SimonTeen (the teen books arm of publisher Simon & Schuster) did a fun promotion where every day from December 1-25, they had a book you could read for free digitally if you made an account on their website. Being my parents' daughter, I love free stuff; naturally, I had to avail myself of the opportunity. I read so many good books due to this promotion; here they are.
Rather than being a lesbian Pride & Prejudice retelling, as the title suggests, it's about a 21st century girl who somehow time-travels to Regency England. Audrey, who had been trying to rediscover her spark for art, needs to figure out how to get back to her time and home in Pittsburgh. Lucy, the young lady whose backyard Audrey ends up in, is being forced into marriage by her domineering father. Can they figure out how to get Audrey home and Lucy out of getting married, and figure out their feelings for each other??? This book was so good and I really enjoyed it, even if the title feels like a placeholder they never got around to replacing. The story is not P&P enough to justify the title. No spice, just kissing. Trigger warnings: controlling & abusive father forces daughter into engagement/marriage and threatens to kick her out of the house, internalized and societal homophobia, a girl is tied up and locked in a room, semi-controlling boyfriend/codependent relationship (past)
Go read the book description at the link above and then come back, because it's hard to sum this book up succinctly. Rana is so full of grief at the loss of her best friend and angry at her mother's unequal and sexist treatment: her mom will nag her to diet and be more girly while pampering Rana's brother and letting him do whatever he wants because he's a boy. Their dad visits once a year because he lives in Iran, and the family frays under the weight of pretending to be one happy family. Rana wants to enter a rap battle in her friend's memory as it was his dream, and in starting to practice and gain confidence, she befriends and starts to fall for a fellow Iranian American girl. I really rooted for Rana and wanted her to have every happiness. I gave it 3 chilis because of a couple of sex scenes and explicit language. Trigger warnings: car accident death that may have been suicide, lesbian has sex with a guy which could be seen as self-harming, depression, mental illness, homophobia, bullying, anxiety, controlling parents, fatphobia and diet culture, drug use, underage drinking, sexism, infidelity, partying, sexism
I loved both Miles Morales Spider-Man movies, so I was excited to read this one even though I don't usually read comics-based middle-grade novels. This one reads like Miles is writing in his diary or talking to you and includes poetry by Miles that moves the plot along. It's a sequel to MM: Spider-Man; you don't have to have read it to get what's going on here as it's summed up, but MM: Suspended is a continuation of that story. Miles is suspended for standing up to his racist teacher, and something is not quite right at school... I feel that Reynolds really captured Miles's voice, and I enjoyed being along for the ride, even though the villain/threat is creepy. Reynolds deftly folds Miles' personal and superhero dilemmas with the current racist book-banning issue in an age-appropriate way, and with such economy of language, all in a 14 year old AfroLatino boy's voice! I was really impressed by his writing and will have to check out more of what he's written. Peïa's art is dynamic and fun but never distracting. It's not illustrated enough to be a graphic novel, but it's got way more illustrations than your typical middle-grade novel (Miles should always have art). There's a librarian character I found very intriguing. Highly recommended. Trigger warnings: insects/bugs, violence/fighting (if your kid watches superhero movies it's probably fine), racism, racist/unsupportive school and teachers, lying to teachers (see prev. so it's fine)
This is the sequel to a book I asked for for a couple of birthdays ago and still haven't read, A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. I hate reading series books out of order, but ABGG2HaH was only available one day, so I read it anyway. It seems to be a reverse of the first book, which was about a Cuban girl going to England after suffering loss; this one's about an English girl going to Miami after suffering loss. Flora has just lost her mum and has hurt her family with her grief and anger, so she runs away to stay with her friend Lila (first book girl)'s family. Her best friend Gordon, who had just confessed his feelings before she ran, follows her to Miami, just after she's met Baz, a Cuban cutie who's part of a famous photographer dynasty. Flora goes to cool places I'm dying to visit, deals with the Cuban chisme grind, and tries to figure out where her heart lies, all while continuing to throw herself into photography. I enjoyed this book a lot as a Cuban American, even though I know nothing of Miami. I'm not from England either but I'm not sure how true Flora's Englishness rang. The right words are there, but idk. Still, a great read! I def want to read the first one now. No spice, just kissing. Trigger warnings: death, early onset dementia, grief, hurricane/natural disaster
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