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The Bookish Fairy

Young adult, magical realism, and every book in between infused with fairy dust...

Wedding Disaster Themed Books

September 7, 2019

Featured on Frolic Media

Wedding season is ultimately upon us and it’s the perfect time to delve into some wedding-themed books! It’s been two years since my wedding and especially after all the planning and stress I endured with trying to trim down the guest list, table seating arrangements, the restaurant changing the whole menu, and family drama these days I would much rather read about weddings! These are the kinds of books that teach you that weddings aren’t perfect but it is the one day that you will never forget!  

Save The Date by Morgan Matson
Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Charlie Grant’s sister is having a wedding coming up and she is excited to escape her impending college plans and leaving her childhood home to have a three day weekend with her big rambunctious family! Her plans for a picture-perfect family wedding go awry when the wedding planner escapes due to fraudulent activity. The wedding service “Where There’s a Will” steps in as replacements to do damage control. Charlie meets Bill who works for his uncle’s company “Where There’s a Will” and Charlie teams up with him to help save her sister’s wedding. Charlie and Bill have no idea the wedding disasters that are in store for them but through the disasters, there is a sweet romance that develops between them. Charlie’s whirlwind wedding weekend helps her realize that things are not always what they seem and that change isn’t always such a bad thing.

Save the Date has been described as a “Father of the Bride meets Sixteen Candles” kind of book. It is a book that will make you laugh, drive you insane, and it will most importantly leave you with the heartfelt message of change being inevitable but the love of a family being unchangeable.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren 

Olive is someone who has always felt supremely unlucky. Although her twin sister Ami holds all the luck in the world from meeting her fiancé for the first time in a meet-cute rom-com fashion and financing her entire wedding through Internet contests. Olive’s bad luck carries onto the wedding when she is forced to spend a day with her nemesis Ethan who is the best man. When the wedding guests get food poisoning from eating shellfish they are the only ones who didn’t get affected. And now there is the once in a lifetime opportunity for them to go on a free vacation to Hawaii. Olive and Ethan decide to set aside their hate for one another and pretend to play newlyweds until they realize that they are not pretending anymore.

I am a sucker for the hate to love romance trope and I think that Christina Lauren will create the perfect blend of hot tension that will leave me wanting more. There is just something about a romance set in Hawaii that provides those perfect summer love feels. I know I am going to enjoy cracking open this book by the beach with a margarita in hand. 

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Rachel is the girl that has always played by the rules. She is a successful attorney who lives in Manhattan. Her best friend Darcy throws her a birthday party for turning 30 and her best friends fiancée is also in attendance. Rachel has always harbored a secret crush on her best friends fiancée and always feels that she can never measure up to her best friend. Until that night she decides to throw the rules out the window and ends up sleeping with Darcy’s fiancée. When Darcy’s fiancée reveals that he always had feelings for her it puts Rachel in a difficult position and it forces her to choose between the love of her life or her childhood best friend.

When I was planning my wedding, I spontaneously picked up this book thinking it was a fluffy chick lit and I was completely blown away. I saw the movie before I read the book (The horror!) and the amount of emotion and turmoil that the book exhibited was so much deeper than the movie. The indecision that Rachel goes through is so well-written and believable. I love how the topic of cheating isn’t written in a way to paint Rachel as the other woman and it really explores the emotional journey that the character goes through. If you want a wedding-themed book that explores the complicated nature of the relationship between two best friends then pick up this book! 

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Filed Under: YA Book Lists Tagged: Christina Lauren, Emily Giffin, morgan matson, Save the Date, Something Borrowed, The Unhoneymooners, Wedding Disaster Themed Books, Wedding Season

Latinx May Reads

September 7, 2019

Featured on Frolic Media
Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina MorenoDon’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno

 

Don’t Date Rosa Santos is a book about a Cuban-American girl who is cursed by the sea. She lives in Port Coral which is a Gilmore Girls like town in Florida, where she lives with her grandmother who is the healer of the town. Rosa is cursed by the sea. She longs to study abroad in her families homeland of Cuba even though her Abuela refuses to talk about the island. Rosa is a girl who is trying to find her own identity and get to know her own culture and where she came from.  She is a girl who is caught between two different worlds and is figuring out her own place in the world. When she meets a boy named Alex Aquino whose family owns a marina, she must figure out if he is worth risking the curse and if there is a way to break the spell.

Nina Moreno’s book has everything I live for in a book! Not only is the book written by an own voices Cuban-American author, but the book is described as Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic.  My heart cannot contain my excitement for this book and I will be enjoying it with a guava pastelito in hand!

