Candy Bunny Reader

  This is the stand-alone sequel to When it All Syncs Up by Maya Ameyaw , which I read and reviewed earlier this year! You can read that review here .  Under All the Lights follows Aisha's (from the first book) boyfriend Ollie, who is a amateur musician. Recently his family has fallen on hard times financially, and he has been having a lot of conflicts with his dad. When a homemade music video of his goes viral after being shared by popular singer Jesse Jacobs after a musical festival, he is given an offer by Jesse's record label to tour around the country (Canada) with him! Ollie accepts the offer. His goal is to help his family, and maybe the tour will be his one way ticket to a good music school. But he has to do all of this while managing his anxiety, which isn't easy. Just like When it All Syncs Up , it's a book that deals with a lot of heavy stuff (but handled in a good way!) while also pursuing ones dreams. The book is also very diverse, too. Ollie is Algerian-Ca...

TW: Acephobia, harassment, toxic friendship all are mentioned. You can see a full list of trigger warnings here: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Let%27s_Talk_About_Love_by_Claire_Kann   My second Claire Kann book!  Let's Talk About Love is about the biromantic asexual college student Alice, who just broke up with her girlfriend and (now also ex) roommate Margot. She tries to forget about the breakup by moving in with her now engaged childhood friends Feenie and Ryan, bingewatch her favorite shows and write essays on them, and chow down on her favorite foods. She is also trying to find out what to major in at college. Her family wants her to go into law because that's what they all do, but Alice's interests lie somewhere else. One day at her part-time job at a local library, they get a new employee named Takumi. The second Alice sees him, she's head over heels! They start hanging out as friends a lot outside of work, but Alice is afraid to come out to Takumi as asexual...

I am so glad I decided to try another book from this author! Spells for Lost Things by Jenna Evans Welch is a dual POV book about two teenagers: Willow and Mason. Willow has felt disconnected from her mother ever since her parents got divorced. Mason has been from foster home to foster home and never felt a connection with anyone.  The two end up meeting on accident when Willow is whisked away with her mother to Salem, Massachusetts to look into and sell the childhood house that Willow's mother inherited, and Mason's new foster family lives nearby. The two teenagers end up going on a scavenger hunt to find out the truth about Willow's supposed family curse. At the same time, Mason tries to figure out where in the world his birth mother is.  It's such a lovely story about healing from generational trauma! I also loved all the real-life witchy things that are sprinkled throughout the story. I gave this book 5 stars .  

  Another great book by Ann Liang ! Never Thought I'd End Up Here is about Leah, a former teenage model who messed up in trying to congratulate her cousin at her wedding in broken Mandarin. Her mother thinks she can sharpen her Mandarin skills by going on an immersion trip to Shanghai sponsored by the department her aunt works in at Stanford. Also going on this trip is a guy named Cyrus--who has been Leah's number one enemy for the last several years. He was responsible for "the Incident" at Leah previous high school.  But when Leah gets to Shanghai--it ends up becoming an unforgettable trip! New friends, new places--and she gets to learn who Cyrus really is, while also confronting her past.  I love how at first this book seemed like it was going to be a silly enemies to lovers story, but it ended up being a lot deeper than thought. This book explores so many themes ranging from connecting to your roots, finding out what you really want in life, overcoming low self-e...

All the books I read in July! I read a total of 5 books, and they were all really great. 1. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono-4 stars . Full book description here on Goodreads. Read my (kind of) review here . I mostly just compare the book and movie.  2. Messy Roots by Laura Gao-4.5 stars. Full book description here . Read my review for it here  . 3. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender-4 stars. Full book description here . Read my review here . 4. Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty-4 stars. Full book description here . Read my review here . 5. The Legend of Shadow High by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale - 4 stars. Full book description here . Read my review here . 

I saw a video a few months ago from the YouTube channel TTreadsYA of them doing the Ultimate Recs Tag. You can follow them on Instagram too: @ttreadsya Their video is here . Go subscribe to them, their channel needs more love!  The original creator of this tag and their video is here:  https://www.tiktok.com/@dreareads/video/7273524380557200673?lang=en As always, feel free to do this tag if you see this post! 1. A book that I will always recommend. Anything I consider underrated is fair game! The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill, Flip the Script by Lyla Lee, and Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier are a few examples.  2. A book that I will recommend if I think we have similar tastes. Again, so many choices! Do you like stories that leave you feeling good and uplifted at the end? One great example would be You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson.  3. A book that I love, but I wouldn't recommend. Most classic books, since they tend to have things that don't a...

The PERFECT romance book! Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee is about Dylan, a teenage boy who works at his Aunt Jade's Singaporean Chinese takeout shop. His family has been struggling financially, and they are worried they won't be able to keep the shop open. Dylan finds out about a mooncake making contest run by a celebrity chef named Lawrence Lim. The winner will get their restaurant showcased on Lim's TV show. Dylan decides to enter the contest, thinking if the shop makes some publicity, they might get more customers.  Then, one day Dylan accidentally gets the order wrong of a rich customer named Adrian, and Adrian makes a big deal out of it. Adrien's equally rich friend Theo, who was there when the incident happened, makes up for it by visiting and eating at the takeout shop. Eventually Theo and Dylan become friends, and Theo decides to make a donation to Dylan's aunt Jade to keep the shop afloat for much longer. Dylan's family is very happy about it. Th...

  Another cute romance book by Kasie West! PS I Like You by Kasie West is about Lily Abbott, who is a junior in high school who likes writing her own songs, but does not like Chemistry class. One day while bored in said class she starts to write song lyrics of a song she likes on her desk, and someone (another person who sits at her desk in a different class period) starts to add on to her writing. Pretty soon she and her secret pen pal start writing old fashioned paper notes to each other, and Lily gets to learn more about him. She then tries to figure out who in her grade her pen pal might be, all while trying to find a date of her own and trying to enter a songwriting contest where she can earn a scholarship for college.  I don't know what else to say except that this book is so wholesome. I like the way Kasie West writes. This is a great romance book if you want something chill and cute in between reading more intense stuff. I gave it 4 stars . So I enjoyed it for what it...

Did you know I also like to read manga?  Well, to be honest, I watch more anime than read manga. The last manga series I remember reading in it's entirety was Kitchen Princess back in middle school , which was more than a decade ago. For the last decade or so of my life I've only consumed manga-original stories through their anime adaptations. Sometimes the anime adaptations don't even cover the entire manga. They're more like advertisements to get you to go buy the manga (clever marketing, huh?) Additionally, there are probably hundreds of manga out there that have no anime adaptation attached to it. Go figure.  But I've decided to start reading actual manga again, and last week I finished the very first volume of  My Love Mix -Up by Wataru Hinekure.   In American marketing terms, this a YA contemporary romance manga series about three teenage friends (two guys and a girl, in this order): Aoki, Ida, and Hashimoto. Aoki has a crush on Hashimoto, but he's too shy...

  I just finished reading Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West. This is sweet and cute YA contemporary novel.  It's kind of hard to give a simple summary on what happens in this book aside from the romance, but in this book, you will find (without getting into spoilers):  Our MC named Kate, loves lake activities and her family has a lake activity business that she wants to one day take over. Kate's BFF, Alana, is outgoing, loves to cook, and has a crush on a guy named Diego. A school podcast that Kate is reluctant about hosting at first but then realizes she has a knack for it. A classmate named Frank who's family has a rivalry with Kate's, but he wants to get along better with her. Bonding over magazines at a tutoring center Kate and her big family A little brother named Max and a cousin named Liza with their own fair share of problems. That's all I'll share for now! This was such a cute and fun book! Although it does get serious and dramatic in three of the chap...