A cute cozy romance novel, perfect for someone looking for a comfort read

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Addie Woolridge for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary book and media kit!

Book Information

When plunging enrollment forces two rival high schools to merge, two class presidents must work together to make the schools unite. But when a mutual crush emerges, they’ll both have to figure out what they want and where their loyalties lie before they become the most hated people at school.

Meg Williams is on the way to making her dreams come true. As the incoming Junior class president for Hirono High School, all she needs are a few more As and an excellent college recommendation letter, then she can leave Huntersville, California, and her ghosts behind.

Or, at least she was on track until the school district decided to combine Hirono with their rival, Davies High School. Now, Meg is wandering the pristine hallways of Davies High, her life plan threatened by Hirono’s queen mean girl, Freya Allenson, and the maddeningly perfect Chris Chaves, Davies High School’s class president.

When it turns out Huntersville’s Golden Boy won’t just step down, Meg begrudgingly accepts that they’ll have to work together for the year. Worse still, escalating pranks between the rival classmates and a developing crush threaten to throw Meg even further off course. As homecoming draws near, both Meg and Chris will have to decide where their loyalties lie.

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60290868
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Homecoming-War-Underlined-Addie-Woolridge/dp/0593568664/
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-homecoming-war-addie-woolridge/1142907963
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-homecoming-war-addie-woolridge/19650506

About the Author

Born and raised outside Seattle, Washington, Addie Woolridge is a classically trained opera singer with a degree in music from the University of Southern California, and she holds a master’s degree in public administration from Indiana University. Woolridge’s well-developed characters are a result of her love for diverse people, cultures, and experiences.

Woolridge currently lives in Northern California. When she isn’t writing or singing, Woolridge can be found baking; training for her sixth race in the Seven Continents Marathon Challenge; or taking advantage of the region’s signature beverage, wine.

Author Links:

• Website: https://addiewoolridge.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/addiewrites
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/addiewoolridge/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20788059
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AddieWoolridgeAuthor

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

Hello everyone! I’m back again with another review for TBR Beyond Tours (which is the best book tour company ever. Please sign up to be a host if you’re considering it).

The Homecoming War is a young adult contemporary romance about two rival high schools that are suddenly forced to merge into one. Tensions between students are already bad, and things only get worse as the two student bodies begin organizing pranks designed to disparage each other. Junior co-presidents, Meg and Chris, decide to come to a temporary truce in order to stop the madness before it gets out of hand. But when Meg begins to realize that her relationship with Chris is getting dangerously close to something more, she’s forced to reconsider her priorities— and allegiances—in her life.

This novel was outrageously cute, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a quick comfort read. The chemistry between the two main characters had me grinning several times, and the conflicts/dramas were very mellow. Reading this book felt like a hug; at no point did I feel worried about how it was going to end.

That being said, the biggest issue I had was that I felt the plot wasn’t fully fleshed out. Some of the storylines felt like they were in the draft stage, where the author knew she wanted something to happen, but wasn’t quite sure how to make it make sense within the contexts of everything else. There were often times where I felt a character’s decisions and actions didn’t make sense, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m not a teenager myself or if it was because things were contrived for the sake of plot advancement.

Overall, this was a cute and fun romance with a diverse cast of characters. I enjoyed my time with this one and can’t wait to see what this author has coming up next.

Today I have a tour spotlight for you! In this post I’ll take you through the blurb and about the author. If you’d like to follow along with the tour, you can find the full tour schedule here.

Premise

A sapphic enemies-to-lovers retelling of Jekyll & Hyde, this dark academia thriller follows two roommates who must solve an infamous cold case of serial murders on their campus after an arcane ritual gone wrong prompts another death.

Ten years ago, four students lost their lives in the infamous North Tower murders at the elite Carvell College of Arts, forcing Carvell to close its doors.
​
Now Carvell is reopening, and fearless freshman Lottie is determined to find out what really happened. But when her beautiful but standoffish roommate, Alice, stumbles upon a sinister soul-splitting ritual hidden in Carvell’s haunted library, the North Tower claims another victim.
​
Can Lottie uncover the truth before the North Tower strikes again? Can Alice reverse the ritual before her monstrous alter ego consumes her? And will they give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between them?

