Book Review: Hold Me Closer by David Levithan

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Hold Me Closer
The Tiny Cooper Story
Will Grayson, Will Grayson Companion novel
Author: David Levithan
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Contemporary | LGBT | Music
Released: March 17th 2015
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Watch out, ex-boyfriends, and get out of the way, homophobic coaches. Tiny Cooper has something to say—and he’s going to say it in song.
Filled with honesty, humor, and “big, lively, belty” musical numbers, Hold Me Closer is the no-holds-barred (and many-bars-held) entirety of the beloved musical first introduced in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, the award-winning bestseller by John Green and David Levithan.

Tiny Cooper is finally taking center stage . . . and the world will never be the same again.

This book follows the story of Tiny Cooper - who was first introduced to the world in the book "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" written by Levithan and John Green (I believe I wrote a review on this one too). However, reading that is not necessarily a prerequisite to this one. It may give you some clarity on certain characters or context towards the end, but totally not necessary. 

My rating on this story is completely subjective. Let me explain; this book was written as if it were a script for a musical play, a topic I'm not very informed in. With that being said, the story, at its core, was still very enjoyable because it had some personal anecdotes. 

Tiny is a big person with an even bigger personality. This musical is written in his point of view and covers everything from early childhood, to friendships, to relationships, to self-discovery, to finally coming to being O.K. with who he is. If you are an avid YA reader and are a musical theater buff, this book may just be right up your alley. The stories are heartfelt and the humor is relatable.

Book Review: Life Just Got Real by Sadie Robertson

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Life Just Got Real
Author: Sadie Robertson
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Contemporary | Realistic Fiction
Released: June 7th 2016
Review Source: Howard Books

From Dancing with the Stars runner-up and Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson comes a fun novel about two teenage girls from different backgrounds and opposite lifestyles who discover there is more to friendship than meets the eye.

Sixteen-year-old A.J. Smith, born and raised in backwoods Tennessee, loves nothing more than repairing broken cars with her father and hanging out with her brothers and their friends. Not far away in the busy city of Nashville, Kate Kelly is always dressed in the latest fashion, wearing clothes from her mother’s boutique and jetting around the world with her father.

When A.J. starts going to the school Kate attends, they instantly dislike each other. But as the year progresses, Kate’s brother Val is drawn to A.J., and when prom comes around, he asks her to be his date—much to his sister’s displeasure. But Kate has bigger things to think about, including the reality show Real Life. Everyone says the show is her chance to make it big. But then the producers decide to bring A.J. into the show.

As the producers of Real Life try to stir up the drama, Kate’s idea of the perfect prom spins out of control. When Kate’s life goes disastrously wrong, it is A.J. who steps up to help—no questions asked. A friendship between the two girls just might grow—but only if they both live original and stay true to whom God made them to be.

In Life Just Got Real Sadie Robertson inspires teens to find the value God has placed inside us all and to live with confidence and purpose in a very complicated world.

This book follows the stories of AJ and Katie. Both juniors in High school not realizing how close their opposite lives are about to get.

Katie is the daughter of a big-time businessman and a successful boutique owning mother. She’s polished, academically accomplished, and heavily involved in school. She’s had what most people would describe as an easy life, though she puts a lot of stress on herself. Contrasting that, we have AJ. Originally from Louisiana, AJ has grown up covered in car grease from her late father’s mechanics shop and being one of the guys being raised alongside two older brothers.

After her father’s death, AJ, her mother, and brothers move to Tennessee. This is where she meets Katie. At this same time, Katie’s father is sealing a deal with a company to film a reality show in her high school.

Through AJ’s differing character, her blossoming relationship with Katie’s brother, and the new perspective she adds to the community, she is cast to be a member of the reality show. However, this was not without a battle.

It was nice to read about AJ’s romantic relationship with Katie’s brother and how she was so aware of herself and her emotions throughout. It was also interesting to see just how vastly she differed from Katie. This book was set up so each chapter was from the point of view of either Katie or AJ so the reader could get first person dialogue from the main characters.

