Solving For the Unknown by Loan Le

 

SPOILER ALERT! The characters in the author’s previous book, A Pho Love Story do appear, but it is unnecessary to read the first book in order to enjoy this one.

‘To his friends back home, Viet Ho is calm and collected and a lovable oddball who nurses an obsession with forensic science. He’s relieved to head off to UC Davis and escape from being in the middle of his bickering immigrant parents. Yet, on campus and with the school year unfolding at an overwhelming pace, Viet struggles to belong and to keep his depression hidden.

Evie Mai is a junior biology major and the eldest daughter who has never trod far off the beaten path. She has everything: good grades, a solid group of friends, and a smart, ambitious boyfriend, who’s the son of a well-connected university board member. But their busy schedules, as well as their interests, no longer align. Determined to close the distance, she and her boyfriend both apply to a student-run clinic for underserved communities. But will that save or expose the gaps in their relationship?

When a clumsy accident brings Viet and Evie together, they bond over their shared hometown and similar history—and their orbits grow smaller as their friends collide. The more time they spend with each other and support each other, mentally and emotionally, the more their friendship shifts into something else.” - taken from Goodreads

Evie is Lihn’s sister and Viet is Bao’s friend from A Pho Love Story. This tender story about college life and personal relationships is a quick read told from each of the characters’ points of view. A quick and clean read that gives readers not only a satisfying ending but a glimpse into the lives of previous characters.

Visit Loan Le’s website.

The Rival by Emma Lord

“At long last, Sadie has vanquished her lifelong academic rival — her irritatingly charming, whip smart next door neighbor, Seb — by getting the coveted, only spot to her dream college. Or at least, so she thinks. When Seb is unexpectedly pulled off the waitlist and admitted, Sadie has to compete with him all over again, this time to get a spot on the school’s famous zine. Now not only is she dealing with the mayhem of the lovable, chaotic family she hid her writing talents from, as well as her own self doubt, but she has to come to terms with some less-than-resentful feelings for Seb that are popping up along the way.

But the longer they compete, the more Sadie and Seb notice flaws in the school’s system that are much bigger than any competition between them. Somehow the two of them have to band together even as they’re trying to crush each other, only to discover they may have met their match in more ways than one.” - taken from Goodreads.

A cute rom-com about a boy and a girl who have grown up together since birth. Academic rivals, Sadie is glad to leave Seb behind to attend college alone. Unfortunately, her dream is short-lived when she runs into Seb at an interest meeting for the school’s famous zine. With only one spot open, Sadie finds herself once again competing against Seb. But soon the two frenemies find themselves drawn to each other. 

Visit Emma Lord’s website.

Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter (Better Than the Movies book 2)

 

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Better Than the Movies, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

Check out Book Series Recaps for a refresher of the first book.

“For a few beautiful months, Wes had his dream girl: the strong-willed girl next door Liz. But right as the two were about to set off for college to start their freshman year together, tragedy struck. Wes was left dealing with the fallout, which ultimately meant losing Liz in the process.

Flash forward months later, and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him.

Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with rom-com-worthy grand gestures she loves. Only . . . Liz will have none of it! Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend . . . a guy friend.

Still, Wes won’t give up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.” - taken from Goodreads.

OMG! What can I say about this book without spoiling everything about it? Two years have passed since Wes and Liz got together, started UCLA, and the unfathomable happened. Wes now has gotten a second chance but will Liz give him a second chance? Probably one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Visit Lynn Painter’s website.

Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon (Rowan & Neil book 2)

 

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Today Tonight Tomorrow, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

“They fell for each other in just twenty-four hours. Now Rowan and Neil embark on a long-distance relationship during their first year of college in this romantic, dual points of view sequel to Today Tonight Tomorrow .

When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.

In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.

In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.

Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?” - taken from Goodreads.

Over the course of a year, Rowan and Neil must learn to navigate a long distance relationship while finding their place in college. Follow along through the ups and downs of Freshmen year as they struggle to find their footing. The epilogue was a fantastic finish.

Visit Rachel Lynn Solomon’s website.

Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood

“Eighteen-year-old Brooke is the kind of friend who not only remembers everyone’s birthdays, but also organizes the group present, pays for it, and politely chases others for their share. She’s the helper, the doer, the maker-of spreadsheets. She’s the responsible one who always follows the rules―and she plans to keep it that way during her first year of college.

Her student housing only has one "no unnecessary drama." Which means no fights, tension, or romance between roommates. When one of them turns out to be Jesse, her high-school nemesis, Brooke is determined she can handle it. They’ll simply silently endure living together and stay out of each other’s way. But it turns out Jesse isn’t so easy to ignore.” - taken from Goodreads.

