PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
All That it Takes
– Nicole Deese –
Bethany House Publishers
Published 5 April 2022
♥♥♥♥
All That It Takes is the companion novel to All That Really Matters. It is a beautiful story about heartbreak, falling in love when you least expect it, supportive communities and finding your place in the world. It is so full of delightful moments, I was smiling 99% of the time while reading. It’s just so incredibly sweet, but at a deep, heartwarming and powerful level.
Sorceline
– Sylvia Douye, Paola Antista (illustrations) –
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Published 3 May 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
Sorceline is a beautiful graphic novel translated into English from its original French. I’ve heard booksellers wax poetic about French graphic novels and I can see why. Sorceline is divine. Perfect for middle grade readers, and older teens will also enjoy this story.
Enter a magical school that will delight fans of Harry Potter and meet magical creatures that are at once familiar and also delightfully fresh and new and also slightly scary.
Continue reading
The Element of Love
– Mary Connealy –
The Lumber Baron’s Daughters #1
Bethany House Publishers
Published 1 March 2022
♥♥♥♥
Need a historical romance featuring heroines with a difference? The Element of Love begins a new series from author Mary Connealy.
The Lumber Baron’s Daughters series features the three Stiles sisters. They have been raised to take over their father’s company and each have been highly educated. They are headstrong and fiercely intelligent, each with a different passion – from chemicals and explosions to engineering and building. But since their father’s death and their mother’s remarriage, their idyllic lives has been shattered. Their stepfather is abusive, their company falling apart under their stepfather’s mismanagement and they have each been promised to horrid men in business deals. Their only plan is escape.
It’s All In How You Fall
– Sarah Henning –
Poppy
Published 31 May 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love sports novels and I am happy to say It’s All In How You Fall is a sports novel. Yep, I’m calling it. There is enough sports, injury, dramatic game play, dramatic moments, practice time, romance, and friendship to make this an utterly delicious sports novel.
I loved Sarah Henning’s Throw Like A Girl and in It’s All In How You Fall, she returns readers to the same world. Liv even makes an appearance. This time, we land in the world of gymnastics. Caroline is a competitive gymnastic about to make elite. She has an awesome new trick and she’s ready for Nationals. But, her doctors warn her that her chronic back pain is a sign she needs to stop and when she takes a massive fall during training, the decision is taken out of her hands. Forces to retire from everything she loves and worked for at fifteen, she is t sure what to do with herself until her brother’s best friend offers to help her date other sports. One sport a week until she finds something she loves. Determined to repay his kindness, she offers to set his up with his crush and her best friend, one meetup/date for every sport session. But, things get complicated when she starts to fall for Alex. Continue reading
Café Con Lychee
– Emery Lee –
Quill Tree Books
Published 10 May 2022
♥♥♥/♥
I fully expected to love Café Con Lychee. LGBT+ romance, enemies to lovers relationship, food, food and more food.
Theo and Gabi are enemies. Despite playing on the same soccer team, they know to keep their distance (except when Gabi is accidentally crashing into Theo on the soccer field). Their parents both run restaurants in town that compete for business. When a new café in town opens, Theo and Gabi unexpectedly and kind of against both their wishes, team up to fight to protect their families’ restaurants. What ensues is carefully timed, almost a disaster plan to get their classmates on board and brings Gabi and Theo together in way they just didn’t expect.
Blood Scion
– Deborah Falaye –
Harper Teen
Published 8 March 2022
♥♥♥♥
Blood Scion is a hard-hitting, epic fantasy novel that doesn’t pull its punches. At all. Parts of this book left me feeling sick, and there is no shying away from the cruelty these characters must face. It also leaves the reader with no question as to why our protagonist must make the choices she does and how hard she has to fight for justice and even just a glimmer of hope for a better future.
What Matters Most
– Courtney Walsh –
Nantucket Love Story #3
Tyndale House Publishers
Published 5 April 2022
♥♥♥♥
In What Matters Most, author Courtney Walsh returns readers to the shores of Nantucket for a story about grief, secrets, and forgiving yourself.
Emma has moved herself and her young son to Nantucket in the hopes it will give them both a fresh start. Five years after her husband’s death, she’s still reeling from grief and guilt. Jameson too carries much guilt over the death of Emma’s husband and in a bid to move on with his life, he arrives in Nantucket to tell Emma the truth about her husband’s death. When Jamie arrives on Emma’s doorstep, she thinks he’s there to answer her ad for someone to clean out and renovate the guesthouse on her property. Jamie agrees but fails to tell Emma the real reason he’s there. Maybe he can help her in other ways. As Jamie works on the house, he and Emma grow closer, sharing their love of art and even rekindling that creative spark. But they both have secrets that could destroy any future they might have.
Some Mistakes Were Made
– Kristin Dwyer –
Harper Teen
Published 26 April 2022
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I knew that Some Mistakes Were Made would be gut wrenching. And it was. It was also incredibly hard to put down, tear-jerking and made my heart ache. In a good way. Such a delicious, agonising way.
For all the readers who love books about brothers, this one is for you. For all the readers who love resilient, angry and strong survivors who have to face so much more than is imaginable, this book is for you. And readers who love tortured, broken relationships romance, you need to read this book RIGHT NOW!
Mulberry Hollow
– Denise Hunter –
Riverbend #2
Thomas Nelson
Published 19 April 2022
♥♥♥♥
Mulberry Hollow is the second book in Denise Hunter’s Riverbend Romance. As is the way with most of her series, you can read the books as stand alone titles, but reading the series in order gives you a lovely overview of a this family group. We met Avery in the first book in the series and now get a better insight into her life, career and decisions in this second book.
Avery is a doctor and owner of the only clinic in town. It’s a career she followed after watching her mother die. Now the genetic disease that stole her mother’s life hangs over Avery’s. It’s one of the reasons she is so desperate to entice another doctor to the clinic. When a hiker finds his way to Avery’s clinic doorstep and needs medical care, it might also be an answer to prayer. With limited funds, Wes offers to renovate the small carriage house on Avery’s property in exchange for his medical care. It’s easy for Avery to enjoy Wes’s company, despite her vow to avoid a relationship, marriage and a family. But Wes is committed elsewhere, anyway, so it can’t hurt to spend time with him, right?
Always Jane
– Jenn Bennett –
Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published 29 March 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
It took me about 40 seconds to figure who was our narrator and which brother was which when I started reading Always Jane. And then it took me about .02 seconds to fall in love with Fen. Completely and for always. But, by the end of the book it was the author Jenn Bennett to whom I felt the need to confess my undying love, for writing such a beautiful and powerful novel.
In true Jenn Bennett fashion, Always Jane is a compelling and addictive contemporary YA novel, a find-your-voice-and-own-way coming of age novel, with steamy romance, and delightful and complicated family dynamics.
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