comes to love.
With playful and poetic breakouts exploring the idiosyncrasies of the English language, Love in English tells a story that is simultaneously charming and romantic, while articulating a deeper story about what it means to become “American.”

Review:

Sixteen-year-old Ana moved to New Jersey from Argentina. She likes to write poetry, but now she’s somewhere that she doesn’t speak the language. She meets Harrison, a cute American boy, who needs her help with math. Then, she meets Neo, a cute Greek boy, in her ESL class. Harrison is the ideal boyfriend she imagined having in America, but she has a lot in common with Neo, as they both help each other with English. Ana has to navigate this new world with a new language, while also dealing with the usual issues of growing up.

English is the only language I speak, so I’ve never had the experience that Ana had. However, everyone at some point in their lives has felt left out of a group, whether at a new school or a new workplace. When I was a child, most of my friends spoke English as a second language. I was reminded of them while reading this book. After reading this story, I feel like I have a better understanding of how they felt coming to a new country and learning English.

This story gave an interesting view of the English language. There are so many strange things in the language that really don’t make sense. Some sayings, such as “have your cake and eat it too,” were mentioned a lot because Ana thought it was so strange. She also pointed out how the words dough, rough, and bough look so similar but have completely different pronunciations. I don’t usually examine these parts of English, since it’s the only language I know. It was fun to see all these unusual parts of language pointed out in this story.

This was a fun and beautiful story!

Thank you HarperCollins Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Hot British Boyfriend

Title: Hot British Boyfriend
Author: Kristy Boyce
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: February 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

After a horrifying public rejection by her crush, Ellie Nichols does what any girl would do: she flees the country. To be more precise, she joins her high school’s study abroad trip to England. While most of her classmates are there to take honors courses and pad their college applications, Ellie is on a quest to rebuild her reputation and self-confidence. And nothing is more of a confidence booster than getting a hot British boyfriend.
When Ellie meets Will, a gorgeous and charming Brit, she vows to avoid making the same mistakes as she did with the last guy she liked. Which is why she strikes up a bargain with Dev, an overachieving classmate who she’s never clicked with, but who does seem to know a lot about the things Will is interested in—if he helps her win over her crush, then she’ll help him win over his.
But even as Ellie embarks on a whirlwind romance, one that takes her on adventures to some of England’s most beautiful places, she still needs to figure out if this is actually the answer to all her problems…and whether the perfect boyfriend is actually the perfect boy for her.

Review:

After a video goes viral of Ellie being rejected by her crush for her best friend, she has to escape town. She signs up to join a semester abroad in England with her high school classmates. Everyone from her school knows her from the video. Ellie isn’t an honors student, like the other ones who are on the trip, so she has to work a lot harder to keep up with them. When Ellie and her new friends go to town, she meets Will, her ideal hot British boyfriend. She doesn’t want to make the same mistakes that she made with her last crush, so Ellie decides to learn everything about Will’s interests and make him like her. However, Will doesn’t get to know the real Ellie, so she has to figure out if he’s really the perfect hot British boyfriend for her.

As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I would love it. It did not disappoint! Ellie was an imperfect protagonist who made mistakes when it came to love. She ended up throwing herself at her crush, when he was actually speaking to her best friend. Not only did that happen, but it ended up going viral online. She had to deal with teenage drama on a large scale that even followed her to England.

I loved the setting of England in this story. I miss traveling, especially to England. Reading this book felt like I was returning to London. They went to all of my favourite tourist attractions. The characters also traveled to another city in Europe that I haven’t been to but would love to go after reading about their trip.

This is such a fun story! The only thing that would make it better is if it came with a real Hot British Boyfriend!

Review: Amina’s Song

Title: Amina’s Song (Amina’s Voice #2)
Author: Hena Khan
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Publisher: Salaam Reads
Source: Publisher
Format: paperback arc
Release Date: March 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the companion novel to the beloved and award-winning Amina’s Voice, Amina once again uses her voice to bridge the places, people, and communities she loves—this time across continents.
It’s the last few days of her vacation in Pakistan, and Amina has loved every minute of it. The food, the shops, the time she’s spent with her family—all of it holds a special place in Amina’s heart. Now that the school year is starting again, she’s sad to leave, but also excited to share the wonders of Pakistan with her friends back in Greendale.
After she’s home, though, her friends don’t seem overly interested in her trip. And when she decides to do a presentation on Pakistani hero Malala Yousafzai, her classmates focus on the worst parts of the story. How can Amina share the beauty of Pakistan when no one wants to listen?

