The Bennet Women - Eden Appiah-Kubi

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Welcome to Bennet House, the only all-women's dorm at prestigious Longbourn University, home to three close friends who are about to have an eventful year. EJ is an ambitious Black engineering student. Her best friend, Jamie, is a newly out trans woman studying French and theater. Tessa is a Filipina astronomy major with guy trouble. For them, Bennet House is more than a residence - it's an oasis of feminism, femininity, and enlightenment. But as great as Longbourn is for academics, EJ knows it can be a wretched place to find love.

Yet the fall season is young and brimming with surprising possibilities. Jamie's prospect is Lee Gregory, son of a Hollywood producer and a gentleman so charming he practically sparkles. That leaves EJ with Lee's arrogant best friend, Will. For Jamie's sake, EJ must put up with the disagreeable, distressingly handsome, not quite famous TV actor for as longa s she can.

What of it? EJ has her eyes on a bigger prize, anyway: launching a spectacular engineering career in the "real world" she's been hearing so much about. But what happens when all their lives become entwined in ways no one could have predicted - and EJ finds herself drawn to a man who's not exactly a perfect fit for the future she has planned?"

📚📚📚 

Oh, I do love a Pride & Prejudice retelling! And between this and Debating Darcy, I've been reading some winners recently. (Next up: Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa. Honestly, an embarrassment of riches.) Please note, in case you have interest in reading this, this review will contain some degree of spoilers. Read on with caution.

Similarly to Debating Darcy, I enjoyed that the original characters were incorporated into this story in different ways. Instead of SISTER sisters, they're dorm sisters...it's not really a sorority, right? Although it seems like there are similarities. Anyway, they're chosen family instead of blood family, and the way that they connect and relate to each other is way different and really sweet. 

Additionally, while a bit heavy-handed at times, I enjoyed the way some of the more hurtful moments in the original were honored while being handled differently. For example, Jamie and Lee have bumpy relationship moments, but the way they communicate and resolve them, instead of one of them essentially ghosting, is so sweet. (Sidenote: It really tickles me to think of Bingley leaving in the original as ghosting) Also, while a version of Darcy's terrible first confession of love is incorporated, I like that this confession was a. basically a rough draft and b. shared with other people instead of EJ, so then they could say hey, dufus, that's SO insulting! Instead of EJ's feelings being further hurt.  

If I had one gripe with this book, it would be that there was a little too much crammed in, so instead of REALLY developing one or two things about each character we got lots of partially developed things. Still fine, just a small grumble. Outside of that, and beyond my comparisons to the original inspiration, I found this story enjoyable as its own thing. I loved seeing so many passionate, inspiring women coming together and supporting each other, the way the various families, found or otherwise, supported each other was lovely, and while there were ups and downs and the book dealt with serious things, like discrimination in STEM, disordered eating, and addiction, there was so much encouragement and having each others' backs that it was just...so lovely and ultimately uplifting to read. 

Final thought, I found it very fitting that garbage people Carrie and Jordan ended up together and that Colin got dumped. Very much appreciate those choices.

Reboot Rereads - To All the Boys I've Loved Before

I've never written an individual review for this book/series, but BOY OH BOY have I included it in an excessive number of book lists! I mentioned it in one (as a case for polyamory over love triangles), and I've featured it in at least four, including my top ten favorite series, books to read if you like Animal Crossing, easy to read books (hello, reboot rereads!), and books that feel like a hug. This series is so cozy and comforting, and I continue to adore it. (Also the movies, although I don't know why, but it endlessly bothers me that they decided in the movie series to change the setting to the Pacific Northwest instead of Virginia. Just, why? And I wish they had left it being Peter that got the video taken down.)

Lara Jean, so sweet, so firm in her standards. Kitty, possibly the best character ever written. Margot, eh. But everyone else...wonderful. It's low stakes that feel high stakes, because who amongst us doesn't remember when minor teen dramas ruled our lives? Lovely series to revisit, and I recommend it to anyone looking for something low-stakes and comforting to get into.

