Category: Contemporary

Title: Fight Like a Girl
Author: Sheena Kamal
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 10, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Beauty of the Moment meets Exit, Pursued by a Bear. Award-winning thriller writer Sheena Kamal delivers a kick-ass debut YA novel that will have fans crying out for more.

Love and violence. In some families they’re bound up together, dysfunctional and poisonous, passed from generation to generation like eye color or a quirk of smile. Trisha’s trying to break the chain, channeling her violent impulses into Muay Thai kickboxing, an unlikely sport for a slightly built girl of Trinidadian descent. Her father comes and goes as he pleases, his presence adding a layer of tension to Toronto’s east-end townhouse Trisha and her mom call home, every punch he lands on her mother carving itself indelibly into Trisha’s mind. Until the night he wanders out drunk in front of the car Trisha is driving, practicing on her learner’s permit, her mother in the passenger seat. Her father is killed, and her mother seems strangely at peace. Lighter, somehow. Trisha doesn’t know exactly what happened that night, but she’s afraid it’s going to happen again. Her mom has a new man in her life and the patterns, they are repeating.

Review:

Trisha is a fighter. She practices Muay Thai kickboxing. She is of Trinidadian descent, and she lives with her mother in Toronto. Her dad comes to visit from Trinidad, and is killed when she accidentally hits him with her car. However, she suspects that there is more to his death. She throws herself into her fighting to distract her from her suspicions about her father’s death and her mother’s new boyfriend.

This was such an original story. There were unexpected twists. There was also lots of tension when it came to Trisha’s kickboxing. She went through a lot of pain and suffering, both mentally and physically, which was difficult to read at times.

I loved that this book was set in my hometown of Toronto. I could imagine where Trisha lived and the things she would do in the city, like taking the subway to her kickboxing class. I had friends when I was growing up who were from Trinidad, so Tricia reminded me of them.

This is a great story!

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

What to read next:

Have you read Fight Like a Girl? What did you think of it?

Title: Foul is Fair (Foul is Fair #1)
Author: Hannah Capin
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 18, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Elle and her friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Elle’s sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Elle as their next target. 

They picked the wrong girl. 

Sworn to vengeance, Elle transfers to St. Andrew’s. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She’ll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school’s hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly. 

Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes. 

Review:

This story is a modern retelling of Macbeth. I only read the play once, years ago, but I was surprised at how much I remembered while reading this book.

This story has a modern twist, with Jade seeking revenge. She was assaulted by a popular group of boys at St. Andrew’s school. She reinvents herself and orchestrates a plot to take them down.

This story is told from the perspective of Jade, who is the Lady Macbeth character. It took me a while to catch on to who she was meant to play. She uses her friends, the witches, to influence Mack to murder his friends.

There were a lot of characters in this book, and I got them mixed up sometimes. A few boys had names starting with D, so I got them mixed up. They were sometimes called their first name, and other times their last name. It was confusing when there were scenes with many characters because they were all moving and doing things, like they would in a play, but it made the scene really drawn out in the book.

I enjoyed this story. I’m curious to see what will happen in the next book.

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

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Author Info:

Have you read Foul is Fair? What did you think of it?

Title: Wildfire
Author: Carrie Mac
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: January 28, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Into the Wild meets The Serpent King in this story about Annie and Pete, two best friends on a dangerous and emotional trek through the woods. 

Annie and Pete have been best friends since they were little. They know each other better than anyone, and they’ve been on more adventures than they can count–they even have a notebook filled with all the times they’ve almost died. But they always survive, because together, they’re invincible.

And they’ve always been just friends. But lately, Annie has been thinking that maybe friendship is just the beginning, and she’s been mentally replaying all the times they were almost something more.

Now they’re heading out on their next great quest: a ten-day backpacking trip through the mountains of Washington State, ending at Fire Camp, where they’ll learn to fight the area’s growing wildfire problem. The woods spark with the promise of adventure, but a freak climbing accident interrupts their progress, and as the wildfires close in and smoke envelops them, Annie and Pete wander farther from the trail. Carrie Mac’s gripping story of the power of unrequited love and the danger of the elements is harrowing, beautiful, and unforgettable. 

Review:

This was a heartbreaking story about friendship.

