Two Young Adult ARCs from KCP Loft Mini-Reviews

Still behind!  And I think I've only actually done two reviews so far this month, and my goal is two a week.  So yeah, really behind!  Since I got these two books read basically one right after the other, I am going to go ahead and post their reviews together.  Also, these are the first YA book reviews for the month.

Rebel With a Cupcake by Anna Mainwaring:

Genre:  YA contemporary
Published:  April 3rd, 2018
Source:  ARC from publisher
My rating:  3 stars

Unfortunately, for the most part, I was somewhat disappointed with this one.  I mean usually I really like books where the main character has weight issues to deal with.  While there were parts where her feelings and thoughts were identical to the ones I've had at times, there were other parts that I just didn't really care for.  I had a lot of trouble getting into it at first.  It is a British character, so there was some slang in it that I didn't get at first.  I think my middle America students might have issues with that.  And even though I know it was told in first person, and she was a teenager, all the times they had the word "cos" instead of because was annoying, distracting for me as I read.  But that could be because I'm an adult.  Maybe a teenager would be more accepting of it.  Finally, about three-fourths of the way through I finally was feeling for the character.  When she had misread signs that a guy liked her.  I've been there, done that.  Unfortunately for me in real life, there was never that other guy there that liked me that I just hadn't given a chance before.  I did read some of the other reviews that were negative on this, and I have to agree a little on what they said. First off, I don't necessarily get that she was really that overweight.   To be able to just stop eating a lot for a week or two in order to fit into what sounded like a pretty small dress?  Just not sure that she was really that big from the way it sounded.  And it was obvious her older sister had a bit of an eating disorder or problem as well, but it was kind of played off as if that was okay because she was skinny and pretty.  So I'd have to say those kind of things, and the fact that I had trouble really connecting with the main character kept me from liking this one that much.   I would have dropped it to 2.5 stars, except the ending did get me pulled in, and pulled my rating up to 3 stars.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Jesobel Jones is bold and brash, the daughter of a hand model and a washed-up rock star. Jess sees no need to apologize for her rambling house, her imperfect family, her single status ... or her weight. Jess is who she is. She makes her own cupcakes and she eats them, too. No regrets.

That is, until Own Clothes Day rolls around at school. Jess and her friends dedicate the requisite hours of planning to their outfits, their hair and their makeup for the one day they are free from school uniforms. But a wardrobe malfunction leaves Jess with a pair of leggings split open at the worst spot, and a mean girl calling her the one thing that's never bothered her before: fat.

The encounter shakes Jess's formerly iron-clad confidence, and she starts to wonder if she's been just a little too comfortable in her own skin. When the boy of her dreams invites her to a party, she must decide whether to try to fit in for the first time in her life, or remain true to herself --- whoever that really is.

Debut author Anna Mainwaring is a teacher by day, and her understanding of teenage life shines through on every page. This book is laugh-out-loud funny, and captures teen girl life with all its ironies and contradictions.

Rebel with a Cupcake also explores important questions around body image, fat shaming and self-confidence.

Someday, Somewhere by Lindsay Champion:

Genre:  YA contemporary
Published:  April 3rd, 2018
Source:  ARC from publisher
My rating:  3.5 stars

This was one that I wasn't sure if I wanted to pick up.  The publisher sent it to me without me requesting it, so often I won't read it if it doesn't sound good. But I did pick it up and get sucked into it pretty quickly.  However, it didn't hold up all the way through to impress me as much as I'd thought it would based on the beginning.  I will say that it was a very unique story, even with all the obvious things you have in stories that frustrate me, even while I know they are used in stories to add the drama.  I think this definitely had some surprises in it with what happened with Ben. Things that we weren't really given a clear view of even when we got chapters from his point of view.  Definitely the way it ended was a bit of a surprise, but in what I think is a good way for characters of this age to get a story.  I won't say what happened, because it is worth a read for you if it sounds good to you, and I would want you to discover it naturally as the author intended as reading.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Dominique is a high school junior from a gritty neighborhood in Trenton, where she and her mom are barely getting by. 

