Category: fiction

fiction · romance

Book Review: Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese

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For one of my final selections for the 2023 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge, I had to read something that was self-published. I had to dig a bit to figure out what I wanted to read, but eventually I stumbled upon Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese (self-published, 2020), and I figured I could use a good romance novel to lighten things up. 

College soccer star Willa Sutter is struggling with her business math (I think it was) course. Instead of helping her like a normal person, her professor demands that she get the notes from Ryder, the lumberjack-looking dude who sits next to her and who has been steadily ignoring her all semester. Willa’s not thrilled about this, but she knows that in order to keep her place on the team and become the next big women’s soccer star, she’s going to have to suck it up and ask Ryder for help. Also, her mom is in the process of dying, so life is just an all-around shitshow right now.

Ryder is sick and tired of his professor brother-in-law meddling in his life. A bout with meningitis freshman year has left him mostly deaf, and since he’s still figuring out hearing aids, things are a little complicated. His family is extremely accommodating, however, texting with him constantly, even when in person, in order to make sure he’s included. Ryder hasn’t spoken since his illness, though, and now that he’s supposed to be working with Willa, life has gotten a lot more complicated. The two of them have chemistry, sure, but they can’t seem to channel it into anything functional. Just arguments.

But over time, Willa and Ryder grow closer, the two of them realizing they’re a good match for each other, but old habits die hard, and it’s difficult for both of them to let the other in. But slowly, slowly, in the slowest of slow burns possible, they get to where we all knew they’d end up in the first place.

This was a bit of a slog for me, to be honest. I felt like it stretched on way longer than it needed to be, and Willa and Ryder’s banter didn’t do anything for me. I felt like it was trying really hard to be sexy and cute and for me it was just kind of annoying. Willa had issues with her dad walking out, and her mom was dying but she just never spoke about it? (And this was another one of those stories where the main character is a college student and needs to study, has a job, is the team’s star player and thus needs to be going to practice and games and working out all the time, and her mom is actively dying in the hospital, and, like…none of this stuff happens with the frequency that you’d expect? There are games and an occasional practice, and some study sessions with Ryder here and there, but Willa’s schedule doesn’t seem to be nearly as crammed full as one might suspect for a working student athlete who has a dying parent. And I realize this verges on the territory of, “No one on TV ever uses the bathroom!”, but it didn’t seem realistic to me how often Willa had down time.)

I wasn’t much feeling the chemistry between Willa and Ryder either. Ryder was just a little too perfect, and Willa could be so prickly that it got annoying (and despite their budding relationship, Ryder didn’t learn about Willa’s dying mother until really far into the story, which felt odd and not super realistic). To be honest, I was kinda glad when this was done. A lot of people really liked this, though, and it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me, and that’s fine. Some books are like that. : )

Visit Chloe Liese’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here. 

fiction · romance · romantic comedy

Book Review: Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok

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My heart always does a flip whenever I see Jewish books on NetGalley. It’s even better when I have time in my reading schedule for them. I requested Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok (Alcove Press, 2023) as soon as I spotted it, and then waited. And waited. And waited. And when I was finally approved, of course I already had a stack of books I needed to get to first! Such is the way of a reader’s life. But when I was finally able to dive in, I discovered a read that had been worth the wait. 

At twenty-nine and unmarried in a community where young women most often get married by their early twenties, Penina Kalish is practically geriatric in the Orthodox world. A medical condition ensures that she’ll never have children, and as this is something extremely important to Orthodox Jews, Penina knows she’s damaged goods and unlikely to find a husband. The dates she does go on, set up by a feisty but out-of-touch matchmaker, never go well. So Penina focuses on her family, her volunteer work holding babies at the local NICU, and her job at a local jewelry store. She’s doing her best to make her life as fulfilling as possible, no matter how much she wants what she can’t have.

But everything changes the day a handsome stranger walks through the NICU. This man, Sam Kleinfeld, ends up being Penina’s new boss, the son of the jewelry store’s owner. He’s filthy rich, incredibly handsome, Jewish (though not Orthodox), single (or is he?), and more than a little grumpy. As Penina gets to know him, she realizes how easy it would be to love him, but she’s damaged, he’s not Orthodox, and there’s that super gorgeous, bikini-sporting doctor who keeps tagging him in Facebook photos. So many reasons he’s off-limits.

