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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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The Cove / Claire Rose / Book Review

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THE COVE Lindsay Weinberg might not know what she wants in this life, but she does know one thing: boarding school isn't it. In fact, she's been kicked out of yet another prep school just now (which, well, took them long enough ). Usually this means a few sweet months of freedom in NYC before the new semester starts at whatever boarding school her parents convince to admit her next, but this time, when the driver comes to pick her up, he doesn't head back to the city like she planned. He's taking her up the coast instead. Marbury, Maine is a small town. Like, really small. Cold, isolated, just a blip on deserted coastline. And just outside of Marbury is her estranged Uncle Levi's remote farmhouse, the place Lindsay's been invited to this summer to "straighten her out." But Uncle Levi isn't around when she arrives. His zealously evangelical new wife is there instead, running a reform camp for troubled teens. Ma...
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May the Dead Keep You / Jill Baguchinsky / Book Review

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MAY THE DEAD KEEP YOU There's nowhere Catie East would rather be than in her forest. Beneath the redwoods, she feels perfectly at home. Even more so than when she's in her family's historic (and unusual) mansion, the Heights. But now there are intruders on her land. Well, not intruders , exactly. Her mother did invite the scientist and his son to stay on their land, out at the estate's cottage. But that doesn't mean Catie wants them lingering. Not in her forest, disturbing her peace. Despite her initial misgivings, Catie finds herself drawn to the strangers on her land, especially the son who is about her age. Her mother insists that Catie and the boy knew each other as kids, but Catie doesn't remember any of that. She does know that when they're together, strange things start happening. Impossible things. Like a dead woodpecker waking up and flying away. Like the specters that seem to have woken in the historic halls o...
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We Are Never Getting Together / Janette Rallison / Book Review

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WE ARE NEVER GETTING TOGETHER There's nothing but bad blood between Madeline and Cooper. Ever since she made that video. Or he spread those rumors. Or, well, it isn't really clear how it started, just that the pranks and sabotage have only escalated over the years. But when their latest round of pranks lands them both in the principal's office, their single parents are dragged into the mix. With their kids in deep trouble, Cooper's mom and Madeline's dad decide they need to work out a fitting punishment over dinner. And maybe go out for dinner the day after that. And maybe next week, too. Horrified by the prospect of their parents dating , Cooper and Madeline call a temporary truce. There's really only one way to stop this thing in its tracks: dating themselves. They can't stand each other, but they'll have to put on the show of a lifetime to get their parents to back down. If they fail, well, they'll be faced w...
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