Genre: Historical Fiction

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Instant Karma, Inkling, and Kingdom of Secrets

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Instant Karma, Inkling, and Kingdom of Secrets

Today, I’m reviewing an adult contemporary/historical fantasy (Surprise! I don’t review adult books here on the blog often), a YA and a MG contemporary fantasy, and a MG steampunk fantasy. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I know I don’t review many adult books here on the blog anymore, but I couldn’t resist mentioning this one. And since so many of my YA blogger friends read V.E. Schwab, […]

Posted February 11, 2022 in Reviews / 8 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of Across the Desert, Our Violent Ends, Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna, and How to Be Ace

Bite-Sized Reviews of Across the Desert, Our Violent Ends, Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna, and How to Be Ace

Today, I have a MG contemporary, a YA historical fantasy, a MG historical, and a YA graphic novel memoir. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Across the Desert is a captivating survival story about not giving up on someone who needs you. Jolene feels helpless in her home life—ever since a serious accident, she constantly skates the boundaries of a panic attack while her mom grows more and […]

Posted January 22, 2022 in Reviews / 9 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Recipe for Disaster, What About Will, The Magical Imperfect, My Magic Wand, and Delicious!

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Recipe for Disaster, What About Will, The Magical Imperfect, My Magic Wand, and Delicious!

Even though the Cybils finalists have already been announced, I still want to review the remaining books I read as a judge for the Poetry category. (I’ll have one more post after this one.) I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Recipe for Disaster is actually a mostly-prose novel with some poetry and recipes mixed in (often the poems are also in the form of recipes). The result meant […]

Posted January 12, 2022 in Cybils, Reviews / 5 Comments
Cybils Poetry Finalists! And Bite-Sized Reviews of Everywhere Blue, Snow Birds, You Don’t Have to Be Everything, and Call Me Athena

Cybils Poetry Finalists! And Bite-Sized Reviews of Everywhere Blue, Snow Birds, You Don’t Have to Be Everything, and Call Me Athena

As my regular readers know, I was a round-one judge for the Cybils Awards in the Poetry category. Well, the finalists have been announced, so I thought I’d share them! You can check out the lists of finalists for the other categories on the Cybils website. Since I hadn’t yet reviewed four of the finalists on the blog, I thought I’d feature those reviews for you now. (I’ve already posted reviews of Me(Moth), Starfish, and […]

Posted January 7, 2022 in Cybils, Reviews / 8 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Red, White, and Whole; Muted; Dear Ugly Sisters; and Rez Dogs

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Red, White, and Whole; Muted; Dear Ugly Sisters; and Rez Dogs

As my regular readers know, I’m a round-one judge for the Cybils Awards in the Poetry category. Because of that, I’ve been reading tons of verse lately! I’m not allowed to share any details about our process for choosing the finalists, but I am allowed (and encouraged) to review the books as I read, so I figured I’d share four of them with you today. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed […]

Posted December 30, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 8 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: When We Make It, The One Thing You’d Save, Starfish, and The Dirt Book

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: When We Make It, The One Thing You’d Save, Starfish, and The Dirt Book

As my regular readers know, I’m a round-one judge for the Cybils Awards in the Poetry category. Because of that, I’ve been reading tons of verse lately! I’m not allowed to share any details about our process for choosing the finalists, but I am allowed (and encouraged) to review the books as I read, so I figured I’d share four of them with you today. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed […]

Posted December 9, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 12 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of The Woods Are Always Watching, Pie in the Sky, Shatter the Sky, and How to Find What You’re Not Looking For

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Woods Are Always Watching, Pie in the Sky, Shatter the Sky, and How to Find What You’re Not Looking For

Today, I have a YA horror novel, a MG contemporary, a YA fantasy, and a MG historical fiction book. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book definitely has a slow start, but once it got going I honestly couldn’t put it down (I stayed up way too late reading it), and I’ve really needed a book like that lately. The premise is that Neena and Josie decide […]

Posted October 13, 2021 in Reviews / 9 Comments
Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman: Review & Giveaway

Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman: Review & Giveaway

Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD For any kid just beginning to understand the ways the world can let you down and how we can lift ourselves and others up against adversity. Frankie & Bug is set in Venice Beach in 1987, at a time when prejudices and outright hostility against LGBT people and people of color were commonplace (I suppose the same could still be said today, but I do think we’ve made progress). […]

Posted October 2, 2021 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 2 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of The Witch Haven, The Midnight Library, The Renegades Series, and The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Witch Haven, The Midnight Library, The Renegades Series, and The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor

Today, I have a YA historical fantasy, an adult sci-fi/paranormal fantasy?, a YA fantasy series, and a YA graphic novel! I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! A YA historical fantasy that explores gender roles in a time when women had little power—but some of them have magic. Frances is desperate to uncover the truth of who murdered her brother, but she’s almost given up hope. No one seems […]

Posted September 9, 2021 in Reviews / 12 Comments
Bite-Sized Reviews of These Violent Delights, Sunkissed, Cemetery Boys, and The Startup Squad Series

Bite-Sized Reviews of These Violent Delights, Sunkissed, Cemetery Boys, and The Startup Squad Series

Today, I have a YA fantasy, a YA contempory, a YA urban fantasy, and a MG contemp series! I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I was hoping to sneak this review in during May for AAPI month, but let’s face it, we need to lift up Asian and other diverse authors every month. So, a few days into June is still a good time to celebrate this book! […]

Posted June 3, 2021 in Reviews / 32 Comments