Exploring possession and ambition, lust and bloodlust, femininity and violence, The Society of Soulless Girls is perfect for fans of The Secret History, A Lesson in Vengeance, and The Grimrose Girls.

Content Warning: sexual harassment, on page animal death, suicide, self-harm, violence, murder, physical abuse

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75293536
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Society-Soulless-Girls-Laura-Steven/dp/059370391X/
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-society-for-soulless-girls-lk-steven/1140714337
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-society-for-soulless-girls-laura-steven/19580040

About the Author

Laura Steven is an award-winning author from the northernmost town in England. She has published several books for children and young adults; her debut novel The Exact Opposite Of Okay won the inaugural Comedy Women In Print Prize in 2019, while The Love Hypothesis was optioned for TV by an Emmy-winning team. Her books have been widely translated, and her work has appeared in The i Paper, The Guardian and Buzzfeed.

Author Links:

• Website: https://www.laura-steven.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurasteven
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurasteven/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17054622

A great introduction to autism for those who need more knowledge, and a great way for autistic readers to see themselves

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours, Janet Tashjian, and Jake Tashjian for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary book and media kit!

Book Information

From the creators of the bestselling My Life series comes a colorfully illustrated mystery adventure about Hannah Sharpe, an observant young cartoonist on the autism spectrum and her cartoon alter ego in this colorfully illustrated adventure.

Young cartoonist Hannah Sharpe has many she’s curious, creative, has an amazing memory, and most important—she notices things. When Doug Williams moves into her family’s Airbnb, Hannah can’t shake the feeling that he’s got something to hide. But his girlfriend, Remy Furtado, couldn’t be nicer or more helpful. As Hannah investigates, often with her sketchbook in hand, she makes a series of unsettling discoveries involving stolen packages, changed keypad codes, and hidden stacks of cash. Can Hannah crack the case and unfold the mystery on her own?

Including full-color illustrations with panel art featuring Hannah and her cartoon alter ego, Dusty Pickle, here is a thoughtful and propulsive new book starring a neurodiverse protagonist.

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75593491
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hannah-Sharpe-Cartoon-Detective-Tashjian/dp/0316319805/
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hannah-sharpe-cartoon-detective-janet-tashjian/1142902649
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/hannah-sharpe-cartoon-detective-janet-tashjian/19623206

About the Author

Janet Tashjian is a middle-grade and young adult novelist who’s been writing books for children for fifteen years. Her first novel Tru Confessions was made into a critically acclaimed Disney TV movie starring Clara Bryant and Shia LaBeouf. The Gospel According to Larry is a cult favorite and Fault Line is taught in many middle and high schools. Her novels My Life As a Book, My Life As a Stuntboy, and My Life As a Cartoonist are all illustrated by her teenage son, Jake. Their collaboration continues with Einstein the Class Hamster coming in August.

Janet lives with her family in Los Angeles, enjoying her respite from the long Boston winters. When she isn’t writing, she’s rewriting.

Janet has been doing school visits for fifteen years; you can email her at [email protected] for details.

Author Links:

• Website: https://janettashjian.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanetTashjian
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janettashjian/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/133890

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to reading this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. To start off this review, let me first provide a bit of a disclaimer that I am not autistic, so I cannot speak on whether the representation in this book is accurate to that experience. The author is not on the spectrum herself, but she does have a son (the illustrator of the book) who is. Please defer to autistic readers when it comes to the representation of autism in this novel.

Hannah Sharpe: Cartoon Detective tells the story of a young autistic girl recounting her time at home, at school (in a specialized program for kids with sensory issues), and inside the world of her cartoon comic. Through Hannah’s story, readers are introduced to her problems dealing with change, physical touch, and socialization. There are little comic strips interspersed throughout the novel that provide a great visual representation of these topics, while also breaking up the prose into more digestible chunks.

