#realistic fiction
Sweet Romance Novels to Make You Fall in Love With Love
Whether single or in a relationship, Valentine’s Day is always one of my favorite holidays. Pink hearts and frills are my aesthetic and like Lara Jean in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I’m a bit in love with love itself. So here are some sweet love stories to melt your heart this Valentine’s Day. (more…)
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★★★
I really, really wanted to like this book, but I didn’t. I guess I expected it to be a little like The Serpent King, but other than the weirdly “religious” dad it was nothing like what I expected. First, the cover is actually pretty nice. It’s a dark matte red, the title is written in a way that the first line is Con, which I thought was fitting, and the ‘t’ is a cross—also, there is a car that has obviously been in an accident of some type, and illuminated by the headlights is “A lie will set him free.” Braden is a wealthy, white teenage boy, who happens to be a really good pitcher with a bright future in baseball. From the outside, Braden’s life looks pretty envy worthy—but things are never what they seem. Braden’s dad is abusive, manipulative, and just generally awful—not to mention he’s been accused of murdering a cop, because he did literally murder a cop. Braden does a lot of soul searching, he punishes himself for so many things, and he tries to bargain with God regularly throughout the story. He has been conditioned to think that everything that does wrong is his fault, and that if he were a better kid, a better pitcher, a better student, a better Christian—just generally better—then the bad things would be rectified. This book was incredibly realistic, but I guess I still hoped for something good to happen. I hated that Braden literally had no one tell him that the things happening weren’t his fault, and that no matter what he did terrible things would just happen sometimes. I was also incredibly disappointed that he chose to testify the way he did—though I likely would have done the same thing, if I am being honest. I had hoped for more from the ending, but realistically it was probably about as good as it could have been—anything different would not have fit with the rest of the story.
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★★★★
Some Girls Are is very similar to other books by Courtney Summers. It was sort of a Mean Girls (on steroids) meets Speak. Regina, the main character, is self-admittedly a mean girl. She, along with her group of friends are basically the Plastics from Mean Girls, but worse. They are awful to pretty much anyone outside of their group—and even pretty awful to each other. One night at a party Regina is almost raped Anna’s boyfriend, Donnie. Anna is the leader of their little group; she is probably the most awful of them all, but that’s still up for debate. For some reason, instead of going to the police or some other adult who could have helped her, Regina runs to Kara—who still (rightfully?) holds a grudge for Regina suggesting she develop an eating disorder if she wanted to be a part of their group. Kara sees this as the perfect opportunity for payback and tells Anna that Regina slept with Donnie. Chaos ensues, and Regina is ostracized from the group and bullied by her ‘friends’ among others at school—many of whom she had bullied in the past. I wanted to be shocked at how awful these kids were to one another—I wanted to be shocked that not a single adult realized that this level of bullying was going on—but after thinking about it for a bit I realized it was entirely realistic and the shock wore off. I still don’t understand why these girls got off on ruining other people’s lives, just like I don’t understand why it happens in real life. The thing that was most disappointing to me is that a teen who is experiencing something like this might pick up this book and still have no idea how to help themselves or get help. At least in Speak Melinda had someone offer to listen to her—in Some Girls Are there was basically no encouragement to reach out to an adult for help.
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It was the late 70s, midway into Carter’s term, and I’d been on my post-college Finding Myself Odyssey. It was a weird time in my life and in America’s life. No more Nixon, no more Vietnam, but the counterculture and enlightened awakening was also absent. Not dead, but missing.
Everyone was lost with only a map and whatever their parents drilled into their head. Some went off the rails with the activism and started fighting each other. Others became too much like the American Dream and married out of high school, got piss-angry when they realized love meant less sex and more compromise, and saw work as the only thing from killing boredom.
I saw the remains of my parents’ generation fade away or cling on like an STD. It’s sad. We took away the heroism and kept the nationalism. There’s relics here and there like Dean Martin billboards torn up by nature, entertainment venues abandoned, a chipped mural with a 1940s Western painting with a Marlboro Man-looking cowboy. But then you have war freaks and Jesus freaks and all sorts of John Birch copycats alive and well. I’m just glad that fossil Reagan lost. Like we needed our country to be even dumber and crueler.
Have you ever met a teenager who would admit that their parents are right? Especially after getting dumped by their significant other, whom their parents never really liked? Ashish Patel doesn’t want to, but challenging them to prove him wrong may prove to be more than he anticipated, or bargained for. Sweetie Nair is the exact opposite, she wants to prove to her parents that they are dead wrong. She can be a great track athlete, a singer, and have a relationship, even if they think she is considered to be “fat.”
But at what cost does this come at? Through the assistance of their friends,their well-meaning, but stubborn, parents, and even some foul-mouthed parrots, Ashish and Sweetie are in for quite the adventure.
This book is perfect for any reader looking for a sweet love story. But more importantly, it is important for anyone who is struggling with accepting their body. It is the best confidence booster and you will surely be rooting for our couple right to the very end.
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Jay Reguero, a high school senior living in Michigan, is hoping to take it easy on his last spring break before he graduates, playing video games and hanging with his friend. But when his father tells him that his cousin and former pen-pal, Jun, has been murdered by the Filipino government as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, he decides to fly to the Philippines to find out the truth. This book is compelling from page one, and begs you to read until the end. This authentic voice novel deals with many issues that teens face today, including struggles with family dynamics, drugs, mental health issues as well as broadens one’s world views as it vividly draws you into the island world of the Philippines. Do not miss this gripping page turner.
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