Tag: YA

fantasy · sci-fi

Thorn Hedge, Hell Followed With Us, and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – A Catch-Up Review

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Thorn Hedge by T. Kingfisher
Genre: fantasy
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 116 pp 
Her Grace’s rating: 4 stars

A retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” Thorn Hedge asks, “What if Briar Rose slept not because she was cursed but to protect everybody else?” Not all curses should be broken, as the blurb says, and it’s true. Kingfisher takes a beloved fairy tale and breathes new life into it. I loved everything about this story – the atmosphere, the self-discovery, and the anxiety it gave me to think about what might happen if the Princess woke up. Also, I think there needs to be a cat at some point in my future that I will name Toadling.  

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White
Genre: SF
I read it as a(n): paperback
Length: 398 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 3 stars

I had read White’s second book, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, a while back and loved it. My daughter read this one first and begged me to read it, too, so I did. I enjoyed it but I was kind of grossed out. I dig a good cult book and escaping from said cult, but the body horror in this one was over the top. I loved the characters, though, and the dynamics between them all.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Genre: SF
I read it as a(n): paperback
Length: 441 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 5 stars

I’ve had this one on my TBR for several years and I don’t know what took me so long to get around to reading it. I loved it! In some ways, it felt a bit like a more lighthearted version of The Expanse books. Not in terms of plot at all, but more in the sense of found family. It had enough action but also plenty of terrific world-building and character development. 

historical fiction

The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall

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Baskerville HallThe Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall by Ali Standish
Genre: historical fantasy/YA
I read it as a(n): ARC
Length: 336 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall by Ali Standish mingles elements of the historical Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous series, Sherlock Holmes into a steampunk-influenced adventure that’s reminiscent of a jaunt through Hogwart’s. A young Arthur Conan Doyle, living hand to mouth with his sisters, mother, and alcoholic father in Edinburgh, jumps at the chance to improve his family’s fortunes when he is offered a spot at an exclusive boarding school, Baskerville Hall. When he arrives – by airship! – Doyle settles in and quickly establishes himself as one of the most promising students currently in residence. When a series of break-ins, thefts, and threatening appearances by shadowy figures occur, events conspire to put Doyle’s education and life at risk.

This book will surely appeal to many young readers, but adult readers will wonder how the fuck Sherlock Holmes ended up in Hogwarts. At times, it felt as though the author were merely replacing names from Harry Potter with ones from Sherlock Holmes and dusting her hands off afterward. While that Potteresque aspect of the book might be forgiven since a lot of fantasy is pretty derivative anyway, it is harder to overlook the fantasy aspects as a whole. “Fantasy” isn’t usually what readers expect from anyone with the name Sherlock Holmes attached to it, so this book felt very out of alignment. The Sherlock Holmes series lends itself well to steampunk, no argument with that at all, and author Ali  Standish does a good job incorporating components of that genre into this novel. However, I was expecting a logic book. Where’s my damn logic book? In other words, it lacks the investigative style and logic that is associated with Sherlock Holmes and expected in any retelling of the great detective’s stories. 

To give credit where it is due, the story is filled with interesting and well-crafted characters. Real people such as Doyle himself mingle with his fictional characters such as Dr. Watson, creating an intriguing cast. I loved the diversity in the people the best. They’re not all homogenous and bland; they are vivid and have personalities that are deeply developed, given the relative shortness of the book and its targeted age level.

Younger readers will no doubt be thrilled with this story, but I don’t think it would appeal very much to many well-read adults.

This was originally published on the Historical Novels Review website. That review was nicer, though it said basically the same thing as here.

book review

Horrid

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913zauwpqyl._sl1500_Horrid by Katrina Leno
Genre: horror
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 326 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Seventeen-year-old Jane North-Robinson and her mother Ruth have to move to Ruth’s hometown in Maine after the death of Jane’s father. Jane didn’t even know there was a house in Maine for them to live in, but considering how her dad managed to lose all their money before he died, she is grateful enough that her mother inherited it, even though it meant leaving her own hometown of LA. When they arrive, though, the house is in shambles. Fixing it up takes a little time but it’s coming along and Jane is prepared to do hard work to help. What Jane isn’t prepared for is the fact that the house seems to be haunted.