Reboot Rereads - Emergency Contact

Hahaaaaaaa, I checked to see if I had reviewed this before and was like "whoa, I haven't?!" And then I read the blurb that I wrote when I included it on a book list:

"I double checked whether I had reviewed this book on the blog before, and at first I was a little surprised that I hadn't. Then I realized that of course I haven't reviewed it here, because I don't know what to say. This book is hard to describe, but perfect to read. It's Penny's first year of college, and...that's what it's about. Navigating somewhere new. Learning how to live with roommates, making new friends. Managing your anxiety. It's a book about real life. If you read this one and don't like it, I'm begging you, please don't tell me, because it is probably in my top three favorite books of all time, and I love it so much that it makes me nervous even recommending it."

It's great that after 38 years together, I continue to surprise myself. Anyway, yes, I have not written an actual review of Emergency Contact before, but I have included it on not one but two recommendation lists, so there's that. As quoted above, it's a great story about new experiences, figuring out how to handle anxiety (and depression), and navigating life. While I will note that it came out in 2018 and consequently suffers from an overuse of ableist terms that many of us have since learned are words you shouldn't use, overall the book is still solid and I still greatly enjoyed the story. Do what I do and substitute a different word in your head, and then it totally holds up.

While there's a lot that I adore about this book, one thing that jumped out at me more upon this read than it did in prior reads is the way that our perception of ourselves differs from the way others see us. Sam, for example, hates his body and has a ton of self talk about how ugly he is. Meanwhile, both Penny and Mallory are falling over themselves at how hot he is. Penny tells herself how weird and boring she is, that she's short and her thighs are too big, et cetera. But Sam finds her quick-witted, funny, and beautiful, and a classmate is also into her and asks her out, so clearly her perception of herself isn't true. Watching that all play out is a great reminder that we often are our own harshest critics. It can be easy in a world where we're being inundated with messages about not being good enough to pick ourselves apart, compare ourselves to others, and constantly look for things that are "wrong" with us...but damn, wouldn't it be more fun and a lot less burdensome to try to see the amazing things in ourselves that other people see in us?

Anyway, just something the book made me think about. For the record, if you're reading this, know that I think you're incredible.

Let's Talk About Love - Claire Kann

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆

Character Development: ☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!)

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood."

 Let's talk about love, baby, let's talk about Alice and Takumi...

Seriously, though, let's talk about Let's Talk About Love. I've come across very little ace representation in books, so I was excited to come across this. It had been on my TBR for a while, so how fortuitous that one of the Read Harder challenges this year was to read a book with ace rep! Just the nudge I needed to finally, finally make the time to read this. 

Right off the bat, I was impressed with the character development. I mean, Margot is in like...one chapter? And the level of trash person achieved in that short a time...wow. Incredible that someone featured so briefly could inspire such instant and thorough dislike. I want to TP her car. The more heavily featured characters were also very realistic - like to the point that sometimes I found them incredibly annoying, and then I would realize oh! This is just like real people, they don't always do everything right and you can get irritated with them! (I mean...seriously, please just communicate...but kudos to Claire Kann for the realism.)

Moving right along, the plot. The book was much more character driven than plot driven, so there wasn't heaps of action, but things moved along at a good pace and progressed nicely. My two gripes were 1. the fatphobia (let's be clear, Takumi has an eating disorder, and nothing about that is "health conscious") and 2. the fact that Takumi as a BRAND NEW library assistant was running storytimes for the library. I don't know what that library's deal was, but it was unrealistic at best. Outside of mistaking thinness for "health" and taking some creative license with library stuff, though, pretty solid story. It's hard to really get into specifics without giving spoilers, but the self-exploration was solid, and I liked that multiple characters experienced growth and not just the main character.

