Category: Contemporary

Title: Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From
Author: Jennifer De Leon
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

First-generation American LatinX Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.

Fifteen-year-old Liliana is fine, thank you very much. It’s fine that her best friend, Jade, is all caught up in her new boyfriend lately. It’s fine that her inner-city high school is disorganized and underfunded. It’s fine that her father took off again—okay, maybe that isn’t fine, but what is Liliana supposed to do? She’s fifteen! Being left with her increasingly crazy mom? Fine. Her heathen little brothers? Fine, fine, fine. But it turns out Dad did leave one thing behind besides her crazy family. Before he left, he signed Liliana up for a school desegregation program called METCO. And she’s been accepted.

Being accepted into METCO, however, isn’t the same as being accepted at her new school. In her old school, Liliana—half-Guatemalan and half-Salvadorian—was part of the majority where almost everyone was a person of color. But now at Westburg, where almost everyone is white, the struggles of being a minority are unavoidable. It becomes clear that the only way to survive is to lighten up—whiten up. And if Dad signed her up for this program, he wouldn’t have just wanted Liliana to survive, he would have wanted her to thrive. So what if Liliana is now going by Lili? So what if she’s acting like she thinks she’s better than her old friends? It’s not a big deal. It’s fine.

But then she discovers the gutting truth about her father: He’s not on one of his side trips. And it isn’t that he doesn’t want to come home…he can’t. He’s undocumented and he’s been deported back to Guatemala. Soon, nothing is fine, and Lili has to make a choice: She’s done trying to make her white classmates and teachers feel more comfortable. Done changing who she is, denying her culture and where she came from. They want to know where she’s from, what she’s about? Liliana is ready to tell them.

Review:

Liliana is a Latinx high school student in Boston. Her father has disappeared, but he has left before, though not for as long. Lili is accepted to a program called METCO, which is meant to desegregate schools. She starts going to a predominantly white school in a wealthy neighbourhood. The problem with the program is that Lili is still treated as an “other.” The METCO students are separated in social situations from the other students in the school, which further segregates them. Things get out of hand when Lili and the other students face racism from students and teachers. Lili has to figure out a way to fight back and show the world who they are.

This is a painfully honest story. Lili and the other students had to deal with some horrible racist situations from both students and teachers. It was really disturbing to see the teachers also making inappropriate comments. Lili also had a hard time at home because her father was gone. There were undocumented immigrants in her family, and it seemed like a problem that would be impossible to solve.

Even though METCO was a program created to bring students of different backgrounds to the school, it actually segregated the students more. Instead of being part of their whole school, the small group of students stayed together. The point of the program was to give them more opportunities in schooling, yet they were not guaranteed these opportunities even if they worked hard. These kinds of programs may be created with good intentions, but they need to fully integrate the students in the school, rather than separating them in their own group.

This is a must read book! I loved it!

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

What to read next:

Color Me In by Natasha Diaz

A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison

Have you read Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From? What did you think of it?

Title: The Stepping Off Place
Author: Cameron Kelly Rosenblum
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 28, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Every girl loves her best friend, but Hattie is more like Reid’s social oxygen. Hattie’s the badass, Reid’s the wingman; that’s how it’s meant to be. But when Hattie drowns off the coast of Maine while summering with her family two weeks before the start of senior year, Reid must confront the devastating loss and her own identity crisis, all while hearing and seeing Hattie everywhere. 

The police declare that Hattie died by suicide, but it just doesn’t make sense. Hattie was one of the most enigmatic and joyful people Reid has ever known. Something just doesn’t feel right, and in her grief, Reid immediately begins to question the circumstances surrounding Hattie’s death—and the secrets kept by the person she thought she knew better than herself. This is the summer that Reid is forced to reexamine everything she knows about alphas and betas, truth and lies, the complexities of mental health, and what it means to step into yourself.

