This was definitely not what I was expecting but I really enjoyed it. Rowell did a great job of equally making fun of England and America (there really are a ton of hair plug adds in Chicago) without being overbearing. 5⭐️

Bout dang time. This was the first book subscription crate I have ever ordered. In April. It was supposed to ship in May. For anybody thinking about ordering a box from #LitJoy , don‘t do it unless you like waiting for a box for so long you start thinking it‘s a scam.

This was one of the books where it felt like everything and nothing happened at the same time. All the characters and events felt 2D and I didn‘t really care about anyone. I never understood the characters‘ choices, & even by the end of the book I never understood how the Quill worked. And throughout the entire book, they use the exclamation “Lady of Cups” & didn‘t explain until page 350/375 who that was. This all just felt like nothing. 2.75⭐️

This book was so good. It managed to be lighthearted and still talk about the hard things like the fatphobia and the fine line between tough love and emotional abuse. I just wish the author had made the elimination round components of the book more suspenseful. 5🌟

Going in, I thought this was going to be a realistic fiction book about Lady Jane Grey. Boy was I wrong. It was so much better than that. I had no idea it was possible to have a fantasy book with dark tone AND non twisted humor. Excellent read. 5🌟

This book was awesome. Best middle grade fantasy I‘ve read. I was into every twist and turn (though not so much the illustrations) and totally did not expect all of the plot twist at the end. 5🌟

I have so many thoughts about this book. The first thing I noticed was that in a public middle school in literal Chicago, the kids got dress coded for wearing makeup, having any holes in their jeans, and for having “non natural” colored hair. Nothing in the plot was not reliant on having the book set in Chicago specifically so it would have been really easy for the author to just migrate it like an hour out of the city. After the little dress ⬇️

Down in Long Beach, CA today helping my sister move into college. We had about 2 hours to kill so we stopped by a Barnes and Nobel that was half underground! I picked up the two books above and a blind date with a book that turned out to be Kingdom of the Wicked.

I‘m going to be honest, I read like twenty pages of this and was convinced I wouldn‘t like it for reasons based purely on the tone. But I stuck with it even after pg. 80 out of fear of disappointing my mother as she insisted I read this someday. By pg. 100 I was hooked. It just sucked me in. I never found myself spacing out. It was amazing how you could feel the character development in the tone even as Ari went from lonely and sad to happy.5🌟 ⬇️

This book was so dumb I love it. Napoleon‘s the best. 4⭐️

This was the best fantasy book I‘ve read this year. Rowell was perfect with the twists. She made sure that you never knew who it was, and when you did, the book told you a chapter later. I just loved this so much. 5🌟

~side note~ Does anyone know why the titles of this series all relate to Bohemian Rhapsody? I know Wayward Son isn‘t a lyric but it describes the plot. I‘m severely confused and am scared to Google it out of fear of spoilers.

Really not that great of a month for me. Only four new books read.

1 DNF

1 So-so

3 picks

This was a good one. The two books written by Bajpai that I read were excellent and stood out to me. This book wasn‘t very serious and was just fun to read. 5⭐️

I was slightly disappointed in this one but, then again,I went in with high expectations. I would hoping this would be like Moxie, but instead it just fell short. Out of the 408 pages of the book, there were probably 150 where nothing happened with the dress code or school regulations in general. I felt that though we were supposed to feel that Dr. Hardaway redeemed herself at the end but I still don‘t really like her. The end of the book felt ⬇️

This book managed to be so little and too much all at once. It stated off with too many plot lines; ghosts, an absent father, questions about the MC‘s past, and an assassination plot? A little over the top. But over the five hours it took me to read 170 pages of this book, nothing happened. It was created to read like a thriller and instead read like historical realistic fiction - along with the ghosts that showed up with no explanation on ⬇️

The second book (and hopefully third) in the Sidekick Squad series has some aro/ace rep in case anyone is looking! 💜🖤🤍 💚🤍🖤 (Also, Google needs to make some aromantic and asexual flags. And they need to tell their auto correct that aromantic is a word.)