But as Penina struggles to keep her heart in check and help save her sister’s house, she’ll learn a thing or two about how not damaged she is, what makes a person whole, and maybe she’ll fall in love along the way.

Super cute romance. It’s set in an Orthodox Jewish community, but as Sam is a secular (non-religious) Jew, he needs certain things explained to him and thus he serves well as a point of education for readers who may not be familiar with terms and traditions common among the Orthodox. Penina truly is Every Woman, dealing with not just health challenges that have set the course for her life, but with everyday bouts of awkwardness, like coffee spills, wardrobe malfunctions (a very minor plot point is Penina’s role as a modest fashion influencer on Instagram, which was fun), and constantly managing to say the wrong thing, especially while nervously babbling to fill the silence. Same, girl.

Sam is gruff, a little rough around the edges, but with a good heart. His status as a bit of an outsider, as non-Orthodox, is what allows him to more fully see Penina; to him, she’s not broken or missing something essential like she’s learned to think of herself. Their relationship, always following the strict rules of comportment laid out by Orthodox Judaism, grows, twisting and turning as Penina begins to accept that despite her lack of ability to have children, there’s nothing wrong with her. While at times I felt Sam was maybe a little too gruff (or at least too gruff for my liking, but that’s a personal preference), the two make a good pair.

The ending was exactly what I expected – not just the usual romance HEA, but…I won’t give any spoilers, but in that context, it’s the only acceptable solution. How realistic it is, I don’t know; it’s one I’ve seen before in other outsider-falls-in-love-with-insider type romances, and it always pulls me out of the story just a little bit because I’m wondering about the practicality of it, and how it would work out long-term. But overall, Orthodox Love is a cute, fun romance that gives you a peek inside a world most people aren’t familiar with, and I love that.

Unorthodox Love will be available at your favorite retailers July 11, 2023. Huge thanks to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Heidi Shertok for allowing me to read and review an advance copy. Support your local bookstores!

Visit Heidi Shertok’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here.

fiction

Book Review: Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Stephanie1 Comment

I’ve read a few of Ellen Hopkins’s books in the past; despite being absolute bricks, they’re written in verse, so they’re not hugely long reads. But they all deal with traumatic subjects, so they’re…a lot. I picked up a copy of Tricks (Margaret K McElderry Books, 2009) and this was no different. What a gut-punch of a book. 

Told via the viewpoint of five teenagers (only a few who eventually meet) living very different lives, Tricks delves deep into the circumstances involved when minors get involved with or are forced into prostitution. There’s a boy struggling with a gambling addiction who’s also trying to keep his family financially afloat after the death of his stepfather, a girl whose prostitute mother has never truly taken care of her, a girl whose mother heavily favors her older sister… Each story is its own tragic arc, and each teenager ends up in the hideous position of having to have sex for money in order to survive.

The average age of a minor involved in prostitution in the US, Ellen Hopkins informs us, is twelve, and if that doesn’t make you feel like vomiting up everything you’ve ever eaten, I’m not sure you’re actually alive. Each story in this book is like watching the naïve characters trying to outrun a boulder barreling down a hill. You know what’s going to happen, and it’s almost physically painful as it gets closer and closer. Ms. Hopkins is a master of showing the devastation sex trafficking wreaks on the young, and on the desperation of the characters that forced them into this. I’ve been fortunate in my life, but as someone who does NOT have a way of taking care of herself financially, the way I was able to relate to these kids and their fear and desperation to survive hit really, really close to home. 

There’s a sequel, but I’m not sure I’ve got the mental space for it any time soon. This was a really, really tough read.

Visit Ellen Hopkins’s website here. 

Follow her on Twitter here.

fiction

Book Review: The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan

Stephanie1 Comment

I love books set during World War II, especially books set in England (I fully blame my childhood love for Back Home by Michelle Magorian), so after reading The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan last summer, I immediately put her next book, The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle (Ballantine Books, 2022) on my TBR. While her last book centered around food rationing in Britain during the Second World War, this latest one focused on clothing. While that also interests me, I was a little unsure about this going in, but all my uncertainty was allayed within the first few pages. Jennifer Ryan is amazing.

