Tag: Self-Published

Thinking About Her – Ophelia Alexander

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Rating: 4 out of 5.
A surprisingly good book from a debut author.

The story is told from the point of view of Clare, a senior at high school and part of the popular crowd. She dreams of using photography as her way out of her small town and constricting life. Hilda enters her life as a transfer student from Germany, returning to her hometown and forces Clare to examine all that she knows about herself.

This is the second book I’ve read recently that included controlling religious parents, and I thought the tone of this book was done really well so that it had impact but was appropriate for a YA novel.

There a lots of characters in Clare’s friend group, something that can be a little hard to keep track of at times. As you’d probably expect there is quite a bit of angst in this book – both from the main characters and those around them, but for the most part it works well within the narrative.

The book keeps a hopeful tone, especially in the ending, but doesn’t promise anything. All in all this kind of book I wish had been around when I was a teenager.

I received an e-ARC via BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.

Consigned to Oblivion – B.C. Hedlund

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Rating: 4 out of 5.
It’s been a long time since I read a book like this, that forces you to read and digest every sentence, that doesn’t allow you to read quickly and skim. It was a welcome change. This is a beautifully written book, from a surprisingly young full length debut author. It’s definitely a coming of age story, but it will appeal to people of all ages.

The book is about Cassandra, a haunted teenager undertaking her senior year at high school, however it focusses a lot on her relationships with others in similar situations to her, that all have a reason to be drifting and how they exist in the world together. The book covers a number of difficult topics, death, suicide, family losses, self harm and mental health, and how all of these impact others. Hedlund describes the main character as blurring the lines between fiction and reality and this is definitely true – Cassandra is battling herself and others both internally and externally.

The path the book takes meant I really enjoyed the secondary characters of Rachel and Lily and Owen is well written. If you’re reading for the LBGTQ+ content – stick with it – it’s there.

Hedlund shows a lot of potential with this title and I hope to see more like this in the future.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Coming Out – Jourdyn Kelly

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Rating: 4 out of 5.
I read this off the back of reading Coming To: An LA Lovers Book. The MCs in Coming Out are secondary characters in Coming To and I was interested in hearing more about their story. Reading them back to back was a little strange – as the book takes place in the same period with many of the same events – but it really helped me appreciate the storyline further and didn’t detract from this book at all. As I said in my review of Coming To – I think you can read them in any order.

Whilst I loved both Hunter and Ellie, one of the things I liked the most about the storyline here is that you get a lot of time with secondary characters, all of which are written well and add something to the book, especially in getting to know the MCs. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Ellie and her daughter.

Both Hunter and Ellie have reasons to doubt each other, and whether their relationship will work, but a strength of both the characters and the storyline is how they work through these things together. Much like Coming To the topics discussed aren’t always easy and the book does deal with homophobia, but it doesn’t dwell on them unnecessarily.

At heart this book is a story of love and chosen families and how they face the world together and I would recommend giving it a go.

Finding Her Treasure – Alexa Woods

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Rating: 4 out of 5.
I enjoyed the premise of this book as it was one I hadn’t encountered before. Set in an antiques mall the book explores the relationship of Romi and Kiera. Both have reasons to avoid the relationship, but the book doesn’t have a major slow burn vibe as there are enough things going on to keep the story flowing. The world and character building are done really well and you can empathise with how both MCs got to where they are. I really enjoyed both MCs interactions with their parents, though very different, the alternating viewpoints work very well and the epilogue left me feeling warm and fuzzy.

As far as I can tell this is the authors first book, but I couldn’t tell. I hope there will be more and I look forward to reading them.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Coming To – Jourdyn Kelly

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I loved this book. It’s not an easy read by any means, but the story and the characters had depth and I found I wasn’t able to put the book down, despite it breaking my heart in places.

I wasn’t aware when I agreed to read the ARC that the characters and this storyline are mentioned in another of the authors books – Coming Out – but that didn’t matter at all when I read the book – I was just pleasantly surprised to find out at the end that I could read about some of the secondary characters I enjoyed in this book in their own book. It certainly didn’t leave me feeling like I’d missed anything and actually having now read Coming Out I think the books work well this way round.

As mentioned, this isn’t an easy read – there’s a lot of homophobia, homelessness and a life changing accident. It deals with themes that I think every LGBTQ+ person worries about to some extent in their lives at some point, but despite all of this the one feeling I found I was actually left with the most after reading was hope.

I’d highly recommend adding this book to your TBR list, even if you yourself aren’t LGBTQ+ as this is a book about humanity and relationships that anyone can relate to.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.