Tag: contemporary

3.5 star, YA

ARC Review: The Girl Least Likely by Katy Loutzenhiser

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

To All the Boys meets The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (with a dash of Dumplin’) in this funny, romantic, and heartfelt coming of age story about a teen stand-up comic learning how to be her truest self, from the author of If You’re Out There.

Gretchen has always been more of a “least likely” than a “most likely” kind of girl. So how does she somehow find herself living out every trope from her favorite rom-coms…?

The Best Friend Crush: Why is it suddenly so hard to act normal around her childhood BFF, Samuel? Must be time for a—

Makeover(!): Black leather pants and some red lipstick are apparently enough to lend Gretchen the bravado to do an impromptu set at a comedy club, and catch the eye of—

The Roguish Bad Boy: Jeremy, the alluring young comic who thinks her name is Sabrina. It might just be—

The Perfect Cover: A funny-girl alter-ego that frees Gretchen to explore who she really is—and what she really wants. But as rom-coms have taught her, leading a double life can only last so long.

**The Girl Least Likely comes out June 29, 2021**

Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ever felt like you had a love-laugh relationship with romantic comedies? You don’t wanna admit that you like them – because let’s be honest you much rather make fun of some of their biggest tropes – yet you know almost everything there is to know about the biggest rom-com hits of the last decade or more. Wouldn’t that technically make you a fan?

Well, The Girl Least Likely is a lot like that and for sure you’d enjoy our heroine Gretchen for this reason. In the vein of various rom-com tropes, each chapter dives fully into one that connects well with the overall story.

A girl falls for her best friend but he doesn’t like her that way (possibly?). She ends up with an alias in the most unlikely ways that she finds herself using to catch the eye of another intriguing guy (who may just be interested in her too?). What could ever go wrong with that? I personally love the falling for the best friend trope but if that’s not your cup of tea, bad boy Jeremy may definitely fill that area.

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2.5 star, YA

Review: What’s Not To Love by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

An academic enemies-to-lovers YA with all the nerdy drama, high school antics, and heartpounding romance of the Netflix original series Never Have I Ever

Since high school began, Alison Sanger and Ethan Molloy have competed on almost everything. AP classes, the school paper, community service, it never ends. If Alison could avoid Ethan until graduation, she would. Except, naturally, for two over-achieving seniors with their sights on valedictorian and Harvard, they share all the same classes and extracurriculars. So when their school’s principal assigns them the task of co-planning a previous class’s ten-year reunion, with the promise of a recommendation for Harvard if they do, Ethan and Alison are willing to endure one more activity together if it means beating the other out of the lead. 

But with all this extra time spent in each other’s company, their rivalry begins to feel closer to friendship. And as tension between them builds, Alison fights the growing realization that the only thing she wants more than winning…is Ethan.

While enemies to lovers trope is one that many people thoroughly enjoy, I found What’s Not to Love just a tad bit over the line in the enemies territory for comfort. Ethan and Alison have spent their high school years with a rivalry that’s borderline toxic for not just themselves but those around them. If one can handle their constant arguments and one-upping one another, then by all means this is a novel for you.

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4 star, YA

ARC Review: Don’t Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Present Day:
Eva has never felt like she belonged… not in her own family or with her friends in New York City, and certainly not at a fancy boarding school like Hardwick Preparatory Academy. So when she is invited to join the Fives, an elite secret society, she jumps at the opportunity to finally be a part of something.

But what if the Fives are about more than just having the best parties and receiving special privileges from the school? What if they are also responsible for keeping some of Hardwick’s biggest secrets buried?

1962:
There is only one reason why Connie would volunteer to be one of the six students to participate in testing Hardwick’s nuclear fallout shelter: Craig Allenby. While the thought of nuclear war sends her into a panic, she can’t pass up the opportunity to spend four days locked in with the school’s golden boy. However, Connie and the other students quickly discover that there is more to this “test” than they previously thought. As they are forced to follow an escalating series of commands, Connie realizes that one wrong move could have dangerous consequences.

Separated by sixty years , Eva’s and Connie’s stories become inextricably intertwined as Eva unravels the mystery of how six students went into the fallout shelter all those years ago . . . but only five came out.

**Don’t Breathe a Word comes out May 18, 2021**

Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review

Don’t Breathe a Word is another successful story that combines dual POVs across different timelines that mesh together in a compelling read. In the present day, Eva finds herself sent off to a private boarding school literally last minute (thanks, mean family). Trying to fit into a crowd that has grown up together since the fifth grade is super tough. Enter a group who IS willing to take her under their wing. Little does she know, this group functions more like a secret society than a regular bunch of friends. The question is, are they harmless or are they hiding something more sinister?

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