Contemporary – Page 37 – Jill's Book Blog

Blog Tour Review: In the Role of Brie Hutchens…

Title: In the Role of Brie Hutchens…
Author: Nicole Melleby
Genre: Middle Grade, LGBT, Contemporary
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Introducing Brie Hutchens: soap opera super fan, aspiring actor, and so-so student at her small Catholic school. Brie has big plans for eighth grade. She’s going to be the star of the school play and convince her parents to let her go to the performing arts high school. But when Brie’s mom walks in on her accidentally looking at some possibly inappropriate photos of her favorite actress, Brie panics and blurts out that she’s been chosen to crown the Mary statue during her school’s May Crowning ceremony. Brie’s mom is distracted with pride—but Brie’s in big trouble: she has not been chosen. No one has. Worse, Brie has almost no chance to get the job, which always goes to a top student.
Desperate to make her lie become truth, Brie turns to Kennedy, the girl everyone expects to crown Mary. But sometimes just looking at Kennedy gives Brie butterflies. Juggling her confusing feelings with the rapidly approaching May Crowning, not to mention her hilarious non-star turn in the school play, Brie navigates truth and lies, expectations and identity, and how to—finally—make her mother really see her as she is.

Review:

When Brie’s mother almost catches her looking at photos of a naked woman, she tells her mom that she was chosen to crown the statue of Mary at the end of the school year. She told her mom that to distract her, but Brie wasn’t chosen to crown Mary, and she probably won’t be since that special role is given to one of the best students. After that moment, Brie realizes she may like girls more than boys, since she isn’t boy crazy like her best friend. Meanwhile, Brie really wants to be an actress. She wants to audition for the acting program at an arts high school, but her parents may not be able to afford the tuition. Brie is discovering herself and how to share her identity with her family and friends.

This story dealt with so many important topics in the life of a middle schooler. Brie’s family is going through changes. Her father lost his job, and got a job at her school to get a discount on tuition. The problem was that Brie was embarrassed for the other students to know he was her dad. Her father was also depressed, and Brie had a difficult time figuring out how to behave around him while he struggled. Brie also had some problems with her mother, who wasn’t completely supportive when she learned that Brie may like girls.

Brie was learning about her sexuality. She doesn’t like boys the way her friend does. She could relate to the queer characters in her soap operas, so she suspects that she is queer too. This was especially difficult because Brie’s family was religious and she went to catholic school. It was heartbreaking to see the way Brie acknowledged she had to hide her true identity because it wouldn’t be accepted at school or in her home.

This story was heartbreaking but also uplifting.

Thank you Algonquin Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

About the author:

Nicole Melleby is a born-and-bred Jersey girl with a passion for storytelling. She studied creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University and currently teaches creative writing and literature courses with a handful of local universities. When she’s not writing, she can be found browsing the shelves at her local comic shop or watching soap operas with a cup of tea.

Have you read In the Role of Brie Hutchens…? What did you think of it?

Review: Influence

Title: Influence
Author: Sara Shepard and Lilia Buckingham
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Get ready to delve into the world of teen influencers like you’ve never done before–from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS Sara Shepard and sixteen-year-old actress and social media personality Lilia Buckingham comes a twisty mystery that takes place in the fiercely competitive world of Internet stars.
After a video she makes goes viral, everyone knows Delilah Rollins. And now that she’s in LA, Delilah’s standing on the edge of something incredible. Everything is going to change. She has no idea how much.
Jasmine Walters-Diaz grew up in the spotlight. A child star turned media darling, the posts of her in her classic Lulu C. rainbow skirt practically break the Internet. But if the world knew who Jasmine really was, her perfect life? Canceled.
Fiona Jacobs is so funny–the kind of girl for whom a crowd parts–no wonder she’s always smiling! But on the inside? The girl’s a hot mess. And when someone comes out of the shadows with a secret from her past, it’s one that won’t just embarrass Fiona: it will ruin her.
Who wouldn’t want to be Scarlet Leigh? Just look at her Instagram. Scarlet isn’t just styled to perfection: she is perfection. Scarlet has a gorgeous, famous boyfriend named Jack and there’s a whole fanbase about their ship. To everyone watching online, their lives seem perfect . . . but are they really? The sun is hot in California . . . and someone’s going to get burned.