Review:

Amina is on vacation in Pakistan to visit her extended family. She loves everything on the trip, including the food, the shopping, and spending time with family members. During the trip, Amina takes lots of photos and videos to save her favourite memories. Amina had to return to the US when the summer was over, but her uncle makes her promise that she will share her memories of Pakistan with her friends. Her teacher assigns a project to research a person who has made a significant contribution to history. Amina chooses Malala Yousafzai, to show her students an important person from Pakistan. However, her classmates only remembered the negative parts of her story, like that girls in her village couldn’t get an education, leading her classmates to believe Pakistan is a bad place. Amina had to show her friends and classmates that her family is from a wonderful country.

This story gives an informative look at Pakistan. I’ve never been there, but it sounded like a beautiful place in the story. Amina was surprised when her cousin told her that she would be too scared to visit America. The stories her family hears are only negative ones, since those are shared more in the news. At the same time, Amina was scared to go to Pakistan at first, because she had only heard stories like Malala’s story of being attacked by terrorists, so that was her image of the country. This shows that you can’t always believe the stories that you hear about a place without visiting for yourself. This reminded me of how Toronto, where I live, used to be known around the world for the SARS virus. Only a small number of people had the virus, but the news story about it being in Toronto made it around the world, giving us that reputation for years. Just because a country or city is known for one thing, doesn’t mean the entire place is like that.

This book is a companion to the book Amina’s Voice. The events of that book are mentioned in this story, but you could read this one as a stand-alone.

This was such a beautiful middle grade novel!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Other books in the series:

Amina’s Voice

Have you read Amina’s Song? What did you think of it?

Review: Perfect on Paper

Title: Perfect on Paper
Author: Sophie Gonzales
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, LGBT
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In Sophie Gonzales’ Perfect on Paper, Leah on the Offbeat meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: a bisexual girl who gives anonymous love advice to her classmates is hired by the hot guy to help him get his ex back
Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off.
Darcy Phillips:
• Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes―for a fee.
• Uses her power for good. Most of the time.
• Really cannot stand Alexander Brougham.
• Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke…who is in love with someone else.
• Does not appreciate being blackmailed.
However, when Brougham catches her in the act of collecting letters from locker 89―out of which she’s been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service―that’s exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach―at a generous hourly rate, at least. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back.
Darcy has a good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she’s behind the locker, some things she’s not proud of will come to light, and there’s a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again.
Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who’s already fallen for him once? What could go wrong?

Review:

Seventeen-year-old Darcy Phillips has a secret. She’s the relationship advisor behind locker 89 in her school. Students can drop off a letter asking for advice as well as ten dollars and their email into the locker, so she can help them with their relationship problems. One day, Alexander Brougham catches her removing the letters from that locker. He blackmails her into helping him get back with his ex-girlfriend. As Darcy continues to answer more letters, she has an important reason to keep her identity a secret. She has sabotaged Brooke, her best friend and crush, in her past relationship so that Brooke was still available for Darcy to crush on. Darcy has to help Alexander so that he doesn’t reveal her secret.

I loved the premise behind this story. It was fun, but also had potentially serious consequences. When Darcy’s identity was discovered by Alexander, she was blackmailed. She could have given some people advice that had devastating consequences. Darcy eventually had to face the consequences of running this secret business.

This story had an interesting discourse about what it means to be queer. Darcy was bisexual and she belonged to the queer club at school. However, she was concerned that if she dated a guy, she was no longer considered queer because she was in a relationship with someone of the opposite gender, and it would appear to be a heterosexual relationship. Even though she could be in a relationship with members of either gender, her queer identity shouldn’t change depending on who she was dating. This was an informative look at what it means to be bisexual and queer in a way I haven’t read before.

This was such a fun story!

Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Amelia Unabridged

Title: Amelia Unabridged
Author: Ashley Schumacher
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 16, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sparks fly between two teens as they grapple with grief, love, and the future.
Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.
In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.
When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.

