The Grandest Game by. Jennifer Lynn Barnes | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Grandest Game (The Grandest Game, #1)

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Format: hardcover (library)

Pages: 371

Publication Date: 7/30/24

Categories: Young Adult, Contemporary, Series

Get caught up in the puzzles, games, danger, romance, and riches of this lush new chapter in the #1 bestselling Inheritance Games saga—set a year after we last saw Avery and the Hawthornes.

Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.

Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers a new series in the world of The Inheritance Games, where fan-favorite and new characters collide in a game you’ll never forget.

Do you have what it takes to play?

Okay I loved the Inheritance Games series and honestly…all I wanted was a book about Grayson finding a happy ever after and now I’d also love a book about Rohan. But The Grandest Game was about so many characters, all in one game and I don’t think it really worked for me.

The riddles, the puzzles, all of that and the suspense of piecing clues together is all there, so if you love all the riddles and puzzles you will continue to love it in this book.

I loved Rohan and Savannah’s interactions, Gigi and her group, and then Grayson and Lyra. But I’d rather have it all be separate books I think, so I can get to know these characters more.

Final Thoughts:

If you are still invested in The Inheritance Games world then you will definitely like this one, but I think my interest in this series has waned. I just wanted a Grayson book. Maybe I’ll wait? Maybe I won’t. But I don’t think I’m going to continue The Grandest Game series.

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Everything I Promised You by. Katy Upperman | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Everything I Promised You

Author: Katy Upperman

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 384

Publication Date: 1/28/25

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Categories: Young Adult, Grief, Contemporary, Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me a chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

An emotionally raw and romantic YA novel perfect for fans of Laura Nowlin’s If He Had Been with Me.

Their love was written in the stars, but how is Lia to move on when death trumps fate?

When Lia’s mom was 17, she had her fortune told and learned her only daughter was fated to fall in love with her best friend’s son. Life unfolded exactly as predicted, and despite the army-brat lifestyle bringing them in and out of each other’s orbit, Lia and Beckett were meant to be. Or so they thought.

When a freak heart attack steals Beck’s life, Lia is devastated and unmoored. She lived her life by her mom’s old fortune; if she was fated to be with Beck, and Beck is gone, who is she supposed to be? And is there room in her broken heart for life, let alone another love?

Content Warning: death, grief, foster care

Likes:

+ Lia (Amelia) is grieving. The love of her life has died and she doesn’t know how to go on. Being an Army brat, she’s attended more schools than most kids but now at this new school she has to deal with new changes, new friends and her grief.

+ I thought this was such a heart-warming story because of how close Beck and Lia’s mom’s were close throughout their lives (soulmates) and that’s how Beck and Lia had been in each other’s lives since birth. The story portrays the different people feeling grief, not only Lia, and I like that. Her grief is painful and relatable. I also love how this story starts with a fortune teller and her mother. And it really questions what happens when the plans you’ve made are destroyed and how you get back up and forge a new plan and path.

+ Lia is not only dealing with grief. It is her senior year, so she has some hard decisions to make about her plans after high school. But she does try hard to make friends, and she meets a really good group of girls who support her immediately. She even finds her heart opening to someone new, who is really a great guy. I love that even through all the pain, she is ready to live her life again.

+ The romance is slow and sweet! There are flashbacks about her relationship with Beck, but her new relationship with Isaiah is so different and I love that for her. I like how he gives her space. Isaiah has had a hard upbringing too and foster care is a topic discussed in this book. These two broken people come together and it’s a wonderful love story.

Dislikes:

~ I’m not a fan of flashbacks but I like how this showed how young and sweet Beck and Lia’s love is but also was flawed in hindsight.

~ Lia’s relationship with her parents is strained but I can understand why because grieve is a chaotic place to be. I just wish she let her mom in more, but I get it. I totally get it.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this story. I like how it takes a look at young love and grief. My heart broke for Lia because I can relate to her story – how do you move on when the plans for your future is destroyed in one moment? It’s a hard journey and Lia’s story reflects how sometimes it’s bittersweet but also how there is hope for the future, and there is more life and love to give and receive if you are open to it.

Book Links:

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Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Just Listen

Author: Sarah Dessen

Format: eBook (Libby)

Pages: 371

Publication Date: 4/6/2006

Categories: Young Adult, Contemporary, Teen

Last year, Annabel was “the girl who has everything” — at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf’s Department Store.

