Artemis Sparke is a young woman who lives on the Long Island Sound within the hotel that her mother works at.  Artemis doesn't always get along with or understand people, but the plants and animals of the salt marsh are her comfort zone.  Art takes careful notes and data in her nature journal about the salt marsh ecosystem; this year,  Art notices some things about the marsh that tell her it is in trouble.  However, Art can't get any of the adults to listen except for her neighbor Mrs. Moonchaser.  Art also believes that activities at the hotel are negatively impacting the salt march.  She comes up with a plan to help the marsh with the help of the Sound Seekers Brigade, but her actions might impact the hotel and her family's livelihood.  With the encouragement of some unlikely friends, Art and the Sound Seekers Brigade find a way for the hotel and the salt marsh to help one another thrive. 


Artemis Sparke and the Sound Seekers Brigade is a young adult story of environmental activism and working with our differences.  Artemis is charming in her care and knowledge of the salt marsh.  I love that Artemis named some of the plants and animals that she had gotten to know well and her careful notes in a nature journal are just like a professional!  Artemis most likely has a neurodivergence, but it is never directly addressed, which is fine because it is not the focus of the story.  However, this definitely causes issues with her human friendships and how she relates with the other adults around her causing additional stress.  Artemis does display some great ways to get into environmental activism, writing a letter to the editor, environmental art, fundraising, trash pick up and starting an activist group.  I was a little displeased about the adults in the story, but that is typical of YA fiction.  It seemed that Artemis should have had one of her parents on her side or that at least understood her passion and not just a neighbor.  The inclusion of the ghosts in the story was an interesting way for Artemis to learn the history of the hotel within the salt marsh and help the adults understand how to work together; however I felt the idea could have been a little more fleshed out.  I wanted more history of who the past hotel guests were and maybe more spirit sightings.  Overall, a wonderful realistic fiction with diverse characters and a wonderful environmental angle. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

Sara Rahmat's life is slowly falling apart at fifteen years old.  Her parents are going through a divorce, her Bibi Jan's memories are being taken by dementia and there is a huge rift between Sara and her best friend, Sam.  Sara is hoping to get through the summer uneventfully and is forced to help with her mom's house flipping project. Upon entering the abandoned house on Sumner, Sara is overtaken with emotion. Then, Sara spots a young girl who bears a strong resemblance to her family, only to have the young girl disappear.  As summer continues, Sara is drawn to the Sumner house and the family mystery that she feels destined to uncover there. However, in her obsession, Sara pushes away her family, her friends and even some parts of herself. 

Told in a lyrical prose, House of Yesterday is a haunting, contemporary young adult story that covers so much more than coming of age.  The overarching theme seems to be the question of 'who am I?' Sara asks this constantly as she tries to unravel the mystery of Sumner house.  As Sara says: 
" Who am I?
I am Sarah Rahmat and not.
I am American and not.
I am Afghan-Uzbek and not. 
I am the product of a grand love story and not. I am and I am not. "
  

The writing so perfectly captures the lost, unknown, angry and in-between feeling of being a teenager through Sara's point of view.   While Sara is trying to heal her own internal wounds, it seems like she is making a mess of everything in the outside world, but all she really wants to do is pay homage to the past and her families roots.  I'm glad that both Sara's parents, large extended family and friends were supportive, understanding  and had her back through everything that she was trying to deal with.  I loved the mystery of Sumner House and how the memories of Sara's family played out as she brought the house objects from her grandmother's past.  I also loved the heritage of Sara's Afghan- Uzbek family.  Without it being the center point of the story, traditions, values, language and the immigrant experience was weaved throughout.  I absolutely devoured this book and loved the mix of paranormal and very real issues of growing up. 

 
Best friends Sadie and Jana want to make the most of their senior year of high school.  They decide to make a list of ten awesome achievements for senior year to fill in before they graduate. They want to play a school sport, be in the school play, break a rule, get detention and ride in the cool kid's car. However, when senior superlatives come out Sadie is surprised that she and her longtime friend Andy have been paired as Most Likely to Get Married.  Sadie is thrown off course and feels like she needs to fix this obvious mistake.  But, is there more to Andy Kowalski than Sadie realizes?
​ 
My Senior Year of Awesome is a super cute, funny and realistic high school romance.  I loved the characters, Sadie and Jana are just like girls that I knew in high school.  I adored their lists and how willing they were to try new things and potentially fail spectacularly.  This book felt so true to the high school experience with highs and lows, missed signals, poor communication, unknown futures, trying to figure things out and fit everything in before graduation.  The romance progressed very naturally and I was definitely rooting for Andy and Sadie to figure everything out.   

