Reviews written by Elisha Jachetti, Staff Reviewer

TRESPASSERS by Claire McFall is a YA Sci-Fi Fantasy novel and sequel to FERRYMAN. At this point, Dylan and Tristan have successfully crossed into the land of the living, having escaped terrifying creatures and death itself, but those obstacles pale in comparison to Dylan’s mom, Joan. She is more than...

ALL THE COLORS OF LIFE is a beautiful collection of illustrator Lisa Aisato’s best work, some of which has been previously unpublished. Aisato is a popular illustrator in Norway and has created for magazines, books, and even film! As she has a mountain of material to pull from, for this...

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY by Jenny Han is the novel that kicked off the Amazon Prime show of the same name. Belly, short for Isabel, vacations to Cousins, a Northeastern beach town, with her mom, her brother, and their family friends, Susannah, Jeremiah, and Conrad. This trip has been...

THIS TIME IT’S REAL by Ann Liang is a YA Contemporary Romance set in Beijing, where Eliza attends an international school after moving for the umpteenth time. As usual, she’s having a hard time fitting in, but then an essay of hers goes viral unexpectedly, garnering her media attention and...

EMMIE AND THE TUDOR QUEEN by Natalie Murray is the much-needed follow-up to the first book in this series. As it stands, Emmie has decided to go all-in with Nick, but unfortunately, just because the two of them have chosen each other, doesn’t mean the rest of the court, nobility,...

EMMIE AND THE TUDOR KING by Natalie Murray kicks off the Hearts and Crowns Series with a bang when Emmie, a 21st-century teenager, acquires a mysterious ring in a yard sale that transports her to 16th-century England. On arrival, she’s stripped of the jewelry, making her stranded until she can...

THE LOVE MATCH by Priyanka Taslim brings readers to Paterson, New Jersey where Zahra Khan is trying to figure out what’s next in her life. After her Baba died, she took a job at a local tea shop to help her mother pay the bills, but now that she’s a...

EMMIE AND THE TUDOR THRONE by Natalie Murray is the third book in the Hearts and Crowns series. The story begins with Emmie and Nick in the present day… and Nick is not adapting so well. He’s basically confined himself to their backyard garden and hasn’t ventured out in the...

TOSSED BY THE WAVES by Erin Reilly is a coming-of-age novel about a close-knit friend group as they grapple with going away to college, life’s hardships, romance, and how they want to show up in the world. Though it’s a feel-good contemporary story, the way it’s structured makes it suspenseful...

YOUR HEART MY SKY by Margarita Engle is a lyrical, multi-pov story set in Cuba in 1991. At this time, Cuba was in a “special period in times of peace,” and hunger reigned. There wasn’t enough food to go around for the citizens, but somehow there was enough for foreigners,...

THE TAKE-OVER FRIEND by Carol Dines is about Frances, a high school student, who has found herself practically friendless until Sonja takes over her world like a storm. Sonja is sophisticated, a borderline genius, and deeply alone. For Frances, it’s perfect. Sonja fills up all the holes in Frances’ life...

LOVE FROM MECCA TO MEDINA by S.K. Ali is a sophomore novel in the world of Adam and Zayneb, a couple, who after their Nikah, are still living apart. Zayneb is in the US for law school and Adam is in Qatar with his family, focusing on his artistic prospects,...

TJ POWAR HAS SOMETHING TO PROVE by Jesmeen Kaur Deo is a YA Contemporary novel in which TJ, a popular soccer player and debater, falls from public grace after reevaluating her relationship with her body hair. When TJ’s cousin is publicly shamed for her facial hair on Instagram, TJ, who’s...

THE HILL WE CLIMB is a physical copy of the heart-stopping poem Amanda Gorman delivered at President Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, 2021. The poem took the country by storm and in the days following, videos of its recitation made their rounds on social media, as did memes and favorite...

AS LONG AS THE LEMON TREES GROW by Zoulfa Katouh is an upper-YA novel set amidst the Syrian revolution. Salama, a budding young pharmacy student, has been forced into a role at the hospital she wasn’t prepared for as many medical professionals were killed in the resistance. Salama, no stranger...