Genre: Contemporary

Jun 15

Bite-Sized Reviews (and a Giveaway!): Eliza and Her Monsters, If I Fix You, The Gauntlet, Goodbye Days, and The Sun Is Also a Star

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Current Giveaways, Reviews 28

Today I’ve got bite-sized reviews of a few of my recent reads. There’s also a giveaway at the end of the post, so make sure you check it out. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book was adorable and made me want to read fanfiction. I loved the story behind this one—Eliza has created a webcomic that went viral. She now has over a million fans, but no one knows who she is. When a new boy named Wallace starts at her school, she discovers that he’s a MEGA-fan. He’s even writing fanfiction for her creation. But he has no idea that she’s the face behind the comic. And the closer the two get to each other, the harder it is for Eliza to tell him the truth. Of course, this does not end well (surprise, surprise). There were a few things… Read more »

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Jun 05

Violet Grenade by Victoria Scott: Review, Giveaway & Scott’s Top 5 Writing Snack Attack Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Current Giveaways, Reviews 26 ★★★★

Okay, here’s the deal: This book is seriously messed up! It kind of reminds me of a train wreck you can’t look away from—not because it’s bad, by any means, but because the characters and the situation are so incredibly, intensely broken and dark. What Fed My Addiction: Surreal contemporary? The book is interesting because I was never quite sure what I was reading. I assumed from the beginning that it was sort of a dark fantasy/paranormal story, but after a while I determined there weren’t really any fantastical or paranormal elements, with the possible exception of Wilson—who I couldn’t quite figure out. Yet, the book didn’t read like a contemporary exactly either. The story involves human trafficking, but the “houses” with their systems of pay and the way you would reach the next house—it all felt incredibly surreal, like a contemporary on crack or something. And I couldn’t tell if… Read more »

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May 30

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Names They Gave Us, The Crown’s Fate, Tell Me Three Things and We Were Liars

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 24

Today I’ve got bite-sized reviews of a few of my recent reads. This was a great batch of books, so I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book gave me all the feels and it was just what I needed right now. I’ve heard amazing things about Emery Lord, but I’ve never read her, and I have to confess that I was hesitant about this book because of the religious themes. Not because I don’t like religion in my books exactly, but because I’m always very nervous that Christianity is going to end up being slammed—it feels to me like contemporary books from non-Christian publishers tend to be skewed toward the idea that Christians are generally judgmental and possibly a little evil, so…. But I LOVED the progressive view of Christianity that was given in this book. It reminds us that Christians are not… Read more »

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May 25

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee: Review, Giveaway & Dee’s Top Ten Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Current Giveaways, Reviews 8 ★★★★

This book is incredibly adorable and a perfect way to introduce MG readers to the concept of LGBT relationships. Since Mattie herself is unsure of how she feels, it gives the reader permission to be unsure with her, and it eases the MG reader into the idea that Mattie might be having romantic feelings for another girl. Because of that, a relatively simple book becomes powerful. What Fed My Addiction: Slow realization. At the start of this book it’s never even occurred to Mattie that she could be attracted to a girl—after all, she’s just getting over a crush that she had on a boy, and it’s not like she’s been questioning her sexuality her whole life. Because of that, we get to see the whole story from a realistically naive point of view. Mattie is confused at first about what she feels for Gemma. She certainly has no idea how Gemma feels about her…. Read more »

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May 19

The Truth About Happily Ever After by Karole Cozzo: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 14 ★★★★

Once again, Cozzo gives us a realistically romantic story of fairy tale proportions. A little note about the genre: The book is officially billed as YA, but the characters are all in college, so I think of it more as NA. I think it’s YA because there are no actual sex scenes (a few implied fade to black scenes) and it’s overall a sweet romance, appropriate for high schoolers, even younger ones (there is a bit of drinking with a fake ID, but nothing else that would be seen as particularly questionable). New Adult readers who want books that cover the college-aged experience and don’t focus on sex would find this to be a perfect match! What Fed My Addiction: Fairy tale setting. The book takes place at a Disneyesque theme park and it was really fun to read about the job and how the people who work there as characters feel about it… Read more »