Anyhoo, I'm very full and also sleepy, and I want to make sure this is ready to go, so abrupt wrap-up: Solid story. I would maybe recommend the physical book over the audiobook, but either option would provide entertainment.

Felix Ever After - Kacen Callender

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰

Character development: ✰✰✰✰✰

Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰✰

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Felix Love has never been in love - and, yes, he's painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it's like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What's worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he's one marginalization too many - Black, queer, and transgender - to ever get his own happily-ever-after.

When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages - after publicly posting Felix's deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned - Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn't count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi-love triangle...

But, as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.

Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve"

Oh my god, this book. So many emotions. I've wanted to read this for quite some time, and once I picked it up, it didn't take me long to finish. The synopsis does a pretty good job of breaking things down - Felix is taking summer art classes at school, and an anonymous asshole targets him with their disgusting transphobia. While he navigates the fallout and ensuing emotions, he's also dealing with cruel comments from an ex, another student being a dick for seemingly no reason, and on top of these interpersonal struggles, he desperately needs to finish (ahem...start...) his portfolio for college applications. It's a lot for a seventeen-year-old to deal with, but fortunately he has a very supportive best friend to keep him moving forward. Which brings me to...

The characters. Whom I loved. Felix is a little uncertain, a little insecure, but ultimately unapologetically true to himself. Ezra, the aforementioned best friend, is lovely and wonderful and Felix's fiercest supporter. And Kacen Callender does an amazing job developing Felix's high school friend group. His situation, with one close friend and then a group of people he hung out with by extension but didn't know quite as well or feel as comfortable with, felt very familiar to me, and I loved the way each member of the group's personality and voice developed a little more as the story went on. Finally, there were some amazing examples of people not being what they seemed, which I really appreciated. So often in YA, an antagonist can become a little one-dimensional or a frustrating parent is just a frustrating parent. I appreciated that there was some added depth and nuance to some of the characters that Felix didn't initially mesh well with.

And finally, the plot and writing style. This book is not a light read. There are some difficult situations tackled, and the genuine emotion and openness throughout Felix's experiences is incredible. In the acknowledgements, it says that this book was deeply personal, and I feel that in every page. I aspire to create something as honest and raw as Kacen Callender has - everything felt so real. I feel like Felix is someone I could have gone to school with and become friends with, and I'm so happy that this book exists. Felix's story is beautiful.

Permanent Record - Mary H.K. Choi

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is.

Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers asking for selfies on the street.

When Leanna and Pab randomly meet at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, they both know they can’t be together forever. So, they keep things on the down-low and off Instagram for as long as they can. But it takes about three seconds before the world finds out…"

Pre-read thoughts: I loved Emergency Contact so much that, although after I read it I promised a review would come after a second read, I have no read it four times and still can't find the words to explain how beautiful and perfect it is, so I never delivered on that review promise. All of this to say...I was pretty thrilled to get an ARC of Mary H.K. Choi's second book. My fingers are crossed that I love it as much as even more than I loved Emergency Contact.

Alright. I loved this book, but I do have to clarify one thing before we get into things. If you read Emergency Contact and were expecting another dual-narrator story, delete that preconceived notion from your head. Kinda seems from the description like we'll be rotating back and forth between Pablo and Leanna, but nope. It's all Pab. Nothing wrong with that, just putting it out there for anyone who shared my expectations.

Now, on to actual review-y things! The cover blurb makes it sound like Pablo and Leanna start dating, their spot gets blown, and then the book is about them navigating the fallout. Not the case, and honestly I think what actually happens is so much better than what I expected based on the description. Pablo is working nights at a bodega health food store after taking out a bunch of student loans, signing up for multiple credit cards, and then flunking out of NYU. In the middle of what promised to be an uneventful shift, Leanna stumbles in, severely under-dressed for the sub-zero weather and looking for a middle-of-the-night snowstorm snack. The two fall into an easy exchange, and shortly after realizing that he kind of has a thing for this mysterious, clearly half-frozen stranger, he also realizes that holy shit...she's a super famous pop star. And there goes that starry-eyed dream.

