Book Review: "The Heartbreak Bakery" by A.R. Capetta

Add romance, a cup of magical realism, a few spoonfuls of finding yourself, and lots and lots of baking. This book was absolutely fantastic!!

Syd (not ready to pick a gender yet) is an amazing young baker at the Proud Muffin in Austin, TX. One day, after Syd’s relationship with W ends, Syd deals with it in the best way—baking. And amazing Breakup Brownies are created.

The problem is, anyone who eats the Breakup Brownies well, breaks up, including Vin and Alec, the owners of the Proud Muffin. With the future of the bakery at stake as well as a number of relationships on the rocks thanks to Syd’s brownies, Syd is desperate to make it all right. And that means more baking and more feelings and trying to find the right recipe for everyone.

With the help of Harley, the sexy delivery messenger for the bakery, Syd makes some important discoveries—about love, about assumptions, about bravery, and about how cupcakes have no gender, and that’s ok. It’s okay to be an agender cupcake.

What a special, magical book The Heartbreak Bakery was! And it wasn’t crazy—just a bit of imbuing baked goods with emotions felt by those eating them. But aside from all of the mouthwatering food, this book had so many beautiful, glorious, life-affirming things to say. (And recipes!! I love books with recipes!!)

This will easily be one of my favorite YA books of the year.

Book Review: "A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom" by John Boyne

A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom is a sweeping look at love, family, history, and destiny.

Have you ever read a book that you felt you couldn’t describe properly? That’s definitely the way I feel about John Boyne’s newest book. What I can say, however, is once again, his storytelling blew me away.

We start at the dawn of time, 1 AD. A baby is born to a warrior and his wife, amidst his father’s acts of violence. The baby has an older brother, who mostly resents him.

The story shifts as time passes, changing locations, names, certain facts, but the general thrust of the story remains the same, as if to say that what is destined will happen no matter who or where you are. We travel through history, getting glimpses of historical figures and events through time, all the way to the future.

At times this felt more like interconnected short stories than a cohesive novel. This was an interesting concept and I loved what Boyne has to say, that no event or emotion is unique to just one person. In the end, though, I don’t know that this worked for me as much as I hoped it would. But his storytelling transcended it all, so much like I felt about Fredrik Backman's Anxious People, the writing elevated the book, in my opinion.

If you’ve never read Boyne before, please read The Heart’s Invisible Furies, The Absolutist, and A Ladder to the Sky.

NetGalley and Hogarth Books provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!!

Book Review: "The Death of Vivek Oji" by Akwaeke Emeze

The Death of Vivek Oji, Akwaeke Emeze's newest novel, is easily one of the best, most powerful books I’ve read all year.

One day in Nigeria a woman finds the body of her son, Vivek, on the porch of their house, wrapped in colorful fabric. It appears he has been beaten to death.

Vivek’s parents are grief-stricken, but while his father accepts that these things might happen in a country torn by violence, his mother is desperate to understand what happened to her son. She saw him that morning and craves to understand the events that followed.

Vivek was a gentle soul, a free spirit who felt chained by a world that sought to define him. He only felt comfortable letting his guard down with his friends, the daughters of the Nigerwives, a group of foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. And he was closest to Osita, his cousin, who found himself inexplicably drawn to Vivek.

This is a gorgeously written story of identity, sexuality, love, grief, friendship, and the need to live the life you want, even in a country where doing so might be deadly. It’s also a story of a mother desperate to understand her child.

I haven’t read Akwaeke Emeze’s other books yet, Freshwater and Pet, but I definitely will now. This was emotional, beautiful, and so poignant, and their storytelling took my breath away.

I won’t forget this one anytime soon.

Book Review: "Felix Ever After" by Kacen Callender

We’re all worthy of love, but sometimes the path to realizing that is a tough one. This message is at the core of Kacen Callender's newest book, Felix Ever After.

Ironically, Felix Love has never been in love. He wants that more than anything, though, as much as he wants to get in to Brown University to study art. He knows his grades and his test scores aren't enough, but if he can make a splash with his portfolio he might have a chance. If only he could motivate himself to work on it...

"I want to be in love. I've never, you know—felt the kind of passion great artists talk about. I want that. I want to feel that level of intensity. Not everyone wants love. I get that, you know? But me—I want to fall in love and be broken up with and get pissed and grieve and fall in love all over again. I've never felt any of that. I've just been doing the same shit. Nothing new. Nothing exciting."

He has other issues to deal with, though. Since he came out as transgender, he’s been struggling with his identity. He knows he’s not a girl but he doesn’t always feel like a boy, so he doesn’t know what that means, especially since he made such a big deal out of his transition.

But the worst thing is that someone put up a gallery of photos from before his transition, along with his deadname, at school. He is devastated by this and is determined to get back whomever was responsible. But his obsession with revenge takes an unexpected turn, and it also blinds him to something closer.

This was a moving book about identity, love, friendship, and family. There was so much to think about, so much emotion, and so much beauty. The characters weren’t always the most sympathetic, but this is definitely a book I’ll remember for a long time.

Another excellent book for Pride Reads!!

Book Review: "Stay Gold" by Tobly McSmith

Being true to yourself may be the hardest thing to do, but it’s the only thing. That's the message at the core of Tobly McSmith's Stay Gold.