Brooke is starting her first year at university in Melbourne, Australia. She is excited but her joy is short-lived when she finds out that her former best friend Jesse and the boy who broke her heart and humiliated her turns out to be her new roommate. Trying to navigate her new life while balancing her anxiety is tough enough but soon her unresolved feelings for Jesse get in the way. Can Brooke figure out her feelings for Jesse before it's too late?

A cute read about second chances.

Visit Nina Kenwood’s website. 

Begin Again by Emma Lord

 

“As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.” - taken from Goodreads.

When Andie Rose arrives at Blue Ridge State as a mid-year transfer, she has a plan for how her semester will go. Her best laid plans start to go up in flames when she finds that her boyfriend Conner transferred back to community college to be with her, her roommate Shay is major less, and her RA Milo lives off of caffeine and doesn't believe in love. Soon her plans begin to change as she begins to follow her in her mother’s footsteps but struggles to find her own way. As the semester goes on, will Andie be able to blaze her own trail without being weighed down by her past? A great read about finding one’s own way.

Visit Emma Lord’s website.

The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew

 

“Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she's Deaf. So when she's accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she's excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won't accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman fascinated by Delaney's unusual talents.

Colton Price died when he was nine years old. Quite impossibly, he woke several weeks later at the feet of a green-eyed little girl. Now, twelve years later, Delaney Meyers-Petrov has stumbled back into his orbit, but Colton's been ordered to keep far away from the new girl... and the voices she hears calling to her from the shadows.

Delaney wants to keep her distance from Colton -- she seems to be the only person on campus who finds him more arrogant than charming -- yet after a Godbole student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of deeply buried university secrets. But Delaney and Colton discover the cost of opening the doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless, an enemy they need to destroy before it tears them -- and their forbidden partnership -- apart.” - taken from Goodreads.

Lane is excited to start at Godbole and get out from underneath her overprotective parents. Deaf, she soon finds herself struggling with her classes and her professors are no help. When the mysterious and aloof Colton Price offers to help her catch up, Lane is quickly drawn into the secretive mission of Godbole where not everyone survives. A dark and twisted tale that will leave readers wondering what is going on.

Visit Kelly Andrew’s website.

Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West

 

“Norah hasn’t seen her childhood best friend, Skyler, in years. When he first moved away, they'd talk all the time, but lately their relationship has been reduced to liking each other’s Instagram posts. That’s why Norah can’t wait for the joint RV road trip their families have planned for the summer.

But when Skyler finally arrives, he seems...like he’d rather be anywhere else. Hurt and confused, Norah reacts in kind. Suddenly, her oldest friendship is on the rocks.

An unexpected summer spent driving across the country leads both Norah and Skyler down new roads and to new discoveries. Before long, they are, once again, seeing each other in a different light. Can their friendship-turned-rivalry turn into something more? - taken from Goodreads.

This book takes place over an RV trip between former best friends, Norah and Skyler. Excited to see her best friend/”crush” for the first time in four years, Norah is quickly hurt that Skyler doesn’t seem to want to still be friends. Trying to figure out what has changed between the two of them, Norah tries to find ways to break through Skyler’s tough exterior. When the details of the trip seem sketchy, Norah is determined to find out what is going on. As the miles click away, can these two go back to being friends or are the obstacles in front of them just too much? 

Visit Kasie West’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.

Time of Our Lives by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

“A boy desperate to hold on, a girl ready to let go.

Fitz Holton waits in fear for the day his single mother's early-onset Alzheimer's starts stealing her memory. He's vowed to stay close to home to care for her in the years to come--never mind the ridiculous college tour she's forcing him on to visit schools where he knows he'll never go. Juniper Ramirez is counting down the days until she can leave home, a home crowded with five younger siblings and zero privacy. Against the wishes of her tight-knit family, Juniper plans her own college tour of the East Coast with one goal: get out.

When Fitz and Juniper cross paths on their first college tour in Boston, they're at odds from the moment they meet-- while Juniper's dying to start a new life apart for her family, Fitz faces the sacrifices he must make for his. Their relationship sparks a deep connection--in each other's eyes, they glimpse alternate possibilities regarding the first big decision of their adult lives.

Time of Our Lives is a story of home and away, of the wonder and weight of memory, of outgrowing fears and growing into the future.” taken from Goodreads.com

I really enjoyed this story about two high school seniors as they begin to make plans for their college futures, Juniper just wants to escape from her large family while Fitz wants to cling to his mother who will eventually develop early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Bumping into each other on the first stop of their college tours, the two are intrigued enough by each other to seek each other out at their next stops. I felt that Juniper jumped from her long-time boyfriend Matt to Fitz really quickly. I also hate how the story seemed to just suddenly stop unexpectedly for me.

Visit Emily & Austin’s website.

