Candy Bunny Reader

  I didn't forget that it's Disability Pride Month! Here is my pick (although really, you should read about disabled characters all year long).  Lavender Clouds by Bex Ollerton is a collection of comic strips about the author and their experience being neurodivergent (being autistic and having ADHD) and having mental health issues. The comic strips range from funny and relatable to more emotional and heartfelt. Either way, Bex's message for you as the reader is: the sky doesn't need to be clear in order to be beautiful. You can interpret what that means.  I loved this book so much! This is the book I wish I always had growing up, as an autistic person who also has anxiety. The illustrations are really pretty, too! I gave this book 5 stars .  

 TW: Mentioning of predatory relationships I think I expected too much from this one... Mall Goth by Kate Leth is set in the 2000s and follows a bisexual teenage goth girl named Liv. She has just moved with her mother to a new town with a giant mall. Liv starts spending most of her free time at the mall, and ends up getting a job at Create-a-Critter (like Build a Bear Workshop) through the mall's security guard, Alice. Alice is also one of her mom's friends.  At Liv's new school, she becomes acquainted with two other goths named Jake and Aaron. They really like gaming, and invite Liv to join their server to play a popular MMORPG. The guy named Jake also has an on-again off-again relationship with another girl in their English class named Layla. Liv also becomes friends with Layla, but their friendship is put to the test when it comes to Jake's behavior.  Unfortunately, as all of this is happening, Liv's English teacher Mr. Trent seems to have a thing for her, and w...

  This book makes you wonder if immortality is a good idea. It was pretty hard to get ahold of this book, because it's one of the author's older books from the year 2000. I found this copy of it at a library in my area that I don't go to frequently, and they have a lot of older books.  Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix starts out in the year 2000, with a group of centenarians in a nursing home. This group signed on to a be a part of a secret (and illegal) science experiment that will age them backwards. Well, they only age backwards physically.  The story mostly follows two of the participants: Melly and Anny Beth, as they try to survive away from the public eye in the year 2085 as teenagers again. Now that the girls are closer to being babies again, they need to find someone to take care of them.  It is not easy trying to lay low when they live in a world where you practically have no privacy. There is also a tabloid reporter that seems to be trying to track th...

    This book is a prequel to my favorite of the Disney Fairies movies: Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings! Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft is the story of how Queen Clarion and Lord Milori that we're all familiar with from Secret of the Wings met, fell in love, and, unfortunately, how Milori got his wings broken. This story is set before Clarion becomes queen of Pixie Hollow. Lately, Nightmares, which are scary creatures filled with negative energy from the bad dreams of human children from the Mainland, have been attacking the warmer seasons of Pixie Hollow. Apparently, they came from Winter. Several fairies of the warmer seasons don't trust the Winter fairies (including the current queen. Elvina), but Clarion secretly meets and teams up with Milori (here, he's the Warden of the Winter Woods). They work together to come up with a plan to seal away the Nightmares once and for all, but it isn't easy!  This was such a beautifully well-written book! It is a must ...

Wow! My first dark academia book, recommended by the wonderful @greenghostreviews over on Instagram.  The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern , to put it simply, is about Zachary, a college student who finds a mysterious book called Sweet Sorrows in his university's library. The book was donated by the equally mysterious Keating Foundation. Within the book are symbols of a bee, a key and a sword. Zachary wonders what it could all mean, especially since the story seems to be about him! He finds huge lead at a party that is literary-themed. From there he finds himself in the middle of a magical underground world of all the stories that exist in the world, as well as the people behind it that are trying to preserve it all.  This book was so atmospheric and whimsical! Intertwined with Zachary's story are other stories in and around the actual Starless Sea and its Harbours. Everything comes together neatly at the end. It kind of reminded me of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Gr...

Trigger warning: mentioning of miscarriages     Ugh, the book was good until it got to the end... You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley is an adult contemporary romance novel with a dash of magical realism. Mia and her husband Harrison have just moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a small town called Hope Springs, thinking life would be easier for them. Instead, Mia has trouble finding a job that she can do with an art degree, and Harrison seems to be hiding something related to his job (he works as a surgeon in a small hospital) from Mia. Even worse, they have been struggling to have children as Mia has already had two miscarriages.  While all of this is going on, Mia keeps having recurring dreams of her encountering a stranger. Well, she's actually been dreaming of this mysterious guy for years. Most of the dreams usually takes place in a carnival, and most of the dreams involve something tragic. Freakier still, Mia ends up finding the guy in real life! His name i...

      A kids' manga I found on a whim!   This first volume of Hikaru in the Light by Mai Matsuda is about a girl named Hikaru who likes singing at her family's bath house. She is a really good singer, and she dreams about becoming an idol just like her childhood friend, Ran.    One day Hikaru finds out about an audition to form a new girl idol band that will be hosted by popular and successful record producer M. Hayama. Hikaru signs up. Much to her surprise, Ran signs up, too. She just quit the girl group she was a part of, and decided to partake in this audition for a new girl group to improve on her dancing and singing skills. The two friends support each other through the audition process, and they end up making the cut!    Hikaru and Ran and a bunch of other girls end up going to a training camp for idols.    Throughout all of this, Hikaru finds out that becoming an idol isn't easy peasy. But it should be easier with Ran by her side...