Empress of the World

It's hard to find books with queer main characters and almost impossible to find them with bisexual ones. Empress of the World, by Sara Ryan, fills those requirements without calling them to attention. It's a book about a girl who goes to a summer camp and makes friends and falls in love. Her love interest just so happens to be a girl.

The writing style is a bit weird, it switches between journal entries and first person. Once I was used to that, the book flowed smoothly and held my interest. The secondary characters, while not completely believable teens, were well developed and important to the story. I found myself caring about them and hoping things would work out for them as well.
There were some lines in this book that I fell in love with, such as, "violas in good voice sound like expensive dark chocolate tastes, rich and swirling and complex". The imagery and descriptions in this book were near perfect.
Anyone looking for a book with queer characters that isn't about coming out should read this book. In fact, anyone looking for a cutesy romance should read this. You won't regret it.

Hold Still

Nina LaCour's book, Hold Still, is a sad story about a girl that was depressed and how her suicide affected everyone who knew her. But it's also a story about finding hope and recovering from traumatic events.

Getting into this book was difficult simply because of the pacing. The setting jumps around at first and we catch glimpses of what's happening, but mostly we see how Caitlin is reacting to her best friend's death. It takes a few chapters before we start to understand her and who she is beyond her sadness. 
Throughout the story, Caitlin reminisces about her time with Ingrid. At first, these are happy memories that show Ingrid as a happy, normal teenager. However, when Caitlin finds her friend's journal, we're able to discover the truth about Ingrid, right along side Caitlin.
Even if you haven't been through the same experiences at Caitlin, it's easy to relate to her. Everyone has been knocked down a time or two and felt like they were "ready to explode into nothing". LaCour does an excellent job of making Caitlin realistic and showing that she is more than her sadness.

The Island (A Dystopian Novella)

The Island, by Jen Minkman, has an interesting premise.  For reasons not revealed until the end of the book, children became adults at the age of 10 and go to live with all the other unmarried youngsters. Depending on one's parents after that is frowned upon at best. Sort of like a society mandated Lord of the Flies. 

Negatives: The conclusion felt a little too picture perfect to me. The word of some teenagers and one man changes an entire island's culture? Everyone was ready to aspect this new way of life without any fight? Not to mention the main antagonist was pardoned after killing someone a day earlier? Yeah, the end was certainly unrealistic. 

I could've really liked the romance between Leia and one of the Fools but it was underdeveloped and moved way too quickly. One minute they were arguing about everything and the next they were kissing? Where was the suspense?
Positives: That said, I gave this book three stars because it was odd and had a strong (though not fully developed) female lead. It was also able to hold my attention so much so that I finished it in a day. I kept wanting to know more about the culture the book was centered around and why everyone went along with it. I also loved the completely unexpected Star Wars references, they made the book more interesting and fun.
To wrap it up, I won't be rereading this, but it wasn't bad. If you're looking for something short and quirky and you don't mind a few plot holes, this is the book for you!

Introduction

Hello all!
In 2015, I made a blog to keep track of the reading challenge I was doing (found here). I only wrote reviews for about half of the books I read... So this year I thought I'd try something a bit different. I'm going to do the Goodreads challenge (here) and post the reviews I write here as well. So if you're looking for suggestions on what to read in 2016, you've come to the right spot!
I'd also love to hear suggestions on what I should read and review this year. I've got some books arriving soon, but you can never have too many books, am I right?
Thanks for visiting :)