The Viscount Who Loved Me - Julia Quinn

 Initial draw: ✰✰✰
Character development: ✰✰✰✰
Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, this author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry. And in truth, why should he? When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it better..." - Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1814

But this time, the gossip columnists have it wrong. Anthony Bridgerton hasn't just decided to marry - he's even chosen a wife! The only obstacle is his intended's older sister, Kate Sheffield - the most meddlesome woman ever to grace a London ballroom. The spirited schemer is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal, but when he closes his eyes at night, Kate is the woman haunting his increasingly erotic dreams...

Contrary to popular belief, Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands - and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. Kate is determined to protect her sister - but she fears her own heart is vulnerable. And when Anthony's lips touch hers, she's suddenly afraid she might not be able to resist the reprehensible rake herself..."

I am still far too immature to read words like "maidenhead," but this is one of my favorite books of the series. It was by far the most organic in terms of relationship development, and I was genuinely rooting for Anthony and Kate. It also got into some serious trauma-related stuff that I really didn't expect! I appreciated that it got into some serious stuff instead of just skimming the surface. It even taught me something about bee sting allergies - did you know that with deadly bee allergies, the first sting doesn't always trigger a reaction? It's the second that becomes problematic. Interesting...interesting.

Anyway, if you want to dip your toe into Bridgerton but don't want to read the entire series, I would go with this one. Kate remained one of my favorite characters throughout the rest of the series, and I found her outspoken snark delightful.

Top Ten June New Releases

Once again, here I am looking at upcoming new releases and struggling to narrow my list of most anticipated titles down to ten. If people could press pause on releasing excellent stuff for a bit so I could catch up on my to be read list, that would be wonderful. There are so many amazing books, I can't keep up.

What's that? That's not an option?

Oh.

In that case, I suppose I'll just suck it up and add another ten books to my already astronomical list! And without further ado, those books are:

1. Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé - out June 1st

2. Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton et al. - out June 22nd

3. Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury - out June 15th

4. An Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi - out June 1st

5. Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa - out June 8th

6. Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon - out June 1st

7. The Marvelous by Claire Kann - out June 8th

8. Simone Breaks All the Rules by Debbie Rigaud - out June 1st

9. Sisters of the Snake by Sasha Nanua - out June 15th

10. Witchshadow by Susan Dennard - out June 22nd

The Duke and I - Julia Quinn

Initial draw: ✰✰

Character development: ✰✰✰

Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"After enduring two seasons in London, Daphne Bridgerton is no longer naive enough to believe she will be able to marry for love. But is it really too much to hope for a husband for whom she at least has some affection?

Her brother's old school friend Simon Basset - the new Duke of Hastings - has no intention of ever marrying. However, newly returned to England, he finds himself the target of the many marriage-minded society mothers who remain convinced that reformed rakes make the best husbands.

To deflect their attention, the handsome hell-raiser proposes to Daphne that they pretend an attachment. In return, his interest in Daphne will ensure she becomes the belle of London society with suitors beating a path to her door. There's just one problem, Daphne is in very real danger of falling for a man who has no intention of making their charade a reality..."

 

Ah, the Bridgertons...I, of course, bingewatched the series when it showed up on Netflix, and when I found out the show was based on a book series I half-heartedly debated reading them. My reading habits generally skew more toward YA or Middle Grade, so romance isn't typically in my rotation, but then I found out a friend had started reading them, and that sealed the deal. I never can pass up an opportunity to talk about books with my buds, and as a bonus, I was able to borrow their copies to read, so...ease of access to the books and someone to discuss them with? I didn't stand a chance. And here we are.

All that to say...I wasn't super drawn to the books initially. My initial reticence aside though, while I have some issues, I did think the character development was solid, the dialogue was witty, and honestly even the worst book can be improved by having someone to react to it with, so...all in all, The Duke and I was an okay read. I wasn't intending to review them, so aside from the reaction texts I sent my friend (which primarily consisted of things like "I cannot with 'the cradle of her femininity'" and "yeah, I'm not mature enough for this"), I have no notes on the book, so I'm sorry that this review is a bit lacking. The best I can do is give you my top three takeaways, which will include spoilers, so...sorry.

Not lying about spoilers. Don't keep reading if you don't want to be spoiled.

Takeaway 1: Did we need to include a rape scene? Daphne decides that even though Simon doesn't want to have kids, she does, and that's more important! So when homie is drunk, she initiates sex, and even though he very clearly is like hey, please let's stop, she keeps going until he finishes. This was included in the show, too, and I just. We're not even going to call out that this was not an okay thing for her to do? Really?