This book just made me mad. It was extremely hypocritical the entire time. The entire purpose of this writing was 1) dismantling gender norms, and yet all of the characters are continually using phrases like “girly” and “tomboy” which just induces gender stereotypes and 2) proving that feminine girls aren‘t inherently weaker than boys. Yet the MC thinks that the volleyball team doesn‘t take the sport seriously because they wear make up to ⬇️

Cute romance. It wasn‘t very Grease-like, as it‘s advertised. That wasn‘t a big deal for me, since I don‘t really like Grease (I can‘t get over the morals it‘s recommending). I‘m still getting tired of all the homophobia in gay romances though. It‘s such a trope. 4⭐️

Now this was a nonfiction book that kept me engaged from start to finish. Between the style of the artwork and the captivating writing style, I actually wanted to read it (that‘s a feat with me and nonfiction). 5⭐️

Ok first can we take a second to appreciate the color combo on the cover of this book about a transgender and non-binary teen?

Fun fact: this is the second book in a row I read that has no middle or end. Just beginning all the way through. It didn‘t help that the book was so short and full of background, making every page feel like the first one. Because of that and the fact that I somewhat enjoyed it, I will be reading the next. 4⭐️

Despite the obvious intrigue of the whole secret full sister concept, I found this book, above anything else, boring and flat. I spaced out plenty and never felt excited to open it. The first half with Abby getting mad and enacting revenge on Savvy for just doing her job felt petty and escalated the situation way more than it needed to be. 3⭐️

While yes, this was an entertaining and informative read, they author uses the phrase “changed the world” extremely loosely. I mean, I wouldn‘t exactly count one trans Roman emperor who “turned the castle into a brothel where she was the only one doing it” and ended up accomplishing nothing politically (it literally says that) world changing. They completely ignored others who actually did stuff. And while we‘re speculating on world changing ⬇️

Going in, I hadn‘t really realized that this was MG, not YA. As always, I enjoyed the Alex Gino story- it was my favorite. I found “Stacy‘s Mom” slightly creepy (just think about the song). I also find it annoying when authors use all caps in sentences. But hey, those are just a couple out of the many short stories in this book. 4⭐️

This was basically your typical trans and gay high school romance, just with sports thrown in. They‘re fun and I enjoy reading them, but I wish there were more without homophobia and transphobia facing the characters. Anyone know any good books that fit that description? (4⭐️)

This series has basically turned into a soap opera- amnesia and all- but I‘m not mad. I mean, this book was still really good. But it took me a book and a half to realize there was a love triangle. I don‘t know if that‘s me being oblivious or if it‘s just not been written prominently enough. I also feel like it‘d be better if Avery‘s relationship with the boys was platonic, not romantic, but hey I‘ll read them all either way. 5⭐️

As I find with many of the Riorden Presents novels, the writing felt novice, lacking the “umph” you get from Riorden‘s actual books. The plot felt slow and fast at different points, shoveling out twists in the space of a paragraph and stretching out conversations for much longer than needed. But, as I always find in the Riorden Presents series, I enjoyed it despite all its low points. 4⭐️

I‘m going to be honest, this was my first thick nonfiction. It‘s nothing against the book, but I don‘t think this genre is for me. The book itself though had many fun references to the musical hidden in chapter titles. But, it was also filled with typos and misspellings and the code that appears when you italicized something. But I mean, 4⭐️?

An Outsiders retelling written by the author of Moxie? Yes please. Picking this up, I thought it would be a vague retell influence, just set in the same class battle. But no it was especially a carbon copy, just gender-flipped and dealing with other issues from the 60‘s like sexism and racism. Did I spend the entire book guessing who the Johnny and the Daley were so I could prepare myself? Yes, yes I did. But dang, this was a great book. 5⭐️

This book is like if Harry Potter was more quidditch centered without all of the controversy and also had dragons. It really was one of those books that was so diverse it slaps you in the face in the best possible way. Also dragons are excellent. It always takes skill to invent a new sport, especially one that has magic. 5🌟

I‘ve passed on this book an uncountable number of times. It took a friend literally thrusting their copy into my arms and telling me to enjoy it for me to actually read it. I should have read it sooner. The entire time I thought I knew the twist and that it was ridiculously obvious but NOPE it was a different twist that was even better!! 5🌟

After nearly six months of searching, I have finally found a copy of Moxie that is not the movie cover. Plus, it‘s brand new and hardcover! I got so lucky!

