Rachel Reads & Reviews

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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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Neurotic Hitwoman #5-6

    Lynn’s Neurotic Hitwoman series is pulling all cylinders when it comes to making Maggie insane. If she didn’t have the crazy gene from her mother, she might end up in the nuthouse thanks to her non-clinical insane, but still dysfunctional family. Whom she now has to live with since her apartment blew up. Yikes!

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Catherine Hapka Interview

    Catherine Hapka is one of the most prolific authors you may not know you know. Writing over 100 books as herself, and as a ghostwriter from the S.A.S.S. series to Nancy Drew, Star Power, HTTYD and more, she graciously took the time to answer my questions about her start, what makes a ghostwriter, and what’s…

  • Instructions for Dancing Review

    Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually. As…