“Everyone’s on the cliff edge of normal. Everyone finds life an utter nightmare sometimes, and there’s no ‘normal’ way of dealing with it… There is no normal, Evelyn.”
For Evelyn, all she’s ever wanted to be was normal. That’s what she hopes will happen as she starts a new college while adjusting to life off her meds. She wants to start over, make new friends, and have stability and not be seen as the girl who went crazy. But, life doesn’t always work out that way as relationships are messy and what you think will make you happy doesn’t always happen in the way that you want. Evie begins to see that being normal isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be and embracing the messy side of life and stepping into who you are is a terrifying yet rewarding experience all in one.
It’s very rare for me to give a book a five star rating but this book totally went beyond my expectations and even though I may overreacting when calling this one of the best ya contemporaries I’ve read, it’s absolutely true. I laughed, cried, cheered, and went through a rollercoaster of emotions and enjoyed every minute of it. I found the mental health rep particular fantastic as some ya books can be hit and miss with mental health rep. But, I thought the way mental health was portrayed in the book was really well. The story was interesting but it was really the characters who were well-written and interesting in their own way. Evie is definitely someone that I really resonated with in particular her struggles with her mental health but I felt like she was very well. The dynamics throughout the book also added to the individual characters and it helped with the story. I am excited to read the next book and hopefully I’ll enjoy it as much as I did this one.
“That’s the beautiful thing about the universe. It puts you through trials, but it never gives you anything you can’t handle. We grow from these things.”
Ollie thinks he’s found his perfect match in Will Tavares, he’s fun, affectionate, and kind and Ollie can’t wait to continue the romance after summer ends. There’s just one problem, Will stops texting Ollie as soon as break is over and Ollie is crushed. Add insult to injury, Ollie finds himself moving across country due to a family emergency and Ollie is less crushed when he finds out he’ll be going to the same school as Will. But, Ollie soon sees a very different Will and not someone he wants to be around especially when Will goes from hot to cold every other week. But just as much as Ollie doesn’t want anything to do with him, Will starts showing up in Ollie’s life a bit more than Ollie wants. Ollie wants to keep his resolve up and not fall back into Will’s hands but it starts to become harder and harder.
A bit of a slow start but nonetheless a pretty good read. I did find it a little short and would’ve liked to read more about Ollie and Will. At first, I wasn’t sure if the romance would work because they seemed to different and I didn’t see the attraction at first but the more I got into the book, the more I liked their relationship. This is my second read by Sophie Gonzales, I read Perfect on Paper in June and really liked it so I decided to check this one out. A fun and easy read with a cute plot with interesting characters.
“But most of us are too scared to even ask what we want, in case we can’t have it.”
The book follows Poppy and Alex, two best friends who literally couldn’t be more different. Poppy is free spirit, wild, and loves traveling and being spontaneous where Alex is perfectly content with staying home and reading a book. Yet, ever since that fateful car ride home years ago, they are still the very best of friends. Well, they were up until two years ago where they ruined everything and haven’t spoken since.
Now having everything she could want, you would think that Poppy is truly happy,? But she’s stuck in a rut and she knows the only thing that can make her truly happy. But, she knows it’s impossible unless some kind of miracle happens. Much to her surprise, he agrees to spend a week with her and she has exactly that much time to fix things. Will she be able to fix things or will she lose him forever?
This was a fun read! Before this, I had read Beach Read by the same author and enjoyed it. I’m not surprised at how much I enjoyed this as it’s opposites attract, friends to lovers, and second chance trope which I love. I loved Poppy, she was a lot of fun and I did enjoy her dynamic with Alex, they’re so different yet they fit so well with each other. They had really great chemistry and that’s always a plus while still being their own person. What really drives the story are the characters, Poppy and Alex and I was just rolling along with them wanting to know what would happen next.
If you’re looking for a fun and cute read, this is it!
“I’m not flaunting anything. I’m just existing. This is me. I can’t hide myself. I can’t disappear. And even if I could, I don’t fucking want to. I have the same right to be here. I have the same right to exist.”
Felix Love has never actually fallen in love and yes they are aware of the irony. The book follows Felix on a journey of self-acceptance, love, belonging, and living their truth with who they are. It ends up becoming so more about finding self-acceptance and belonging with themselves than finding with someone else.
