Reviews written by Paige Cee, Staff Reviewer

What I Loved: In Case You Missed It is told in first-person, but when we read Sam's journal entries as an interlude between each chapter, readers get an even deeper look into her mind. She focuses a lot on her crush Jamie Moss and makes clear that she's a...

What I Loved: I’m used to seeing most MG and YA Muslim rep in the form of Arab Muslims, but Aliya provides a different perspective as a tween girl from an Indian Muslim family. Her family observes Ramadan as many other practicing Muslims around the world do, but their...

What I Loved: Kalah remains one of the most complicated, well-written, and all-around discussable characters I’ve ever come across in YA. If you thought she was unreliable in Vanished, she goes far, far deeper down the hole of reliability here. Her voice remains as strong as ever and the...

What I Loved: The book’s inciting incident is Elise meeting her Romeo at a sweets shop, so of course the book is going to be deliciously adorable and sweet enough to make your dentist advise against reading it. Even when Rajeev is being a royal jerk as the editor...

What I Loved: The novel starts out well: Sass is a recent transplant to Cornwall after her mother’s death and Alex is a boarding school boy who flees all the pomp to hide out at his grandmother’s Cornwall estate, which happens to be right next to Sass’s uncle’s home....

What I Loved: Kate Hamilton isn’t your sweet ingenue. She’s as well-versed in politics as her dad and is practically on fire with fury after her ex-boyfriend Parker posted many… unflattering photos of Kate on the school website for the girl he’d been cheating on Kate with....

What I Loved: Winning is told through four different points of view: Lexi, the pageant queen who serves as both primary narrator and antagonist; Sam, Lexi’s best friend; Sloane, a former victim of Lexi’s bullying; and Ivy, an outcast who spends all of her time ignoring what...

What I Loved: It takes serious mental preparation to even read the first chapter as we meet Pen and the abominable creatures she classifies as her friends: Colby the pickup artist, Garrett the outright offensive, and Tristan the actually-okay-but-a-major-pushover. We talk about how women who say things...

What I Loved: Kelpinger tells Agnes and Bo’s story through both their points of view, but Agnes’s sections are about the past and Bo’s the present. The alternating narratives of the beginning of their friendship and where their friendship ultimately takes them offers a clear “before” and “after” for...

What I Loved: If you’re a big fan of John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, then Liars and Losers Like Us will work perfectly for you. It features a cast of eclectic personalities, slice-of-life events that tap into the values and lives of modern...

What I Loved: If you haven’t read Heppermann’s previous work, you should do so and experience the beauty of her poetry, but the same gorgeous writing I remember from Poisoned Apples is present here. It combines Addie’s own narration with her heavily metaphorical poems, which ponder the differences that...

What I Loved: From early on, it’s clear what Adam did to Grace: he sexually assaulted her. Whether it’s intended to be a surprise or not, it’s honestly in the novel’s favor that it can be figured out so early on. As Grace narrates the “before” and Joy narrates...

What I Loved: Some books, you can churn a review out for right after finishing them if reviewing stuff is your jam. Others need a little more time. Rules for 50/50 Chances needed to sit in my brain and cook for three months before I found any words for...

What I Loved: Like its predecessors, Trust Me is as readable as crack is addictive and your sympathies always stay with Wick. She does some reprehensible things and acknowledges it, but compared to the people who have used and abused her tech skills, she’s on the lighter...

What I Liked: Riley explains genderfluidity as a dial. It’s somewhere in the middle on some days, all the way on one side on the others, but can honestly go anywhere on the spectrum and change at any time. That clear, solid explanation is hard to forget...