The book was an easy read, the storyline was just a little young for me. I would recommend this book to a young girl between 11 and 13 years old. The conversations being held and the overall plot wasn’t anything necessarily new or reinvented.

Blog Tour: Beast by Brie Spangler + Pre-Order Campaign

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Beast
Author: Brie Spangler
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Humorous | GLBT | Contemporary
Release Date: October 11, 2016
Review Source: Random House Children's Books

BEAST is a witty, wise, and heart-wrenching novel that will appeal to fans of books by Rainbow Rowell and David Levithan.

Tall, meaty, muscle-bound, and hairier than most throw rugs, Dylan doesn't look like your average fifteen-year-old. Naturally, high school has not been kind to him. To make matters worse, on the day his school bans hats (his chosen camouflage), Dylan goes up on his roof, only to fall and wake up in the hospital with a broken leg, sentenced to group therapy for self-harmers.

Dylan vows to say nothing and zones out at group. That is until he meets Jamie. She's funny, smart, and so stunning, even his womanizing best friend JP would be jealous. She's also the first person to ever call Dylan out on his self-pitying and superficiality. As Jamie's humanity and wisdom begin to rub off on Dylan, they become more than just friends. But, there is something Dylan doesn't know about Jamie, something she shared with group the day he wasn't listening, something that shouldn't change a thing. She is who she's always been--an amazing photographer and devoted friend, who also happens to be transgender. But, will Dylan see it that way?

BEAST has been hailed by Kirkus as “a believable and beautiful human story.”

Beast follows the story of 15 year-old Dylan. He’s over 6 foot 5 inches, extremely hairy, and overall intimidating to look at. He’s had a lifelong struggle with his confidence and finding a girl who thinks he’s remotely attractive. Although, he has been able to avoid the bullying scene for the most part thanks to his popular best friend since early childhood, along with his genius. That, and his worrisome mother who spends her days reassuring him of his wonderfulness.

Pretty early in on his story, Dylan experiences a leg injury. Through discussion, he can’t discern if the injury was really an accident or self-perpetrated. He gets put into a therapy group for self-harmers. Only promises himself one session because he refuses to believe therapy may be something he actually needs. Through this session, he meets Jamie. A girl he can’t seem to wrap his mind around. He is completely enthralled. However, he learns some revolutionary news that may just change his whole outlook on her and his feelings toward her. I’m trying to avoid spoilers!

Overall, their relationship has many ups and downs and I had to remind myself these characters are only sophomores in high school. For the character’s age ranges, they are discussing very relevant, complex, and mature material. It’s is definitely interesting to read and try to understand Dylan’s inner dialogue.

Other conflicts in the book include Dylan’s relationship with his very much dead father, his closeness to his mother, and the realization that his friendship with JP may not be what he always thought it to be. There are different plots and relationships to follow and I feel there can be a situation for everyone to relate to.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly. However, Jamie and Dylan’s storyline had a lot of push-and-pull involved that could come to be a little exhausting at times. And Dylan could be hard character to love. As a reader, you are able to get a grip on each one of the characters and their personality so it does become hard to not love them and be empathetic for their struggle.

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About the author:

After graduating from RISD, I was fortunate to work as a freelance illustrator for several years and built up a great client list. Grosset & Dunlap, Crayola, Stride Rite, Yearling, Dole and several others were wonderful to work with, but working with Knopf was truly awesome because it led to the publication of my two picture books, Peg Leg Peke and The Grumpy Dump Truck. I'm very proud of those two books.

Since taking time off to begin a family, I'm excited to be back in the field and ready to make new work. Represented by Mackenzie Brady of New Leaf Literary.

BEAST pre-order campaign is still GO! Send proof of purchase screenshot & enter to win cool prizes like a drawing of Dylan & Jamie from me! pic.twitter.com/aGTMJvKUKn

— Brie Spangler (@BrieSpangler) October 5, 2016

Book Review: Don't You Trust Me? by Patrice Kindl

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Don't You Trust Me?
Author: Patrice Kindl
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Realistic Fiction | Thriller | Suspense
Released: August 30th 2016
Review Source: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

A teenage girl switches identities with a stranger and pulls off a long-term scam in this smart, sarcastic thriller perfect for fans of Ally Carter.