Ben is a musical prodigy from the Upper East Side, a violinist at a top conservatory with obsessive talent and a brilliant future.

When Dom's class is taken to hear a concert at Carnegie Hall, she expects to be bored out of her mind. But then she sees the boy in the front row playing violin like his life depends on it --- and she is transfixed. 

Posing as an NYU student, Dom sneaks back to New York City to track down Ben Tristan, a magnetic genius who whisks her into a fantasy world of jazz clubs and opera, infatuation and possibility. Each sees something in the other that promises to complete them.

As Dom's web of lies grows, though, so does Ben's obsessive need to conquer Beethoven's famous Kreutzer Sonata. But Ben's genius, which captivates Dominique, conceals a secret, and the challenges of her life may make it difficult to help him.

Alternating perspectives and an unreliable narrator create suspense and momentum, romance and heartbreak. Author Lindsay Champion's deep roots in theater and music are evident on every page --- structured like a sonata with hints of West Side Story, her debut novel hits all the right notes.

Review and Blog Tour: Future Perfect by Jen Larsen

BOOK DETAILS:

Future Perfect by Jen Larsen
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: October 6th 2015

My Review:

First thanks to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  And when I saw that the Fantastic Flying Book Club was hosting a tour for this, I knew I had to join in.  Overall this was a pretty good book!  I've always been a fan of weight loss stories.  While weight wasn't an issue for me when I was in high school, it has been an adult problem for me, I really am able to understand all the feelings and situations of the character no matter what their age.  This story definitely had those same feelings that I understand well.

The main character is Ashley, and she is overweight.  But she's happy enough that way.  She has friends, and a really great boyfriend who loves her just the way she is.  Her grandmother doesn't approve.  Her grandmother feels that even though Ashley is very smart, driven, and talented, people will automatically judge her more harshly because of her weight.  So every year her grandmother offers her some kind of deal to lose weight.  Money for a new wardrobe, trips to places like Europe, and even a car the year she turned 16.  Through it all Ashley has remained stubborn. She refuses to change herself just because of what her grandmother thinks.  Instead she continues to do her best at school, a private school, a quirky one, but still considered a top school, one that rich people move in order just to get their kids into.  And she enjoys her boyfriend who is always smiling and sweet and loves her the way she is.  Yes, in the past, she had asked one of her best friend's brothers out, and he had turned her down basically telling her she wasn't his type.  But Ashley wants to get into Harvard, where her mother went to school before she met her father.  And even with this problem with her grandmother, she wants to be a doctor like she is.  This  year though, her grandmother will offer her a full ride to Harvard, if she gets weight-loss surgery.  Of course she doesn't want to do this. But somehow her grandmother gets it in her head that she has agreed.  And she goes ahead and schedules the pre-operation appointment, and even goes so far as to say something to the principal at Ashley's school about her doing it.  Now Ashley is having problems with her boyfriend, who wonders why he didn't already know before other people at school knew.  And she is on the fence about whether to do it, as it becomes the best topic she can think of for her entrance essay to Harvard for early acceptance.

There are a lot of great characters in this story.  Ashley has a dad that is kind of an absentee dad.  He works real estate, but has no business sense.  He seems to only want to sit around and read romance novels.  Part of the problem is probably because of how strong willed his mother, Ashley's grandmother, is to everyone in her family.  She never approved of Ashley's mother, even going so far as to make them not give Ashley a more ethnic name like her older brothers Mateo and Lucas.  Her best friend Laura is black I believe from what description is given, but has parents that are truly absentee parents.  They are out of town all the time, and let Laura and her twin brother pretty much do as they please.  Her other best friend is a girl, who really is a boy, but wants to be a girl, and so Ashely and Laura have always seen her as a girl, even when her parents wouldn't understand or accept.  I like that in this case, Ashley's grandmother is really pretty accepting.  Ashley also likes to rescue stray dogs, and find them homes when she can.  But I love that one of them, Toby, is a dachshund, at this point in the story, I knew I would be reading on.