Takeaway 2: If I never hear the word "maidenhead" again, it will be too soon.

Takeaway 3: I lack the patience for storylines set in this era in which the societal expectations of the time are strictly adhered to. Are you really going to tell me that girls weren't finding ways to get intel about sex and doing the dirty on the downlow? Daphne didn't know a single fucking thing about how sex worked? Her mom couldn't do even a slightly better job of explaining it to her? I know there are some things that I need some suspension of disbelief, because I'm holding regency-era characters to 2021 feminist standards, but for shit's sake. It really drove me crazy that the whole premise of the book is basically "men fuck as much as they want, and of course everyone is okay with this, but women don't even know what a dick is." I cannot.

TBR - Mental Health Awareness

May is Mental Health Awareness month, so what better time to talk about books with mental health representation? I started my list with books I have read and loved, and I realized pretty quickly that I have gravitated toward books with characters whose mental health experiences mirror mine. Eye-opening! I always enjoy putting book lists together, but I'm particularly glad that this one made me aware of some of my blind spots, and now I have more books with mental health rep outside my own experience to read and learn from. This Tuesday Book Recs post is full of recs for myself!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 

One of these I have read (and recommended multiple times, so if you're still sleeping on Ari and Dante, I don't know why), the other I haven't. Last Night I Sang to the Monster is about eighteen-year-old Zach who, instead of finishing high school, finds himself in rehab for alcoholism instead. He can't remember how he got there, and he's not sure he wants to find out.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Leigh is grieving the loss of her mother to suicide and is convinced that when her mother died, she became a bird. Her quest to find her mother's bird form takes her to Taiwan for a visit with her maternal grandparents, and it is here that she discovers more than she expected to, including a new relationship with the grandparents she had previously never met.

Clean by Amy Reed

Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva don't want to be in rehab, not only facing sobriety but also some of their darkest fears. After hitting rock bottom, though, they don't have much of a choice. Can they find a way to deal with themselves and with each other in order to find a way to navigate their addictions and live their lives?

Darius the Great is Not Okay and Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

Darius feels different in a lot of ways from his classmates. He's Persian, for one thing, and he has also been diagnosed with clinical depression. It isn't until he travels to Iran to visit his grandparents and meets Sohrab that he feels what it's like to belong, to have a best friend, and that he starts to realize that there may be more to him than he has previously convinced himself. These books are beautiful, funny, and poignant.

Emergency Contact, Permanent Record, and Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi

Well-documented fangirl here, once again recommending that you read anything by Mary H.K. Choi. I've typed and deleted descriptions and explanations for what makes her books so wonderful multiple times, and I just...I don't have the words. Her writing is real and relatable, and reading about Penny in Emergency Contact was one of the first times I felt seen by a fictional character. When presented with an opportunity to read something she's written, always take it!

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Charlotte Davis's life has been one of loss, and the coping mechanisms she has found to help herself survive are less than healthy. But each new scar helps her feel a little less, and sometimes what you need is not to feel. It's been so long, though, and Charlotte is so shattered - will she ever be able to put the pieces of herself back together?

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Solomon has agoraphobia and has not left the house in years. Lisa, angling to get into one of the best college psychology programs available, has a plan: "fix" Sol and prove that she's good enough. What neither of them expect is to form a friendship, but they do, growing closer to each other and letting walls down. 

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez

Julia is navigating both her own grief and that of her parents in the wake of her older sister's unexpected death. Olga was perfect, and all her parents hopes had rested on her...so now that she's gone, what is Julia supposed to do? It's clear that her parents expect her to step in and fill the role, but Julia isn't so sure she can do that, and the more she learns about her sister after her death, the more she realizes that maybe Olga wasn't all that perfect either.

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

Ben is nonbinary, and when they come out to their parents, their parents throw them out. Living with their sister and her husband, Ben struggles with anxiety compounded by their parents' rejection as they complete their last semester of high school. This book tugged at my heart, and all I wanted the entire time was to give Ben a hug.

Life Inside My Mind edited by Jessica Burkhart

This is an anthology of thirty-one real-life experiences from authors who have experienced mental illness. Their goal is to end stigma and provide hope, and I am very eager to read this.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

In this memoir, Lori Gottlieb weaves together her experiences as a therapist and her experience in therapy. I am not always drawn in by non-fiction, but this is a topic that greatly interests me, and I found her story riveting, vulnerable, and emotional.

