Skip to main content

Teen SRC 2019 – My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

My Lady Jane

My Lady Jane is a historical fiction book with a fantasy twist, and it’s one of my favourite book (of course I don’t have just ONE favourite book.)

Edward is dying. He is the king. He shouldn’t be dying. But he is, and he will die, never even having gotten his first kiss. Life’s no fair.

Lady Jane Grey would rather spend her days curled up with a book than have to go to any of the social gatherings her mother is so keen on making her go to. But when she is told that her beloved cousin is dying and she must marry in order to save the throne, she decides she must do her duty and agrees to the marriage. But there’s something off about her intended, and she’s determined to find out what.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – Take the Key and Lock Her Up by Ally Carter

Take the Key and Lock Her Up by Ally Carter

The thrilling conclusion to the Embassy Row trilogy, this book did not disappoint. Having enjoyed the first book more than the second, I was a bit nervous for this finale. Thankfully, it was very fast-paced and took quite a bit of will-power and some much-needed reasoning from my mom to make me put it down last night. I finished it today morning and I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever read a book of that length.

Synopsis (may include spoilers from previous books but not this one): Grace Blakely has just found out that she is, in fact, royalty. A direct descendant of Amelia, the little princess who survived the royal massacre 200 years ago, her brother is the rightful king of Adria and she is the lost princess. However, she isn’t the only one who knows it and there are forces at work to find and kill her and her brother like they did her mom 3 years ago. This is the story of Grace’s journey in trying to discover what her mom found that lead to this constant game of cat-and-mouse and trying to find out who she can truly trust in this world built from stunning lies.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – Noggin by John Corey Whaley

Noggin

Hilarious, real, compelling. Noggin by John Corey Whaley is a fresh new take on the cliché woke-up-in-the-hospital-with-amnesia trope spun into a breathtaking new tale.  

Travis Coates was dying at sixteen when he decided to cyrogenically freeze his head in the hope that some time in the future, doctors and scientists could bring him back to life. Five years later, Travis wakes up in the hospital with his head attached to someone else’s body. And having some athletic guy’s biceps is the least of his problems; the best friend that came out as gay to him before he died now has a girlfriend, Travis’s own girlfriend is engaged and Travis is almost certain his dad is cheating on his mom.

As I’ve mentioned before, this plot line closely resembles the common amnesia plot line with a whole new side to it as Travis had to get used to having an entire body that didn’t belong to him. There were many parts of this book that I loved: Travis’s relationship with his mom is the sweetest parent-child relationship I’ve read in a YA novel, Travis and Kyle’s friendship, (small spoiler here) Travis finally meeting the family of his body’s donor (spoiler over). There was one major aspect of the story, though, that got on my nerves. Travis’s girlfriend is engaged, and many, many times Travis makes advances on her despite her having clearly said she doesn’t want him.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – See How They Run by Ally Carter

See How They Run by Ally Carter is the second book in the Embassy Row trilogy. Since I described the story in my review for the first book already, I’m just going to give a very basic bit of context and focus on my thoughts in this one. If you feel like you’re missing some of the details, please read my review of All Fall Down and it should fill you in.

On Embassy Row, embassies of all the countries stand side by side on one street so with two steps you could go from America to Iran. Grace, the protagonist, lost her mom 3 years ago and the entire plot revolves around her death and the causes of it.

Ally’s plots are always amazing so I wasn’t surprised when I found myself waking up early to finish this book. Her plot twists are UNREAL and I can never seem to guess them. This book was a bit more cliche then the last one but thankfully it wasn’t too much so or else I might not have enjoyed it as much as I did because sometimes a little cliche can really help your story.

The final rating is an 8/10, it’s good writing and a VERY good plotline but I don’t think I liked it as much as the first book. Currently reading the last book and I’m hoping I get so shook I have to put the book down and scream 🙂

Teen SRC 2019 – They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

They Both Die at the End

When I first picked up They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera, I thought it would be one of those depressing books where the general suckiness of the world is discussed at length before everyone dies. (slight exaggeration, but you get the idea) I was pleasantly surprised when this book ended up being anything but.

Death-Cast is a company that calls you on the last day of your life to inform you about your impending doom, to make sure you live the last hours of your life to the fullest.

Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio get the call on the same day. Mateo’s dad is in hospital, in a coma, and he doesn’t want to tell his best (and only) friend, Lidia, that he is going to die because he’s scared of how she is going to react. Mateo knows that he needs to go outside, he needs to live his last day to the fullest, but maybe he’s destined to stay inside his apartment forever, just like he’s been doing his entire life.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – A Taste for Monsters by Matthew J. Kirby

A Taste for Monsters - Kirby, Matthew J.

A heartfelt thriller. Two words I never would’ve put together, but they describes A Taste for Monsters by Mathew J. Kirby accurately.

Evelyn is a young girl in 1888 London, trying to find a job in order to stay off the streets. But because of a disfigurement caused by her dangerous work in a matchstick factory, no one wants to hire her. In desperation, she goes to the hospital. If they can’t fix her face, then maybe they can give her job. At the hospital, the matron tells her that she would scare the patients away, but that she might have another job that would fit her needs. Evelyn is to be the maid of a permanent resident at the London Hospital: the Elephant Man. Evelyn has heard stories about him, and is terrified, but knowing that this job is the only thing that would keep her off the streets, she agrees.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – Accidental Superstar by Marianne Levy

Accidental Superstar

Accidental Superstar by Marianne Levy

I wasn’t so sure if this was a teen book or not, but I borrowed it anyway, because, well, the cover looked cool. Yeah, yeah. I know, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I just had to know what this book was about. Which I did, eventually. And it wasn’t as glamorous as I thought it’d be. It was actually, honestly speaking, quite uneventful. But, I didn’t mind too much.

Basically this book is about a girl named Katie Cox. She mostly spends her time hiding out in the shadows. But this all changes when a video of her singing goes viral. Katie receives a bunch of record deals, including a recording contract. But Katie doesn’t find fame to be all that perfect.

So, at first, Katie seemed like a pretty down-to-earth kind of girl who likes to make music and stuff, but as I continued to read, I kinda hated Katie. She turned into some bratty high-school kid. But then, at the end, Katie was this sweet, innocent girl again. All in all, I think this book is…well…interesting-ish. 🤷‍♀️

Teen SRC 2019 – Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child

Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child is technically a children’s book BUT the writing and plot are absolutely too amazing to not share. The rules for the SRC are that we may write reviews for Children’s Books as long as we believe they are not “childish” or “juvenile” and would appeal to teens which is exactly what I think of this series.

This book is about a girl named Ruby, the only child to popular socialite parents. However, she’s definitely not a simple party girl. She’s an honest-to-goodness genius who created a code at 8 years old which troubled Harvard professors. This level of intelligence is hard to go unseen which is why she is quickly invited into a spy agency called Spectrum where she’s to work as a code-cracker, nothing more. However, Ruby’s just a little too smart for her own good…

Thoughts: This is my all-time favourite series. ALL. TIME. And if you’ve read my reviews, you’d know how high my standards are so… GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW! It’s the most underrated series I know and deserves SO MUCH MORE love. This is perfect for mystery lovers and the plot twists are inSANE. I have literally never been able to correctly predict a plot twist in this series but now as I re-read I pick up on SO MANY HINTS that were written so well they completely escaped my mind. Another thing, I love romance in my books and this is the first book completely without a love story that has captured my complete and absolute attention (but if you survive on that chemistry this might not be for you…) so it may just do the same for you too! Final rating is a 10/10 baby, no flaws whatsoever.

Teen SRC 2019 – Royals by Rachel Hawkins

Royals by Rachel Hawkins is a fun, lighthearted romance/drama story that made me laugh so hard and wish I were living in the book.

It’s about a girl named Daisy who’s older sister Eleanor is engaged to the Scottish Prince. However, having a soon-to-be-princess as her sister means Daisy has landed quite a few tabloid articles too, and not all of them are positive. Over the summer, Daisy and her family are invited to Scotland to properly meet the royal family and their relatives + friends (dukes and duchesses, bishops etc.) where she meets the prince’s younger brother Sebastien and his best friend Miles. Throughout the story, Daisy gets into many adventures with them and goes through the process of learning how to behave royally, making maaany mistakes throughout…

I give this book a solid 9/10 but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. It’s a 9/10 for me because I happen to like cheesy, cliche and fun romances but it’s definitely not for everybody 🙂 If you do decide to give it a try though, I daresay you’ll at least crack a smile because that’s the effect Daisy had on me!