Hi friends!
I started a new job in September and thanks to my commute I’ve kept up my reading pace, but I’ve also gotten behind on my reviews. I also have to be honest I’m in one of those slumps where I’m reading more for the sake of reading and filling my time and my enjoyment of the stories is suffering as a result. At first, I thought it was just the book itself but when I’ve felt meh about majority of my recent reads (there are a few standouts) then I think the problem is me more than the book.
Anyway, for the sake of my time and energy but also still wanting to bring attention to these books I thought I would do a mini review roundup!
So below you will find reviews of the last 6 young adult books I’ve read!
- XOXO by Axie Oh
- Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins
- Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura
- Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd
- How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
- Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
XOXO by Axie Oh
Koreans love a tragic story, but what we love even more is a hopeful one.
XOXO by Axie Oh
XOXO by Axie Oh
Published by HarperTeen by 2021
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Contemporary) | Korean American Rep
Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets Jaewoo, it’s clear he’s the kind of boy who would uproot her plans. But, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one night of adventure before he disappears.
Three months later, when Jenny arrives in South Korea, she’s shocked to find that Jaewoo is a student at the same arts academy where she’s enrolled. And he’s also a member of one of the biggest K-pop bands—and he’s strictly forbidden from dating.
This is my own fault. I built this book up in my head and got too excited and I should’ve known there was no way it could live up to my imagination.
It’s not a bad book by any means it just fell short of my expectations even with its cute romance and fun side characters, but it also very much felt like a snapshot of their life and not a fully complete story if that makes sense?
The truth is, I don’t like playing games. Life is too short. It’s better to speak your mind, otherwise you’ll only feel regret later.
XOXO by Axie Oh
I wish we had a reconciliation between the roommate and Nathaniel even if they didn’t get back together it just never felt fully resolved and the same goes for Jenny’s mom and grandmother as well as just her own relationship with her mother.
Also, the ending felt so rushed and unsatisfactory mainly because I wanted so much more from the characters and their endings.
Also, the writing style was not for me personally because it was a lot of telling and felt very much like “I did this and then I did this and she said that and I was unhappy.”
All that to say I think my issues with this story are more personal/mood related than anything else. I did enjoy the discussions about family and music and the intensity of the k-pop industry and the pressure these idols are put under.
I think it’s important to take time for yourself, even with responsibilities. You can’t be there for other people if you’re not first there for yourself.
XOXO by Axie Oh
Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins
Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins
Published by Delacorte in 2021
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Contemporary) | Latinx (Brazilian) | Queer Rep (Bi love interest, w/w side pairing)
Natalie is living her dream until she’s dumped on live television. Not only is it humiliating—it could end her career.
Her PR team’s plan? A gorgeous fake boyfriend. Nati reluctantly agrees, but William is not what she expected. While she fights her way back to the top with a sweet and surprisingly swoon-worthy boy on her arm, she starts to fall for William—and realizes that maybe she’s the biggest fake of them all.
I loved the conversations about being in the limelight and celebrity and the public feeling entitled to the personal details of celebrity lives. I also liked the conversations about race and assimilation and carving up the pieces of yourself to fit into what people expect. I also enjoyed the look at being a woman in the media particularly a teenage girl.
Do they hate me because I’m a girl? Do they hate me because I’m seventeen? Do they hate me because I’m Brazilian?
Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins
And really I was fully into this story up until the 75% mark with a pseudo-third-act breakup. I understood the reasoning behind it, but to then find out they were still talking practically every day but we didn’t get to see any of it? It made their relationship feel stagnant and all too sudden once they decided to get back together.
Our relationship feels impossible to sum up, but I think I captured some of what I feel for William. Or what it feels like now, talking every day on the phone and FaceTiming each other until one of us falls asleep. Trying to be friends, or something. We do make a good pair of friends, if anything.
Like a Love Song by Gabriela Martins
In general, the romance in this book was okay but to me it was definitely secondary and I think that’s in large part to how the ending was handled and I just didn’t feel the chemistry between Natalie and William.
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura
Loving someone the way they need to be loved is hard. People can be really bad at it. All we can do is keep trying.
