Imagine the Scarlett Pimpernel, teenaged version, in Polynesia, and trade the guillotine for a pill that destroys your brain functions.

“Oh my gosh.” My shoulder throbbing, I jerked my head up at the overhang to see an indentation the size of both my fists in the mud above my head. “Bobby, I think I just got hit by a falling rock!”

American Royals by Katharine McGee When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and...

Whew—these books are not for the faint of heart! They are chilling and disturbing. In fact, there’s a part of the first book that I can barely read—not because of foul language or graphic violence, but because what’s being portrayed is so gut-wrenchingly, morally awful.

What draws me in is the theming of this book—it’s just so on pointe.

What I loved about this story was the build-up of clues and the reveal of smaller secrets as a distraction from the main attraction—why the Story siblings were disowned, and what that has to do with the present day.

Bobby and I tossed our (my) beachy-warm dreams to the wind and went for the exact opposite: a frozen adventure out on Utah Lake.

I actually really loved Ready Player Two. I thought it did a great job of continuing and expanding on the problems and themes from the first book without being a carbon copy of it

This book is all about voice. If you like the voice and narrative style, you will love this book. If you don’t, you probably won’t finish it.

This post is about the books I read this year. There were 88 in total and so many good ones. I did highlights for my favorites and then followed up with some honorable mentions and extras just for funsies.