This was an unfortunate case where the title describes the novel as a whole.

This book was a pretty typical haunted house type of story – old, crumbling house, ghosties, dark New England atmosphere, and a whole town who knows the deep, dark family secret that Jane’s mother won’t tell her. It was minimally creepy in parts but overall it was fairly predictable. The idea of the novel was interesting but the execution of it wasn’t the greatest. I think my biggest issue is that allllll of the characters were catastrophically underdeveloped and they all slid right into your typical YA cliches. 

I’m not sorry I read it or anything. I just had higher expectations and found it to be quite dull. That was particularly disappointing because I had high hopes based on that absolutely gorgeous cover! Yes, I judge books by their covers. This one was amazing and so I thought the story should have corresponded to that.  Alas. 

book review

Catch-up reviews

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Romeo + JulietRomeo and Juliet by David Hewson
Genre: Historical fiction
I read it as a(n): audiobook
Narrator: Richard Armitage
Length: 11:05:00
Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Hewson took the Bard’s play and turned it into a narrative historical fiction. I loved the touches of actual history, such as talking about the Borgia Pope or the occasional outbreak of bubonic plague. Beginning with this story, or reading it in tandem with the play, would make it so much more fun for high school students just learning about Shakespeare. That, and let them swear all they want if they use only Shakespearean swears. 

I listened to this as an audiobook and now I would listen to Richard Armitage read the phone book if that was all that was available. 

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Genre: SF
I read it as a(n): audiobook
Narrator: Mary Robinette Kowal and Will Damron
Length: 30:00:00
Her Grace’s rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I really wanted to love this book but I only mostly liked it. I really enjoyed the first three-quarters or so of it. All the parts where they were figuring out the logistics of getting as many people off Earth as they could before the Hard Rain began. I liked the complexities of the politics and the more sciency aspects of the story. Once the plot jumped ahead in time, though, I lost interest. I didn’t like the characters as much then and felt that ending the novel before the time jump would have made it ambiguous and generally better.

The Invisible HourThe Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Genre: magical realism
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 252 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars


Alice Hoffman does it again – a magical and lyrical story about a woman just trying to do the best she can for her child. Problem is, she gets sucked into a cult, which is not good for anyone. Her daughter takes stock of the life she leads and makes her own decisions from there. It is full of Hoffman’s typical atmosphere of magic hovering just at the edge of your vision. I loved it so much.

A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson
Genre: SF/ Star Trek DS9
I read it as a(n): audiobook
Narrator: Andrew Robinson
Length: 12:28:00
Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This may very well be a perfect audiobook. Andrew Robinson, who authored and narrated this, also played Garak. So having him be Garak while reading Garak’s story to us is just *chef’s kiss* to this Trekkie. 

Screenshot 2023-10-16 160640

Second Self by Una McCormack
Genre: SF/ Star Trek Picard
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 305 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars


Another terrific story and it happened also to feature Garak. I didn’t realize when I started reading it that he was in this one. So I accidentally had a Garak readalong of some kind. This one was a wonderful insight into Raffi’s character. I liked the dual timeline and how it resolved at the end, though McCormack went and killed one of the best characters in the book and that made me sad.  

Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier
Genre: contemporary/mystery
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 400 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Toxic horse rich person environment on full display! I burned through this book – I am an adult lady who loves horses and horse books – but even if it wasn’t about horses, the writing style made it imminently readable. I enjoyed the mystery, lowly finding out who the dead person was in the barn and who killed them. I figured that all out before the end, though whodunnit was easier to figure than whohaditduntothem. 

