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  • Ranking The Union of the Rakes

    This regency romance has a special 80s twist as each novel takes homage from big screen classics like Flashdance, The Breakfast Club, and so on. I’ll confess I did not realize this until I read the Acknowledgement pages, and since the only 80s movies I’ve seen were Flashdance, and The Breakfast Club, I cannot tell…

  • Ranking Girls from Many Lands

    Now the other series American Girl spun off was the Girls from Many lands series for older middle schoolers tackling historical periods from eight different lands and more intense in some senses. What I mean is that half of the series tackles serious topics like court intrigue, colonization and genocide. The other half is more…

  • Ranking History Mystery

    Everyone knows American Girl, but in a brief space in the early 2000s, they branched out to two other series. The History Mysteries series is aimed more for older lower-schoolers and middle schoolers with slightly darker themes like racism, discrimination, and murder. Of course, mysteries are at their core too. These were my favorites as…

  • Ranking Desperate Duchesses

    And they’re not desperate as the title might make you think. We’re in the Georgian era people and unlike the stuffy ton, the parties are more decadent, the games, the rich more careless and everyone is out for their own pleasure. Yes, I say pleasure. All these dukes and duchesses are well-acquainted with the complications…

  • Ranking Main Street

    1. The Secret Book Club: I think I first read the Main Street series around the same time as The Mother-Daughter Book Club and thus I was very interested in book clubs. It sounded like so much fun to discuss major themes and plots with your friends as you read the same book together. Martin…

  • Ranking The Popularity Papers

    The Rocky Road Trip of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang: I love road trip stories so this one gets the top spot as Lydia and Julie get to spend the summer across the American West and East Coast encountering giant dinosaurs, mutant blueberries, and earthquakes. But more dangerous than the rattlesnake (possibly flat tire) they…

  • Ranking Wildflowers

    Jade: Jade got number one mainly because I enjoy emotional turmoil and Jade has plenty of emotional turmoil as the pawn in her parent’s vicious divorce where both are utterly focused on climbing the corporate ladders that they neglect her. So she turns to internet chat rooms which leads to a traumatic kidnapping that is…

  • Ranking Cheer!

    1. Home for the Holidays: This got the number one spot because it brings the biggest plot twist and potential status quo changer in the form of Katie and Maddy bonding in New York. There’s also the possibility that she’ll move to NY permenantly to live with her father and boring Beth so Maddy really…

  • Ranking Drama!

    1. Everyone’s a Critic: This book comes at number one because of the major shift in character development and aspirations for the series’ protagonist, Bryan Stark. And it’s only the second episode! Bryan has always wanted to be an actor, not on Meryl Streap-level, that’s his best friend’s Sam’s perogative but he is fine with…

  • Ranking Gallagher Girls

    1. Out of Sight, Out of Time: One of the things I most admire about this series is that it allows Cammie and the other characters grow, maturing with the plots growing increasingly dark as they grow. This would be one of those instances as Cammie has gone on the run from the terrorist organization,…