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Last to Leave / Teresa Richards / Book Review

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LAST TO LEAVE You have to be careful what you say online. Fallon knows that better than anyone. As a streamer, what she says matters. What she says can get clipped and shared a thousand times. What she says can get her demonetized. What she says can have the wildcard slot for the largest e-sports competition in the world taken away from her in a moment. So you really do have to be careful... but that doesn't mean you can't take a risk. For Fallon, that risk is SluethIt , the new murder-mystery web show competition that's going to feature exclusively up-and-coming streamers. As a gamer, she knows she'll have an edge, but her chances of getting into the competition are slim... until she does. Against her family's wishes, she jumps on a plane to LA, ready to meet the competition. But this competition isn't all that the ads made it seem... THOUGHTS T...
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The Monsters We Made / Peyton June / Book Review

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THE MONSTERS WE MADE Claire's done something crazy: she contact paranormal vloggers. You know, those annoying couple-y ones who travel all over "investigating"? Worse, she did it anonymously. With edited footage. And now they're coming to investigate her small town of Scarberry. To be fair, she did it for her family. The ranch is kept afloat by tourists, those believers (or non-believers) seeking to learn more about the legendary alien cryptid, Old Lucky, who supposedly made contact right in her backyard sixty years ago. But interest in the cryptid has waned in the years since the sighting, and so a girl has to do what she has to do. When Lenny and her boyfriend Evan arrive on Old Lucky's doorstep, Lenny's the only one who is excited. She's had a picture of the Scarberry lights in her bedroom since she was a kid. Sure, the clip someone sent them anonymously was a little... fishy. But she believes. Even when Evan...
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Blue Beach / Karyn Parsons / Book Review

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BLUE BEACH Fifteen-year-old Blue Collins can't wait for this summer to begin. As the daughter of the owner of Santa Monica's only Black beach, she's practically a summer queen. She'll be spending hours in the waves, sunbathing on the shore, and helping her mother run the stand where they sell refreshments. And with the summer kick-off parade just finished, she can feel summer in the air. Everything's great. Until Blue and her beau Ben find the body of Dottie Whitehouse, a white debutante, washed up on their beach. The local, white property owners don't like having a Black beach in the neighborhood. The future of Blue Beach is always a little... uncertain. Something like a body washing ashore? It could kill her mother's business. Which means one thing: Blue and Ben move the body into the waves. But when it washes ashore on the nearby white beach, evidence points to tampering... and all eyes land on Ben. ...
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Shapes of Love / L.V. Peñalba / Book Review

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SHAPES OF LOVE The world's obsessed with Sassy, the Internet-star-turned-pop sensation known for her lyrical love songs. Everyone wants to know about the guy who inspired her songs. Was he her first love? What happened to him? Are they still together, or were they never meant to be? Every new song she releases adds to the buzz, which only makes her label happier. There's just one problem. Sassy might have the world obsessed with her love ballads, but Sasha, the 19-year-old girl behind this pop sensation, has never been in love. She's aroace-spec (aromantic, asexual), and her love songs have been inspired by her favorite books, TV shows, and fandom ships. And she's afraid that if the world finds out there is no boy behind the ballads, they'll feel betrayed by the pop star they've come to know and love. Enter Kai, Sasha's estranged ex-best friend and former boyfriend (whose heart she broke when she came out to him ...
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Calypso's Odyssey / Anna Ellison / Book Review

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CALYPSO'S ODYSSEY Callie Quinn has spent her whole life on Catalina Island, and some days it feels like she'll never escape. Now that she's graduated high school, and without any college prospects on the horizon, her days are spent helping her father with the rundown beachside inn that is her inheritance. This is her life, now and forever: customer service, smiling through the bad Yelp reviews, and watching friends drift away to bigger and better things. Until one stormy evening, while working the late shift at the inn, something changes. Until she meets him . It isn't exactly a meet-cute. The storm overturned Odie's sailboat. She's the one who drags him from the waves and gives him a place to shelter for the night... or the week... or the month. He's secretive, reserved, and desperate to disappear from a life he won't tell her anything about. But she understands wanting more than your lot in life, and she...
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Seconds to Spare / Rachel Reiss / Book Review

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SECONDS TO SPARE Evelyn Werth is trapped in a nightmare. Literally (except for the fact, you know, that she's pretty sure she's awake ). For some reason, she's the only person aboard this Aloha Airways flight who knows they're about to crash. Probably because she's seen it all before. Stuck in a 28-minute time-loop that last just long enough for her to brace herself for the inevitable nosedive the plane takes right before the loop resets, Evelyn doesn't know what to do. At this point, she's tried it all. She's stopped the baby behind her from crying. She's stolen candy from every available purse and backpack. She's gotten to know the names of everyone on board in her own personal manifest. And nothing stops the nosedive or the loop repeating. Until she wakes Orion James, the cute boy from a few rows up who has slept every loop thus far. Waking Orion changes things, because he seems to be experiencing t...
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The Night King's Court / Elisa A. Bonnin / Book Review

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THE NIGHT KING'S COURT When the position of Luminaire opens at the Night King's court, Ida knows this is her chance. The court is a place of magic, of all-night revelry, which is appealing to a small town girl like her. Even more appealing? The fact that her father disappeared seven years ago from the very same court, never to be seen or heard from again. Her mother gave up on her father years ago, but Ida knows he wouldn't have abandoned them like that. Something else is behind his disappearance. But one doesn't just waltz into the Night King's court. One needs an invitation, and Ida knows her own dazzling brand of candle magic will be just right to win herself an appointment to the court as Luminaire. She's been preparing for an opportunity such as this. She won't let it pass her by. But entering the Night King's court is just the start. Finding out what happened to her father is a much harder task. With all the ...
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