Reviews written by Elisha Jachetti, Staff Reviewer

THE BLACKWOODS by Brandy Colbert is both a YA Contemporary and Historical Fiction with multi-POVs, mainly between Blossom Blackwood and her two great-granddaughters, Hollis and Ardith. Blossom, through her hard work and perseverance, made a name for herself, and subsequently her family, but it wasn’t without many difficulties and tough...

FAKE FAMOUS by Dana L. Davis is a YA Contemporary novel in which Red, a young farm girl suddenly finds herself in Hollywood. By some random stroke of fate or the Universe, Red looks an awful lot like Zay Zay Waters, a famous singer and actress, so when Zay Zay...

NO PERFECT PLACES by Steven Salvatore is a YA Contemporary novel about loss, grief, rock bottom, and all the lessons learned along the way. The Brucke twins have been through it; their father got arrested for embezzlement, resulting in them losing their home, economic status, and position in the community....

UNNECESSARY DRAMA by Nina Kenwood is a YA/NA Contemporary Rom-Com and is so much fun. Brooke has just gone off to her first year of college, where she’s going to totally reinvent herself into a perfect human, but her plans get derailed when her high school foe, Jesse, moves in...

HOUSE OF MARIONNE by J Elle is a YA Fantasy novel about Quell, a 17-year-old girl who has spent her childhood on the run. Draguns hunt and kill those with Quell’s forbidden magic, and when they get too close to catching her, she flees to the only remaining safe place:...

OUTSIDE NOWHERE by Adam Borba is a MG story that follows Parker Kelbrook, a kid unafraid of a prank as long as it gets him what he wants. After his latest stunt, Parker's dad is frustrated with his behavior and sends him off to a farm to straighten out for...

THREE RIVERS is a YA coming-of-age novel in which a young television star gets sent to a wilderness therapy camp by her parents, who are concerned about the path she’s heading down. Stella gets kidnapped in the middle of the night from her bed, hauled out to a frozen Montana,...

YOURS FROM THE TOWER by Sally Nicholls is a YA Historical Fiction novel, set in England in 1896. The story is told via letters primarily sent between three friends, Tirzah, Sophia, and Polly. Each girl’s life has changed now that they’ve left school; Tirzah is living with her horribly boring...

ANTILLIA by Eric David Stanford is a YA coming-of-age thriller, in which Trick Horngold leaves his family behind to help his estranged father close a business deal. To do that, he has to fly out to a Caribbean Island, disguised as a landscaper, and earn the trust of a very...

I’LL STOP THE WORLD by Lauren Thoman is a YA Time Travel novel split between present day and 1985. Justin, a high school senior, doesn’t have much direction in his life, until he finds himself decades in the past, the week before his grandparents die in a fire. Without much...

PLÁTANOS ARE LOVE is a children’s picture book by Alyssa Reynoso-Morris that follows a young girl as she uncovers many lessons: how to cook plátanos for different dishes, how the food she’s eating and making links her with her ancestors, and how passing down recipes and tradition is the ultimate...

A SEED IN THE SUN by Aida Salazar is a middle-grade, historical fiction novel in verse about Lulu’s experience growing up in a family of farm workers. Her parents and older brother help harvest grapes in Delano, California, until her mom falls ill from pesticide spraying, and labor rights activists...

WHERE THE LIGHTNING GOES by Jackary Salem is a YA Fantasy novel that begins with Elle imprisoned in a room. She doesn’t know how she got there, but she knows she needs to escape. Breaking out isn’t an easy feat, but it sets her on a journey to uncover her...

DRAWING OUTSIDE THE LINES by Susan J. Austin is a fictional account of what Julia Morgan’s life could have looked like. Morgan was an American architect, born in 1872, and was one of the first female pioneers in her field. Austin makes educated guesses on what could’ve happened throughout Morgan’s...

THE DO-OVER by Lynn Painter is a YA contemporary romance in which Emilie ends up in a weird groundhog’s-day-like time loop. She keeps waking up on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, which was supposed to be the most perfect day ever, one she could check off on her to-do list. Instead,...