Reviews written by Christina Franke

What I Liked: Julie Cross hits the feels out of the park with Whatever Life Throws at You. She doesn't pitch a perfect game, but it was a thrilling one to watch. Sure, she walks a batter in at the end, but it was an awesome game nonetheless. Okay,...

What I Liked: The Hybrid Chronicles is one of those series that defies categorization. It is actually dystopian, but, aside from that, what is it? These books aren't particularly romantic. They're set in our world, but not. The locations are the same, the technology is similar, and the government...

What I Liked: In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t care for Cherry’s debut novel, Red. I’d had high expectations and they crash landed. After that, I wasn’t planning on trying her sophomore effort unless some trusted reviewers enjoyed it. Then one day I got an itchy request...

What I Liked: Cat Winters’ debut was absolutely amazing and with The Cure for Dreaming it becomes clear that her first book was no fluke. All of the elements that made In the Shadow of Blackbirds so wonderful are present here too, in a highly original story full of...

What I Liked: I’m not sure to what degree We Should Hang Out Sometime is non-fiction and how much of it is vaguely fictional. I mean, Sundquist probably can’t recall each conversation word for word, but I assume it’s pretty close to how things went down. This book covers...

What I Liked: How much do I love that this series is Goddess War and not God War? This series is boss ass bitches fighting and it’s completely bamf. There are strong men, too, but, across the board, it’s women calling the shots. That does not happen often enough...

What I Liked: The big difference here is that where Ask Again Later was primarily a romance, I’d say that Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless is more of a personal journey/friendship-focused book. There is a romance and it’s quite sweet, but there’s not really all that much time spent...

The Lotus War is coming to an end, one way or another. I’m here to assure you that Jay Kristoff’s trilogy doesn’t prat fall in the final volume. Endsinger is everything I hoped and dreamed it would be, only more. For the uninitiated, here’s my pitch: Kristoff’s fantasy is sort...

What I Liked: Once again, I picked up a book for the cover. All that drew me to this book was the word “story” in the title and the fact that it looks like it might be about a lady Robin Hood. Spoiler: it is not about a lady...

What I Liked: If you follow my reviews, you probably know that I adore books about people with powers. Stranger is totally awesome in this regard. The short version is that radiation from the sun affected the world, sending it into a post-apocalyptic state. Some people have undergone The...

What I Loved: The Perilous Sea is, if anything, an improvement upon The Burning Sky. It’s a fantasy novel with a ship of gold, epic banter, and oodles of world building. You guys, this is such a Christina book. So much. The sarcastic banter completes my...

What I Liked: What impressed me most in Liars, Inc. was definitely Stokes’ writing. Though they’re very different, Lainey and Liars do share the vibrancy of Stokes’ narratives. She has a real talent for voice. Her male narrative is perfect and completely disparate from Lainey, but both immediately fleshed...

What I Liked: For some reason, I had a bad feeling about A Wicked Thing. It was something about the cover, though I do like it, or maybe the title or the fact that I don’t tend to like HarperTeen books unless they’re contemporaries. Still, I cannot resist a...

What I Liked: Considering that I started this one yesterday in the evening, I’m so grateful that the Percy Jackson books are such pageturners or else I wouldn’t have finished this review for today. Now that I’m thinking on it, I was definitely flipping pages in The Titan’s Curse...

What I Liked: Whoa. I knew this series got better at a certain point, based on ratings from trusted reviewers, but it’s still startling to go from steady 3 star books to a much higher rating. I’ve been waiting for Vincent to bring it, and she totally did. If...