I didn't always love short stories, mostly because I kept wanting more, and they kept ending. But I always want to spend more time with characters I love, and that knows no form. Novel, novella, or short story, great characters always make me want to spend more time in their world. My love for short [...]
Throwback by Maurene Goo is a fun rom-com with mother-daughter drama with time travel. Throwback has Back to the Future vibes with a Freaky Friday slant. Samantha gets sent back to 1995 after an epic fight with her mom, unable to get back to her own time until she completes a mystery mission... all while [...]
Samantha Markum's You Wouldn't Dare is the perfect summer read. It has it all: a cute beach town, a tight-knit community, the friend group you always wanted, a friends to lovers romance, witty banter, and a swoon-worthy setting. Graham, Lucy, Milo, and Junie have a friendship for the ages. Sure, Lucy and Graham are super [...]
Mahalia wanted a big Sweet 16 party like her friends, but it wasn't in the budget. She knows it's too late for a Sweet 16-- but what if she threw herself an epic coming out party? A party to end all parties, a party that celebrates being young and queer and full of joy? She [...]
The week between Christmas and New Year's often feels like a time warp. The kids are still out of school, but work goes on, and what day is it again? Though Christmas is over, the decorations are still hung and a pile of Christmas-y sweets is taking up a whole corner of the kitchen (holiday [...]
My latest post for Knoxville Moms is a bookish holiday shopping guide! You can view the post on their website here. Books make excellent holiday gifts, whether you're shopping for babies all the way up to great-grandmas. Here's a thorough list of highly recommended books, from a book nerd, to help make your book shopping [...]
Jesse Q. Sutanto's Well, That Was Unexpected is a YA rom-com that hits the mark perfectly. Sharlot's life is turned upside down when her mother finds her in a compromising situation, and subsequently takes her to her mother's birthplace of Indonesia for the summer. Sharlot thinks this is the worst punishment ever... until she discovers [...]
Ebony LaDelle's Love Radio is a love letter to Detroit, to young love, and to figuring out how to love yourself. Prince Jones may only be in high school, but his status as a DJ giving love advice has elevated him to nearly local celebrity levels. Danielle Ford has all but withdrawn from her former [...]
Maggie Stiefvater whisks readers away to long ago Scotland in Bravely, a novel continuation of the Pixar movie Brave. As a longtime fan of Brave, I was both ecstatic and apprehensive about a novel continuation. The same conundrums that put fear in the hearts of readers as their favorite books are adapted into films persists [...]
It's almost June, somehow, and I just finished my first semester as a graduate student. I'm working towards earning my Master of Fine Arts in writing for children and young adults, and so I have been doing a LOT of reading. Here are my top reads of 2022, so far: Picture Book: Fry Bread, Kevin [...]
Paw Prints in the Sink 