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura
CW // homophobia, divorce, cheating, parental illness and death (off page), dementia
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura
Published by HarperTeen in 2021
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Contemporary) | Asian Rep | Queer Rep (Sapphic romance, w/w pairing)
When Nozomi pictured the ideal summer romance, a fake one wasn’t what she had in mind.
That was before she met Willow who asks Nozomi to help make her ex jealous and Nozomi is more than willing.
Because Nozomi plans to show Willow she’s better than a stand-in, and turn their fauxmance into something real. But as the lies pile up, it’s not long before Nozomi’s schemes take a turn toward disaster…and maybe a chance at love she didn’t plan for.
I went into this story expecting a fun rom-com filled with chaotic fake dating and summer romance. And there is that, but this story was honestly much more serious and heartfelt than I anticipated. The mc was also much cringier and slightly annoying in her hopeless romantic way than I expected, but let’s be real what 16-year-old girl believing in the power of love isn’t cringy and kind of annoying? And she’s pretty self-aware so personally it balanced out.
IF THERE’S ONE THING I BELIEVE IN, IT’S LOVE. No matter what the universe throws at you, love will win in the end—as long as you don’t give up. There may be nothing left of your heart but splinters and cracked cement blocks, but you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and rebuild. You can’t quit. You can’t fall into despair. You have to keep going.
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura
I ended up loving this story for the way it explored all of the messy dynamics in Nozomi’s family between her and her divorced parents and the truth of their relationship emerges. Between Nozomi and her homophobic grandmother who’s dementia is worsening by the day. Nozomi having to watch her uncle and his husband navigate her grandmother’s bigotry and the fractures in their relationship for the sake of her grandmother’s well-being.
Parts of their relationship have survived the damage. There’s still love underneath, like muscle memory, like a song you know by heart.
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura
I also loved all the discussions of grief and how there’s no “right” way and how it never really stops. I also loved how the author subverted the fake dating trope and also emphasized how harmful it can be particularly depending on the reasons that you’re doing it in the first place.
If you’re looking for sapphic fake dating and messy teen chaos, then check this book out!
Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd
What would my days be like if I didn’t have all of this performative garbage bouncing around in my brain? Quieter, maybe. I’d probably sleep better too.
Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd
Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd
Published by Bloomsbury YA in 2021
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Contemporary Romance) | Afro-Latinx MC (Puerto Rican) | Queer Rep (trans, gay, and lesbian side characters)
By day, Emilia is a field hockey star with a popular boyfriend and a mother obsessed with her academic future. But by night, she’s kicking virtual ass as the only female member of a highly competitive eSports team. Emilia has mastered the art of keeping her two worlds thriving, which hinges on them staying completely separate. When a major eSports tournament comes to her city, Emilia is determined to prove herself to the male-dominated gaming community. But her perfectly balanced life is thrown for a loop when a member of a rival team—Jake—recognizes her . . .
Listen I know next to nothing about gaming especially at the level discussed in this book but I am aware of how misogynistic and racist the gaming sphere is and I feel like the book captured that while also showing the positive spheres and the importance of finding teams who will support and protect you as well as organizations who will use their power to do what they can to make it a safe space.
Squandering an inch of the headway they earned is like crapping on my abuela’s grave while telling the two hardest-working Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania that they’ve wasted their entire lives.
Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd
I loved Emilia’s voice and how awkward Jake was as well as how much his team/friends and her best friend were built up and given fully realized personalities.
Surprisingly I didn’t really need this to be a dual pov, I don’t feel like it hurt anything but I just loved Emilia so much I would’ve been perfectly content if the entire story was told from her POV.
He thought a morning of deep espionage was easier than sending me a text message? High drama Jake Hooper strikes again. Can’t say I hate it.
Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd
Additionally, for the sake of my own optimism I wish that we’d had more of a resolution or at least confrontation between Emilia and team Fury particularly Ivan who we were lead to believe would’ve maybe acted differently which makes me wonder what he was told. And I wish I could’ve seen Emilia putting Byunki’s punk ass in his place, but I get it real life doesn’t always have that le sigh.