This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong.

Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen’s help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

Content Warning: sexual assault, eating disorder

So I’m reading this for my read the month (spell the month) challenge and this is for J in January. I read this back in 2006! Yes, I’m old but I was such a big Sarah Dessen back then because it felt like real stories that I related to especially when it came to coming of age as a teen or dealing with complicated family dynamics.

Reading it so many years later 😅 and now as an adult who’s gone through so much – I still appreciate how real this story feels. Annabel is a teen girl, who models for local commercials and ads, she seems to have it all, even two beautiful older sisters who were models too.

But as Annabel tells her story I am immersed in her life. She doesn’t have it all, her sister is dealing with an eating disorder, her best friend hates her, and she’s holding onto a secret and trauma.

I also love that the romance is not the main focus of this book. Owen and Annabel starts out as friends and the more time they spend together it blossoms into something more but it never overtakes the story.

Quotes from the Book:

“I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn’t always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be riskier, because the words they say and the things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“So many versions of just one memory, and yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“I could pretend to leave the past behind, but it would not leave me.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn to know the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“All you could do was take on as much weight as you can bear. And if you’re lucky, there’s someone close enough by to shoulder the rest.
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I still enjoyed the story and kind of miss stories like this. I feel like now I read so much fantasy to escape reality but back in 2006 when I was looking for authors writing about relatable teen and young adult stories, this is what I was addicted to reading, even if by then I was in my 20’s! It’s a quick read and Annabel is a quiet character, because that was kind of her role in her family but I liked seeing her grow and learn more about herself and her strength while hanging out with Owen. Also, because this was published in the early 2000’s I loved how it brought me back to burning CDs and making playlists for people, definitely felt the nostalgia of it.

Book Links:

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The Rival by. Emma Lord | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Rival

Author: Emma Lord

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 1/21/25

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Categories: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult, Rivals to Lovers, Coming of Age

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rivals-to-lovers gets an academic send-up in this charming and irresistible romantic comedy from Emma Lord, New York Times bestselling author of Tweet Cute and Begin Again!

At long last, Sadie has vanquished her lifelong academic rival — her irritatingly charming, whip smart next door neighbor, Seb — by getting the coveted, only spot to her dream college. Or at least, so she thinks. When Seb is unexpectedly pulled off the waitlist and admitted, Sadie has to compete with him all over again, this time to get a spot on the school’s famous zine. Now not only is she dealing with the mayhem of the lovable, chaotic family she hid her writing talents from, as well as her own self doubt, but she has to come to terms with some less-than-resentful feelings for Seb that are popping up along the way.

But the longer they compete, the more Sadie and Seb notice flaws in the school’s system that are much bigger than any competition between them. Somehow the two of them have to band together even as they’re trying to crush each other, only to discover they may have met their match in more ways than one.

Likes:

+ I love a rivals to lovers romance and this offers all the fighting and chemistry between two people who are trying to ignore the attraction between them. I especially love that Sadie and Seb have known one another since they were little! I loved seeing them go from frenemies to lovers.

+ This is a coming of age story as well as a romance. Sadie and Seb both are in their first year of college and though Sadie knows what she wants, she’s not sure what her family would think of her dreams of being a comedic writer. As for Seb, he’s not sure what path is right for himself but though he and Sadie are rivals, they definitely do push one another to be better versions of themselves – usually.

+ I thought the college experience was captured really well in this story – I loved all the antics, campus life, and shenanigans with the clubs. Also, Betty was awesome.

Dislikes:

~ There were times I wished Sadie would let up on the competition with Seb and their little falling out felt a bit overdramatic on Sadie’s part.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this one because I loved the college campus life portrayed in the story. The rivals to lovers romance was full of fighting, banter and chemistry. Overall, I thought it was a fun story!

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Book Links:

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Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:

The Break-Up Pact by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Getaway List by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Begin Again by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When You Get the Chance by. Emma Lord | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Nature of Frost by. Jus Accardo | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Nature of Frost (Omen of Ice, #2)

Author: Jus Accardo

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 363

Publication Date: 1/13/25

Publisher: Entangled: Teen

Categories: Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Entangled: Teen for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

A dying kingdom on thin ice…

Not so long ago, druid Keltania Tunne thought she knew the world—and her place in it. Magic was all but dead, and the kingdom torn apart. Then she was sent to the court of the Winter Fae and charged with the protection of Valen, the icily arrogant prince who some believed would bring about the destruction of them all…

Instead, he brought magic.

