young adult Archives - Page 29 of 102

Bookish and the Beast
by Ashley Poston (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Rosie Thorne is feeling stuck–on her college application essays, in her small town, and on that mysterious General Sond cosplayer she met at ExcelsiCon. Most of all, she’s stuck in her grief over her mother’s death. Her only solace was her late mother’s library of rare Starfield novels, but even that disappeared when they sold it to pay off hospital bills.

On the other hand, Vance Reigns has been Hollywood royalty for as long as he can remember–with all the privilege and scrutiny that entails. When a tabloid scandal catches up to him, he’s forced to hide out somewhere the paparazzi would never expect to find him: Small Town USA. At least there’s a library in the house. Too bad he doesn’t read.

When Vance’s and Rosie’s paths collide, sparks do not fly. But as they begrudgingly get to know each other, their careful masks come off–and they may just find that there’s more risk in shutting each other out than in opening their hearts.

Snippet: He sits at the edge of my bed, and he says softly, “Your mother called.”

Of course she did.

“She wants to speak with you.”

Oh, she wants to speak to me now, but she had nothing to say when my stepfather banished me here?

That’s rich.

Jelly
by Clare Rees (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: The biggest problem with being trapped on a jellyfish isn’t what you’d expect. You get over the fear of death (because you start looking forward to it) and the smell of fish (because it quickly becomes your breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Boredom is an issue, sure, but it’s not the main one; the biggest problem is not being able to get away from everyone.

Martha is stuck on the back of the jellyfish and has been for a long time. She and everyone else living there don’t know how exactly they got there or how long they’ve been there or where they’re going–they just remember that something traumatic happened. And they can’t escape.

But now, the crew has finally had enough. They’re going to escape the jellyfish–or die trying. (Which probably means dying.)

Snippet: Deciding we needed to escape was easy; figuring out how to actually do it was another matter. Trust me, if we’d had any idea at all how to get to land, we’d have been away, running through the green grass of those hills toward freedom. That didn’t stop anyone from having plans, though.