As a military kid, Pony knows about starting over all too well. Since things at his last school went a little off the rails when it was revealed that he was transgender, for his senior year at a new high school he’s determined things will be different. This time he’s decided simply to pass as a guy and not tell anyone the truth. No one in his life thinks it’s a good idea but he just wants to be normal, you know?

And then on the first day he locks eyes with Georgia, a popular cheerleader. He is instantly smitten.

Georgia feels that same connection when she sees Pony. But she’s a cheerleader, so she’s supposed to date a football player, even if her last relationship ended disastrously. There’s also a lot of things Georgia wishes she could do or say in her own life, but she doesn’t want to deal with the ramifications.

If Pony dates Georgia, how can he keep who he is a secret? Should Georgia follow her heart and mind or do what’s expected of her by her cheerleading teammates and best friends?

Stay Gold is a sweet book that is tremendously thought-provoking, and it raises a lot of questions. Do we have the responsibility to advocate for those like us, or can we just live our lives the way we see fit? Is it wrong to want to keep your own secrets or are you obligated to be open and honest even if that means opening yourself up to abuse or even harm?

While this book is relatively predictable in some ways, it also turns some stereotypes on their head. And of course, I won’t lie and say I didn’t tear up at the end!!

Stay gold, Ponyboy! (Yes, they touch on that, too.) And the Pride Reads keep on rolling...

Book Review: "Out Now: Queer We Go Again" edited by Saundra Mitchell

What a great way to start off Pride Month and my month-long effort to read LGBTQ+ books for PrideReads!

Out Now: Queer We Go Again is a new anthology featuring 17 short stories written by queer YA authors. From names you may recognize if you're a YA fan (Julian Winters, Meredith Russo, Caleb Roehrig, Mark Oshiro) and names I wasn't familiar with, these stories run the gamut from tales of romance, friendship, and self-acceptance, to fantasy, sci-fi, and folklore, all with an LGBTQ+ angle.

My favorite stories in the collection included: "What Happens in the Closet" by Caleb Roehrig, when vampires attack a high school prom and a gay student tries to better understand his nemesis; "Star-Crossed in DC" by Jessica Verdi, featuring the president's daughter who is ready to make a stand; "One Spell Too Many" by Tara Sim, about a teenage girl and kitchen witch, whose penchant for weaving spells into her baked goods has chaotic consequences; "Refresh" by Mark Oshiro, which tells of the frantic moments leading up to a blind date for two boys who met online; "Lumber Me Mine" by CB Lee, about two students who become enamored of one another during woodshop class; "Follower" by Will Kostakis, in which a social media influencer meets one of his fans; and perhaps my favorite story, "Victory Lap" by Julian Winters, in which a young man in search of a date to a school dance finds an unlikely ally in his search.

I tend to like stories that are a little simpler; there were a few stories in the collection that were science-fiction- or fantasy-based, and those didn't appeal to me as much. But for me, ultimately, the mark of a good story is one I'd love to see expanded into a longer form or even a full-length novel. All of the above stories, plus several others I didn't include in my list, definitely piqued my interest, and I'm going to explore the work of many of the authors featured in the collection.

The path to love and attraction, to connecting with someone you're interested in, to accepting who you are and/or working with family and friends to do the same, is different for every person. The stories in Out Now: Queer We Go Again didn't try to make their characters fall into predetermined patterns. While not every story was completely realistic, there's probably a story in here that almost everyone can identify with in one way or another.

Apparently Out Now is a follow-up to an anthology called All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages, also edited by Saundra Mitchell. I'll definitely be checking that out as well.

I was fortunate to be part of the blog tour for this book. NetGalley and Inkyard Press provided me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

Book Review: "The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly" by Jamie Pacton

You gotta fight for your right...to be a knight. Or so it goes in The Life and Medieval Times of Kit Sweetly.

Kit is a “serving wench” at The Castle, a medieval restaurant, but what she really wants is to be a knight. Her older brother, Chris, is a knight, and she knows all of his routines really well. But company policy for the entire Castle franchise states that only guys can be knights, Game of Thrones be damned.

One night when Chris gets hurt and can’t perform, Kit puts on his costume and pretends to be him. She goes off script and beats the knight she is fighting, and the moment that she reveals she—not Chris—was behind the armor quickly goes viral.

Although she is threatened with the loss of her job, or even the shutting down of the entire franchise, Kit can’t get the thrill of being a knight out of her head. And judging from the responses the video is getting, more and more people want to see female knights. So she and some Castle colleagues start training, with the plan of showing corporate management just how smart and valuable of an investment female knights can be. Sounds like a foolproof plan, no?

Meanwhile, Kit also has to deal with her family’s financial woes, which might impact her going to her dream college, Marquette. And not only that, but she tries to fight her growing attraction to her best friend, Jett, despite the fact they’ve agreed to only be friends.

This is a fun book that takes its feminist message seriously but isn’t heavy-handed. I’m also impressed at the diversity in this book—there’s an interracial relationship at its core, there are bisexual, nonbinary, and trans characters, and no one makes a fuss. (It's ironic that a restaurant would have a problem with a woman being a knight but doesn't have a problem with a trans character being a serving wench.)

