Review: Hana - Book #1.5 Delirium Series - Lauren Oliver - December 2011 I have a confession to make. This book had been sitting on my Kindle since January 2012, quietly waiting, until now. Sometimes a story finds you exactly when it's meant to, and picking up Hana after all these years felt less like reading a novella and more like stepping back through a door I didn't know I'd left open. Reading it transported me straight back to 2010–2012, that golden era when dystopian YA ruled every bookshelf and every teenage heart. It also brought back a memory I treasure, organising a Zoom call with Lauren Oliver herself for a teen reading finale at Tauranga Libraries, right here in little ol' New Zealand. Talk about full circle. Hana gives us the summer before the cure, told from the other side of the friendship at the heart of Delirium. While Lena is pulling away from the noise and risk of the underground world, Hana is doing the opposite  chasing every last taste of freed...

Review: The Boarding School Experiment - Book #1 Experiment Series - Emily Evans - September 2012 There's a particular kind of joy in curling up with a new Emily Evans book, and I'll admit I went into this one already grinning before I'd even cracked the spine. Emily is one of those authors whose name on a cover is basically a promise.  I know I'm in for something fun, fast, and full of heart and pair that with a boarding school setting, my absolute weakness as a reader, and this felt like it was written just for me. The premise had me hooked immediately. There are three steps to taking revenge on the most popular, hottest guy in your senior class: stealth, planning, and execution. Poor Elena manages precisely none of them, and instead of getting her satisfying payback, she ends up shipped off to a government-run boarding school out in the wilds of Alaska. And because the universe has a sense of humour, Thane Trallwyn  her sworn enemy and the very target of her failed...

Review: Tragedy Girl - Christine Hurley Deriso - April 2016  There are some books that feel like they would be right at home on a quiet afternoon, curled up on the sofa with a cuppa and a blanket, and Tragedy Girl was one of those reads for me. What makes this one particularly interesting is that it was originally published a decade ago, back in 2016 . Picking it up in 2026, I found myself enjoying this little trip back to a style of YA mystery that feels both familiar and refreshingly uncomplicated. Anne has already been through more heartbreak than anyone her age should have to endure. Her parents have died in a car accident, leaving her trying to find her way through life while carrying that enormous loss with her. Then she meets Blake. He’s good looking, friendly and, perhaps most importantly, he understands grief. His girlfriend, Cara, drowned, although her body was never recovered. It seems almost inevitable that Anne would be drawn to him. After all, they have something in ...

Review: Winter Untold - Book #3 Summer Unplugged - Amy Sparling - December 2013 You know those mornings where nothing quite clicks? I started my reading day with a thriller that turned out to be a firm DNF, so I did what any self-respecting bookworm does, I scrolled my Kindle looking for a rescue read. That's when I landed on Winter Untold by Amy Sparling, a book that had been sitting in my library for a while. I knew going in it would be one of those cutesy YA romances ,light, a little fluffy, probably not a lot of substance and honestly? Sometimes that's exactly what you need. The story follows Bayleigh, a teenager navigating the trials of a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend Jace, who's making waves in the world of Motocross. Enter Chase, the adorable new neighbour who's just moved in next door and, naturally, has taken a bit of a shine to her. It's classic YA setup territory, and Sparling leans into it fully. Here's where I'll be honest thou...

Review: When I'm With You - Book #3 Jane Austen Academy Series - Cecilia Gray - December 2012 Years ago, I stumbled upon The Jane Austen Academy series, and it's become one of those comfort reads I return to when the mood strikes. As a devoted mood reader, I have to wait for exactly the right moment to dive into each installment, and recently I found myself craving something fun and cozy. A YA retelling of Northanger Abbey? Perfect. When I'm With You centers on Kat, a character whose dual nature immediately captivated me. Off stage, she's awkward and naive, someone who hasn't quite found her footing in everyday interactions. But put her on stage, and she transforms completely confident, radiant, utterly alive. When she lands a position as Josh Wickham's PA on a real movie set over Christmas break, with the added bonus of working as an extra, it seems like a dream come true. What follows is a sobering education in the darker side of Hollywood glamour. Cecilia...

Review: Don't Look Behind You - Book #1 Don't Look - Emily Kazmierski - May 2021  Hello, my lovely bookish friends! Grab your favorite cuppa and settle in, because today I'm chatting about a thriller that had me reading late into the night with all the lights on. Emily Kazmierski's Don't Look Behind You dropped me right into Megan's world , a girl trying to build a normal life with her Aunty Karen in a quiet smalltown, living under a new name. But here's the twist that got my heart racing: Megan is the one who got away from the Mayday Killer , and he's not finished with her yet. Talk about unfinished business that'll keep you up at night! The Mayday Killer is methodically working his way closer to Megan's new haven, leaving a trail of victims connected to her past. The Mirror Museum scene particularly gave me chills, there's something deeply unsettling about a killer who targets places meaningful to your family. As I read curled up on my...

    Synopsis: Just Another Meet Cute - Jenn P. Nguyen - May 2025 Boy saves girl stuck on a disastrous hike. What could go wrong? So. Much. Just Another Meet Cute is the joyful and funny story about what happens when you realize you're dating the wrong twin.  When seventeen-year old Nina Riley gets saved by a super cute Knight-in-Faded-Khakis just as she lands in an embarrassingly 'ahem' sticky situation during the most disastrous hike known to man, she wasn't exactly looking for that meet cute. She really just needed some peace and quiet from her complicated family. Unfortunately, he disappears before she can properly thank him or get his number. All she has is his name (Ian Nguyen) and a navy jacket with a dog keychain, a gym card, and laundromat receipt. But a meet cute is a meet cute. And armed with years of watching Veronica Mars and a techy cousin, it should be simple enough for Nina to find the boy of her dreams, right? But when she finally tracks him...

Just Another Meet Cute Jenn P. Nguyen Publication date: May 20th 2025 Genres: Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult Boy saves girl stuck on a disastrous hike. What could go wrong? So. Much. Just Another Meet Cute is the joyful and funny story about what happens when you realize you’re dating the wrong twin. When seventeen-year-old Nina Riley gets saved by a super cute Knight-in-Faded-Khakis just as she lands in an embarrassingly ‘ahem’ sticky situation during the most disastrous hike known to man, she wasn’t exactly looking for a meet cute. She really just needed some peace and quiet from her complicated family. Unfortunately, he disappears before she can properly thank him or get his number. All she has is his name (Ian Nguyen) and a navy jacket with a dog keychain, a gym card, and laundromat receipt. But a meet cute is a meet cute. And armed with years of watching Veronica Mars and a techy cousin, it should be simple enough for Nina to find the boy of her dreams, rig...

Review: Whiteout - Various Black Authors - November 2022 This YA book captured my attention after reading a review for this one and Blackout. Whiteout is written by a group of six black authors famous for YA novels. Each author has been given a specific character to write about. The book starts with Stevie and Sola having relationship problems as Stevie is very scientifically and logically minded whereas Sola is very romance-based. Now Sola has given Stevie an ultimatum which means that Stevie must bring her great romantic gesture forward. Stevie messages her friends to help her bring together their parts in the gesture from Lego flowers to billboards. Unfortunately what happens though is that a massive snowstorm has hit and now the roads are blocked, some of the team are trapped in the mall and this is one Christmas that our characters aren't going to forget. Whiteout is such a great diverse romance as not only contains multicultural characters but also a strong LGBTQA+ represen...