I feel it was a pretty original story, the characters were all great, and well developed.  At times I struggled a bit with the story because of how it was a bit scattered and such, but it wasn't like that in a bad way, I feel like it totally fit in with the characters, and was how the story was meant to be told.  I definitely will be recommending this one.

BOOK LINKS:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18245617-future-perfect?ac=1
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1UHQGuj
The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Future-Perfect-Jen-Larsen/9780062321237
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/future-perfect-jen-larsen/1121030465?ean=9780062321237
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/future-perfect/id957456268?mt=11
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/es-ES/ebook/future-perfect-10

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jen Larsen is the author of Future Perfect and Stranger Here: How Weight Loss Surgery Transformed My Body and Messed With My Head. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of San Francisco and currently lives in Madison, WI. Find her at jenlarsen.net.



AUTHOR LINKS:
Website: http://jenlarsen.net/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5989307.Jen_Larsen
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenfoo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writerjenlarsen?fref=ts
Tumblr: http://jenlarsen.tumblr.com/

TOUR SCHEDULE:
http://fantasticflyingbookclub.blogspot.com/2015/09/tour-schedule-future-perfect-by-jen.html

Giveaway:
Prizes: Win a signed hardcopy of FUTURE PERFECT, a FUTURE PERFECT SHIRT and  FUTURE PERFECT button and magnet (US Only) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Review: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

First, thanks to Balzer and Bray as well as Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  Let me say that I just loved this.  I would pick it up to read, and hate every time that I had to put it down to do anything else.  I would think about when the next time I could pick it up to read would be.  I totally connected with the main character in so many ways.  Although in high school I was not overweight, I have spent a majority of my adult life that way, and so there were many things I identified with.  But even if I wasn't overweight in high school, until my Junior year I wore glasses, and it wasn't until I got contacts that I started feeling any confidence whatsoever, and even then, it really didn't kick in until college.  I've had issues with friends like in the book, and while some have come back in ways that are like what you'd want, not all have. 

The main character is Willowdean Dickson.  She is a little overweight, enough so that she is insecure about it to a point. But not a lot. She's got a best friend named Ellen, who is very pretty, but also very nice.  Most of the time Will is comfortable with herself, although most often a kind of 3rd wheel in a way to El and her boyfriend Tim.  Will works at a restaurant called Harpy's.  There's a cute private school boy named Bo that works there.  Will has kind of had a crush on him, and he's always just been kind of friendly.  Until one night that summer when he kisses her.  And then they keep kissing.  But it's always when they're somewhere alone, and Willow wonders if that means he doesn't want anyone to know.  At the same time El has decided it is time to go all the way with Tim.  Will feels a bit left behind, and it is even worse because El is now hanging out with a girl named Callie from the clothing store where she works.  Soon Will is keeping the secret about Bo, and El seems to not be talking to Will about everything, telling Callie more, and they kind of drift apart. 

Now I didn't mention that Will's mom runs the big annual beauty pageant in town, something she's never really acted like Will, or Dumplin' as her mom calls her, should try to be a part of.  NOt only that, but her aunt Luce has recently passed away, partly because of being very obese, and Will had always felt closest to her, closer than to her mom.  Soon Will decides she is going to enter the pageant, to make a statement. And from there, all kinds of hell breaks loose.

As I read through the book I just knew at first that there was no way Bo could really be such a cute guy, and really be attracted to her.  Like Will I just knew there had to be something wrong with him, he had to be playing her or something.  But I wanted so bad for him to really be the guy he seemed to be.  And then there was the horrible fight that Will has with El. And while I understood somewhat why Will didn't want El to be in the pageant, I also didn't understand.  I mean how much better to have your best friend in something so scary?  But again, the reasons behind why she said what she did, and the way they all acted, to me they seemed very realistic. 

