She's the Worst by Lauren Spieller

Title: She’s The Worst
Author: Lauren Spieller
Publication: Simon & Schuster, hardcover, September 2019
Genre: YA

Plot: Sisters April and Jenn haven’t been close in years. Jenn’s too busy with school, the family antique shop, and her boyfriend, and April would rather play soccer and hang out with the boy next door.

But when April notices her older sister is sad about staying home for college, she decides to do something about it. The girls set off to revive a pact they made as kids: spend an epic day exploring the greatest hits of their childhood and all that Los Angeles has to offer.

Then April learns that Jenn has been keeping a secret that could rip their family—and their feuding parents—apart. With only one day to set things right, the sisters must decide if their relationship is worth saving, or if the truth will tear them apart for good.

Giveaway: Win one of two finished copies (8/28-9/16/19, US only) here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Favorite Quotes: April: “Maybe I was listening,” I tell Jenn, “but it’s only because you were so sneaky.” When she doesn’t stop glaring at me, I add, “I could barely hear anyway.”

April: “Jenn started talking about how she wanted to go away to college even though she’d only just graduated from middle school. Back then she wanted to go to Michigan or Illinois or something, which I remember thinking was really far. Like, why not go to Antarctica while you’re at it? But then she got very serious all of a sudden, and said we should promise each other that in four years, when she was leaving for college, we’d spend the entire day together. Just us. To, you know, say goodbye. So we did a pinkie swear . . . and that was it.”

April: Nate’s voice sneaks its way into the back of my mind. Don’t assume the worst. This might work out if you give it a chance. I take a deep breath, and try my best to put my faith into Nate’s imaginary advice. Tomorrow is going to be good. Better than good. It’s going to be great. I’m going to get my sister back. I just have to give her – give us – a chance.

Jenn: I don’t know what surprises me more. That April remembered the pact we made as kids, or that she actually wanted to do it.

Jenn: I know April’s mad, but even though she doesn’t understand why I did what I did, surely she can see how important this is to me. How badly I need to get away. How sick I am of being in charge of everything, how much I hate constantly taking care of Mom and Dad, how sometimes my life here makes me want to scream –

Jenn: Except there's also another possibility.  They could listen.  If that happens, then they'll know the truth.  They'll be forced to start it in the face and grapple not only with how they've been making me feel, but how dysfunctional things are between them.  I know that's the whole point of telling them - to clear the air so we can fix things.  But sitting here, watching them make dinner, I'm not sure I can do it.  I've spent so long keeping the peace between them.  If I shatter it now and everything falls apart, it'll be my fault.

Author Lauren Spieller (Dave Cross Photography)

My Impressions: This is a very readable and convincing story, which explores the complications of family over slightly more than a day.  Jenn and April are about as different as sisters can be, and Spieller captures the dynamics of sibling relationships, the miscommunications and distorted memories of the same events, as well as how good intentions can go awry. It was particularly poignant how some of April’s recollections of things she had done with Jenn were incomplete: for example, the Ferris Wheel ride that April remembered as magical had actually ended with her vomiting on her sister. As the sisters grew apart in adolescence, there were faults on both sides.  There wasn't much romance (two very unsatisfactory male characters offset by a very sweet boy next door) but it was refreshing to have the focus of a YA book be on the family relationships.

The sisters in my family were all more like Jenn than April, organized, academically focused, and goal-oriented, so I identified more with Jenn and was exasperated with her parents. I was impressed that Jenn filled out all the financial aid forms for Stanford on her own. Jenn’s and April’s parents were over the top awful. Ignoring their inability to stop arguing in front of their children and customers, their poor business skills, their neglect of April and insensitivity to Jenn, they lack any kind of thought for their children’s future. Even if they had good reasons to insist that Jenn stay close to home for college (and finances could have been one of them), the idea that someone should turn down Stanford to attend community college seemed absurd.   (It's also implausible that Jenn could have gotten so close to college move-in day without having paid her room and board - I hate loose ends like this.)

Purchase Links: IndieBound * Barnes & Noble * Amazon * iTunes * Book Depository

Off the Blog: It is Labor Day weekend and I am filling out my Summer Reading Bingo card. Aren’t you glad summer reading isn’t just for children?

Source: I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and the Fantastic Flying Book Club for review purposes. You can visit other stops on the tour and read the reviews by clicking here.

In Her Skin (Book Review and Giveaway)

Title: In Her Skin
Author: Kim Savage
Publication: Farrar Straus Giroux, April 2018 (hardcover, Kindle, audio)
Genre: YA

Plot: From childhood Jolene Chastain's mother taught her how to survive by scamming the public, pretending to be someone else to garner sympathy and extract cash. Jo can be whatever or whoever anyone wants her to be. When her mother takes up with a series of bad boyfriends, Jo's life deteriorates rapidly even as her con artist skills become very lucrative. But after her mother is killed, she takes off, ending up on Boston where she makes friends with another abused teen, Wolf, in the tent city where the homeless live.