As someone whose knowledge of how autism can present itself in children, this book taught me a lot. Not only do we get Hannah’s perspectives on how the world works, we also get views of how Hannah’s parents and peers experience the same events. While there is a mystery interwoven into the narrative, I wouldn’t call this book a mystery novel. The readers basically know exactly what is happening, and what is going to happen, very early on in the book. I think the true story was not about Hannah solving a mystery, but about her learning what it means to experience conflicting emotions, and what it means to let others in.

For me, the biggest issue with this novel was, ironically, with representation. While I thought this did a good job with having characters of varying neurodivergence, the ethnic diversity was lacking. All of the characters appeared to be white—with the exception of one side character, and two villains (one of which is a brown tree bark and not an actual human). The book ends with a teaser for more to come, so I would love to see this diversity improve with future installations.

A fun introduction to a well-known author

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Cressida Cowell for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary book and media kit!

Book Information

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of  How to Train Your Dragon  and Wizards of Once comes an out-of-this-world adventure where magic and reality collide!

K2 O’Hero is a seemingly ordinary boy—after all, he and his twin sister, Izzabird, have been sworn to keep their family’s Magical history a secret. Not even their infuriating stepsiblings, Theo and Mabel, know that Magic exists. They believe K2 to be the most hopeless person they have ever known.

But K2 has a secret gift: He draws maps of worlds that are beyond the wildest imaginations. Worlds with six hundred moons, burning rivers, and dark, twisty jungles alive with plants that hunt by the smell of fear. But what K2 doesn’t know is that the maps he draws are real .

When their baby sister, Annipeck, is kidnapped, the warring stepsiblings will have to use K2’s gift to find a crossing point into one of those worlds and embark on a daring rescue mission.

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75593511
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Which-Way-Anywhere/dp/0316536393/
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/which-way-to-anywhere-cressida-cowell/1142902668
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/which-way-to-anywhere-cressida-cowell/19623380

About the Author

Cressida Cowell grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. She was convinced that there were dragons living on this island, and has been fascinated by dragons ever since. She has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University, a BA in Graphic Design from St Martin’s and an MA in Narrative Illustration from Brighton. Cressida loves illustrating her own work, but also loves writing books for other people to illustrate as the end result can be so unexpected and inspiring. Cressida has written and illustrated eight books in the popular Hiccup series. The unique blend of child centred humour and sublime prose made Hiccup an instant hit. How to Train Your Dragon is now published in over 30 languages. A DreamWorks Animation feature film is out in March 2010. Also the author of picture books, Cressida has won the Nestle Children’s Book Prize 2006 and has been shortlisted for many others. Cressida lives in Hammersmith with her husband and three children.

Author Links:

• Website: https://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cressidacowell
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cressidacowellauthor/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23894
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cressidacowellbooks

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

I want to start of this review with a quick disclaimer: I haven’t finished the book yet. My rating above is based on my initial thoughts as I am only halfway through. I was planning on finishing this book today, but I, unfortunately, managed to get food poisoning yesterday and have been feeling generally unwell and very tired all day. I plan to finish this book tomorrow, though, and will updated my review as necessary.

As someone who has watched, but not read, How to Train Your Dragon, I was extremely excited to join this blog tour and learn more about Cressida Cowell’s writing style. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that fantasy is not my favorite genre. I often find it boring and/or overstimulating to say the least. Thankfully (and this is true so far with this book) MG fantasies have the perfect amount of humor and whit incorporated to keep me invested and entertained throughout. The inclusions of illustrations added to my enjoyment, especially because the drawings managed to be cute, hilarious, and endearing all at the same time.

While reading this book I couldn’t help but feel like this would be an excellent novel to listen to on audio while following along with a physical copy. The narration is very much told like an oral story for children, so I have a feeling the audiobook for this is going to be absolutely fantastic. Still, the illustrations do add a significant amount of enjoyment to the reading experience, so I wouldn’t want to just listen to the audio narration on its own. Doing both together seems like it would be the perfect juxtaposition.

Because I am an adult reading a novel made for middle schoolers, it’s always a bit hard for me to understand how a younger audience would feel about these types of novels. While I do think the general writing style and tone lends itself to the MG audience, I’m always hesitant about books where the plot jumps around in nonlinear fashions. There were some instances where I wondered if too much was being introduced at once, causing unnecessary confusions and complications. I would be interested to read about children’s experiences with Which Way to Anywhere to know how they feel about the timeline jumps and vastness of characters/creatures introduced in this first series installment.