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle is a multiple narrative of three women struggling to survive the changes of 1940’s small town England. Cressida Westcott has had to leave her fashion designer life behind in London after her home and business were bombed to rubble; she’s now staying at the estate of her deceased brother and getting to know the niece and nephew she’s never met and trying to figure out her future. Violet Westcott is snobby and looks down on everyone in a lower class than she; everything changes for her when she’s called up for service. And Grace, pastor’s daughter, engaged to a man she feels no passion for, is dutifully serving her community and never once thinking of herself…but she should.

While Violet struggles, then flourishes in uniform, Cressida and Grace take charge of the community at the local sewing circle, repairing Grace’s mother’s moth-eaten wedding dress and then revitalizing other dresses for the many war brides in need of them. Through clothing repair and design, both women discover themselves and what they want for their futures as the war rages on around them.

Loved, loved, LOVED this. Jennifer Ryan paints such a full, fascinating picture of the constraints of British rationing and she absolutely nails the tough, can-do attitudes and spirits that made it all possible to survive. Women sewed, mended, stretched, repaired, made do, and they inspired each other to keep at it and keep going even under great strain. Ms. Ryan also examines the changes in attitudes about class during this time of upheaval, which I thought was extremely interesting. Violet goes from snobby and Regina George-esque to a Rosie-the-Riveter type, but it’s done in a way that’s entirely believable, and it’s not long before you’re cheering her on. And Grace, naïve yet determined, learns to take charge of her own life. And everyone has a love story, each of them perfect for the time, and sweet and magical in their own ways.

I really enjoyed this book. It made me want to be part of their sewing circle or start my own (not sure where I’d do that, or who would be interested in darning socks with me…). I wish we could have a mass revival of the attitude of ‘make do and mend;’ it’s money-saving, resource-saving, and earth-friendly, everything so many of us are concerned about these days. Maybe that’s why books set during this time period appeal to me so much…

Anyway, this was an absolutely lovely read, and I highly recommend it. 

Visit Jennifer Ryan’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here.

fiction · romance

Book Review: Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer

Stephanie1 Comment

I really enjoyed Jean Meltzer’s The Matzah Ball; lighthearted Jewish fiction is right up my alley! I put Mr. Perfect on Paper (MIRA, 2022) on my want-to-read list, and finally, finally I got to it! (What with my participation in the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge, it’s taken me a bit to get to some things!). And not a bit too soon, because I’ve been needing some lighter reads.

Dara has a successful life – she’s the creator of the wildly popular J-Mate, a Jewish dating app, a continuation of her mother’s and grandmother’s Jewish matchmaking. She owns a lovely place, she’s set financially for life, she’s got a staff of people who cater to her every whim…and she’s got anxiety. Massive anxiety. Part of the draw of learning to code when she was younger was that it was a job she could do alone, at home, and it spoke to her perfectionist tendencies. But for all her Jewish matchmaking, Dara’s alone, and as much as she loves her beloved almost 90-year-old bubbe, Miriam, Dara’s coming to the realization that soon, she’s going to be more alone than ever.

Chris is struggling. After the death of his wife, he became a single father to a tween daughter, and as if that weren’t tough enough, his job as a newscaster on a lighthearted show about good news is in danger. If ratings don’t pick up, he and his daughter will have to move out of New York, and like they need more upheaval. When Dara and her bubbe appear on his show and become an instant hit, Chris figures out a way to save everyone: his show will follow Dara trying to find the perfect Jewish husband. It takes Dara some convincing, but she’s in.

But sometimes what’s perfect on paper doesn’t work in the real world, and as Dara and the very not-Jewish Chris spend more time together, they grow closer. Can the two of them find a way to make it work?

Such a cute book!!! Dara is headstrong and committed to her Judaism, which I of course loved. She loves everything about Judaism (SAME, GIRL), and is an enthusiastic participant in its rituals and her community. She takes care of her grandmother, Bubbe Miriam (content warning here; Bubbe is 90 years old and dying of brain cancer, but she’s still getting around pretty well), and she deals really well with her own anxiety, which sometimes stops her in her tracks (yet she knows what she needs to do until it passes). She’s driven, smart, and always thinking about her people, and I really liked that.

