• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    THE INFINITE SUMMER by Morgan Lee Miller | ARC Review

    26th December 2021
    Cover of the Infinite Summer (Morgan Lee Miller)

    THE INFINITE SUMMER by Morgan Lee Miller

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    3.75 stars rounded up.

    There is something about Morgan Lee Miller’s writing that gets me every time. Despite seeing the obligatory conflict coming all the way from Europa, I enjoyed getting to know all the characters, except for Theo (duh). The Infinite Summer is so nerdy and I love that.

    Remi Brenner (bisexual, white) dreams of becoming an astronaut, and enrolling in MIT’s aerospace program is her first step to realizing the dream. But her father threatened Remi to spend the summer with him and celebrity chef stepmother Serena DeLuca or else he wouldn’t pay for her college tuition. What started out as an involuntary trip to Gaslight Shores turns out to be a life-altering journey for Remi as she meets Harper Herbert (lesbian, white), whose parents own the po’boy shop Acadian.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Cheer Up! by Crystal Frasier & Val Wise | ARC Review

    10th August 2021
    Cover of Cheer Up! (Crystal Frasier & Val Wise)

    Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier, illustrated by Val Wise

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: transphobia, outing, sexual harassment

    This was so cute and wholesome!

    Annie Ginter has excellent grades and doesn’t care about having no friends, but she needs extracurricular activities for college application. Her mom suggests cheerleading and Annie is not happy. But when Beatrice Diaz (trans) decides to take Annie in on the team, the pair start spending more time together. Beatrice helps Annie make friends on the team and Annie speaks up when people mistreats Beatrice. They grow together, and so does everyone else around them.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    There’s Magic Between Us by Jillian Maria | ARC Review

    6th July 2021
    Cover of There’s Magic Between Us (Jillian Maria)

    There’s Magic Between Us by Jillian Maria

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    God forbid anyone assumes I’m heterosexual.

    Fiery pansexual disaster with too much energy! Magical woods! Faeries!

    Lydia Barnes (16, pansexual) spends a week with her grandmother at Fairbrooke. Her mother hates the town and the townspeople hate her. But Lydia’s grandmother is nice and there is a forest nearby that everyone tells her to avoid. So what will Lydia find if she set foot in the woods when her grandmother naps? Eden Yu (16, Chinese American) and lots of secrets.

    It’s been a while since I had so much fun with a new read, but I did up my rating a bit just because I would have loved it even more had I been ten years younger, which is in the range of the targeted audience. I love Lydia, this prickly teen who would probably bite all her enemies. She has unbounded energy and will be quick to scale a wall when she can. The love interest Eden is more of a mysterious character. Who is this girl in the woods? Why is she trying to find those wood pieces?

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  • a banner art of the ghosts we keep from hear our voices book tours
    ARCs,  Blog Tour,  Book Reviews,  Bookish,  Fiction

    Blog Tour: The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver

    26th May 2021
    Cover of The Ghosts We Keep (Mason Deaver)

    The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver

    • Publisher: PUSH
    • Release Date: June 1, 2021
    • Genre: Young Adult
    • Page Count: 235 pages

    preorder links on author’s website! | content warnings on author’s website | author’s playlist on Spotify

    Hi, I am Hsinju (she/they/他), a queer Taiwanese book reviewer and blogger currently residing in Illinois. Today (May 26th, 2021) is the first day of Hear Our Voices Book Tours for Mason Deaver’s sophomore novel The Ghosts We Keep, a story about the nonbinary, gay 16-year-old Liam “Lee” Cooper (he/they) struggling with the death of their older brother Ethan.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo [EN/ZH-TW]

    22nd March 2021
    Cover of Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Malinda Lo)

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, read by Emily Woo Zeller

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    AUDIOBOOK REVIEW IN EN & ZH-TW | 有聲書書評（中英對照）

    EN

    Content warning: racism, homophobia, manipulation, mention of miscarriage, alcohol (underage drinking)

    She couldn’t find the right words for this dammed-up feeling inside, as if she were denying herself something absolutely vital, and she didn’t know why.

    Last Night at the Telegraph Club is less about the romance between Lily and Kath but more about Lily trying to grasp her identity as a Chinese American lesbian in the 1950s.

    In the prologue, four years before the main story (1950), thirteen-year-old Lily Hu (胡麗麗) and her childhood best friend Shirley Lum attend Miss Chinatown Contest with their families. I’d say this one chapter is the summary of the entire book in one way or another as we see Lily becoming aware of skin and bodies and the interactions between her and Shirley.

    When Lily stumbles upon an ad for male impersonator Tommy Andrews’ performance at the Telegraph Club (1954), she is mesmerized, not quite understanding why. But she keeps the clip along with a few others in her copy of The Exploration of Space. All her dreams in one place, I think. As the new school year starts, there are only two girls left in Advanced Math—Lily herself and Kathleen Miller, who dreams of becoming a pilot. Their orbits never coincide until this very moment, and it makes all the difference.

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