Review: Reinventing Hannah - Jack A. Ori - November 2022 I'll be honest—I've been struggling with romance novels lately. The meet-cutes and happily-ever-afters have felt hollow, so I've been gravitating toward my collection of edgier reads that have been gathering digital dust on my Kindle. That's how I rediscovered Reinventing Hannah by Jack A. Ori, and I'm grateful I did. Hannah starts as the archetypal "good girl"—student council member, rule-follower, someone waiting for marriage (or at least the right person) before having sex. She doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. She's the perfect student, the one parents point to as an example. But perfection, as we learn, offers no protection from the worst humanity can offer. When Hannah agrees to be the designated driver for her friend Sasha's party, she's still the responsible one—having fun but staying sober. The next morning, though, she wakes up with no memory of the previous night and the...

Review: What they Don't Know - Nicole Maggi - October 2018 This book caught my attention as if there is one thing that I have always enjoyed reading it is edgy YA fiction. The other reason I think I love these types of books is they helped open my view to the wider world like one of the main characters in this book Mellie - I grew up in a religious family and we never really talked deeply about issues. Despite being a close-knit family, we were very much surface talk, which is why since I moved out of home and with my mum now gone - I only see or hear from Dad once in a while, and even then, it's very much surface conversation, nothing deep. In this book, the format is written in journal entries as their teacher has given them a journal to record their thoughts as part of their final mark in English. Mellie Rivers was a victim of rape and has now learned that she is pregnant, she is scared and doesn't have anyone she can turn with. Especially since the guy is quite promin...

Review: The Trial - Laura Bates - September 2021 I am so loving the Libby Library App as I am getting to read some amazing library books. This YA read captured my attention as I love survival stories that include deserted islands. In this book The Trial by Laura Bates, a private plane carrying football players and cheerleaders and their coaches are on their way to a tournament when turbulence strikes and the plane ends up crashing on a desert island. Only a few of them end up surviving and the rest are dead. On the island survived is Football players - Brian, Jason, and Elliott and Cheerleaders - Shannon, Hayley, Jessa, and May. Can the survivors work together to survive the environment until they are rescued or when strange things start happening that threaten their survival, is someone on the island trying to kill them off one by one? Hayley who is the outsider and only joined the cheerleader team to pad up her college application knows something happened at the party the night b...