books

Highlands New Year

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Title: Highlands New Year

Author: Amy Quick Parrish

Year: 2023

Genre: romance, travel

Queer shit: one side wlw couple

Vibe Check: Snowed in at a Scottish bed and breakfast with romance and the warm and fuzzies

Pile of Opinions:

This book was a cute, romantic, snowed-in, Scottish slumber party! It was the perfect read for me during the summer as I prefer the cold weather. This is book two of three (that I know of) and I ordered book 1 and pre-ordered book 3 and am greatly looking forward to reading them as well. This book is less than 200 pages and makes for a great read-in-one-sitting story. Melissa moved to Scotland (I’m assuming in the first book) because she was told she inherited a home from a distant relative. Her best friend, Caitlin flies out to visit her and finds herself snowed in at a hotel with strangers, including one handsome man who plays guitar, sings like an angel, and makes her want to dive head first into the unknown. This book is exactly what I want in a romance that isn’t spicy. The romance was sweet and gives you the warm and fuzzies.

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Other Books by Amy Quick Parrish

Emma of 83rd Street

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Title:  Emma of 83rd Street

Author: Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding

Year: 2023

Genre: romance

Queer shit: a bisexual in passing

Vibe Check: Modern day Manhattan retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, cute, spicy, empowering.

Pile of Opinions: This one is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma in modern day Manhattan. The classic age gap between the lead and her love interest (he remembers her being born, etc.) is a weird trope for me but at least the characters in this book directly address it (“suddenly she’s a woman and not a little girl, when did that happen” type of energy) so I’ll allow it. They grew up together and he is a total ass to her. I’m grateful she does humble him! A lot of times once love is confessed it just goes unaddressed so I’m glad the author makes sure to show that Emma is infinitely smarter than Knightley no matter how much older he is or how much more mature he thinks he is. He’s kind of a tool. He holds her to a higher standard than anyone else and is so mean about her humanness. He better spend his life trying to earn her attention haha  I know he is like weird protective big brother energy until he realizes he loves her but also that’s sort of toxic and he’s a mean big brother who bullies her several times because he’s immature and has zero emotional regulation apparently. Overall I love this retelling! It does get spicy (heyo!)! This is great for Austen fans, romance genre readers, and anyone looking for a story of a young woman finally seeing she is everything she needs to be and has accomplished great things and only needs to keep doing what she knows is best for her.

Professional Reader

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Clover Hendry’s Day Off 

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Title: Clover Hendry’s Day Off 

Author: Beth Morrey

Year: 2024

Genre: Empowerment, liberation, breaking cycles, positive midlife crisis

Queer shit: Gay side character

Vibe Check: Positive midlife crisis to seek self advocacy and build the life you want, it just may require burning some things down first

Pile of Opinions: Clover is a recovering people pleaser and professional doormat who decides today is the day to start being a human. She sets out and starts speaking her mind whether she means to or not because she’s had enough and she spends the day doing exactly what she feels like doing. I enjoyed the idea of this book and am proud of Clover for stepping out to advocate for herself and start recognizing what she wants to do. This book did start with her popping two Vicodin and getting a head injury that knocked her out and was bleeding but never looked at by a medical professional. Clover spends her day eating delicious things and burning some things down, while building other things back up, but what I thought would be a heartfelt and liberating story of Clover being set free was actually a very worrisome story. Yes, drugs not prescribed to us can impact us in ways like speaking our mind when we otherwise might not, but Clover went on a path of destruction that didn’t feel productive or healthy to me. She did a lot of self-sabotaging and made a lot of weird and destructive choices that never actually had consequences. This felt like a midlife mental breakdown, which are all entitled to, I just had a hard time rooting for Clover when it often felt like she was just having a head injury about town. She rode the line between self advocacy and fighting toxic with toxic like a tightrope. I did enjoy the characters and I do feel like the book ended with Clover finding some balance to move forward in life with better boundaries and better participation in her own life. I liked the relationships she had with people and where they grew to by the end of the book. The way she burned down her work enemies was really concerning to me as it felt like she forced something on people that could have been extremely triggering for many folks and since there was no warning it felt really upsetting to me. I understand she was standing up to a horrible excuse for a human, but there were other people, other women in the room, and that felt like a really traumatizing way to bring him down. You might enjoy this book if you enjoyed Ferris Bueller’s Day off and if you like seeing middle aged women stick up for themselves and heal from their past (I know I do, that’s why I chose this book). If you like “not as they seem” relationships that break down walls and grow in a very human way. Also there is a bunny and that’s honestly reason enough to read this. 

