definitely, possibly, maybe

i'm used to marissa meyer writing more on the science fiction/fantasy spectrum, so i was intrigued by this contemporary story. but instant karma  does have a touch of fantasy. i'm just not sure the concept was executed successfully. one big issue is that the story appropriates indian/hindu culture, going so far as to have an illustrated cover that implies the main characters are persons of color when they're actually as white as can be.  i know there is debate about #ownvoices, but when a white author repeatedly uses diverse perspectives that do not reflect her own experience for her characters' voices that starts to feel exploitative. and maybe if the main character weren't so judgmental and more sympathetic this would all be less problematic, but plotwise it's where the book falls down.  that being said, the narration here is spot on. rebecca soler does a fantastic job voicing a diverse group of characters and does a great job of distinguishing their voices wi...

i was so excited to read furia  because it was set in argentina, i lived in buenos aires for three years as a child and it is always thrilling to see a different perspective of a place i somwhat know. what is real and what is just memory isn't teased out with fiction exactly, but still it's lovely to see familiar landmarks in a new light.  camila is a wonderfully compelling heroine. her fight and struggles to reach her dreams are a true joy to read. we need more of this kind of #latinx representation in literature. not just about the diaspora, but also about the ones who stayed.  **furia will publish on september 15, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/algonquin young readers in exchange for my honest review. 

i'm not exactly sure how i ended up with this book on my tbr. i think i maybe won a galley via the cancelled book expo arc lottery, but who knows. anyway, i enjoyed austenland  the movie, and kind of a big deal  was written by the same author, and seemed to share a similar love of books premise. so i figured it was worth a try.  and this is fine. i guess. the main character makes it hard to root for her, which is never my favorite. and there's something of a love triangle, which is also not my favorite. not feeling particularly compelled to like the main character made this harder to enjoy. but that just means it wasn't for me. i'm sure others will disagree.  **kind of a big deal will publish on august 25, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy netgalley/macmillan children's publishing group (roaring brook press) in exchange for my honest review. 

i was excited when i read the blurb for lobizona  and saw that it was partially based on argentinian myths and folklore. while i am not culturally argentinian, i lived in buenos aires for several years and have a soft spot for that messy south american country,  for manu azul, the messy country isn't actually the one her forebearer's came from, but rather the american soil she lives on that fails to protect her at every turn. the contemporary content is topical and highlights the struggles of so many south american immigrants in this country. the poor treatment and racism they face, and the lack of acknowledgement that the issues they were fleeing from were valid and yet america fails to offer safe harbor.  manu must find her own way forward, which is fraught with more danger than she could have expected. especially given all she learns about her own heritage.  **lobizona will publish on august 4, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. mart...

this scavenger hunt story pits two rivals against each other and the rest of their senior class in a night that will change everything. today tonight tomorrow  finds rowan and neil—usually at the one and two spots in their class—having just learned that neil has come out on top in the valedictorian race.  rowan, therefore, has one last chance to beat him. every year the junior class organizes a citywide scavenger hunt called howl. and rowan wants to win. but when her classmates target her and neil, they find themselves teaming up, and along the way learning that there is more to their rival than they ever knew.  this is one of those young adult stories that perfectly captures the feelings of the end of high school. that sense that time is running out, but also the exhilarating feeling of everything that lies in wait just beyond the bend.  **today tonight tomorrow will publish on july 28, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/simon & schust...

i totally picked the friend scheme  up (or rather requested the book) based on the cover. something about it appealed to me. if i had known that it was a retelling of one of my least favorite shakespearan plays, maybe i'd have reconsidered.  i'm just not a huge romeo & juliet  fan, and i think because this is a retelling of a play, one of the literary conceits the author uses is a lot of dialogue. like a lot of dialogue. and it's fine, i guess, but i also find that this keeps the reader at some distance, and i generally prefer a mix of dialogue and inner thoughts and physical details to ground the story. and it's not that they were missing exactly, but...i don't know.  this might also be a retelling but let's just say that it doesn't end the way the original does. this isn't a tragedy. it's just surprisingly insubstantial at the end,  **the friend scheme will publish on july 28, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/macmil...

the mall  is like mallrats  in book form to some degree. so totally 90s in feel. the nostalgia is real. i'm not always a fan of stories that take place in the recent past. and in this case, i'm not convinced that it couldn't have worked in the here and now, except for the fact that the here and now is an insane pandemic where no one is hanging out at a mall and online shopping is the only game in town.  so for sweeping me away to the good old days, to the days where i spent time at the mall with my friends and we didn't have cell phones and social media to perform for, the mall  was the perfect escape.  **the mall will publish on july 28, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/wednesday books in exchange for my honest review. 

