Amani Al-Hiza is poor orphan, raised by uncaring relatives in a small desert town where most inhabitants work in the local mine. She knows that if she doesn’t collect enough money to get out soon, she’ll end up as third wife to her unpleasant uncle, a fate she would rather die than accept. One night, she disguises herself as a boy and enters a shooting competition at the local watering hole, trying to win enough money to finally leave. She’s an excellent shot, and sure […]
Wrestling with grief and the past
Red Ink is a young adult/teen novel about grieving the loss of a parent and learning the painful truth about the past. The novel is narrated by 15-year-old Melon Fourakis in a manner that takes the reader back and forth through time, jumping ahead to the days and months after her mother Maria’s unexpected death and back to the time preceding it. In doing so, author Mayhew keeps readers on the edge of their seats and thoroughly engaged in unraveling the mystery of “The Story” […]
“I fight every day, and too many times it’s just not enough and the fear wins. I’m so fucking weak and everything is so fucking intense and sometimes I really hate it…”
Queens of Geek is a cute story about three friends attending a convention in California, SupaCon. The two girls narrate the story. Charlie is a YouTube celebrity and rising movie star. Her career is the reason they are there. She wants to do publicity for her movie and show her fans that she’s over her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, costar Reese. She starts to fall for a fellow YouTuber, Alyssa, and things get complicated when Reese shows up. Meanwhile, Taylor has anxiety and Asperger’s, so […]
It’s a love/hate relationship.
Despite its numerous flaws, it seems I actually like this series quite a bit now. Sigh. A lot of the problems I had with this series are still there, but if I’m going to keep reading it, at some point I’m going to have to acknowledge that no one is holding a gun to my head and making me do that, and that some part of me is enjoying it enough to push past all the stuff that annoys me. At that point, it just […]