I read this really quickly and like in the movie A Knight’s Tale, I played lots of Queen music while reading. Although I felt the ending was a little rushed, this was still a fun read, and Jamie Pacton created really likable characters.

Book Review: "All Adults Here" by Emma Straub

All aboard the Strick family dysfunction train!

When Astrid Strick witnesses a long-time nemesis get hit by a bus, it suddenly makes her realize two things: life is too short, so she needs to act on things before it’s too late, and perhaps equally important, she might not have been the best mother to her three children.

As she strives to make things better with her children, she also makes a major decision in her own life which further destabilizes her relationship with her oldest son, Elliott, a developer and builder, who nurses a long-held grudge and feels the need to prove himself to the town and his mother.

Meanwhile, Astrid’s daughter Porter is pregnant and yet can’t seem to give up her boyfriend from when she was a teenager, and Astrid’s youngest son, Nicky, who was an actor as a teenager and never quite gave up that lifestyle, has sent his teenage daughter to live with Astrid after an incident at her school.

All Adults Here is an interesting exploration of love, parental responsibility, infidelity, mortality, friendship, sexuality, and even gender. The book shifts narration among a number of characters—Astrid, Elliott, Porter, Nicky, Astrid’s granddaughter, and her friend.

There is a lot going on in this book and while I enjoyed most of the separate storylines, they didn’t seem to coalesce until nearly the end of the book, and no story seemed utterly complete. There was a lot that seemed to go unsaid in many cases, which was frustrating. Obviously that happens in real life, too, but when you're hoping that some loose ends in a story will get tied up, it doesn't quite help.

I really enjoy the way Emma Straub writes, though, and I can’t seem to get enough books about family dysfunction, so I still found this a good, satisfying read.

Book Review: "The Herd" by Andrea Bartz

What could cause a female entrepreneur to disappear on the biggest night of her career? This is one of the mysteries at the core of Andrea Bartz's newest thriller.

The Herd is an innovative coworking space just for women. Its founder, Eleanor Walsh, has tapped into a powerful need for women to have their own business and creative space, and women from all over New York and San Francisco are clamoring to become members.

Eleanor, along with her two best friends from college, Hana and Mikki, have made the Herd into a phenomenon, and it’s truly on the verge of greatness. Yet on Eleanor’s biggest night, the night of a major announcement, she disappears.

Hana and Mikki, devastated and angered by Eleanor’s disappearance, can’t figure out what might have happened. Sure, she and the Herd had their detractors, but it all doesn’t make sense. The two friends, along with Hana’s younger sister, Katie, an investigative journalist, start to look into the disappearance, and discover Eleanor's life wasn't as pulled together as it appeared. But then again, the three of them are also hiding major secrets.

The Herd is an interesting, twisty mystery that takes a while to build up steam, but keeps moving fast once it does. I really like the way Andrea Bartz writes (check out her last book, The Lost Night), and found the interpersonal dynamics among the characters here pretty fascinating.

One thing I don’t love about books is when everyone has a secret but no one will talk about them yet, they get referred to constantly. ("We can't say anything about that night.") I’d almost rather find out about these secrets by myself than have a ton of foreshadowing with little delivery until the story is coming to a close.

This is a solid, compelling read and it is a thought-provoking look at the barriers women experience when pursuing success. I’m definitely a fan of Bartz’s work and look forward to her next book.

Book Review: "Topics of Conversation" by Miranda Popkey

Miranda Popkey's Topics of Conversation is a novel of commentary on issues about gender, sex, and violence, framed as conversations.

I’m going to call this review a #maybeitsmenotyou review. I read a lot, as many of you know, and I feel like I “get” themes and issues and situations even if I can’t personally identify with them. But every so often a book comes along and it doesn’t work for me and I wonder if maybe it’s because I can’t identify with the characters or subject matter.

I’m going to say this is definitely one of those books.

An unnamed narrator has a series of conversations with different people at different stages of her life over a period of 20 years or so. These conversations are about relationships, sex, sexual violence, infidelity, and the inequities between genders. They're with friends, colleagues, lovers, spouses, strangers, fellow students. In each separate story/conversation, it appears the narrator is hungering for something more.

The topics that Popkey presents here are important, thought-provoking topics. Perhaps in another person’s hands this book might really resonate but for me it missed the mark. I struggled in many cases with the long-windedness of her characters as well.

I have seen some very positive reviews of this book from both women and men, so perhaps #itsjustme. If this interests you I do hope you enjoy it!

Book Review: "I Wish You All the Best" by Mason Deaver

Yes, yes, YES. I loved this book so much!

Ben De Backer has finally decided it's time they come out to their parents as nonbinary. While Ben knows their parents, particularly their father, are difficult and have strong religious beliefs, in the end Ben thinks that their parents should be okay with their coming out. Ben is their child after all, right?

Ben couldn't have been more wrong. Their parents kick Ben out of the house and with nowhere to turn, not even shoes on their feet, Ben turns to their estranged sister, Hannah, who left home 10 years ago and never looked back.

