Category: Young Adult

Title: The Art of French Kissing
Author: Brianna R. Shrum
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Source: Thomas Allen & Son (book distributor)
Release Date: June 5, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Carter Lane has wanted to be a chef since she was old enough to ignore her mom’s warnings to stay away from the hot stove. And now she has the chance of a lifetime: a prestigious scholarship competition in Savannah, where students compete all summer in Chopped style challenges for a full-ride to one of the best culinary schools in the country. The only impossible challenge ingredient in her basket: Reid Yamada.

After Reid, her cute but unbearably cocky opponent, goes out of his way to screw her over on day one, Carter vows revenge, and soon they’re involved in a full-fledged culinary war. Just as the tension between them reaches its boiling point, Carter and Reid are forced to work together if they want to win, and Carter begins to wonder if Reid’s constant presence in her brain is about more than rivalry. And if maybe her desire to smack his mouth doesn’t necessarily cancel out her desire to kiss it.

Review:

I really liked this story. There aren’t many books about food, which I’ve learned when I have to do top ten lists with books about food! It’s ironic though, since everyone eats, and has to cook something at some point in their life.

I liked Carter, and her little battle with Reid. They were quite cutthroat at one point, but I knew the story had to continue so they would probably survive it.

The competition was very interesting as well. Their tasks reminded me of the cooking competition shows on TV, like Chopped. I can’t imagine myself ever being on one of those shows and being able to think of dish ideas on the spot, so I admire the people who can do it.

What to read next:

• Stay Sweet
  
• When Dimple Met Rishi
  

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Title: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Quirk
Source: Purchased
Release Date: June 7, 2011
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Review:

I had heard so much about how good these books are, that I had to try it for myself. I loved it!

I really liked the mystery of Jacob’s family history. His grandfather had a mysterious past that Jacob’s father never believed, but Jacob wanted to believe in his grandfather’s stories. He was so drawn to it that he ended up in the ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. But then he learns that their story isn’t finished yet.

One of my favourite parts of this book is the photos that are placed throughout the story. I was curious about whether they were real or if they were staged for the book. At the end, the author talks about how he found these photos over years of going to garage sales and meeting interesting people. Some of the photos may have been created with a trick of the light, or maybe there really are these peculiar children living in Miss Peregrine’s house somewhere.

I loved this book, but I was disappointed in the movie. I wished they had made it into a trilogy. The story is much more than just the first book, so I wish they had made more than just one movie about it.

Have you read this series? What did you think of it?

Title: Soulstruck
Author: Natasha Sinel
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Source: hardcopy from book distributor (Thomas Allen and Son)
Release Date: June 12, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Ferguson is trying to get struck by lightning. Hopefully it will lead to finding her soul mate, like it did for her mother. And then maybe her mom will be as devoted to her as she is to her lightning strike survivors group.

When Rachel discovers a journal written by her mother’s soul mate – the man she thought was her father – she begins to question everything she’s always believed, including soul mates, fate, and even her mother. No longer sure of its power, she decides to quit chasing lightning.

Rachel feels abandoned and alone. Her best friend has ditched her, her boyfriend has dumped her, and a confrontation with her mom only made things worse. At least she still has her friend Jay. In fact, their growing attraction to each other seems to be the only good thing happening.

But when her relationship with Jay starts to unravel, too, the impulse to get struck by lightning resurfaces.

And there’s a thunderstorm coming.

Set in a small Cape Cod beach town in the off-season, Soulstruck is about the search for love and the risk of losing it while waiting for destiny to happen.

Review:

Before reading this book, I had no idea what an impact getting struck by lightning has on a person. Of course, I know it could kill a person, but I didn’t realize that it causes lifelong health problems and that you need to constantly get checked for symptoms for the rest of your life. There are even support groups like the one in this book, which I had never thought about before. I learned a lot in this book.

I loved Rachel. She was very real. She had ups and downs, like a real person. I could feel her pain, both when dealing with her mom and her boyfriends. I even had tears in my eyes at the end. It was emotional but powerful.

I liked how not all of the information was given right at the beginning of the book. It takes a while to learn about Rachel’s past, including what her injury was that caused the scars on her legs. Since this information was held back, it made me want to keep reading.

One thing that was a little confusing was that the first few chapters alternated between the present and the past, during Rachel’s relationship with Reed. It would have been helpful if there was a signal at the beginning of the chapters to show that it was flashing back in time or returning to the present. Once the flashbacks caught up to the present, it continues in the present, so that was only for a few chapters at the beginning.

