By:
On:
In: General Book Reviews, Multicultural (YA), Realistic Fiction (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Ann Liang writes an intriguing, genre-blending novel in Never Thought I’d End Up Here. Part romantic-comedy, part realistic fiction, and part self-help, this novel addresses multiple teen issues. These include topics such as self-acceptance, coming-of-age, and the power of choice. It also bumps up against matters of cultural diversity. Seventeen-year-old Leah Zhang has lived in Los Angeles all her life, and while she knows a small amount about her Chinese roots and a few words of Mandarin, she feels no need for greater cultural immersion until she embarrasses herself at her cousin’s wedding. After Leah mixes up the Mandarin blessing she attempts to deliver toRead More →

By:
On:
In: Multicultural (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

For seventeen-year-old Lola Espinoza, the main character in Ella Cerón’s first novel ¡Viva Lola Espinoza!, life is predictable and planned: sacrifice a social life and focus on earning good grades in order to get into a good college. Those expectations leave Lola feeling like she’s in “an academic purgatory with no salvation in sight. . . . There is no time for mall hangs or homecoming dances or parties or, God forbid, a relationship” (6). Although the quiet, deliberate, and introverted Lola likes being smart, she also feels like there has to be more to life than what her parents want for her; she daresRead More →

By:
On:
In: General Book Reviews, Multicultural (YA), Realistic Fiction (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 2 Comments

Fifteen Reasons to Love the Novel, Love in English It’s dedicated to “everyone who has ever strained to find the [right] words” to accurately express their thoughts and feelings. Maria E. Andreu writes with authenticity from the immigrant experience and perspective, but she also writes to those of us who feel “foreign” or who sense a feeling of other—“some nameless thing [we] can feel but not fix” (13). Many of the chapters close with idiomatically clever poems as the protagonist, Ana, plays with language. These not only capture her confusion but convey her learning. The novel is peppered with Spanish, as well as hashtags (####)Read More →