Tag: #contemporaryfiction

• An Expanse of Blue Review

  Aouli Elizabeth Smith is adrift: unheard at home and an unbeliever at church, fighting her sister and losing her best friend. Overflowing with feeling, she pours her secrets and herself into her song journal when the world threatens to sweep her away. The one place she feels tied down to earth is at her Aunty…

  rachelbeerwoman

  June 11, 2026

  Reviews

  #anexpanseofblue, #contemporaryfiction, #harpercollins, #heartdrumimprint, #indigenousfiction, #indigenousmcs, #kauakanilehuamahoeadams, #nativehawaiian, #poetry, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #YA

• From Little Tokyo, With Love Review

  If Rika’s life seems like the beginning of a familiar fairy tale—being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in her aunts’ business—she would be the first to reject that foolish notion. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney characters), and with her biracial background, amazing…

  rachelbeerwoman

  May 31, 2026

  Reviews

  #asianmcs, #biracialmcs, #comingofage, #contemporaryfiction, #contemporaryromance, #fromlittletokyowithlove, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #sarahkuhn, #YA

• Eighteen Roses Review

  Lucia Cruz may be turning eighteen this year, but she is not the debutante type. Everything about a traditional Filipino debut feels all wrong for her. Besides, custom dictates that eighteen friends attend her for a special ceremony on her birthday, and Lucia only has one friend– Esmé Mares. They’ve stuck to each other’s side…

  rachelbeerwoman

  May 29, 2026

  Reviews

  #asianamerican, #asianmcs, #comingofage, #contemporaryfiction, #eighteenroses, #feiwel&friends, #filipinamc, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #shannonc.f.rogers, #YA

• Shards of Silence Review

  Even if it hurts to leave behind his friends and family in Navajo, New Mexico—especially his great-grandmother, Mildred—Derrick knows his scholarship to an elite East Coast boarding school is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Sagefield Academy is totally different from life on the His new classmates vacation in Europe and take study drugs. Derrick wants to stick…

  rachelbeerwoman

  May 15, 2026

  Reviews

  #brianleeyoung, #comingofage, #contemporaryfiction, #heartdrumimprint, #indigenousfiction, #indigenousmcs, #indigenousYA, #navejo, #rachelreads&reviews, #shardsofsilence, #YA

• April Books

  Art of X-Men the Animated Series by Eric and Julie Lewald/Art of X-Men ’97 by James Field Showrunners Eric Lewald and Julia Lewald reveal the story behind the creation of one of the most celebrated, revolutionary animated series of all time. The Art and Making of the Animated Series takes fans behind the scenes of…

  rachelbeerwoman

  April 30, 2026

  Book Suggestions

  #alexismichelle, #allmyrage, #armaveni, #artbooks, #artofxmen97, #asianmcs, #contemporaryfiction, #contemporaryromance, #countingdownwithyou, #davidyoon, #dragqueens, #ericlewald, #estelaundrowining, #farahnazrishi, #franklyinlove, #freeradicals, #goodbyeperfect, #graphicmemoir, #grooming, #hailmariam, #hannahvsawyerr, #harpercollins, #harperteen, #hudaal-marashi, #ifyou’renottheone, #inkyardpress, #jamesfield, #juliej, #julielewald, #kennedyannscott, #lagoonabloo, #latinamc, #latinas, #laurelfloresfantauzzo, #lgtbq, #lilariesen, #littlebrownbooksforyoungreaders, #magicmisfits, #marvelcomics, #mentalhealth, #middlegrade, #muslimrepresentation, #myheartunderwater, #nadinetakvorian, #nancypaulsonbooks, #neilpatrickharris, #ninawest, #noteanoshade, #olivialux, #penguinrandomhouse, #penguinyoungreadersgroup, #putnam'ssons, #quilltreebooks, #rachelreads&reviews, #renepenagovea, #sabaatahir, #sarabernard, #tashiebhuiyan, #theartofxmentheanimatedseries, #thesurprisingpowerofagooddumpling, #thisisnotapersonalstatement, #traceybadua, #truthis, #waichim, #xmen, #YA

• Comics

  Out There by Seaerra Miller Julia didn’t always believe in aliens. It was her father who convinced her otherwise. You see—Julia’s dad believes he was abducted by aliens. And ever since then, he’s been obsessed with the extraterrestrial beings living out there. So when a festival commemorating the 75th anniversary of the infamous UFO crash in New Mexico…

  rachelbeerwoman

  March 11, 2026

  Book Suggestions

  #contemporaryfiction, #ernestosaade, #friendships, #graphicnovels, #middlegrade, #nonfiction, #outthere, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #redstones, #salvadorancivilwar, #seaerramiller

• Lola At Last Review

  Lola Barnes’s summer is not off to the best start. Fresh off a scandal that tanked her social status, Lola has somehow managed to also alienate her twin sister, lose the friends she thought she had, and put a . . . fiery end to the first party of the summer. (The boat was barely on fire,…

  rachelbeerwoman

  February 23, 2026

  Reviews

  #contemporaryfiction, #harpercollins, #homage, #j.c.peterson, #lolaatlast, #lydiabennet, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #retelling, #YA

• Being Mary Bennet Review

  It is a truth universally acknowledged that every bookworm secretly wishes to be Lizzie Bennet. A less acknowledged truth is that Mary Bennet might be a better fit. For seventeen-year-old Marnie Barnes, who’s convinced she is the long-suffering protagonist of her life, this revelation comes at the end of a series of self-induced disasters that…

  rachelbeerwoman

  February 22, 2026

  Reviews

  #beingmarybennet, #contemporaryfiction, #harpercollins, #homage, #j.c.peterson, #janeausten, #marybennet, #prideandprejudice, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #retelling, #YA

• The Story of My Anger Review

  Yulieta Lopez is angry. Angry at her racist drama teacher who refuses to cast Black students in lead roles. Angry at the school board threatening her favorite teacher for teaching works of literature that they deem “controversial.” Angry that she has to keep quiet until she can head to college and leave Texas forever. Yuli…

  rachelbeerwoman

  February 21, 2026

  Reviews

  #bookbannings, #censorship, #contemporaryfiction, #jasminnemendez, #penguinrandomhouse, #POC, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #thestoryofmyanger, #woc, #YA

• The Dead Queens Club Review

  What do a future ambassador, an overly ambitious Francophile, a hospital-volunteering Girl Scout, the new girl from Cleveland, the junior cheer captain, and the vice president of the debate club have in common? It sounds like the ridiculously long lead-up to an astoundingly absurd punchline, right? Except it’s not. Well, unless my life is the…

  rachelbeerwoman

  February 7, 2026

  Reviews

  #contemporaryfiction, #hannahcapin, #historical, #inkyardpress, #rachelreads&reviews, #retelling, #thedeadqueensclub, #tudorera, #YA