Although it takes a moment for Hannah and her husband, Thomas, to understand what nonbinary even means, there's no question that they will take Ben into their home. Hannah feels so much guilt about leaving Ben behind with their parents all those years ago, and Ben only knew she was married via social media. But Hannah is determined to help Ben deal with the stress of accepting their identity coupled with their parents' rejection.

"Like, what do you do when your parents kick you out of your house? When your entire life is upheaved, all because you wanted to come out, to be respected and seen, to be called the right pronouns?"

As Ben tries to settle into a new high school for one last semester before graduation, they hope to keep a low profile. But that plan is quickly thwarted when Ben meets Nathan Allan, whose charm and humor make him seem almost larger than life. Nathan wants to be Ben's friend and doesn't understand why they keep pushing him away, so little by little Ben's defenses come down and they open up to the idea of Nathan's friendship, and in turn, Nathan's best friends as well. It's difficult, though, to be close with people from whom you're keeping your true self secret, but Ben isn't interested in the possibility of rejection again.

While Ben tries to reconcile their conflicted feelings toward Hannah and deal with panic attacks and anxiety, they're also frightened by how much Nathan is starting to mean to them. Can Ben find the courage to let Nathan know the truth about them? Would Nathan push them away? And even if Nathan were interested in them, is it worth exploring when Nathan is set to leave North Carolina for college in just three months?

Dealing with just one of these issues is tough for anyone, but all of them compounded prove immensely challenging for Ben. They find themselves turning more and more to their therapist and Mariam, their only nonbinary friend, with whom Ben speaks via Skype and text. Mariam has made a career from their experiences accepting their identity and living their life openly, and they want Ben to do the same.

I Wish You All the Best is a beautiful, moving book about everyone's right to be happy with who they are, and their need to be surrounded by love and friendship. It's such an amazing story about how you can't tackle all of your problems on your own—only by letting people in can you start to achieve happiness and self-acceptance. At times it's a difficult book to read, because of the emotions and challenges Ben has to deal with, and how difficult it is for them to communicate how they feel, but it seemed immensely realistic, and I found myself hoping that Ben would find their way through this.

Mason Deaver brought so much humor, emotion, and hope to this book. These characters were amazing. I read the entire thing in just a few hours and loved it so much. I really found it a tremendous learning experience for me, because I'll admit I don't know nearly enough about nonbinary people. I hope this book gets into the hands of those who need it most.

If you follow my reviews you know how much I marvel at the tremendous amount of talent in the YA genre in particular. I love the courage and boldness with which these authors tackle difficult subjects, and I am so thankful that there are so many authors like Deaver willing to share their own struggles with readers in the hope they can reach those who need to hear, and see, that progress and happiness and acceptance may seem impossible to fathom, but it truly is possible.

Book Review: "Birthday" by Meredith Russo

Meredith Russo, this book absolutely blew me away.

Eric and Morgan have known each other since birth. That's not hyperbole—they were born on the same day in the same hospital, and there was a snowstorm, so both families were snowed in. Their families were close, at least until Morgan's mother died of cancer. But the boys have been best friends their entire lives.

As their 13th birthday approaches, Morgan knows things are changing. What Morgan knows more than anything is that he isn't whom he's supposed to be. He's a football coach's son in a small, rural Tennessee town, and he's trapped in the wrong body. More than that: he's a girl trapped in a boy's body, and he doesn't know what to do.

When you realize a fundamental truth about yourself, you want to share it with those you care about. But how can he share this truth? He's already bullied in school, so that doesn't worry him, at least not as much as the reactions of those he loves. Can he withstand losing his father? Or worse, can he survive losing Eric?

Eric knows that something is wrong with Morgan. Something is different. There's more of a distance between them. He knows the insults that his father and his brothers say about Morgan when he is not around, but he is not giving up on their lifelong friendship. Morgan is more important to him than perhaps anything else.

Told in glimpses spanning six birthdays, Birthday is a powerfully poignant, eye-opening story about self-acceptance, family, friendship, love, and grief, and all of the obstacles that stand in the way of trying to come to terms with who we are and the life we deserve to live. I read this entire book in a few hours, and it will undoubtedly be one that sticks with me for long afterward.

Meredith Russo's prose is so beautiful and evocative, and the emotions it generated made my heart hurt. I'll admit there were times that I found myself reading while trying to cover my eyes at the same time because I was so worried for these characters and what might happen to them, wondered how close to real life Russo might take the plot. This is one of those books that I'd love to see a sequel for because I already miss the characters and want to know where their 19th, 20th, and subsequent birthdays will find them.

I've commented many times before that I am so happy that YA books today deal with so many important issues. Birthday never feels manipulative or sensationalized, it feels utterly authentic and it touched my heart. I hope this book finds its way into the hands of those who need it most, and those who can learn from the journeys taken by the characters.

Flatiron Books provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

The book will be published May 21, 2019.

Book Review: "The Best Bad Things" by Katrina Carrasco

This book takes you on a wild ride, with a protagonist unlike any other.

Alma Rosales is a detective, trained by the famed Pinkerton Agency. That's pretty unusual for a woman in the 1880s. But the thing is, Alma isn't all that interested in playing by the rules. She doesn't respond too well to authority, she has (more than) a bit of a violent streak, and she likes dressing up as a man to go undercover. None of this sits well with the Pinkertons, who dismiss her.

