Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

Princess Diaries set in Japan. What's not to love?

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

This was the third book in the Scholomance series, and I think this series as a whole was brilliant. I love El and her character as this grumpy unwilling dark sorceress heroine, and I thought this book was amazing at tying together the entire series. There were several scenes where El sleeps with other characters that really bugged me and I felt were totally unnecessary for the plot--I wish those had been kept out. But the other 99% of the book was excellent and I loved the end of this trilogy. 

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

I really liked this story, and I was actually super surprised by the resolution. I thought the author did an amazing job having Pip make reasonable choices and smart detective work, and make us think we were going through all of the discovering with her. She did the amazing job of making you suspect the villain early on, then clearing him for you mentally, before you realize at the end that it was actually him all along. I was really impressed with the mystery.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

I love, love Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy, but I hadn't ever read any of her other books. I wanted to read this one because I'd heard really good things about these books too, and it was available as an e-book at my library so I could check it out easily. Jenny Han is such a great romance writer and this was such a cute story with Belly and her family and her longtime family friends who she spends every summer with. I really liked a lot of the story and the flashbacks and how I got to know Belly (although I really didn't like that nickname), but I didn't feel super comfortable with the love triangle. It just feels a little weird and gross for her to like both brothers and for them both to like her. Plus I never like the bad guy character and I wanted her to like the other brother more. I just didn't really want to finish the trilogy because I didn't know how I wanted the romance to resolve and I didn't want it to resolve either way. But it was a super cute book and story. 

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro

This was the sequel to A Study in Charlotte and after finishing the first one, I was interested enough to follow it up with the second. I was kind of disappointed in the ending of this one--again, it seemed really dark and unnecessarily depressing. But the mystery itself was good and I felt like there was enough drama and excitement to keep me interested. But I don't know that I want to continue and finish the series since I kind of want a happy ending at some point. 

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

I actually have no idea where I heard about this book or where I got it as a recommendation, but I am a sucker for all sorts of modern adaptations of classics, and this is a Sherlock-and-Watson book set in modern times, with the idea that Sherlock's great-great-granddaughter and Watson's great-great-grandson become friends at a boarding school in Connecticut and have to solve a mystery together. I liked the connections to the original novels and stories, and I really liked Holmes's and Watson's characters. I thought the story was really fun, but things got kind of dark at different moments, which I didn't really want out of this book. It was a great mystery and I loved how everything got resolved at the end.

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

This book is the prequel to The Blue Sword which I read first, and this book won the Newbery Award. I loved this book as well and I liked how it was also focused on an amazing female protagonist who was pretty normal but determined and gritty and ended up saving her kingdom from dragons and war and lots of stuff. I think this is again one that I want to buy for our kids to have on our bookshelves. 

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

I am so disappointed that I never read this book as a child. It was really good and I can tell that it was one I would have loved even more if I had read it when I was in the correct audience age it was aimed for. It tells the story of Harry Crewe, who lives in what sounds like a version of Imperial Britain which also has magic, and she is kidnapped and then adopted by a tribe of magical itinerant natives who teach her how to access the magic within her and help her to claim her true identity as a leader over their tribe and to stop the war that is impending. I really loved this story and how empowering it was. I think this is one my boys would love later. I chose to read this because it was first written before the Newbery award winner that came after it (although that one was a prequel to this one... confusingly) and I'm glad I did. It was worth it. 

Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever by Shannon Hale

I really liked this graphic novel series by Shannon Hale. It's a really cool idea to me--a graphic novel memoir for middle schoolers about Shannon Hale's middle school experience with her friends, her anxiety, her goals and dreams, and learning about getting to know people and make friends. I really loved how realistic and honest she was about what it was like for her. I feel like this could be a really great book for any middle schoolers, especially girls, just showing how normal these friend problems can be and how important good friends are. I really enjoyed all of these books and I especially loved how fast I got through them since they were graphic novels. 

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

I instantly wanted to jump into this one after listening to A Deadly Education, but had to wait a week or so to get it from the library. It was just as good if not better than the first, and I loved how it went from being a super local focused problem to the kids trying to fix the monster problem for the entire magical world. I was totally enthralled by the entire story and could not wait to see how they conquered and managed to save the world--until the LITERAL LAST SENTENCE which left us with the BIGGEST CLIFFHANGER EVER. And then come to find out the next book in the trilogy doesn't come out until the fall! I was so disappointed. But definitely have something awesome to look forward to whenever it does come out. 

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

I loved this book so much. My friend described it to me as "Harry Potter and the Hunger Games combined" and I instantly checked it out from the library to listen to. And it was fantastic! The story is set in a school for magic where there are monsters who eat the students so they are constantly dying. I was really creeped out by the story at first because it seemed so awful, but then once I understood the parameters of the story I got super invested in it and really loved it. I loved El, the main character, and her snarky and grouchy attitude towards everyone, and how she eventually learns to care for other people throughout the book. I thought the magic in this book was so cool and it all makes so much more sense than Harry Potter (like so much more detail on what they're learning and how they actually can do magic) and it was amazing. I instantly jumped right into the second book of this series. 

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

After enjoying Clap When You Land and since I already loved The Poet X, I thought I should check out another one of Elizabeth Acevedo's books. This one had an interesting perspective of a teen mom who wants to be a chef, but first has to graduate high school. I loved the diversity of this perspective because it was so different from the stereotypical narrative we get about teen mothers. I thought Emoni was such a great character and the story was fun. I don't have time to get into more details, but it was definitely a fun read. I loved the cooking aspect of it. 