I loved this book! I’ll be recommending it for a while. Have you read it? What did you think?

Title: Tell Me No Lies
Author: Adele Griffin
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Source: paperback copy from book distributor (Thomas Allen and Son)
Release Date: June 12, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A riveting novel about secrecy, complicated friendships, and heartbreak, set against the iconic backdrop of the late 1980s.

Lizzy Swift is a senior in high school, emerging from her nerd chrysalis to become a social butterfly. She starts dating popular Matt Ashley, whom she’s been pining for since freshman year. She’s delighted when rebellious new girl Claire Reynolds introduces her to Center City Philadelphia—clubs, street life, and the eye-opening art scene. As Lizzy begins to question her own long-held dreams, the changes in her life mirror the upheaval of a decade marked by a drug epidemic and the AIDS crisis. She’s no longer sure of her Ivy League ambition. While she has a special connection with Matt, something’s missing. And Claire carries around a mysterious sadness and talks about a breakup so bad she changed schools—but she won’t tell the whole story. Lizzy wants Claire to confide in her, even as she keeps her own embarrassing secrets.

Before too long, the heady thrill of her new life starts to crumble under insecurities and deceptions.  When the truth emerges from the wreckage, will it be too late for Lizzy, Claire, and Matt to save their love and friendships?

Tell Me No Lies, a companion to the acclaimed Be True to Me, is a novel of unflinching emotional honesty about secrecy, lies, love, and identity.

Review:

This is a great story about the struggles of growing up.

Everyone in this story has secrets. Some are more obvious than others, but they all lie about them. They don’t want to have difficult conversations, so they lie about their problems, but that just makes them worse.

Lizzy’s secret was that she is an epileptic. She didn’t like to talk about it and never said the word epilepsy, but the girls at school knew about it because she had had a seizure at school years ago. The other characters’ secrets were harder to figure out, and I was wrong in my predictions. I was suspicious of Claire and Matt, probably because they were hiding things, but my guesses of what their secrets were was wrong.

One thing that threw me off in this story was that it was set in 1988/1989. I read online that it was set in ’89, but I forgot until I got to a part in the book about using a pay phone! I think it should have been stated right at the beginning to avoid any confusion (I thought Claire was just being retro when she listened to cassette tapes). However, this may be different in the finished book, since I was reading an ARC.

Though this book is set nearly 20 years ago, the issues they face, especially in regards to mental health and identity, are still very relevant today.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Title: Save the Date
Author: Morgan Matson
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Release Date: June 5, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Charlie Grant’s older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can’t wait—for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster—all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect.

The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster.

There’s the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won’t stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge.

There are the relatives who aren’t speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo.

Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner’s nephew is unexpectedly, distractingly…cute.

Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she’ll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future.

Review:

I loved this book so much!

The writing was amazing. I loved the way that the scenes with lots of characters were written. It was as if I was right there. Some scenes had the whole family, plus an outsider like a taxi driver or a wedding planner. The main characters would be discussing something and someone else would chime in with a comment, but the family would continue speaking without missing a beat in the scene. Multiple conversations could be going on at once. It was like a real family conversation.

I also loved the way that the comic strip was part of the family too. It was a lot like the comic strip For Better or For Worse, where the family grew up as the comic progressed. In this story, their mother created the comic called Grant Central Station, based on the Grant family. But this caused many problems when she reflected their lives too closely.

The wedding chaos was crazy, but still realistic. I can imagine these problems happening (hopefully not at one single wedding) and most of them stemmed from the problems with the wedding planner. This story really kept me on the edge of my seat, and made me laugh out loud many times!

This was my first Morgan Matson book, but it won’t be my last!

Have you read this book or any other Morgan Matson books?  What did you think?

Title: Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Source: Purchased
Release Date: September 27, 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When you can’t beat the odds, change the game.

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Review:

This book is another amazing story from Leigh Bardugo!

Leigh’s writing is amazing. I felt immersed in the world immediately. And the story started right away. Kaz was in the middle of a heist when the story began. The end of the book returned to that first mission, so the story came right back around.

I love that the stories are complex. When things went wrong in Six of Crows, it seemed like a mistake, but Kaz had planned it. When I read these stories, I can’t imagine the planning Kaz would have had to make. And in reality, I can’t imagine how Leigh writes these complicated stories. I just love them!

Have you read Six of Crows or Crooked Kingdom? What did you think of them?