Finding Felicity (Book Review and Giveaway)

Title: Finding Felicity
Author: Stacey Kade
Publication: Simon & Schuster, hardcover and eBook, 2018
Genre: YA

Plot: Caroline Sands has never been particularly good at making friends. And her parents’ divorce and the move to Arizona three years ago didn’t help. Being the new girl is hard enough without being socially awkward too. So out of desperation and a desire to please her worried mother, Caroline invented a whole life for herself—using characters from Felicity, an old show she discovered online and fell in love with. But now it’s time for Caroline to go off to college and she wants nothing more than to leave her old “life” behind and build something real.

However, when her mother discovers the truth about her manufactured friends, she gives Caroline an ultimatum: Prove in this first semester that she can make friends of the nonfictional variety and thrive in a new environment. Otherwise, it’s back to living at home — and a lot of therapy. Armed with nothing more than her resolve and a Felicity-inspired plan, Caroline accepts the challenge. But she soon realizes that the real world is rarely as simple as television makes it out to be. And to find a place where she truly belongs, Caroline may have to abandon her script and take the risk of being herself.

Giveaway Link: Enter by 3/29/18 to win a copy of Finding Felicity:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Purchase Links: Goodreads Amazon Barnes & Noble iBooks IndieBound Book Depository

Audience: Fans of books in which the heroines muster their wits, but an older YA audience might find the heroine a bit pathetic or the story too tame.

My Impressions: I never watched the TV show Felicity but I always meant to, as I was living in New York when it began and I always enjoyed stories set at college (a subset of the school story), so was interested in the concept behind this book (also was curious because I remembered one of the actors turned up on Scandal). Finding Felicity is a poignant story about a young woman whose natural shyness has been exacerbated by the departure of her father with his second wife, while Caroline moved across the country and had to start her sophomore year of high school at a new school in Arizona. She is so lacking in self confidence that she literally becomes speechless when confronted by the cool kids at school. Her obsession with the TV show Felicity is an understandable way to escape from the casual cruelties of adolescence (even if she takes it to unbelievable extremes) and I faulted the mother for failing to recognize how miserable her daughter was.

Surely we have all anticipated new beginnings, whether at school, work, or a new home, and yearned to be perceived differently, and I have enjoyed many books with this theme such as Emily of Deep Valley, Don’t Call Me Katie Rose, This Adventure Ends, and a hilariously funny book that turns the theme upside down called How Not to Be Popular in which the heroine/new girl in town tries NOT to make friends because it is so painful when one has to move. However, I did get tired of Caroline’s abject misery and lack of self-esteem. Her story becomes more interesting when she stops moaning and – with the help of her new roommate - starts making an effort to find out who she really is instead of pretending to be someone else.

I liked the character of Lexi, the daughter of the college janitor, who has (with some justification) a chip on her shoulder about being a scholarship student at a college full of rich kids but comes through when Caroline really needs a friend. Even Liam, the boy Caroline foolishly follows to Ashmore, is extremely convincing: the kind of young man who is carelessly kind when he remembers and it does not inconvenience him but ultimately will not consider the feelings of anyone but himself – the best moment of the book is when Caroline turns down his invitation to play Beer Pong. Luckily, there turn out to be some kindred spirits for Caroline and Lexi and, refreshingly, the book ends with the promise of friendship rather than a romance cure-all.  And I think a less cluttered cover would have worked better.


About the Author: The daughter of a minister and a music teacher, Stacey Kade grew up like many of us reading Harlequin romances on the sly. She is the author of two young adult series and recently published her first adult contemporary, 738 Days. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and dogs.

Source: I was provided an ebook by the publisher and the Fantastic Flying Book Club for review purposes. Please follow other stops on the tour below:

March 14th

Pink Polka Dot Books- Welcome Post

Match 15th

Vicky Who Reads- Review & Favorite Quotes

Postcards for Ariel- Interview

March 16th

Belle's Book Blog- Review

We Live and Breathe Books- Review & Favorite Quotes

Star-Crossed Book Blog- Spotlight

March 17th

Flying Paperbacks- Promo

Books, Boys, and Blogs!- Creative Option

March 18th

Life at 17- Review

Here's to Happy Endings- Review

March 19th

Bookmark Lit- Creative Option

Book Crushin- Review

The Candid Cover- Review

March 20th

Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf- Review

Not Now, Not Ever (Book Review)

Title: Not Now, Not Ever
Author: Lily Anderson
Publication: Wednesday Books/Macmillan, Hardcover, 2017
Genre: Young Adult
Interview: I am so pleased to interview Lily for Staircase Wit!