In the end I was happy with how it went, I won't tell you exactly what happens, who ends up with who, etc.  I will just tell you  it is a good ending, a happy one. 

Review: Exorcising Aaron Nguyen (The Millroad Academy Exorcists #1) by Lauren Harris

First I have to apologize to the author because I was late getting to this. And it is my own fault.  I forgot to put it in my reading schedule and didn't get to it until I remember in June.  I had emailed the author back in April about wanting to review the book, and she returned my email and said yes, and sent me an e-copy to read it.  The synopsis made it sound like a very good story.  It is just a novella, only like 68 pages, but it really tells as much of a story in that short number of pages as some books tell in much longer I think.  It was a very thorough and complete story.  I got to know so much about the main characters and even the side characters that it felt like I'd read a full length novel, in a good way!  I don't know when there might be more in the series, but I'm looking forward to finding out more about these characters and more ghosts!

The main character is Georgia.  She attends a private Catholic school.  She switched to that school after something big happened, but we don't know quite what it was, just that it has something to do probably with her being bullied maybe.  She doesn't have many friends, she's been teased for being overweight as long as she can remember.  Her best friend is a boy named Hiroki.  He has been friends with her since he first moved there.  He doesn't talk to many other people, and oh yeah, he sees ghosts.  In fact, a boy from the school, Aaron Nguyen, was found murdered.  He had his head bashed in among other things.  And since then, he's been haunting the school.  His hauntings have included setting a teacher on fire at one point.  While the priests at the school plan to exorcise Aaron, Hiroki knows that probably won't work, as Aaron wasn't actually Catholic.  Of course he and Georgia must figure out what or who caused his death, because as everyone knows who reads ghost stories, or watches ghost movies, that is usually why ghosts stay behind.  But to do this it will require skipping classes, dealing with an angry ghost, as well as with whoever might be responsible, who is obviously dangerous as well. 

I liked how flat out unapologetic Georgia was.  I feel like her attitude and way of behaving was very realistic for many teens that I have known as a teacher.  It was humorous as well.  As a chubby girl myself, I love that she knew to make use of her best feature(s) by wearing v-necked shirts, and she wasn't shy about it.  I also like how she grew by the end of the story, figuring out what kind of feelings she really had for Hiroki.  It was done in such a perfect, genuine, realistic way.  I look forward to reading more by this author.

Review: How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love

Remember how I told you that the people in the booths at BEA seemed much friendlier this year?  At least compared to when I was there two years ago that is.  Well, this is a book that I saw sitting in a publisher's booth and asked if I could have a copy of, and they were nice enough to let me have it!  The publisher was Running Press Teens, a part of the Perseus Books Group. 

This book intrigued me because it was about a girl who was overweight, and ended up going on a reality tv show to lose weight.  She had to lose 50 pounds in 50 days.  Now, she wasn't unhappy, not completely, with how she was.  She lived in a family of skinny people.  Her dad was a former athlete turned motivational speaker.  Her sister was an underwear model.  And her mother was a former Laker Girl.  So she really didn't fit in.  But her boyfriend, who was large himself, over 300 pounds, loved her, and she loved him.  But one day she found that her family was behind on their mortgage payments, and she knew that she had to agree to the show so they could win the million dollars.  As the show goes on, she does learn good habits, but things keep setting her back.  Finding out her family may not actually believe in her, or at least some of her family.  The stress of eating so much less than she was used to could lead to sneaking food.  The fame, going to the movies she sees that she has fans.  And then maybe learning things about her family and boyfriend that are shocking, whether they are true or not.  And finally, even picking up some bad weight loss habits in order to try to win the show when things seemed to get behind.

This book is really  a good look into what goes on in the mind of overweight girls.  As someone who has been in that state many times in my life, including at the present time, I definitely identified with things that she may have said or done.  I really liked how the show had her do video posts as the show was going on.  Her posts were very insightful.  I liked how she would realize the things that she did weren't always healthy, either way.  My one complaint is the ending.  While I think what happens is a good way to end it, I feel the book did it very abruptly, and I was left wanting to know more details about how all of it came out, and what happened to everyone.  That's just me. 

