You Have a Match | ARC Review

My Rating: 4/5 STARS

Title: You Have a Match

Author: Emma Lord

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 1/05/21

Categories: Young Adult, Identity, Family, Friendship, Romance, Coming of Age, Adoption

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

When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.

But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.

When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents—especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.

The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.

But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones.

My Attention: read in one day

World Building: Washington State – mostly at camp

Writing Style: easy to read and relatable

Crazy in Love: friends to lovers

Creativity: Abby’s life gets a bit tangled and she learns to unravel some of the things tying her up in knots.

Triggers: adoption

My Takeaway: Sometimes when you try to find yourself…you find a sister along the way.

Emma Lord is becoming a must-read author for me. I love how she writes young adult contemporary that is filled with relationship problems, whether it be between a romantic interest or issues that arise with family and friends.
Abby’s not doing so well in school, her parents have her scheduled with tutoring. But her grandpa passed away, and she’s in love with her best friend – then on top of that she finds out her parents have been hiding a secret all her life. Talk about trying to manage all her emotions at once! It’s rough and she isn’t one to confront things happening in her life, but she learns how to when Savvy comes into her life, since Savvy is all about putting herself out there.
The story is heart-warming. I love her friendship with Leo but she wants more and she doesn’t know what he wants. And when Abby and Savvy get to know each other, watching their relationship grow after a few rough spots…I wanted them to be in each other’s lives forever by the end of the story.
The secret that Savvy and Abby’s parents share and hide is just so unfortunate, but I can see it as being totally realistic in adoption cases. I felt Abby’s mother’s pain and Savvy’s adopted mother’s as well.
Not only is Savvy adopted but Leo is adopted too. He and his sister was adopted from the Philippines (love the rep!) – and he starts to open up about wanting to know his roots, and his people, through food dishes. I thought that was so fitting because as a Filipino myself…food is everything, it’s so connected to our family/history/culture/memories.

It takes awhile for Leo and Abby to get together haha – lots of back and forth of not knowing where the other stands, but I did adore their friendship. Abby is a Junior so the angst is expected.

You Have a Match is a heartwarming story about finding yourself and family and friends along the way. Abby is grieving her grandpa, wishing she was “better” at everything so her parents could stop trying to fix her, and she’s in love with her best friend. In the end, she realizes her parents support her, and that the boy she loves, loves her back – she just had to open up and tell them what she felt. I enjoyed this story about Abby Day finding herself and also finding a sister.

💕 ~ Yolanda

Uncaged | Book Review

My Rating: 3/5 Stars

Title: Uncaged (Unspoken, #2)

Author: Celia McMahon

Format: eBook (own)

Pages: 402

Categories: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Review for Unspoken (Book #1)

Not every queen needs a crown.

After escaping Stormwall, Izzy and Fray have finally crossed through the Archway and into The Old Kingdom in search of allies. But finding a place within Fray’s former pack is harder than they imagined. When Izzy’s father warred with the Gwylis, it made a lifelong enemy of the Rowan name. Fray’s betrayal of siding with Aquarius in the war makes him no less an enemy to the pack.

Izzy struggles to understand her newfound magic and build a relationship with her new family, but when the new king’s soldiers arrive in The Old Kingdom, Izzy must fight to secure the protection of her new home. With war looming once again, Izzy is thrust back into the life she tried to leave behind.

As danger mounts, past, present, and future collide between kingdoms, and the lines of allegiances are drawn. Izzy must decide who she is willing to fight for, and where her loyalties truly lie.

UNCAGED is the stunning sequel to Celia McMahon’s debut UNSPOKEN, the first in her fantasy trilogy set in a world of curses, wolves, and war.

Aesthetics ~ the covers for the whole series are so good! I love the color scheme and the cover art is just so beautiful.
World Building ~ Izzy and Fray have left Stormwall and now they are in The Old Kingdom which is very detailed. I enjoyed learning about this land of Gwylis who aren’t voiceless, the Gwylis history and their way of life. We get a lot more wolves in this book as Izzy meets Fray’s old pack.
Characters ~ I like meeting the new characters like Olio (he’s my fave). Sonia is tough as nails too and we learn a little about her. Branch is cool too since he comes off scary in the beginning but starts to train Izzy and she needs training.
There is a darkness to Izzy now and I’m sure it will be explored more in the final book of the series. Whatever powers she inherited from the Gwylis, Aquarius, has come with some consequences that she has to figure out.