Now Alma works for Delphine, who runs a smuggling ring—and who happens to be Alma's occasional lover. On the hunt for stolen opium, Alma figures the only way to find the criminal is to go undercover. So she pretends to be Jack Camp, a dockworker, and she figures that by befriending the local boys and getting in with the crew, she'll be able to unmask the criminal. If only it were that easy...

The deeper Alma ingratiates herself (as Jack), the more she finds it hard to keep her wits about her and remember to whom she's told what lies. She's also playing both ends against the middle in the romance department as well, and Delphine in particular doesn't take that too well. With the Pinkertons circling, Alma needs to marshal all of her strengths in order to kick ass and take names—or she could die trying.

There are a lot of twists and turns and double-crosses in The Best Bad Things, so I'll keep my plot summary fairly vague. Suffice it to say, Alma is one of the most fascinating characters I've read about in a long time. I'm loving the recent trend toward gender-fluid characters and characters whose sexuality isn't the defining trait, but it's not so much the norm when books take place outside of present-day.

But as fascinating a character as she was, I didn't like her very much. She really had a mean streak and I couldn't determine what its origin was, but it made it difficult to sympathize with her. I'm also not sure that I really bought the whole cross-dressing thing—I just kept waiting for it to all fall apart. There are some intense sex scenes in the book, some which were tinged with violence, so that may be a trigger for some folks. The book also jumps around a lot, so the story and the timing of certain things became confusing from time to time. It was interesting to learn about the crime that took place in Washington in the late 1880s, and to see the myriad roles women played in such a lawless society.

Even with its flaws, this was a really interesting book. I hope more authors take risks like Katrina Carrasco did her, and create unique characters that defy stereotypes and aren't above some occasional ass-kicking.

NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Confessions of the Fox" by Jordy Rosenberg

When I first saw the description of this book, I thought it was going to be similar to Mackenzi Lee's book, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, which I loved and absolutely devoured. There's just something to be said for historical novels which tweak the then-conventional ideas of gender and sexuality.

While Confessions of the Fox is definitely a creative idea, it really didn't work for me. I've never been a big fan of the whole is-what-you're-reading-true-or-simply-a-construct-of-the-narrator's-imagination concept, and this book trades on that idea a lot. I thought that Jack, in particular, was a fascinating character, but I kept stumbling over the idea that what I was reading might not actually have happened, and that made me lose focus quite a bit.

Jordy Rosenberg did a terrific job with this idea, but the story as a whole just didn't work for me.

NetGalley and Random House provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Things You Save in a Fire" by Katherine Center

Add Katherine Center to the list of authors I've discovered this year whose work has utterly wowed me. Between her newest book and How to Walk Away, which I read earlier this year (see my review), I've become a big fan while becoming emotionally unglued. Because that's how I roll, y'all!

Cassie has always been tough as nails. As one of very few female firefighters at her Austin firehouse, she knows that she has to do everything better, be stronger, faster, and tougher, and never show one ounce of emotion. It's something she's been comfortable with since her mother abandoned her and her father on Cassie's 16th birthday. Cassie has never really let anyone get too close to her, because vulnerability means weakness in her book.

But on a night that should be one of her proudest achievements, Cassie's carefully constructed façade cracks, and the results are shocking, to say the least, to those who know her best. She creates quite a mess for herself—so much so that when her estranged mother calls and asks her to move to Boston for a year to help her through some serious health issues, Cassie ignores her gut instincts and agrees. But she makes it perfectly clear that she's not there to reminisce or be friends with her mother, she's only there to help.

"I reminded myself again that she was only Diana. Of course, our parents get an extra dose of importance in our minds. When we're little, they're everything—the gods and goddesses that rule our worlds. It takes a lot of growing up, and a lot of disappointment, to accept that they're just normal, bumbling, mistaken humans, like everybody else."

Cassie takes a job in the small town of Lillian, a town which has never had a female firefighter and isn't interested in one. In fact, the captain thinks female firefighters may very well lead to the decline of Western civilization. So once again, she's bound and determined to do everything better than any of the men on the squad, and not allow them to treat her like a girl. She ignores the hazing, the teasing, and those who want to see her fail, and she outdoes them at every turn.

The one thing she can't seem to ignore, however, is the rookie—Owen Callaghan, son of a retired firefighter, who joined the squad in Lillian the same day Cassie did. Sure he's good-looking, fit, and can cook like nobody's business, but Cassie knows she is a better firefighter and EMT than he is. But why does her stomach flip every time she seems him? It's not like she hasn't worked around gorgeous men before, but for some reason, she can't get him out of her mind, and it doesn't help that they get paired up for everything.

Cassie came to Lillian to work, not to date, and besides, dating a fellow firefighter is career suicide. That's the one main thing her captain in Austin told her before Cassie left—never date firefighters. So no matter what, she's just going to ignore the rookie and treat him like one of the guys. Because in Cassie's eyes, love equals vulnerability, which equals failure.

If you've spent your entire life guarding yourself from any sign of weakness, keeping everyone at arm's length, can you be truly happy? Which is harder, forgiving someone for hurting you or forgiving yourself? How do you decide whether it's worth risking everything you've built your life around to pursue something that might not work out, and might hurt you?