Since the death of her husband, Tova Sullivan has been alone in her small town of Sowell Bay, Washington.  Her only son, Erik disappeared in the ocean thirty years ago.  To keep herself busy, Tova works as a cleaner at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. The Giant Pacific Octopus in residence, Marcellus, is unhappy with his circumstances and makes nightly rendezvous out of his tank.  When he finds himself stuck, Tova comes to his rescue.  Cameron Cassmore arrives in Sowell Bay trying to find the man he believes is his father.  Cameron trains with Tova to clean the aquarium and Marcellus notices something about Tova and Cameron; now he has to find a way to communicate this connection before his time is up.


Octopus have always intrigued me.  They are so alien and yet so human at the same time.  Marcellus grabbed me right from the beginning.  His realistic, curmudgeonly, yet caring attitude was just perfect and I wish he was able to share more of his story with us. The human characters are written equally as well and I liked that Tova, Marcellus and Cameron shared connections through their journeys in grief, loss and sadness.  Tova's character is very practical and has chosen to deal with her grief by keeping everything meticulously clean and taking life matter of factly.  I was surprised at how well Tova got along with Cameron who is very smart, yet unpredictable.  As these characters become part of one anothers life, Marcellus seems to be the only one who sees their connection.  I loved the way that their stories all collided and how everything ended up.  Remarkable Bright Creatures is an amazing book with charming characters .

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

Hallie Mayhew's single-minded focus her senior year of high school has been to earn money and win the prestigious Verhaag scholarship that will allow her to go to a college of her choosing. Hal would love to get away from her bickering divorced parents and her tandem jobs for each of their businesses-her father's pest control company and her mother's pond cleaning service. However, the Verhaag scholarship has a streak of giving the money to a Verhaag descendant, and this year a new student and direct descendant has just joined her class. Hal scrambles to pad her resume with extracurricular activities that she doesn't have time for, but a loophole in the Verhaag judging rules might give her a second chance at the scholarship if she can only get her next-door neighbor, Spencer Salazar to submit an entry as well.


Pest is an entertaining contemporary young adult book with a fresh plot and interesting characters. Hal's character is dealing with a lot. Her divorced parents are pulling her in two different directions, her jobs are taking up all of her free time and don't exactly make her popular and the scholarship competition is taking up all of her headspace. Luckily, Hal's friends help her with her endeavors. Hal's story allowed me to see the crazy amount of pressure that many teens are under. Through the story Hal realized just what life is all about, other ways of achieving her dreams and dropping her laser focus for a little bit to try and enjoy life. Hal deals with all of this with as much grace as possible. I enjoyed seeing Hal and Spencer's relationship develop, it was very natural and wasn't the main plot in the story. Overall, Pest is an intriguing, cute and fun young adult story with touches of mystery and romance.


This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Nicholas and Sebastian have been friends since they were six, united over their short and scrawny stature. Now it's 1984 and Sebastian has stayed short while Nicholas has grown and secured a role as the heartthrob on popular show, Heights High. Nicky's face is plastered all over Tiger Beats and buses while Sebastian, up to his neck in homework, still has yet to kiss a girl. When Sam lands a role on Heights High, she can't believe her luck. Sam's boyfriend is abusive, and she has become addicted to drugs. Sam needs a consistent job and money. She latches onto Nicky and, by default, Sebastian turning up wherever they are, usually as a complete mess. Nicky has no interest in Sam as a girlfriend, even though she is constantly throwing herself at him, but does see an obligation to help Sam. Sebastian sees Sam as a huge headache yet finds himself intrigued by her wild nature.



Showmances and Stage Kisses is a young adult romance that gives a wonderful sense of time and place in 1980's New York City. I could easily imagine the set for Heights High, the diners, and the house parties. It was clear that the author had first person insight into how kids were treated on sets at this time. Nicky, Sam and Sebastian's characters were all very interesting to follow; however, I'm not really sure that I liked any of them. They were all very flawed, needy and whiny for 17 years old. Their growth, if any, throughout the story was very slow and didn't amount to much. All three of the kids fell into the absent parent trope, I was expecting at least one crazy stage mom. The pacing of the story fell flat in the middle for me as the plot fell into a will they or won't they scenario between Nicky and Sam as well as Sebastian and Sam. I really wanted to see some grand realization or discovery for these characters, but it just sort of fizzled. I also expected this story to be a little more fun and light hearted, although, being true to the 80's, there was an overall serious tone as the characters all dealt with some pretty significant issues.





