Adorable YA Reads: Part One

I’ll have you know that I am a master procrastinator. Instead of doing homework – and trust me I have a mountain load – I sit down on my dinner table, and write mini-reviews. Because if I’m not doing homework, I am reading. Literally, all I do is read.

IT MAKES ME HAPPY PLEASE DON’T JUDGE ME.

Who am I kidding? Y’all won’t judge, we are all lovers of books here!

But if you are judging me, please leave? I can’t handle the negative energy *hair flip*.

I always seem to go on tangents, so I’ll reign in it. This post I wanted to highlight the cutesy YA books I have come across, and there’s a part two coming, so we can all bask in the adorable!

This list is in no order, just a collection of books that I can remember and I’m going to keep the review hella mini because knowing me, I will end up spoiling the books…

Too. Cute.

“Anything can happen once upon a con…”

This story is a modern-day adaptation of Cinderella, at ComicCon, who was obsessed with ‘Starfield’ – the alternate version of StarTrek. There is cosplay, nerd hysteria and just genuine and innocent fun. Elle Wittimer is our Cinderella, whose commitment to the Starfield fandom was introduced by her Father, the founder of ExcelsiCon (alternate version of ComicCon). It is about Elle’s journey of re-discovering herself, and not running away from her grief. She finds friendship and romance along the way, and also what it means to be Elle.

This story switches perspectives from Elle, to Darien, who is an actor and a die-hard fan of Starfield. He is in line to play the Federation Prince Carmindor, and judge of ExcelsiCon’s cosplay contest. The interplay between Darien and Elle is refreshing, and honestly? So absolutely and completely adorable.

It is an ode to the fandom, the love of the fangirl, and the power of pop culture. I read this book in a day, not even, so if you want an easy read with all the feels, then this is the one for you!

I have to admit, I literally read this book this September and I adored it.

I saw it on instagram from a fellow bookstagrammar and knew that I needed to own it. So I went online and found it on BookDepository and waited for what seemed like one thousand years until it came to the ol’ country Down Under. I devoured this book in under a day, it is a super easy read and such a feel-good novel that you will leave you giggling like mad, blushing from the cringe, and grinning from the happy-ever-after feels. An alternate modern-day adaptation of Cinderella again, Cinder and Ella follows the journey of Ella Rodriguez, who was a victim of a horrific car accident that resulted in her being uprooted to her Father’s house – a father her abandoned her when she was younger to make another family of Barbie Dolls. There is a lot of trauma in this book, and how Ella deals with it, and her journey of forgiveness and ability to try and find it in herself to heal her relationship with her father, but it is incredibly challenging for her.

Then you have Cinder, Ella’s online friend, and boy that she falls head-over-heels in love with, not knowing who Cinder actually is. Spoiler alert – Cinder is not his real name but a name from their favourite book series, and Cinder is actually a Hollywood Superstar.

THAT IS ALL I’M SAYING. It really is much more of an emotional roller-coaster than one thinks when seeing the book cover, and it is a journey of self-love, forgiveness, family and how to conquer life.

Finally, a book with bisexual representation, Hispanic representation, anxiety representation and Asperger’s representation! FINALLY SOME DIVERSITY AND ACTUAL HUMANNESS TO YA CHARACTERS.

I did love this book, but my only ‘issue’ with it is that the entire plotline takes place at a sort of ComicCon event – so like a weekend? And there is not much depth to the story.

A girl has a crush on another girl – one’s an actress another is a vlogger – and they connect and fall in love/lust and it’s fabulous; another girl falls in love with her guy best friend and it’s adorable. There are fantastic conversations happening throughout the book about what it’s like to be a girl with Aspergers and crippling anxiety, how it is to be a woman in Hollywood, a bisexual woman in modern society and Jen Wilde really interacts with these themes in wonderfully sensitive and detailed ways. However, there was just nothing else. The dialogue was flat, the storyline flatter and like, that was it. But overall, it’s a really small critique of the book, and honestly would rate it 4/5.

OH, MY GERRRDDDD.

This book reminds me of high school. Not because this book was my experience of high school, hell no, I went to an all-girls Catholic school in the city where retired nuns still lived on the property. The most entertainment we used to get was the random ass man in the commission flats across the street waving his you-know-what in the window overlooking our tram stop. It was wild. And traumatic. the nuns were hysterical.

Back to the book; when I read Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, I ensured everyone in my friendship group read the book too. It was perfection. It had everything one needed in a YA book and more! The drama, the romance, the sensuality, the tragic backstory, the family issues, gang wars – just everything jam-packed into this wonderfully crafted BOOK.

I am so ready to spoil this book, but I WILL NOT. Because, if you are a YA lover, then you need to get your hands on this book. It tells the unlikely romance between ‘bad-boy’ Alejandro Fuentes, a gang member from the wrong side of the tracks, and Brittany Ellis, the seemingly ‘perfect senior’ with a not-so-perfect home life. There is a bet, there is betrayal, there is love, there are young adults figuring out who they are and what they want to be -and it really hit me right in the heart.

And if you have the time, I would also recommend reading the next two books in this series, as it follows the stories of Alex’s two brothers, Carlos and Luis.

Happy reading y’all!

Allie

xx