The Place Between Breaths by An Na

Ever since Grace's mother, who struggled with schizophrenia, disappeared out of fear that she would hurt her family, her father has worked as a recruiter for a lab studying the disease. Sixteen-year-old Grace interns at the lab, and one day Grace stumbles upon a string of code that could unlock the gene sequence that leads to schizophrenia. But is this discovery the beacon of hope she thinks it is? Or the first sign that schizophrenia may also be taking hold of her?

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Marin hasn't spoken to anyone from her former life since the day she left, and no one back home knows the truth of what happened. Still, she feels the pull of her former life, and now that Mabel, her best friend, is coming for a visit, she may finally be forced to confront everything she left behind. 

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

Music loving sixteen-year-old Melati is in many ways just your average teenager. She also has OCD, which manifests as a belief that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who will kill her mother unless she adheres to her elaborate projection rituals to keep him satisfied. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her hometown boil over into a riot, and when she and her mother become separated, Melati must find and protect her mother before she loses her forever.

You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman

Ariel Stone is a senior bound for Harvard...until a failed calculus quiz derails all his carefully laid plans. His life is one of little sleep and carefully ordered to-do lists, and before he knows it the extra time studying for calculus causes a snowball effect and he is falling further and further behind in areas he never would have expected. 

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.

TBR - Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and I've been adding tons of recommended books to my to be read list. Below are some that I'm most looking forward to reading, including a mix of titles that are currently available and some that are available for preorder. I managed to narrow it down to fifteen recommendations, but this could easily have been the longest list I've ever made...there are so many excellent books coming out! 

1. Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi - Scott Ferdowsi has a track record of being a little aimless, uncertain of what he wants to do in life. When his parents pressure him to settle on a career path, he sneaks off to Washington DC and finds himself immersed in adventures he never expected to take.

2. I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn - Kimi Nakamura's obsession with turning everyday ephemera into bold fashion statements has her constantly at odds with her mother. When a letter from her grandparents arrives following a huge fight with her mom, Kimi finds herself on the way to Japan for spring break in an attempt to escape the disaster that has become her life. 

3. I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee - Skye Shin doesn't care what other people have to say about what she shouldn't or shouldn't do. She's competing against thousands of other performers in a competition to find the next k-pop star, and she's ready to crush the competition and become the world's first plus-sized k-pop star.

4. Jade Fire Gold by June C.L. Tan - Coming out October 12th, Jade Fire Gold follows two characters, Ahn and Altan. When the two meet, they both see the other as an opportunity...for Ahn, Altan could help her unlock her past, and for Altan, Ahn could help pave the way to reclaiming his throne. But will the pair end up paying more than they are prepared to achieve their goals?

5. The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland - The Jasmine Project will be published September 7th and is described as Jenny Han meets The Bachelorette. After catching her longtime boyfriend cheating, Jasmine Yap refuses to meet anyone new. Using her graduation party as a dating opportunity, her family arranges meetings with a carefully curated list of men...but everything may not go as planned with this meticulously organized event.

6. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri - With a publish date of June 8th, this is the story of Malini, imprisoned by her dictator brother and condemned to spend her days in isolation, and Priya, a maidservant with a dangerous secret. Can the two work together to change the fate of their empire?

7. The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco - Book one in a duology, this is a fantasy about twin goddesses ruling Aeon, one over the frozen island of Aranth and the other over the land-locked Golden City. When shadowy forces come to call, the two goddesses must sacrifice whatever it takes to heal their world.

8. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay - Jay Reguero's plans for his final semester of high school are derailed following the murder of his cousin Jun. Jay travels to the Philippines  on a quest to understand what led to Jun's death, but the answers he finds may force him to recon with more than he expected.

9. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan - Coming out July 20th, this is the story of fate. The fate of greatness assigned to one child, eighth-born son Zhu Chongba, and the fate of nothing, assigned to the Zhu family's second daughter. After a bandit attack orphans the pair, they learn that their assigned fates aren't necessarily set in stone.

10. Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim - This book is coming out July 6th, and I can't wait! Shiori, the princess of Kiata, has a secret she has carefully kept for a long time. When she loses control of her concealed magic on the day of her betrothal ceremony, what she at first thinks may be a blessing in disguise may cause more trouble than she bargained for.