Today I have a tour spotlight for you! In this post I’ll take you through the blurb and about the author. If you’d like to follow along with the tour, you can find the full tour schedule here.

Note: I signed up to review this book but got sick for over a week, and didn’t feel well enough to read during that time. Hopefully you’ll see a full review from me soon!

Premise

The runaway romance soon to be a major motion picture starring Virginia Gardner and Alex Aiono! Two star-crossed teens embark on a journey to Spain to discover the meaning of love, death and everything in between. 

Mia has had a heart condition her whole life. She’s not afraid of dying but something has always stopped her from her biggest tracking down her biological mother in Spain…until now. Before her next surgery, Mia wants to meet the woman who gave her away once and for all. 

Kyle has always been the life of the party…that was until the car accident that killed his best friend. Since then he’s been reeling with guilt and willing to do just about anything to escape his reality.  

After a twist of fate, Mia and Kyle meet and make the decision to travel to Spain together in search of answers they both desperately need to mend their broken hearts…but did the universe bind them together to change how they feel about death and love forever?

See You on Venus is a heartwrenching novel perfect for readers looking

Content Warning: Mentions of friend dying in a car accident

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123018724
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/See-You-Venus-Victoria-Vinuesa/dp/0593705130/
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/see-you-on-venus-victoria-vinuesa/1143117890
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/see-you-on-venus-victoria-vinuesa/19825379

About the Authors

Victoria Vinuesa is a screenwriter, novelist and globetrotter with one passion: to write stories that touch people’s hearts. Three of her scripts are currently under development. See You on Venus is her debut novel.

Was it necessary? No. Was it fun? Yes.

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Jennifer Lynn Barnes for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary book and media kit!

Book Information

Four brothers. Two missions. One explosive read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns to the world of her #1 bestselling Inheritance Games trilogy, and the stakes have never been higher.  
 
Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson’s half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements.
 
Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can’t resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London’s most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible.
 
Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather’s fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win.

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62804258 
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Hawthorne-Inheritance-Games/dp/0316480770/ 
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-brothers-hawthorne-jennifer-lynn-barnes/1142336901 
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-brothers-hawthorne/18946056

Content and Trigger Warnings

For a list of warnings, tropes, and representation for this series, check out BookTriggerWarnings.com.

About the Author

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) is the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed young adult novels. She has advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science, including graduate degrees from Cambridge University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in 2012. Jen wrote her first published novel when she was nineteen-years-old and sold her first five books while still in college. In additional to writing YA novels, Jen has also written original pilot scripts for television networks like USA and MTV, and she is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of fandom and the cognitive science of fiction and the imagination more broadly. Jen is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she holds a dual appointment in Psychology and Professional Writing.

Author Links:

• Website: https://www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenlynnbarnes 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorjenlynnbarnes/ 
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/164187 

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

When I saw that TBR Beyond Tours was doing a tour for this book, I basically screeched in excitement. I still remember when I first read The Inheritance Games and how I thought it was an absolute masterpiece of a YA mystery. Books that have a multitude of puzzles and riddles to solve are definitely amongst some of my favorite, and The Inheritance Games Trilogy is full of them.

This brings me to my main complaint about this book: if this series is a trilogy, why the heck do we have a book #4? It actually took me a long time to figure out exactly when this book took place. Now that I’ve finished it, I can more accurately tell you that its timeline overlaps with that of book #3. In fact, it seems to take place somewhere in the time jump prior to the epilogue of The Final Gambit.

If I’m being honest, I don’t think this book was necessary at all. In fact, I kind of feel like I want to pretend the trilogy was its own thing and that this is some random fan fiction that someone decided to write. The fact that this book also ends in a way that suggests more installments irks me even more, because if there are more then stop referring to this as a trilogy. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a cash grab that comes from the series performing well, but it would be disappointing if that were true.