Review:

Hattie is Reid’s energetic and fun best friend. One day, when Reid is looking forward to Hattie returning from her summer at the cottage, she learns that Hattie has died. Reid is shocked to hear that Hattie’s death has been ruled a suicide. Reid can’t understand how someone as happy as Hattie could have killed herself. Reid embarks on an investigation of her own to find the truth behind Hattie’s death.

This was an emotionally heavy book. Some trigger warnings are suicide and sexual assault. Mental health and grief also played an important part of this story. Even though someone may not appear to have mental health problems, doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering. Mental health illnesses can be an invisible disease, which isn’t apparent from a person’s outward appearance though they may be suffering internally.

I felt so sympathetic towards Reid throughout the story. She felt like she had a hard life because she had to look after her autistic brother. Her family had to organize their life around her brother’s schedule. Though everyone could see Reid’s brother’s autism, Hattie’s mental health problems weren’t as apparent at first glance. Reid couldn’t understand how her friend, who appeared happy, could struggle so much with her mental health that she would take her own life. Reid’s theories behind Hattie’s death were so convincing, I was tempted to believe her. This story shows how Reid copes with her grief by being in denial about the cause of Hattie’s death.

This was an emotional and powerful story.

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

What to read next:

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Have you read The Stepping Off Place? What did you think of it?

Title: More Than Maybe
Author: Erin Hahn
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 21, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Growing up under his punk rocker dad’s spotlight, eighteen-year-old Luke Greenly knows fame and wants nothing to do with it. His real love isn’t in front of a crowd, it’s on the page. Hiding his gift and secretly hoarding songs in his bedroom at night, he prefers the anonymous comfort of the locally popular podcast he co-hosts with his outgoing and meddling, far-too-jealousy-inspiringly-happy-with-his-long-term-boyfriend twin brother, Cullen. But that’s not Luke’s only secret. He also has a major un-requited crush on music blogger, Vada Carsewell.

Vada’s got a five year plan: secure a job at the Loud Lizard to learn from local legend (and her mom’s boyfriend) Phil Josephs (check), take over Phil’s music blog (double check), get accepted into Berkeley’s prestigious music journalism program (check, check, check), manage Ann Arbor’s summer concert series and secure a Rolling Stone internship. Luke Greenly is most definitely NOT on the list. So what if his self-deprecating charm and out-of-this-world music knowledge makes her dizzy? Or his brother just released a bootleg recording of Luke singing about some mystery girl on their podcast and she really, really wishes it was her? 

Review:

Luke Greenly is the son of a former British rocker. He hosts a podcast with his twin brother Cullen. Luke has a crush on Vada Carsewell, a girl who works at the bar where they record their podcast. When Luke and Vada get paired up to work on a school project, with Luke writing a song to go with Vada’s choreography, they realize they both like each other. Luke’s secret talent for music is revealed when he is recorded while composing, and the song is released online. Everyone wants to know who the mystery girl is in Luke’s song, and Vada hopes it’s about her.

This was a cute romance. It’s set in the same music world of Erin Hahn’s first novel, You’d Be Mine. A song by Annie Mather, the main character from You’d Be Mine, was mentioned in the book. I liked that the books were connected in that small way, though it isn’t a sequel. I actually liked this book more than You’d Be Mine. I think that’s because I could relate to the rock music references in More Than Maybe more than the country music in the previous book.

The characters were well developed in this story. Even the parents of Vada and Luke had lengthy backgrounds that influenced their children. These backgrounds, that went beyond the story, made the characters seem like real people. The backgrounds of the characters added to the story.

I loved this story! It had an adorable ending!

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

What to read next:

You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn

What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

About the author:

ERIN HAHN is the author of You’d Be Mine and More Than Maybe. She teaches elementary, would rather be outside and makes a lot of playlists. So many playlists in fact, that she decided to write books to match them! She married her very own YA love interest who she met on her first day of college and has two kids who are much, much cooler than she ever was at their age. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, aka the greenest place on earth and has a cat named Gus who plays fetch and a dog named June who doesn’t.

Have you read More Than Maybe? What did you think of it?