Review: We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

more than ever, i’m worried we’re resurrecting a friendship that was never as grand as i made it out to be.

rachel lynn solomon

Series: Standalone

Release Date:ย June 8th 2021

Publisher:ย Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre:ย Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count:ย 336

Source: I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author ofย Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansourโ€™s families have been in business together for years: Quinnโ€™s parents are wedding planners, and Tarekโ€™s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling emailโ€”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 parentsโ€™ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarekโ€™s always loved the grand gestures in weddingsโ€”the flashier, the betterโ€”while Quinn canโ€™t see them as anything but fake. Even as they canโ€™t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinnโ€™s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.

Quinn canโ€™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 isnโ€™t the enemy after allโ€”and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinnโ€™s ever done.

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ARC Review: The Existence of Bea Pearl by Candice Marley Conner

“no, she faded away; it took all summer for her to disappear. she stopped talking because no one would talk to her. she faded ’til she didn’t exist anymore.”

candice marley conner

Series: Standalone

Release Date:ย June 15th 2021

Publisher:ย Owl Hollow Press

Genre:ย Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Mystery | Thriller | Romance

Page Count:ย 237

Source: I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Sixteen-year-old Bea Pearl knows her brother isnโ€™t dead. Even if her parents donโ€™t agree. Even if the entire town doesnโ€™t believe her. She knows itโ€™s true. When orders came to evacuate Lake George due to rising floodwaters, Bea Pearl saw Jim head toward the river. She followed him. Only she returned.

When her parents have Jim declared legally dead, Bea Pearl decides itโ€™s up to her to figure out where her brother could be if he is alive, and so begins to unravel the mystery of his disappearance. But it seems like someone else wants to know what he was hiding when his bedroom is ransacked. More clues come together: a scrap of paper, mysterious numbers that may lead to swamp monkeys, Jimโ€™s shoes turning up in unexpected places. Bea Pearl canโ€™t figure out what connects them all until sheโ€™s stolen from her bed in the dead of night.

Bea Pearlโ€™s insistence that Jimโ€™s alive and her quest to figure out why he went down to a flooding river in the first place takes a toll on her shattering family. But she must unearth the truth surrounding her presumed dead brother. Otherwise, the rumors are true and she has killed him. Because if Jim can stop existing, could she too?

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Book Tour & Review: Gold Spun by Brandie June (+ my favorite quotes!)

“all magic has a cost.”

brandie june

Series: Gold Spun #1

Release Date:ย June 8th 2021

Publisher:ย CamCat Books

Genre:ย Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy | Retellings | Romance

Page Count: 320

Source:ย I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book for free from the publisher via Edelweiss in collaboration with TBR and Beyond Tours. Thank you!

Summary: If Nor canโ€™t spin gold, she can always spin lies.

When seventeen-year-old Nor rescues a captured faerie in the woods, he gifts her with a magical golden thread she can use to summon him for a favor. Instead, Nor uses it for a conโ€”to convince villagers to buy straw that can be transformed into gold. Her trick works a little too well, attracting the suspicion of Prince Casper, who hates nobody more than a liar. Intent on punishing Nor, he demands that she spin a room of straw into gold and as her reward, he will marry her. Should she refuse or fail, the consequences will be dire.

Content Warnings: One mild scene of cutting for blood magic.

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ARC Review: Off Trail by Rick Polito

“you know,” i said, “the road to hell is paved with good wintentions.”

rick polito

Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 3rd 2021

Publisher: Wise Wolf Books

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Historical Fiction | Humor | Romance

Page Count: 249

Source:ย I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book from the publisher. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: A laugh-out-loud coming of age story of one teenโ€™s preposterous experience in a wilderness therapy program.

Daniel grew up in the shadow of his older sister, the brash, self-assured, and utterly reckless Jackie, now living with her dirtbag boyfriend and wandering through dead-end jobs. When his parents find her marijuana stash in his closet and decide they do not want him to turn out like his sister, Daniel suffers the โ€œtrickle-down parentingโ€ effect and is sent to Quest Trail. Surrounded by other similarly uprooted teens, Daniel endures a series of preposterous self-discovery exercises and gets caught up in a rivalry with Troy, a too-tough poser, as they vie for the attention of Vera, a charismatic California teen who grew up with too much money and not enough emotional connection. Just as Danielโ€™s confidence begins to grow and things start to look up, the Quest Trail program dissolves into complete chaos.

Sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, Off Trail shows an authentic account of all the embarrassing and heart-wrenching moments of being a teen.

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Review: By Mist@ke by Sigal Ehrlich

“doing the right thing isn’t always the right thing to do.”

sigal ehrlich

Series:ย Poison & Wine #1

Release Date:ย January 5th 2021

Publisher:ย Self-published

Genre:ย New Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count:ย 239

Source:ย I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book from the author via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Thereโ€™s so much going on in Annaโ€™s life. Teaching countless hours at the studio and nurturing the three major relationships of her life โ€“ her group of tight-knit friends, all while attempting to not screw up this whole adulthood thing leaves very little time to waste on yet another dating app. At this point, a relationship is off the menu. Being โ€œself-partneredโ€ is more than enough.

A serious relationship has been crossed off Liam Brodyโ€™s list of goals, at least for the foreseeable future. Completing his residency and becoming a trauma surgeon is his only priority. Casual relationships, his friends, and books are the only things heโ€™s willing to lose his precious free time to.

When an accidental email starts a deep online connection, both Liam and Anna dive in with zero concern . . . because thereโ€™s really no harm in getting close to someone who youโ€™ll never meet in real life, right? Wrong. When a turn of events brings their โ€œsafeโ€ virtual connection to an unexpected face-to-face, Anna and Liam learn their online chemistry pales in comparison to the real deal. A realization that brings along the bazillion-dollar question โ€“ what do you do when you meet The One at the most impossibly wrong time?

by Mist@ke is book 1 in a standalone series with connected characters, but independent storylines.

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ARC Review: Chaos Theory by Lynn Rush & Kelly Anne Blount

i’d totally done exactly what the non-contract indicated i shouldn’t. i’d fallen for her.

lynn rush & kelly anne blount

Series: Twin River High #3

Release Date: May 24th 2021

Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count: 303

Source: I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Corey Chaos, teen YouTube sensation, just needs a break from his hectic schedule. Ever since his musical talent was “discovered” by the right person at the right time, his life has been a steady stream of interviews, screaming fans, TV shows, screaming fans, Instagram lives, and did he mention the screaming fans? He’d give anything to be a normal teen again, even for five minutes. So, when his agent suggests staying at his pool house for a month to get away from the stress, Corey is on the next plane to snowy Twin River, Wisconsin. As soon as he gets there, though, his agent’s gorgeous teen daughter, Victoria, asks for his helpโ€”and Corey can’t bring himself to say no to her. Not after the video of her boyfriend dumping her in the school cafeteria went viral with its own hashtag, #LunchDump. Ouch. That’s not the way you want to get a million views. No one, especially a sweet girl like Victoria, deserves to be treated that way. But then she tells him about her big plan to get revenge on her ex. And Corey’s certain his starring role has chaos written all over it.

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ARC Review: Project Personality by Lynn Rush & Kelly Anne Blount

it was like he was a hydrogen molecule and i was the oxygen. i was drawn to him. we completed each other.

lynn rush & kelly anne blount

Series: Twin River High #2

Release Date: May 17th 2021

Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count: 274

Source: I received an advance readerโ€™s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Hope Chambers has a major problem. Sheโ€™s spent the entirety of her four years of high school focusing on being perfectโ€”perfect grades, perfect extracurriculars, perfect essaysโ€”to the point that she forgot to get a life. And now sheโ€™s perfectly boring. Sheโ€™s got exactly two weeks before her admissions interview for MIT to spice up her life and get a personality, dammit. And she knows exactly who can help her: soccer star and Mr. Popularity himself, Landon Watkins. But how does a nerdy, socially awkward girl ask the most charismatic guy in school to help her become interesting? Saving his life in the school cafeteria is a pretty good start. No one is more surprised than Hope when Landon agrees to help her. But what he proposes they do takes her so far out of her shell, she’s practically in a different ocean. And when she starts falling for the last guy she ever expected to, it has her second-guessing every decision she’s ever made… 

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