Annie and Pete are best friends who have experienced many tragedies in their young lives. They have both lost their mothers and Annie’s grandmother. They have also almost died many times. In this story, they embark on a hike through the forest. They intend to end their journey at a camp, where they will learn to fight forest fires, but they have to face many obstacles along the way.

I loved Annie’s narrative voice. At the beginning, the story jumped around a bit between a difficult time in their journey where Pete was sick and a few weeks earlier when Annie’s grandmother died. After a couple of chapters, I became hooked on the story. There were some parts of their lives, such as when and how their mothers died, which weren’t explained until close to the end of the story. That kept up some suspense since I was wondering what happened to them.

This story was heartbreaking and terrifying. On Pete and Annie’s journey, they faced unpredictable threats. They weren’t immediate threats, like wild animals, but more subtle things that threatened their lives. They were fairly close to civilization, but they were also too far to get help.

I became really attached to the characters throughout this story, which made the ending of it all the more difficult. This is a great book.

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

What to read next:

Have you read Wildfire? What did you think of it?

Title: Don’t Read the Comments
Author: Eric Smith
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 28, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.

Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.

At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds…and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line…

And she isn’t going down without a fight.

Review:

This is a great story about gaming and the dangers that can come along with it.

Divya is a famous gamer, who streams her game play with her friend Rebekah. She meets Aaron in the game and they become friends online. At the same time, Divya begins to be harassed by a group of guys who start attacking her in the game. It escalates to real life, with them attacking her and her mother at their home.

Many parts of this story were realistic. It can be dangerous to put your personal information online. Divya thought she was hiding her identity, but some other players still found her. Even when Aaron wanted to meet her in real life, she was careful about not giving away any real information.

The sexism and racism in this story was unfortunately realistic too. The guys were attacking her just because she is a woman of colour who likes to play video games. That should have nothing to do with her ability to play what she likes. I don’t understand how people can think the way they do, but it does happen in the gaming community.

I really loved this story!

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

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Author Info:

Have you read Don’t Read the Comments? What did you think of it?

Title: Tweet Cute
Author: Emma Lord
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 21, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

Review:

This book is a great twist on a Romeo and Juliet style of story.

Pepper and Jack are the children of rival sandwich company owners, though they don’t know it at first. They go to the same school and they tweet from their family’s company’s Twitter accounts. They start a Twitter war, that their families encourage rather than stop. At the same time, Pepper and Jack are also communicating on a secret app which hides their identities. There were many layers to their relationship, from Twitter to their chatting app, and even to their relationship in real life.

This story was a lot of fun. It kept making me hungry because of all the food that was described. There were lots of sandwiches, but there were also desserts because Pepper and her sister have a baking blog. They made delicious sounding desserts, such as Monster Cake, which is made of every sweet food you can imagine.

I really enjoyed this story! I recommend having some sweet treats nearby when you read it!

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

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About the Author:

Have you read Tweet Cute? What did you think of it?

Title: Every Other Weekend
Author: Abigail Johnson
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 7, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can life begin again…every other weekend?

Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.

Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for. 

Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed.

Review:

Adam and Jolene both have separated parents. They meet when Adam visits his dad on the weekends at his new apartment. Adam escapes from his unpleasant situation to be with Jolene, who also has a complicated family life. She stays with her dad’s new girlfriend on the weekends because he stays at work all the time to avoid her. She is used as a pawn in her parents’ divorce.

Though both Adam and Jolene spend time at the same building every other weekend in their fathers’ apartments, they have very different situations. Adam’s parents are separated but they still love each other. Jolene’s parents trade her back and forth, but don’t actually care about her. Though Adam’s father wants to give him attention, Adam pushes him away. At the same time, Jolene craves love but can’t get it from either of her parents. I liked that though they were similar, there were also drastic differences in their lives.

There was also an uncomfortable relationship between Jolene and another neighbour at the apartment. I won’t spoil what happens, because I don’t like to give spoilers, but there was an inappropriate incident that occurred. It was kind of predictable that it would happen because there were warning signs leading up to it, but Jolene didn’t notice them. It was a scary moment, but it made sense that Jolene would find herself in that situation.

I really liked the ending of this story. It was a great book!

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

What to read next:

Have you read Every Other Weekend? What did you think of it?