Much Ado About You by Samantha Young Review

 

* This review is spoiler-free *

4.5/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ Strangers to lovers

➮ Banter

➮ International romance

➮ Nearly instalove

Synopsis

Evangeline decides to take a trip to get away from her chaotic life in Chicago. She finds herself in a small English village temporarily in charge of a small bookshop called Much Ado About Books. While working there she meets the charismatic farmer Roane and they quickly develop flirty banter. As Evangeline adjusts to a major life shift she finds herself falling more in love with life there as she gets to know the people of the town.  

Best Quote From the Book

“Such benign little words - 'what if.' But at some point in life, those two words become the scariest two words in the English language."

My Thoughts

Like other books from Samantha Young, the romance and banter elements of this book are top-tier! Young excels at creating characters that play excellently off of each other and feel very natural. Unlike many love stories, the quick attraction between Evangeline and Roane makes sense and doesn't feel forced. I appreciate that while the story is about them, there are other noteworthy characters that play a role in Evangeline's development. 

I will always be a sucker for a book that really brings you into the world of the characters as if you are living it along with them without providing too much detail that it becomes cluttered. Her writing style is witty yet comfortable which makes the story even more enjoyable. 

Do keep in mind that there are some brief spicy scenes in this book. They were not overbearing and did not feel like a fanservice plotline. The romance and other relationships in the book are much more the focus. 

Overall, I can say that this book confidently pushed Samantha Young into my list of favorite authors. Nobody does banter and realistic relationships like she does. I can highly recommend her books for fans of romance. 

The Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown Review

* This review is spoiler-free *

3/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ Best friends to lovers

➮ Queer bipoc disabled MC

➮ Summertime

➮ Lesbian relationship

Synopsis

Andrea is a teenager dealing with cerebral palsy, coming to terms with her LGBTQ+ identity, and realizing she has feelings for her best friend. Andrea and her best friend Hailee are hoping to cross off everything on their Best Summer Ever list. As Andrea navigates summertime adventures with her ever-growing feelings, she struggles to maintain balance.

LGBTQ+ Representation

5/5 🌈

This is by far the best LGBTQ+ representation among the books I have read this year. The main character Andrea identifies as bisexual. Her crush Hailee identifies as lesbian. Both of them go through the process of coming out and coming to terms with how their lives will change because of coming out. In addition, another one of Andrea's friends is a trans guy and serves as an example of someone out and proud. If I remember correctly, there is also an additional friend of Andrea's who has lesbian parents. I highly appreciate the varied representation this story provides. It does well at portraying the fears young people experience when they are discovering their sexuality. I do wish there was at least a little representation of people whose coming out stories are not perfect. 

My Thoughts

I listened to this book as an audiobook and admittedly, that may have diminished my experience. Personally, I found the voice used for Hailee to be quite grating and honestly sound like Hailee has been a long-time chain smoker despite being in high school. It really diminished from my ability to relax and take in the story because I was so distracted by her voice. 

Other than that, I find the drama and conflict to be very middle school and immature. Instead of a story about high schoolers, it feels like rising seventh graders. Instead of having the mind to talk things out or at least use the resources they have, it is just a lot of back and forth. 

I feel a bit bad given this is my first rather harsh review of a book. I wish I enjoyed the experience much more than I actually enjoyed it. This book got as high of a review as it got because I do not like to tank reviews for books with excellent representation if it was simply not my favorite. If not for the representation this would easily be a 2.5 stars. If the story were more unique and realistic for the target audience it would've been a much better reading experience. 

If you can get past the immature-feeling drama and overall juvenile feel, I recommend supporting a queer bipoc author who provides excellent representation. I admire Brown's accomplishment of getting more inclusive stories out into the world. I would consider this book better suited to a middle-grade audience than a young adult audience.

I Didn't Do It by Jaime Lynn Hendricks Review

 

* This review is spoiler-free *

4/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ Thriller

➮ General fiction

➮ Book about books

➮ Multiple povs

➮ Suspense

Synopsis

This book is set at a thriller writer convention, Murderpalooza. At this convention, thriller writers come together for book signings. panels, and a final award ceremony at the end of the convention. On the first day of the convention, Kristin Bailey, one of the famous authors at the convention, is reported dead. This story follows the various perspectives of people who all have the motive to be her killer. Each of these people is being threatened by an anonymous Twitter account determined to make them all spill their secrets. An unlikely quartet is formed in the process.

Best Quote From the Book

“This is what we do for a living. We take something horrible happening to someone normal and create a dense backstory rife with mystery. As readers, we pick apart every breadcrumb left by the author; and nine times out of ten, we figure out the ending."

My Thoughts

A murder at a thriller author convention, there truly cannot be a more perfect setting. With so many tantalizing suspects, there are many backstories to uncover. Getting to see the perspectives of each of these suspects provides a lot to chew on as a reader. All of the characters have their dirty laundry at risk of becoming part of the limelight. Four different forms of desperation and deception keep the story engaging.

I am personally always a fan of books where writers become the subject of the story. There are often a lot of interesting perspectives on the writing process and insights about how being an author is more than just typing out a story and helping choose a good-looking cover. Going in-depth on the perspectives and lives of four very different authors who all have connections to thriller writing and Kristin provided that behind-the-scenes look I appreciate.