That being said, I love Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ writing style, and the plot of this book (which follows both Grayson and Jameson doing their own mini-missions) was a lot of fun. I admit that I much preferred Grayson”s storyline to Jameson’s because it felt like it had more agency and motivation that I could get behind. Grayson wants to protect his family, and is willing to do anything in order to do that. Jameson’s plot, on the other hand, was mostly driven by Jameson’s boredom and unwillingness to lose—a trait that kind of actually annoys me about his character.

If you were a fan of The Inheritance Games “trilogy”, then this novel is a good way to reintroduce yourself into that world without having to worry too much about your beloved characters (especially given that it actually takes place before the epilogue of the last book). It was definitely a lot of fun, but I really don’t think it was necessary.

If you are planning on reading this one, I would recommend refreshing yourself on what happened in the previous books to avoid unnecessary confusion about all of the characters and their relationships to each other.

A cute, but strangely paced, love story

Book CWs: For a list of content/trigger warnings, tropes, and representation found in this book, check out its page on BookTriggerWarnings.com!

Premise (from Goodreads)

With nods to Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice, a charming #ownvoices queer rom-com debut about a free-spirited social media astrologer who agrees to fake a relationship with an uptight actuary until New Year’s Eve—with results not even the stars could predict!

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy… a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy’s brother—and Elle’s new business partner—expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because… awkward.

When Darcy begs Elle to play along, she agrees to pretend they’re dating to save face. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family over the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a fake relationship.

But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?

Purchase this book (affiliate link): Amazon

Review (No Spoilers)

It would be a lie if I didn’t tell you that the main reason I read this book was because I really want to read Count Your Lucky Stars (the third book in the series). I know most romance series are usually written to allow you to read it in any order, but I always feel like I need to read them sequentially to get the full effect.

Written in the Stars is an opposites attract, fake dating romance novel that follows two women who decide to fake a relationship in order to get their families off of their backs. Funnily enough, they initially met through a blind date that went absolutely terribly with both of them thinking they’d be going their separate ways forever. But when faking a relationship proves to be beneficial for them both, they soon find themselves unexpectedly falling for each other.

This love story was pretty cute if I’m being honest. There were a lot of nice moments of the two of them getting to know each other, flaws and all. There’s even a bit of a grumpy-sunshine dynamic between these two that I know a lot of people go absolutely crazy for. My main gripe, however, was simply the fact that the pacing felt off for most of it. I kept feeling like their romance had taken off way too quickly (almost in an insta-lovey way) until I realized that the timeline had actually covered over a month, rather than the few days or week that I thought had passed by. Similarly, the end of the book wrapped up pretty quickly and didn’t have any epilogue chapter to help tie everything together.

Aside from that, the characters in this book span so many personalities that I think any reader will find at least one that they can relate to. I was also extremely happy to find a pansexual character in here because I hardly ever see my sexuality explicitly stated on page in romance novels. There are some unhealthy/toxic familiar relationships sprinkled throughout, but I was happy that most of these characters had solid friends that they can rely on when they’re feeling down or upset and need helpful validation and advice.

Overall, this was a pretty good book and I enjoyed reading it. I just had some trouble following the timeline a bit. There are some possible romances being hinted on in this first installment, so I suspect that’s where this series is headed next.

_{Disclaimer: Most posts made on this blog will include affiliate links, identified by the phrase (affiliate link). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This comes at no additional cost to you.}

An upcoming fantasy series with strong parallels to the injustices of today

Book CWs: For a list of content/trigger warnings, tropes, and representation found in this book, check out its page on BookTriggerWarnings.com!

Premise (from Goodreads)

From beloved actor and producer Omar Epps and writer Clarence A. Haynes comes the biggest epic fantasy of the year. A powerful saga of three teens, the children of refugees from a fallen African utopia, who must navigate their newfound powers in a climate-ravaged New York City. Perfect for fans of Black Panther and Children of Blood and Bone.

For Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho, Nubia is a mystery. Before they were born, a massive storm destroyed their ancestral homeland, forcing their families to flee across the ocean to New York City. Nubia, a utopic island nation off the coast of West Africa, was no more, and their parents’ sorrow was too deep for them to share much of their history beyond the folklore.