Did I enjoy reading this book? Yes, yes I did. And while yes, this is a book about the struggles of trans sixth grader, I also still expected it to be a novel of feminism and in a way it was, but the author attacked gender norms set for girls while encouraging the ones set for men. The MC just seemed to struggled off male stereotypes and issues way too easily (I just mean when the MC‘s guy friend mentioned how dumb it was that he couldn‘t wear a⬇️

While I was reading this, I couldn‘t get over the fact that this author can write one really bad book (I‘m talking about the book Radio Silence NOT Heartstopper these are perfection) and then this great series. I love these but still, Charlie‘s body proportions are extremely weird. 5🌟

I‘m not going to lie, this is not what I was expecting from this book. I thought it would just be like classic zombie apocalypse style with the MC and crew going around and killing with style. I was NOT expecting the false utopia that was actually presented in this. But hey, unexpected stuff can be fun, and this was. 4⭐️

After much peer pressure from my friends who are obsessed with the show, I finally bought (due to absurd library wait times) and read Heartstopper. The only truly bad thing I need to say about this are 1) what the heck was up with Charlie‘s head proportions to his body proportions? His head just felt too small for his body. Bugged me the entire time. 4⭐️

As with every book I‘ve read by Julie Murphy I really enjoyed reading this. Though I can‘t really see how it qualifies as part of the Dumplin‘ series, I liked the plot & of course enjoyed Cheese the cat. I‘d never read a book with a plot along these lines. Not the divorced parent story but with the advice column author. I guess with newspapers quickly becoming obsolete, I‘ve never thought about the actual writers for said newspaper. As always, 5⭐️

While yes, I did enjoy reading this book, it also let me down. I mean, the second I added to my TBR I knew it would be sad and I knew it was almost 500 pages, so I thought I would fall in love with the characters and then sob. But when characters died, I wasn‘t that sad. In the end it just felt wasted, especially with people I know who have amped me up for crying with this. And though I know it defeats the purpose of this book, I wonder if it ⬇️

All of my choices for the bracket this month were unbelievable close. #ReadingBracker2022

Great month of reading for me! Kept my now two year streak of April being the best reading month for me! I don‘t know why or how this happens, but it does.

11 picks

3 so-so‘s

1 pan

#ThingsWeHaveInCommon

I don‘t know what I was expecting when I added this book to my TBR, but it was not what I ended up reading. I guess I hadn‘t really thought about the fact that there are so many different styles and lore around vampires that all can be taken in so many directions. But, I also felt a little let down considering how amped up I got myself about the author selection (Samir‘s Ahmed, Julie Murphy, Dhonielle Clayton, AND Mark Oshiro!). ⬇️

#ThingsWeHaveInCommon

This is not the only book I‘ve read featuring menstruation discrimination, but it‘s definitely the best. It tackled diseases caused by periods as well as friendships, while still including trans men and gender non-conforming people in the book. Definitely haven‘t seen that before. 5🌟

These next few will be some strange connections because I have a LOT of library books I need to read.

#ThingsWeHaveInCommon

Little late on posting this one! #ThingsWeHaveInCommon

It took me a while to get into this one partially because I would only read small portions of it and couldn‘t get into the story but also because this is one of those books where you are deeply interested while reading it but then later forcing yourself to sit down and finish it. Over all I liked it. If you‘d asked me what I‘d rate it now ten minutes after finishing I‘d say 5⭐️. Tomorrow I may say 4⭐️. So I figured I‘d round it off at a nice 4.5⭐️

I‘ve never read a book that was started by one author who passed during the process of writing it and then finished by another. But now that I have, I can‘t help but wonder if the author would have enjoyed what became of her book. All I do know, though, is that I enjoyed it. Native American history pass The Trail of Tears is not taught enough in schools. There need to be more books like this to educate those who are oblivious to ⬇️

#ThingsWeHaveInCommon

My bar for a funny book has skyrocketed after reading this. However, it still dealt with mature themes of death, addiction, and adult sibling relationships in a way that felt natural. Props for healthy polyamorous rep. Perfection. 5🌟