BookishlyFaith

I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Thanks!)  Guys, this book is so freaking WHOLESOME. There are so many scenes where the characters are baking and there were so many good pop culture references (i.e., Mean Girls, Gossip Girl, Taylor Swift). This is a YA rom-com filled with sugary descriptions and memes (yes they fall in love while making MEMES. If this isn't so 2019/20, IDK what is). It is a very sweet PG romance (if you care about the steaminess of the romance).  While this is an adorable love story, it does focus a lot on the characters figuring out what they want to do after high school. It also deals with family issues (specifically feeling like you're living in the shadow of your sibling and how to deal after a divorce).  Overall,  Tweet Cute  is a wonderful coming of age story perfect for teens today. It perfectly encaptures the current online landscape teens face while creating an adorable teen romance.

Rating: 3 stars. I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you!) Stay Sweet is a book about ice cream, friendship and feminism. The main character Amelia is tasked this summer with keeping the town's famous ice cream stand open after tragedy strikes. She has to work with the owner's nephew, a cute college boy, and struggles to maintain her friendship with her best friend.  What I really liked about this book was Amelia's emotional growth. She starts the book almost kind of whiny. Amelia doubts her ability to be a leader, doesn't think that she's very fun, and is wondering why she was chosen to be the manager of the ice cream stand. As the book progresses, Amelia discovers her passions and becomes more confident, which I really loved seeing.  I also really liked the diary entries from the owner of the ice cream when she started making ice cream during WW2. I did feel like there was a point where there were too many, but I do real...

Rating: 4.5 stars.  I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thanks!) I will admit, this book did stress me out a ton. Mei's life is quite stressful. She skipped a year in school, so she's a year younger than everyone else and is now starting college. Her parents want her to become a doctor but Mei loves dance and secretly dreams of running a dance school. She doesn't try to pursue this dream because her brother is a disappointment to her parents since he is going to marry an infertile girl. But when Mei meets Darren, he challenges her parents' ideas and encourages her to pursue her dreams. 

Rating: 4.5 stars.  I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thanks!) I love this new wave of YA books set in college, mostly because I'm currently in university.  Emergency Contact is about these two college students who are each other's go-to person for random or deep conversation (i.e. Emergency Contact). Penny is just starting university and is distancing herself from her trying-to-be-cool mom. Sam just found out that his love-hate ex-girlfriend is pregnant. Penny and Sam meet when Sam has a panic attack and they both realize that they need a friend they can tell anything to. 

Rating: 4.5 Stars.  Super cute! Highly recommend it if you're looking for a diverse YA contemporary romance unlike anything you've ever read before. 

Rating: 3.5 stars.  I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Thanks!).  This is my first  Patty Blount  book and I really liked it! The Way It Hurts  is about Elijah, who wants to take care of his sister who has special needs, and Kristen who wants to get into a competitive musical theatre program. Elijah sees Kristen in a school production of Cats and wants her to join his metal band. Kristen thinks this band could be the edge she needs to get into the previously mentioned program. But when Elijah starts a social media war that goes viral, Kristen starts to fear for her safety. 

Rating: 1.5 stars.  I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. (Thanks!) You know that feeling you get sometimes when you are watching a foreign film? The feeling that something of the importance that is happening is a bit lost on you because you're missing that context? That's sort of how I feel about this book. I would say that this novel was definitely unique, but I just wasn't knocked off my feet by it. I'm sure some people will like it, but I just don't think the writing was for me. Welcome to the Slipstream is about Van, a girl who moves a lot because of her mother's mental illness. Van's mom is a genius, but her mental illness makes her a bit difficult for people to deal with so she constantly changes jobs. The constant in Van's life is her surrogate grandmother, who helps to keep her mother sane. They move to Vegas, where Van discovers her dream of being in a band. But when her mother goes off to a self-help cult,...

Rating: 5 stars.  I think this book is my favourite Paula Stokes  book I've ever read! I mean, I've only read one of her other books,  Liars, Inc. , which was kind of meh. But I would compared how much I love this book to how much I love  Made You Up . (Plus this cover is gorgeous!) Girl Against the Universe  is awesome because it's all about accepting that you have little control over your life. The main character, Maguire, has lived her life in fear of hurting others. She believes she is unlucky because she was in a lot of accidents growing up where others were hurt and she was unharmed. But when Maguire goes to therapy and meets a boy, she learns to relinquish control and starts to live again.  I think my favourite part of this book was the romance between Maguire and Jordy. Oh my god, they are so cute together! I couldn't stop smiling whenever they talked. I loved that Maguire was superstitious because it meant that I learned a lot about good luck...

Rating: 2.5 stars. I was really underwhelmed by this book. I think I was expecting a bit too much because the cover for this book is freaking gorgeous. Plus, I read and loved Everything Leads to You , which had a mystery in its plot and romance.  We are Okay is about Maren, a girl whose life fell apart a few months ago and she is now at college. Everyone has left for Christmas break and she has no home to return to so she is alone in the dorms. But her best friend, Mabel, is coming to visit and she will make Maren think about why she left her hometown.  I have to say, Nina LaCour  did do a great job of portraying mental illness in this book. Maren has anxiety after what happened to her and you could clearly feel and see how much it affects her. I could also see how much Maren has changed since that traumatic event that has given her anxiety. Maren used to be someone who liked ambiguity but now, she likes the cold hard truth. Nina LaCour   always does a grea...

Rating: 3.5 stars. This book was so insanely emotional for me. It could be that this was my first audiobook experience but oh my gosh, this book was intense. I'm so surprised that more people who read diverse books haven't read None of the Above yet! None of the Above is about Kristin, a hurdler in high school. Her mother died of cervical cancer when she was a young girl and now lives alone with father. When Kristin takes her relationship with her boyfriend to the next level on homecoming night, she experiences enough pain that she goes to the doctor. But what she finds out isn't what she was expecting: she is intersex, which means that she looks like a girl, but she has boy parts. This book follows Kristin as she struggles with her identity now that her gender is put into question and is found out by her classmates.  I was quite happy to find that one of the characters of this book has the name Faith. I'm a Faith and it's quite hard to find books ...

I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thanks!) Rating: 4.5 stars Hello, Sunshine was just a fun YA contemporary book to read. It's about a teenage girl named Becca Harrington, who moves to LA to pursue an acting career when she doesn't get accepted into college. She has a year to try out this dream before she has to reapply to go to college. With the help of her new LA friends, she starts the difficult journey of becoming an actress. This novel is kind of like a cheerier version of London Belongs to Me . Like in London Belongs to Me , the main character is struggling to get into the entertainment industry and is learning to be in a new industry and is dealing with rejection. In some ways, Hello, Sunshine kind of felt like a NA novel. Becca is 18, living by herself, struggling to pay her bills in LA.   There is some sex scenes that are kinda described as well. I wouldn't say it was A Court of Mist and Fury level of sexy scenes but I w...