In the wake of sudden tragedy, twin sisters uncover a secret that rips open their world. Katherine Rothschild explores the pain and power of forgiveness in a stunning debut novel that will shatter your heart and piece it back together, one truth at a time.
Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton doesn’t have much in common with her identical twin, Blythe. When their father dies from an unexpected illness, each copes with the loss in her own way—Sabine by “poeting” (an uncontrollable quirk of bursting into poetry at inappropriate moments) and Blythe by obsessing over getting into MIT, their father’s alma mater. Neither can offer each other much support . . . at least not until their emotionally detached mother moves them into a ramshackle Bay Area mansion owned by a stranger named Charlie. Soon, the sisters unite in a mission to figure out who Charlie is and why he seems to know everything about them. They quickly make a life-changing discovery: their father died of an HIV- related infection, Charlie was his lover, and their mother knows the whole story. The revelation unravels Sabine’s world, while practical Blythe seems to take everything in stride. Once again at odds with her sister, Sabine chooses to learn all she can about the father she never knew. Ultimately, she must decide if she can embrace his last wish for their family legacy—along with forgiveness. Oh man. I really wanted to like this story. This is quite literally a "judged book by cover" situation. (You can't tell me that cover isn't objectively gorgeous). We're promised an empathetic story of two girls discovering their parents' polyamorous relationship and their dad's HIV status. The synopsis promises a quirky girl story, yes, but I had hope for more HIV/AIDS representation in YA and a genuine attempt to destigmatize the illness. What we got was... this. I must start with saying that I found the representation of bisexuality and HIV/AIDS legitimately harmful. Mick, the girls' father, is stereotyped to the MAX. The book plays into so many of the assumptions people make about bisexuality--promiscuity, cheating, having multiple partners without consent. All the general biphobia made me quite sad to read, and I kind of expected better out of the novel. Then again, upon rereading the synopsis, the book is centered around the straight MCs "coming to terms" with their dad's sexuality which is not all that welcoming to queer readers, honestly. I found the characters wanting, mostly Sabine with her selfishness. The novel goes out of its way to provide her with opportunities to hurt the people she loves because of her own internal reasons, and she doesn't often realize the kind of harm she's doing. I'm all for a morally grey character, sure, but she has so many chances to do better and simply... doesn't. I admit, the ending to her story makes sense, and she did learn some lessons eventually. I just had a problem with her fighting against a transitional housing arrangement for at-risk queer people? I have empathy for the fact that her dad had just passed away and the truths she just learned had been hard, but girl! Some perspective please!! All for morally grey characters, but I need to have a reason to support them in their journeys, and Sabine wasn't giving me anything. The best part of this story was the side characters. The synopsis presents Blythe as one of the MCs, and I would have loved to read in her perspective and examine more of why she wants to attend MIT. Emma and Kai had great depth too (and would have made excellent main characters in a friends-to-lovers romance novel). Above all, I kind of wish this had been more about Charlie, Maryann, and Mick. I was so moved by their life together and kind of wish I could read their story too. Wow. I think I actually changed my star rating over the course of this review. Reading this, I think I'm going to give Wider Than the Sky 2/5 stars. There are so many better queer books you can read, y'all. This one just wasn't for me, and I'm not recommending it either. Of course, you can go ahead and ignore me. Read what you want, come back and tell me about it! I'm just a girl on the internet. Until next time!
