[Review] The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

Series: N/A

Release Date: 1 November, 2016

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Genre: Young Adult/Literature & Fiction/Social & Family Issues/New Experiences/Emotions & Feelings/Contemporary Romance

ISBN: 9781524721398

Edition: audiobook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 13 March, 2018

Summary: Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

[Review] The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Series: Winternight #1

Release Date: 10 January, 2017

Publisher: Del Rey

Genre: Young Adult/Epic Fantasy/Family/Fairy Tale Retellings

ISBN: 9781101885932

Edition: Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★★

Review Written: 31 August, 2017
Summary: At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

See more at Penguin Random House's website.

[Review] The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies

Series: Lemonade War #1

Release Date: 23 April, 2007

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Genre: Middle Grade/Family/Business

ISBN:  9780618750436

Edition: E-Book

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 31 August, 2017 
Summary: For a full hour, he poured lemonade. The world is a thirsty place, he thought as he nearly emptied his fourth pitcher of the day. And I am the Lemonade King.

Fourth-grader Evan Treski is people-smart. He’s good at talking with people, even grownups. His younger sister, Jessie, on the other hand, is math-smart, but not especially good with people. So when the siblings’ lemonade stand war begins, there really is no telling who will win—or even if their fight will ever end. Brimming with savvy marketing tips for making money at any business, definitions of business terms, charts, diagrams, and even math problems, this fresh, funny, emotionally charged novel subtly explores how arguments can escalate beyond anyone’s intent.

See more at Jacqueline Davies's website.