Contemporary

Emily Henry is an author whose work I've enjoyed, so Beach Read was on my list right away. The story follows January and Augustus, two accomplished novelists and college rivals, who become neighbors and work together to overcome writer's block caused by their resurfacing trauma. They challenge each other to new genres and experiences and definitely don't fall in love along the way. January is a fun character to read about during her most embarrassing and romantic moments, despite each situation being exaggerated so much that it felt silly. Augustus' personality was a little bland and I wished there was an actual reason for them to become enemies instead of the overused misunderstanding trope. However, the message of valuing family despite their faults and taking a leap of faith for the sake of your individuality is important. I'd say this book isn't life-changing, but good to read if you can relate to any struggles with parental relationships or feeling obligated to stay in a relationship that is just average.
Grade 12

The novel focuses on Liv, a teenage girl who thinks her father abandoned her to find Atlantis and never came back or reached out until postcards start coming in the mail. All of a sudden her life changes when her dad says he wants her to come to Greece and help him. Liv agrees but is hesitant to talk and meet with her now-doing well father while she leaves her boyfriend, parties, and life behind. I think the storyline was short and a little odd. Liv suddenly leaves, meets a bunch of people, and the characters all think everything in life is solved. I like the premise of the Love and Gelato trilogy with types of love being the center, but this one doesn't do that theme justice. The wholesome romances of the first two just didn't compare to the hurried and kinda sloppy put-together romance with both family and a boy. I think having the story center around Atlantis was interesting but an intriguing choice since it has mystery and unknowns like Liv's adventure. I think the ending was pretty predictable and the relationships were rushed, but I like the theme and imagery in the novel.
Grade 12

Me Myself & Him follows Chris Schweitzer, a graduated high school senior ready for his last summer in small town Ohio. But when he does whippets in an alley, passes out, and ends up in the hospital, his life splits down two paths. The story follows both these possibilities: one where his parents find out and ship him off to spend the summer with his distant father, and a second one where his parents remain in the dark, and he stays in town with his slightly distant friends. No matter which path taken in this multiversal tale, both sides end with Chris' life changed forever.
This book was very solid. I say this meaning no offense: it wasn't boring, slow, tangential, or otherwise hard to read. It was easy to read, and if I recall correctly, I finished it in under two days. I call this a solid story because that's what it is: a story that is very easy to enjoy. The characters are fun and witting and exciting; it's very easy to get invested in them and their choices. Even antagonistic characters (often including the main character) are likable and relatable, despite their horrible choices. The dual story structure stays interesting and fresh, exploring the characters from many different angles. I like how the story expands on its dual universe origin, including science and research to solidify the basis of the premise.
There were a couple things that threw me off. One storyline became, to me, far more intriguing because it delved further into the protagonists relationship with his father, which really helped flesh out both characters. The other side of the story had its merits in evolving the protagonist and his relationship with his friends, but it wasn't nearly as compelling for me. The only other issue was that the ending was slightly anticlimactic. I don't disagree with how the ending turned out, since it resolved both sides of the story, but the ending just felt a bit abrupt.
Still, these are my opinions, and one of the reasons I called this a solid story is because I think anyone could enjoy it. This book is fun, clear-cut despite a complex premise, relatable, and heartwarming. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a story about goodbyes and new beginnings, with some bittersweet laughter along the way!
Reviewer Grade: 11

I appreciated a more realistic, but equally heartwarming, romance novel to break up the many cookie-cutter books of the genre. In The Kiss Quotient, the main character Stella seeks advice to find a romantic partner. It's only a matter of time before the man who agrees to help makes her reconsider who she is looking to impress. Stella's witty lines and her experience with Asperger's were interesting to read about and made me appreciate the romantic scenes even more because not every party or conversation went as expected. It was also cool to follow a main character that is self-confident and extremely brilliant. Nothing particularly stuck out to me as negative about the book, but it was fast-paced and surface level which just isn't my favorite kind of book.
Grade 12

This book was real easy to read and for me to get interested in. It is a story about a girl who had real life problems. The book tells the story of her after she gets out of school and how she just keeps running into problems. Like her parents get divorced, I could relate to her on this because my parents got divorced when I was 7. I like reading about real life stuff because it makes me feel like I am not alone with my things. I hope that the author writes a sequel to this book.
-an almost 9th grader

Normal People by Sally Rooney beautifully follows Marianne and Connell’s on again off again relationship. I really loved this book and I felt as if I was there growing with the characters. This story does not follow much of a plot, it is more about watching Marianne and Connell grow and develop as people. Rooney addresses mental health and abuse and the way Marianne and Connell were always there for each other literally makes me scream. The story begins when they are in high school with Connell being a well liked soccer player and Marianne being pretty much the opposite. It follows them through college and all their ups, downs, mistakes, and triumphs. This is a fairly easy read and I was able to finish it in no time at all.

They Both Die at the End is a perfect book for both tweens and teens! Set in a futuristic time where the "Death-Cast" can predict your death, two teenage boys, Mateo and Rufus, meet through an app that leads you to your last friend. Both of them are on their death day, wanting to live memories they never got to and they learn how much of a gift it is to find love, even in your last hours. Though Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, they connect in a way they never could with anyone else and live the short life they wanted together.
I loved this book because it was deep and meaningful. It gave thought to so many things and made a day last an eternity. I stayed up all night reading this book because I just couldn't put it down, it was entrapping how the author put down their last moments together as a story with so many lessons to learn from. I picked this book because it was different than what I normally read and because I wondered how the author would put it together, knowing that the title gave it all away. I was not disappointed at all! If anything, I was only sad and disappointed about how it ended, otherwise, the book was fantastic. Even though the title of the book is a complete spoiler, by the end you never see it coming and it is so sad when you realize the book is over. The ending was very predictable but it will surprise you even though you know it will happen. It was an amazing book about their story of gay love and I ended up crying at the end because it was so beautiful. The author made the boys very relatable and emotional in a way that truly hooked you into the book. This is one of the best books I've read this year and I would certainly recommend that you read it too!

