lisaluvsliterature's reviews
4011 reviews

Of course I will read and devour anything that Penny Reid writes. And I honestly thought that when she called this book “Bananapants” it was like a working title until she told us the real one. So imagine my surprise when it was the actual title, lol. Although it was shown in the story why this was the name once I started reading it, as well as the author talked about it in her note at the end.

This was such a great story. It had so many moments that I laughed out loud. But it also had so many moments I was tearing up and feeling all kinds of ways. In a way, it is hard to review this because I feel it is also a very important story. What I’ve always loved about Reid’s books is that her characters are just real. They are imperfect, but not all the same imperfections. For some characters I totally connected with, feeling the same about so many things, probably having similar imperfections as they did. And then there are others that are normally people in real life I might not understand exactly why they are the way they are. What is so great about her stories though, is how they give the reader a glimpse into what or how or why these people are thinking or doing or reacting the way they do. It’s important to note, that the author herself even notes that not all people with certain diagnoses behave the same as the people or characters she’s written. She does her due diligence in talking to people who are like Desmond and are bi-polar. She has her own loved ones that are able to do the sensitivity reading and help make sure she gets it right for what they experienced.

Some things that were so important in this story, and that I think I need to keep in my own mind with my own depression, is that it can’t be you’re living or doing things for other people all the time. You have to do it for yourself or it won’t continue. It also will be emotional warfare in a way to the person that you depend on, especially if they know they are the one. I also love how because Desmond and Ava were being honest with each other (a bit from my favorite Outlander between Jamie and Claire in a way), she is able to ask him all the questions that I know I would want to ask in that situation. And he doesn’t placate her, he is honest and explains it to her. Plus she knows that he isn’t being mean when he explains, he is being honest with her, and telling her what she needs to know.

Okay, let’s talk about some of the not so serious aspects of the story that I loved. First of all, going back to the Knitting in the City series, and seeing all or almost all of our favorite couples and their significant others and families, loved that! Ava being a part of the knitting night. And I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I haven’t read Desmond’s parents’ story in a bit, the very first in the series. But I loved that even though we love these characters, they might not have been perfect parents, and their kids might have had some of the same types of relationships they’d have, even if in the end, they could work it out.

And finally, I loved the banter and chemistry between Ava and Desmond. I loved Desmond’s joking around with Sue. I loved how Ava said she’d often have random movie lines pop into her head, um, hey girl, that’s me too! Once again, Penny Reid blows me away with the perfect story, with perfectly imperfect characters, perfect dialogue, no third act break-up in this one either!

Will try to get to it later if time

I haven’t read one of Johnson’s books in so long, but I’ve been a fan of her since the early days of the Twitter world! I loved following her there, and I loved her books. When this one came up on Edelweiss and I saw it wasn’t part of the series I hadn’t had a chance to start, I knew it was time to jump in and read another by this author.

And as I knew from prior books, Johnson can spin a perfect mystery, leaving little clues along the way, red herrings, and still surprise me in the end with what really happened. I loved getting the details from the past sprinkled in throughout the story, especially as the things happening in the present timeline somewhat mirrored those from the past. Another thing I also love about this author is the way she can add humor to any situation, so that you can like these characters and be laughing one minute or even laughing as the danger is occurring. I have a bit of gallows humor myself, so this is something I definitely appreciate as I’m sure many teens that I know also can feel this way.

I even learned some things in this book I didn’t know, probably because I’m not from that area of the country. While I know a bit about NYC and maybe a few other details about the state, I didn’t realize there was an area called Thousand Islands and that it is where the salad dressing got its name from! Live and learn! And I love that.

The description of this house and the island were so interesting I found myself pausing and rereading to try to get the full picture in my mind before I went on with the story at times. I liked also how the author kind of slipped in that this character from the past was a doctor in the field of eugenics. I can see teens then looking that up if for some reason they hadn’t been taught about it in school. Other characters in the book kind of spelled out what that actually was, and that was a great way to do it as well.

Can’t wait to put this one out for my mystery loving students to read and enjoy!

Overall this was a really good story. I liked the characters, I liked the setting, and I enjoyed a lot of the humor. Both characters had their issues, and both had their reasons for the way they acted with each other. A lot of the side characters, including AJ’s students and co-workers, were some of the best parts of the story for me.