Things You Save in a Fire is one of those books where you can probably guess most (if not all) of what will happen, but it doesn't matter one iota, because you're totally hooked. Once again, Center creates vulnerable, likable, relatable characters and makes you care about them, makes you root for them, makes you angry when roadblocks occur, and makes you fearful that something bad will befall these characters you've come to know.

This is a book about how the walls we build to protect ourselves often keep more people out than we realize, and before we know it, we're safe but alone. This is a book about realizing that being a little vulnerable doesn't mean you're still not tough or brave, and it's also a book about when you know it's right to sacrifice what you want for those you care about.

Like any story where matters of the heart, family issues, and relationships are dealt with, Things You Save in a Fire is moving at times, a little poignant, and you might find something is in your eye once or twice. But this is one of those books that wins you over from the very first page, and doesn't let up, so it's worth a few tears (at least).

NetGalley and St. Martin's Press provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Dark Sacred Night" by Michael Connelly

Sometimes when an author who has written many books in a series introduces a new character, I worry that the effect may be kind of like when sitcoms of the past introduced a new, young character (e.g., Cousin Oliver in "The Brady Bunch"), and it essentially ruins the series.

When Michael Connelly introduced LAPD Detective Renée Ballard in last year's The Late Show (see my review), my fears were proven unfounded, because Ballard was such a complex, flawed, fascinating character (much like Harry Bosch), which made her the perfect addition to the world he had created. Still, I wondered whether Connelly would switch off between protagonists, ease back on the Bosch novels, or do something altogether different.

In his latest novel, Dark Sacred Night, Connelly pairs Bosch and Ballard together, although he lets them deal with their own challenges as well. The results are as electrifying as you'd imagine they'd be, and Connelly once again proves that, 31 books in, he is one of the most dynamic crime writers out there.

Ballard is working the night shift, otherwise known as the "late show," still struggling to be an outspoken female detective in a department that doesn't prize those who make ripples, particularly women. One night she finds a stranger rifling through old files—it turns out that stranger is retired detective Harry Bosch, who is looking for information that might finally help him crack a cold case he's working on in his spare time.

The more Ballard hears about the case, in which then-15-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway who wandered the streets of Hollywood, was found dead, her body bleached so as to not give up any clues, the more Ballard wants to see if she can help Bosch uncover the truth after so many years. The two share leads and theories, and chase many possibilities in search of Daisy's killer, although it seems unlikely after all this time that they'll be able to find closure.

Meanwhile, each has their own cases to deal with, and when the going gets tough (and dangerous), these outsiders discover that they can count on each other when they needed it most. But can Ballard look the other way when Bosch bends the rules so hard they break a bit?

This book was really a rollercoaster ride. Connelly took a little time to set things up, and then the plot takes off. There's a little bit of downtime, and then the momentum kicks into high gear. You wonder whether each case that Ballard or Bosch works on is somehow going to be the one that causes trouble, and you wonder whether they'll be able to solve Daisy's murder. But most importantly, you wonder how well these two forces will work together, given their independent streaks as well as their overall badass nature.

While it was great to have Ballard and Bosch together, and I hope that happens again, reading Dark Sacred Night reminded me just how terrific these characters are on their own, and once again demonstrated Connelly's talent for suspense, action, and character development. I lost track of the Bosch series a few years ago, but I definitely have to get back into it as I wait for Connelly's next book.

There are tons of crime writers out there, but Connelly is the real deal, and one of the best currently writing. You can read Dark Sacred Night even if you've never read any of his books—and I bet you'll be hooked!!

Book Review: "The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy" by Mackenzi Lee

It was so good to get back into this series! I loved The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (see my review), Mackenzi Lee's first book in this series, and I hadn't realized how much I missed these characters until I began her new book. Once again, I am so taken by the originality of her ideas, and the way she makes books set in the 18th century feel so modern.

"It would be so much easier if I did not want to know everything so badly. If I did not want so badly to be reliant upon no soul but myself."

For most of her life, Felicity Montague has dreamed of nothing more than a career in medicine, as a doctor or surgeon. Rather than fuss over parties or fashion or social standing, she is most comfortable with her medical texts and science books, where she can learn new things instead of being forced to make small talk. Yet this path is closed off to her as a woman—her family barely cares about her if she's not willing to be married off, and no hospital or medical school will give her an audience, let alone an opportunity to study.

After spending time in Edinburgh, where she hoped to enroll in the city's newly minted medical school, she discovers she is no closer to achieving her ambitions than before. And worse, she must dampen the affections of a kind baker with whom she has worked, as he wants to marry her and essentially "save" her from worrying about her ambitions.

"There are far worse things for a woman to be than a kind man's wife. It would be so much easier than being a single-minded woman with a chalk drawing on the floor of her boardinghouse bedroom mapping out every vein and nerve and artery and organ she reads about, adding notations about the size and properties of each."

With nowhere to turn, Felicity learns that a doctor she idolizes is marrying her childhood friend (from whom she has been estranged since a nasty argument a few years before) in Germany, and there is a chance that this somewhat-unorthodox doctor might have a place for her on his team. She agrees to travel to Stuttgart with a mysterious young woman named Sim, who promises to fund Felicity's travel to the wedding if she can pose as her maid. Despite the fact that Felicity isn't quite sure of Sim's motives, she readies herself to be reunited with her old friend, and hopes her life will change when she meets Dr. Platt.

