Reviews written by Christina Franke

What I Liked: As one can surmise from the title, Barrett’s retelling is from the perspective of one of the so-called ugly stepsisters to Cinderella. This alone isn’t especially new; such postmodern spins have been done before. Still, I think that Barrett took it a couple of steps further...

What I Liked: Boomerang is, I think, new adult enough according to the traditional formula to please your general new adult reader. If you’re here for sexy times, incredibly hot characters, and spontaneous boners, then you’re going to leave happy. Boomerang has this in spades. While the sexy stuff...

What I Loved: Miranda Kenneally has completely outdone herself. I’ve enjoyed all of her books. Loved them, in fact. They’re feelsy and shippy and funny and real and sex-positive and basically everything I want. Breathe, Annie, Breathe strikes that perfect balance between fluffiness and delving into powerful issues. When...

What I Liked: Amazingly, I managed to go into Anna Dressed in Blood knowing nothing whatsoever about the book, despite its immense popularity with my friends. All I knew was that it was a horror novel, but not even anything more than that. Oh, and that this series has...

What I Liked Theo, short for Theodora, makes a lot of really bad choices. She’s definitely riding on the hot mess express for most of Pointe. Despite her intense passion for ballet and dreams of having a professional ballet career, Theo drinks more than is good for her, smokes...

What I Liked: The aspects of Ink that I loved are still present, by and large. Katie’s made the decision to stay and Japan, but she does have to deal with the ramifications of that. In her normal life, Katie has to really try to adjust to life in...

What I Liked: If I’d had to guess, I probably would have said my favorite part of Behind the Scenes would be the romance. While I do think Liam and Ally are shippable, that’s not actually my favorite aspect of the novel. Ally’s family wins that. Ally has a...

What I Liked The narrator, Paige Kelly, known as Bellevue Kelly to the kids at her school, is composed entirely of sass. She’s completely ostracized and friendless, due to her apparent habit of talking to air. Actually, dying briefly in an accident after saving a little boy has given...

17 First Kisses was completely not on my radar, until it showed up in a package from HarperCollins, along with something I’d actually requested. I often side-eye these accompanying books, but I am so glad that Allen’s debut novel showed up on my doorstep. I was charmed right from the...

What I Liked: The main character, Jamie, seems to be the main factor for whether or not you like this book. Some have found him hateful from the very beginning and, if that’s the case for you, the book will be torturous. For me, though, while I didn’t emotionally...

What I Loved: Yup, there’s no doubt about it. Laini Taylor is the queen of rabid fairies. A fairy goddess. There is so much magic, literal and figurative both, in her stories. This short story, with less than a hundred pages, has more life in it than most fiction....

What I Loved: Kasie West is the queen of adorable. I’ve read all of her books and every single one makes me smile at both the romances and the friendships. On the Fence differs a little bit from West’s prior novels, both in heroine and tone. West tackles some...

What I Loved: Obviously a book about school shootings isn’t going to be exactly a fluff read, but, by my standards at least, Brown’s novel isn’t completely depressing either. One thing that helps a lot is the setting. I’ve read at least one novel with a school shooting and...

In the interest of full disclosure, you should all know that the author of The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare is a dear friend of mine. We’ve met in real life and everything. However, as ever, I stand fully behind my opinion of the book itself and don’t consider the...

What I Loved: Today, friends, I must start with a confession: I tried to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower during high school and immediately loathed and DNFed it. As such, I’ve not tried again until 2014, at least ten years after my first attempt. I also went...