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May 13

It Started With Goodbye by Christina June: Review, Giveaway, and June’s Top Ten Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 8 ★★★★

This book was exactly what I was hoping for—a fun contemporary twist on Cinderella that reminds us that sometimes family is complicated. And that’s okay. What Fed My Addiction: Focus on family. Sure this book has a cute romance element, but the story focuses a whole lot more on family issues than it does on the “prince.” (Actually, now that I think about it, I guess the original Cinderella kind of did too.) Tatum learns that sometimes we don’t really know even the people who are closest to us. Tatum has spent most of her life feeling like she can’t live up to her stepmother’s expectations and she’s never been close to her all-too-perfect stepsister. So when her summer goes very awry and she’s basically put on house arrest except for mandatory community service (and her best friend won’t speak to her), Tatum can’t imagine how her life could get any… Read more »

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May 03

Kill All Happies by Rachel Cohn: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 8 ★★★½

I have a confession to make: I didn’t think I was going to like this book. In fact, when I received it in the mail and re-read the blurb, I thought to myself, “Why did I accept this book for review? What was I thinking? This is not my kind of book at all!” You see, I’m not usually a fan of the type of book that glorifies teenage partying and general bad behavior, and when I re-read the blurb, I was pretty sure that was what I was in for. I was wrong … sort of. Okay, fine, in some ways I was kind of right, but somehow Rachel Cohn made me like this book anyway. What Fed My Addiction: Vic. The main reason Kill All Happies ended up appealing to me is that the MC, even under relatively crazy circumstances, is surprisingly smart and level-headed. Oh, don’t get me wrong, she’s… Read more »

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Apr 24

Letters to the Lost Review (AKA My Admiration for Brigid Kemmerer)

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 26 ★★★★½

I have read every single one of Brigid Kemmerer’s books, and I have not been disappointed yet. When I first read the description of this one, I was a little surprised to see that it’s a straight-up contemporary (considering that her Elementals Series is paranormal and she wrote so many of those). But as I read, I started to realize that I was falling in love with it for the same reasons that I fell in love with the Elementals books: her characters. Kemmerer writes characters that I can’t help but connect to, and whether she’s telling a contemporary story or a paranormal one, her books focus on the characters and what drives them—and, often, the pain behind their stories. Letters to the Lost is a beautiful example of this. What Fed My Addiction: Heartbreak. Honestly, if Declan and Juliet’s stories don’t tear you to pieces, you have to be made of… Read more »

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Apr 05

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Pain Eater, Just Another Girl and Toward a Secret Sky

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 12

Today I’ve got bite-sized reviews of two YA contemps and a YA paranormal I’ve recently received for review. Hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book is an incredibly painful read because of the traumatic events that Maddy has lived through (and continues to relive). Maddy has become a shell of herself ever since she was raped—she barely speaks, never makes eye contact, and causes herself physical pain in order to block out the emotional turmoil she’s constantly experiencing. She’s tried so hard to forget—but she can’t. The book follows Maddy’s emotional journey and healing, and her story is paired with a class project: a short story that the the class is writing together (each student writes a chapter) about a girl who is forced to “eat” (basically, endure) the pain of the people of her village. The parallels are obvious, and the story… Read more »

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Mar 29

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: Review

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 18 ★★★½

I really enjoyed this book, and it was beautifully written, but there were a few things that kept me from absolutely adoring it. I almost wrote a bite-sized review for this one, but then I decided I just couldn’t talk about it concisely enough for that because there were a lot of points that I wanted to talk about. My feelings about this book are complicated! What Fed My Addiction: Gorgeous writing. Sáenz has a way of putting emotion on paper (or, you know, digital screen) that that is utterly captivating and beautiful. If I were rating this book on writing alone, it would easily get five stars. I’m not great about highlighting quotes when I read, but for this book I just had to share a couple, so I headed over to Goodreads to find you a couple of examples of how Sáenz captures emotion so beautifully: “… one ordinary… Read more »

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