But when Sim's true reasons for wanting to accompany Felicity are revealed, it upends her plans to get a job, threatens her still-shaky relationship with Johanna, and more importantly, endangers her life, as she becomes mired in a plot to recover scientific artifacts which have effects both sentimental and possibly life-changing. Her involvement pulls her from Germany to Switzerland to Algiers and Gibraltar, and what she sees and experiences toughens her resolve, leads her to some important self-discovery, and opens her eyes to some things she never imagined existed.

"You deserve to be here. You deserve to exist. You deserve to take up space in this world of men."

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy is truly a literary jaunt. It's a novel full of adventure, suspense, and some danger, but at the same time, it's a powerful commentary on equality, feminism, gender roles, sexuality, self-belief, and friendship. Yet to have a book explore modern issues against an historic backdrop never seems incongruous, and while at times it feels strange that many of the characters are teenagers given their maturity, I'm reminded of how younger people were considered adults much earlier in those times.

Lee is a fantastic, creative storyteller, and she pays attention to every last detail. I don't know if I loved these characters quite as much as I did Monty and Percy from the first book, mainly because these characters seemed a little less open and accessible emotionally, but I was hooked from start to finish. This is one of those books that is easy to love and not easy to forget.

I hope there's another book in this series coming along sometime soon!!

Book Review: "Girl Made of Stars" by Ashley Herring Blake

Powerful, emotional, and thought-provoking, Ashley Herring Blake's Girl Made of Stars is a beautifully written, poignant book about the bonds of family and friendship, gender and sexual identity, the emotional traumas faced by victims of sexual abuse and assault (not to mention the "blame the victim" mentality which is all too prevalent), and the confusion and anxiety which often accompanies love.

This was utterly phenomenal.

"Once upon a time...a brother and sister lived with the stars. They were happy and had wild adventures exploring the sky."

Mara and Owen are twins, so similar and yet so different from one another, yet they are incredibly close. But one night following a big high school party, Owen's girlfriend Hannah (who is also one of Mara's best friends) accuses Owen of raping her. How could someone Mara once shared a womb with, someone she knows better than anyone else, have done such a thing? Even as their parents rally around Owen and declare his innocence, can Mara believe her brother is truly innocent? If not, what does that do to their relationship? And if so, what happens to her friendship with Hannah?

Confused, hurt, and angry at so many people after the incident, Mara feels adrift because her relationship with her ex-girlfriend Charlie is tremendously uncertain. She knows she wants to be with Charlie but is afraid of what that means, afraid of letting someone get too close. But more than that, Mara has been able to keep a traumatic event in her own life a secret, but at what cost? If she speaks up, will anyone believe her? Will her parents believe her? Or will she be treated by her peers, her friends, her family in the same way Hannah has been?

"What else is there to do? What else is there for any girl to do, when everyone but her can just forget everything like a random bad dream? I have no idea what moving on sounds like, looks like. I've spent the past three years trying and decidedly not getting over anything."

Girl Made of Stars doesn't exist in a fantasy world where every person who does wrong is punished, and everyone learns from their mistakes. It's a book that accepts that life is often grey rather than simply black and white, but we can't stop fighting for what is right, fighting to make sure those who do wrong are punished. I think that's why this book works so well—it's never heavy-handed or preachy, but it does emphasize the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Ashley Herring Blake is amazingly talented. Her ear for dialogue, her eye for evocative imagery, the flawed yet unforgettable characters all dazzled. One of the greatest compliments I can give is that this book felt a little like one of Jandy Nelson's exquisite books, two of my absolute favorites (I'll Give You the Sun and The Sky is Everywhere), yet she is an author with a style all her own.

Like many YA books—and like life, honestly—there are moments in this book in which you wish the characters would just say what they were feeling rather than avoid the truth. But while those moments may cause frustration they are realistic, particularly given the issues that these characters are confronting, so it didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book.

Beautiful, emotional, and thought-provoking. I couldn't ask for anything more!

Book Review: "At the Edge of the Universe" by Shaun David Hutchinson

Did you ever get the feeling you and an author would be great friends (or perhaps mortal enemies), simply based on the books they write and the way they tell stories? Even if that's irrational as thinking you'd be great friends with a television character, I still believe that from time to time.

Near the top of my list would be Shaun David Hutchinson, who absolutely slayed me with We Are the Ants (see my original review), which was in the top five of the best books I read last year. Now he's back with At the Edge of the Universe, which I loved nearly as much, and it just convinced me I'd love to spend time just talking to Hutchinson and understanding how he thinks. At the very least, I'd love to be friends with one of his characters.

Ozzie and Tommy have been best friends since childhood, and they've been boyfriends since the eighth grade. Tommy is so much of Ozzie's world, the two have weathered so much, particularly Tommy's abusive father, and they dream of one day escaping their Florida hometown. And then one day, Tommy disappears, without any warning. But worse that that, Tommy has ceased to exist—no one but Ozzie remembers Tommy, and all of the memories that the two shared, or shared with others, have been amended or totally rewritten.

