Book Review: With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (sooooo good!) Take a 17-year-old high school senior who’s half Black and half Puerto Rican and a brilliant natural cook, add in an absent father, a protective grandmother, the normal demands of high school, and a job, then throw in a 3-year-old daughter and divided custody with an ex-boyfriend, and …
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune The House in the Cerulean Sea begins with dialogue, breaking one of the laws of good writing, according to the experts. Beginning with dialogue, they say, fails to give you essential background. You (theoretically) need a good foundation in order to understand the characters and their world. But TJ Klune …
Of Beast and Beauty by Chanda Hahn I’m a huge fan of the Beauty and the Beast fable and have enjoyed numerous retellings. This was no exception. Chanda Hahn gives us a complex story with high stakes and continued suspense. Rosalie, the eldest of seven daughters of Lady Eville, had been chosen to unite two feuding kingdoms. Thrust …