Category Archives: Reviews

Read This!: THE LOVE THAT SPLIT THE WORLD by Emily Henry

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The Love That Split the WorldThe Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Summary: Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start… until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right. That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Natalie Cleary is a normal high school girl – except for the fact that she can see ghosts, or possibly people from other dimensions. When Grandmother – the name she gives to the cryptic old woman who has been visiting her in the night since childhood – issues a warning that Natalie only has three months to save someone close to her, she knows she has to figure out what her connection is to that other world. Then one of the beings who flickers at the edge of her consciousness reveals himself to be all too real – a handsome, brooding boy named Beau – and burgeoning romance complicates her quest. Henry’s writing is lucid and lyrical, exploring Natalie’s fractured sense of self, both as a child of Native American descent adopted by white parents, and as a traveler between worlds. The story’s twisty plotline remains firmly grounded in Natalie’s emotions, in her quest to find the place where and when she belongs, and in her determination to save the people she loves.

THE LOVE THAT SPLIT THE WORLD is out now.

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Read This!: THE YEAR WE FELL APART by Emily Martin

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The Year We Fell ApartThe Year We Fell Apart by Emily Martin

Summary: Few things come as naturally to Harper as epic mistakes. In the past year she was kicked off the swim team, earned a reputation as Carson High’s easiest hook-up, and officially became the black sheep of her family. But her worst mistake was destroying her relationship with her best friend, Declan. Now, after two semesters of silence, Declan is home from boarding school for the summer. Everything about him is different—he’s taller, stronger…more handsome. Harper has changed, too, especially in the wake of her mom’s cancer diagnosis. While Declan wants nothing to do with Harper, he’s still Declan, her Declan, and the only person she wants to talk to about what’s really going on. But he’s also the one person she’s lost the right to seek comfort from. As their mutual friends and shared histories draw them together again, Harper and Declan must decide which parts of their past are still salvageable, and which parts they’ll have to let go of once and for all.

Holy wow, did I love this book. It sucked me in and didn’t let go. I finished it two days ago and I am still thinking about it. And I will never ever be able to listen to “Out of the Woods” by Taylor Swift again without thinking about Harper and Declan. (Not because the song is referenced in any way – it’s just perfect for them!)

Harper is such a realistically drawn character – a girl who is lovable and sometimes hate-able, conflicted and yearning for connection, and sometimes selfish and self-destructive. The what-was and what-could-have-been and what-could-be between her and Declan is palpable, and I couldn’t stop reading. As powerful as the romance is, though, this book succeeds because it is about more than just a girl trying to get her ex-boyfriend back. Harper has to navigate so many pitfalls of growing up in a society that does little service to strong girls, and in Martin’s capable hands, the story wraps itself around the reader’s mind and heart.

I’d love to see Emily Martin on a panel someday beside Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (author of FIRSTS) and Shannon M. Parker (author of THE GIRL WHO FELL) for a frank discussion of writing about young women finding their way through the minefield of modern girlhood.

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Read This!: SHALLOW GRAVES by Kali Wallace

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Shallow GravesShallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Summary: When seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow grave one year after her death, she doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past. In life, Breezy was always drawn to the elegance of the universe and the mystery of the stars. Now she must set out to find answers and discover what is to become of her in the gritty, dangerous world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she finds is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

Do not read this book when you are in the house alone – especially if you are a big scaredy cat like me. That said, Breezy, the main character, is more full of life than any reanimated corpse has a right to be. Horror and heart-pounding action alternates with witty banter, intense world-building, and characters that make you want to pull up a chair and hang out for awhile. (I dream of that brownie in the basement.) If you’re a horror reader, you’ll eat this right up. If you’re not a big horror reader, grab this anyway, because you won’t want to miss the great characters. Just, you know, keep the lights on and make sure someone else is around.

Shallow Graves is out now

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Read This!: ARROWS by Melissa Gorzelanczyk

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ArrowsArrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk

Summary: Aaryn, son of Cupid, was supposed to shoot both Karma and Danny but found out too late that the other arrow in his pack was useless. And with that, Karma’s life changed forever. One pregnancy confirmed. One ballet scholarship lost. And dream after dream tossed to the wind.  A clueless Karma doesn’t know that her toxic relationship is Aaryn’s fault . . . but he’s going to get a chance to make things right. He’s here to convince Danny to man up and be there for Karma. But what if this god from Mount Olympus finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dancer from Wisconsin who can never love him in return?

Things I predict will happen when you read this book:

1) You will want to punch Danny. Often. Seriously, rarely have I felt so violent toward a fictional character. He is a detestable and unfortunately entirely realistic villain.

2) You will be pulling for Karma to wake up and realize what an abusive relationship she’s in.

3) You will recognize the dynamics of Karma and Danny’s relationship and be reminded uncomfortably of that one friend who just can’t be convinced that he’s wrong for her.

4) You’ll experience a strange craving for cheese curds.

5) You’ll call into question the entire bureaucracy of Eros and his arrows. Oh, wait, that’s Aaryn, son of Eros. But I bet you’ll dig him too.

6) You may be tempted to write fanfiction due to how much you want to see Karma punch Danny in the face.

ARROWS is a fun and fresh take on Greek mythology and teen romance.  And it’s out now!

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Read This!: PAPER WISHES by Lois Sepahban

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Paper WishesPaper Wishes by Lois Sepahban

Summary: Ten-year-old Manami did not realize how peaceful her family’s life on Bainbridge Island was until the day it all changed. It’s 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Manami and her family are Japanese American, which means that the government says they must leave their home by the sea and join other Japanese Americans at a prison camp in the desert. Manami is sad to go, but even worse is that they are going to have to give her dog, Yujiin, to a neighbor to take care of. Manami decides to sneak Yujiin under her coat, but she is caught and forced to abandon him. She is devastated but clings to the hope that somehow Yujiin will find his way to the camp and make her family whole again. It isn’t until she finds a way to let go of her guilt that Manami can accept all that has happened to her family.

How could you possibly handle the subject of the relocation camps that imprisoned thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II in a way that children can understand, without it become bleak or hopeless?

Yet Sepahban manages it with quiet grace, giving us the story of Manami, a 10-year-old girl who is imprisoned with her family in the California desert. Traumatized by the experience and fiercely missing the dog she was forced to leave behind, Manami refuses to speak, grieving even as her family members find a place in the society of the camp. Sepahan doesn’t focus on politics or wars – the only details of that are in her concise and informative author’s note – but Manami’s narration, so lithe and lyrical that it stops just short of verse, places the reader in the camp beside her, offering a visceral sense of place and time that all the facts in the world could not convey.

This is a beautiful book that sheds light on a shameful part of America’s past.

PAPER WISHES is out now.

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