Review:

Sixteen-year-old Delilah enters the new world of being an influencer when she moves to L.A. with her family. She instantly joins parties with other top influencers and actresses Jasmine, Fiona, and Scarlet. When Delilah is caught flirting with Scarlet’s boyfriend Jack, Delilah learns just how mean the world of social media can be. Everything escalates until someone is murdered, and everyone is a suspect.

This book shows the dark side of social media. When a celebrity posts something, fans can take it to the extreme either loving or hating them. It’s easy to judge someone when you view their “perfect” life on social media, but what is posted isn’t the whole story. This story shows what can happen when online bullying is taken to the extreme.

This book reminded me of Pretty Little Liars. It had a lot of the same twists that that series had. I liked the suspenseful twists. I was surprised at who the murderer was at the end. I kept guessing who it was, but I was wrong every time. I love it when a book surprises me in the end.

This was a great, fast paced thriller.

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

Blog Tour Review: She’s Faking It

Title: She’s Faking It
Author: Kristin Rockaway
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Graydon House
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

You can’t put a filter on reality.
Bree Bozeman isn’t exactly pursuing the life of her dreams. Then again, she isn’t too sure what those dreams are. After dropping out of college, she’s living a pretty chill life in the surf community of Pacific Beach, San Diego…if “chill” means delivering food as a GrubGetter, and if it means “uneventful”.
But when Bree starts a new Instagram account — @breebythesea — one of her posts gets a signal boost from none other than wildly popular self-help guru Demi DiPalma, owner of a lifestyle brand empire. Suddenly, Bree just might be a rising star in the world of Instagram influencing. Is this the direction her life has been lacking? It’s not a career choice she’d ever seriously considered, but maybe it’s a sign from the universe. After all, Demi’s the real deal… right?
Everything is lining up for Bree: life goals, career, and even a blossoming romance with the chiseled guy next door, surf star Trey Cantu. But things are about to go sideways fast, and even the perfect filter’s not gonna fix it. Instagram might be free, but when your life looks flawless on camera, what’s the cost?

Review:

Bree doesn’t know what she wants to do in life. She dropped out of college and works for a food delivery app, but she loses that job when her car breaks down. Then, her sister gives her a book by a lifestyle guru, which will help her achieve her ambitions. The problem is that Bree doesn’t know what her ambitions are. She makes an Instagram account, where she reposts images for her vision board. Things get more complicated when she starts a romance with a pro surfer, who has had his own social media scandal. Bree has to learn that things on social media aren’t always what they seem.

Social media is such an important part of life, yet it can also be fake. Things that are posted have been edited to look perfect, rather than reflect real life. In this story, Bree becomes a minor influencer. She gets offers to promote products, even though she doesn’t know or like the products. It’s so easy to get caught up in getting free products or promotions on social media. It’s important to stay true to yourself and your brand, rather than just gaining followers.

I liked how realistic Bree’s struggles were in this story. Bree was given opportunities in her young life, yet she didn’t know how to use them. She didn’t know what she wanted to study in college, which led to her dropping out. She struggled with debt and unemployment. This wasn’t a Cinderella story where she suddenly reversed her fortune at the end, but I liked how it reflected real life.

I really enjoyed this story.

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

About the author:

Kristin Rockaway is a native New Yorker with an insatiable case of wanderlust. After working in the IT industry for far too many years, she traded the city for the surf and chased her dreams out to Southern California, where she spends her days happily writing stories instead of software. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, and planning her next big vacation.

Where to buy:

Have you read She’s Faking It? What did you think of it?

Review: Music for Tigers

Title: Music for Tigers
Author: Michelle Kadarusman
Genre: Middle Grade, Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher: Pajama Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: April 28, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Shipped halfway around the world to spend the summer with her mom’s eccentric Australian relatives, middle schooler and passionate violinist Louisa is prepared to be resentful. But life at the family’s remote camp in the Tasmanian rainforest is intriguing, to say the least. There are pig-footed bandicoots, scary spiders, weird noises and odors in the night, and a quirky boy named Colin who cooks the most amazing meals. Not the least strange is her Uncle Ruff, with his unusual pet and veiled hints about something named Convict Rock.
Finally, Louisa learns the truth: Convict Rock is a sanctuary established by her great-grandmother Eleanor—a sanctuary for Tasmanian tigers, Australia’s huge marsupials that were famously hunted into extinction almost a hundred years ago. Or so the world believes. Hidden in the rainforest at Convict Rock, one tiger remains. But now the sanctuary is threatened by a mining operation, and the last Tasmanian tiger must be lured deeper into the forest. The problem is, not since her great-grandmother has a member of the family been able to earn the shy tigers’ trust.
As the summer progresses, Louisa forges unexpected connections with Colin, with the forest, and—through Eleanor’s journal—with her great-grandmother. She begins to suspect the key to saving the tiger is her very own music. But will her plan work? Or will the enigmatic Tasmanian tiger disappear once again, this time forever?
A moving coming-of-age story wrapped up in the moss, leaves, and blue gums of the Tasmanian rainforest where, hidden under giant ferns, crouches its most beloved, and lost, creature.