Mercy Rule by Tom Leveen
Genre: YA
I read it as a(n): hardback
Length: 436 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

When I first bought this book, I had thought it was a horror since the other books my Tom Leveen I’ve read were horror. So I was a bit confused at first. But it didn’t matter because this is one of the best, most anxiety-making books I read this year. Told from multiple points of view, it is the events and wind-up to a school shooting. Every character was unique and well-crafted – they were all individual people, not one of whom was a blank or someone you could confuse with another. I liked most of them, except a couple that maybe you weren’t supposed to, and one in particular was my very favorite. Heartbreaking book, but a very necessary story to read. 

book review · fantasy

The Witch’s Boy

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the witch's boy

The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill

Genre: fantasy

I read it as a(n): paperback

Length: 372 pp

Her Grace’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Once, there were twin brothers, Tam and Ned, who built a raft to go to sea. The raft broke and Tam drowned in the river. Ned nearly died of an infection until his mother, grieving over the loss of Tam, captured Tam’s soul and stitched it to Ned. The villagers said that the wrong boy lived because Ned was never the same, speaking with a terrible stutter and not being able to read or write. At the same time in another part of the world, Aine, the daughter of the bandit king, learns that the wrong boy will help her and save the kingdom from a devastating war.

This book was pure fantastical joy. It seamlessly wove together the magical with the mundane, which is one of my favorite storytelling tropes. Everywhere in the story, there are elements of magic, from the way Ned’s mother, known as Sister Witch, captures Tam’s soul, to the forest that moves and protects those it cares about, to the standing stones and their living memories. Magic in this world is wicked, always trying to lead those who wield it to misuse it in some way. Sister Witch remained good and uncorrupted by the magic because she kept it in a clay pot in the basement. Her one time slipping up was in stitching Tam’s soul to Ned. The villagers in general are quick to leave her and eventually Ned on the outskirts of society, but are even quicker to call on her if they need help to heal a sick child or injured adult. Ned, too, is shunned and demeaned, blamed in some way for Tam’s death and treated as an idiot because he couldn’t read or write and could barely speak. 

Set as a counterweight to Sister Witch’s goodness and her resistance to the corrupting influence of the magic is Aine’s father, the bandit king. He has a talisman made from a piece of the stones that hold most of the magic in the world. The stones are ready to move into a new form and leave the world, taking the magic with them. Aine’s father, however, is driven partly mad by the magic and he is at its whim, using it for wicked deeds and lacking the strength of will to control it. 

The way people view Sister Witch and Ned explores the idea that the things we fear the most can also be a source of salvation. The dichotomy between being seen as outcasts but also as someone who is needed is a great metaphor for the dualities we face in ourselves. It also shows that embracing differences and facing down our fears can lead to self-discovery and growth.

Love and friendship are central themes in the story. The unconditional love between Tam and Ned is fairly gut-wrenching. When Aine comes along, the friendship she and Ned form help him to deal with his grief and guilt while at the same time giving Aine a new focus for her unmoored existence. The bonds that form between Ned and Aine as well as between the wolf and both children show how genuine love and friendship can help to heal, awaken hidden strengths, and inspire deep courage. The trust, loyalty, and unflagging support this unlikely group of friends share with one another transcend the social norms of both their societies and defy the expectations of all who know them. In the end, Aine’s love for her father is what redeems him, though his redemption comes at a high price, and the love Ned’s parents have for him and his brother breaks the curse he’s had of carrying a soul that is not his. All of these various relationships highlight the transformative power of love.

At its core, The Witch’s Boy is a story about the transformative power of love and the unbreakable bonds of friendship. Barnhill effortlessly captures the essence of these emotions, exploring how they can guide us through life’s darkest moments. 

Favorite line:

  • A word, after all, is a kind of magic. It locks the substance of a thing in sound or syllable, and affixes it to the ear, or paper, or stone. Words call the world into being (29).
book review

I Wish You All the Best

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i wish you all the bestI Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver (Website | IG)

Genre: YA/ contemporary fiction

Setting: Raleigh area, NC

I read it as a(n): paperback

Source: my daughter’s collection 

Length: 329 pp

Her Grace’s rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Deaver’s novel centers 17-year-old Benjamin, a nonbinary kid living in the suburbs of Raleigh. When they finally work up the nerve to tell their parents they’re nonbinary, their parents flip the fuck out and kick them out of the house. In that instant. Without shoes or a jacket on, even though it’s winter and snowing out. Ben manages to call Hannah, their estranged older sister, who comes and gets Ben and takes them to her house. She and her husband, Thomas, a local school teacher, take Ben under their wing, get them enrolled in Thomas’s school for the last semester of high school, and get them into some therapy for the traumas caused by their parents. During all this, Ben makes new friends, including Nathan. At first, Ben thinks Nathan is a little too much but as the months pass, their feelings for him change into something else. 