Chris is doing his best, but he’s still struggling after the sudden death of his wife. He was thrown into single fatherhood of a tween daughter who’s right at that age where tweens go from being a charming kid to an absolute pill and then right back to charming again. Work struggles abound; he misses hard news and isn’t so thrilled with this low-ratings good news show he’s on, but he’s doing his best to handle it all. Dara and her commitment to Judaism throws him for a loop; he’s willing to learn more for her, and that’s admirable. Not everyone is.

There were quite a few times I laughed out loud during this book; Dara is shockingly accident-prone and her reality-show-style dates are an anxiety sufferer’s nightmare. Jean Meltzer truly created a character with a lot of grit here; for Dara to continue on with the search for Mr. Perfect on Paper in a believable way is a testament to her skill as a writer. As someone with anxiety, I would have crawled in a hole and absolutely died, but Ms. Meltzer had me believing in Dara’s return to televised dates. (And can we get a picture or a video of Bucky, the bow-tie-wearing vegan golden retriever???)

Super fun book with a lovely, realistic ending. I enjoyed this, and I’m looking forward to reading Ms. Meltzer’s next book, Kissing Kosher. 

Visit Jean Meltzer’s website here.

fiction · middle grade

Book Review: AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler

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With school shootings being a disgustingly regular event in the US, I knew I had to read AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler (Carolrhoda Books, 2021) when I learned about it. It took me a bit – the book was located in another local branch, and I hadn’t been over there since before the pandemic started, but we made our way back there somewhat recently (the last ‘other’ library we had yet to go back to), in order to find a book my daughter wanted, and I grabbed this and a few other books while we were there. It’s a middle grade novel, and a quick read, but it’s worth it.

Lucy’s family has been through a lot recently. Her brother, sick his entire short life, has recently died of the heart defect that ruled the family’s life for five years. Lucy and her parents have moved to a new town, one that was devastated by a mass shooting in the elementary school several years before. The students are still dealing with the fallout: trauma, PTSD, grief over missing their friends and siblings who were killed, and the town has never recovered. Lucy’s also grieving, but she’s not sure how her grief – they always knew her brother’s heart defect was fatal –  fits in in this place so consumed by its unexpected trauma.

She doesn’t quite fit in, and befriending Avery, the school outcast whose estranged half-brother was responsible for the school shooting, doesn’t do her any favors. But her math teacher, Mr. Jackson, and the after-school mime club he sets up is her saving grace, and what turns out to be the saving grace of a lot of students who are desperate for an outlet for their pain and confusion.

This is a really heavy book and would probably best be read for sixth grade on up (its reading level is likely lower than that, but there are a lot of heavy subjects in here, a lot of discussion of death, grief, family trauma, who has the right to feel what, etc. While a kid younger than this could handle it, I think sixth through eighth graders will have the appropriate emotional maturity to more clearly understand the depth of this book. Which is really something to say in a country where whole classrooms of first graders are being mowed down. Anyone writing a version of this for the Early Reader set? *sigh*).

Lucy is struggling, and her parents aren’t handling their grief well either. Dad is particularly bad off, vacillating between actually trying and shutting everyone out, and Mom compensates by getting over-involved. Lucy’s shaken; her parents are still able to commute to their same jobs, so everyone else has something stable in her life but her. She was torn from her school and her friends, and now she’s thrown into this new school where kids introduce themselves by how they survived the shooting. It’s a strange new world, and Lucy’s not sure where or how her grief over the loss of her brother fits in in a place like this.

Her math teacher, Mr. Jackson, is an absolute gem of a character. He listens, he notices which students need extra attention, he pushes them just a little outside their comfort zones in order to make them grow. And he’s not afraid to show his emotions. There were a few really well-written scenes in which he witnesses the kids being stressed or traumatized by things like fire drills, and he shows them how sad and angry he is about what they’ve had to go through because of the shooting. Kids need that. I think a lot of us have just accepted that lockdown drills and the like are part of our daily landscape, but this SUCKS. We didn’t have to do this when I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s. This SHOULDN’T be normal, and we SHOULDN’T have a list of schools longer than my entire street full of kids that have witnessed the murders of their friends and classmates. I’m really, really impressed that Emily Barth Isler was insightful enough to show her readers through a trusted and thoughtful character that none of this is normal, none of this is okay, and all of this is wrong. Kids shouldn’t have to practice what to do if someone comes to murder them, something they actually see and hear about happening on the news constantly here in the US.