Until she comes back. It's obvious that they have a connection, but it's also immediately apparent that the two lead very different lives. Leanna jets from place to place, chauffeured in private cars, flying in private plans, to manage her vast media empire. Pablo is actively dodging calls from collection agencies and refuses to open his mail to avoid confronting the massive mountain of debt he is being buried under. Leanna knows exactly what she wants from life and is hustling to get it. Pablo hesitates to make firm plans with his little brother, let alone come up with a longterm plan for his life. Can their burgeoning relationship survive their differences? And is this new relationship even what Pablo should focus on when, if it isn't to answer a phone call or respond to a text from Lee, he can't even find a reason to get out of bed most mornings?

At first blush, this seems like a sweet doomed-romance novel about an A-lister and a kid just scraping by, which I was into because in case it wasn't clear, I love Mary H.K. Choi. If she hadn't written this, though, being honest? I probably would have passed this up. Been there, done that. Nothing new. And that's why I had to point out earlier that this book is so much better than the description makes it sound! There's so much happening here. It isn't just Pablo falling in deep with Lee and trying to avoid public scrutiny, it's Pablo struggling to manage his relationships with his roommates, his parents, and his younger brother. Drowning in the expectations of others while feeling too frozen and buried to do anything or even begin to evaluate his own expectations. It's such a frank look at the weight and expectations put on young people, on the massive hole you can wake up one day and find yourself dug into because you were expected to make all these huge decisions and you didn't know what to do. This review is getting wordy as hell, but I swear it isn't enough to convey my love of this book and the perfection Mary Choi has created. I honestly don't know how she managed to build so many vibrant characters up in so short a time, but if you don't immediately fall in love with Rain, Tice, the Kims, and everyone else I don't know what's wrong with you. Permanent Record is perfection, from the first page to the last.

American Panda - Gloria Chao

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents' master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.

With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can't bring herself to tell them the truth--that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.

But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels?"
I can't get over how much this book made me feel. I expected it to be good, but I did not expect it to stir up so many different emotions. I both couldn't put it down and had to take a break between chapters to sort through everything, so most of my day yesterday was a weird yo-yo of me reading a chapter, closing the book and holding it while I sat there and felt things, and then opening the book back up.

I loved getting to know Mei and being able to see the similarities and differences between her culture and upbringing and my own, and I loved even more that Mei got to do the same thing after observing her friends' relationships with their families in comparison with her own. This story wasn't just Mei learning how to be true to herself, it was her realizing that what she had experienced as Taiwanese culture was only one interpretation of that culture, and that there were lots of ways to respect her parents' customs while still being who she was.

Save the Date - Morgan Matson

My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Charlie Grant’s older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can’t wait—for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster—all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect.

The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster.

There’s the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won’t stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge.

There are the relatives who aren’t speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo.

Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner’s nephew is unexpectedly, distractingly…cute.

Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she’ll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future."
Not my favorite. I thought the characters were great, but they were pretty much the only thing that kept me reading after about the first quarter of the book, which...not great. Perhaps if it had been shorter it would have held my attention better, but the first 3/4 of the book is nothing but a series of ever-more-ridiculous terrible things threatening to ruin Charlie's sister's wedding, all of which she somehow ends up responsible for fixing, despite the presence of two wedding planners, two sets of parents, the bride and groom, and several grown-ass siblings not currently in high school. All the actual human conflict gets packed into the last few chapters, which is a huge bummer since the conflict between her brother and the rest of the family is talked about throughout the entire book. Don't make me wait the bulk of the book for more details! Weave the interpersonal drama in with the ridiculous wedding drama! Also, "And the wedding planner’s nephew is unexpectedly, distractingly…cute"? Goods not as advertised. Dreamy Billiam is barely in the first half of the book, and legit nothing happens between the two of them. Almost the entire book focuses on her depressing hang up on Jesse the obvious douchebag. Don't tease me with a budding romance between the main character and a sweet, funny dude and then torture me the entire book with some asshole. Bleh. 