This book is a great look at several social issues and the impact they can have on families. Mostly the impact is brought about by intolerant, asshole parents. And crappy society. And mostly well-meaning but clueless people. Ben’s world is shattered by the way their parents treated them. They don’t feel they can be who they truly are, which is a sad state of affairs for anyone. We all want to be loved and accepted for who we truly are, not for how others want us to be. I do not have any experience similar to Ben’s but it seems like it was handled extremely well. It was visceral. I don’t know anything about the author beyond the fact that Deaver is also nonbinary, but I hope their writing doesn’t come from first-hand experience. I wish people would just be kind to each other. 

I also really liked how Deaver handled Ben’s mental health. They suffer from depression, crippling anxiety, and panic attacks. At times, these manifest in an inability for Ben to say anything other than “Yeah” or “Okay,” and sometimes nothing at all. It can be really frustrating to witness that, but also understandable. I myself have been frozen in social situations before. It blows. 

Now for some things I didn’t care for as much. Hannah. She’s Ben’s much older sister and she took off when she was 18. I don’t blame her for that since her and Ben’s parents seem awful. I don’t even blame her for not thinking it through when she left her number for Ben to call, not realizing that a 10 year old child wouldn’t be able to call her without their parents finding out. I DO blame her for not reaching out later, when she was older and hopefully wiser. I think just bailing out of Ben’s life like that was a shitty thing to do, especially knowing what kind of parents they had. I think it is even worse that she seems to have actually forgotten him entirely for a span of several years. I’m glad she stepped up and is able to help Ben when they need it the most, but I don’t know that it makes up much for her absence in the years preceding. 

The secondary characters were kind of, well. Boring. Hannah was overbearing, Thomas was mostly a blank slate, and the school friends, even Nathan, were all sort of interchangeable to an extent. 

Also, things seemed to work out remarkably well in the end. I know this is fiction and it is nice when the characters who deserve it get good things. But it also seemed simplistic and not realistic. Don’t get me wrong. I’m GLAD it worked out as it did and I think Ben deserves everything good that happened. I just also think real life rarely works that way and it didn’t set well with me for some reason. Maybe we will get to see more of Ben and company in later books that could explore more deeply. A lot of this book felt like setting up and introducing characters. 

This is maybe a silly thing to nitpick, but I think the book should have had some resources included for people, especially teens, who are struggling with their gender identity, how to find safe places or mental health help, suicide crisis hotlines, and so forth. So, I will include one. One of my work friends started a nonprofit organization for helping LGBTQIA+ kids (they focus on kids ages 11-22). It is called Scaffolding Youth and is a fairly new but growing organization. It seems awesome, helpful, hopeful, and can connect kids with strong advocates. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, even though it’s a YA and I hardly ever read YA anymore. I have too many adult books to read to go back to high school, but I read this one because my daughter asked me if I would read it. I’m trying to read more books that she reads as well so we can talk about them. But I’m glad I read this and I think it’s really important that we have books that are representative. Diversity is vital. I definitely recommend this book, and also that everyone go and find other representative and diverse books when you’re done with this one.

Also, the correct answer is waffles.

book review

Guest Post: Review of The Leviathan Trial

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The Leviathan Trial by Oliver Madison

Reviewed by Cathy Smith

In his novel, The Leviathan Trial, Oliver Madison takes readers on a journey into the lives of 12 siblings by adoption. When their father unexpectedly dies, the brothers and sisters soon learn that only one can inherit the family fortune. However, the conditions to walk away with the inheritance are as eccentric and twisted as their father. Locked in the family mansion, the youths are told there can only be one survivor that will hold the keys to their freedom, and by only using their special talents and skills can they become the victor.

