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Augusta Pine Does Not Exist / Emily Lloyd-Jones / Book Review

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AUGUSTA PINE DOES NOT EXIST Three years ago, Augusta Pine died. Or, at least, the girl she used to be before died. Literally. After a hack gone wrong, her heart stopped, and though the hospital got it started again, her life was changed forever. Because she was in trouble. So, so much trouble. Rather than spend decades of her life in prison and then have to build a life with a serious criminal record afterwards, Augusta was offered a choice: use her talent for the next decade for the Identity Security Division, a secret branch of the federal government. And it wasn't a hard choice to make. She's been working with them ever since. No home, no family, and few friends: that's how she rolls these days. And even a weekend off can turn into a hostage situation... THOUGHTS This book is so fun! It's exactly what YA should be. It's snarky. It's unserious....
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A Prince Among Pirates / Katie Abdou / Book Review

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A PRINCE AMONG PIRATES Kit Davenport doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, but he knows what he doesn't want to do. He does not want to marry the noblewoman his father has picked out for him, regardless of how charming she may be. He's young. He's got so much of life ahead of him. And he's tired of being trapped under his father's thumb. So on the eve of his nuptials, Kit does something reckless: he packs a trunk. And he has a servant help him lug that trunk to the docks. And before the sun rises, he finds himself contracted to do accounting for the Deliverance , a merchant galleon with a roguishly handsome captain. The only problem? Kit might have miscalculated. He thought the Deliverance was a merchant ship like any other. He isn't well acquainted with sailors and their like. How was he supposed to know? But as the ship sails into murky waters, he begins to suspect that this ship might be a little... ...
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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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