Category: Young Adult

Title: My Ideal Boyfriend is a Croissant
Author: Laura Dockrill
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 16, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

This honest, laugh-out-loud novel brimming with body positivity, bite-sized nuggets of feminism, and commentary on eating will have readers rooting for sixteen-year-old BB as she navigates her world while maintaining her plucky zest for life even in the most trying of times.

It’s a food diary. I have to tell the truth. That’s the point.

Sixteen-year-old Bluebelle, also known as BB or Big Bones, lives her life unapologetically. She loves life! She loves food!

When BB has a worse-than-usual asthma attack, her mom insists she go to the doctor. There, she is told that she is overweight (no surprise) and prediabetic (big surprise) and must lose weight, move more, and keep a food diary. To get out of this immediate health crisis, she agrees to make an effort.

Then a tragedy occurs in the family, and things get seriously complicated. Suddenly, losing weight and moving more are the least of her worries. As for the food diary, though, BB doesn’t just document what she’s eating, she documents what she’s feeling–and she has a lot to say!

Review:

This story was both hilarious and heartbreaking.

Bluebelle is told that she is obese and needs to lose weight after a serious asthma attack. A nurse gives her a food diary to keep track of her diet. The diary ends up turning into a journal where she talks about everything in her life. It takes a serious accident for her to rethink her life choices.

There was so much delicious food described in this book! This is definitely not a book to read when you’re hungry. There was a paragraph that described toast, which made me crave it. I’ve never read toast described in such detail before!

The only thing that bothered me about this book was the cover. The character is supposed to be so obese that she is unhealthy, or at least that is the way she is described. However, the girl on the cover looks like she’s a healthy body weight. I wish her size was represented with a more appropriate model on the cover.

I really enjoyed this story!

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

What to read next:

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

Ordinary Girls by Blair Thornburgh

Have you read My Ideal Boyfriend is a Croissant? What did you think of it?

Title: Royals (Royals #1)
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 1, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Meet Daisy Winters. She’s an offbeat sixteen-year-old Floridian with mermaid-red hair; a part time job at a bootleg Walmart, and a perfect older sister who’s nearly engaged to the Crown Prince of Scotland. Daisy has no desire to live in the spotlight, but relentless tabloid attention forces her to join Ellie at the relative seclusion of the castle across the pond. 

While the dashing young Miles has been appointed to teach Daisy the ropes of being regal, the prince’s roguish younger brother kicks up scandal wherever he goes, and tries his best to take Daisy along for the ride. The crown–and the intriguing Miles–might be trying to make Daisy into a lady . . . but Daisy may just rewrite the royal rulebook to suit herself.

Review:

I’m so glad I finally read this book! It was everything I thought it would be and more!

I loved the plot. Daisy is suddenly thrown into the spotlight when her sister becomes engaged to the Prince of Scotland. She had to deal with this new fame, which led to many scandalous photos in the British press and damage control by the royal family’s press secretary.

The story had some examples of the press stories throughout the book. There were more of these at the beginning, and I loved them. They were a funny little break in the main story that showed how the royal family was described to the rest of the world. These stories tapered off towards the end, and the stories were just described by Daisy. I wish there had been more of these press stories, because they were very entertaining.

I loved this book! I can’t wait to read the next one in the series!

What to read next:

Her Royal Highness (Royals #2) by Rachel Hawkins

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

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

Title: Ordinary Girls
Author: Blair Thornburgh
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: June 4, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Mlynowski, this heartfelt and humorous contemporary take on Sense and Sensibility follows two sisters—complete opposites—who discover the secrets they’ve been keeping make them more alike than they’d realized.

For two sisters as different as Plum and Ginny, getting on each other’s nerves is par for the course. But when the family’s finances hit a snag, sending chaos through the house in a way only characters from a Jane Austen novel could understand, the two drift apart like they never have before. Plum, a self-described social outcast, strikes up a secret friendship with the class jock, while Ginny’s usual high-strung nature escalates to pure hysterics.

But this has always been the sisters’ dynamic. So why does everything feel different this year? Maybe because Ginny is going to leave for college soon. Maybe because Plum finally has something that she doesn’t have to share with her self-involved older sister. Or maybe because the girls are forced to examine who they really are instead of who their late father said they were. And who each girl discovers—beneath the years of missing their dad—could either bring them closer together…or drive them further apart.

Review:

This was a great story about sisters.

I flew through this book. I loved the way that Patience narrated it. She was very mature. It sounded like a Victorian novel, though the subject matter wouldn’t have been in a novel in the nineteenth century.

I enjoyed the family dynamic of the story. Their mother was an artist who often had too much on her plate. The house was also an important part of the story, because it was falling apart, which kept interrupting their lives when they had to fix it. The relationship between the sisters was also important. Though they are very close, they kept big secrets from each other, which only come out after they are threatened with a tragedy.

I really enjoyed this story!

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

What to read next:

Who’s That Girl by Blair Thornburgh

Have you read Ordinary Girls? What did you think of it?