Professional Reader

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The Name Drop

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Title: The Name Drop

Author: Susan Lee

Year: 2023

Genre: Coming of age, family expectations, economic class, 

Queer shit: not that I remember

Vibe Check: Wealthy Elijah and lower middle class Jessica accidentally swap lives for the summer and decide to not correct it, sweet and funny romance and exploration of breaking free from family expectations and building your own future

Pile of Opinions: A mix-up with names at the airport leads to a summer of opportunities. Elijah and Jessica decide to take advantage of the airport’s mix up and swap jobs for the summer. Elijah, set to spend the summer in New York at his fathers company, decides to go incognito and live the summer as a regular intern and leave the executive training program to Jessica. Elijah is from a 1% family in Korea and Jessica from a middle class family in Southern California, the two get to explore New York City together and realize they enjoy spending time together. This is a beautiful coming of age story about breaking free from toxic family values and learning who supports you in living the life you want and finding happiness. This book also tackles class and financial privilege, misogynistic companies too set in their old ways, as well as complex family dynamics. This book is for romance readers, YA readers, and anyone who wants to read about someone else’s family drama for a few hundred pages. This is my first read of Susan Lee’s and I’m looking forward to jumping right into Seoulmates asap. Let me know if you’ve read this one and what you think in the comments.

Professional Reader

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Dungeons and Drama

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Title: Dungeons and Drama

Author: Kristy Boyce

Year: 2024

Genre: YA fiction, YA romance, Dungeons and Dragons, Musical Theater,

Queer shit: mlm side relationship, musical theater, D&D

Vibe Check: Musical theater fan fake dates a D&D fan, not only do they enjoy fake flirting but they find their interests overlap in beautiful and magical ways

Pile of Opinions: Soooo cute!!! Adding this to the list of books I wish I’d had as a teenager along with everything Elise Bryant, Michelle Quach, and Anna-Marie McLemore ever write. I’m looking forward to going back and reading the author’s other books. I love all the characters and everything felt so real and believable and raw in the way only good YA writing can feel. This book had me laughing out loud and getting second hand butterflies and I am here for it. A musical theater fanatic gets grounded and her “punishment” is working at her dad’s gaming store for 8 weeks. She is trying to revive the canceled spring play but gets sucked into the world of D&D. What starts as part of her cover fake dating Nathan so her douchey ex boyfriend stops pitying her and so Nathan’s crush will get jealous and finally give him the time of day quickly turns into an “is this real or just part of the act” as the two start to fall for each other. This felt every bit the teenage dream of exploring the world beyond what is right in front of you and finding friends in unlikely and unexpected places. This book is for Dungeons and Dragons fanatics, musical theater enthusiasts, and readers of sweet romance and young love. I am definitely buying the physical copy when it comes out January, 2024, and will be on the lookout for the author’s other books as well. Let me know if you’ve read this and what you thought in the comments!

Professional Reader

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The Boy You Always Wanted

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Title: The Boy You Always Wanted 

Author: Michelle Quach

Year: 2023

Genre: YA fiction, YA romance, coming of age, Asian-American experience, Family dynamics, multi-generational

Queer shit: I feel like some was mentioned in passing but nothing significant

Vibe Check: Sweet family with some cycles to break, Eldest daughter attempts to do everything because she loves her family, finding your people

Pile of Opinions: Books about complex family dynamics will always get me, especially cross-generational. I couldn’t tell you if I loved the falling in love pieces of this or the family pieces more but they were all beautiful. Francine’s grandpa is in his final months of life and is discouraged because there is no male heir. Though it is modern day and this isn’t as important as it once was, Francine can see it’s important to her A Gung (grandpa). She decides to try to talk her schoolmate into an old tradition of being a stand-in heir to uplift her A Gungs spirits so he can be at peace for the end of his life. This story explores so many relationships and the lengths we will go to for those we care about. Michelle Quach writes YA feminism in a way that just heals my inner teenager and I can’t get enough. I appreciate authors who use their platform to show the reader a look into their family values and cultural background through their stories. Also showing other family values of similar backgrounds, I love hearing their stories. Learning through stories is one of my favorite ways to learn. Francine’s family was both so relatable as I also grew up in a family where we care for and cater to our elderly and majority women are doing the care tasks. Francine works to convince her classmate, Ollie, to be the stand-in heir as his family has known hers for many years and she hopes he will understand the weight of this ask. And also she so doesn’t have a crush on him anymore and this has nothing to do with that. Francine and Ollie are both Asian-American but they show us how different their family’s treat that. Francine has the classic eldest daughter syndrome of doing everything for everyone and Ollie is mostly just trying to get through his days. Francine’s family is entwined in each others’ lives, especially once her grandparents moved in, and Ollie’s family is mostly his dog as his parents work long hours. Watching these two navigate family expectations, as well as high school, shows the depth of their characters and the burdens and priorities teenagers take on from their parents. This was a very heartfelt sweet read. Let me know if you’ve read it and what you thought in the comments. Thank you Michelle for teaching us through stories.

Professional Reader

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