Category: Young Adult

Title: The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
Author: Sabina Khan
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: January 29, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali tries her hardest to live up to her conservative Muslim parents’ expectations, but lately she’s finding that harder and harder to do. She rolls her eyes instead of screaming when they blatantly favor her brother and she dresses conservatively at home, saving her crop tops and makeup for parties her parents don’t know about. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life in Seattle and her new life at Caltech, where she can pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.

But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, all of Rukhsana’s plans fall apart. Her parents are devastated; being gay may as well be a death sentence in the Bengali community. They immediately whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh, where she is thrown headfirst into a world of arranged marriages and tradition. Only through reading her grandmother’s old diary is Rukhsana able to gain some much needed perspective. 

Rukhsana realizes she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life?

Review:

I loved this book! It had some of the biggest highs and lows of any book I’ve read, but it had a powerful message.

Rukhsana was a very strong character. She went through so much in this story, but it ended on a hopeful note. The story was emotionally draining at times, because there were so many difficult topics, such as abuse. There was physical and emotional abuse, including violent beatings and imprisonment. Though it was hard to read about, these are real things that happen in the world, so it’s important to recognize the dangers that some people face.

It was shocking at times to see how Rukhsana’s family reacted to her coming out as a lesbian. I didn’t take it as an insult to the whole Bangladeshi community, because there are some families that are accepting to their queen children. It was just the way that her parents handled it that was so extreme. I can’t imagine going through something like that, so it really broke my heart to see everything she had to go through once her parents found out. I was glad this story ended with hope, because many other people’s stories don’t have such happy endings.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s an important LGBT story.

What to read next:

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Have you read The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali? What did you think of it?

Title: Serious Moonlight
Author: Jenn Bennett
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 16, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

After an awkward first encounter, Birdie and Daniel are forced to work together in a Seattle hotel where a famous author leads a mysterious and secluded life in this romantic contemporary novel from the author of Alex, Approximately.

Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she’s cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel.

In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. The hotel’s charismatic young van driver shares the same nocturnal shift and patronizes the waterfront Moonlight Diner where she waits for the early morning ferry after work. Daniel also shares her appetite for intrigue, and he’s stumbled upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—might be secretly meeting someone at the hotel.

To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell…discovering that most confounding mystery of all may be her growing feelings for the elusive riddle that is Daniel.

Review:

This was a great story!

I loved the mystery parts of the story. Birdie is a fan of mystery books. She has a huge collection of Nancy Drew books. I loved those same books when I was a kid so I could relate to her love of mysteries. Birdie got to live a real life mystery when she investigated a person who Daniel thought was an anonymous author who lives in Seattle. I liked the idea that they could try to find the man who writes under a pseudonym. However, it didn’t end the way they thought it would.

The story had some romance as well as suspense. I was rooting for Birdie and Daniel. They both had tragic pasts, so I wanted them to find some happiness together. There was also some representation of someone who had narcolepsy. There are a lot of side effects to the disorder that I didn’t know before.

What to read next:

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

Have you read Serious Moonlight? What did you think of it?

Title: Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee
Author: Jeff Zentner
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: February 26, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A contemporary novel about two best friends who must make tough decisions about their futures–and the TV show they host–in their senior year of high school.

Every Friday night, best friends Delia and Josie become Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood, hosts of the campy creature feature show Midnite Matinee on the local cable station TV Six.

But with the end of senior year quickly approaching, the girls face tough decisions about their futures. Josie has been dreading graduation, as she tries to decide whether to leave for a big university and chase her dream career in mainstream TV. And Lawson, one of the show’s guest performers, a talented MMA fighter with weaknesses for pancakes, fantasy novels, and Josie, is making her tough decision even harder.

Scary movies are the last connection Delia has to her dad, who abandoned the family years ago. If Midnite Matinee becomes a hit, maybe he’ll see it and want to be a part of her life again. And maybe Josie will stay with the show instead of leaving her behind, too.

As the tug-of-war between growing up and growing apart tests the bonds of their friendship, Josie and Delia start to realize that an uncertain future can be both monstrous…and momentous.

Review:

This was an original story about two girls who host a TV show on public access television. I loved that they were able to get a head start on their careers by creating their own show while they were still in high school. Josie (aka Rayne) pursues her dream of having her own TV show. Delia (aka Delilah) follows her passion of horror movies to get her estranged father to notice her.

