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This is Kind of an Epic Love Story Review
Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings.
Although he’s the ultimate film buff and an aspiring screenwriter, Nate’s seen the demise of too many relationships to believe that happy endings exist in real life.
Playing it safe to avoid a broken heart has been his MO ever since his father died and left his mom to unravel—but this strategy is not without fault. His best-friend-turned-girlfriend-turned-best-friend-again, Florence, is set on making sure Nate finds someone else. And in a twist that is rom-com-worthy, someone does come along: Oliver James Hernández, his childhood best friend.
After a painful mix-up when they were little, Nate finally has the chance to tell Ollie the truth about his feelings. But can Nate find the courage to pursue his own happily ever after?
Much like Perks of Being a Wallflower, this novel captures the mundanities and hormonal ups and downs of teenage life. Nathan is a bit of an overthinker, moreso than usual as he tries to get over his feelings about his ex-girlfriend/current still friend cheating on him. He forces himself to forgive her because he wants her in his life, and has a tiny hope that she’ll come back to him while knowing it will never happen. And she is busy trying to get him to be friends with her new gf and encouraging new relationships because she feels guilty for cheating and is also scared that his resentment will make him leave her.
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Idol Gossip Review
Every Friday after school, dressed in their new South Korean prep-school uniforms — sweater vests, knee-highs, pleated skirts, and blazers — seventeen-year old Alice Choy and her little sister, Olivia, head to Myeongdong, brave a dank, basement-level stairwell full of graffiti, and slip into a noreabang.
Back in San Francisco, when she still had friends and earthly possessions, Alice took regular singing lessons. But since their diplomat mom moved them to Seoul, she pours herself into karaoke, vamping it up in their booth to Lady Gaga while loyal Olivia applauds and howls with laughter. Alice lives for Fridays, but when an older woman stops her on their way out one day, handing Alice a business card with a bow, singing turns serious.
Could the chance encounter really be her ticket to elite status at Top10 Entertainment’s Star Academy?
With a little sisterly support, backed by one of the world’s top talent agencies, can Alice lead her group on stage before a stadium of 50,000 chanting fans — and just maybe strike K-pop gold? Not if a certain influential blogger and the anti-fans get their way.
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Book of the Month: Emma
Austen once wrote to her sister that Emma may be her most unlikable heroine she’s written, but my friend and I agree that may have been by olden day standards. At most she is spoiled and sheltered, but there are worst things rich people could be.
In rereading Emma I have found Frank Churchill much more unlikable. First I must commend Austen’s writing in that she really guides the readers in feeling what they should feel. For example, I was charmed when Emma was charmed by Frank, then thought he was a jerk, then I was won over again by the letter like Emma did. She is a good writer, but we already knew that. So I was charmed again by Frank’s apology until I really thought and realized he’s totally the type of guy who’d flirt even while married.
I mean, he went so far to flirt while hiding his engagement. I know they were keeping it secret, but he didn’t have to be that good at hiding it that even Jane thought he had feelings for Emma. OMG! And she forgives him. Well, women had less options back then so I can understand why, but ugh, I feel like she deserves better.
At least she’s friends with Emma now that everything’s cleared up. For that time period, Emma was such a good friend to other females. Barring those petty jealousies of Jane Fairfax which I think stemmed from insecurity that she’s the more behaved version of what she’s expected to be that holds Knightly’s esteem. But she hyped up Harriet (even though she kinda got her hopes up way too much), was besties with her governess, she values her female friendships.
This was the first time my friend read it, so she thought it was good. Most of it was trying to match the characters/situations to Clueless. It really is a good book to modernize. We also had a side tangent agreeing that Cher and Elle Woods would be besties, and there’d be so much pink.
Other thoughts include Mr. Elton is so true to real life. So many guys like him still exist. Knightly and Emma is kinda weird from this lens because he saw her grow-up and most of their interactions are him lecturing her about her behavior (which granted, needed correction, but not romantic). It was fair for its day, but the movie update made it slightly less weird.
Hopefully, our next book club book we’ll actually finish in less than two months but I make no promises.