 

Admission by Julie Buxbaum

 

“It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer. She's headed off to the college of her dreams. She's going to prom with the boy she's had a crush on since middle school. Her best friend always has her back, and her mom, a B-list Hollywood celebrity, may finally be on her way to the B+ list. It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer--at least, it was, until the FBI came knocking on her front door, guns at the ready, and her future went up in smoke. Now her mother is under arrest in a massive college admissions bribery scandal. Chloe, too, might be facing charges, and even time behind bars. The public is furious, the press is rabid, and the US attorney is out for blood.

As she loses everything she's long taken for granted, Chloe must reckon not only with the truth of what happened, but also with the examination of her own guilt. Why did her parents think the only way for her to succeed was to cheat for her? What did she know, and when did she know it? And perhaps most importantly, what does it mean to be complicit?” - taken from Goodreads.com

This story is based loosely upon the real-life Varsity Blues college admission scandal. Chloe, the daughter of a famous actress, is struggling to bring up her poor SAT score. She isn't a great student like her brainy younger sister, Isla. Told between then, leading up to, and now, after her mother's arrest, readers will follow along on Chloe's journey to discover what she knew, suspected, or was utterly blindsided with. A compelling story about Chloe's journey to adulthood.

Visit Julie Buxbaum’s website.

The Testing trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau

Book one – The Testing 

The Seven Stages War left Earth a damaged and devastated world. The first four stages were brought about by manmade warfare on the Asian side of the planet and spread. During the last three stages, Earth retaliated against man for the biochemical destruction and radiation by unleashing earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. The United Commonwealth chose the former site of Wichita, Kansas as its capital because of its non-strategic location and the fact it escaped the first four stages of the war. Its new name is Tosu City.

Malencia "Cia" Vale resides in the Five Lakes colony with her parents and four older brothers. Five Lakes is one of the smallest and farthest colonies from Tosu City. She is graduating today. At sixteen, she is by far the youngest member of her class. Cia is hoping that she will be chosen for The Testing. Only the best and brightest graduates are chosen by the Commonwealth for the program. Her eldest brother, Zeen, was disappointed when he wasn’t chosen for The Testing. Their father was and attended the university where he learned to genetically alter plants and trees to be able to survive in Earth's blighted soil. His sons work with him. Cia has also been offed a job but she is more mechanically inclined and usually kills plants. Rumors swirl at the ceremony that a special guest will make an announcement. Cia is disappointed when no one is chosen for The Testing. The rumor was just a rumor after all.

The next morning, Cia's mother persuades her to go to Kip Drysten's to ask him for a job. He repairs farm equipment. Cia is relieved when he is out on a job and won’t be home for several days. She rides to the town square and is relieved that most people there are too busy to speak to her. Cia finally begins the ride back home to help her mother prepare for her graduation party that night. On the way, she runs into one of her brothers. Magistrate Owens had sent a message to their father requesting Cia's appearance at her house in just under an hour. She has to hurry to make it.

It turns out that Cia is the last to arrive. Also sitting at Magistrate Owens's house are three of her fellow graduates; Tomas Endress, Malachi Rourke and Zandri Hicks. Cia sits next to Tomas when he smiles and motions for her to sit next to him. Owens apologizes for the short notice and introduces Michal Gallen, a Tosu City official. He was supposed to attend the graduation ceremony but was delayed. He reads from a sheet of paper explaining The Testing. He ends his speech by announcing that all four of them have been chosen. They will leave in the morning. When Zandri ask if she can decline, Michael informs her that she doesn't have a choice; it is the law. Failure for not presenting oneself for The Testing is a form of treason. Everyone in the room knows that treason is punishable by death.

Cia returns home to tell her family and finds her party is in full swing. Her father is the first to notice the official United Commonwealth bag hanging from her shoulder and he immediately announces to everyone what it means. Her brothers are the first to congratulate her but she notices that her eldest brother Zeen slipping out of the room. The party turns out to be Cia's last chance to tell her friends goodbye. While helping her mother clean up afterwards, her mother weighs in on what Cia take with her. Her father comes and asks if he can take a walk with Cia to spend a little quiet time. They head out into the garden. He tells her that should have never been chosen. Shocked and angry at first, Cia cannot believe the secrets that her father divulges. He tells her to trust no one. She is no longer sure what she should expect at The Testing.

What is the purpose of The Testing? Why was Cia and the others from Five Lakes chosen after so many years of no candidates? Are the horrors that her father remembers really true? Can Cia trust the one boy from home who wants to form an alliance? Will Cia or anyone else survive? 

Book two – Independent Study

“Failure is not an option.”

Book three – Graduation Day
 
“The final test is the deadliest"

 Visit Joelle Charbonneau’s website.