Sherri L. Smith flips the script on historical fiction in her latest novel The Blossom and the Firefly, detailing the alternate side of WWII from the Japanese war effort to the love between a girl and a kamikaze pilot. In…
10 Best YA Historical Fiction of 2019
Historical fiction is an amazing genre that brings truth from the past to us today. It can be heartbreaking and heartfelt — and sometimes it includes a smidgen of magic. There is so much to learn from through the lens…
Book Review: The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
As a Chinese girl in the South, Jo Kuan has experienced a great deal of injustices: getting fired from jobs without reason; struggling to find work; sitting in the back rows of the streetcar; and most recently, working as a…
Book Review: A Dress for the Wicked by Autumn Krause
For lovers of fashion competitions, victorian settings, and underdogs, Autumn Krause’s debut YA historical fiction A Dress for the Wicked is the perfect match. Set in the fictitious country of Britannia Secunda (a country that seceded from Victorian Britain), the…
Book Review: “The Yearbook” by Carol Masciola
Lola Lundy hasn’t had an easy life. She has been an orphan since birth and patronized by everyone around her because of her deceased mother’s struggle with mental illness. Once Lola gets the chance to switch her lonely and depressing…
Book Review: ‘These Shallow Graves’ by Jennifer Donnelly
There seems to be an on-going theme based on the entertainment I’ve chosen to partake in the past week. After seeing Suffragette, Brooklyn, and now finishing These Shallow Graves, I’ve received immense and meaningful enjoyment from stories about young women…
Read of the Week: Grace and the Guiltless by Erin Johnson
Grace Milton’s peaceful life with her family on a horse ranch outside Tombstone, Arizona is shattered in one devastating night. Her family is brutally murdered by the notorious Guiltless Gang, leaving Grace the only survivor. Trekking into the wilderness on…