Heavy, heavy book, but insightful and well-written. This would be a good read for parents and kids to read together, especially when yet another mass shooting happens and kids ask questions.

Visit Emily Barth Isler’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here.

fiction

Book Review: Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

StephanieLeave a comment

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Abby Jimenez (See: here, here, and here), so when I needed to read a book published in the spring of 2023 for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge, I leapt at the chance to put Yours Truly (Forever, 2023) on my list. Somehow, I managed to miss the first book in the series, but all of Ms. Jimenez’s books work as standalones, so I knew I’d be okay (although I’ll definitely go back and read Part of Your World at some point!). 

Dr. Briana Ortiz isn’t having the best time in life. Her divorce is about to be finalized, her brother is in kidney failure and horrifically depressed, and she’s just found out she’s not the shoo-in for a promotion that she thought she was. That last one is probably going to the new doctor in her ER, whom Briana dislikes immediately. But first impressions aren’t always spot-on, and when Jacob sends her a letter, apologizing for their disastrous first meeting, Briana is charmed. 

Jacob has suffered from severe anxiety his entire life, and his new job isn’t making this any easier. He’s already off to a rough start there, and adding to his stress, his brother is getting married…to Jacob’s ex-girlfriend. Life’s on a bit of a downward spiral, but after apologizing to Briana, the gorgeous ER doctor who immediately understands his anxiety and what it requires, Jacob falls, hard. 

When Jacob needs a fake girlfriend to accompany him to his brother’s wedding-related events in order to not look quite so pathetic, Briana readily agrees, but the situation and the slowly developing feelings between the two are complicated when she finds out that Jacob is also her brother’s soon-to-be kidney donor. Communication is key, but she’s maybe not quite there yet, not after her ex burned her so badly. Briana will have to learn to let go of the past and accept all that Jacob is offering her.

GAWD, this was SO GOOD. Abby Jimenez can write chemistry between characters like no other. I swear, I spent half this book sobbing over the deep emotions that she absolutely nailed, and the other half sighing and swooning over the connection between Briana and Jacob. As someone who has dealt with anxiety her entire life, I really appreciated how Jacob’s severe anxiety was portrayed, and how Briana just got it, accepted Jacob for who he was, and didn’t try to blow him off or dismiss his feelings. I wish everyone were that accepting and understanding (instead of just acting like I’m not trying hard enough or that I’m just lazy and don’t want to do something, instead of simple things like making a phone call being as frightening as a pit of slithering vipers). She absolutely nails how overwhelming social situations can be, and how insurmountable things can seem. Briana’s acceptance and reactions are every anxiety sufferer’s dream.

As is Jacob’s unconditional love. He’s just so there every moment for Briana, even when she freaks out (likely because he already knows how that feels). He’s so steady, putting himself out there despite his anxiety, and it’s all just so swwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooon. Total book boyfriend right here. I could not have loved his character more.

One of the best novels I’ve read this year, and definitely the best romance I’ve read so far!

Visit Abby Jimenez’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here.

fiction

Book Review: After by Anna Todd

Stephanie1 Comment

Arright, friends. Buckle up, because this one is…something.

For the 2023 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge, I had to read a book that started out as fan fiction. And that was fine with me. I love the idea of fan fiction; I love the idea of people loving a set of characters so much that they want to continue on with them, take them on their own adventures that they, the fans, created. That’s amazing to me, and I’ve heard of some published authors anonymously writing fan fiction as a way to further hone their skills. I’ve read some in the past, some really well-written stuff, but nothing recently. 

Anyway, the choices I found weren’t much up my alley (most of them, the original just wasn’t my thing), so after squinting at the list for a bit, I finally settled on After by Anna Todd (Gallery Books, 2014). I knew going into it that it was originally Harry Styles fan fiction that came from Wattpad, and the reviews for it I read were…not great. Which only made me more curious. I’m not opposed to a good hate read.

