Reviews written by Connie Reid, Site Manager and Staff Reviewer

YOU STARTED IT is a heartwarming fake dating YA romance set in Canada. Jamie Taher-Foster had a rough three years when her dad walked out on her and her mom, and they moved in with her uncle (who is a big sweetie pie). The person helping her hold it together...

Gilded Blade is the last book in the trilogy that started with The Grandest Game and is being advertised as the last book in the Inheritance Game world. Therefore, it brings everything into question that you know about the people you have met through all the books. It relies heavily...

Carnival Fantastico is a standalone YA story that mixes romance, magic, and sinister gods for a carnival as you’ve never seen before. This story is told in alternating perspectives between Ignacio Olivera and Esmerelda. They grew up together after Esmerelda was caught breaking in and was indentured to Ignacio’s father...

How to Lose a Best Friend brings the drama, as the name implies it will. In this debut YA novel by Jordan K. Casomar, we meet Zeke and Imogen. They have been friends forever, and Zeke can’t wait to announce his love in a sweeping gesture on her 16th birthday,...

The Invocations is a supernatural mystery to catch an occult serial killer. The story flows between Emer Bryne, Jude Wolf, and Zara Jones’ perspectives. Each has developed backstories that are interesting, but as the story unfolds, you find out just how much their skills and troubles all tie together with...

Royal Vengeance concludes the Royal Blood Trilogy. Evangeline and Kit are taking dangerous risks to infiltrate the Fox Rex secret society to obtain the list of members that may be part of the more radical ABR group that bombed the museum and nearly killed her father, the king. All of...

The Unlikely Tale of Chase & Finnegan is based on the real-life Cheetah Ambassador program at the Cincinnati Zoo that pairs cheetahs with rescue dogs. This story is told in alternating perspectives from Chase, the baby cheetah, and Finnegan, the rescue dog. Both animals are highly anthropomorphized...

How To Date a Superhero (AND Not Die Trying) has a fun premise, as the title suggests it will. Imagine a world like Disney’s Incredibles, where superheroes and aliens are hiding in the population, and incidents of epic proportions happen on the regular. Then imagine trying to be a regular...

Moana has joined the ranks of Disney Twisted Tales, with HOW FAR I’LL GO, which asks the question, “What if Moana broke the heart of Te Fiti?” The answer is a quest into the depths of Lalotai, where readers learn more of the mythology. I read the story...

Teeny Tiny Science: I See a Star is a picture book geared to toddlers and preschool readers. The bright, colorful illustrations are engaging. I like the inclusive choice of having a child with a hearing aid in the story. The story outlines the cycle of a star in broad terms...

Tiny Garden is about a boy who feels like the neighborhood gardens are too big for him. He decides to plant a tiny garden, and even though his neighbors can’t understand his reasoning, it suits his needs just fine anyway. In his unbothered time in the tiny garden, he sees...

Now You Know Your ABCs (Or Do You?) is a clever exploration of the ABC’s while evading a wolf. My young reader enjoyed the invitation to participate in the story by repeating the example words given for A,B,C. Then the story derails at D when a wolf takes the place...

Rebel Heiress is the third and final book in THE DIAMONDS series. After three seasons out in the ton, Lady Rosalin Chen is told she must marry. However, when her cousin, Lord Ansel Chen, decides to go on a secret grand tour of the world, Rosalin can’t help disguising...

Star Friends: Energy Thief picks up immediately after the events of Charm Breaker in this 14th installment of the series. Technically, you could probably read it as a standalone because the background is explained, but it is more enjoyable if you read the last book, since this is a continuation...

Lady Knight features the love story of Lady Zenobia Osborn. With timeless quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft to start each chapter, we see the societal cage Zia wants to break from. Yearning to make a difference and push the boundaries of female agency, she and a small group of friends form...