The greed for magic nearly destroyed their world, and its return could plunge them all back into chaos—or unite the estranged fae courts…if they move quickly.

Now Keltania and Valen must navigate the temperamental fae, their insidious secrets, and an enemy who would cleave the kingdom in two in the name of vengeance—all the while hiding the truth of their connection.

Its magic. Its remarkable power. And its ability to crush their hearts in two.

But no one knows that Valen struck a secret bargain with their enemy…and soon everyone in the land will face the consequences.

Content Warning: Cursing

This is book two in the Omen of Ice series, but unfortunately I never read book one! I didn’t realize when I requested this book that it was the sequel so that’s my fault.

So not having read book one and jumping straight into book two, I was a bit lost. That’s when I realized my mistake. I pushed on anyway, hoping that eventually I would get the gist of what I was reading. From what I could gather, Valen is a reluctant leader, and I found his personality to be humorous, he had a dry humor. Tania, the druid, is someone he has a connection with, they can read each other’s minds and are attracted to one another but can’t be with one another. But they both work together to defeat their enemy.

I couldn’t quite connect to the characters because I didn’t read book one but I found the kelpie, Daroose, pretty funny. I did find the story moved quickly and had lots of action.

Final Thoughts:

For a sequel in a series I never read I think this was a solid book. I think fans of the first book will enjoy this conclusion.

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Breath of the Dragon by. Shannon Lee and Fonda lee| ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Breath of the Dragon

Author: Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 352

Publication Date: 1/7/25

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Categories: Martial Arts, Fantasy, Young Adult, Series, Politics

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy duology based on characters and teachings created by Bruce Lee!

Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Earth to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s honor—righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother.

But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. There is no future in honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.

As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself.

Content Warning: violence

Jun and his twin, Sai, are born in the East where only a dragon breathmarked can learn to fight be picked to become an elite warrior. When their family is torn apart, with Jun and his dad to the West and Sai and his mom in the East, Jun has to do what he can to see them again. The first step is to become the next Guardian. And to do that he has to join a fighting tournament against the toughest fighters in the West.

If you like martial arts, you will love this story. It’s got fighting, politics, found family and it’s overall just such an entertaining story! I really enjoyed the world-building.

I really enjoyed Jun as the main character – he’s stubborn, but you know this kid has such a good heart. He wants to be a Guardian but it’s so he can make his dad proud and find his mom and brother. I was really rooting for him through his growth and his fights. I loved watching him build relationships with Ren, Chang and his rival Yin. There is political intrigue going on in the West but I think with how this book ends, we’ll get to see what is happening in the East next.

The fighting scenes are great! Very violent but so good that I wish this was a tv show or movie – remember those days of martial art movies? It’s definitely entertaining.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this one a lot and can’t wait to read the next book!

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Jade City by. Fonda Lee | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue by. Kate Pearsall | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue (Bittersweet in the Hollow, #2)

Author: Kate Pearsall

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 1/7/25

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Categories: Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

A beautifully dark YA set in Appalachia tinged with magic, mystery, murder, and romance. For fans of House of Hollow and Wilder Girls! As Caball Hollow slowly recovers after a tumultuous summer, the James family must also come to terms with their own newly revealed secrets.

18-year-old Rowan James has spent her whole life harboring unpleasant truths—that’s what happens when you can smell people’s lies—and building walls around herself to block them out. Like her younger sister, Linden, who can taste the feelings of others, Rowan has long resented her gift, which has taught her that everyone lies and no one is who they seem to be. So when her old nemesis, Hadrian Fitch, the biggest liar of them all, shows up on her front porch—bloodied, broken, and asking for help only she can give—her first instinct is distrust. But something new is stalking the Forest that surrounds Caball Hollow.

Now things are disappearing. At first, it’s small stuff—like letters, photos, and keys. But then, Rowan notices people around her are losing their memories. And when the body of a neighbor is found in the middle of town, Rowan knows there’s a link between this death and all the events disturbing the Hollow. Can she find what—or who—the link is before it takes another life?

Content Warning: violence

I really enjoyed Bittersweet in the Hollow, the first book in this series. I love the James women!