But New York, ravaged by climate change and class division, is far from a safe haven for refugees, and Nubians live as outcasts, struggling to survive in the constantly flooding lower half of Manhattan, while the rich thrive in the tech-driven sky city known as the Up High.

To many, being Nubian means you’re fated for a life plagued by difficulties and disrespect. But Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho are beginning to feel there might be more. Something within them is changing, giving each of them extraordinary powers. Extraordinary and terrifying powers that seem to be tied to the secrets their parents have kept from them.

And there are people Up High watching, eager to do anything they can to become even more powerful than they already are. Now Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho will be faced with the choice–do they use their inheritance to lift their people, or to leave them behind. The fate of their city, and their people, hangs in the balance.

Purchase this book (affiliate link): Amazon

Review (No Spoilers)

I received this as part of a blog tour, but ended up listening to the audiobook instead.

Nubia: The Awakening is a story that is a nice mix of both fantasy and science fiction. In fact, I found it hard to label this one or the other because it toed the line between them so often.

The setting is in a futuristic New York, where descendants of an island called Nubia are seen as inferior to others (sound familiar?). When a few Nubians begin to discover that they have supernatural powers, they are forced to decide what they want to do with them.

For me, this is a story about manipulation as much as it is about discrimination. The ending makes it extremely clear that there are many more installments to come, and I suspect that the true evil of this series is the selfishness of adults who are willing to exploit children for their own personal gain.

Overall, this was an interesting SFF story that has many parallels to the world we live in today. I’m interested to see where this series goes.

_{Disclaimer: Most posts made on this blog will include affiliate links, identified by the phrase (affiliate link). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This comes at no additional cost to you.}

A powerful novel with strong lessons about self-worth

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Kate Alice Marshall for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary book and media kit!

Book Information

A ghost haunting her boarding school uncovers a teen girl’s best kept secrets in the Queen of Scream’s deliciously terrifying new novel.

Everyone has heard the story of the Narrow. The river that runs behind the Atwood School is only a few feet across and seemingly placid, but beneath the surface, the waters are deep and vicious. It’s said that no one who has fallen in has ever survived.

Eden White knows that isn’t true. Six years ago, she saw Delphine Fournier fall into the Narrow—and live.

Delphine now lives in careful isolation, sealed off from the world. Even a single drop of unpurified water could be deadly to her, and no one but Eden has any idea why. Eden has never told anyone what she saw or spoken to Delphine since, but now, unable to cover her tuition, she has to make a her expenses will be paid in return for serving as a live-in companion to Delphine.

Eden finds herself drawn to the strange and mysterious girl, and the two of them begin to unravel each other’s secrets. Then Eden discovers what happened to the last girl who lived with she was found half-drowned on dry land. Suddenly Eden is waking up to wet footprints tracking to the end of her bed, the sound of rain on the windows when the skies are clear, and a ghostly silhouette in her doorway. Something is haunting Delphine—and now it’s coming for Eden, too.

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63242162
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Kate-Alice-Marshall/dp/0593405145
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-narrow-kate-alice-marshall/1142610540
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-narrow-kate-alice-marshall/19082931

Content and Trigger Warnings

For a list of warnings, tropes, and representation for this series, check out BookTriggerWarnings.com.

About the Author

Kate Alice Marshall is the author of young adult and middle grade novels, including I AM STILL ALIVE, RULES FOR VANISHING, and THIRTEENS.

She lives outside of Seattle with her husband, two dogs named Vonnegut and Octavia, and two kids. They all conspire to keep her on her toes.

Author Links:

• Website: https://katemarshallbooks.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kmarshallarts
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kmarshallarts/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17294875.Kate_Alice_Marshall

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

Reading this book was an adventure because the plot kept surprising me left and right. Going into it, I thought I had a good understanding of where the story was going to go, and then it started going in a completely different direction. Around halfway through I thought I had another good understanding of how it was going to end, and then it twisted and turned right out of my grasp yet again!

