The Songbird's Refrain--"The future is not linear, my little songbird" OR "I'm a bluebird that's been dreaming"

Title: The Songbird's Refrain (pre-order the book for its release September 3!)

Author: Jillian Maria


LGBTQ+ Representation: Lesbians. More than one.


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Elizabeth finds a flyer advertising a one-of-a-kind show appearing nearby. When she attends the show, she is fascinated by one of the acts: a woman, covered in feathers, with the same mysterious blue eyes that were on the flyer--trapped in a cage. When the woman dies, Elizabeth finds herself trapped in the cage, growing feathers, forced to sing nightly. Can she escape the power of the sadistic witch, the Mistress, who has trapped her?


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I spent the first half of this book singing "I'm a Bluebird" from Follow that Bird. Remember? Big Bird is trapped in a cage and forced to sing by these two evil guys who kidnap him for the freakshow part of their fair, and why are there so many twins in that audience? I couldn't stop picturing poor Elizabeth as Big Bird.

It's safe to say that all resemblances to Sesame Street end there.

Death Prefers Blondes--"Drag wasn't a disguise or an illusion; it was armor"

Title: Death Prefers Blondes

Author: Caleb Roehrig


LGBTQ+ Representation: Main character is bisexual and supporting characters are gay.


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Teenage socialite Margo Manning and her four friends have nighttime secret identities: jewel-heisting drag queens.  Margo donates her proceeds to various charities, while her friends pay off their own tuition help their families. But then Margo catches the attention of a more powerful villain, putting her own family and friends at risk. Do they have the skills to survive their most dangerous job yet?


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I'm not a fan of the "spy action" genre: James Bond, Mission Impossible, etc. (except the original Ocean's 11).

I am a fan of drag queens, camp, and Julie Newmar's catsuit, and was excited about this book, but when it started with a heist, I didn't get hooked as fast as I did with Roehrig's other books, and Death Prefers Blondes landed in the TBR pile.


However, I should have read it sooner--it was FABULOUS!

Before I Let Go--"Kyra burned so brightly. Until she had nothing left to give."

Title: Before I let Go

Author: Marieke Nijkamp


LGBTQ+ Representation: I know this sounds contradictory, but the rep is both insignificant to the plot AND contains spoilers. Just rest assured that there is LGBTQ+ rep.


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Corey and Kyra were best friends in their Small Alaskan town, Lost Creek. Corey goes to boarding school, and days before she visits Lost, Kyra dies. Corey returns to Lost, but something's different. The people reject Corey, calling her an outsider, and worship the memory of Kyra, claiming Kyra's death was "meant to be." Corey is determined to find out the cause of Kyra's death and figure out the mysterious events in Lost.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): What am I reading? I asked myself at least one hundred times while reading. And yet, I couldn't put it down.

Last Seen Leaving--"Sweat prickled like a rash across my scalp, and my heart chugged like the engine of an ocean liner"

Title: Last Seen Leaving

Author: Caleb Roehrig


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Flynn's girlfriend, January, is missing. The police are certain Flynn knows something, especially when they discover that January was pregnant when she disappeared. Forced to come out the closet to clear his name, Flynn vows to find out what happened to January--did she run away, or was she murdered? And if she is dead, will her killer strike again?


What I think: Last Seen Leaving has been in my TBR pile for months, and I finally got around to it thanks to . . . Twitter.

Tattoo Atlas--"Nice is different than good" OR "All of us have some crazy in us, don't we?"

Title: Tattoo Atlas

Author:  Tim Floreen


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Last year, Franklin brought a gun to school and killed Rem's friend, Pete. Now Franklin is the subject of an experiment (run by Rem's mother) to see out if sociopaths can be "cured" by implanting a device that activates the "empathy" parts of their brains. The procedure seems to work on Franklin, and he and Rem almost become (more than) friends, but when another classmate is killed, Rem wonders if Franklin is fooling everyone.


What I think: Tattoo Atlas is a frustrating, suspenseful, horrifying, and thought-provoking book that I could not put down, even when one of my kids asked me why I was "looking at the book with such a scared face."  I tried to take breaks and go back to reading the other books I am in the middle of, but I couldn't. I had to know what was going to happen to Rem, Franklin, and their other classmates, but at the same time was scared to find out what was going to happen.

Lizard Radio--"Life is about ambiguity" OR "The Lizard People were just a red herring!"

Title: Lizard Radio

Author: Pat Schmatz


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Kivali is sent to CropCamp, a place where the SayFree government sends teenagers go to become productive adult members of society.  Gender-neutral Kivali (nicknamed Lizard) feels different from the other campers, but she knows she must either try to fit in or accept her place as an outcast, which would send her to Blight, a government-sanctioned area for criminals and other non-conforming citizens.  Lizard also wonders: was she sent here from another planet?