“It could’ve been easy to say I was hurt because I’m trans, because someone singled me out for my identity, but there’s something weird about that – something off, about suggesting that my identity is the thing that brought me any sort of pain. It’s the opposite. Being trans brings me love. It brings me happiness. It gives me power.”
I had no idea that this book would become a favorite of mine but here we are. This is defintely one of the best reads for this year as I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It seems like that I have a struck gold with YA Contemporary recently and Felix Ever After is definitely my faves out of the ones that I’ve read. Not only is Felix is a likeable and relatable character, I found myself invested in their story and wanted them to find the happiness that they deserved. I hurt for Felix especially with the transphobia that they experienced and how impacted their mental health as one can imagine.
“It can be easier, sometimes, to choose to love someone you know won’t return your feelings. At least you know how that will end. It’s easier to accept hurt and pain, sometimes, than love and acceptance. It’s the real, loving relationships that can be the scariest.”
What I loved about the book even more is that it touched on the labels and how they are different for people. Acknowledging that some people are fine with and it helps them feel connected while others don’t want that kind of pressure. As someone who struggled for years with labels, I like Callender discusses how people react to labeling differently and that’s fine and I think it’s something that’s very important to discuss openly and for people to feel accepted whether or not labeling is for them.
“There is enough alive in me to grow a hundred rosebushes, a thousand blooms, a million leaves”
Oh Anne-Marie McLemore, you really know how to pull at my heartstrings and I love every minute of it. Stunning, haunting, and emotionally raw, this book sheds light on rape culture, the aftermath of sexual assault, and how they survive while pursuing a journey of healing. This wasn’t an easy book to get through, there were times where I cried and had to put the book down. Even with those difficult moments, McLemore intertwines hope, discovery, love, and finding magic in life while on a journey of healing.
“It costs something to listen to someone else’s story. People forget that sometimes.”
On a night like any, the world’s of Ceila and Lock come crashing down when they are sexually assaulted in rooms mirroring each other one fateful night. While Celia can remember what happened, Lock can’t and the guilt begins to weigh heavily on her. That guilt begins to impact her more than she wants as she tries to work through it while also trying to heal herself. The way that McLemore unwraps the many layers of Ceila’s guilt gives it so much more depth and it’s also truly heartbreaking.
“I hope he hasn’t put all this together, this thing we have in common that he can’t remember and I can’t forget.”
The pain, hurt, loss, and even guilt that Ceila feels towards what happned with Lock especially as he doesn’t remember what actually happened is hard to read at times. I felt for Ceila who was concerned for Lock and took a lot of it on herself. Through this, a budding friendship forms and the two are able to heal each other while trying to take care of themselves. To me, those are the best kind of friendships where two people who may of not met on their own but they brought together by tragic events that happened in their lives. The way that McLemore writes the characters, we see them as real people going through very real situations and trying to heal from it which to me is a sign of a great author.
Months ago, I didn’t cry, and I didn’t scream because I thought if I started crying and screaming I’d never stop. But now, I don’t care if I scream forever. If I scream forever, they will have to hear me forever.
McLemore doesn’t hold back from exploring the power dynamics that pre-exist to that night of Lock and Ceila, both from poor to middle class backgrounds up against their rich white classmates who are related to people who have their names on buildings all over town. For Ceila, her peers not only look at her different because of the color of her skin but also her sexuality. For Lock, it’s the stigmatization and misconception that boys don’t get raped because of their gender that they should be able to defend themselves from being sexually assaulted. I appreciated how McLemore wrote Lock and how he struggled to heal from the trauma, it was raw and real.
But I know this one, the boy who needs light flooding into parts of him that have gone dark. And I am, in some way smaller than my hands, bringing him back to life.
While the subject material in the book are important for us to understand, no one should push themselves through it. Sometimes, I struggle with sexual assault is written in books and that was something that I was worried about while reading this so I was very pleased with how it was done and played out. Anne-Marie McLemore is an incredibly talented and wonderful writer and I have to say that this is her best book to date. So if you want to see if it’s up your alley, feel free but don’t feel pressured that you have to read it!
“Just because you’re telling a good story, doesn’t mean it’s the right story. And I think that it’s really important to tell the right story.”