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

I don't have time to do this book justice, but I really enjoyed it. It was about two sisters who don't know about each other--their dad kept two families secretly, one in the US and one in the DR. But one day when their dad was flying to visit the DR, his plane crashed and everyone died, and they found out about each other. The book was told in alternating perspectives from both sisters, and I really liked both of them. I loved the DR storyline and how interesting that was to see that country and culture, and I was happy with the ending. It was a great, quick book--also basically written in poetry. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

The boys and I finally finished reading The Goblet of Fire and of course loved it. I was worried about reading this one to them and had planned on not reading it until we'd taken a little bit of a break, because it's a lot more intense than the other three, especially the graveyard scene at the end. I knew that Dane would take it hard when Cedric was killed, especially. But they begged so much and so hard to get started that I finally caved--although I said no way on watching the movie yet since it is PG-13. And I'm glad we did--gotta get our HP fix in now while they're young and still like reading aloud together. It was so fun and they were immediately ready to jump into number 5. 

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

I don't have much to say about this except that it had been on my Goodreads To-Read list for years and years, and I decided to finally check it off by reading it on my phone. But it really didn't deserve to be saved on my To-Read list that long--I don't know where I heard about it from, I've never heard it recommended again, and it was definitely nothing to write home about. It was a story about a girl who buys a lottery ticket for her best friend on his 18th birthday and he actually wins the lottery and becomes a millionaire, and all of the changes that brings in his life and in their relationship. Basically, not all that different from what you'd expect. Nothing terrible, but nothing super interesting or life-changing in it either. It was a cute story but I've already forgotten the characters' names. Oh, and the ending is totally not believable to me (the lottery winner decides to use his money to fund little acts of charity by random people for forever? It seems completely un-doable and not realistic at all). 

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

I have no idea where I got the recommendation for this book, but I can tell you that I had no idea what this was about, since I started listening to it and totally expected it to be a self-help, memoir type book. Turned out that was not true at all; it was a YA romance set in an LA high school--a complete opposite of what I was expecting. But I really enjoyed this once I got started--it felt very realistic and believable, and it had a lot of serious themes. The main character, Jessie, lost her mom a few years ago and moved to a new state and has to adjust to a whole new life, and it felt like a very real story about a very real life issue. I did have to suspend disbelief about the whole "anonymous emailer" thing because I feel like that would never actually happen, but once I accepted it for the point of the story, I enjoyed it. Also, I can't believe Jessie didn't guess who SN was because I figured it out about 30 minutes into the book. But overall, a really fun book. 

Beyond the Mapped Stars by Rosalyn Eves

Rosalyn was my boss and professor when I was in Writing Fellows at BYU, which is why I was aware of this book, but I would have picked it up not knowing her anyways because she wrote it about a Mormon girl in the 1870s trying to become an astronomer. I loved the wrestle between her dreams and her expectations and I really enjoyed the story. This is what I wrote on Goodreads (I rarely review books there but more reviews helps her book to become more visible): 

Sometimes it feels like all of the books that are out there are set in New York City or London. So it's a huge treat to read a book in a completely new setting that I've never considered before. That was one thing I loved about Rosalyn Eves' first book set in Hungary. This book is set in 1870s rural Utah, with a young female Mormon protagonist, and I have never come across a story in this setting or with this cast of characters before. I really loved how distinctive this was, and even if the rest of the book hadn't been good, that would still have made it worth reading. Eves did a fantastic job representing the Mormon religion at the time, with all of its positive and negative aspects, in a very real and believable way. I really loved how Elizabeth Bertelsen, the main character, traveled this journey of struggling between her desires for achievement and learning and her desire to fulfill her family's wishes for her, at a time and in a place where there weren't many opportunities for her. Her dreams of becoming an astronomer and her dreams for a family and her religion felt very applicable to women today. I really loved how Elizabeth was able to validate both desires, instead of giving up one part of herself entirely. It felt much more nuanced than many YA coming-of-age novels in that way. I am a Mormon, and I personally have ancestors who lived similar lives to Elizabeth Bertelsen's, so that was a personally compelling reason for me to enjoy this book. I also personally identify with many of the issues and conclusions that Elizabeth is wrestling with throughout the book. But I think this could be a book that anyone would enjoy, especially anyone who belongs to any faith and grapples with the demands of their faith.

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney

This was a cute, super fast, easy and fun YA read. Quinn is a list-maker and one day her book of lists goes missing.. and chaos ensues. Someone steals her book with hundreds of lists and starts blackmailing her on Instagram until she completes all of the things on her "to do before I graduate" list. She enlists the help of some of her new friends to get these things done, and does a lot of growing and changing and facing her fears and herself as she does them. I loved how this book honestly addressed the issues of race and stereotypes from the perspective of different Black characters, and how racism appeared in different forms throughout the book. I loved the way Quinn started off not really knowing what her values were and eventually realizing what made her uncomfortable or not as she tackled her fears throughout the book. I thought the story was a little unrealistic but super fun and worth the read.

 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy by Jenny Han

I read all three of these books over the last few days, and it was so amazingly fun and good. I just love these books (and now that there are three movies as well, I can't wait to rewatch them all!) and I love the characters and the story and the sweetness that are there. Lara Jean is just perfectly sweet and her romantic heart is just so tender and easy to love. I don't have any great things to add here, just that it felt so good to get sucked into a book series after a real drought in my reading life the last few months. I've been so busy and so mentally overloaded that I've been trying to be productive constantly instead of sitting down to read and enjoy myself. It felt really good to throw all of that away and to revisit a series I love a lot, for no other reason than that I love it. 

Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter

I loved this book so much I read it twice in a row. I blazed through it in one day/night, and then read it again the next day. It was a super adorable YA romance with all the right cute and tender moments, about a high school senior who falls in love with her next door neighbor who has always been there, but who she's always thought was a goofball kind of jerk. It was sweet, cute, clean, and fun. Definitely one I would re-read and possibly even buy for myself.