Trapped in their individual prisons of psychological horror, each sibling soon discovers their true natures and just how far they will go to end the nightmare in which they have been forced to participate. As the mystery unfolds, more and more family secrets and surprises are unveiled, adding to the conflict and tragedy that becomes a very real part of the characters’ lives. Although the story is fictional, the struggles each child faced can easily be reflective of real-life issues challenging children in today’s world.  

Madison has done an excellent job weaving together a mystery that keeps readers on edge as they experience the stories of each sibling, discovering their strengths, and realizing the darkest sides of their hidden natures. The basic human needs of survival of the fittest, and flight versus fight push the mystery through to the end, keeping readers on edge wondering, “What could possibly happen next?”

book review

Girl in Translation

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Girl in TranslationGirl in Translation by Jean Kwok (Website, Insta)

Genre: Contemporary / YA

Setting: Brooklyn, NY

I read it as a(n): audiobook

Narrator: Grayce Wey

Source: my own collection 

Length: 9:05:00

Published by: Books On Tape (4 May 2010)

Her Grace’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Girl in Translation is the debut novel from bestselling author Jean Kwok. It tells the story of young Kimberly Chang, who immigrates with her mother to Brooklyn from Hong Kong just before its return to Chinese rule. Kimberly’s aunt, Paula, had married a Chinese-American years before and was the one who got them their passports, visas, and immigration assistance. To pay off the monetary debt this created, Kimberly and her mother both have to work in Paula’s sweatshop making skirts and shirts. They are impoverished and live in a condemned apartment building that is full of roaches, mice, and has no heat. At school, Kim is a star and does her best to assimilate into teenage American culture. She dreams of performing well enough in school to earn a full ride scholarship to college, thus getting herself and her mother out of poverty.

Spoilers below the cut!! Continue reading “Girl in Translation” →

book review

Concrete Rose

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Concrete RoseConcrete Rose by Angie Thomas (Website, Twitter, Insta)

Genre: YA

Setting: Garden Heights

I read it as a(n): audiobook

Narrator: Dion Graham

Source: my own collection

Length: 8:17:00

Published by: Harper Audio (12 Jan 2021)

Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Concrete Rose is the sequel story to Thomas’s The Hate U Give. This tells the story of Maverick Carter when he was a teenager struggling to find his place in the world. Maverick always expected that he would grow up to be in a gang like his dad. His future as a gang member seemed cemented when he learns that the baby of one of his classmates is also his. Selling drugs seems to him to be the only way to make enough money to make ends meet, support his son, and help his mother with their bills. When his girlfriend Lisa also becomes pregnant, Maverick understandably freaks out. He assumes he will never amount to anything and so why NOT join a gang and sell drugs? His part time job working for Mr Wyatt’s store has shown him that “honest work” doesn’t pay anything. When Maverick suffers a catastrophic loss, he finds that life takes you in directions you never expected and that the help we might need is right there with us if we can open our eyes enough to see it.

So, I loved this book. I have loved all of Angie Thomas’s books so far, which is a record not even Neil Gaiman holds with me. This is a sequel to THUG but you don’t have to have read that one to get this one. I love how she weaves in bits of her other novels throughout the narrative. For example, when Lisa’s mom kicks her out of the house, she goes to stay with Miss Rosalie and takes her friend Brenda’s bedroom. When Brenda comes to visit with her new baby, they all get a kick out of meeting baby Khalil. That hit me right in the feels when I realized it is Khalil from THUG. Little tidbits like that really bring the story to life and serve as sort of an insider’s view for those of us who have read the other books, but it isn’t necessary to get the story. It is fully standalone. 

The power of names is a strong theme throughout the story as well. Maverick names his son Seven because it is the number of perfection, and to him, his son is perfect. Maverick says his father named him so because he wanted him to be a freethinker and independent. The course of the narrative leads Maverick all over but he does eventually live up to his name, though not at all in the way he expects. 