But.

Y’all.

This was just…

BAD.

Like, BAD.

Like, insulting to all the other well-written books on the shelf kind of bad. Embarrassingly bad. 

Here we go, friends. Hang on tight.

She’s a prissy, over-the-top naive Pick Me with a stick up her ass the size of a giant redwood. He’s a tatted-up bad boy with anger issues and a likely cornucopia of undiagnosed mental health problems. Together, they’re that toxic couple from your high school that everyone wished would finally break up so they’d stop fighting in public and making everyone else listen to their complaints about each other.

Tessa is dropped off at college by her controlling mother and cardigan-and-loafer-sporting younger boyfriend while wearing a zip-up dress, so that should tell you everything you need to know about her right there. She and her mother are horrified at the first site of her roommate Steph and her gutter-trash friends; they’re all tatted up, dyed hair, piercings, and ripped clothing (they’re not ‘Gothic,’ however, as Tessa will later insist. Yes, really). She’s both repulsed by and drawn to Hardin (IS THAT NAME OBVIOUS ENOUGH FOR YOU???), the super-hot, tattoo-covered British bad boy with a lip ring and eyebrow piercing, and they get off to a rocky start that never actually ends.

Despite having a boyfriend with whom she has an elderly-married-couple-straight-out-of-the-50’s vibe, Tessa can’t seem to stay away from Hardin, and the two of them end up making out and groping each other every time they find themselves in the same room together, which is like every scene. They argue at parties, they scream at each other in public, they start shouting matches in class and storm out to continue the argument outside. SO HOT, AMIRITE??? Tessa makes out with Hardin, goes skinny-dipping with him, and is barely conflicted about letting him go down on her, all the while not breaking up with her boyfriend and still calling other girls sluts. It’s different with her, y’all. She’s not like OTHER girls. *eyeroll* Seriously, if ever that gross attitude were a character, it’s Tessa. Get bent, Tessa. Other girls are awesome. You, however, suck balls.

Hardin is verbally abusive and violent, constantly getting into bloody fights and doing scary shit like busting up computers and throwing stuff all around his room in a way that we’re supposed to think is super hot and mysterious but that is really just a series of increasingly flappy red flags. But don’t worry; Tessa and her magic man-healing female bits are here to save the day, no therapy needed! Because of her, Hardin of course begins to heal the trauma of his past and repair the damaged relationship with his family. Because of course he does. Why wouldn’t he? Magic vagina heals all, y’all.

Hardin’s super, super into Tessa’s innocence (which is just so many kinds of gross; get back to me about that in thirty years, Hardin, you weird creep), and in scene after unsexy scene, he of course manages to get her off expertly, even though – and OF COURSE – she’s never even touched herself before. YAWN. Can we cut this shit out for good, please? The scenes where Tessa and Hardin are getting busy aren’t the least bit sexy; they honestly read like they’re written by someone who has either never had sex before, or they’re those of someone who has a lot of work to do in the writing department. Sorry, not sorry. I had to go back multiple times, squint at the pages, and go, “Wait, are they done? Did anyone finish here?” Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes. 

The whole book is full of riveting dialogue such as this:

“I’m just wondering, you said you had plans anyway so I was just wondering.” 

Scintillating. 50 Shades of Grey-esque, except – and I hate to say this – I think that book was better-written. So much of the dialogue in this book sounds like it comes from robots. I had to wonder if the editor was asleep at the wheel for a lot of this, or if they just flat-out gave up. Understandable, really, because where do you even start when this mess hits your desk.

Anyway. 

The whole book wraps up with a scene where it turns out that getting into Tessa’s pants was, in a move that surprises no one who grew up watching 90’s teen movies, just a bet to Hardin and his gross friends (Hardin, you’re no Freddie Prinze, Jr), but of course he fell in love with her on the way. It ends on an entirely unnecessary cliffhanger, because of course this is a series; who wouldn’t want another *checks Goodreads, then weeps* three books plus a prequel of all of…this? 

