Come On In Anthology – Thoughts and Doodles

WELCOME From some of the most exciting bestselling and up-and-coming YA authors writing today...journey from Ecuador to New York City and Argentina to Utah, from Australia to Harlem and India to New Jersey, from Fiji, America, Mexico and more... Come On In. With characters who face random traffic stops, TSA detention, customs anxiety, and the …

Review: The Story of Mina Lee – The Monotony of the Great American Dream

Title: The Last Story of Mina LeeAuthor: Nancy Jooyoun KimPublisher: Park Row Books Genre(s): Fiction, Historical FictionSubject(s)/Themes(s): Asian-American immigrantsRepresentation: Korean MCs (ownvoices) Release Date: September 1st, 2020Page Count: 384 (hardback)Rating: 4.0/10 Margot Lee's mother, Mina, isn't returning her calls. It's a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and …

Joint Rainbow Review: Felix Ever After | Return of the Kathy (Again)

Hello everyone! I come out of hiding once again like an anxious little mole. The thing I learned about staying home during this darkest timeline is that "extra free time" comes with a HUGE disclaimer that's deviously written in tiny scrawl, and in Papyrus to boot. As free time goes up, productivity plummets. Hard. So …

Review + Giveaway (US): They Went Left – Beautifully Written But Incomplete

  Title: They Went Left Author: Monica Hesse Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers Genre(s): YA Historical Fiction Subject(s): WW2, Holocaust, Mental Health, Siblings Release Date: April 7th, 2020 Page Count: 384 (hardback) Rating: 6.0/10       I admit, I’m not exactly in the right mood for Holocaust fiction at this point in …

Mini Reviews: Untamed Shore & Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing – A Shark and a Wolf Walk(?) into a Bar

Publisher: Agora Books Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Crime Release Date: February 21st, 2020 Page Count: 339 (hardback) Rating: 6.5/10 This is an odd one. One of those books that send your brain into a bit of a lull. And I enjoyed it (with a faint question mark attached). But I think I enjoyed it as I'd …

Review: Dragon Age Tevinter Nights – Burn, Thedas, Burn

Title: Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights Author(s): Patrick Weekes, Sylvia Fektekuty, John Epler, Lukas Kristjanson, Brianne Battye, Caitlin Sullivan Kelly, Courtney Woods, Ryan Cormier, Arone LaBray Publisher: Tor Books Genre(s): Epic Fantasy, Game-to-Novel Subject(s): Gods, LGBTQ+ Release Date: March 10th, 2020 Page Count: 496 (paperback) Rating: 8.0/10     The Dragon Age games are dark, heroic, …

Review: Docile – Important and Poignant Enough to Write a Poem For (Which I Did)

Title: Docile Author: K.M. Szpara Publisher: Tor Books Genre(s): Speculative Fiction Subject(s): Consent, BDSM, LGBTQ+ (main and secondary) Release Date: March 3rd, 2020 Page Count: 464 (hardback) Rating: 9.0/10       To be a Docile is to be kept, body and soul, for the uses of the owner of your contract. To be a …

January & February 2020 Wrap-Up: Begone, Cursed Months! (Feat. Pretty Lights)

Happy March, everyone! These past two months felt overly short and dragged out at the same time. And I'm torn between wanting to re-do them or wanting to stuff them into a burlap sack filled with rocks and hurl them into the nearest lake. I ended up re-reading a lot of old comfort books, partly …

Review: Bent Heavens – Horrific, Depressing, and Super Compelling

Title: Bent Heavens Author: Daniel Kraus Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. Genre(s): "YA" Horror, Contemporary Subject(s): Alien abduction, torture Release Date: Feb 25th, 2020 Page Count: 304 (hardback) Rating: 8.0/10         Liv Fleming’s father went missing more than two years ago, not long after he claimed to have been abducted by aliens. …

News & Review: The Hanged Man (Tarot Sequence 2) – I Got Blurbed On a Book Cover

So um. A thing happened several months ago. Well, okay, a bunch of things happened. And they're all interconnected and relevant to THE thing I want to talk about, so let's just go through them in chronological order. Imagine the countdown from Hamilton's "Ten Duel Commandments."   ☀️ Number one! ☀️ I got to read …