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Rosa By Any Other Name Review
Rosa Capistrano has been attending posh North Phoenix High School to boost her chances of a college education and a career in journalism, thanks to the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education verdict for desegregation. But though she’s legally allowed to be there, it’s still unsafe for Mexican Americans. That’s why she’s secretly passing as Rosie, a white girl. All she has to do to secure her future is make sure her Mexican home life and her white school experience never intersect.
However, Rosa’s two worlds collide when her best friend Ramon and classmate Julianne meet and find themselves entangled in a star-crossed romance. Rosa is terrified about what their relationship could mean for her and them . . . and her worst fears are soon realized in an unspeakable tragedy. Rosa is thrown into the center of a town-wide scandal and her true identity is put in the spotlight. With the help of Marco, Ramon’s brooding and volatile brother whose passion ignites hers, Rosa must choose what is more important to her—protecting her fragile future, or risking everything to help her friends find justice.
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Secrets of the Manor
For fans of Downtown Abbey, this historical fiction series follows the three generations of Chatswood and Vandermeer girls from 1848 to 1934. But it is not a linear journey which I believe adds to the fun.
While I figured out the answer to the overlying mystery in the first book (and was thus impatient for the big reveal in #6), each novel features an episodic mystery that ends up tying into the final revelation.
The shift between eras allows for Whitby to hint at the various historical events that dimly affect the rich (advent of WW1, the Great Potato Famine, etc), but is primarily focused on the classic tension between downstairs and upstairs people. The protagonists are young, twelve, and thus not completely obsessed with status and upholding the distance from the servants. Therefore, they are much more tender-hearted to helping their maids whom they feel are more maternal caretakers than their dead mothers (it’s always the dead mother).
Plus there’s the glamour and intrigue of Downtown Abbey with the reoccurring theme of family secrets and sisterhood, sumptuous dresses and desire to have a ball to celebrate every occasion. Unfortunately, the last two books in the series seem to be the beginning of another quartet that didn’t come into fruition so I would suggest one read only the first six as to feel like the story is complete and not in a cliffhanger.
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Contemporary Summer Romances
Gold Coast Dilemma by Nana Malone
During an opulent publishing party, Ofosua Addo crosses paths with Cole Drake for the first time. Their flirtatiously witty exchange culminates in a kiss that etches a permanent mark on both their hearts.
But Ofosua’s identity as a Ghanaian heiress comes before Cole. She loves the vibrant traditions of Ghana’s Gold Coast, and her hand is already promised to a man that even her overbearing mother loves. Yet, when her big Ghanaian wedding transforms from a fairy tale into a spectacle, she’s thrust into a whirlwind of heartbreak and self-discovery.
In the midst of it all, Cole enters her life once again, under circumstances far different from their magical first encounter. Can Ofosua and Cole’s rediscovered spark overcome the weight of tradition?
First off, as a wannabe writer and editor, I enjoyed how Malone showed the realities of the publishing industry. Most specifically the creation of imprints for diversity. It’s a big topic, and while the industry is making strides in hiring diverse writers and characters, the people in the higher role remain overwhelmingly white. Those who want to pay lip-service to diversity, but not truly invested in change or hiring writers with authentic experience instead of checking boxes and stereotypes.
As for the characters, while Ofosua and Cole initially butt heads in a classic bad first impressions way, I enjoyed how Malone intertwined the pressure of familial expectation. Ofosua’s story was a bit more interesting as she also has to deal with the cultural expectations of her parents wanting her to marry a good Ghanian man to save face and adding to her panic attacks. This is a common problem I think where the FMC is generally more interesting than the man because the author and female readers can relate more to her universal struggle of juggling it all. But Cole learning how to unpack and stand up against his father’s overt racism and his mother’s white savior microaggressions was pretty cool too.
(more…)#africanamericanmcs, #alexisdaria, #alongcameamor, #asianmcs, #avonromance, #berkley, #berkleyromance, #can’tgetenough, #contemporaryromance, #danicanava, #disneyhyperion, #diverseromance, #forever, #foreverpublishing, #gallerybooksimprint, #goldcoastdilemma, #hachettebookgroup, #hispanicmcs, #indigenousfiction, #indigenousmcs, #jesseqsutanto, #kennedyryan, #latinx, #loveisawarsong, #nanamalone, #primasofpower, #rachelreads&reviews, #simon&schuster, #skyland, #somethingcheeky, #thienkimlam, #worthfightingfor -
Think of England Review
England, 1904. Two years ago, Captain Archie Curtis lost his friends, fingers, and future to a terrible military accident. Alone, purposeless and angry, Curtis is determined to discover if he and his comrades were the victims of fate, or of sabotage.