I really liked how casual the dialogue was in the story. There were many funny exchanges. They were so funny because of the ordinary circumstances. The jokes reminded me of jokes that you would have with a friend, but when you try to explain it to someone else later, they don’t understand and you have to say “you had to be there.” The comedy was situational and in the moment.

I wish the story was a little more diverse. There is some mental health discussion, because Delia and her parents all experience depression. It even gets so bad for her father that he leaves their family. It is so important to have representation of mental health issues in stories. However, I would have loved it if there was some more diversity of cultural or gender identities.

This was a cute original story.

What to read next:

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

Have you read Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee? What did you think of it?

Title: Love and Other Curses
Author: Michael Thomas Ford
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Indigo Summer Preview
Format: Paperback
Release Date: April 9, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Weyward family has been haunted by a curse for generations—if a Weyward falls in love before their seventeenth birthday, the person they love dies. Sam doesn’t plan to fall for anyone in the nine weeks before his birthday. He’ll spend his time working at the Eezy-Freeze with his dad; cooking up some midsummer magic with his grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother (the Grands); and experimenting with drag with the help of the queens at the Shangri-La, the local gay club. But when a new guy comes to town, Sam finds himself in trouble when they strike up a friendship that might be way more than that.

As Sam’s birthday approaches and he still hasn’t quite fallen in love, the curse seems to get more powerful and less specific about who it targets. A mysterious girl Sam talks to on the phone late at night and a woman he’s only seen in a dream might have the answers he’s been looking for—but time is running out to save the people he cares about. 

Review:

This book was so much fun to read. It was fast paced so I read it in two sittings. I read most of it in just a couple of hours. The ending of the first few chapters gave hints of what was to come, but kept me guessing. It was difficult to find a good place to stop reading!

The story reminded me so much of The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. I loved that there was even a reference to the series near the end of the book. In that series, Blue’s family is also cursed. Blue is told that if she sees a ghost it’s either because she is his true love, or she will kill him. Sam has a similar situation in this story. He is told that if he falls in love before his seventeenth birthday, that person will leave him forever. It’s not easy to prevent yourself from falling in love, so that’s a problem for Sam.

There were so many layers to the story. I loved the diverse representation. Sam is gay and his new friend, Tom Swift, is trans. Tom’s family doesn’t accept him, so they continuously refer to him as “Jennifer” because that is the name they gave him. It was so heartbreaking to read about that. They were cruel to him, forcing him to dress as a girl and wear makeup. There was also some representation of older people in the story. Sam’s grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother live with him. They keep his family history alive with magic. He is friends with some older drag queens as well, which added some entertainment to the story. One of those men was in a similar situation to his friend Tom, in terms of his family not accepting him. It shows how the same themes keep returning throughout different generations.

I loved this story! It’s going to be a great summer read!

What to read next:

Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Have you read Love and Other Curses? What did you think of it?

Title: A Girl Like That
Author: Tanaz Bhathena
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: February 27, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A timeless exploration of high-stakes romance, self-discovery, and the lengths we go to love and be loved. 

Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school.  You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that.

Review:

This tragic love story begins at the end. Zarin and Porus are killed in a car accident right at the beginning. The rest of the book looks back on their relationship and how they ended up in the car together.

I loved the way that Zarin’s character reflected the society she lived in. She would break the rules because she was so restricted, but her punishments meant she was given more restrictions. She didn’t have much control over her life, but she did extreme things when she could decide for herself. For example, she snuck around with the wrong type of boys. When she found one who was good, she didn’t love him. She smoked cigarettes, which made her an outcast in her classes. She didn’t have many on her side, even at home.

This story was set in Saudi Arabia. I’ve never read a book set there, so this was a new experience for me. One thing that stood out to me was the religious police. They would go and question any boy and girl found together and they would have to prove they were siblings. Right at the beginning, when the car accident happens, the first thing the police comment on is why Zarin and Porus were in the car together. It’s more important for them to learn why they were together, rather than the fact that they died. In those situations, even innocent encounters become dangerous.

I really enjoyed this story. I’m looking forward to reading Tanaz’s next book, The Beauty of the Moment.

What to read next:

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Have you read A Girl Like That? What did you think of it?