You've Reached Sam is a story about a high school girl named Julie grappling with the recent death of her boyfriend Sam. One day, after a week of Sam's death, Julie decides to call Sam to try and hear his voice for one last time. And to her surprise, he actually picks up. For some reason, Julie and Sam have this special connection even after death, but both Sam and Julie are aware that their time together is running out, and the phone calls won't last forever.
The plot of this story and its elements of fantasy intrigued me at first, but when I actually started reading, I was very underwhelmed. If I'm being honest, Julie as a character was very irritating. I understood that she was dealing with grief from losing a loved one, but when I read the flashback scenes, I slowly understood that Julie was always selfish and irritating from day 1. Adding onto an unlikeable main character were the "antagonists" of the novel. Liam and Taylor were some of Sam's childhood friends and we're told that they never really liked Julie in the first place. But after Sam's death, both of them blame Julie for what happened to Sam and are just overall cruel and unnecessarily racist to Julie's Asian friends. To be honest, Liam and Taylor were horribly written "villains." I could not understand why they were the way that they were, and it would have been much more interesting to hear their backstories with Sam and why they hated Julie so much. Sadly, Thao barely does any of this, and I wish he took the time to delve into Liam and Taylor's stories as well. Adding on, while I appreciated the representation of Asian and Asian-American characters in this novel, I feel like Thao barely did any research when writing about Sam's Japanese background. He talks about cherry blossoms and temples, and pretty much very basic facts about Japanese culture, and I wish he delved deeper into Sam's background, especially because Japanese culture has many interesting beliefs and traditions surrounding death that not many people have heard about. Adding on, I also didn't really like the way Thao incorporated scenes of discrimination against Asian people throughout the novel. To me, these scenes seemed very random and rushed. While I understood what Thao was trying to do, I feel like these scenes could have been more naturally incorporated into the plot, instead of seeming like these scenes were just there for added diversity.
Overall, this book to me was very overhyped. I didn't find myself shedding a single tear during this entire novel, even when every review was raving about how heartbreaking the story was. While the plot and the diversity of the characters excited me at first, I was left feeling very disappointed and I wish Thao did much more with all the potential that the story could have had.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a fictional autobiography written by Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. It is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese-American son to his illiterate mother.

To me, it was a surprise to hear that this novel was a work of fiction. The scenes constructed were so raw and real and written with so much emotion, that I automatically figured that this was a memoir. However, I later discovered that this book was fiction, with a couple of truths sprinkled in. I really loved the format that Vuong decided to use in this book because the letter format felt very lyrical and poetic at times. The book was refreshing and easy to follow, as opposed to the topics discussed in the book. As an Asian-American myself, there were many topics addressed in the novel that I could really sympathize and relate with, and while the subjects addressed could get pretty heavy and difficult to read through at times, I was grateful that Vuong took it upon himself to shed some light to many real issues and experiences. While I personally enjoyed the lyrical writing and could sympathize with the difficult subjects, I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone. There are many scenes in the novel that could be triggering and too much to handle, and even I felt like I had to put down the book a few times to get a break. I would recommend that before anyone decides to read this book, they should look up the content and trigger warnings. However, those that do decide to start this novel will definitely not be disappointed.

The Love Hypothesis is a cute romance novel that takes place in an academic setting. Olive, our protagonist, is a PhD STEM student attending Stanford, and Adam, her love interest is a professor at the college. I was initially a little hesitant about this book because while the age gap between Olive and Adam isn't concerning, their power dynamic is. Conveniently, however, it is revealed that Adam is not one of Olive's professors and manages another section of students. Even though Adam and Olive were never really "teacher-student," it still made me a little uneasy, especially since the two attend the same college. The novel basically establishes its plot through Olive and Adam having a fake relationship together. Adam needs this fake relationship to convince his higher-ups that he's not leaving Stanford and has put down roots, in order to unfreeze funds needed for his research projects. Olive, on the other hand, needs a fake relationship to convince her best friend Ahn, that she has no feelings for a boy she had gone out on a couple of dates with, after realizing Ahn is interested in the same boy herself. In order to persuade Ahn to pursue her feelings, Olive strikes up this fake-dating deal with Professor Adam Carlsen, thus leading the two of them into a real future together.

The Love Hypothesis, in my opinion, has everything critical for a good, cheesy, romance. The fake-dating trope, many sweet situations, and a love interest who seems cold and cruel on the outside, but turns out to be a softie just for Olive. While the novel may have the right ingredients for a swoon-worthy romance, however, there was something missing. Olive as a protagonist was a very 2d character and was someone I could not find myself relating to or even being interested in. While it was refreshing to see a female woman lead pursuing a career in STEM, there was nothing else all that interesting about Olive. I also didn't like the author's choice of using the topic of sexual assault only as a plot device, in order to bring the story forward and the characters closer.

On the other hand, Adam was a classically written love interest. Strong on the outside, and soft on the inside, he had all the criteria needed for a typical male lead in a romance novel, and while it may seem overdone to some, I think Adam was a great portrayal of such traits.

Overall, The Love Hypothesis was an interesting romance novel, and I enjoyed its academic setting and some of the scenes involved. However, there were a couple of aspects of the story that could have been tweaked to make the story more enjoyable. In my opinion, many romance-lovers would probably enjoy this novel, but I found myself wanting more.