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
Jamie has four former friends. Each friend has a secret. One day, Jamie goes missing. Which friend is guilty and deserves punishment? a) the one who sunk the lowest to get highest b) the one who ruined a girl three years ago c) the one hiding a criminal d) the one who traded conscience for grades Happy testing, The Proctor
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
CW // attempted murder, drug abuse, inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student, assisted suicide
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
Published by Bloomsbury YA in 2021
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Thriller) | Asian American Rep
Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends–Krystal, Akil, and Alexander–are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.
The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.
Much like the other books on this list, I found myself slightly disappointed in this and that’s probably my own fault for building it up in my head and putting too much pressure on it to be great. But personally, I went in expecting dark academia because that’s what I was told, and I guess it was dark academia but really it felt more like a murder mystery with a little bit of suspense/thriller elements.
Jamie Ruan had been a daughter. A friend. A rival. A person. I hoped everyone could remember that. Flaws and all, Jamie Ruan had been much more than a Sinclair Prep statistic or the daughter of a corrupt businessman.
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
I did enjoy the way the story unraveled and pieces of the mystery were revealed. I also loved the discussions about being first or second-generation immigrants and about wealth and family expectations to be great and successful no matter what. And the pressure the school put on the kids to compete but make it look easy.
Everyone wanted to hear success stories about those who came from nothing, working hard to become something extraordinary. Nobody would want to know the gritty, unpleasant details about what it took—what it really took—to get there.
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
I also enjoyed the discussions of friendship and the things that can bond us no matter how dark.
There was no lonelier feeling in the world than going from sharing a special bond with someone to being a step above strangers. It was lonelier than never having that bond in the first place.
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
My biggest issue with this book was the ending. The big reveal came out of nowhere and honestly felt a little anti-climactic. Nancy learned absolutely nothing and as much as I love friends-to-lovers it felt forced and was so pointless to try and include it. Also, their friend group was so threatened by these big secrets, but then the reveals felt lackluster and not actually that damaging to their reputation.
Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
The four of them might not be remembered in story and song, but maybe there was still something they could do to honor all that sacrifice.
Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
Published by Amulet in 2018
Genre & Rep: Young Adult (Fantasy) | Queer Rep (aromantic mc, bi mc, gay mc, m/m pairing) | Anxiety rep
In the city of Eldra, people are ruled by ancient prophecies. For centuries, the high council has stayed in power by virtue of the prophecies of the elder seers. After the last infallible prophecy came to pass, growing unrest led to murders and an eventual rebellion that raged for more than a decade.
Cassa, the orphaned daughter of rebels, is determined to fight back against the high council, which governs Eldra from behind the walls of the citadel. Her only allies are no-nonsense Alys, easygoing Evander, and perpetually underestimated Newt, and Cassa struggles to come to terms with the legacy of rebellion her dead parents have left her — and the fear that she may be inadequate to shoulder the burden. But by the time Cassa and her friends uncover the mystery of the final infallible prophecy, it may be too late to save the city — or themselves.
This is definitely a book for fans of Six of Crows and luckily I am one so I enjoyed this rag-tag group of rebels staring death in the face and pretending to be fearless.
He didn’t have Alys’s brains or Evander’s gift or—well, he actually didn’t know how Cassa would break free. Possibly irritate the guard into releasing her. Newt only had his body, which he’d learned as a child how to bend where others would break, how to hold steady where others would fall.
Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
I loved that the story jumped right into them all facing execution and having to break out of prison. I loved the different characters and their different relationships and they all felt so unique.
Over the years, almost everyone Cassa had ever known or loved gave their lives to that rebellion. She didn’t know how to be anything but angry. She didn’t know how to do anything but fight.
Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
But that ending though 😫 I should be used to it now but it still hurts when things don’t work out the exact way I want. That being said I still think this book is worth the read as long as you’re prepared for a very bitter sweet ending.
💫 What have you been reading recently? Have you read any of these books yet?
Just A Little Lit Nerd 
I’ve never heard of Beneath the Citadel until now and it sounds sooooo good, I’m very intrigued. I’m sorry that most of your other reads were disappointing, I hope your next reads are more enjoyable! 💛
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