Summer love can be fickle and for seventeen year old, Lara is arrives when she leasts expects it while on vacation in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Lara begins tp spend time with her mother’s assistant Jasmine and before she knows, an unlikely friendship begins to form. But, what if there is more to the friendship than meets the eye as Lara begins have dreams about a girl who looks similar to Jasmine sending Lara on a journey of self-discovery, accepting, and being more comfortable with being who you want to be and not what other people think.
While reading, I had flashbacks to Grease which is actually one of the my favorite movies and there are similarities between the two. This is a very cute and fun story and I really wished I could’ve gotten more into it but I couldn’t. I did like Lara and found her a very interesting and fun protagonist. I wish I had read this back when I was younger because her journey of self-discovery so I think she will be a hit for young readers who can relate and see themselves in her.
I wish the same could be said for the side characters and romance especially with Chase and his sudden interest in Lara. I felt like that could’ve been fleshed a bit more over the chapters because I could’ve really invest in them as a couple. Other parts of the plot were predictable and while I do enjoy love triangles, I didn’t feel like I was fully invested in it. But at the same time, showing the flaws in the relationship is a plus but I still feel like I needed more to really understand why he liked her. There were other parts of the book that surprised me as the serious and lighthearted events throughout the book balanced each other out.
Another thing that kinda rubbed me the wrong way was the way that certain people were described throughout the book. I felt like it was a bit of a checklist for diversity and it could’ve been better with more thought, effort, and consideration. So, that was something that impacted my enjoyment of reading the book. It was a cute book but I feel like it could’ve been better if there had been more effort put into the issues that I highlighted.
I think it’s the timid and slightly terrified energy he gave off; it reminded me of myself, when I get caught up in walking the straight way down the hall, or sounding less gay, or carrying my books like a guy is supposed to. We’ve both been struggling to bury our otherness beneath the surface, but I shouldn’t have assumed our otherness was the same.”
Going into his senior year, Sky is ready to go out with a bang and make his best yet. Sky comes up with a brilliant plan to ask his crush, Ali to the prom and has to do that within thirty days. Sounds easy right? Well, when his brilliant plans get leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic email causes him to wish that he could leave town and finish his year at another high school. But, when his friends and others at the school encourage Sky to find out who is the behind the hack and expose them. Will Sky be expose this person for they are or will his small town blues stop Sky from embracing his true self? Find out in this fun, witty, and heartfelt debut!
This heartfelt debut was definitely one to enjoy from beginning to the end. There were a few things that I didn’t like that but I’ll get into that later. Sky is such a fun, witty, kind, friendly and wonderful main character I felt like I knew him. The other characters were a bit of hit and miss for me, I felt like some were well written and others were added for the sake of diversity. While I did enjoy the story, there were a few things that I think could’ve been better. The subplots felt rushed and quick so it was hard for me to stay invested and the ending was a bit vague.
Other than that, it was a pretty fun read so if you want to check it out, go for it!
“This is it; this is the moment when someone appears out of nowhere, demands to know what I’m doing with clothes for the wrong gender.”
Between Perfect and Real is a stunning and moving debut about finding your voice, being confident with who you are, and coming into your own. Dean Foster, the main protagonist is going through a lot of struggles with their identity as they are pretty sure they are transgender but their girlfriend, friends, and other family think they’re a lesbian. Dean is struggling with coming to terms with that and understanding that some people close to him may not be as accepting as they want. But, when Dean gets cast as the untraditional Romeo for the school play, things start to change as he feels this is their time to embrace who they are truthfully and authentically.
It didn’t take me long to become fully invested in the story especially with Dean’s journey throughout the book. While the book is full of moving and heart warming moments where you see Dean become more comfortable with themselves, there are also moments that break your heart and you want to give Dean a hug and tell them everything will be okay. I feel like I felt every emotion while reading this book and the way Stoeve fleshes out his characters, main and side makes you feel like you know them. They were very real and relatable especially Dean who wanted to not only be accepted by others who they really were but find that self-acceptance.
I very much enjoyed the LGBT with the other main and side characters. Zoe who is Dean’s girlfriend is lesbian, Ronnie is Dean’s best friend is black and gay, Allison, one of Dean’s and Zoe’s good friends, is japanese-american and bisexual, and then there are Nina and Jade who are trans and non-binary. I loved how welcoming they were and providing Dean and each other with love, acceptance, and support.
I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone as it was a very moving and empowering debut on coming into your own and being proud of it.
Come read with me! 