The basic premise of this YA horror novel is that our high school heroine, Eden, begins living in a house on her campus as part of a deal to get her tuition paid for. Eden’s “job” is simply to be a companion for Delphine, another student who is confined to the house due to a life-threatening medical condition—one that started immediately after Eden witnessed Delphine fall into (and somehow survive) the deadly stream on campus called “The Narrow”. It doesn’t take long for Eden to discover that the house is haunted by a spirit that seems willing to do absolutely anything to get what it wants.

I loved literally every character in the book for being exactly who they were meant to be. The villains were perfectly villainous, and the heroes were beautifully flawed. Their personalities and stories were so raw and believable that it felt like I was living Eden’s life with her as I flipped through these pages. Eden is a self-sacrificing girl who cares very deeply about everyone around her and her willingness to push down her own needs to make everyone else happy was something I can definitely relate to. Despite her lack of self-worth, she has a strong support group in the form of 3 friends who are ready and willing to have her back; she just has some trouble understanding it.

The plot of this book is somewhat complicated, but it was also incredibly powerful. There are several love stories intertwined within these haunting pages, but I think the most important one was about Eden learning what it means to love herself.

A short and sweet story about finding and balancing your inner-self

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Sarah Sax for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary book and media kit!

Book Information

Everyone knows the most stressful day of middle school is picture day ! And that’s exactly where this yearbook-worthy graphic novel series opener with reinventing yourself, drama, popularity, and the friends who see you through.

Seventh-grader Viv never looks forward to picture day. It’s just another day where she wears a boring braid and no one notices her. (Her two best friends, Milo and Al, don’t count, of course.) 

But enough is enough. This year, she’s taking matters into her own hands. Literally. Viv grabs a pair of scissors, her phone for live-streaming, and, well, bye-bye braid.

Suddenly Viv is an over-night influencer at Brinkley Middle School. Everyone wants her help planning their next big moment—from haircuts, to dance proposals, activist rallies and mathlete championships. She hardly even has time for her friends anymore. It’s exactly how she dreamed of reinventing herself…right?

In the tradition of modern classics like Vera Brosgol’s Be Prepared , Svetlana Chmakova’s Awkward , and Kayla Miller’s Click , Picture Day brings answers to perennial questions of what it means to be true to yourself—and a true friend.

Book Links

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62926934
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Picture-Day-Brinkley-Yearbooks-Sarah/dp/0593306880/
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/picture-day-sarah-sax/1142214029/
• IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/picture-day/18885244

Content and Trigger Warnings

For a list of warnings, tropes, and representation for this series, check out BookTriggerWarnings.com.

About the Author

Sarah cares deeply about encouraging young readers to discover and expand their sense of creative confidence. She studied Storytelling and Sequential Imagery at Hampshire College and she’s since worked as an educator at the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, a volunteer with 826 Valencia, and as Creative Director at Lumosity, where she led a team of artists working with scientists and game designers to transform problem-solving and memory skills into brain-training games. She is the illustrator of the first three books (Escape This Book: Titanic; Escape this Book: Tombs of Egypt; and Escape This Book: Race to the Moon) in the inventive, interactive Escape This Book! series, which has been translated into eight languages. PICTURE DAY, her first of four graphic novels in the Brinkley Yearbooks series, will be published in the summer of 2023. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Author Links:

• Website: https://www.sarahsax.me/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahsaxart
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahsaxart/
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18173552.Sarah_Sax

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

Hello again everyone! Today’s review is for a middle grade graphic novel that follows a 7th grader named Viv. Having spent most of her school career feeling invisible, Viv takes inspiration from an online influencer and decides that she wants to do everything it takes to embrace her inner-self and become popular. Unfortunately, her newfound popularity and busy schedule soon gets in the way of her personal relationships with her friends and family.

Picture Day is a book that has a very important moral: being true to yourself doesn’t mean that you should stop caring about others. Viv struggles so hard with her desire for fame that she loses sight of how her ambitions are negatively affecting those around her. This book tackles themes of self-expression, bullying, internet fame, and compromise.

With the rise of TikTok stars and virality, books like these help provide some perspective as to what can happen when you let your goals get ahead of themselves. The book manages to instill some wisdom without every getting too rough.