This one was slower than the first one because Izzy is new to the Gwylis and finding where she belongs. She is also busy training and learning her powers. I know Izzy is a strong female and now even more powerful with her Gwylis form but at times I feel like she doesn’t listen to anyone and I wish she would.
I’m not sure why Ashe is trailing her and what his role is? To remind Izzy of what she once was? Human? 🤔 I guess we shall see in book three.
Speaking about feelings – what is happening with her and Fray? They were tight and now unravelling. They do not communicate very well even though they can communicate through sign and with voice! 🤦🏻‍♀️ I know she’s going through some things though.
Triggers: grief, violence

This felt like a second book because how slow the story became and we spent time just watching Izzy trying to find where she belongs and learning all about her new powers. I think it definitely sets up some things to go down in book three where she has to go back and figure out what to do with her home Stormwall. This was a solid sequel but not my favorite of the series so far – but I do enjoy this world of wolves this author has created.

🐺 ~ Yolanda

Spell the Month in Books: December

Hi all, I thought this would be a fun tag to do. I saw a bunch of bloggers doing it, like One Book More. It was originally created by Reviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles. So let’s try out December:

I tag everyone else who wants to do it! 😘

Aloha Friday | 12/11/20

I’ve been so busy with holiday orders, also my son’s big project to end 2nd quarter and Christmas shopping. Oh the holidays! I barely got any blogging or reading done. 😟

Let’s see how my week has been like:

New Books Acquired:

NetGalley ~

Overdrive Library ~

Amazon Kindle Unlimited ~

TV, Movies, Etc…

The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix – I started this and haven’t finished it. I like it so far though, it’s kind of dark, but fascinating.
Selena on Netflix – not going to lie, it took me awhile to get into this one because the actress looks so old playing teenager Selena and the wigs – oh my!…yes I am an 80’s child and I had a perm and teased bangs 😆😅, but some of the wigs just didn’t look good on that actress. Now my favorite person on the show has to be her sister, Suzette, I like her spunk! I think learning about the family dynamics are interesting, their mom is so supportive, bless her heart. AB looks like he’s being pushed to his limit – but will I watch the second season? Yes because that’s when Como La Flor comes out and she blows up big time! 😍 Another thing I did like about the series, all the 80’s music I listened to growing up playing in the show, made me relive my childhood. Good times! Overall…the the show is okay, I don’t love it, I love the music though.
One Night Only: The Best of Broadway on CBS – music got me through 2020 and I love musicals. Jersey Boys was supposed to make its way to Hawaii this past summer and I saw it on Broadway, my first trip to NYC in 2009 with one of my best friends. But covid happened so…oh well, I hear they rescheduled the show to 2022!

Adulting:

helping my son with his projects 😓 and entertaining my daughter at the same time.
my daughter got a stomach bug and had diarrhea all weekend (boo!) poor kiddo – she’s still recovering but doing so much better, it’s been exhausting for both of us.
finishing and sending my Etsy orders.
cooking for the first night of Hanukkah – I was a little ambitious and thought I had enough flour to make challah and Sufganiyot (fried donut) but just donut bites (like donut holes). I did not have enough flour hahaha – so my challah leaves came out smaller than I thought they would and the donuts didn’t form. Oh well! I’ll try again once I get more flour. The kids loved their presents and challah, my hubby got his Matzo ball soup and I’m just happy they were happy! 💙🕎

Happy Hanukkah to you all!

Top Ten Tuesday | 12/8/20

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!

This week’s holiday freebie topic is:

Books That Take Place in Cold Weather

I used to read much more holiday romance books but now it looks like I’ve been reading more fantasy set in cold weather haha. What’s on your TTT today?

❄️ ~ Yolanda

Maybe This Time | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: Maybe This Time

Author: Kasie West

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 368

Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?

Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year’s Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas.

Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn’t so bad after all . . .

Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places.

It’s so refreshing to read a contemporary ya book after reading so much fantasy ones. I enjoyed all the elements in this book: enemies to lovers, small town girl wants to go to the big city, complicated family, and a tight best friend relationship.
Sophie and Andrew’s moments together span over a year. They are basically together in scenes when they work a big even in town. Sophie works as an assistant events planner and Andrew helps his chef dad with his website. They don’t get a long at first and I liked the bickering between them.
Sophie and her best friend Micah have a fun relationship! Thank goodness for Micah to help Sophie lighten up, especially when it comes to Andrew. They have their struggles but I love that their bond is hard to break.
Sophie’s broken family is due to her dad leaving their family. But Sophie wants to eventually leave too, but she doesn’t know how those plans will pan out. She questions herself: she doesn’t know if she’s skilled or talented enough to make it in design school.

I’m not sure that anything really resolves between Andrew’s dad and Sophie, but I guess it doesn’t matter, because Andrew finally stands up to him. Still, I just didn’t understand what his problem was with her.
The story is spaced out over the year – for example there was a wedding event, and then a fall festival and in between these events Andrew and Sophie never hung out. So there would be a month they haven’t seen each other and I thought that was interesting.

This was a super quick and enjoyable read. It was refreshing to read a YA contemporary romance since it’s been awhile for me! It was nice to see Sophie grow as a person and I loved her hate to love relationship with Andrew. I look forward to reading more from this author.

