Title: The Burning
Author: Laura Bates
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication Date: April 7th
Ratings: ♥♥♥
Goodreads Summary:
A rumour is like a fire. You might think you’ve extinguished it but one creeping, red tendril, one single wisp of smoke is enough to let it leap back into life again. Especially if someone is watching, waiting to fan the flames …
New school.
Tick.
New town.
Tick.
New surname.
Tick.
Social media profiles?
Erased.There’s nothing to trace Anna back to her old life. Nothing to link her to the ‘incident’.
At least that’s what she thinks … until the whispers start up again. As time begins to run out on her secrets, Anna finds herself irresistibly drawn to the tale of Maggie, a local girl accused of witchcraft centuries earlier. A girl whose story has terrifying parallels to Anna’s own…
This just reminded me how teens can be so cruel. This follows Anna Clark as she moves to Scotland immediately following a major scandal back in England, only to have it follow her to her new school. Instead of running away, like she did before, Anna stands up for herself and to her classmates.
An added element to the story was told through dreams that mirrored at village tale from the 1650’s that Anna is researching for an assignment. The more she learns, the more connected she feels towards Maggie.
I think this was just okay. I liked the journey Anna went through across the book as well as the relationships she built, but I think I wanted more. Everything felt very surface level. I wanted a more in depth look into her relationship with her mother and what her life was in England. I also feel like everything was way over-exaggerated—pretty unrealistic.
ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Title: It Sounded Better in My Head
Author: Nina Kenwood
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication Date: April 7th
Ratings: ♥♥.5
Goodreads Summary:
From debut author Nina Kenwood comes a tender, funny, and compulsively readable novel about first love and its confusions, and all of the awkwardness of teen romance.
When her parents announce their impending divorce, Natalie can’t understand why no one is fighting, or at least mildly upset. Then Zach and Lucy, her two best friends, hook up, leaving her feeling slightly miffed and decidedly awkward. She’d always imagined she would end up with Zach one day―in the version of her life that played out like a TV show, with just the right amount of banter, pining, and meaningful looks. Now everything has changed, and nothing is quite making sense. Until an unexpected romance comes along and shakes things up even further.
It Sounded Better in My Head is a compulsively readable love letter to teenage romance in all of its awkward glory, perfect for fans To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Emergency Contact.
2.5 stars
Natalie feels like everything in her life is falling a part. She’s an introvert who deals with a lot of self-esteem issues due to growing up with severely terrible skin—cystic acne that led to scarring on her face and back. Once she met Zach and Lucy, she finally found her people—and then they got together. They still all hang out, but Natalie is always reminded that she is the third wheel. And then, for the first time, someone starts to show a romantic interest in her.
I really liked the story, despite finding the main character to be very annoying and unlikeable. I enjoyed the unexpected romance between Natalie and Alex, but they didn’t really take anytime to get to know each other, just went straight to hooking up. It seemed like Natalie just liked him because he showed interest. In general, everything was rushed in this book, and at only 272 pages, there was a lot of room and potential to elaborate.
ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Lindsay Glenne 