Reviews written by Renae M

Kate Ellison’s The Butterfly Clues is a YA mystery that I heard about through (I think) a newsletter. I honestly have no clue. Good books seem to fall in my lap these days. And shoutout for a cover that doesn’t feature a twenty-something in a purty dress! ...

One of my friends who’s read almost every recent contemporary YA release recommended this one to me. The concept, a baby in a trash can, sounded a bit iffy to me, and I didn’t particularly like the cover. But I gave it a go anyway. What I...

Funny story: I was browsing shelves at the library when I picked up The Sky Inside because the title reminded me of Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi, which is a book I really want to read. It turned out to be a really lucky coincidence, because the cover...

This was a surprising read. I would never have picked it up on my own, but I’m glad to have read it. Wither is engaging and unique, and though it isn’t earth-shattering by any means, I liked it all the same. I’ve read only a smattering of...

I picked up this book because, of all the hyped books that came out earlier this year, this one seemed like one I would actually like. I have a thing for realistic YA fiction, and, after the success of Amy Efaw’s After and Amy Reed’s Beautiful, I was in for...

Within a few lines of Graffiti Moon, I knew I was going to love this book. I love, no—absolutely adore lyric prose. If a novel is written in a style that’s almost like a prose poem, I’m a goner. Cath Crowley has it. That beautiful turn of phrase that seems...

“I know a few things about ghosts. The only way to stop them getting inside you is to spend every second of the day thinking about something else. Fighting like that makes you tired, and it doesn’t matter how hard you fight anyway. They chip till they make a crack,...

The first thing that stood out to me was the world-building. If you will allow me an indulgent comparison, I’ll explain. Veronica Roth’s Divergent is widely being hailed as the next Hunger Games. It’s very obvious to me that Ms Roth took a great deal of inspiration from The...

The Demon King is far from a perfect book. Looking at it critically, this book has issues aplenty. But even if I wasn’t in love with this, I didn’t think it was terrible, awful, or more aggravating than what I typically read. Rather, this book relies too much on common...

Mary Casanova’s Frozen is a very unique book. The main themes aren’t anything new to me, but the setting and much of the execution were very different from anything I’ve ever read before. Frozen was definitely a very interesting book. The story follows Sadie Rose, the daughter...

I’m just going to start this review by saying that The Crown of Embers is about fifty billion times better than The Girl of Fire and Thorns, and considering I really really REALLY liked the latter, that is saying something. Just to illustrate my state of mind while reading this...

Books about dragons, so far as my limited exposure has shown me, are not books that I make friends with very easily. However, I’m always looking to broaden my reading horizons, try new things, etc. Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey, being a standalone, seemed like the perfect opportunity to try...

As a reader, I divide Blink Once in half, and each half is very different. I honestly almost DNF-ed this book (for reasons I’ll explain below), but I was curious so I stuck with it, and I am very glad I did. The problem I had with...

Road trip novels, especially in the YA age-range, have become a sort of bookish sub-culture. There are funny ones, gloomy ones, in-between ones. There’s a lot you can do with a group of kids driving across America in a car. I’m not enthralled with the typical road-trip plot, but I...

Reading Jennifer Brown’s books in reverse chronological order (by publication date) has been a unique exercise; it’s interesting to see where an author is today, then go back and see where she came from—what her roots are and how she developed her talent. In reading Hate List now, after Perfect...