SW: I loved The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, and am eager to read your new book which I know is inspired by The Importance of Being Earnest, my all time favorite play. What inspired you to do retellings of classics?
LA: I have always loved retellings—pretty much since the first time I read Jon Scieszka’s Stinky Cheese Man picture book when I was little. Even now, I read pretty much every fairy tale and classic literature retelling I come across. But I wasn’t finding retellings of the things that I loved—plays. I’m a lifelong theater geek. Certain plays—like Much Ado About Nothing and The Importance Of Being Earnest—have stuck around just as long, if not longer, than other stories being retold. Their themes still resonate with audiences all over the world, every day. It seemed silly to me that they weren’t being transformed into YA novels. And I waited and looked around before I decided to do it myself! 

13 Minutes (Book Review and Casting)

Title: 13 Minutes
Author: Sarah Pinborough
Publication: Flatiron Books, Hardcover, October 2017
Genre: YA suspense

Plot: Natasha doesn't remember how she ended up in the icy water that night, but she does know this - it wasn't an accident, and she wasn't suicidal. Her two closest friends are acting strangely, and Natasha turns to Becca, the best friend she dumped years before when she got popular, to help her figure out what happened.  Natasha's sure that her friends love her. But does that mean they didn't try to kill her?

13 Minutes is a young adult thriller from internationally bestselling author Sarah Pinborough.

Audience: Fans of Lauren Oliver and Gayle Forman

My Impressions: This is a deliberately paced psychological novel of suspense set among a group of spiteful teens that was a great introduction to a new (to me) author. Much of the story is told from Becca’s point of view: the friend who was dropped by Natasha, and although still bitter by the years-ago betrayal, is flattered when Natasha asks her to help find out how she came so close to dying. The two girls used to be good at chess – now they are playing a complicated game with a killer. The author introduces numerous red herrings, and the pace of the book picks up as Becca begins to guess what really happened. The police detective assigned to the case is fairly useless and (hello, conflict of interest!) starts dating someone who is involved in the case himself.

Unlike most of the books I have read in this genre, 13 Minutes is set in England. Unsurprisingly, mean girls are the same in every country but I was struck in this book how unpleasant every character is and it seemed as if they used much cruder language than American girls of that age.  Unlike American teens, they spend a lot of time on Facebook (which advanced the plot but may not be realistic), and they certainly don’t study much – math and art come into play more than any other subject, and after school drama. Although we have probably all been in the same situation – being dumped by someone we thought was a close friend, it is hard to like Becca. She is rude to her parents, cruel to her only friend, smokes and uses drugs, and not only dates the creepiest guy but also is desperate to keep him (cringe, cringe when they break up and she acts pathetic). I wished the author had made her more likeable. No one in this book knows the old saying that to have a friend you have to be a friend. Natasha, the Queen Bee, is the most interesting and developed character, but so mean the reader is tempted to wish one of the attempts on her life would be successful. An entertaining read with a dramatic ending.

Dream Casting: How would you cast the movie? I came up with some possibilities but you need to work with me a little to imagine them all the right age…

Natasha (as a brunette) - Nina Dobrev from Vampire Diaries

Becca – Aubrey Plaza from Parks & Recreation

Hayley - Dianna Agron from Glee

Jenny – Julianne Hough from Dancing with the Stars

Hannah – Liza Weil from Gilmore Girls and How to Get Away with Murder

Aiden – Cole Sprouse from Riverdale

Jamie McMahon – Scott Cohen from Gilmore Girls

Inspector Caitlin Bennett - Jennifer Anniston

Dr. Annabel Harvey – Laura Innes from ER

Source: I was provided a pre-publication copy of this book by the publisher and the Fantastic Flying Book Club for review purposes. Please visit the other stops on the tour at one of the links below to enter a contest to win an ARC (I could not make the rafflecopter work - my apologies):

September 27th
The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club & Pink Polka Dot Books - Welcome Post

September 28th
Confessions of a YA Reader - Review
Rurouni Jenni Reads - Review
Ginger Mom & the Kindle Quest - Review

September 29th
Smada's Book Smack - Review
everywhere and nowhere - Review
Tara's Book Addiction - Review
My Thoughts Literally- Review

September 30th
A Dream Within A Dream - Review
Here's to Happy Endings - Review
The Petite Book Blogger - Review

October 1st
Reading Wonderland - Review + Favourite Quotes
Never Too Many To Read - Review
Donnie Darko Girl - Review

October 2nd
The Bibliophile Confessions - Review + Favourite Quotes
Stephanie's Book Reviews - Review
Hauntedbybooks13 - Review

October 3rd
The Candid Cover - Review + Playlist + Dream Cast
Supercalireader - Review