The Selection by Kiera Cass is a dystopian fantasy novel that follows America Singer as she is put into the Selection, a contest of 35 girls competing for the prince’s heart. I have been putting off reading this book for a long time because of its heavily mixed reviews, but I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed.
Always and Forever, Lara Jean, Jenny Han’s final novel in her To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy, provided the perfect ending to the series; however, it still lacked compared to the first book. In this book, Lara Jean and Peter deal with the prospect of college and all that comes with it, especially being in a long-distance relationship and having different schedules.
P.S. I Still Love You is the second book in Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series. Lara Jean and Peter are officially together, for real this time, but things get complicated when one of Lara Jean’s past loves shows up, and Peter can’t stay away from his ex-girlfriend, Genevieve. John Ambrose, Peter’s childhood best friend and one of Lara Jean’s past loves, finally got her letter. John and Lara Jean start to talk and begin to become close.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a contemporary YA romance written by Jenny Han. The story follows Lara Jean, a girl who hasn’t had much experience with romance but suddenly winds up in a fake relationship. Lara Jean wrote letters for every boy she had ever loved; they were meant just for her, but one day, they were mailed out.
Lovely War, written by Julie Berry, is a historical fiction romance novel narrated by the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, as a defense for her infidelity to her husband Hephaestus with Ares, god of war. She speaks of two couples whose stories intertwine with each other, both of whom met during the first World War, and recounts their tragic yet beautiful tale to explain why love and war are attracted to each other and to demonstrate how love requires vulnerability.
Lira has seventeen hearts in her bedroom. As a siren, she kills a human prince and takes his heart every year on her birthday. By doing so, she proves that she will be strong enough to take over her mother’s throne and become queen one day. However, after Lira disobeys her mother, she is punished by being transformed into a human — one of the creatures she hates the most. To win back her mother’s favor, Lira must claim the heart of Prince Elian, an infamous siren-killer and the heir to the most powerful kingdom in the land.
The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss was a largely enjoyable read with only a few drawbacks. It was a very good romantic book. I was very invested in its main romantic plot. Unlike some other romance books I’ve read, this one felt believable. The relationship between Caleb and Evie was really interesting and I didn’t feel like many aspects of it felt forced. I genuinely enjoyed it. The supporting cast was small, so most of the important characters had more time to develop.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a fiction novel about a girl named Kya Clark and the townspeople living in Barkley Cove, a small North Carolina coast town. The novel alternates between two different timelines: one following Kya throughout her childhood, and the other detailing the progression of a murder investigation in Barkley Cove. As a child, Kya is left to fend for herself living in her family’s shack located in a marsh on the outskirts of the coast town.
Emma Woodhouse is a coding genius who appreciates numbers more than most people; numbers were simple and easy while people were just messy and over-complex. When her sister sparks an idea, Emma decides to build on a code that would determine the person of best compatibility to date as a submission to a coding competition. While some were skeptical at first, who could believe a code could tell you the best person to date, Emma was certain that her code was flawless.