Don’t you trust me? I mean, look at me. Blond, blue-eyed, the very image of innocence. Pretty enough, if you care about that kind of thing. I don’t.

But would a normal person switch identities with some wet mess of a girl at the airport, just to get her to stop bawling about being separated from her loser boyfriend and sent to live with some distant relatives? Nope, she wouldn’t. Yet I did. I’m not as normal as you think. And you’ll just have to trust me on that.

Don’t You Trust Me? Follows the story of Morgan - a young girl who learned she was part of a group named the fay. A specific set of traits or other fay characters weren’t offered. From what I was able to gather, the fay consisted of an elite group of people only identified by others of their kind who posses a lack of empathy, guilt, and fear. Some may argue the fay may just be sociopaths.

Either way, these abilities Morgan possessed always got her into some sort of trouble growing up. Stuff like stealing phones, lying whenever she felt convenient, and not being able to relate to other people like normal. When she reached high school, her parents decided the best thing may be to send her off to a boarding school in hopes that a change of environment would help her situation.

At the airport, Morgan meets Janelle. A girl sitting in a chair crying to herself. She was leaving sunny LA to go to New York to live with her aunt and uncle because her parents want her away from her boyfriend.

Morgan saw this as an opportunity to avoid boarding school altogether. Luckily, her and Janelle were vaguely similar in appearance and Janelle’s family hadn’t seen her in at least 10 years. Morgan convinced Janelle to switch clothes and luggage so Janelle could be romantically reunited with her boyfriend and Morgan could run off to upstate New York and figure it out from there. Morgan decided to ride it out with Janelle’s family while holding up Janelle’s identity all along. After all, Janelle’s family had money that wouldn’t be too difficult for Morgan to get her hands on.

Morgan makes friends, organizes charity events (really only for her benefit), starts after school activities, and has her new found aunt and uncle wrapped around her finger. That is until Janelle calls one day, not expecting Morgan to answer, so Morgan pretends to be her cousin. Janelle is weeping about her abandonment from her boyfriend and how her parents aren’t answering her calls.

Morgan decides it’s time to make a hasty, yet clean exit. This digs her deeper into her own web of lies. She starts taking larger sums of cash and her lies are starting to get suspected. Though she doesn’t get made out ‘til the very end with an unwinding of her series of events.

There is no love interest, friend rivalry, witty sidekick, or dramatic climax. It’s the story of an arguably sociopathic girl who pushes herself to the limits of her own ability and gets caught when even she can’t keep up anymore. It was an OK read. It took me a while to get through it because, frankly, it couldn’t keep my attention for long. Morgan wasn’t a likable character and the secondary characters weren’t quite dazzling either. It was just alright, and I’ve read better.

Book Review: Be Good Be Real Be Crazy by Chelsey Philpot

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Be Good Be Real Be Crazy
Author: Chelsey Philpot
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genes: Contemporary | Romance
Release Date: October 11th 2016
Review Source: HarperTeen

Three teenagers. One road trip. Countless detours. From the author of Even in Paradise comes a story about love, friendship, and finding yourself that is perfect for fans of Paper Towns and Mosquitoland.

When Mia first waltzed into Homer’s small corner of Florida, she changed Homer’s entire world. It wasn’t long before he was hopelessly in love. But now Mia is moving away—and Homer and his younger brother, Einstein, are helping her drive hundreds of miles to her new home.

This might be Homer’s last chance to tell Mia how he really feels. And with so many detours in front of them, anything could happen.