11. This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura - CJ's mom wants her to be driven and type A like she is, but CJ may not have it in her. What she does have is a knack for arranging the perfect bouquet, which comes in handy at her family's flower shop. So what will CJ do when her mom decides to sell the shop...to the family who swindled her grandparents during World War II?

12. A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi - This is a coming-of-age story about Shirin, a Hijabi teenager dealing with the racism and abuse following 9/11. When she meets Ocean James, she can sense that he might be different than some of the other boys she's met...but she's not sure she can let her walls down and take a risk.

13. Wicked Fox by Kat Cho - The first book in a fantasy series, this is the story of Gu Miyoung, a nine-tailed fox who must carefully conceal her identity, and Jihoon, the human boy she rescues from being attacked by a goblin.

14. Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi - I am incredibly and endlessly obsessed with Mary H.K. Choi, and this book is literally sitting on my coffee table next to me as I type this, waiting for me to finish my book club's May book so I can read it. Jayne Baek is struggling - her boyfriend sucks, her friends aren't great, school is meh, and she's not quite ready to admit that she's struggling with an eating disorder. That's just life, right? But when her estranged sister is diagnosed with cancer, Jayne finds herself moving in with June and dealing not just with the knowledge that her sister might die but also forced to confront some of her own issues.

15. You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao - This is not coming out until November 2nd, and I may need to secure myself an advanced copy because I am DYING to read it. Just reading the description made me tear up, and I just...I need it. Julie's future is all planned out, until her boyfriend Sam dies. Shattered, Julie tries everything she can to forget him and the tragedy of his death, until a message in her yearbook drives her to call his cell phone one last time...and Sam picks up.

Reading Challenges, ebbs, and flows

I don't know how in the holy hell it's already May, but that happened. I've been chugging along with my reading and flying through books for a while, so I got really comfortable with that flow, and then the universe demanded balance and about a week ago my ability to focus on bookish things took a dive. Fortunately, my sister can always be relied on to share relevant and insightful TikToks in times of need, so I've been trying to keep this video in mind and be comfortable with my present trough when it comes to reading and blogging. No one can go 100% all the time, right?

I did manage to finish one of my April challenge books (Get a Life, Chloe Brown - I posted the review Friday!) and am working my way through the second now (loving it so far), so I'm not too far off track. And fortuitously, much more productive April me had the foresight to choose my books for May so I would be prepared! Thanks, past me. So, May's challenges:

9. Read a middle grade mystery - I'll be reading Chirp by Kate Messner, the story of a post-seventh grade girl trying to unmask the person sabotaging her grandmother's cricket farm

10. Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color - I have two for this one! First is A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell, sixteen fantasy and science fiction stories centered around Black women and gender nonconforming main characters - the cover is BEAUTIFUL, and I can't wait to read this. The second is A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, fifteen short stories inspired by the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia. Another gorgeous cover, another story I'm eager to get into.

What would you read for each of these challenges?

Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰
Character development: ✰✰✰✰
Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰ (3.5, really)
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost - but not quite - dying, she's come up with seven directives to help her "Get a Life," and she's already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family's mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And...do something bad.

But it's not easy being bad, even when you've written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford "Red" Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He's also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe's wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior..."

I had a hard time deciding how I felt about this book, so I've been sitting with the review for a while, but I've come to a decision and am finally ready to blog about it. The initial draw was stars across the board - as soon as I read the synopsis, I knew I wanted to read it, and getting started I was immediately pulled in. The characters are three-dimensional, well-developed, and relatable, the story is solid, and I loved Chloe. After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, she started shielding herself from any experiences she thought might trigger her chronic pain, but following a near-death experience she has decided that needs to change. Armed with a "get a life" list, she takes the first step - moving out of her posh family home and into a small flat of her own - and now she and her cutting wit and focused determination are ready to check more items off the list.

Which is where Red comes in. Chloe immediately butted heads with her new superintendent, but it doesn't take long for the pair to realize that when one of them isn't infuriating the other, they...kind of get along? After a few verbal sparring matches, the pair begin to click, forming an unexpected partnership, and things escalate from there.

And I do mean escalate. (Spoilers incoming, you have been warned.)

Y'all...this is a present-day bodice ripper. Like, all caps. And I have no problem whatsoever with things getting steamy, but my library classifies books by genre, and this one was in plain old fiction. The summary does mention sex, but in sort of a throwaway way. Things start off like any other vanilla contemporary novel. And then BAM. You're sitting on your couch, reading away, and Red wakes up from a nap-turned-wet dream with cum on his belly. And proceeds to give himself a hand in vivid detail. I mean, things go from zero to sixty in the space of a sentence, and the heat only gets cranked (heyoooo) up from there. Again, no problem with a horny novel - I'm midway through the Bridgerton series at the moment, as a matter of fact - but generally I like knowing that's what to expect going into it, and in this case...

