The Amaranth Enchantment is a terrific reworking of the Cinderella fairy story, which is not something that they try to hide in any way; the heroine’s name is Lucinda, for heaven’s sake.  Author Julie Berry is not married to the source work, but uses it as a base to start from, shooting the story out [...]

If I could write song lyrics or poetry, I would probably put a little ditty here about what a great time this is right now for tween books, and how it seems like publishers finally heard my silent prayer (or out loud complaining to sales reps) and started publishing great tween-y books, but since I [...]

I just love Elizabeth Scott, and this book just throws more fuel on the fire of my love.
(But hey, Elizabeth? Couldya link to Indiebound on your website? Fan the flames of love a little higher?)
This book is blurbed by Sarah Dessen, and she’s who I’d compare Scott to the most, although Scott’s characters and [...]

Some confessions:
1. When I heard that Cassie Clare, OMGFAMOUS fanfic writer, had gotten a book deal, the first thing I did was roll my eyes and think “well, THAT’LL be great.”
2. When the galley of CITY OF BONES arrived at the shop, I rolled my eyes again and thought, “okay, you’re in for a sucky [...]

When Laurie Halse Anderson is at her very best, there may be no one better, and she’s at her very best in her upcoming teen novel Wintergirls. We’re back in Speak territory here – haunting, powerful, vital. I finished this book over two weeks ago and still can’t stop thinking about it. It’s killed me [...]

I really liked Vivian’s previous book, A LITTLE FRIENDLY ADVICE and I think this one’s even better. 16 year old Emily’s from a well-off South Jersey family and her life is pretty much the same thing every day: school, friends, family. Ever since her best friend got a boyfriend things have been a little off [...]

I have been trying to write this review for over a week. Man, this longer format is hard to adapt to. I’d only been reviewing books for the shop, and I need to write them more handsell type of reviews – what you would say when you hand someone the book as a purchase suggestion. [...]

Dear Authors:
I do not like baseball.
Please stop writing good baseball books. I do not want to like baseball.
Love, Me
As you may have suspected, THE BROOKLYN NINE is both A. about baseball and B. really good. I’d blame it on the awesomely cool concept, but no, Alan Gratz is a good writer too (darn him) [...]

This is a sweetie pie of a book. A nice book, as I like to say. A book you can hand to a grandmother or a mother or an aunt or the kid themselves and simply say I think you will really like this. There’s always enough room in the world for another nice [...]

(I keep not posting reviews because I think they always have to be longer than this. So instead of not posting them because they’re not long enough, I’m just going to post them when they’re short anyway.)
What does a family lose when a child is lost? What is stolen from a girl’s life when [...]