What I think (in 250 words or fewer): At the beginning of Lizard Radio, I thought of Scott Westfeld's Uglies because slang was used immediately by the main characters and readers had to figure it out as they read, such as mealio (cafeteria), cleezies (chores), and jazzing (messing around).  Another similarity to the Uglies dystopia was when teenagers came of age, they would be controlled by the government: Uglies with plastic (and brain) surgery and CropCampers with the kickshaw.

Unbecoming--"The maiden, the mother, and the crone"

Title: Unbecoming

Author: Jenny Downham

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer):  Katie is a seventeen-year-old struggling to accept her sexuality. Caroline is an uptight, divorced single mother doing her best with her two children.  Mary suffers from Alzheimer's and reappears after not having talked to her daughter Caroline in years.  While caring for Mary, Katie learns to accept herself, and Caroline comes to terms with her difficult childhood. And Mary struggles to remember the mysterious "blue blanks" of her past, memories bittersweet for her to recall.

What I think:  I read an article from The Guardian talking about how this book "presents the archetypal trio of maiden, mother, and crone in a very modern setting" and I liked that description so much I decided to write the review in the voices of the maiden, mother, and crone as they are in Unbecoming.

The Other F-Word--"Leaving the shire to face the dragon"

Title: The Other F-Word

Author: Natasha Friend

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Hollis and her mother, Leigh, are grieving the loss of Pam, Leigh's wife and Hollis's parent. Milo suffers from food allergies and wants to know his medical history. Hollis has never met her sperm-donor father, but when Milo, who has the same sperm donor, contacts Hollis, she agrees to help him connect with their biological father.  Together they meet two additional half-siblings, come to terms with their parentage, and learn to appreciate their families.

What I think (in 250 words or fewer): The concept for this story fascinated me so much that I did some Internet research.  The Donor Progeny Project described in this book does not exist--but a Donor Sibling Registry does, so a story like The Other F-Word is theoretically possible.

Shine--"You can cast off the darkness and shine again, can't you?"

Title: Shine

Author: Lauren Myracle

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer):  Cat's childhood friend, an openly-gay teenager in the small North Carolina town of Black Creek, was severely beaten and left for dead.  While Patrick lies in a coma, Cat questions everyone in her small town to figure out who did this to Patrick, and also confronts a boy who sexually assaulted her three years previously, as well as systematic poverty, drug addiction, homophobia, racism, and desperation in Black Creek.

What I think (in 250 words or fewer):  The mystery is very easy to figure out, even though I had a sad feeling in my stomach because I did not want for this character to be guilty--I really liked and felt bad for him! I stubbornly held on to the belief that it was another character, the openly "bad guy," but then, surprisingly, he feels remorseful for his actions (and has a solid alibi).

Adaptation--"I hardly think a few birds are going to bring about the end of the world"

Title: Adaptation

Author: Malinda Lo (I am doing an in-depth author study on Malinda Lo as a final paper for a class, and this is the third of five fiction novels I am reviewing)


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): On June 19, thousands of birds go berserk, flying off course and smashing themselves into airplanes, causing over a dozen planes to crash.  Thousands of people die and most of the United States fears that this is terrorism-related.  David and Reese are driving home from Arizona that night when a bird causes their car to crash.  After a stay in a mysterious hospital, David and Reese heal from their injuries and acquire mysterious new abilities.


 What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I have a beef with the tagline:

In case you can't read it, it says "The others are already here." 

Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue--"Remarkably fabulous"

Title:  The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

 Author: Mackenzi Lee

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Monty is an eighteen-year-old rake, enjoying all of the pleasures of his upper class life in the eighteenth century.  He embarks on a tour of the continent, along with his sister, Felicity, and his best-friend-turned-crush, Percy.  When Monty pockets a trinket  in what he thinks is an act of petty thievery, he turns their tour into an adventure, complete with highwaymen, pirates, and angry duke bent on revenge.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Have you ever had a million things to do, but instead of doing them, you decide to download an e-book because why not, and then read the entire book in one sitting? Yep, I did it, and I'm not sorry: this book is remarkably fabulous!

A Line in the Dark--"The teacher was just a red herring!"

Title: A Line in the Dark

Author: Malinda Lo (I am doing an in-depth author study on Malinda Lo as a final paper for a class, and this is the second of the  five fiction novels I am planning to review)


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Jess has a crush on her best friend, Angie.  When Angie meets Margot, a girl from an exclusive private boarding school, she falls in love, which makes Jess jealous and also suspicious of Margot's motives. Jess and Angie are swept up in the drama of the girls from the private school, and things are about to turn deadly.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer--yeah right. Once again, I couldn't stay within my word limit.  Also, some spoilers.):  

Holy cow.  I made the mistake of starting this book while sitting in a nice bubble bath--only to get trapped in the bathtub (TIBT) because I couldn't put it down.  This book is a wild ride from start to finish; and I, who pride myself on being able to figure out mysteries before the end of books (and metaphorically pat myself on the back when I find out that I'm right), was surprised several times.