"It's impossible to let go of the people we love. Pieces of them remain embedded inside of us like shrapnel. Every breath causes these fragments to burrow through our muscles, nearer to our hearts. And we think the pain will kill us, but it won't. Eventually, scar tissue forms around those twisted splinters like cocoons. They remain part of us, but slowly hurt less. At least, I hoped they would."

As Ozzie desperately tries to figure out what happened to Tommy, and convince those around him—including Tommy's mother—that he actually existed, Ozzie begins to realize that the universe is shrinking, and perhaps Tommy was taken away into some alternate universe. But that's not the only crisis Ozzie has to face—his parents are getting divorced, his older brother has joined the military and is about to head to basic training, and one of his best friends, Lua, is becoming distant as her dreams of musical success start coming to fruition.

Then Ozzie is paired with Calvin on a physics class project. Calvin was once a star wrestler, class president, and all-around popular guy, until the day he quit wrestling and student council, came into school every day wearing the same hoodie and jeans, and mostly sleeps through class. Obviously there's something that made Calvin change so abruptly, and Ozzie wants to get to the bottom of it, but at the same time, he really can only focus on finding Tommy. But as he gets to know Calvin, he can't deny that he might be falling for him, but he doesn't know what to do—is it unfair to Tommy for Ozzie to pursue another relationship, or should he try and move on? And what if Tommy really doesn't exist?

As the universe continues to shrink, and Ozzie's life continues to change, he knows he has a finite amount of time to find Tommy. But he also realizes there are so many more people in his life with problems. Should he help solve those, even if it might betray their trust, or should he not lose site of his goal? And will there be a universe left when he decides?

Even though it's a little confusing when the plot goes all science-y, this is a beautiful book that hits you right in your heart. Once again, Hutchinson combines sci-fi and emotion to create a tremendously compelling, moving story about friendship, love, loyalty, trust, family, secrets, and selfishness. There is so much here to like, even if the characters aren't always 100 percent sympathetic, but it is Hutchinson's storytelling, his use of language and dialogue, that kicks this book up another notch. His characters may be wiser than their years, but they don't sound as if they just walked out of a John Green novel, where every sentence is a sarcastic burn or a philosophical insight.

Hutchinson is open that as a teenager he struggled with depression and contemplated suicide, so he has a tremendous amount of empathy for his characters and their problems. I do wish he had dwelled a little less on the physics, but it didn't keep me from loving this book and these characters. Like We Are the Ants, it will be a long while before I'll be able to get this story out of my mind. Is it 100 percent plausible? No. Does it matter? Not to me, given how tightly it grabbed my heart.

Book Review: "This Is How It Always Is" by Laurie Frankel

Penn and Rosie fell in love almost instantaneously. Penn was a writer forever working on his "damned novel," while Rosie worked as an emergency room doctor forever on the night shift. When they decided to have children, especially as their family grew to four boys, they adopted a tandem approach to parenting—"It was just that there was way more to do than two could manage, but by their both filling every spare moment, some of what needed to got done."

One final try for a girl landed them Claude. Claude was precocious—he crawled, walked, and talked earlier than his brothers, but he also was tremendously creative. He liked to write, draw, play music, even bake. He was warm, friendly, and truly a special child. But as Claude approached his fifth birthday, he became obsessed with dresses. What he wanted more than anything was to be a princess, and be able to wear a dress to school.

Rosie and Penn aren't sure what to do. Do they nurture their youngest son's wish, stares and cruel comments and jibes at their parenting be damned, or do they explain to Claude that boys don't wear dresses, and he is a boy? For a while Claude settles for dressing as a boy for school and changing into girl clothes when he returns home, but that really doesn't make him happy. He wants to be a girl.

"How did you teach your small human that it's what's inside that counts when the truth was everyone was pretty preoccupied with what you put on over the outside too?"

As Claude grows, and becomes Poppy, they encourage her to be true to her feelings and who she is. But is that the right parenting choice for a child so young in age? What are the next steps in this journey, not only for Poppy and her parents, but her brothers as well? At some point the burden of keeping Poppy's secret becomes too much to bear for everyone, and then everyone needs to figure out where to go from there.

What choice is the right one? How will Penn and Rosie know if they're acting in their child's best interests, or the best interests of all of their children? How do they protect their child from what they know the world always seems to have in store for people who are different?

Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a truly wonderful book. She draws you into the Walsh-Adams family so fully, that you really see how things affect each of them. The book isn't preachy or heavy-handed (although those who believe transgender people to be less than human, and that no matter what you always must remain the gender you're born into will probably not agree), but it also doesn't pretend the whole situation is perfect, for anyone. She emphasizes that it's just as easy to make mistakes by not doing or saying things as it is by doing or saying them.

Frankel is a tremendously talented writer who imbues her books with beautiful emotion. Her previous book, Goodbye for Now (see my review), had me in tears (and I read it a few years before my father died). Frankel even brings emotion to her author's note. But this small exchange in the book moved me the most:

"Tears crawled out of Claude's eyes and nose, and besides he was only five, but he tried to comfort his parents anyway. 'I just feel a little bit sad. Sad isn't bleeding. Sad is okay.'"

Maybe sometimes things happened a little too easily, but I still loved this book. Read it.