Ultimately, while this would make a great movie, it was not that successful as a book. You can pass on this one.

Leah on the Offbeat - Becky Albertalli

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended."

Leah Burke is my filthy-mouthed high school BFF soul mate. I started this book after I came home from work a couple days ago and finished it before I went in for work the next day. It was hard to put down, and honestly I would have finished it faster, except I kept stopping to text my sister my favorite Leah one-liners. This book is hilarious. 

Those of you who weren't fans of Leah in Simon Vs. may not dig this one, but if you were down with her in the first book and want more of their world, pick this up. It had its flaws--mainly, for me, dragging out the drama between Leah and Abby too long and then hastily wrapping all the conflict in an epilogue--but hot damn, it will hook you and keep you giggling. It's a good read.

Ramona Blue - Julie Murphy

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever.

Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she’s fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever.

The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem."

This book was nothing like I expected, but everything I needed. On the surface, it's a pretty straightforward story of every day life for a high school senior. But it's also a story about challenging our self-assumptions and not placing too much stock in the things we feel define us. Ramona is pretty sure she knows who she is, what she wants, and where her life is going, but when her childhood friend Freddie moves to Eulogy, everything she thought she knew gets turned upside down. She resists admitting to herself that things have changed because if they do...what does that make her? Where does it leave her? With all the upheaval in her life, Ramona has to decide if sticking to the plans she made and staying true to the labels she has assigned herself is worth sacrificing things she'd never let herself consider within her reach. 

Freshmen - Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Getting in is just the beginning. 

Phoebe can't wait to get to college. On her own, discovering new things, no curfew . . . she'll be free. And she'll be totally different: cooler, prettier, smarter . . . the perfect potential girlfriend. Convenient: the only person from her high school also going to York is her longtime crush, Luke. 

Luke didn't set out to redefine himself, but as soon as he arrives on campus, he finds himself dumping his long-term long-distance girlfriend. And the changes don't stop there. In fact, being on a soccer team is the only thing that stays the same. 

Just when things start looking up (and Phoebe and Luke start hooking up), drama looms on the horizon. Rumors swirl about the Wall of Shame, a secret text chain run by Luke's soccer team, filled with compromising photos of girls. As the women on campus determine to expose the team and shut down the account, Luke and Phoebe find themselves grappling with confusing feelings and wondering how they'll ever make it through freshman year."

This book had its highs and lows, but I read it in less than a day so overall, I'd say it's a win. A book about college for young adults? Awesome. We need more post-high school books. And while I didn't drink or party in college because I was a Mormon nerd, so much of this book still managed to hit me in the college feels. It's such a weird time, going from basically having everything structured and controlled for you to.....I make my own choices? What? How? When did this happen? Which, hello, circles back to we need more post-high school books! Finally, I loved the character development and the relationships that developed between everyone. And the humor--I laughed out loud more than once, which I'm sure my husband really enjoyed listening to.  My only real complaint is that the story felt choppy at times. It wasn't terrible by any means, but some of the major moments ended up a little jarring because there wasn't much build up or development toward them. Smoothing out the flow of the story would have made it  five-star read, for sure. 

Paper Towns - John Green

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew..."

So Quentin Jacobsen loves his next door neighbor from afar for most of his life, even though they stopped hanging out at a fairly young age. Then one night she drags him into an epic andventure before disappearing abruptly the next morning. Following her disappearance, Quentin, his two best friends, and Margo's best friend-turned-Quentin's-weird-friend's-girlfriend all begin trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance. At first Quentin worries that she committed suicide, but the more he finds out, the more he hopes she's still out there somewhere...waiting for him.

