To Read or Not To Read

Talia Hibbert's YA debut is a rom-com to remember! With a unique premise and her signature hilarity, Hibbert's Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is such a fun read. I had a great time reading about Celine's and Brad's journey through the woods and back to one another.  Talia Hibbert is a New York Times , USA Today , and Wall Street Journal  bestselling author who lives in a bedroom full of books in the English Midlands. She writes witty, diverse romances, including Get a Life, Chloe Brown ; The Princess Trap ; and A Girl Like Her , because she believes that people of marginalized identities need honest and positive representation. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is her debut novel for teens. Talia's interests include beauty, junk food, and unnecessary sarcasm. You can find her online at taliahibbert.com . You can find more of my reviews of her work here .  Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect: he's a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), an...

Camryn Garrett's Friday I'm in Love is just as fun as you'd think based on the gorgeous cover! A celebration of love balanced by a true look at young adulthood, Mahalia's story of joy and truth makes for a quick, refreshing, and uplifting read.   Camryn Garrett was born and raised in New York. Her writing has appeared in Vogue , Time , and ZORA , among other publications, and she was named one of Teen Vogue 's 21 Under 21 and a Galmour College Woman of the Year. Her first novel, Full Disclosure , received rave reviews from outlets such as EW , Today , and the Guardian , which called it "warm, funny and thoughtfully sex-positive, an impressive debut from a writer still in her teens." Her second novel, Off the Record , received three starred reviews, among other honors, and was named an ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book. Friday I'm in Love is her third novel and first rom-com. You can find Camryn online at camryngarrett.com or on Instagram an...

I was excited to pick up Iron Widow after hearing and seeing so many positive comments about it. A science fiction/fantasy novel that has been likened to Pacific Rim but with female empowerment at the center definitely seemed like something I would enjoy. However, after finishing, I'm left feeling more unsettled than empowered. The lack of nuance and world building in this story left me with more questions than answers, and I'm unlikely to pick up the second book in this duology, as the overall frustration in reading this book overwhelmed the small parts of it that I did enjoy.  Xiran Jay Zhao is a first-generation immigrant from small-town China who was raised by the Internet. A recent graduate of Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, they wrote science fiction and fantasy while they probably should have been studying more about biochemical pathways. You can find them on Twitter for memes, Instagram for cosplays and fancy outfits, and YouTube for long videos about Chinese h...

Laura Warrell's Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm  is a gorgeously written debut, the kind of book that reminds me how much I love writing. Following an ensemble cast of women and their interactions with a jazz musician, the story examines more than just desire, but also love and coming-of-age.  Laura Warrell is a contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Tin House Summer Workshop, and is a graduate of the creative writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in HuffPost , The Rumpus , and the Los Angeles Review of Books , among other publications. She has taught creative writing and literature at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and through the Emerging Voices Fellowship at PEN America in Los Angeles, where she lives. You can find her online at laurawarrell.com or on Instagram and Twitter @LKWarrell.  It's 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies' man, lives for his music and r...

Annabel Monaghan's Same Time Next Summer makes you feel like you're at the beach reading it—and the experience can only be heightened when doing just that! Exploring the heartbreak of first love and loss alongside Sam's present day heartache makes for a fulfilling, romantic, and powerful story of second chances in all of their complicated, important forms. Annabel Monaghan is the author of Indie Next and LibraryReads pick Nora Goes Off Script , as well as two young adult novels and Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big? , a selection of laugh-out-loud columns that appeared in The Huffington Post , The Week, and The Rye Record . She lives in Rye, New York, with her family. You can find her online at AnnabelMonaghan.com and on social media @AnnabelMonaghan. You can find more of my reviews of Annabel's works  here .  Sam's life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fir...

