LATE TO THE PARTY was a really fun coming of age story about some LGBQTIA+ kids and the struggles to find your identity outside of your closest friends and family.

It’s a really relatable struggle of trying to escape who you were as a kid as you grow up and wrestle with sexuality and so Kelly Quindlen really captures that in this book.

Synopsis: Codi has two best friends from childhood, JaKory and Maritza. Codi is shy and artistic and feels put in a box by her friends. After they try and get her to get out more, she meets some new friends and starts to explore who she is and comes out of her shell. However leaving childhood friends without any explanation because you feel like they are holding you back is going to piss some people off.

This was such a diverse novel and it was really refreshing to see! The characters were complex and I couldn’t decide if I loved them or hated them in all their teenage angst.

My six word review:
Funny, relatable, and full of angst •

That first book! So good!!

And it went downhill from there. B&H was very much filler, and G&M literally was slower than molasses in January. I was just so fed up with the whole series by the end of it. I didn’t like Lou’s progression, I didn’t like how it felt drawn out to the final battle, and I ended up liking the side characters best and not getting enough of them or having them die.

I wouldn’t hate G&M so much if it was like 150 pages shorter but nothing happened until page 300 and that’s outta control.

It sucks because I LOVED the first book so much! Lou was funny, witty, sassy, and a joy to read and after book one she became unlikeable to me!

So for my six word review of G&M:
A slow and unfortunate disappointing end.

Blood and Honey Review

My six word review:
Not as good, ready for more
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If that doesn’t sum this book up idk what does. It wasn’t as good as S&D but I’m still ready for Gods & Monsters!

Is this a thing? I’m making it one

Majesty is out September 1st and y’all get ready and PREORDER this from your local bookstore!

If you were a fan of AMERICAN ROYALS the long awaited sequel is a few weeks away! Until then, like this post and go read the book because the rest of this review has SPOILERS!

This picks up a few months after the first book ends. The country and Royal Family is in mourning for the King and the new Queen is struggling to balance her desires, the expectations of her role, and the public comparisons to her father.

Plus she’s engaged to a man she doesn’t love, which doesn’t make anything easy. Nina is getting over her breakup and Princess Sam, is well struggling extra hard with her fathers death and the pressure of now being the heir to her sister.

As the rest of the family tries to manage their grief and the pressure of life as a Royal, they also have to handle the changes in the dynamic with their sister now being Queen.

We also get a bigger look into Daphne Deighton and her backstory beyond being a manipulative b*tch because I didn’t like her one bit in the first one. She isn’t my favorite, but we got to learn more about her which was really great.

It’s full of romance, friendships, family, and of course American Royalty!

One caveat: it isn’t as good as the first one.

My six word review:
A sequel to a fantastic story

It’s got a love triangle, rebellious daughter and an arranged marriage, and a seemingly normal medieval fantasy world

The full world and story slowly unfold over the 3 books and you will fall in love with these characters!

I sometimes read YA novels but rarely do I read children’s literature if I’m not reading out loud to the kids. My mom is a literacy specialist/coach in an elementary school and bought this book at the book fair. She read it and sent it to me to read she liked it so much!

I loved this one so much! It definitely was children’s literature as it made some of the heavier points seem much lighter. It was an easier read so if you have kids or work in education I’d highly recommend you read this so you can recommend it to the right kids!

A Night Divided follows a little girl, Gerta in East Berlin. It stars with the Berlin Wall going up and her father and brother are on the west side while her mother, and her other brother and herself are in Soviet East Berlin. As Gerta grows up she feels like she cannot fit in anymore in East Berlin, she needs to speak her mind like her father. After her father is able to communicate some secret messages, Gerta decided to find a way out. With the help of her older brother, they begin digging a tunnel.

This was pretty nail biting I have to admit. I love these age books because they always have a happy ending, even though this time was not very happy in reality.

My six word review:
Sometimes our children are the bravest

I love historical fiction because I learn so much about a period in time usually not widely taught. I had absolutely no idea there was a dictator in Spain supported by Hitler and Mussolini or that Spain didn’t receive financial aid after World War Two.

This story brought a piece of history we aren’t always taught to life, all about the dictator Francisco Franco, from the point of view of a recent American high school graduate Daniel, with a passion and eye for photography and a father in new oil money on business in Madrid.

Staying at the fancy hotel in Madrid, Daniel meets Ana, the maid assigned to their room during their month long stay in Madrid who he instantly takes a liking to. From her and her family, he begins to capture the truth behind Franco and what really is happening in Madrid through the lense of his camera. But with military presence everywhere, it might be more dangerous than he thought.

I truly enjoyed this story, I love the writing style used where we see each characters perspective and are able to piece together the story, but the characters don’t know what eachother knows. I think it’s called dramatic irony. It really brings to light the fear and darkness of the regime in Spain and the stark differences between the new oil Texas-Americans visiting and the Spaniards because they don’t communicate everything between eachother out of fear and it means no one really knows the full story of what is happening.

What really happened in Spain was shocking. Babies were being taken at the hospitals and the parents were told the babies died, but in fact they were being sold as orphans to adoptive parents. Part of it to make money, part of it to “rehabilitate” babies born to parents who were rebels. Wild.

My six word review:
The untold story of Spain’s “orphans”

I feel like I can’t do this story justice all I can recommend is you read it and then let’s chat! What did you think?