Curtis’s search takes him to an isolated, ultra-modern country house, where he meets and instantly clashes with fellow guest Daniel da Silva. Effete, decadent, foreign, and all too obviously queer, the sophisticated poet is everything the straightforward British officer fears and distrusts.
As events unfold, Curtis realizes that Daniel has his own secret intentions. And there’s something else they share—a mounting sexual tension that leaves Curtis reeling.
And when the house party’s elegant facade cracks to reveal treachery, blackmail and murder, Curtis finds himself needing clever, dark-eyed Daniel as he has never needed a man before…
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Author Highlight: Dahlia Adler
I read Adler’s Going Bicoastal a few years ago (go look into the tags for my thoughts on it) and since it was fine, and since she pops up on so many of my bookstagram stories, I decided to give the rest of her YA catalogue a try. Perfect since she’s just released another one in May.
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Girls Survive
I found this at my summer, and if you’re into historical fiction or action-packed disaster, then this is the series for you.
Initially I thought this was a rip-off of the ultra-popular I Survived series by Lauren Tarish. They have a lot of the same premise of a kid surviving a famous or underrated event like Pearl Harbor, Pompeii, the Black Death, Mt. Helens eruption, and others, but as a friend pointed out that there are only so many historical disasters to focus on, there’s bound to be overlap. And yes, they have primarily girls as the main characters rather than guys like in I Survived. What else would you expect from a series titled Girls Survive?
But that’s where the differences end. The series started in 2019, and have over 30 books already because there are multiple authors working on them. It’s very #OwnVoices as the authors are able to impart some individuality and depth into the girls’ experiences like the Cherokee Andrea L. Rogers writing about Mary and the Trail of Tears or Mayumi Shimose Poe writing about Pearl Harbor and the subsequent impact it had on the Japanese population of Hawai’i just as it was experienced by her grandparents.
It adds a lot more diversity featuring more queer voices like Flor’s story in Flor Fights Back, a young trans girl getting to meet such icons as Marsha Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Or the fact that Molly has two dads in Molly and the Twin Towers, which is treated as a normal occurrence rather than the focus of the book. The girls range from Chinese to Indian to Black and more. They’re not always American. Although there are some events already covered in I Survived, there are twenty more that haven’t been covered like the sinking of Lusitania, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Chernobyl fallout, March on Selma and others.
I’ve only been able to read five of the series, but while some of them lacked in action, they made up for in exploring the emotional impact and aftermath of these events even months later. It emphasizes how once a bombing or displacement is over, it doesn’t mean it’s over. It brings a shift in perspective, maturity and heartache, yet there is a thread of resilience in there too.
It seems to be published by a minor publisher-Capstone Publishing, but I hope it reaches mainstream success.
Oh, and I wanted to note-Daisy and the Deadly Flu was published in 2020 (and probably written in 2019), you can tell it was probably before COVID hit because the author’s note talks about the last big pandemic-2001 with SARS. All I could think about was “Oh, honey. Oh honey, you have no idea.” It’s was just funny to me.
And if anyone wants to gift me some since I can’t buy 26 books at once, here are the ones I’m most interested in because I haven’t heard these events and would like to learn more.
Fumiko and a Tokyo Tragedy: A Great Kanto Earthquake Survival Story by Susan Griner
Nina Under Arrest: A Birmingham Children’s Crusade Survival Story by Anitra Butler-Ngugi
Min and the Protests: A Tiananmen Square Survival Story by Ailynn Collins
Anya Flees the Fallout: A Chernobyl Survival Story by Erin FalligantFaye and the Dangerous Journey: An Ojibwe Removal Survival Story by Sigafus, Kim (It’s always Cherokee because of the Trail of Tears so this was news)
Tara and the Towering Wave: An Indian Ocean Tsunami Survival Story by Oxtra, Cristina
Audrey Under the Big Top: A Hartford Circus Fire Survival Story by Jessica Gunderson
Here’s a list of all the others: https://shop.capstonepub.com/Shop/s/product/girls-survive/01tVW000006KyYKYA0
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 