'All the Right Reasons' by Bethany Mangle

5 stars!

Book Blurb:

"The Bachelor meets Gilmore Girls in this laugh-out-loud young adult romance about a girl who joins her mother on a reality dating show for single parents—only to fall for a contestant’s son.

Cara Hawn’s life fell apart after her father cheated on her mother and got remarried to a woman Cara can’t stand. When Cara accidentally posts a rant about her father online, it goes viral—and catches the attention of the TV producers behind a new reality dating show for single parent families.

The next thing Cara and her mother know, they’ve been cast as leads on the show and are whisked away to sunny Key West where they’re asked to narrow a field of suitors and their kids down to one winning pair. All of this is outside of Cara’s comfort zone, from the meddling producers to the camera-hungry contestants, especially as Cara and her mother begin to clash on which suitors are worth keeping around. And then comes Connor.

As the son of a contestant, Connor is decidedly off-limits. Except that he doesn’t fit in with the cutthroat atmosphere in all the same ways as Cara, and she can’t get him out of her head. Now Cara must juggle her growing feelings while dodging the cameras and helping her mom pick a bachelor they both love, or else risk fracturing their family even more for the sake of ratings. Maybe there’s a reason most people don’t date on TV." 


Review:

This was a cute and fun quick read of a YA rom-com. The talented author, Bethany Mangle, is a Korean-American adoptee and has a disability called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and it’s wonderful to see the representation in this book; the main character is biracial, and the love interest is disabled with EDS.

It was great fun to watch through Cara’s perspective as her recently divorced Mom becomes the leading lady in a dating show, where single fathers and their children compete to potentially become her new Stepdad and stepsibling. All the wild, unbelievable antics of a reality TV show mixed well with family drama and a mother-daughter relationship.

Readers with strained relationships with a parent should know that Cara’s relationship with her father is justifiably terrible.  

'All the Right Reasons' will be available on February 15, 2022.

#NetGalley - I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.

'Long Story Short' by Serena Kaylor

5 stars! 

Book Blurb:

"Beatrice Quinn has spent sixteen very serious years studying to get into Oxford University. Homeschooled and a whiz at statistics, Beatrice knows that she belongs at Oxford, where she will finally find people who understand her. She thought the hardest part would be getting in, not convincing her parents to let her go. They’ve put a halt to her plans until she can prove she’s able to make friends with people her own age and function in social situations. Their solution: Shakespearean theater camp and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has six weeks to show her parents she can pull off the role of “normal” teenager and won’t spend the rest of her life hiding in a library.

Unfortunately, hearts and hormones don’t follow any rules, and there is no textbook for teenage interactions. When she’s adopted by a group of eclectic theater kids, and immediately makes an enemy of the gorgeous popular son of the camp founders, she realizes that relationships are trickier than calculus. As the summer draws to an end, and with Oxford on the line, this girl genius stumbles through illicit parties, double dog dares, and more than your fair share of Shakespeare. But before the final curtain falls, will Beatrice still feel like Oxford alone is enough?

Serena Kaylor’s debut, Long Story Short, is a fun rom-com with a whole lot of heart about friendship, first love, and learning to take a chance on yourself.''

Book Review:

This heart warming Contemporary YA read put a huge smile on my face. Highly recommended!

Beatrice is a sixteen-year-old genius whose very careful routines help to keep her anxiety at bay. Homeschooling worked out best for her, but now that she wants to attend Oxford University, her parents have concerns about her ability to socialize and be on her own.

They agree that if Beatrice can prove she can have a "normal teenage experience" while at a four-week theater camp, she can attend Oxford. She immediately gains a bestie in her roommate Mia, and Mia's camp bestie, the Nolan, takes her under his wing as well. The relationships between these three gems are truly the definition of #FriendshipGoals.

Comically, she gets off on the wrong foot with the son of the camp's owners, Nik. As lead of the play, Nik is everywhere and Beatrice finds she cannot avoid him, try as she might.

'Long Story Short' hits bookshelves on July 26, 2022.

#NetGalley - I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s