Review:

Amelia met her best friend Jenna and discovered the Orman Chronicles books at the same time. They both love the series, and go to meet the author N.E. Endsley at a book festival after they graduate high school. Amelia is devastated when the author has to cancel his appearance, after Jenna has secretly talked him through a panic attack. They return home and Jenna goes on a trip with her family, but she’s killed in a car accident. Amelia can’t deal with the grief, and spends time with Jenna’s parents who treat her like their own child. Then, Amelia receives a special edition of N.E. Endsley’s book in the mail, and she’s sure that Jenna somehow sent it to her. Amelia goes to the bookstore listed on the return address to find some closure after Jenna’s death, but instead she finds N.E. Endsley himself.

This story explores different stages of grief. Amelia has lost her family, since her father left when she was a teen and her mom checked out of their lives. She found Jenna and was included in her family, but then Jenna died suddenly. Amelia felt like she had to fill the gap left from Jenna’s life for Jenna’s parents. Nolan, the author, also experienced devastating losses, which fueled his writing. Art became an outlet for Jenna and Nolan to express their grief and find closure.

There were some upsetting things that happened in the first couple of chapters. I even contemplated putting the book down because I thought this was going to be a tear jerker. However, I became very invested in finding out why Amelia received that book so I couldn’t put it down. The tone of the story lifted after the first few chapters and made this an easy read.

I could relate to both Amelia and Nolan. I have felt strong connections to my favourite authors, like Amelia felt when she read Nolan’s stories. I am also a fiction writer, so I could relate to Nolan. There’s a special connection between an author and a reader, which was an important part of this story.

I loved the ending of this story so I’m very glad that I read it. This is a beautiful story.

Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Make Up Break Up

Title: Make Up Break Up
Author: Lily Menon
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Love, romance, second chances, fairy-tale endings…these are the things Annika Dev believes in. Her app, Make Up, has been called the “Google Translate for failing relationships.”
High efficiency break-ups, flashy start-ups, penthouses, fast cars…these are the things Hudson Craft believes in. His app, Break Up, is known as the “Uber for break-ups.” It’s wildly successful—and anathema to Annika’s life philosophy.
Which wouldn’t be a problem if they’d gone their separate ways after that summer fling in Las Vegas, never to see each other again. Unfortunately for Annika, Hudson’s moving not just into her office building, but into the office right next to hers. And he’ll be competing at the prestigious EPIC investment pitch contest: A contest Annika needs to win if she wants to keep Make Up afloat. As if it’s not bad enough seeing his irritatingly perfect face on magazine covers when her own business is failing. As if knowing he stole her idea and twisted it into something vile—and monumentally more successful—didn’t already make her stomach churn.
As the two rival app developers clash again and again—and again—Annika finds herself drawn into Hudson Craft’s fast-paced, high velocity, utterly shallow world. Only, from up close, he doesn’t seem all that shallow. Could it be that everything she thought about Hudson is completely wrong? Could the creator of Break Up teach her what true love’s really about?

Review:

Annika Dev is developing an app called Make Up, which will study conversations between partners and show them how to fix their relationships. Hudson Craft moves into the office down the hall from her. His app is called Break Up, which is a service that will send someone to your partner to break up with them for you. Hudson and Annika had a spontaneous fling in Vegas in the previous summer. She told him about her idea for an app and then he stole her idea to make an app to break people up. Now, they’re not only neighbors but they’re also competing for an investment that Annika needs to save her company from bankruptcy. They have to figure out how to put their differences behind them to create successful businesses.

‘Hate to love’ is one of my favourite romance tropes. There was a lot of tension between Annika and Hudson right from the beginning. Annika had strong feelings against Hudson immediately. I wasn’t sure why she hated him so much, and the complete details of what happened between them wasn’t revealed until the final pages. Her feelings would have made more sense if their first encounter was described earlier in the story.

The final quarter of the story was very intense and emotional. There were very high, exciting parts and some low, devastating parts as well. The plot became much more solid as it progressed. There were some things that were revealed in the final parts, such as the details of Annika and Hudson’s first encounter, which would have been better if they were revealed at the beginning.

This was a good ‘hate to love’ romance. I’m looking forward to reading Lily Menon’s next romances!

Thank you St. Martin’s Griffin for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Meet-Cute Project

Title: The Meet-Cute Project
Author: Rhiannon Richardson
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: January 12, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets Save the Date in this sweet and hijinks-filled rom-com about a teen girl who will do whatever it takes to find a date for her sister’s wedding.
Mia’s friends love rom-coms. Mia hates them. They’re silly, contrived, and not at all realistic. Besides, there are more important things to worry about—like how to handle living with her bridezilla sister, Sam, who’s never appreciated Mia, and surviving junior year juggling every school club offered and acing all of her classes.
So when Mia is tasked with finding a date to her sister’s wedding, her options are practically nonexistent.
Mia’s friends, however, have an idea. It’s a little crazy, a little out there, and a lot inspired by the movies they love that Mia begrudgingly watches too.
Mia just needs a meet-cute.

