book review – MAGAZINE

Add Out of the Ashes By Kara Thomas to Your Summer TBR

Posted on May 22, 2023May 23, 2023 by Josh Flores

Kara Thomas, known for her YA thrillers, now explores a new, thrilling story about family secrets and murder in her latest release for adult audiences…

Breathless: A Charming yet Tragic Summer Read

Posted on Oct 26, 2020Oct 25, 2020 by Joshua Flores

Claudine’s life is unrecognizable. After family tragedy strikes and Claude leaves the only home she has ever known, she and her mother take the adventure of a lifetime—spending the summer on an island, away from their troubles and away from the pain back home. Both tragic and mesmerizing, Breathless is an abrupt, lyrical novel about […]

The Sky Is Mine: The Brutal, Heartbreaking Path to Recovery

Posted on Apr 27, 2020Apr 25, 2020 by Joshua Flores

Izzie is slipping, falling, unable to stand back up on her own two feet. She feels alone, isolated, her words unable to be heard by Jacob, by her mother, and especially by her best friend, Grace. The Sky Is Mine by Amy Beashel is a harrowing and painful look at the violent, tragic experiences of […]

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird: A New, Complex Romantic Read

Posted on Apr 16, 2020Apr 15, 2020 by Joshua Flores

Lydia thought she had her life planned out with her boyfriend, Freddie. They had ordinary lives, ordinary jobs, and an ordinary, wonderful life together. But when tragedy strikes, Lydia must reevaluate her future and try to find some solace in a world without Freddie. Both tragic and ultimately uplifting, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird […]

The End and Other Beginnings: A New Beginning for Veronica Roth

Posted on Nov 26, 2019Nov 25, 2019 by Joshua Flores

First there was the world of Divergent, full of romance and breath-taking risks. And then came Carve the Mark, a fantastical, re-imagined world. Now, Veronica Roth introduces readers into various new worlds in her anthology The End and Other Beginnings. With disturbing and moving accounts of the effects of technology and life in the future, […]

The Speed of Falling Objects: A Tragic Yet Uplifting Look at Fear

Posted on Nov 5, 2019Nov 4, 2019 by Joshua Flores

“Give your fears a name. It takes away their power. Then tell me what you like and what you want to be.” Danny wants to live without fear, but everything inside of her tells her to be afraid. When she crashes, she has the choice: to be consumed by fear or to listen to the […]

We Hunt the Flame: An Explosive New YA Fantasy

Posted on Oct 15, 2019Oct 14, 2019 by Joshua Flores

Zafira takes risks—risks that could destroy her and her cause. Nasir is a killer, death the only language that flows naturally. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal is a fast-paced, explosive YA fantasy that challenges gender roles and the means one will take to survive. In the same vein as An Ember in the […]

Tan France: Naturally Hilarious

Posted on Sep 16, 2019Sep 15, 2019 by Joshua Flores

Celebrity memoirs can tend to be a hit or miss with audiences. Some have two-hundred plus pages of repetitive anecdotes of little interest to the readers while others dig deep, profoundly revealing the secret lives of those we see on both the big and small screen. Tan France, star of the Netflix series Queer Eye, […]

Something Like Gravity: A Refreshing LGBTQ Romance

Posted on Aug 10, 2019Aug 9, 2019 by Joshua Flores

Chris is on the verge of exploding, living with his aunt because he is too much of a burden for his parents. Maia is struggling with the unexplained death of her sister. When Chris moves into his aunt’s small town, everything feels uncertain, except when he finally begins to open up to Maia, the girl […]