title: Didn’t See That Coming author: Jesse Q. Sutanto publisher: Delacorte Press publication date: November 28, 2023 pages: 320 peppers: 1 (on this scale) warnings: bullying, mention of vomit summary: In this YA novel, Kiki has been using a hyper-masculine pseudonym to avoid the kind of comments she used to get with a feminine-sounding username on her…
“Why”…Wednesdays
244. Why Air is a Romance
If you haven’t seen Air yet, I recommend you go watch it. I streamed it on Amazon Prime and enjoyed it thoroughly. At first, I thought I liked the following attributes the most: The soundtrack captured the 1980s perfectly. The montages of 1984 images brought me back to ninth grade. Matt Damon is amazing as the…
NetGalley Review of The Takeover
title: The Takeover author: Cara Tanamachi publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: January 30, 2024 pages: 304 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: broken bones, evil corporations, veiled references to billionaires summary: Nami’s amazing tech company Toggle is in financial trouble, and her high school nemesis Jae appears as the buying agent for an Amazon.com doppelgänger,…
NetGalley Review of Maybe Once, Maybe Twice
title: Maybe Once, Maybe Twice author: Allison Rose Greenberg publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: October 3, 2023 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: on-page sexual assault death of a parent vomit summary: The book jumps timelines between important moments in Maggie’s life from age fourteen, when she meets and falls in love with Asher,…
NetGalley Review of Late Bloomer
title: Late Bloomer author: Mazey Eddings publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: April 16, 2024 pages: 400 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: talk of drug use, mean parents, death of a grandparent (before the book) summary: When Opal, who can’t stop herself from helping others even when it’s to her detriment, wins big on a scratch-off…
243. Why You Shouldn’t Buy Your Kid an Apple Watch
Maybe you already have an Apple Watch. Maybe your whole family already loves and wears them. If so, well, I probably can’t convince you to remove the thing from your wrist, put it on the floor, and stomp on it until you hear crunching glass. If you don’t already have one, yay, you. Here’s why…
NetGalley Review of When Grumpy Met Sunshine
title: When Grumpy Met Sunshine author: Charlotte Stein publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: February 26, 2024 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: fatphobia, dead parents, some meanness summary: When Mabel gets the job of ghostwriting a former soccer star’s memoir, she ends up having to fake-date him to explain why they’re always together. It…
242. Why Name Delights
Usually, I make the photos on the top of each post smaller than this one, but not today. This essay will go live twenty-six years after the photo above, taken (obviously) at our wedding on August 16, 1997. We took dance lessons in preparation for the big day and had a great time whirling around…
NetGalley Review of Bloom
title: Bloom author: Helen Hardt publisher: Entangled: Amara publication date: August 22, 2023 pages: 352 peppers: 4 (on this scale) warnings: consensual sexual violence summary: Frankie, mad about the announcement of her sister’s engagement on the day that was supposed to be her own wedding day, flees to a bar where she meets a man in a…
NetGalley Review of An Earn to Remember
title: An Earl to Remember author: Stacy Reid publisher: Entangled: Amara publication date: 22 August 23 pages: 266 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: talk of death, nothing that bothered me summary: Georgiana takes a job as a chef on a private cruise party despite knowing that the ship’s owner is an infamous womanizer. She needs…