Maybe I missed a memo and everyone else was well aware that it was going to get hot and heavy fast, but I was very surprised, and therein lies my initial uncertainty about how I felt about the book. It took me a bit to decide if the unexpected level of spice took me out of the narrative (I mean, at one point Chloe is so ready to bone down that she describes her vagina as feeling like a CLENCHED FIST. What.), but ultimately I decided no, it did not. The storyline is great, the character growth is a thing of beauty, and the representation included is...*chef's kiss*. If you're on board with lots of filthy, sometimes public, sexytimes in your reading, I say give this book a go. Just...maybe don't read it in the same room as your mom.

Throwback Thursday - Five Faves

Oooh, past me has reviewed some truly excellent books in May, so for today's Throwback Thursday post I decided to highlight five of my favorites. Going in chronological order, we begin with Dear Martin by Nic Stone, reviewed in 2018. This review was four stars, and I mentioned it was because I didn't think the letter-writing part of the book lent itself as well to an audio format. I'm happy to report that my Goodreads rating did indeed go up to five stars after reading the physical book. So good.

Next up is On Two Feet and Wings by Abbas Kazerooni, a rare non-fiction read for me. Abbas's story is just incredible, and my only gripe remains that I wish the book was longer. I want to know more about his journey!

Our last 2018 book is to this day one of the prettiest books I've ever read, The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross. It is well documented that I'll read anything with a pretty cover (or sprayed edges), and in this case the story was as beautiful as the cover. It's the first book in a duology, and I've been contemplating re-reading it recently...now that I've revisited my review, I feel like I have to do it.

Now, fast forwarding alllllll the way to the nightmare that was 2020, let's talk about one of the few good things to come out of it...excellent books. First up, Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee. This was actually published in 2019, so that sort of negates my "one of the few good things" point, but...I read it in 2020, so still counts. It's an amazing book about finding the courage to stand up for yourself and call out inappropriate behavior, AND Barbara Dee commented on my review, which still makes me swoon a little bit when I think about it. 

Our final revisited book was released in 2020, and it was very decidedly one of the few good things to come out of 2020 for me, particularly because I got to read an advanced copy. 😍 We're talking about The Cousins by Karen M. McManus, and I. LOVED. IT. This one is sitting on my To Be Read shelf as we speak, impatiently waiting to be read a second time, and I can't wait.

TBR - National Space Day

Did you know National Space Day was the first Friday in May? Neither did I, but now we all do! (Or maybe you did already know, and now I've got caught up with you. Either way.) To celebrate, I pulled together a list of Tuesday Book Recs either set in or involving space. They're out of this world (yeah, sorry, couldn't resist), so check them out!

1. About a Girl by Sarah McCarry - Tally has her future mapped out and is focused on becoming an award-winning astronomer when her carefully structured world is upended. 

2. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz - When Aristotle and Dante bump into each other at the pool, they strike up an unlikely friendship and end up forming a bond neither of them ever expected. (They also drive out to the desert and look at the stars, plus universe is in the title, so...it totally works.) 

3. Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray - This book about soldier Noemi Vidal and mech Abel is the first in an excellent trilogy about an interstellar war between the planet Genesis and Earth. It gets off to a bit of a slow start to me, but once the action picks up I enjoyed it a lot.

4. Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza - Crown Princess Rhiannon Ta'an is out for revenge, and Wraetan celebrity Alyosha is trying to maintain his pristine public image when their paths collide in ways neither could have expected.

5. Mirage by Somaiya Daud - When eighteen-year-old Amani is kidnapped and forced to become the princess's body double, she expects her life to be misery. Instead, she is surprised to find herself enjoying certain aspects of her new life...even though one misstep could mean her death.

6. Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar - The night sky holds many secrets, including that of Sheetal Mistry's identity and the reason for her starlight silver hair...

7. Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett - After being unwillingly roped into attending a camping trip with one of her friends, Zorie is even more dismayed to discover that one of the other attendees is none other than her former best friend (and current worst enemy) Lennon. At least she has an event with her astronomy club to look forward to when the camping trip is over. Animosity aside, it's a glamping trip at a fancy resort. Nothing could possibly go wrong...right?