Mehhhhhhh I just don't know. I wasn't overly enamored with this book, but it had its good points. At times Quentin was kind of a whiny jackass, but he and his friends also had pretty good senses of humor. The thing I liked the most about the book was the emphasis on how your perception of a person =/= who that person really is. Overall, it wasn't a bad read...just not my favorite.

Lucky in Love - Kasie West

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Can’t buy me love…

Maddie’s not impulsive. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment—

She wins!

In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun…until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust.

Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. And, for some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?"

Ok...I'm about to thrown down some serious venting, so before I do I'm going to say this: My issues with this book aside, I don't think it's necessarily a bad read. It's quick, it's fluffy and cute, and ultimately I enjoyed it for what it was--a total dessert book. This would be a great "dip your toe" title for teens who aren't big fans of reading. If that's the kind of read you're looking for, maybe skip the rest of this and grab a copy. If you aren't sold and want to know why I rated it three stars instead of five, keep reading...but you've been warned. 

Alright. So Maddie's dad got laid off a few years ago, and if she wants to go to college she has to get a scholarship to pay for it (unheard of, apparently.). As a result, she is hyper-focused on school, scheduling regular study sessions with her friends and basically spending every second making sure she's as prepared as she can be. She gets amazing grades, volunteers, and works part-time at the zoo. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it if it means she can get into and pay for University of Southern California and study to be a vet. Or something like that. Because she loves animals, we're told (never shown. Only told. That was a big issue I had with this book). 

Then, on Maddie's 18th birthday, her friends mysteriously bail on her with no notice, even though they've been established to be fairly reliable, so she makes a bummed-out visit to the gas station for candy (because she's super poor, so obviously she buys all her candy at the gas station, where it's more expensive than basically anywhere else...but that's neither here nor there. Just an irritating detail to someone who was also a very poor teenager and would never have been able to afford to regularly buy tiny bags of gas station candy). On a whim, she buys a lottery ticket, and....gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasp! SHE WINS! 50 million dollars. 

Suddenly everyone wants to be her friend, needs money from her, is treating her differently. Maddie is incredibly book smart but apparently has zero experience interacting with other human beings or in any way standing up for herself, because holy hell, this book becomes ridiculously foolish decision after ridiculously foolish decision. Bypassing the fact that someone as seemingly meticulous and logical as Maddie doesn't strike me as the type to make these spur-of-the-moment decisions on spending ludicrous amounts of money, even if she is suddenly super rich, where the hell were her parents?! The book introduces pretty early on that her parents are going through a pretty rough patch, but what kind of parent is like "wow, cool, you just turned 18 and are a multi-millionaire. Good luck with that." They do tell her when she wins that she should get a financial adviser, but then nothing else is said of it. Instead, they sit by while she rents a yacht, buys an almost $100,000 sports car, gets swindled out of half a million dollars by some super extended family member, etc etc etc. Who does that?

With all the craziness in her life, at least Maddie has Seth, her super cool and definitely Asian coworker at the zoo. He's funny, confident, friendly...and also, please don't forget that he's Asian. Because he is, remember? You can tell by his last name and the fact that people regularly say obnoxious and racist things to him. It would have been cool to learn about Seth's heritage through subtle descriptions or details about the character, but this book isn't big on showing. I'll try to let that go. Maddie's relationship with Seth was sweet, but like in a candy corn way. There's not really any subtlety or flavor to it, but if you need a sugar fix it'll get you there. He was a good friend, it was nice that he was always there for her, I just wish he...and most of the characters, for that matter...hadn't been so one-dimensional.  

There were so many opportunities for greatness in this book, but everything ended up over-simplified and a little flat. Not Kasie West's best book. Like I said, it's an ok read, and it has its uses. However, if the whole "financially struggling newly 18-year-old wins the lottery" storyline was what pulled you in, might I point you to Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith? Similar plot, but I enjoyed the execution more.