 

This book is the story of a good, wholesome boy who falls in love with a mysterious whirlwind of a girl. Homer and his brother Einstein are living in South Florida with their adoptive dads who run a souvenir shop. One day, Mia walks in with all her charm and gets hired. Homer, a recent high school graduate himself, finds himself falling in love with an 18 year-old pregnant girl, whom his parents adore. Her pregnancy, however, is not a major factor of the overall story, of course it is mentioned frequently, but it doesn’t hinder her character.

The plot of the story thickens when Mia’s houseboat burns down and she decides to decline Homer’s dads’ offers to live with them and find where one of her foster sisters lives across the country and make the road trip herself. Homer and his brother offer to go with her, and the trip begins.

Along the way, these young people face plenty of detours and meet many new characters. One thing I enjoyed throughout this book that this author did, is that every chapter after a new character was introduced she would have a short “parable” about them to explain their background. Which, I felt, made the story a bit more personal.

Eventually, after many events, Mia ends up stealing the vehicle, Einstein gets a broken wrist, and a “bad boy” rock star helps the brothers and a friend made along the way get to a convention, which was one of Einstein’s conditions for joining the road trip in the first place. Mia shows up once more and conflicts are resolved.

I enjoyed the book, it wasn’t at all a bad read - it just didn’t have that umph. I felt a little complacent at times while reading it and I wasn’t rushing to pick it up every time I had put it down.

However, I did my best to not spoil any big events from the plot with too many details, so if you would like to know more, it’s worth giving the book a chance. SaveSave

Book Review: All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

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All My Friends Are Superheroes
Author: Andrew Kaufman
Reading Level: Adult Fiction
Genres: Fantasy | Humorous
Released: May 7th 2013 (Tenth Anniversary Edition) - October 19th 1999 (first edition)
Review Source: Purchased

All Tom's friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding, Perf is hypnotized by her ex-boyfriend, Hypno, to believe Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, the Perfectionist is sure Tom has abandoned her, so she's moving away. With no idea Tom's beside her, she boards a plane. Tom has until they land to make her see him.

This tenth anniversary edition adds short stories, illustrations, and a foreword to the cult classic that has been a bestseller in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden.

Andrew Kaufman is the author of The Waterproof Bible and The Tiny Wife.

I came across this book because I was hearing plenty of buzz about it on the Internet in the months before my purchase of it. This buzz was mainly from the YouTube personality Carrie Hope Fletcher, who is very open about her book worm traits, so I trusted her reviews and set out to buy and read the book myself. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a long read at all, I believe the whole book, including acknowledgements and about the author, was about 145 pages - so I started and finished the book within a few hours.

This accomplishment was, in part, due to the author’s style of writing. Kaufman, in this book at least, writes in concise, simple sentences. He gets the point across quickly and efficiently. Also, he wrote in the third person point of view, which I have mentioned in other book reviews that I don’t necessarily enjoy, but I believe that because of his short sentences that I didn’t even notice this until the fifth chapter.

Now onto the actual story line. The main character goes by the name of Tom. He is a young man living in Ontario, Canada and, as the title very clearly states, all his friends are superheroes. However, don’t read this book expecting Spider-man or Wonder Woman and action-packed scenes. These superheroes seem to be embodiments of human quirks. Tom’s wife is an example. Her name is The Perfectionist, and that is all she is as a superhero - a perfectionist. Her superpower is to organize and perfect things with just a thought or wave of a hand.

The plot goes as follows: Tom and Perf, as her friends call her, are at their wedding reception with all of their super friends, including Perf’s ex-boyfriend, Hypno. His superpower is to hypnotize people. While a commotion was happening, he hypnotized Perf into believing Tom was invisible. Here’s the catch - Tom was perfectly visible to everyone else in the world except his wife for all of six months. While Kaufman walks his readers through these six months, you are introduced to many other heroes and maybe villains, depending on how loosely we’re using the word.

At the end, boy gets girl back. How? You’ll have to read the book yourself. I’m reviewing, not spoiling! Anyhow, I had fun reading the book. There may have been some other elaborate philosophical meaning that may have gone completely over my head, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I wish I had more details about how Tom interacted with the rest of the world despite the situation between him and his wife and how the heroes interacted as well. There’s small anecdotes, but I found myself craving more.