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I can't believe I made y'all wait so long for this! I promised this in my Taylor Swift album analysis post and it took me longer to deliver than I thought. When folklore and evermore came out, I knew I wanted to write full track matches, just like I did for Lover last January. It just takes some time to come up with the matches. Finally, here I am, with another monument to my love for Taylor Swift. Let me know in the comments if you agree! All reviews, if applicable, are linked to the title of the novel if you'd like to hear more about a particular book. the 1
cardigan
the last great american dynasty
exile
my tears ricochet
mirrorball
seven
august
this is me trying
illicit affairs
invisible string
mad woman
epiphany
betty
peace
hoax
the lakes
Honestly, I'm not big on deleted scenes. I prefer canon content, sometimes at the expense of following up with characters I love and want to read more of--I declined to purchase paperback versions of Wicked Saints and Ruthless Gods for example, even though I am FERAL for those characters, because my desire for the pretty hardcovers won out against my desire to read more content. There are other books, such as The Shadowhunter Chronicles, whose universe of extended content is so large and overwhelming that I could never hope to read it all, even if I wanted to. I have to be picky about what content I read there too. However. However. Certain books exist for which I'd love to see more scenes, and I'm here to share those books with you today. Down Comes the Night by Allison SaftThese Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn MuirWicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
Hi all! I'm so lucky to be on the TBR and Beyond tour for Follow Your Arrow by Jessica Verdi--check out the rest of the tour schedule here, and be sure to read my review down below and comment on my book look! Thank you to Scholastic for sending me a copy of the book for my honest review. The Book and its AuthorCeCe Ross is kind of a big deal. She and her girlfriend, Silvie, are social media influencers with zillions of fans and followers, known for their cute outfits and being #relationshipgoals. So when Silvie breaks up with her, CeCe is devastated. She's lost her first love, and now she can't help but wonder if she'll lose her followers as well. Things get even messier when CeCe meets Josh, a new boy in town who is very much Not Online. CeCe isn't surprised to be falling for a guy; she's always known she's bi. And Josh is sweet and smart and has excellent taste in donuts... but he has no idea that CeCe is internet-famous. And CeCe sort of wants to keep it that way. But when CeCe's secrets catch up to her, she finds herself in the middle of an online storm, where she'll have to confront the blurriness of public vs. private life, and figure out what it really means to speak her truth. Jessica Verdi is an author of books for kids and teens about identity, family, acceptance, and love. Though she’s always been a bookworm (her childhood was basically defined by the philosophy that working your way through giant stacks of library books is far superior to playing outside), she remained convinced throughout high school and college that theatre and music were meant to be her creative outlets. After nearly ten years in the NYC theatre world, she got an idea for a novel. While that first attempt at a “book” will never see the light of day—nope, don’t ask—it was the book that started her love affair with writing. Now she can’t imagine doing anything else. Jess received her MFA in Writing for Children from The New School and is a freelance editor of romance and women’s fiction. She lives in New York with her family. Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads ReviewI read Follow Your Arrow literally the afternoon it arrived in my mailbox--I didn't intend to finish it, but I couldn't put it down. So now you know I mean it when I say Follow Your Arrow is unputdownably adorable, a perfect afternoon romance filled with heart. Can I just say how awesome it is that CeCe IDs as bi and it's right there in the synopsis? How freakin cool that we can finally stop begging for scraps of rep and we're coming into a new moment in publishing these past few years. It was so meaningful to me as a reader to see CeCe confront internet biphobia and rejection from the queer community, and come out of it shining. We gotta talk about how bi people are so often cut out from the queer community when not in same-gender relationships. CeCe gets internet vitriol for dating Josh, and has to learn how to deal with not being the darling of the internet like she was when she was dating Silvie. As a bit of an "influencer" myself, it was kind of strange to see that mentality of keeping up an online persona echoed in the book. I'm obviously less famous than CeCe (being that I'm not famous at all) so I can afford to be more real with my readers, but I do get anxious when I haven't posted and I worry about disappointing people, just like she does. I've spent quarantine navigating healthy boundaries with social media, having had to cut it almost entirely out of my personal life in order to use it healthily in my blogger life. Watching CeCe go through a similar process in a realistic way is a highlight of the novel. And of course we have to talk about the love story. I think I say that in every review of a romance because I'm a sucker for love. Josh is positively adorkable--the music nerd who's totally inept at the internet is a surprisingly good match for CeCe. I definitely squealed once or twice while reading, but of course I won't admit that ever again. I think the best romances are when the characters have to put in some work to be together, which happens here. You can imagine what happens when CeCe keeps big secrets from Josh, and they have to find their way back to one another after the deception. This was the most rewarding part of the book to me. My only complaint is that sometime the writing felt a bit plasticky, fake. There's a lot of internet vocabulary that feels a bit overused, and I wish CeCe's narration had more of a natural feel to it. Overall I'm giving Follow Your Arrow 4/5 stars for Kacey Musgraves references along with general excellence. Don't miss out on this awesome new contemporary release! Book Look
Thank you to Algonquin for including me on the blog tour for Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small! This novel recently released in paperback, so go ahead and order it today! The Book and its AuthorWould you die for the Prize? Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained since childhood at the Paris Opera Ballet School, where they’ve forged an inseparable bond through shared stories of family tragedies and a powerful love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves how far they would go for the ultimate prize: to be named the one girl who will join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic will make them shine, too? Would they risk death for it? Neither girl is sure. But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the Prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other. Bright Burning Stars is a stunning, propulsive story about girls at their physical and emotional extremes, the gutting power of first love, and what it means to fight for your dreams. A. K. Small was born in Paris, France. At five years old, she began studying classical dance with the legendary Max Bozzoni, then later with Daniel Franck and Monique Arabian at the famous Académie Chaptal. At thirteen, she moved to the United States, where she danced with the Pacific Northwest Ballet for one summer and with the Richmond Ballet Student Company for several years. She’s a graduate of the College of William and Mary