I listened to the audiobook of this story which I think was both a benefit and a deficit. In audiobook format, there is a nice flowing narrative and the ability to hear the emotions of the characters as they happen. The problem is that not all of the characters had separate narrators. At the beginning that made it quite challenging to differentiate between the characters and who had what connection to Kristin. With so many moving parts to keep track of, different voices for all of the main four would've helped a lot in my initial understanding. It was to the point I almost felt the need to take notes to be able to keep up with who was who. 

The other thing that kept this from being rated higher was that all of the twists were isolated to the last 10% of the book. Generally, as a reader, I like to at least have a few twists throughout the story to help keep me on my toes. Instead, Hendricks keeps most of the story a flowing narrative where we find out more but none of it is much of a shock. At the last part of the book, it is like a Scooby Doo all-is-revealed ending. Suddenly many twists come to light, some making more sense than others. 

Overall, I would recommend this book to those who are fans of thrillers and like to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes of being an author. Just maybe keep a notepad by your side when you read or listen to help you not get confused like I did. 

Another Day by David Leviathan Review

* This review is spoiler-free *

3.25/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ LGBTQ+ rep

➮ Body switching

➮ Strangers to lovers

➮ Magical realism

Synopsis

Another Day by David Levithan is a spinoff of his book Every Day. This story follows Rhiannon's perspective. Rhiannon is a high school student who meets A. A is a person who switches bodies every single day. Rhiannon has to learn to come to terms with navigating a relationship with someone who lacks consistency while also trying to balance her own life. 

Best Quote From the Book

“How much of my body is really me? My face is me, for sure. Anyone who looked at my face would know it was me. Even with my hair wet and drawn back, it's me. But after that? If I showed myself a picture of myself from the shoulders down, would I be sure it was me? Could I identify myself that way? I close my eyes and ask myself what my feet look like. I only kind of know. Same with my hands. I have no idea what my back looks like. I let it define me, but I can't even define it.”

LGBTQ+ Representation

2.5/5 🌈

For every book with LGBTQ+ representation, I want to have a section reviewing what the representation is, how well it is done, and how impactful it is to the story as a whole. In the case of Another Day, there is LGBTQ+ representation in three places. The people that A takes over for a day are sometimes trans, lesbian, gay, etc. For A, this is portrayed as completely normal. Rhiannon seems completely fine with different sexualities but has a much more difficult time with varying gender identities. One of Rhiannon's best friends is a gay guy who thankfully is not overly stereotyped. The final and most prominent form of LGBTQ+ representation is A's inherent gender fluidity. Never having a solid identity of their own, A sees themself as agender, or genderfluid. Taking on the pronouns and identities of whoever they inhabit. This concept is one of the biggest things that Rhiannon must approach, as she has moments of questioning her own straight identity.  

My Thoughts

As you can see, I did not rate this book particularly highly. I was honestly surprised and disappointed that I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as other books by David Levithan. In fact, he is on my favorite author list after all. Sadly, this book just wasn't it for me.

I initially read the original perspective for a class I was in. The concept of the story about living a very inconsistent and at times unfulfilling life made for a lot of incredibly insightful discussion. We particularly focused on how the concept of tomorrow shifted throughout the story. It taught me to remember to be thankful for all of the tomorrows I get. Even if I have a not-so-great day, I at least have the privilege of getting to create lasting and meaningful relationships with others. A does not have the privilege. Seeing how they navigate a life with no tomorrows makes that book a worthwhile read.

My main complaint about Another Day was that Rhiannon became very intolerable in the last fifth of the book. A once morally grey character suddenly shifts to be transphobic, fatphobic, etc. I cannot tolerate sitting and watching a character become so awful for absolutely no reason. I would've appreciated if there was a greater push for Rhiannon to shift her thinking as such or to not include that dynamic at all. That said, I would highly recommend the original perspective in Every Day. It is much more insightful for the concept of switching bodies each day because it is from A's perspective. It also answers a few more of the questions raised about how A gets by living a life (or many lives) like that.

The part of the book that I enjoy the most is Levithan's thoughtful words that convey teenage human emotion almost perfectly. There were many moments when I thought how real the writing felt. I truly felt as though we were in Rhiannon's head experiencing the world as she sees it. During these sections, I was reminded why I like Levithan's writing so much. Nobody else has the ability to make you think while not accidentally aging the characters too much or droning on for a bit too long. 

Overall I would highly recommend reading Every Day much more than Another Day. If you are a particular fan of Levithan, this book could be worth reading but otherwise, I consider it to be skippable. I look forward to diving into more of his books that have even more LGBTQ+ representation than this book.

My Favorite Authors

My Favorite Authors

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Inheritance Games series

The Naturals series

The Fixer novels

Debutantes series

Nobody

The Lovely and the Lost

David Levithan

Every Day Series

Boy Meets Boy

19 Love Songs

Nock and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Benjamin Alire Sáenz 

Aristotle and Dante series

Adam Silvera

What If It's Us Series

History is All You Left Me

Death-Cast Series

Becky Albertalli

What If It's Us Series

Yes No Maybe So

Samantha Young

Fight or Flight

A Cosmic Kind of Love

Much Ado About You

Erin FitzGerald

Something Lost

Something Broken

Evie Sterling

The Anatomy of Matchmaking

Digging Up Love with the Sheriff

Game, Set, Matchmaker

So Not My Mr. Wright