Book Review: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

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We All Looked Up
Author: Tommy Wallach
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Science Fiction | Contemporary
Released: March 24th 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
 

Four high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in this contemporary novel.

They always say that high school is the best time of your life.

Peter, the star basketball player at his school, is worried “they” might actually be right. Meanwhile Eliza can’t wait to escape Seattle—and her reputation—and perfect-on-paper Anita wonders if admission to Princeton is worth the price of abandoning her real dreams. Andy, for his part, doesn’t understand all the fuss about college and career—the future can wait.

Or can it? Because it turns out the future is hurtling through space with the potential to wipe out life on Earth. As these four seniors—along with the rest of the planet—wait to see what damage an asteroid will cause, they must abandon all thoughts of the future and decide how they’re going to spend what remains of the present.

For starters, I had really high hopes for this book. The cover seemed to be in line with something up my alley, and the synopsis was very interesting.

This book was written in 3rd person point-of-view and it followed the stories of 4 teens in the face of an impending asteroid. Intense, I know. At the beginning, these people had very loose connections to each other. As it progresses and emotions run high, it becomes clear why these 4 characters' lives would eventually cross. I am usually not one for 3rd person writing, but I see why it makes so much sense in this story.

This book gives a realistic insight, I think, into the reactions of these 4 types of people, and their friend groups, in a situation like this.

There's lots of history, drama, love, and caring within all of these characters. Which only gives the book that much more depth.

In the end, though, I struggled to maintain interest for a consistent period of time. It may have been the amount of action going on, or the fact that this theme at this scale is something new to me.

Either way, it was a good book.

Check out Shannon & Yara's We All Looked Up review

Book Review: Hollywood Witch Hunter by Valerie Tejeda

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Hollywood Witch Hunter
Author: Valerie Tejeda
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Paranormal | Fantasy
Release Date: July 20th 2015
Review Source: Author

Hunters are not made. They are born.

From the moment she first learned the truth about witches … she knew she was born to fight them.

Now, at sixteen, Iris is the lone girl on the Witch Hunters Special Ops Team.

But when Iris meets a boy named Arlo, he might just be the key to preventing an evil uprising in Southern California.

Together they're ready to protect the human race at all costs. Because that's what witch hunters do.

Welcome to Hollywood.

Entertainment journalist and author Valerie Tejeda spends her days reporting on books, television and all things pertaining to pop culture and spends her nights writing novels for teens. Her stories have appeared on a variety of different publications, including: Vanity Fair, MTV, The Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, Latina, Yahoo! Shine, Cosmopolitan, and more.

Valerie holds a bachelor of arts in psychology and is currently based in California with her husband, journalist Brent McCluskey, where she reads loads of books, binge-watches Netflix and drinks tons of coffee. Hollywood Witch Hunter is her YA debut.

Beginning at the prologue, I had felt as if I had stepped into a bad, early 90s, original Disney Channel movie that had been released during Halloween. The prologue gives you the conflict upfront by saying that there is a witch named Belinda in Hollywood who is bitter and selfish, so she takes the lives of young, stuck-up girls to keep herself beautiful. Then she placed a curse on all witches in Hollywood so they would do the same. Because of this, there are people called Hunters that are only called so because they carry the gene.

See, typically, only men carry this gene, but Iris is now the only female known to carry it as well. So, throughout the story, you see Iris's struggle to prove herself among a world run by men.

Eventually there is a love interest, two actually, and some big secrets revealed about Iris's father, who happens to be in a high position of authority, and both said love interests.

The story progresses nicely, and there isn't anything too out of plot. There wasn't too much vocabulary to learn, either - 'cause when it comes to supernaturally themed books, there tends to be a whole new language that comes with it. It was easy to pick up and read through quickly.

I would probably recommend this book to a mature 12 year old. Mature only because there is little use of explicit language and situations. For me, though, as a 16 year old, this book seemed a bit elementary. It was a nice story to jump into, though.