Review:

Louisa is sent to Tasmania to stay with her uncle for the summer when her parents go on a research trip. Her Uncle Ruff lives in a remote camp where he looks after a variety of wild animals. He gives Louisa a journal belonging to her great-grandmother, who rescued Tasmanian tigers. Even though Tasmanian tigers were thought to be extinct for centuries, Louisa’s family knows that they are secretly around the island. Now, Louisa is the only one who holds the secret to rescuing the remaining tiger.

I learned so much while reading this book. I realized recently that I have read books by Australian authors, but none that are set in Australia. I was so glad to discover that this one was set there. I loved learning about the different animals in Tasmania that I didn’t know before. The fictional mystery around the extinction of Tasmanian tigers was so great. It makes me wonder how many creatures that are thought to be extinct could be hiding out somewhere in the world.

This book was less than 200 pages, yet there was so much to the story. The important topic of animal extinction was discussed a lot. Louisa also had anxiety surrounding her performing music on her violin. She met a boy named Colin, who was autistic. Louisa was eager to learn about Colin and how to help him navigate the world of social interaction. These were relevant topics to be in a middle grade novel.

I loved this book!

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

Review: Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters #2)

Title: Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters #2)
Author: Talia Hibbert
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Avon
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 23, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral…
Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.
When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?
Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his… um, thighs.
Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

Review:

Danika Brown is a PhD candidate. She isn’t interested in romance, but she needs to have friends-with-benefits. When her friend, Zaf, rescues her from a building during an emergency drill, the video of him carrying her outside goes viral. Zaf is a former rugby player, who works as a security guard at the university. The sudden viral video brings a lot of attention to the mental health charity that he created after a tragedy ended his rugby career. Since Zaf needs the popularity of the viral video to promote his charity and Dani needs a new friend-with-benefits, they decide to start a fake relationship to help them both. However, their fake relationship becomes threatened when feelings get involved.

This was another steamy romance in the series about The Brown Sisters. Even though there was a lot of romance, there were also some important issues that were brought up in the story. Zaf suddenly lost his brother and father in a car accident, which ended his rugby career. He experienced anxiety and depression following that accident. He still has triggers that can give him panic attacks. One way that he dealt with that is creating a charity to help athletes with mental health. Dani was supportive of his mental health, which is so important.

One thing I loved about the first book in the series was seeing the three Brown sisters together. They were a lot of fun and supportive of each other. In this book, the other sisters only appeared a couple of times for short scenes. I wished they had gotten together more, because it was great to see their relationship. Hopefully in the next book, the Brown sisters will have more time together.

This is a great, steamy romance!

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

Other books in the series:

Get a Life, Chloe Brown

Have you read Take a Hint, Dani Brown? What did you think of it?

Review: Stay Gold

Title: Stay Gold
Author: Tobly McSmith
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 26, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Debut author Tobly McSmith delivers a coming-of-age teen love story about a transgender boy who’s going stealth at his new Texas high school and a cisgender girl who is drawn to him, even as she’s counting down the days until graduation. Perfect for fans of David Levithan, Becky Albertalli, and Jenny Han.
Pony just wants to fly under the radar during senior year. Tired from all the attention he got at his old school after coming out as transgender, he’s looking for a fresh start at Hillcrest High. But it’s hard to live your best life when the threat of exposure lurks down every hallway and in every bathroom.
Georgia is beginning to think there’s more to life than cheerleading. She plans on keeping a low profile until graduation…which is why she promised herself that dating was officially a no-go this year.
Then, on the very first day of school, the new guy and the cheerleader lock eyes. How is Pony supposed to stay stealth when he wants to get close to a girl like Georgia? How is Georgia supposed to keep her promise when sparks start flying with a boy like Pony?
Funny and poignant, clear-eyed and hopeful, Stay Gold is a story about finding love—and finding yourself.