This book was received for free in return for an honest review.​

​In the year 2042, the United States is rebounding from a series of terrorist attacks and upheaval that has left the former Secretary of State as the new President.  In the aftermath, she has had to make the harrowing decision to turn two states into energy territories, displacing all of the people there.  Redmond Pierce is the CEO of Universal Industries that is in charge of extracting all of the resources from the land.  His heartless approach hasn't escaped the President or her son, Finn who is just outside the territories collecting water samples.  Red sets out to stop Finn from divulging what is in the water samples, but Finn makes an escape and finds aid in an unlikely companion, River, an army vet doing long hauls in the energy territory.  Against River's Instincts she chooses to help Finn and finds herself risking her life for a stranger and finding out who she can trust. 



48 States is a dystopian thriller that shows what can happen when greed and power take over. A strong beginning threw me into the story with amazing characters.  I loved River's character from the beginning as she stood up for herself within the territory of mostly men.  River is strong both physically and mentally, but that is not her entire character.  As the story unfolds, River's backstory is revealed so we can see her many layers, tragedies that she has overcome and why she chose the difficult journey that she did. When Finn and River find one another, the suspense increases.  Finn's character is mysterious and honest. I enjoyed seeing him and River interact as they learned how to trust people once again.  With this trust, they are able to bring the President evidence of Universal's environmental mismanagement.   River and Finn's romance built naturally and did not get in the way of the story.  While fate seemed to bring them together, they truly made one another whole.  The climate and terrorism aspects of the story were intriguing to me.  I was wondering how the US got themselves into the situation they are in since it does not seem too far off from where we are now.  There are bits of that backstory explained, but not fully explored.  Red's characters symbolized many of the ways of thinking that are detrimental to society, a power-hungry misogynist with dangerous ideals and belief systems.  While Red's character seemed a bit over the top, there are definitely people just like this in the world.  48 States is an emotional, surprising, yet realistic dystopian thriller. 

Annie, Sondra and Jo grew up as best friends in a small, midwestern town.  Now, in middle age, they have grown apart.  They will soon be back together for their reunion.  Annie is a pastor's wife.  With four sons and constant church duties, Annie's life has quickly become overwhelming.  She has lost herself and come to rely on antidepressants until the day she takes one too many and collapses.  Sondra is married to a rich, older man in LA.   Sondra loves James, but they have not been intimate in a while.  Sondra is manipulated by someone who sees her weakness and is blackmailed. Jo is a recovering alcoholic who is contemplating divorce because of her own failings.  When Sondra and Jo hear of Annie's troubles, they race back into town and plan to steal her away on an epic camping adventure like they did when they were young.  Hoping to invigorate their souls and remind Annie of the good days, the fearsome threesome may solve more than they intended.  


Campfire Confessions is a heartwarming story of friendship and overcoming obstacles.  Each of the women has a unique, yet timeless story of believing that they are not enough for those around them.  Annie is overwhelmed, completely exhausted by her day to day life of giving herself away and becoming a martyr to what she believes her duties are all while her husband and kids continue to expect and ask more of her.  I'm surprised she didn't collapse sooner.  Sondra is a strong woman who is asking her husband for exactly what she wants and is still able to be manipulated by her own insecurities.  Jo is fighting her demons and still believes she is not good enough for her husband.  The camping trip was fun, comical and life changing.  I loved that they were able to work through some things within the safety and comfort of one another. These women's stories are a reminder that nobody is perfect, everybody needs help sometimes and communication is key in relationships.   While none of their problems were fully solved in the end, the women were able to tackle the mental load and embrace their issues in order to begin moving on.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

The town of Wattsville, NY along the Otis River is a relic of the industrial age, part of the rust belt.  The people of Wattsville are mostly stuck in dead-end jobs, poverty and drugs.  Carol is a single mom who works in the dining hall of the local college that her daughter, Garnet attends.  Garnet is dating Ethan, one of the town's wealthy residents.  When Garnet and Ethan get into a fight, Garnet is the victim of an unjust system and sent to prison with a two-year sentence.  With her daughter in prison, Carol leans on her friend Sam and new coworker Ronaldo.  When Garnet begins to get hassled in prison, Carol and Sam try to help Garnet and end up starting a chain of events that will affect the whole town.  

Just River snapshot of a small town in the 1990's.  The story flowed through the connected action of the characters with each chapter narrated by a switching point of view between Garnet, Carol and Sam.  The diverse range of characters shows a range of viewpoints, motivations and emotions as everyone deals with what life has dealt them.  Sam was an intriguing character as a gay man who dressed as a woman but did not identify as transgender.  It was interesting to see his motivations for staying in a small town and how he goes through everyday life.  Carol's outlook changes several times throughout the story as regret, depression and acceptance work their way through her life.  Garnet's point of view was fun to read as she figured out some important lessons in prison.  Just River offers a steady plot with a mix of comedy and tragedy that reflects the real world. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.