Catching Up

Okay, I've gotten woefully behind on a lot of reviews. I always intend to write about things and then don't, so here are quick blurbs on some of the things I've read in the past almost year or so. 

Second book in the Against All Gods trilogy. Just as good as the first. I'm partway through the third, but I put it down two months ago and haven't picked it back up. I need to, but I also don't want it to be over. 

A girl who's missing her best friend (she's away at camp) meets a new girl that's only in town for a carousel revival project. It's basically a coming of age story and very good. 

Same author only with adult, enemies-to-lovers lesbians.

I really love this author. She's the one behind the updated Anne and Jo graphic novels that I may or may not have reviewed. 

Just look up Kathleen Gros and enjoy her stuff. 

  

Parachute Kids and its sequel Outsider Kids are about three young immigrant kids who are trying to live on their own hiding in the US while their parents work to get over here legally. 

This one is an excellent read, but definitely some serious themes. Highly recommend them both. 

Sea Legs is about a girl that lives on a boat with her parents and their cat. They travel from place to place, sometimes staying a while to earn money and then the girl can go to regular school. Otherwise, she's homeschooled. This one is mostly light-hearted with some serious moments, but those moments get VERY serious. 

I think I've reviewed Peapod Farm here before. Very cute series about a city girl whose Mom gets divorced and they move to the country to live on a farm with her new boyfriend. His two daughters come stay with them on the weekends. He's an asshole in the first one, but improves as the series goes on. This is the third volume. I was disappointed Summer, who they teased last time as not being as mean as she seems, didn't play a role in this volume. I mean, she's there, but not in the capacity I expected. 

I've also read the newest in the Click and Sunny Side Up series. Those are always good. 

Switching back to regular novels. 

This thing is amazing. 

It flips between 1936, when the older main character is a teen, and 1978, when she's a curator at the Met. The second main character is about that age in the 1978 sections. 

It involves Egypt, fashion, the Met Gala, and a stolen artifact. 

HIGHLY recommend. I need to check out more of her books when I've done my TBR pile some justice. 

Flipping back to YA. I don't usually do YA romance unless it's tied in with some historical or fantasy theme, but this one caught my eye. 

Sadie Wen is a model student, fighting for the spot of valedictorian, and her mortal enemy is Julius Gong. For a bit of therapy, Sadie writes emails where she says exactly what she wants to say, mostly to Julius but also to other classmates and teachers. Well, in this book, they get sent out and she's got to deal with the consequences. 

There's a novella sequel to this that just came out and I'm looking forward to reading it, even though I usually don't do digital. 

The newest book from the same author. 

Former model Leah Zhang is on a guided trip through China that's supposed to immerse her in her culture. 

Naturally, the guy that ruined her life with a lie is along for the ride. 

I really enjoy this author. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on her. 

I have two more by her in my TBR that I need to get to. 

And finally, I've gotten back around to Irina Shapiro. I was rereading The Clique series and then started on Alphas, and I needed to also read something that wasn't so teen fluffy. 

Echoes from the Past is a Shapiro series that comes before the Nicole Rayburn ones I started with. But I need to read all nine of these before getting back to Nicole, as she's teaming up with Quinn, the main character of this series. 

They're very similar to the Nicole books. Half is set in the past. Half is in the present and deals with the main character's personal drama. The main difference is that Quinn is an archaeologist who has the power to see the lives of the people who owned the artifacts she finds. They have to be dead for her to see anything, but you can imagine how this would be useful to an archaeologist. She seems to not like it, and I get that you could never use it for anything academic, but I'd still love that ability to really see into the past. 

Okay, that catches me up. I'm planning on working through the Echoes from the Past series, while finishing my Alphas reread, then probably getting back to the final book in the Against All Gods trilogy. I need to also finish Ami, the second Guardians of the Dawn book, as the third comes out on the 19th and it's featuring my favorite character.