Review:

When Pony’s family moves to a new town in Texas, he can start at a new school and hide his transgender identity. Even though he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s transgender, he’s constantly worried about that part of his identity being revealed. Pony is attracted to Georgia as soon as he spots her across the schoolyard. She’s a popular cheerleader, who he probably has no chance with. Pony and Georgia end up sharing all the same classes and spending a lot of time together. However, their real relationship can’t begin until Pony is honest with Georgia.

I was so excited to read this book as soon as I heard about it! I read The Outsiders in middle school, so I recognized the phrase “Stay Gold” as soon as I read the title. This book wasn’t an exact adaptation but I recognized some of the same themes as in The Outsiders.

Though Pony was one of the main characters, this story also showed different kinds of transgender identities. Pony was obsessed with having top surgery, so he wore a binder everyday even though it was uncomfortable. His main goal was to earn enough money to be able to afford the surgery, because he wanted to present as male. At the same time, his friend Max was proud of his trans identity. He shared articles and petitions on social media, but Pony didn’t want to have that part of his life online. Sometimes I think people consider all people who share a gender identity to be the same, so I’m glad this story showed different perspectives.

I loved this story!

What to read next:

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju

Have you read Stay Gold? What did you think of it?

Review: You Say It First

Title: You Say It First
Author: Katie Cotugno
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 16, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: her boyfriend Mason is sweet and supportive, she and her best friend Emily plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she even finds time to clock shifts phonebanking at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio, who gets under her skin from the moment he picks up the phone.
Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job—unsure what his future holds, or if he even cares. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.
But things don’t end there.…
That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more. Across state lines and phone lines, Meg and Colby form a once-in-a-lifetime connection. But in the end, are they just too different to make it work?
You Say It First is a propulsive, layered novel about how sometimes the person who has the least in common with us can be the one who changes us most.

Review:

Meg has her life planned out. She has a great boyfriend and she’s ready to go to Cornell with her best friend. She works at a voter registration call centre. Everything changes after her boyfriend breaks up with her. She calls a man at work to help him register to vote, but she learns from his son, Colby, that he died from suicide months before. Meg does something she’s never done before, which is give Colby her personal phone number. Meg and Colby end up making an unlikely connection that changes the paths that their lives are on.

Meg made some bad decisions in this book, but they ended up working out for her. She struck up a relationship with a stranger who she had only spoken to on the phone. She also drove many hours to meet him, without telling anyone. Meg acknowledges that it was dangerous, but she did it anyways. It should have been more clear that she was putting herself in danger by doing this, even though it worked out for her.

Both Meg and Colby had difficult things that they had to face. Colby was still dealing with the death of his father. He found out some things about his father, which changed the way he saw him. Meg lived with her mother, and her father had a new girlfriend. She also had to take care of someone with an alcohol addiction. Suicide and alcoholism were both difficult topics in this story, but I think they were handled well.

I enjoyed this story.

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

Review: How to Hack a Heartbreak

Title: How to Hack a Heartbreak
Author: Kristin Rockaway
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Graydon House
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 30, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.
By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—”Hatchlings”—who can’t even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she’s matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr.
But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It’s called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight.
Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she’s the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever.

Review:

Melanie Strickland works at the help desk for a company that works with startup companies. She is surrounded with men who don’t think she knows how to do her job. Even when she’s not at work, she encounters horrible men on the popular dating app, Fluttr. Melanie decides to make her own website to alert women to the disgusting men on Fluttr, so she creates JerkAlert. However, the start up entrepreneur who she starts dating, Alex, appears on her website. Melanie has to hide her identity as the founder of JerkAlert while also navigating her own relationship with Alex.

This story tackles sexism in the workplace. Melanie was treated horribly by the men in her office, and her male supervisors didn’t see a problem with it. It was actually upsetting to read at times, because the things they did and said were so inappropriate.

Even though Melanie had to deal with sexist men, she turned her life around. She worked very hard to push past the limitations that men put on her in the digital coding world just because she was a woman.

I really enjoyed this story.