There was a lot riding for both characters on the things that happened with their jobs. And I liked seeing that Samantha figured out maybe she was more happy doing the actual work by the end, as opposed to necessarily having to do all the running of the company/brand, etc. AJ had a chip on his shoulder as it said, based on an ex-girlfriend, and while it was definitely understood, I feel he totally overreacted to someone he’d just met at the beginning. I also felt some things were awkward, like the steamy scenes were a bit, as well as her being so turned on by his hairy hands. I mean, yeah, I get that people like different things, but some of that was kind of weird for me to read.

The narrators were great for the book though, and it was a pretty quick and easy listen. And I think the rest of the series is probably good to listen to or read as well! Maybe the other heroes won’t have hairy hands, lol. 

This is an author I’ve wanted to read for a while, so I was excited when I won an ARC from Bookish First. It seemed appropriate that I picked it up to read when the Olympics were in Paris as well!

Most of the story is from Ruby’s viewpoint, as she goes to Paris on a school field trip. Of course she is a travel blogger/influencer, and really wants to see certain things that are unusual. One of those things is the catacombs. Also on the trip is her ex-best friend and her current best friend. Her current best friend, Val, is a bit of a wild child. In fact she sneaks out the first night there to go to a party with a cute guy she met on their daily outing. When Ruby finds out, she tries to stop her. But sneaking out she gets caught by her ex-best friend, as well as another of their friends. Those two girls end up sneaking with her so they don’t get caught either. When they catch up with Val and this guy, he is already getting ready to take them down a manhole to a secret entrance that isn’t open to the public. He says he is going to a party with other “cataphiles” people who like exploring the catacombs. 

Of course once they get down there, things just don’t go right. Julien, the guy, won’t let her take pictures for her travel blog because people can’t know how the cataphiles get down there or they might get caught and those ways blocked off. Of course some get hurt. They get lost. It floods when it rains, and then there seem to be people chasing them, dressed in skeleton costumes, scary skeleton costumes. Through their traversing for over 3 days, they come to know each other. Secrets and lies that had come between Ruby and her best friend Selena come out. Ruby also learns that maybe Val isn’t as good a friend as she says she is. 

We also get a bit of the story from Sean’s viewpoint. Sean is another of Ruby’s closest friends. In fact she thinks she likes him as more than a friend, and that maybe he feels the same way. But he will be going away after high school where she won’t see him all the time, and she’s not able to deal with people leaving her, like her mom, and her friend, etc. Sean also is interested in Ruby. And he wants her to know. He also doesn’t trust Val, after she did something that we find out about in the story with the ones lost in the catacombs. And when the girls disappear, he makes it his mission to do whatever he can to help them get out, as well as be there for her when she makes it out. In doing all this, he also takes steps to let his father know what he really wants to do with his life, and starts to figure that out a bit as well.

There are a lot of tense moments as we follow the girls through the tunnels with their mysterious French cataphile tour guide Julien. And lots of moments of waiting, as Sean and the other teachers, students and French police try to find them. Definitely was a good story, and will have it available for my students to read!

Last year I read a book by this author that I really enjoyed called Don’t Go To Sleep. So when this historical fiction horror story about a serial killer family in Kansas was sent to me, I was extremely eager to read it.

Overall there was a lot of interesting bits to this story. I can’t believe living this close to where all the actual history of the Bender family happened, that other than a few very small stories on the news recently about an anniversary or something, I didn’t know much about this story. I liked how at the beginning of each chapter there was a snippet from real news stories when it was all going on. To be fair, there wasn’t exactly a complete record of these events to give a lot more to the story, which I think gave this author a lot of openings to write his story the way he did.

The story was really about Warren coming into his own, growing up. As the youngest son in a family where he’d also been quite a few years behind his other brothers, he’d kind of had things easier and not only did he not feel like he was capable of as much as his brothers, no one else in the family saw him that way either. There was a lot of interesting history and even geography type of facts told as he traveled to try to find his father who had left to find a friend of the family who hadn’t shown up when he and his infant daughter were supposed to. So this was also a bit of a survival story, as Warren had to remember how to survive in the wilderness. Of course he’d always had his family to do all the actual work, so even though his father and brothers had shown him what to do, it wasn’t ingrained and something he had practice at doing.

