Contemporary
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Book Review | Café con Lychee
Title: Café con Lychee Author: Emery Lee Published: 9th June 2022 Publisher: Harper Collins Genre: YA, Contemporary, Queer, Trigger Warnings: Homophobia, Racism, Bullying Rating: 4.5/5 stars From the author of Meet Cute Diary comes a delectable rom-com that’s brimming with zest and a sprinkle of sweetness. A must-read for fans of Casey McQuiston and Julian Winters. Theo Mori and Gabriel Moreno have always been at odds. Their parents own rival businesses-an Asian American cafe and a Puerto Rican bakery-and Gabi’s lack of coordination has cost their soccer team too many games to count. Stuck in the closet and scared to pursue his own dreams, Gabi sees his parents’ shop as…
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Book Review | The Outrage
Title: The Outrage Author: William Hussey Published: 13th May 2021 Publisher: Usborne Genre: YA, Dystopian, Contemporary Rating: 5/5 stars “You know, when you live in a time of progress, it seems that progress is the only possible way. The idea that everything we’d gained, all of those hard-won rights, could be taken away from us, and that open minds could be closed again? But then the Outrage happened.” Welcome to England, where the Protectorate enforces the Public Good. Here, there are rules for everything – what to eat, what to wear, what to do, what to say, what to read, what to think, who to obey, who to hate, who…
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Book Review | Firekeeper’s Daughter
Title: Firekeeper's Daughter Author: Angeline Boulley Published: 1st April 2021 Publisher: Oneworld Publications Genre: YA, Contemporary, Thriller Rating: 4.5/5 stars Eighteen-year-old Daunis’s mixed heritage has always made her feel like an outsider, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When she witnesses a shocking murder, she reluctantly agrees to be part of a covert FBI operation into a series of drug-related deaths. But the deceptions – and deaths – keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. Now Daunis must decide what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go to protect her community, even if…
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Book Review- Summer Bird Blue
Title: Summer Bird Blue Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman Published: 11th September 2018 Pages: 375 Genre: YA, Contemporary, LGBTQI+, Rating: 4.5/5 stars Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. What to eat, where to go, whom to love. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of—she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea.Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her…
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Book Review- Opposite of Always
Title: Opposite of Always Author: Justin A. Reynolds Published: 4th April 2019 Pages: 464 Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance Rating: 4.5/5 Jack Ellison King. King of Almost.He almost made valedictorian.He almost made varsity.He almost got the girl . . . When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack. Jack’s curse of almost is finally over.But this love story is . . . complicated. It is an almost happily ever after. Because Kate dies. And…