Transitive Verve

This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: ** (It was okay) Audrey comes from a poor family in a poor neighborhood, and she is extra-dedicated to academics because that is her only ticket out of her life after high school. Scarlett West is beautiful and wealthy, and needs help bringing up her grades. Despite some past drama between the two, Audrey agrees to help her, and against her better judgment, she finds herself more and more preoccupied with thoughts of Scarlett. Despite their different backgrounds, there is an undeniable attraction between the two, and both girls find themselves conflicted about whether or not to pursue a relationship with each other. Meanwhile, Audrey is also preoccupied with her mysterious new neighbor whom she is convinced might be a serial killer. Again, against her better judgment, she keeps formulating plans to find out who he is. Mild spoilers below

This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: * (I didn't like it) I was a huge fan of Saved by the Bell  when I was a kid, and I watched it religiously, like many others my age. I thought Zack was so handsome, and Jessie was so smart, and Lisa was so cool. Even though I have a different perspective on the show now that I'm older (and I'm also a high school teacher), I still have soft spot for it in my heart. So when I saw this modernization of SBTB in comic form, it really piqued my curiosity. How would  our favorite Bayside High supergroup fare in the 21st century? How would things be different? Would Jessie be an advocate for more social issues than just her stereotypical brand of feminism? Would Lisa have a fashion blog? Would a nerd like Screech be actually... COOL? Well... this book offered some  answers, though they weren't as satisfying as I had hoped. In fact, I only got through 50% of

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any graphic sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors.  This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) This is the third book of Wolff's Extreme Risk  series, about a group of professional snowboarders who are best friends. However, each one works well enough as a standalone novel as well (which is how it usually goes with romance series). Luc and Cam have been best friends since they were four. Cam is beautiful, badass, and well on her way to becoming one of the top female snowboarders in the nation. Luc has never been as acclaimed as the other guys in their group of friends (or even as much as Cam), so he's got a bit of an inferiority complex, probably made worse by his upbringing. They have always had each other to rely on, through thick

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any graphic sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors.  This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: ** (It was okay) At 18, Jackson had it pretty bad. His mother never really wanted him anyway and never bothered hiding that from him. Her latest husband, Walter Hastings, is the biggest rich-guy bully ever. The only person who seemed to care about him was his step-sister, the beautiful, sweet Lily. Seven years later, Jackson is back in town, after a kiss with Lily that had his step-father send him packing. Jackson is home after getting wounded in battle, and life has changed him - but the one thing that hasn't changed is his feelings for Lily, who wrote to him every week while he was gone. Lily has problems of her own - having been a Good Girl all her life, s

Cassie Clare and Holly Black were at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park tonight to talk about their Magisterium series (which I hadn't even heard about, until I heard about this event). The second book just came out, so they were on hand to tell us about the process of co-writing, writing for middle readers (that's the group just younger than YAF, for those of you who don't know), and just anything we wanted to ask. And also to sign books! My dreadful admission is that I've had Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest  on my shelf for quite some time, and I still haven't gotten to it, but now having met her, I think I'm going to have to bump that one to the top of my list, as well as her previous books. Her books sound right up my alley. Both of them were really nice and really funny, and THEY BOTH COMPLIMENTED MY HAIR. (Yessss.) During the Q&A portion, I asked them how they go about researching things like mythology and folklore for their boo

Thanks to First to Read , I was able to get my hands on the first three chapters of Richelle Mead's new standalone novel, Soundless , which drops on November 10th. (I wasn't able to request the full ARC.) The official blurb is as follows: For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining. Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom. When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry. Fei’s home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation. But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon. I was really hooked in by what I've read so far, and I cannot WAIT to read the rest of it. And yes, I've already pre-ordered it :)

Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) This is book 4 of the Throne of Glass series, so my post assumes that you've read the first three, as well as the novella collection Assassin's Blade . To read all my Sarah J. Maas reviews, click here . This review contains spoilers for all the previous books as well as this one. Previously on Adventures of a Badass Female Assassin... Aelin Galathynius has come home at last. Well, sort of - the long-lost queen of Terrasen has some business to take care of before she can truly return home: she needs to find the third Wyrdkey, which happens to be in the possession of her former master, Arobynn Hamel; she needs to avenge the wrongs committed against her by Arobynn; she needs to rescue her cousin, Aedion Ashryver; she needs to destroy the disgusting Valgs, which are growing in numbers; and she needs to kill the King of Adarlan. Oh, and magic is still being suppressed on the continent, so she needs to find a way to bring back ma

     There’s a big variety of movies, but they do have one thing in common: all of these movies are not about whiteness. They are not about white people. They are not about the experience of being white and they are not historical dramas that are just about white people. They’re not about whiteness. They are about really universal and very human themes. They’re about love and they’re about loss. For example, “The Fault in Our Stars” is an incredible book. I love that book so much. John Green, I think, is a wonderful writer. I’m a huge fan of his. But nowhere in his book was anyone’s race ever mentioned.      So my question with these videos is why are we using white people to tell these universal stories? And what is that saying? I think it’s saying something really dangerous and the message it gives to people of color — and I can say this as a person of color who grew up watching these stories that I related to thematically and didn’t see reflections of myself in them — what it tells