We are back in Caball Hollow which is in the Appalachia mountains of West Virginia. It’s an eerie small town and the James women history with witchcraft, the bone tree, the Moth-Winged man stories and now sightings of the Wampus Cat just adds to it all. I enjoy the lore of the James women and the atmosphere of the setting.

I feel like this book is way more atmospheric than book one and much more creepy. Rowan, one of my favorite of the James sisters, because of her fiery personality, she is restless but she finds her calling when she is forced to volunteer for the Forest Service and she is one brave young lady. She is alone in the forest except for basically a treehouse and a walkie-talkie. For someone young, she’s really responsible and doesn’t complain about things, which I love about her.

The mystery about community members missing items and essentially maybe missing parts of themselves is what brings Rowan and Hadrian (the Moth-Winged Man) together. Between these two and their attraction to one another, we learn more about the forest, the Otherworld, the bone tree, and what would happen if the bone tree died. I also loved the storyline about Zephyrine who is Gran’s lost sister.

I do feel like this book was help transitioning to what’s going to happen with book three and so I feel like we didn’t get to know Rowan as much as I wanted. We were in her head a lot which is great but I wanted to see her interact more with her sisters and Hadrian. I loved her scenes with Hadrian but I love them so much I wanted more.

My Thoughts:

This is a great sequel and I can’t wait to read more about the James sisters and Caball Hollow!

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Bittersweet in the Hollow by. Kate Pearsall | ARC Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Better Than Revenge by. Kasie West | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Better Than Revenge

Author: Kasie West

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 12/31/24

Publisher: Delacorte Romance

Categories: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Delacorte Romance for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

A swoony new romance from the author of Sunkissed! When her football-player boyfriend and now ex lands the podcast job she’s been dreaming of, a girl takes matters into her own hands by enlisting the help of his nemesis to get revenge.

Seventeen-year-old Finley has only ever had one to become a famous podcaster. This includes coming up with the perfect pitch to land her on her school’s podcast team. But when her football-obsessed boyfriend, Jensen, decides to also try out—and uses her idea—she’s left confused and betrayed.

Determined to get back at him, Finley and her friends try to find the perfect revenge scheme, but quickly discover that Jensen is almost-impossible to best. Keyword, almost.

By chance, Finley discovers a knack for kicking and decides to take Jensen’s spot on the football team. To help her train, she recruits Jensen’s cute but conceited nemeses, Theo. Soon the two discover that their connection runs deeper than football. But Finley can’t let herself get distracted, and Theo has secrets of his own. Is true love really better than the perfect revenge?

I haven’t read a Kasie West book in awhile! Here are my thoughts:

Likes:

+ Finley is out for revenge because he boyfriend took the podcast spot at school that she was trying for. I didn’t blame Finley at all for her revenge plot because her boyfriend, or should I say ex, was really a jerk. Throughout the whole book he was taking her ideas, making her feel like she wasn’t good enough and that sucked a lot. But I liked her journey with trying to figure what she wanted to do after her dreams were crushed and making things right in the end.

+ One of the cutest things in this story though is Finley’s relationship with her grandmother who has the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. Finley does a podcast interview with her throughout the story and I love how it’s how she bonds with her grandmother and shows off her talent with podcasting and interviewing people.

+ Finley’s friends are really the best. They are with her even when this revenge plot goes into uncharted territory and when she messes up sometimes they don’t shut her out but they work it out. I loved Max!

+ The romance between Finley and Theo (her ex’s rival) is really cute. Theo is the popular guy with a reputation. Theo and Finley have really good chemistry when it comes to being rivals, then friendship and then into a romance. I like how they pushed one another to be better. I thought the way it paralleled somewhat with her grandma’s romance story was super cute!

Dislikes:

~ I did not like Jensen. And Finley wasn’t perfect, especially with her desperately wanting to get back at him so bad – but I can understand where she is coming from. Jensen, not so much, he was just a jerk.

Final Thoughts:

This story has heartfelt moments between family and friends and there is a cute romance Theo and Finley. It’s a quick read and teens and young adults will enjoy this one, especially if you have read other books by this author.

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Book Links:

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Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:

Maybe This Time | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Dating and Dragons by. Kristy Boyce | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Dating and Dragons

Author: Kristy Boyce

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 336

Publication Date: 12/31/24

Publisher: Delacorte Romance

Categories: Romance, Young Adult, D&D, Contemporary

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Delacorte Romance for giving me a chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

From the author of the nationally bestselling Dungeons and Drama comes another gaming romance that’s sure to win you over!