Review:

Mia needs to find a date to her sister’s wedding so that she isn’t paired with her future brother-in-law’s younger brother for the wedding party. Mia already has a lot to deal with, including math team, swim team, AP classes, and volunteering at the community garden, so she doesn’t have time to look for her own date. Her friends decide to each try to create a meet-cute moment for Mia, so she can “spontaneously” meet the perfect guy for her. It seems like a simple solution, until something goes wrong with each meeting, making Mia wonder if she will ever get her meet-cute moment.

This was a light, fun romance. Mia had to deal with typical high school things, like homework and teams, but she also had to deal with her bridezilla sister who insisted that Mia find a date for her wedding. I don’t really think it was that necessary for Mia to have a date to the wedding when she didn’t already have a partner, but it made for some funny moments.

I liked that though Mia is Black, it wasn’t the entire part of her personality or the story. It is definitely important to have stories about race, but it doesn’t have to be the main focus of every story. Mia didn’t have to deal with racism or racial issues. She was just a teenage girl who was trying to find a date.

This was a fun young adult romance!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Blitz Review: If I Disappear

Title: If I Disappear
Author: Eliza Jane Brazier
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 26, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When her favorite true crime podcast host goes missing, an adrift young woman plunges headfirst into the wild backcountry of Northern California and her own dangerous obsession.
Sera loves true crime podcasts. They make her feel empowered in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She’s sure they are preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it’s time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts.
Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel’s small hometown to begin her search. She’s convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won’t be the last…
Rachel did try to warn her.

Review:

Sera is obsessed with a true crime podcast. When the host of the podcast, Rachel, goes missing, Sera goes to the ranch where Rachel lives to find her. Once she arrives at the ranch, she discovers that nothing is what she imagined. The town is deserted and everyone she meets tries to get her to leave. Sera has to use the clues from Rachel’s podcast to find out what happened to her.

This story is written in a second-person point of view. Sera is the narrator, and she’s speaking directly to Rachel, who she refers to as “you.” This made it very creepy, because she was speaking to the reader as if you are the one who went missing.

There were many chilling scenes in this story. Some were quite graphic. There were a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming. I found the ending complicated and confusing to follow which unfortunately made it less suspenseful at the end.

I did enjoy the journey of Sera’s search for Rachel, but I wish it had a more impactful ending.

Thank you Berkley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: You Have a Match

Title: You Have a Match
Author: Emma Lord
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 12, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A new love, a secret sister, and a summer she’ll never forget.
From the beloved author of Tweet Cute comes Emma Lord’s You Have a Match, a hilarious and heartfelt novel of romance, sisterhood, and friendship…
When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.
But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.
When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents — especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.
The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.
But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones.

Review:

Abby Day signs up for a DNA service to support her adopted friend Leo who is doing the test to possibly find out more about his birth parents. When Abby gets her results back, she’s shocked to find out that she has a full sister in the system, who she never knew existed. Abby and her newly found sister Savannah meet and decide to go to a summer camp to get to know each other and to figure out why Abby’s parents had a daughter who they gave up for adoption a year and a half before Abby was born.

The Parent Trap was one of my favourite movies when I was a kid, so I was so excited to read this book with a similar premise. In the movie, two twin sisters meet each other at a camp, and realize that their parents split up and each took one of the twins. This story is a little different since the girls weren’t twins and one was adopted to another family, but it had the same theme of finding a sister that you never knew you had.

This story was also a little suspenseful because of the mystery surrounding Savannah’s adoption. It seemed unusual that Abby’s parents would have a child who was given up for adoption and then a year and a half later have another child who they kept. I couldn’t figure out why that happened, so it was a surprise when it was revealed. I have heard of cases like this happening with adopted children before, where parents give up a child for adoption and then have more children later. DNA services are also making it more common for people to find relatives that they didn’t know existed, which I think will be a common story in many books in the future.

I really enjoyed this fun summer story!

Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Review:

What to read next:

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Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon

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