i was so looking forward to more than maybe . but i was also really nervous because i loved you'd be mine . and you just never know with second books. and i still don't know. because i certainly loved luke and vada and their relationship, but maybe this book wasn't quite for me.  but as much as i love books about music, i think i love books that are about the making of music. the way sound and words play together to make music on the page. this book was about music, but about songs and bands and stuff i actually find really boring. i don't listen to music this way. i don't hear lyrics. i feel things when i listen to music. the words to a song don't matter to me as much as the way i feel about it. so i don't remember the names to songs or the bands that played them. i would never identify people based on songs, and i think the issue is that using that as a descriptor makes it hard as a reader who doesn't have the same musical knowledge nor the interest. i...

this queer superhero story is truly a fun read. set in a world where there are folks with x-men like abilities, in the extraordinaries , nick bell is a shadow star stan. he writes fan fiction loosely based on his favorite extraordinary and if it's a romance with a character based loosely on himself, well, it's his prerogative. nick also is still reeling from the loss of his mother. plus he has to deal with his adhd wreaking havoc with his concentration and occasionally his life. and his overprotective dad. and his annoying ex-whatever.  with the school year starting he's hoping he can finally get more time with his best friend seth, but seth is just as distant and preoccupied as he was all summer. and then nick meets shadow star in person. and it's like he knows him. but shadow star's battles with pyro storm (the villain, particularly in nick's fanfic universe) are getting bigger and more and more dangerous. and when nick has an encounter with pyro storm, it...

full disclosure: i am k.l.'s agent. and i love this book. it has such a special place in my heart. and k.l. is one of my favorite clients even if she writes me emails all the time worrying about how she is being a diva. (she's not a diva, she's a delight.) if we were us started out as a 114,000 word manuscript called victory lap  and i remember reading it the first time and loving the characters but also knowing that k.l. had to cut something like 30,000 words for this manuscript to even be sellable. to cut those words, my favoritest section of the book had to go. and i will apologize to you guys...especially everyone who wants more nick in this story...because, yeah, that was the part i made her cut. and yet, we had to do it. for word count. for pacing. it absolutely had to go. and to be fair, more nick was added in other parts to balance out the fact that this large chunk was gone. when we got the notice that sourcebooks wanted this story, it was such a thrill. i...

reading echoes was a mind-trip, and fractures  basically continues apace. this time we're in miles's perspective, and he and fiona must deal with shifting realities and dual timelines and figuring out what the heck is going on. honestly i recommend a refresher read of echoes  before diving into fractures , the books are decidedly not standalones. not being in fiona's head this time makes for a slightly disconcerting experience when you first pick the book up,  but it quickly fades once you are thrust into the action. and it's also fun to get to know miles a little better. anyway, this book wraps up miles and fiona's journey nicely, with all the pieces finally slotting into place. if you read book 1, this one is a must read. **fractures will publish on june 1, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (entangled teen) in exchange for my honest review. 

so i loved the hundred oak series, contemporary romance with a side of sports, are totally my thing. i honestly don't know why, because i am the least sporty person ever. i think it's because the stakes with sports are so clear and the conflict really tends to work for me. four days of you and me  is a much different concept from her earlier work. this isn't bad, it's just different. and while miranda is usually an auto-buy for me, i had some hesitation based on the premise because if there is something anyone should know about me is that i am not a big fan of flashbacks. and so we follow alex and lulu's on-again, off-again relationship over the course of four years, set on during an annual field trip. the conceit is great. it's just that this kind of conceit is so not my jam. i am rarely interested in what characters did in the past, i want to know the here and now and what it means for the future. and that's the other thing...where things end...it'...

it's a well-established thing that i love a good opposites-attract type story. and that's exactly what we get in how to quit your crush . mai has plans, or at least she plans to follow the plans her family has laid out for her. nowhere in these plans is anthony. popular and aimless, he has no plans. except every time he tangles with mai he wants more. but her future has never included a boy like him and she doesn't see how it could ever possibly work. so maybe the way to quit each other is to plan the worst possible dates for one another. and maybe that just ends up backfiring. this is a cute, fun story. just the kind of young adult goodness to escape the world with. **how to quit your crush will publish on may 4, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (entangled: crush) in exchange for my honest review. 