Look, I get why this stuff gets published. It makes money (*sob*), and that money goes to fund the other stuff in the industry, and it’s unfortunately necessary. But UGH. It’s not good. It’s not well-written, it’s not well-plotted, and the relationship between the main characters is toxic and abusive and shouldn’t be touted as super-hot and dreamy but instead as a stunning example of what to run from at Usain Bolt-like speeds. That teen girls and young women are reading this and thinking it’s hot and sexy is, frankly, terrifying to me, and depressing, both from a literary standpoint and from a life standpoint. Giving anyone the idea that you should stick around for escalating verbal abuse from a guy you’re attracted to because you think you can fix him is the most HORRIFIC message out there, and I’m frankly appalled that the industry keeps fucking pushing this message. You won’t fix him, ladies, and he’s not the end-all, be-all, no matter how hot he is. Find someone who’s got his shit together and leave the Hardins of the world to either find their way to therapy or wallow in a pool of self-destruction. We all deserve better in relationships and in literary content than this.

And the fact that they made a movie out of this? Excuse me, I’m going to go throw myself directly into traffic. 

To sum it all up: I don’t often drag books this hard, but After deserves it. Terrible writing, terrible message, just all-around terrible, and an insult to women and readers. Don’t waste your time with this.

blog tour · fiction · YA

Blog Tour: Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan

StephanieLeave a comment

Welcome to the latest stop on The Write Reads tour for Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan!

*insert wild applause here*

I’ve been reading some *really* heavy stuff lately, and so when Dave from TheWriteReads offered me a spot on the tour for Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan (Penguin, 2023), I took one look at that adorable, rainbow-splashed cover and I was IN. YA fiction full of queer characters, and the main character wakes up in an alternate reality? Yes, please! I love alternate reality stories. This was bound to be fun, I thought…and I was right.

Max is queer, proud, and fully at ease with himself, his strong fashion sense, and his fabulously manicured nails. He’s got supportive parents, the best friend group anyone could ever ask for (Dean is also queer, Alicia is not), and a super supportive queer group at school. He’s a little iffy on what the future holds, but his best friends both seem to have everything mapped out. That’s a little tough to deal with, as is the fact that Max is single with a capital SINGLE. He can barely figure out how to talk to Oliver, his crush, and all the strain from these things finally lead Max into a major blow-up scene with Dean and Alicia. Mixed in with a whole bunch of other hurtful things he doesn’t truly mean, Max wishes he were normal, that he could just wake up and not be gay and that he could have an easy life like one of the normal kids.

POOF.

When Max wakes up the next day, everything is…different. His life is similar, but everything is just a little bit off. Gone are all his attractions to boys. Alicia is now…his girlfriend?!?!? His parents are no longer divorced, but they’re not happy, either, and worst of all, Dean seems to have disappeared entirely. Devastated by the complete absence of his best friend, Max sets off on a journey to figure out what the hell happened, and discovers that Straight Max hasn’t always been the coolest guy. Can Max even begin to put things right???

This was a really fun and thought-provoking read. Straight Expectations’ cast of characters is instantly likable; I feel like Calum McSwiggan did an excellent job balancing the creation of an excellent friend group (including both the Max/Dean/Alicia trio and the queer group at school) with taking the time to point out the many ways in which Max has privilege. OG Max throws a tantrum before making his wish, which some reviews have clocked as being spoiled, but I think he’s also in a place in life where it can feel *really* frustrating when everyone around you seems to have things figured out, and you just…don’t. He does say some really hurtful things to his friends, but I’m also willing to cut him some slack here because boy, do I get what that feels like. Growing up is tough, and as Max shows, it’s an exercise in making mistakes and learning to come back from them. Having forgiving friends also makes things a little easier.

Straight Max is so bewildered by his lack of gay feelings and all the changes his not being gay has wrought in his life. Whole people have disappeared, which is super jarring until you realize exactly where they went, and why. His divorced parents are back together, and his dad is working a job he hates…which is, in a surprising way, directly related to Max’s sexuality and acceptance of himself. It all weaves together in a beautifully complex way that will have you marvelling at how very connected everything in life truly is. 