Warren had a lot of issues going on with himself to deal with as well. First he totally had social anxiety, didn’t like to be around a lot of people, and didn’t know how to always talk to strangers or even people he knew. He seemed to be a bit of a germ-a-phobe as well. And finally he had this voice inside of him telling him to do horrible violent things to people. Even his own family members. Just to see the gory results. To be fair, I feel like that last aspect didn’t need to be part of the story? But maybe it was just to show that it could be easy to do those things or to give empathy to the Benders? I don’t know. I feel like there were other parts the author had in the story that showed that well enough without this extra bit.

There was a lot of excitement in this story. A tornado, bandits trying to rob him, stampeding buffalo herds, the Benders themselves, and just getting lost too. There was code breaking, solving a mystery and using clues to try to find the Benders. I could see my students enjoying this one for sure!

This was another fun fake dating romance, my first by another author that I’ve wanted to read for a while, and was glad to get the chance to read this early! I also know I now need to at least go back and read the first book in this series. While I’ve never seen the Runaway Bride movie with Julia Roberts, I imagine this has similarities to that story in some ways.

Boy did this book start with a major hook of an opening. I mean having someone show up when you are covered with jelly from trying to get one of your former engagement rings off, and having to suddenly assure them you are getting engaged because it would hurt your newly found father’s public image. And then having a stranger just happen to be walking down your street that you are able to actually pull over and rope into this fake engagement scenario, and that stranger is actually your newly found sister’s best friend that you kind of sort of know.

Matthew was someone I could have fallen in love with myself. He was funny and sexy and definitely such a good guy, with some moves! He was there for Josie in all the ways, letting her go with what she wanted, but also pushing her to make sure she was doing what she wanted and not just what everyone else wanted. And he was real. The secret that he had, well, it wasn’t a horrible one, not even one I’d kind of guessed might be what was going on. Also, not a third act break up, even with what happened on their supposed wedding rehearsal/day.

Even Josie’s father had a moment at the end that made him not someone to completely hate or never forgive. And I liked that. The characters in this small town were a blast as well. I loved Josie’s Grandpa Moe and his neighbor Otto. And as I mentioned at the beginning, I need to go back and read book one to get more of this small town and the characters. My only issue was that it might have been a little longer than needed overall, and there were a few small parts I feel might have been not needed. However since I can’t really think of what they were specifically after I finished, I still gave it 4.5 stars!

I always enjoy a good competition YA romance, as well as the whole grumpy-sunshine trope being one of my favorites. I also enjoy the cultural stories like this one. It was easy to feel for Juliana and how she felt she had to do what her mom wanted her to do. Not only was there the usual Asian family pressure to be winning at everything, but the whole contest itself had been founded by her own father, who had passed away, and now she felt she had to win because of that.

But also Juliana had the pressure of knowing that her older sister had been kind of kicked out of the family or disowned by her mother for getting pregnant and dropping out of medical school. As the middle child she also felt the pressure to do what she could to help her younger sister not have to face the pressure as much. However that meant she would kind of get on her sister to try to get her to do what their mother asked as well.

The boy she ends up on the project with, Garrett, is someone she has a history with. She’d thought at camp when they were younger, that they’d really connected. But something had happened on the last day, and he’d told her he didn’t want to be her friend anymore. So going to him to get his help with this was a big leap of faith for her. Unfortunately Juliana still let her mother’s biases get in between the two, because she didn’t tell her mom she was working with Garrett. She lied about who she was working with.

In the end there is more to this competition than what it seems. Juliana also gets to know more about the people in the community that her mother doesn’t consider “their people” the more she spends time with Garrett at the community center and gets to know those people. She learns things about her father she didn’t know because of the competition, things that look bad for him, but may not be the more she thinks about it. And she of course will learn why Garrett turned away from her all those years ago.

I really enjoyed this one, couldn’t put it down, sped right through it once I picked it up. Can’t wait to purchase it for my school library so my students can enjoy it as well!