Dear Ms. Rowell, I discovered your books thanks to the lovely readers here at the Cannonball Read way back during CBR V. I picked up Attachments one day on a whim at Barnes and Noble that year, went home, read it in 6 hours, bawled my eyes out, and have since never looked back. You write some of the most compelling and real characters around, and every book feels like a hug from a best friend. When I saw many, many months ago that you […]
Benincasa’s Back!
Ms. Benincasa is the author of two YA novels and one deeply honest and very entertaining memoir. This latest novel follows three high school sophomores and one very young teacher on a high school trip to DC. My local library somehow ignored the release date (November 3), and so yesterday I got told my hold notice was up. This book was so entertaining that I started it while working out this morning and didn’t end up putting it down (for real) until I finished it […]
An addictive page-turner
Such a fun book! The story is told through two perspectives: Laia and Elias. Laia is a slave whose grandparents were just murdered in front of her and whose brother was just arrested for treason. Laia barely makes it out alive and only has the rebels to turn to for help. In return for helping her, she makes a deal to infiltrate the Empire’s greatest military academy as a servant for the most sadistic leader working there. Elias is unhappily the school’s best soldier-in-training and […]
Mind the Gap
I was seriously afraid that I’d be wasting my time on yet another damsel in distress story where the awkward boy gets to find himself and be the hero, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bone Gap played with all those expectations and tropes in an unexpected way. This was shortlisted for the National Book Award, so I was hoping it’d be good. It was! Bone Gap is a strange town with some serious secrets. Finn and Sean are two young men/boys just […]