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Emoni Santiago has a lot of responsibilities and she is only in high school. She has a daughter to care for and she also supports her Abuela. Emoni has a passion for cooking and it is the one place where she can escape all her worries. She is passionate about the food she cooks and is always adding a dash of magic to her dishes. Even though, she loves to cook she knows that she cannot devote her time for her school’s culinary arts class and she doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain. Emoni is someone who feel a tremendous amount of pressure to play by the rules and she must decide whether she is going to embrace her talent for the kitchen and let it shine once and for all.

The synopsis of Acevedo’s book completely won me over because I haven’t read any YA books with a high school mom as the main character! The plot sounds so original for YA and I love the fact that this seems to have a strong Latinx character who is hustling to take care of her Abuela and give her daughter the best life possible. Since Acevedo is a killer poet, I have a feeling it is going to give me the lyrical feels of Like Water for Chocolate and it is going to be the kind of book that is going to get me seriously hungry!

Deadline in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera
Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera 

Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera has been frequently compared to The Outsiders and it is a young adult dystopian in which the women are governing the world. The main Latinx character Nalah lives in Mega City and she is the leader of one of the most powerful female fighter groups. Although, Nalah’s ultimate goal is to be able to live in the Mega Towers where only a select few get to live. Nalah is ready to get off the streets and has lost the thrill of being able to access the hottest bodega clubs. She has the opportunity to go on a mission to leave Mega City and she is given a chance to prove to others that she can achieve her dream of living in the Mega Towers.

Lilliam Rivera’s novel sounds like something I have never read before. I have never been a huge fan of dystopian books, but this is the kind of book that I would read because I couldn’t resist a world where women govern! This book seems to be more than just a dystopian but a novel about finding your place in society.

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Filed Under: YA Book Lists Tagged: Dealing in Dreams, Don't Date Rosa Santos, elizabeth acevedo, Latinx May Picks, Latinx May Reads, Latinx Rep, Lilliam Rivera, Nina Moreno, With the Fire on High

Interview with Latinx Contemporary Author: Janelle Milanes

September 7, 2019

Analee, in Real Life by Janelle Milanes
Featured in Frolic Media
1) What was your inspiration behind Analee, in Real Life and Victoria in my Head?

The Victoria in my Head was something that I had been thinking about for a long time. I would take the subway to work (usually about an hour and a half each way) and zone out during the commute by listening to music. Somehow, this idea began to take form. I imagined a girl coming alive on stage in a way that no one who knew her would expect. I think high school me was living vicariously through this idea because I would have loved to sing in a band. Like Victoria, I was incredibly shy (ultimately, I sang in the chorus which is decidedly less cool but was still a fantastic outlet.) I started thinking about what it would look like for an introverted girl with stage fright to completely let everything go and live out her rock star fantasies.

Analee began as a writing exercise for a class I was taking. We had to write from the perspective of a high school stereotype, and I wrote as a wallflower. Years prior, I had also gone through an intense but short-lived World of Warcraft phase. The thought of trying on a whole other persona online was so intriguing to me. I thought it would be an interesting outlet for someone like Analee who felt so stifled in reality and could only live her truth in a virtual world.

2) Which character do you relate the most to Analee or Victoria?

Both characters have pieces of me in them. Victoria is a lot like my teenage self–sheltered, imaginative, yearning for something more than the mundane day-to-day routine. Her parents are very similar to my own as well. Analee possesses a heightened version of my insecurities. She is my anxiety times one thousand and has gone through much more in life than I have.

3) I really loved and related to the part of Victoria’s love of making very specific playlists. Do you find yourself making your own playlists in your writing process and what kind of music do you gravitate to when your writing?

Music is something that really inspires my writing. I do find myself coming up with story ideas after listening to certain songs. When I’m actually hunkering down to write, though, I have to be careful that what I listen to won’t distract me from the writing process! I will make playlists of songs that I can imagine fitting certain scenes in my story. The music tends to be all over the place but there is a fair amount of indie pop/rock in there. While I’m writing, I like the music to be very mellow.

4) Victoria was caught in a love triangle of sorts in The Victoria in my Head. If you had to pick Strand the carefree bad boy or Levi the nerdy hipster who would you pick?

Strand! Strand, Strand, Strand. I’m a sucker for a “bad boy” with a heart of gold when it comes to fiction.

5) How have your experiences of growing up as a Cuban-American influenced your characters Analee and Victoria?