the thing about natalie is that she is, and everyone in the world around her is, terribly self-absorbed. and on the one hand, she is a teenager, and the main characters are all teenagers, but the adults are also just as guilty of self-absorption here. it sounded better in my head  spends a lot of time in natalie's head. and sometimes even if she thinks it sounded better, it really didn't. natalie is charming, and you root for her, even when you know she is being dense. she's a teenager. and acts like it. and since this is a story written for teenagers, it's all good. i promise. i just wanted to like natalie more than i did. this is undoubtedly her story, and so if you aren't fully engaged with her voice and all her foibles, it makes for some tough going. this didn't quite grab me, but it doesn't mean that it's not enjoyable. **it sounded better in my head will publish on april 7, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/flati...

when the practical jokes between sidney and asher go too far and they are forced to co-habitate with each other and their families to keep their summer tradition real, they band together to with a revenge plot. the math in meet me at midnight is a little wonky, because they've been summering together for 6 years, but repeatedly talk about the first summer they were 14, but the characters have just turned 18 and it just, well, okay it's not wonky it's wrong. but whatever. that's a minor nitpick. the key is that before the pranks began in earnest, the two characters really liked each other, and it was a misunderstanding that brought things to a breaking point. and things basically get to a breaking point again and it takes a long ass time for these two to make up, but eventually they manage it and it's all in good fun. it's a breezy, fun summer read. one of those perfect escape books where you end things on a smile. **meet me at midnight will publish on a...

only mostly devastated is the queer  grease retelling we never knew we needed. after spending a summer at a north carolina lake, california boy ollie will is shocked to learn that his parents have decided to stay. in large part it's because his aunt is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, but it's his senior year and he had plans. but silver lining, he'd had this amazing summer romance with a boy named will, and maybe, just maybe things will work out? except will totally ghosts him. and when ollie realizes that he's accidentally outed will to his new friends, who are all friends with will's regular crew, things get complicated. will isn't out, but he's trying to figure himself out. because he can't or doesn't want to stay away from ollie. and ollie wants sto give him as many chances as he can. i inhaled this book in one sitting, and i was shocked when it ended, because i would have gladly kept on reading. this story is so, so good. just abso...

against the backdrop of a race to mars that echoes the early astronauts' race to the moon, the boys in the gravity of us  are caught up in their parents' ambitions to join one of the chosen few on the mission. but in modern times, no competition like this would be complete without a reality tv crew. cal is a high school-aged street journalist, who takes his career seriously, and who has no intention of giving over his news channel to some trashy tv conglomerate. the move to houston from brooklyn is begrudging and he has every intention of leaving all things mars behind as soon as possible. he doesn't believe all that much in his dad's ability to succeed and until he meets the astronauts and scientists who are working so hard to achieve their goal, he doesn't really believe in the project. leon has his own struggles, namely depression and a sense of aimlessness that makes cal a little twitchy. from the get-go, the boys share a spark, but they need to figure out...

this young adult story tackles the toxicity of gamer culture from both racial and gender perspectives, but while it highlights all the terrible things that can happen, it also shines a light on the incredible friendships and community that can spring from sharing the love of a game. don't read the comments  is sweet and poignant in all the right ways. both divya and aaron grow through their connection, and this gradual shift in their points-of-view about what they want out of life and how they hope to achieve their goals is really well-done. i truly enjoyed reading this. **don't read the comments will publish on january 28, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/inkyard press in exchange for my honest review.

when two rival students end up in a twitter war over their families' rival restaurants, a surprising rapport evolves between the two, especially given their very different philosophies about school. but underneath their differences, they find they have a lot in common. tweet cute is a charming romantic comedy. pepper and jack are both funny and smart, and the story has just enough emotional depth to make it more than fluff. this was an enjoyable read, just the perfect way to spend an afternoon. **tweet cute will publish on january 21, 2020 . i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. martin's press (wednesday books) in exchange for my honest review. 

somehow katie mcgarry always leaves me with a good book hangover. her characters and the things they overcome always hits me right in the feels. sawyer and veronica go through so much in echoes between us . they ache and grow and change and love. nothing about their lives is easy. they start off with all these assumptions about one another, but as the layers of misunderstanding peels back, what they discover is just so precious. it's just beautiful and heartwarming and so, so angsty in the best possible way. in ways i adore. there's a hint of the mystical, the extraordinary, but it's grounded too. what sawyer and veronica endure is life at its most implacable. but they survive. they power through it. they give each other the strength to make it through in ways that are just so beautiful to read. i just loved this story. loved the characters. loved their struggles. loved all the freaking feelings. **echoes between us will publish on january 14, 2020. i received an ...