I how Mr Wyatt was a father figure to Maverick, teaching him some transferable skills and encouraging him with tough love. Mr Wyatt talks a lot about his garden, especially his roses, which are stronger than they seem and can grow anywhere, even through concrete. I assume the title, and the theme of hidden strength, is inspired by the poem “The Rose That Grew from Concrete” by Tupac. Maverick has that strength and his life could easily have been ceaseless heartbreak and danger. But he chooses to do what he thinks is best for his family, and his losses to date have shown him what he DOESN’T want for them or for himself. He is brave enough to try something that is out of his realm of experience, and like the rose, he learns that he can bloom. “Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.” 

I could really go on about this book all day but I will just stop before I actually do so. If you haven’t read any of Angie Thomas’s books, you are really missing out. This would be a good place to start, but honestly I think you should read THUG first. This one will have more of an emotional impact if you know Starr’s story already. 

Favorite part/ lines:

  • The apple don’t fall far from the tree, but it can roll away from it. It simply need a little push.
  • We left the roses untouched. I expected them to be dead by now, but they got blooms as big as my palm. … “What I tell you? Roses can bloom in the hardest conditions.”
book review

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

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23866536Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Website, Twitter, Insta)

Genre: contemporary/YA

Setting: Atlanta, GA

I read it as a(n): audiobook

Narrator: Michael Crouch

Source: my own Audible collection

Length: 6:45:00

Published by: Harper Audio (7 April 2015)

Her Grace’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Simon Spier is a gay high school junior who isn’t out yet. He has been having an online flirtation for the past several months with another boy he knows only as Blue. Simon is usually really careful with when and where he emails Blue, but one day he got careless, accessed his email from a school computer, and before he knows it, Martin, one of his classmates, has screenshots of his emails. Martin says he won’t share the emails with the whole school IF Simon helps him get a date with Simon’s friend, Abby. Blackmailing – what can go wrong?

This was an absolutely delightful novel. I admit I don’t read a lot of LGBTQ+ literature – not because I have a problem with it at all. I don’t. It just isn’t on my radar as much, which I think is ok since I’m not really its intended audience. That said, I am actively trying to add more LGBTQ+ books into my literary diet. I also very rarely read anything remotely resembling romance, and when I do, it’s either an accident that I somehow missed in the summary that a book is a romance, or it’s for a reading challenge. But this book got so much hype that when it was the Audible daily deal, I decided to get it. It only took me like 2 years to actually get around to listening to it.

Simon reminded me of a couple guys I went to high school with. He’s friendly and witty and in the theatre club. He’s not the most popular guy in school but is far from the least popular. His best friend Nick is on the soccer team. His other best friend Leah is a kick-ass drummer. They’re the typical teenagers – generally excitable, think their parents are lame, and hyperbolic about the events of their lives. Except for Simon, he has reason to be hyperbolic. Not only does he have to worry about getting outed by Martin, but Blue’s identity is also on the line. 

When I really look at this plot, not a whole lot happens. It’s a bunch of teenagers doing teenagery things and having all the feels about it. But it is really so much more than that. The underlying theme is to challenge the status quo, to undermine the assumption that straight is the default. Simon wonders why everyone doesn’t have to come out, whether they come out as straight or gay or bi or anything else. And he’s right. Straight shouldn’t have to be the default. Cisgender shouldn’t have to be the default. We badly need a shift in the way we think of sexuality and gender identity because being so narrow in our mindset and definitions is causing real harm to real people, not just characters in a fictional book. 

If I have any gripes about this book, it’s that everything all turned out very neatly. It seemed kind of unrealistic. Simon is a good kid. Leah, Nick, and Abby are all good kids. Blue turns out to be a good kid. Even asshole Martin turns out to be a good kid in the end. Basically everyone gets the HEA ending. So it was a little too cute for me in that regard. I like dark and twisty stories, which seem more real than the perfect ending. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad things turned out well for all the kids. It just seems like it was too easy. But it didn’t stop me from giving this a 5 star rating or it being among my favorite book I read in 2020! Even with all the cuteness and teenagers.