This is a fun book. Not everyone is affirming in the book; there’s a teacher who’s a straight-up jerk to the queer kids, along with a student who’s kind of half-heartedly trying to be an ally but misses the mark most of the time, but in general, Calum McSwiggan has created a world where it’s okay to be out, queer, and proud about it, and where you never lack for friends and parents who love you for who you are. Even for someone like me, an anxious middle-aged woman, the characters here had a lot to teach me about self-acceptance and pride, and I appreciate that. I really loved how comfortable Dean and Max are with themselves, how they take who they are and what they’re into and what speaks to them and celebrate everything about themselves. I think that’s a good message for everyone – especially for the LGBTQ+ crowd, but it’s a good reminder for everyone else as well. 

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Callum McSwiggan, Penguin, and Dave from TheWriteReads for allowing me to take part in this tour!

Straight Expectations is available at bookstores near you May 4, 2023. Support your local bookstores!

Follow Calum McSwiggan on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram! Check out TheWriteReads here and here!

fiction · middle grade

Book Review: Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King

StephanieLeave a comment

Our new library opened! OMG!!!!!!!!! It’s so cool. And on our first trip there, I ran across Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King (Scholastic Press, 2022), which had been on my TBR for a while, but had always been checked out (which, ngl, makes me happy. I love when books I want to read so bad are also being read by my community!). But this time, it was front and center on a shelf outside the new teen area, so I snatched it up, took it home, and read it all in one night. And then I returned it the next day so another person could benefit from it. Down with censorship!

Mac is starting sixth grade, and life is complicated at that age. His dad, who no longer lives with the family, is having mental health problems that sound a lot like schizophrenia, so Mac’s relationship with him is complicated. His best friend Denis is struggling with a ton of anxiety, so Mac feels responsible for helping him deal. And there’s his friend Marci, for whom he’s developing some new feelings. To top it all off, he’s been assigned Ms. Sett as a teacher, who’s known for being strict and for being a huge proponent for the town’s many asinine rules, including what kinds of food can and can’t be sold (no junk food!), the colors houses can be painted, the town’s early curfew, no Halloween, and lack of pizza delivery. He’s trying to keep an open mind about it all.

But when his reading group is assigned The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, Marci points out that there are black rectangles obscuring some of the words. And when they figure out which words are blotted out, Mac and his friends are incensed. THAT is what Ms. Sett is worried about, in a book that details the horrors of the Holocaust??? Together with Mac’s hippie veteran grandpa, they begin to protest and fight against the censorship that is threatening their education and their freedom to read.

What an incredible book! Mac is a great character, raised by his hardworking, caring mother and thoughtful grandfather, whose experiences in the Vietnam war have shaped who he is an adult. These adults have had great influences on Mac, who doesn’t always get it right but who definitely tries, and eventually he gets to where he needs to be. He’s obviously struggling with his father’s challenges and can’t quite grasp what it all means, but who can, even when they’re older? His anger at being told what he shouldn’t be reading, even in assigned books, is inspiring, as are the protests he takes part in with Denis and Marci.

MARCI! She was my favorite, other than Granddad. A sixth-grade feminist not afraid to speak her mind. She’s who I wish I could have been at that age, if I hadn’t been plagued by untreated depression and anxiety. She’s the one who gets the ball rolling with noticing the censorship and informing the others (on a weekend, no less!), and she’s up front and center at the school board meetings. May we all raise kids like Marci!

There’s a lot going on with Granddad, and I really appreciated his character. He’s a Vietnam veteran who came back home with PTSD. He’s open about having killed people in the war, and he’s open about how that’s affected him. He cries in front of Mac. He meditates and carries prayer beads. He very obviously loves his grandson, and he’s stressed out because of and upset with Mac’s dad, but he always handles it really well. He’s a good model for dealing with your problems in emotionally healthy ways and he provides a nice balance for Mac at home, compared with all the other chaos in his life. 

Attack of the Black Rectangles is an excellent read and should be on the list of every tween and young adult who understands the dangers of all the crappy book bans going on out there these days (and if you’re a parent, slip this into your kid’s book stash. I’m going to have my daughter read it in a year or two; she just turned nine and I’ll think she’ll get more out of it as she matures). Read this and fight back against the people out there who would rather you didn’t read at all.

Visit Amy Sarig King’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here.