and has an MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing, she spends time with her husband, her puppy, and her three daughters, and practices yoga. Bright Burning Stars is her first novel. ReviewThank you to Algonquin for sharing a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Sharp yet glittering, Bright Burning Stars takes us behind the curtain of a ballet school that demands dangerous excellence from its students. Marine and Kate are competing for the ultimate prize--membership in the Opera's ballet corps. This novel explores friendship, eating disorders, and isolation all in the lovely but bruising world of ballet. I really enjoyed reading from Marine's point of view. She has a complicated relationship with ballet, as it is her main connection to her brother Oli, who passed away before the story, but it is also what brings her to Kate. Marine must figure out what she is hungry for, if not the Prize. Small's prose shows her struggles in bright motion, as the competition begins to unravel what Marine thought was the solid foundation of her world. I appreciated the representation of Marine's mental health and body image struggles against the instructors' criticism. It's not the main concern addressed in the book, but it's definitely a realistic portrayal of depression and anxiety as well, for anyone who's suffered like Marine. I'm not saying Bright Burning Stars is at all a comforting read, but it doesn't varnish over the realities of Marine's life at a tiny, competitive ballet school. Kate, on the other hand, did irritate me a bit. I honestly think she was meant to, which, by all means! Her exclusion from the crowd of wealthy French kids made her all the more desperate, and her decision-making process is definitely flawed, but that just made her all the more interesting to read about. The tension mounted as the showcase approaches, and I honestly couldn't tell who would be awarded the Prize. I'm very satisfied with the ending. At once unexpected and then totally obvious--the very best kind. Following Marine and Kate all the way through to the pinnacle of their schooling through flashbacks and memories makes their competition even more high-stakes for the readers. You don't really want to pick a side, but somehow one of the girls steals your heart and you just root for her all the way through. If you can handle the heavy content, Bright Burning Stars is an excellent novel that explores the cutthroat world of professional ballet. I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in an artistic twist on dark academia. 4/5 stars. Feeling very lucky to be on the blog tour for I Think I Love You on this fine Wednesday! Check out the rest of the tour schedule here, and be sure to find my Instagram post as well. Here's to Emma, Sophia, and their love story. The Book and its AuthorA sweet and funny debut novel about falling for someone when you least expect it . . . and finding out that real life romance is better than anything on screen. Emma is a die-hard romantic. She loves a meet-cute Netflix movie, her pet, Lady Catulet, and dreaming up the Gay Rom Com of her heart for the film festival competition she and her friends are entering. If only they’d listen to her ideas. . . Sophia is pragmatic. She’s big into boycotts, namely 1) relationships, 2) teen boys and their BO (reason #2347683 she’s a lesbian), and 3) Emma’s nauseating ideas. Forget starry-eyed romance, Sophia knows what will win: an artistic film with a message. Cue the drama. The movie is doomed before they even start shooting . . . until a real-life plot twist unfolds behind the camera when Emma and Sophia start seeing each other through a different lens. Suddenly their rivalry is starting to feel like an actual rom-com. Auriane is the author of I Think I Love You, and works as a middle school teacher and freelance editor. She holds an MA in English Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing for Children & Young Adults. She lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Sammy, who is a certified bad boy. Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads ReviewI Think I Love You is a rather saccharine romance, all about the idea of falling in love and the challenges of friendship. Seeing as I'm rather into that... plus... enemies to lovers sapphic romance? Sign me up immediately. The novel is very sweet and character driven, even though there are some ostensibly fleshed out plotlines about the movies Emma and Sophia work to direct, as well as their plots to set up their friends. The care the group shows one another despite Emma and Sophia's bickering became really important to me. They pay so much attention to each others' emotional states and do whatever's necessary to share light in their lives. We love to see a strong friend group! And believe me when I say strong--this lot goes through so much drama in the span of 320 pages. I related mainly to Emma. I'm a romantic at heart, I love rom-coms and the idea of love. I don't say it a lot because publicizing my labels makes me uncomfortable, but I'm also bi like she is. She has a lot of thinking to do about the way her identity fits in with her family, and some of it affected me rather personally. I can vouch for the rep, and I'm so grateful for the increased visibility in traditional publishing. Every year I get more books to add to my queer reads list, and I couldn't be happier. Although I personally empathized more with Emma, Sophia's motivations were more fleshed-out for me. I felt so bad for her because of how lonely she feels after returning from Paris feeling disconnected from the friend group. I don't necessarily agree with her viewpoint on love, but I can certainly understand it as a defensive mechanism against all the broken romances she's seen. It's absolutely tragic to me that she had to feel that way for so long--I felt so sorry for her. Going to get up on a brief soapbox and talk about the movie Emma plans to make during the novel. She's right about 100% of it. We have so little positive wlw representation in Hollywood, and even less of it made by women themselves. I'd totally support her project if it were real, because she's intrepid and authentic and so enthusiastic about showcasing love's possibilities. I'm not much of a movie buff, but that's the kind of film I'd love to see more of. I do feel the obligation to bring up a small problem I had. Throughout the book, the boys of the friend group are... unnecessarily villified, let's say. I understand the importance of showing one-sided friendships and consent, but was uncomfortable with how at every opportunity, the girls saw the possibility of malice in their previously-kind friends. That struck me as odd, especially in the moments when they didn't give any indication of actually being bad friends? I personally don't go looking for hidden signs of misogyny and evil in my male friends, but you do you Emma and Sophia, I guess. This probably isn't the ideal novel for anyone who needs positive roles for men in their literature--I can suggest several of those if you'd like to email me. All minor quibbles aside, I'm delighted to recommend this film-centric contemporary novel for your reading pleasure. 4/5 stars for I Think I Love You. You'll be seeing more of this book, because I won't be able to stop including it on my rec lists! Favorite QuotesBy the Numbers:Books Finished: 18 Pages Read: Books Bought: 7 Books Reviewed: 5 Books Finished:
Books Started/Continued:Books Bought:Somewhat shocked that in such a short month, I was able to improve on my reading stats from January! I read a total of 18 books, but only reviewed 5 of them. In March I'm hoping to both read and review more! Looking forward to ordering more of my 2021 anticipated reads as well--there are a lot of April preorders I'm craving.