It’s so hard to view objectively how my Cuban-American heritage has influenced my writing, because it’s all I’ve ever known. I’m not even sure I’m conscious of how it seeps into my characters. It’s in the way they speak, think, in their relationships with family and friends. It’s something that’s very difficult to define because it’s so much a part of me!

6) What diverse Latinx authors do you recommend us to read for the year of 2019?

Don’t Date Rosa Santos is an adorable read by Nina Moreno, about a Cuban-American girl who dreams of visiting Cuba but is cursed by the sea. Lilliam Rivera has a new book out as well that I’m excited to check out. It’s called Dealing in Dreams, and it’s a futuristic, dystopian Latinx novel.

7) One of my favorite things about Analee, in Real Life and Victoria in my Head, is that you describe characters that are not your caricature Cuban characters. They identify with their culture but they don’t fit in with their Cuban-American heritage and the stereotypical behaviors they are expected to have. Have you ever identified with these feelings of not fitting in growing up in a Cuban-American family?

I think there is a wealth of diversity within the Cuban-American culture. There is no universal experience, and I try to reflect that in my characters. For me, when growing up and even now, I struggle with feeling as though I’m not “Latina” enough. I have to remind myself that there is no right or wrong way to be a Cuban-American. I am a proud Latina who speaks terrible Spanish, who has never been to the island from which my family originates, and who married an Irish-Italian guy from New York. I am who I am. My family still gives me flack about certain things, especially my Spanish, but they accept me regardless. It’s still a process of learning to accept myself and letting go of the feeling that I have something to prove.

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Filed Under: YA News Tagged: analee, Cuban Rep, in real life, Janelle Milanes, Latinx Character, Latinx Rep, The Victoria in my Head

Mixtape Kind of Love: Musically Inspired Romances

September 6, 2019

Featured in Frolic Media

Before Spotify and iTunes I was making playlists for every mood I have ever felt and every big event that has happened in my life. I have made playlists for first heartbreak, first love, moving to college, and random one such as drinking wine and introspective runs at night. Playlists are one of the ways to my heart, in fact, one of my most romantic gifts was a playlist my ex-high school sweetheart made me. There is nothing like a good romantic playlist to really profess your love for someone!

One of my favorite things about reading is when an author pairs music with a story. When authors create their own Spotify playlists to go with the book I get extremely giddy! I am a firm believer that reading should be an interactive experience and in my book reviews, I am always crafting book playlists to go along with the book as well as fancasting characters before the movie adaptation is even announced! These three books are my top musically inspired romances that make me swoon and play Coldplay songs all day.

The Victoria in My Head by Janelle Milanes

Victoria Cruz is a girl that is tired of the predictable monotony of her life. She goes to a prestigious prep school in New York and she lives with overprotective Cuban parents. Her parents have many expectations for her to go to an Ivy League college and essentially live the American dream that they themselves have worked hard to provide for her. Only Victoria has different plans in mind where she dreams of singing on stage. When she encounters a sexy guy named Strand who gives her a flyer to audition for his band, she makes a decision that will change her life forever.

Victoria in my Head hits me on a deeply emotional level because the main character is Cuban-American like myself and struggles through all the feelings I had about myself in high school. She is still trying figuring out what she wants in her life and doesn’t feel like she fits into her Cuban-American identity. Victoria is constantly living in her own head and she is constantly daydreaming about the kind of life or the kind of girl she wants to be. When get gets the opportunity to be in a rock band, she gets caught up in a love triangle with two bandmates Levi and Strand! This is a love triangle that is done so perfectly because it mounts the tension, the conflict, and the palpable chemistry between the characters. This own voices underrated book is a story chockful of indie rock with all the teen angst, growing pains you can ever ask for, and it deserves some love!

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy and Roger travel cross-country from California to Stanwich, Connecticut and they go through an emotional journey that brings them closer together and makes them realize that love and life is a detour. This is the kind of book where you feel like your on a road trip with Amy and Roger and it’s the kind of road trip that you never want to end.

Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour is one of the most EPIC musically-inspired romances I have ever read! Matson has a gift when it comes to crafting the most incredible playlists and I consider her my mixtape soul sister. The romance behind Amy and Roger’s romance blooms through their intricately crafted road trip playlists. There are songs in the book that introduced me to new artists such as Wilco’s “California Stars” and it’s the one song that repeatedly plays in my head.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & the Six is the story of an up-and-coming 1970s rock band who became famous when the singer Daisy Jones joins the rock band and ultimately makes rock history. The story chronicles the journey of the band from their beginnings, their rise to fame, and the tumultuous relationships that were made throughout the years that the band was together. Daisy Jones & the Six is written in an oral history format and it tells the story of an iconic 1970s band and the reason for their mysterious breakup.