After moving to a new high school, Quinn is desperate for friends, so she joins a D&D group with their own livestream and serious rules—most no dating fellow party members.

But when sparks fly with a cute but irritating player, and ex-friends from an old campaign start stirring up trouble, she’ll need to figure out where her loyalties—and heart—lie beyond the game.

Content Warning: bullying, cyberbullying

I LOVED Dungeons and Drama, and so I though I’d read this one by the same author. Here are my thoughts:

Likes:

+ If you like Dungeons & Dragons (the game), you will probably enjoy this book. I’m neutral about it. I loved it in the previous book because it combined the game and the drama kids. I think this one is just most about D&D, which gives me more insight into the game.

+ The romance is cute, Quinn has joined a D&D group but one person in the group, Logan, doesn’t seem to want her there. It’s only because he doesn’t want his attraction to her to disrupt the group. Also Quinn is trying not to let her past haunt her.

+ The friend group was fun and I thought Quinn’s grandma was quite a personality!

Dislikes:

~ I’m an older reader, so I might just be too old for this kind of book now but there were some angsty, dramatic stuff that made me laugh. This one is definitely for the teen readers!

~ I thought it was interesting how for the most part the attraction is held back but when they couldn’t fight it anymore, Logan was saying some heated stuff and I thought, whoa this guy is 16? That was a little off to me.

Final Thoughts:

Can I just say I love whoever did the book cover for this book and the last one? This is what some of the adult romance books need for their cover art, especially when they do the cartoonish designs. Overall, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I loved Dungeons and Drama but I think teen readers will really like this one!

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Other Books I’ve Read By This Author:

Dungeons and Drama by. Kristy Boyce | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not Here to Be Liked by. Michelle Quach | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Not Here to Be Liked

Author: Michelle Quach

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 384

Publication Date: 9/14/21

Categories: Young Adult, Romance, High School, Feminism

Emergency Contact meets Moxie in this cheeky and searing novel that unpacks just how complicated new love can get…when you fall for your enemy.

Eliza Quan is the perfect candidate for editor in chief of her school paper. That is, until ex-jock Len DiMartile decides on a whim to run against her. Suddenly her vast qualifications mean squat because inexperienced Len—who is tall, handsome, and male—just seems more like a leader.

When Eliza’s frustration spills out in a viral essay, she finds herself inspiring a feminist movement she never meant to start, caught between those who believe she’s a gender equality champion and others who think she’s simply crying misogyny.

Amid this growing tension, the school asks Eliza and Len to work side by side to demonstrate civility. But as they get to know one another, Eliza feels increasingly trapped by a horrifying realization—she just might be falling for the face of the patriarchy himself.

Content Warning: misogyny, bullying, sexism

Eliza has being Editor in Chief for the school newspaper, the Bugle, in the bag…or so she thought. Plans change when Len challenges her for the spot and wins.

Eliza’s a pretty strong character but not really likable. She kind of has tunnel vision when it comes to the Bugle – her whole life is about the Bugle. Eliza marches to the beat of her own drum. She is tenacious and doesn’t back down even when bad things happen, which I loved about her but she definitely had flaws. It’s nice that she represents the immigrant family and I like how it showed how children of immigrant parents they have to do things like help their parent with filling out forms or making phone calls because of the language barriers. I could relate to some of that!

The romance is very interesting. I can’t say I loved Len at first but I actually like how he calls Eliza out so many things. Both Len and Eliza had imperfections which I liked a lot and it’s very much a rivals to lovers trope but I loved that both of them weren’t totally likable – but they still made a cute couple by the end of the story.

Feminism, and sexism is a main theme of the book and though Eliza’s stances are strong, I thought it was interesting how different situations start too complicate her original feelings on these issues. I do wish she could have avoided that conflict with her best friend by just being honest.

Quotes from the Book:

“Because everyone loves a girlboss until she tries to tell you what to do.”
Michelle Quach – “Not Here to Be Liked”

Final Thoughts:

The more I learned about Eliza and Len, they grew on me and I was rooting for the romance by the end of the book. I like how the story touched on feminism, sexism and being a child of immigrant parents. I thought this was an entertaining story.