💘 ~ Yolanda

Monthly Wrap Up | November 2020

Oh November, you wild thing you. I started this month full of bad anxiety because of Election Day which turned into Election Week…of course my birthday fell on the day after Election Day. So yeah…it was the worst week ever. I never want to relive that, ever.😅

Because of all that anxiety – I barely read anything. I couldn’t, so this was the month I read the least I think. This was what my November was like:

Cast in Firelight by. Dana Swift – 5/5

These Violent Delights by. Chloe Gong – 4/5

Parachutes by. Kelly Yang 3.5/5

Grown by. Tiffany D. Jackson – 4/5

Deal with the Elf King by. Elise Kova – 4/5

Unravel the Dusk by. Elizabeth Lim – 3/5

Savage Lands by. Stacey Marie Brown – 4/5

Shadow Knights (Knights of the Realm, #2) – 2/5

Skin Curse (The Gate Cycle, #2) – 4/5

How was your November? What are you looking forward to reading in December? I don’t think I have anything I’m dying to read for December – I just want a nice break and catch up on NetGalley arcs I have to finish, but that’s it. I wish you all a Happy December!

🎄 ~ Yolanda

Light Singer | Book Review

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Title: Light Singer (Kingdom of Runes, #4)

Author: Audrey Grey

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 476

Categories: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

Haven escaped the clutches of the new Sun Sovereign and found solace in Shadoria, but for how long?

Now that the extent of her powers is known, Solis, Noctis, and mortals all hunt her. Meanwhile, chaos reigns across the land. The immortal realm is ruled by a depraved King who will stop at nothing to reclaim Haven as a weapon, while the mortal lands must choose between serving a tyrant or following Prince Bell, the Kinslayer.

And below, in the Netherworld, a great evil awaits, amassing an army of untold powers.

Hunted, plagued by doubt, and torn between duty and love, Haven must find a way to broker peace between the nations before it’s too late.

World Building ~ we are back in the world of A Kingdom of Runes, and Haven is trying to assert her role as the Goddess born. She is trying to win allies but has to prove herself along the way.
Stolas ~ the thing I loved about this book was Stolas and Haven trying to figure out where they stand with one another. Plus things are always so heated between them, in a steamy way. For the most part, their friendship grows as he helps her control her shadow “beast”. Stolas has a vulnerable moment in the book on his mother’s death anniversary and it was so emotional. For me their relationship was the best part of the book! Give me more of Stolas and Haven.
I liked how the ending brought Stolas and Haven into a new adventure – a darker one, and yes I love that he’s this vampire, shifter, fae character – he’s pretty much everything haha. But their new adventure to make her immortal…will it happen? I’m eager to read the next book to find out.

Archeron is so evil ugh…glad Haven is finally over him!
It was nice to see Bell and the rest of Haven’s friends.

If you like fantasy romance books like ACOTAR, then you may enjoy this one because it has so many similar vibes. This is my favorite book of the series so far and I can’t wait to read the next one ~ I hope we get it soon!

🖤 ~ Yolanda

WWW Wednesday | 12/2/20

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

I have so much reading to catch up on! What about you?

😘 ~ Yolanda

Top Ten Tuesday | 12/1/20

This week’s topic is:

Books I Want to Read Again

(This could mean books you plan on re-reading OR books you wish you could read again for the first time.)

Legendborn ~ I’ve been re-reading this slowly since I bought the book! Hopefully, I’ll have time to really dig in, after the holidays.
A Court of Thorns and Roses ~ I’ve reread this series so much but with Nesta’s story coming out in February, I may have to reread it again.
The Inheritance Games ~ I’ll read it again before the sequel comes out.

4. Twilight ~ the book that got me into reading young adult novels when I was adult status. I don’t think I’ll read it again, but I do wish I could relive my first time reading it and I was like…”vampires don’t sparkle!” 😂 I was used to Anne Rice kind of vampires or Dracula okay? Burn in the sun!

5. Bring Me Their Hearts ~ will reread this when I buy myself my own copies.

6. Secondborn ~ I reread this SO many times, but to go back to that first time would be awesome.

7. The Vampire Diaries series ~ I was OBSESSED with this series in the early 1990’s. I reread my copies so much the covers fell off. Oh to read it for the first time again.

8. The Secret Circle series ~ Yes, I was obsessed with all LJ Smith books. This was another series I read over and over until the covers tore off.

9. Vampire Academy series ~ sooo addicting! I loved this world of dhamphirs.

10. Tithe ~ my first Holly Black book and what started my love for faeries! Oh the memories.

So I feel like having a blog and reading as many books to review has made me reread book WAY less…😞. I seriously have no more time to reread my favorite books and that’s makes me a little sad. On the bright side, I get to read about all these new worlds in these new books I come across.

What did you have for your TTT? Drop me a link in the comments!

😘 ~ Yolanda