Curtis Sittenfeld's highly anticipated Romantic Comedy was a completely bingeable read—only 300 pages (and a good chunk of it in the form of an epistolary format!), I couldn't put this book down. While the insider look into the comedic world and Sittenfeld's sharp look at the female experience worked in the book's favor, I still find myself conflicted about the book as a whole. Curtis Sittenfeld's New York Times bestselling books have been translated into thirty languages and include the novels Prep , American Wife , Eligible , and Rodham , and the story collection You Think It, I'll Say It . Sittenfeld's stories have appeared in The New Yorker , The Atlantic , and The Best American Short Stories, of which she was the 2020 guest editor. She lives with her family in Minneapolis. You can find her online at curtissittenfeld.com .  Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls , a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbre...

If you knew the exact length of your life, would you live it any differently? This is the question Nikki Erlick explores in her debut novel, The Measure . Following a flawed yet inspiring cast of characters, this novel examines all the outcomes to this question, with the overarching theme of how we can live our lives to the fullest.  Nikki Erlick is a writer and editor whose work has appeared on the websites of New York , Harper's Bazaar , Newsweek , Cosmopolitan , the Huffington Post, Indagare Travel, BookTrib, and the Verge. As a travel writer, she explored nearly a dozen countries on assignment—from rural villages in France to the arctic fjords of Norway. As a ghostwriter, she has lent her voice to CEOs, academics, and entrepreneurs. She graduated Harvard University summa cum laude and is a former editor of the Harvard Crimson . She earned a master's degree in global thought from Columbia University. The Measure  is her first novel.  It seems like any other day. You wa...

Xochitl Gonzalez's debut does not disappoint! Following the titular character's journey through her most recent love story, her family drama, and her devastating past with her parents, Olga's story isn't one you'll soon forget. Balanced with narrations from the men in her life and letters from her mother, Olga's story drags you in, and won't let you go even after you've finished the last page.  Xochitl Gonzalez received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow and the recipient of the Michener Copernicus Prize in Fiction. Prior to writing, Xochitl wore many hats, including entrepreneur, wedding planner, fund-raiser, and tarot card reader. She is a proud alumna of the New York City Public Schools system and holds a B.A. in art history and visual art from Brown University. She lives in her hometown of Brooklyn with her dog, Hectah Lavoe. You can find her online at xochitlgonzalez.com or on Twitter and Instagram @xo...

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers' debut certainly looks intimidating—my ebook copy is 1,664 pages long—but it is absolutely worth the read. A story of one girl's coming of age woven through with the stories of her ancestors, Jeffers creates a masterpiece generational story within these pages, one that will keep you engrossed until the very end.  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is a fiction writer, poet, and essayist. She is the author of five poetry volumes, the latest of which, The Age of Phillis , was longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry, and has published writing in The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review , and more. For her research on the eighteenth-century poet Phillis Wheatley Peters—which inspired The Age of Phillis —Jeffers was elected into the American Antiquarian Society, a learned organization for the study of early American history, to which fourteen U.S. presidents have been elected. Jeffers is a critic at large for Kenyo...

Veronica Roth's dystopian standalone novel is thought-provoking and entertaining. With just enough adventure and mystery to balance the intrigue and investigation of government surveillance, Sonya's journey to freedom is a captivating dystopian standalone.  Veronica Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of Chosen Ones , the short story collection The End and Other Beginnings , the Divergent series, and the Carve the Mark duology. She was also the guest editor of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021 . She lives in Chicago.  For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing according to the rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation. Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free fr...

I fully admit to picking up Daisy Jones & The Six because of all the Amazon Prime and Reese's Book Club promo for the TV series I've been seeing on bookstagram. Seeing as how I've been on a historical fiction reading bend lately, I figured I'd give this one a shot, and found it to be an incredibly engaging read. I'm super excited to see how they adapt this one for television, and can't wait to tune in to watch.  Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of Malibu Rising , The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo , and four more novels. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their daughter, and their dog. You can find her online at taylorjenkinsreid.com . You can find more of my reviews of her work here .  Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. Her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do craz...