ARC, Books

Book 929: Portrait of a Thief – Grace D. Li

I’m punching myself for not reading this book earlier AND for goofing off (aka knitting and Minecrafting) while reading it instead of blazing through it as it deserved. I’ve been sitting on this since November of LAST YEAR when someone in marketing at the publisher reached out with it.* I forced myself to wait until late March/early April to read it because I had a feeling I would really enjoy it and that barely covers my enthusiasm for it.

The premise was fascinating to me even if I was a bit wary of the Boston setting (I have bad experience with books being set where I live/have lived), but international art theft by college students, critiques on colonialism, BIPOC author, and characters, discussion of diaspora, ummm obviously I was going to say yes to it. I found out while reading the acknowledgments, that this has already been optioned by Netflix and I cannot tell you how much I’m ready for that!

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Book 920: Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun – Jonny Garza Villa

I’m not sure where I first came across this work, it might’ve been on a library list of YA novels to read, or it might’ve been a random Insta ad/post by someone I follow.

Either way, I added it to my list immediately and promptly forgot about it. When we went on vacation last month this was one of the few reserve books I took with me that I didn’t quite make it to, so I slotted it in at first chance and am so glad I finally got around to reading it. If I would’ve read it on vacation it would’ve taken half as long, but I kept falling asleep reading it this time (stupid time change).

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Book 901: More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera

So I have talked about gut punches when reading books before, but Silvera took it to a different level with this one—and this was his freakin’ debut novel!

I’ve known about Silvera for some time and even read his co-authored What If It’s Us? with Becky Albertalli, but this is the first time I’ve sought out his work. I came across it on a list of must-reads and so grabbed it when I saw it was available at my library.

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Book 898: Trust with a Chaser (Rainbow Cove #1) – Annabeth Albert

Oh, Annabeth Albert, how I love thee . . . seriously though, I should just write an ode to here and be done with my reviews. I say this even though there are some of her earlier books that aren’t as well written as her more recent books, where she’s really coming into her own, they’re still REALLY good books.

This is one of those examples even though it’s not that old. Originally published in 2017, it just doesn’t have quite the polish as her more recent series even though it has a lot of the things that make her works great.

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Book 887: If This Gets Out – Sophie Gonzales & Cale Dietrich

My little closeted teenage heart would’ve died to read something like this in the late-90s/early-00s. So, when I saw it on NetGalley I requested it IMMEDIATELY, the publisher approved, and I have been sitting on it for months.*

I know I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it—I am SO jealous of all the teens today getting to see themselves in books like this. I mean hell I enjoy them and I am WELL outside the target demographic for these.

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