Fable duology by Adrienne Young

 

“For seventeen-year-old Fable, the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home she has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one, and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father, and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.

But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him, and Fable soon finds that West isn't who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they're going to stay alive.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Fable’s story blew me out of the water. Abandoned by her father after her mother's death to protect her, she has eked out a way to survive on the island of Jeval. Determined to make her way back to her father and a place on his crew, Fable earns enough coin to pay for passage on the Marigold. Little does she know the extent of the secret she's about to uncover.

The perfect fierce girl story for fans of Tricia Levenseller and Adalyn Grace. 

Fable’s story is concluded in Namesake.

Visit Adrienne Young’s website.

If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

“High school senior Cameron Bright’s reputation can be summed up in one word: bitch. It’s no surprise she’s queen bee at her private L.A. high school—she’s beautiful, talented, and notorious for her cutting and brutal honesty. So when she puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, Andrew, she fears she may have lost him for good.

In an attempt to win him over, Cameron resolves to “tame” herself, much like Katherine in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. First, she’ll have to make amends with those she’s wronged, which leads her to Brendan, the guy she labeled with an unfortunate nickname back in the sixth grade. At first, Brendan isn’t all that receptive to Cameron’s ploy. But slowly, he warms up to her when they connect over the computer game he’s developing. Now if only Andrew would notice…

But the closer Cameron gets to Brendan, the more she sees he appreciates her personality—honesty and all—and wonders if she’s compromising who she is for the guy she doesn’t even want.” - taken from Goodreads.

When I came to enjoy about this book was Cameron Bright's journey of self-acceptance and her attempts to right past wrongs. Loosely based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Cameron gets the idea to “tame” her personality to win over a boy. In working through her list of amends, Cameron makes new friends and soon realizes that what she thought her future would bring is not what she expected. 

Visit Emily & Austin’s website.

 

I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

“Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.

She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else.

When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho.

But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Skye Shin is an overweight Korean-American teen. Her mother holds her own strict Korean beliefs about weight towards her daughter. Skye goes against her mother's wishes and makes both the dance and vocal portions of a K-Pop star search contest. It's not an easy road as Skye  comes up against a judge who has the same opinions as her mother. Finding herself at the center of a worldwide stage, can Skye succeed in changing people’s minds about body image? An uplifting read. 

Visit Lyla Lee’s website.

 

The Perfect Escape by Suzanne Park

“Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?

Luck comes in the form of Kate Anderson, Nate’s colleague at the zombie-themed escape room where he works. She approaches Nate with a plan: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize. It could solve all of Nate’s problems, and Kate needs the money too.

If the two of them team up, Nate has a true shot at winning the grand prize. But the real challenge? Making through the weekend with his heart intact…” - taken from Goodreads.com

This was a unique spin on your typical rom-com. Having met while working at a zombie themed escape room, Nate Kim and Kate Anderson decide to team up to compete in a zombie survival competition. They are hoping to split the grand-prize since they each have a need for the money. When the competition heats up, can Nate and Kate's blooming relationship survive? 

Visit Suzanne Park’s website.

 

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

 

“Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response.

Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.

Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher.

Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Quinn and Tarek cross paths every summer during the wedding season. Quinn's parents are wedding planners while Tarek's are caterers. After things don't end well between the two of them, Quinn confesses her feelings for Tarek in an email but he never responds. What happens the following summer when they meet at the first wedding of the year starts a journey of recovery and reconciliation between the two of them, another enjoyable romance by this author.

Visit Rachel Lynn Solomon’s website.

10 Truths and a Dare by Ashley Elston

 

“It's Senior Week, that magical in-between time after classes have ended but before graduation, chock-full of gimmicky theme parties, last-minute bonding, and family traditions. Olivia couldn't be more ready. Class salutatorian and confident in her future at LSU, she's poised to sail through to the next phase of her life.

But when the tiny hiccup of an unsigned off-campus P.E. form puts Olivia in danger of not graduating at all, she has one week to set things straight without tipping off her very big and very nosy extended family. Volunteering to help at a local golf tournament should do it, but since Olivia's mom equipped her phone with a tracking app, there'll be no hiding the fact that she's at the golf course instead of all the graduation parties happening at the same time. Unless, that is, she can convince the Fab Four--her ride-or-die cousins and best friends Sophie, Charlie, and Wes--to trade phones with her as they go through the motions of playing Olivia for the week.

Sure, certain members of the golf team are none too pleased with Olivia's sudden "passion" for the game. And sure, a very cute, very off-limits boy keeps popping up in Olivia's orbit. But she is focused! She has a schedule and a plan! Nothing can possibly go wrong . . . right?” - taken from Goodreads.com

This book takes place about 5 months after the events of 10 Blind Dates. It's not necessary to have read The previous book in order to enjoy this one but certain people and events will make it much more enjoyable.

Olivia Perkins is going to be the salutatorian for graduating class. That is until an email arrives telling her that she didn't complete her off campus PE class. Trying to keep her failure from her nosy family, hilarity ensues when she gets her cousins to help her with her ruse. Another sweet rom-com.

Visit Ashley Elston’s website.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (Legendborn book 1)

 

“After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.” - taken from Goodreads.com

This book was everything that I wanted in a fantasy read and more. Reeling from the sudden death of her mother after an argument, Brianna Matthews heads off to the early college program at UNC Chapel Hill with her best friend, Alice Chen. On their first night there at an off campus party, Bree discovers a hidden world and gets into trouble. When the dean assigns her a student mentor, Nick Davis, Bree discovers that her mother hid some pretty important things from her. With Nick's help, Bree is on a mission to uncover her mother's secrets.

This was a unique twist on the Arthurian legend. Bree is African-American and finds herself thrust into a genteel white society where she must hide her newfound abilities and learn who she can trust. The storyline explodes at the end with shocking reveals and a cliffhanger.

Book two is expected in 2022.

Visit Tracy Deonn’s website.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights book 1)

“The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.” - taken from Goodreads.com

“These violent delights have violent ends

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,

Which, as they kiss, consume.

• Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

What if Romeo and Juliet didn't die at the end? Instead, they were separated for four years while their rival gang families ramped up their blood feud on the streets of Shanghai. It's 1926 and a monster carrying a deadly disease lurks in a city where the ruling gangs are struggling to keep control over increasing western influences. Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov must put the past behind them in order to save their city. Will these star-crosses lovers be able to put aside old grudges and work together to stop the increasing pandemonium? Both old and new betrayals will be revealed.

To be continued with Our Violent Ends on November 16, 2021.

Visit Chloe Gong’s website.