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

Review: Followers

Title: Followers
Author: Raziel Reid
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Penguin Teen
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: June 9, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A naïve teenager is thrown into the high-stakes, back-stabbing world of reality television.
After a disastrous date results in her arrest, sixteen-year-old Lily Rhode is horrified to discover her mugshot is leaked on a gossip website. Lily is the niece of Whitney Paley, a Hollywood housewife and star of reality show Platinum Triangle, a soap-opera-style docu-series in the vein of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Hills, revolving around several glamorous families living in the Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Holmby Hills neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
When Lily’s mom kicks her out of their trailer home in the Valley, Whitney (Lily’s mom’s estranged sister) invites her to live with her, her movie-star husband, Patrick, and their daughter, Hailey. Lily is set up in the pool house and thrust into the company of reality-star offspring — kids who are born with silver spoon emojis on their feed. Lily’s cousin Hailey and the other teens have lived their entire lives on camera and are masters of deception, with Hailey leading the pack.
As Lily learns from the Paleys how to navigate her newfound fame, she finds herself ensnared in the unfolding storylines. What Lily doesn’t know is that she’s just a pawn being used on the show to make the Paleys look sympathetic to viewers while distracting from on-set sexual misconduct rumors surrounding super hero dad Patrick Paley . . .
Is Lily safe under Patrick’s roof? Or will Lily be Patrick’s downfall? If she isn’t destroyed by Hailey first. When Lily catches the eye of Hailey’s designated leading man Joel Strom — it’s war!

Review:

After Lily Rhode is arrested for grand theft, her aunt invites her to move out of Lily’s trailer park and into her aunt’s Beverly Hills mansion. The catch is that she will star on the reality show along with her cousin, Hailey, and various other famous families. Lily is just there to recover from her arrest, but her aunt Whitney positions her as the villain to her cousin Hailey. Hailey has a storyline going on the show with a romance between her and Joel, but when Joel sees Lily, he’s drawn to her. Hailey and the other cast members have to plan out their storylines for the season, and try not to be overshadowed by Lily.

Kens by Raziel Reid was one of my favourite books last year, so I was excited to read this one! The show in this book, Platinum Triangle, was like a combination of reality shows: The Kardashians meets The Hills meets The Real Housewives. There were some storylines that were straight from those shows, such as someone faking cancer and having a transgender parent. I loved this connection to real reality shows that I’ve watched.

There were some tough subjects in this book, which need some trigger warnings. There was lots of drug use, faking cancer, dog fighting, eating disorders, and an adult having a relationship with a minor. These things were told fairly early on in the book, so they aren’t spoilers. Even though these could be upsetting subjects, they were so extreme in this story that they turned into a parody of reality shows. One of the most shocking things is that some of these stories are taken right from reality shows, so they are an accurate representation of that world.

I loved this book! The ending was so shocking I had to read it a couple of times to make sure I had read it correctly. If you love reality TV, you’ll love this book.

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

Review: Ghosted in L.A., Vol. 1

Title: Ghosted in L.A., Vol. 1
Author: Sina Grace, Siobhan Keenan, Cathy Le
Genre: Graphic Novel, Contemporary, LGBT, Paranormal
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 14, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Daphne Walters moves to Los Angeles and finds that the only ones who can help her find love and live life to the fullest are the ghosts of her new home!
In Los Angeles, finding an apartment is killer—unless you live with the dead. Daphne Walters moves to Los Angeles for her boyfriend Ronnie, ready to live her happily ever after. But when happily ever after turns into happily for a month, she’s stuck in a strange city with no friends, family, or prospects for fun. Desperate to escape the lingering ghost of Ronnie’s presence everywhere, Daphne sets out to explore the city—and ends up encountering ghosts of a more literal kind! Rycroft Manor is abandoned, beautiful, and haunted. Will the dead be able to help Daphne find the life she’s been missing in the big city? From GLAAD Award-nominated Sina Grace (Iceman) and illustrator Siobhan Keenan (Jem and the Holograms) comes a story about learning how to make friends, find love, and live life to the fullest with a little help from some friends whose lives didn’t end at death. Collects Ghosted In L.A #1-4.

Review:

Daphne chooses to go to the same university as her boyfriend, but when she arrives on campus, he tells her he wants to break up. She leaves her dorm and discovers a beautiful mansion that appears to be empty. She quickly learns that it is filled with ghosts from a variety of backgrounds. Daphne spends time with the ghosts while also learning more about her ex-boyfriend.

I loved the format of this graphic novel. The chapters had small scenes from the ghosts’s previous lives. The ghosts come from different decades, like the 40s and 80s. These scenes explained a bit about what happened to them and how their lives were affected by the time periods. This was a great way to give some background on the ghost characters.

There were some huge reveals and cliffhangers in the final pages. I’m really excited to see where this story goes next.

Thank you BOOM! Box for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Review:

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Review:

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