Overall it was a really good read, and I will be donating my free copy to the high school library where I work.

Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett

This is a book I got as a strip cover from the bookstore where I work.  The premise sounded really interesting, and it was, to a point.  The main character is Lara.  Lara was a beauty pageant winner, she was thin, beautiful, and according to beauty pageant "rules", she was sweet to everyone, even the fat and the ugly.    Then all of a sudden, she starts gaining weight.  And it doesn't matter what she eats, or how much she exercises, she keeps gaining.  One week, she doesn't even eat hardly anything, even using laxatives.  And yest she still gains. It turns out to be a disease called Axell-Crowne Syndrome (not a true diesease), and it isn't her fault.  But she goes from 118 pounds, to over 200 pounds.  And it isn't just her weight, her popular friends?  They turn on her.  Her boyfriend?  Even he says while he still loves her, he doesn't think he's "in love" with her.  Even the fat girl at school, well, she even said to Lara's face that she hoped she got fat.  Her mom and dad at first don't seem to care.  Her dad doesn't seem to understand that it's not her fault, and keeps badgering her about not eating so much and making sure to exercise.  Lara learns that her dad has been cheating on her mother, and when he said he'd quit, he didn't.  Only Lara's friend Molly sticks by her side.  At first, her brother seems sympathetic.  He never liked his "perfect" family before.  But soon when he is getting teased about Lara, he begins being hateful too.
Finally her parents decide that in order to get their marriage working again, they must move away from the woman that was the issue.  So they move, making Lara have to move.  Now she is the fat girl at the school, where no one knows she was the homecoming queen just last year, and that she was a beauty pageant contestant.  She gets called names, but is taken in by a couple of the other outcasts.  Here we see just how shallow Lara really is, even when before she was trying to hard to be "nice" to everyone.  Her new piano teacher is really fat.  And Lara tries hard not to be disgusted by her.  She soon finds out that the piano teacher has a hot boyfriend, and she just can't understand it.  But being around these new musical people, she soon finds a new group of friends, and actually begins to feel happy.  Even when her family gets disrupted again. Her father leaves, saying that he's going to stay married, but go to his mistress.  Her mother doesn't quite know how to handle it, and this leads to the music teacher, Suzanne, helping Lara, and becoming a bit closer friend.
At the end Lara does finally figure out how the way she's been thinking all along isn't right, and begins to change her thinking.  Her Axell-Crowne disease may be going into remission at the end of the book, as she begins losing weight, but we're never given that for sure diagnosis.  I wanted to hate Lara's shallowness.  But I have to admit that I too have had those kind of thoughts. Wondering how someone could let themselves get so far along with weight.  Not that I am in any way close to being a beauty queen, or skinny.  And I hate when I think that way.  Want to slap myself.  So it's easy to see how realistic this book sadly is.  A good read I think for people with weight issues, or even for kids who don't understand what they're doing is bullying.

Gateway 12: Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

This wasn't a bad story, don't get me wrong, it was just kind of predictable and eh. The main character is Andrew Zansky, who weighs over 300 pounds as a sophomore in high school. He met a girl the weekend before school started back up, and then she shows up at his school. She says she likes people for who they are, not for being popular, but then, her actions don't back up her words. So, Andrew goes out for the football team instead of doing model UN with his best friend as they'd planned all summer. All of a sudden he's popular, but the girl is also getting popular, and she's in love with the star QB, who Andrew is friends with and helping with school stuff.

We do have a bit of a twist in my opinion when we find out there was some planning and that Andrew joining the team was kind of a plan by the coach and others. And like many other books I've read, the parents are having problems and getting divorced. Yeah, yeah, I know, lots of kids deal with that, I'm the child of divorced parents myself. But it would be nice once in awhile to have some happy parents, even divorced and remarried they could be happy parents, like mine were.

So this won't be a very high recommendation from me for the Gateway nominees.