If you enjoyed the suspense of Deposing Nathan, you should read All Eyes on Us OR "If you don't do what I say, blood will spill"

Title: All Eyes on Us

Author: Kit Frick


LGBTQ+ Representation: Two lesbian characters


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Amanda enjoys dating Carter, while keeping her mother's alcoholism and her family's debt a secret. Amanda pretends not to know that Carter is also dating Rosalie--who is using Carter so her parents won't find out about her girlfriend and send her back to conversion therapy. One day, Amanda and Rosalie both get threatening text messages. Can they figure out who is sending the messages before the sender gets violent?


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): If I had started reading this book in the bathtub, I would have frozen because I would not have been able to get out until I was finished! As it was, I stayed up entirely too late reading it because it was impossible for me to put it down.

Deposing Nathan--"Up until he jammed a shard of ceramic in my gut, he was the best friend I ever had"

Title: Deposing Nathan

Author: Zack Smedley


LGBTQ+ Representation: Main characters are bisexual.


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Cam and Nate are best friends--that is, until Cam is arrested for stabbing Nate. Cam claims he didn't do it but will not give details. Nate is asked to give a statement, under oath, that will either put his friend in prison and/or expose secrets that he does not want anyone to know.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Holy freakin' cow, y'all. This book would have trapped me in the bathtub if I had started reading it there because I could NOT put it down.

Lord of Shadows--"Lex malla, lex nulla" OR "I brought chocolate"

Title: Lord of Shadows, Book #2 of The Dark Artifices

Click here for Lady Midnight, Book #1 of The Dark Artifices
Book #3, Queen of Air and Darkness, coming out December 4! NEXT WEEK!

Author: Cassandra Clare


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): After the events of Lady Midnight, Emma begins fake-dating Julian's half-faerie brother Mark, in order to make Julian fall out-of-love with her so that they can escape the Parabatai curse. Meanwhile, the Unseelie King is tired of the cold peace and refuses to follow the Shadowhunters' demands, the Seelie Queen is trying to get the Black Volume for her own needs, and where is Annabel?  Is she alive?


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I've already talked about what I love about the Dark Artifices series, and even though I meant to only talk about Lady Midnight in that review, I actually mentioned quite a bit of Lord of Shadows also.  Oops.  So if you haven't read that review, you should read it first, and then we will (well, I, but you can virtually) geek out about what we want to see and don't want to see happen in Queen of Air and Darkness.

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.

Let's talk Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters books--9 reviews in one!

Let's talk Cassandra Clare books!  I plan to review three (maybe more!) of them separately, but I am squishing reviews for nine of the books in this one post.  Lots and lots of spoilers as well as my very biased opinions appear in the following reviews. 👼

Review #1: Original Mortal Instruments trilogy-- City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer):  Teenage Clary discovers that she is actually a Shadowhunter, a group of warriors descended from the angels who have special powers to carve runes on their skin and defeat demons. When Clary's mother disappears, Clary becomes part of the Shadowhunter world, learns about other magical creatures that actually exist, solves the mystery of her parentage, falls in love with Jace, and fights many battles against scary creatures--including her own human father.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I was late to the Mortal Instruments party.

Symptoms of Being Human--"I'm only going to talk louder"

Title:  Symptoms of Being Human

Author:  Jeff Garvin

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Riley is gender-fluid and suffers from severe anxiety.  They decide to start an anonymous blog talking about gender-fluidity and is surprised when the blog gains thousands of followers.  Unfortunately, someone at Riley's school finds out about their blog and threatens to out them, which makes Riley's life complicated because their father is a congressman who is working to pass an important education bill.

What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Symptoms of Being Human is an excellent book. I do not know anyone in real life who is gender-fluid; I know many trans people, but they are all binary.  In fact, the reader never finds out what Riley's biological sex is.

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.