My heart would not be able to handle not including one of my favorite books of the year! The romances that develop between the characters are written in such a realistic fashion that it seems like they are real people you can look up on google. The music that is inspired by this book is classic 1970s rock and the music throughout this book captures the tortured romance between the characters of Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne. There is such an unreal passion that sparks between Daisy and Billy and it speaks through their song lyrics. The romance between Daisy Jones and Billy is the kind of romance you will continue to ship long after it is over and it will leave you with one of the biggest book hangovers of your life!

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Filed Under: YA Book Lists Tagged: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, Daisy Jones & The Six, Mixtape Kind of Love, Musically Inspired Romance Books, The Victoria in my Head

Roomies by Christina Lauren

April 12, 2019

Roomies by Christina LaurenRoomies by Christina Lauren
Published by Gallery Books on December 5, 2017
Genres: contemporary, New Adult
Pages: 368
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Barnes & Noble, Buy on Books & Books
Goodreads
four-stars

From subway to Broadway to happily ever after. Modern love in all its thrill, hilarity, and uncertainty has never been so compulsively readable as in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s romantic novel.

Marriages of convenience are so...inconvenient.

For months Holland Bakker has invented excuses to descend into the subway station near her apartment, drawn to the captivating music performed by her street musician crush. Lacking the nerve to actually talk to the gorgeous stranger, fate steps in one night in the form of a drunken attacker. Calvin Mcloughlin rescues her, but quickly disappears when the police start asking questions.

Using the only resource she has to pay the brilliant musician back, Holland gets Calvin an audition with her uncle, Broadway’s hottest musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until his reason for disappearing earlier becomes clear: he’s in the country illegally, his student visa having expired years ago.

Seeing that her uncle needs Calvin as much as Calvin needs him, a wild idea takes hold of her. Impulsively, she marries the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves and Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway—in the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting—will Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?

Bookish Thoughts

There is nothing that tugs my heartstrings more than a meet-cute! All the teen shows I consumed made me desperate to recreate my own meet-cute since the fifth grade. I remember distinctly walking around school with my Beverly Hills 90210 bookbag, strategically dropping all my books in front of my biggest crush and watching him walk right past me while I sadly picked up all the books myself.

Once Upon a Time…

Roomies is one of my favorite meet-cutes because I love romances that have that infatuated love at first sight feeling. Holland Bakker falls in love with Calvin from afar while watching him play guitar in a New York subway. She has admired the guitar-playing Calvin McLoughlin for months until they literally collide in a New York City subway. Holland has always been a girl that never takes chances until she spontaneously marries the swoon-worthy Calvin to save him from deportation and giving him the opportunity of a lifetime to play music for Broadway.

Pixie Pop Culture…

While You Were Sleeping is the movie that cemented my obsession with the falling in love from a person from afar trope! Even though, this movie has quite a twist it has all the swooniness, sexiness, quirkiness, and cuteness you can ever ask for!

via GIPHY

Good vs. Evil…

Holland Bakker’s supposed best friend Lulu would play an evil role in this story. Lulu is someone that is completely unsupportive of Holland, manipulative, holds her back, and is completely selfish. She is the kind of best friend that says she wants you to be happy but then tries to sabotage you at the same time. 

Luckily good wins in this novel! Holland Bakker is someone that commits an incredible act of kindness by helping Calvin McLoughlin with his immigration papers and marrying him which results in him continuing to inspire people with his music and achieving his dreams. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that he is heart-stoppingly hot!   

Happily Ever After…

Falling in love with a person before you met them is one of the other tropes I live for. There is nothing like falling in love with someone before even meeting them because it’s very rare we come across people that make us feel this way in our lifetime. The chemistry between Holland and Calvin was undeniable and it was the kind of romance that kept us asking for more. There were certain parts of the book that was a complete tease and some steamy scenes that made me feel like I needed to puff on a cigarette if you know what I mean! Unfortunately, I did have to bump this book from five stars to four stars because the middle end of the book got incredibly dramatic when I wasn’t prepared for it and because of it the pacing was a bit off. Even though, I had some issues with the pacing this book was still unputdownable! This is the perfect HEA for me because the girl finally gets the guy she always wanted! 

four-stars

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Filed Under: Catfairy Categories<3, Review by Title Tagged: Fluffy and Sexy Romance, Girl Gets the Guy, Hot Irishman Musician, Love From Afar Trope, New York Subway Love, Swoony Musician from Afar

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