Thank you to TBR and Beyond for including me on this tour! Find the rest of the tour schedule here, and check back during the week to see everyone's amazing posts. The Book and its AuthorWhen Moira Dreyfuss’s parents announce that they’re sending her to an all-girls boarding school deep in the Maine woods, Moira isn’t fooled. She knows her parents are punishing her; she’s been too much trouble since her best friend, Nathan, died―and for a while before that. At the Castle School, isolated from the rest of the world, Moira will be expected to pour her heart out to the odd headmaster, Dr. Prince. But she isn’t interested in getting over Nathan’s death or befriending her fellow students. On her first night there, Moira hears distant music. On her second, she discovers the lock on her window is broken. On her third, she and her roommate venture outside…and learn that they’re not so isolated after all. There’s another, very different, Castle School nearby―this one filled with boys whose parents sent them away, too. Moira is convinced that the Castle Schools and the doctors who run them are hiding something. But exploring the schools will force Moira to confront her overwhelming grief―and the real reasons her parents sent her away. Alyssa was born in Stanford, California, and even though she moved across the country to New York when she was six years old, she still thinks of herself as a California girl. She still remembers the very first chapter book she ever read--The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo, by Judy Blume. Before long, reading was her favorite thing in the world. She loved it so much that when there was nothing to read, she wrote my own stories just to give herself something to read. And when there was no pen and paper to be had, she just made up stories in her head. Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads ReviewSo. First things first. This read isn't dark academia like I thought it was, but ended up being a personal contemporary story about mental illness, grief, and the meaning of friendship. Moira is sent to The Castle School after the death of her best friend Nathan. She's not sure why she's there, but hypothesizes that she's a disappointment to her parents and this is a punishment. Of course, she's in for more than just the basic boarding school experience, being only one of twelve girls at the school and discovering that the campus has a twin. I enjoyed Moira as a protagonist. She can be headstrong but cautious, and tries to do right by the other girls in the castle even though she perceives herself as different from them. Her "issues" aren't so visible as theirs, after all. Her grief over missing Nathan is so easy to empathize with even though I'm sure few people have experienced a bond as strong as theirs. It was an honor to see her grow and change during the story, especially as she learns she can care for other friends and they won't replace Nathan in her heart. The side characters are all very well-developed, most of all Moira's roommate Eleanor. The girls spend almost every moment together, so there were many opportunities to show their personalities beside the interstitial backstory chapters. I think my favorite character was Eleanor aside from Moira, simply because she had the most depth. There's also a small romance element that I found cute, if a little odd! Moira and her eventual love interest definitely fit together well, though, and I totally understood by the end of the novel. This story is about how perception isn't always accurate, and I found that true to my reading experience. Once I stopped judging the book against what I thought it should be, I enjoyed myself so much more. That's why I'd recommend this as an escapist weekend novel, or something to take with you on vacation. One issue I wish had been handled better is the parents. The book kind of sends the message that all parents are well-intentioned and they've sent their kids because they want the best for them. I believe the fact that kids with mental health challenges deserve to receive help can coexist with the fact that some of their parents may not want the best for them and may end up harming the kids by sending them away. We should honor that story as well, because there are all types of parents out there just as there are all types of kids. The Castle School (for Troubled Girls) does so much to show the girls' wellbeing on a scale, so I just wanted the book to back that up by understanding that not everyone has the same parental experience. I'm giving The Castle School (for Troubled Girls) 4/5 stars. Thank you again to Sourcebooks and TBR and Beyond Tours for sharing a copy with me. Book Look
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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