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Audience: Young Adult Genre: Fantasy Overall Content Rating: Clean Content Warnings Overall Review I am so excited to really dive into this book review for you guys. This one could potentially be a little awkward to write, seeing as though Isabella is a friend of mine, but I'm hopeful that this will turn out well. My goal is to be true and honest with myself about how I feel that it was written, but also be understanding of the book and its goals. Knowing Isabella, I knew that this book was going to be quite clean, so what I was looking for was primarily craft things, so let's get into it! Overall, there were a lot of parts of this that seemed really cliche to me, and I want to explain that a bit here. The premise of this story is the Princess of the Night Kingdom (Isadora) is pushed into an arranged marriage (by her father) with the Prince of the Day Kingdom (Drykan; who was pushed into it by his mother). While neither prince nor princess were pleased by this, Isadora has more of an issue with it because she's in love with someone else. The question is: Is there a way to escape? Will her title save her, or will it only doom her in the end? One thing that I noticed is that the premise itself influenced a lot of the story, and since part of it was cliche, it ended up impacting a lot of what happened in the story. I know I personally have read a lot of stories about two kingdoms coming together by way of an arranged marriage and that in itself has turned into a cliche for me depending on how they're brought forth. In the case of this book, it reminded me of a bunch of different mildly trite tropes and almost made me think that they were smashed together to create a story. Which isn't bad in it of itself, but it can often leave the reader feeling like they've read this before. The love triangle was perhaps the most overused part, but the abusive father aspect was also not entirely handled as I would've liked. However, the push-pull between characters was okay. All throughout the story, we see Princess Isadora and Prince Drykan really interacting in positive and negative ways. It's interesting to see and question how much Drykan truly cares for Isadora, especially since she was so cruel to him in the beginning. From the first few chapters, we can tell that he likes her, if not loves her, at least as a friend. But after that, it gets complicated with the addition of Lucien, the love interest. It adds a love triangle, which personally I'm not a fan of, but it makes it really hard to connect with Isadora because we aren't really allowed to see inside of her head and see her motivations behind loving them both as much as I would've liked. The characters themselves were fairly flat, which disappointed me a bit. There are a few moments in the story where they almost spring off the page and shine, but then there are others where it's positively dull. That said, we had a full array of characters. There were characters to love, characters to hate, characters to feel bad for, characters that maybe got more than they deserved in the end... there are so many that I could talk about and I don't have space for them all, but some of them are on their way to becoming incredible characters (my fave was Acacia, for those of you who are interested in reading this/have read this). Overall, I just couldn't connect and couldn't understand the motivations of each character. There were a lot of moments where it felt like they were responding out of proportion with the actual action (Isadora was the most guilty of this), and that made it really hard to enjoy and be understanding of them. Moving off of the character topic, I want to talk about the sensory details a bit. I would've loved to truly experience the subtle changes between kingdoms more, other than the clear attention to color and light brightness differences. A scene where we felt immersed in the sensory field of what was happening would've been incredible and I know Isabella is capable of it. I will say that this book was written from a Christian point of view, so there are multiple mentions of God and a few instances of prayer and mentioning their favorite books of the Bible. I'm not sure it was really focused on as much as it could've been and it wasn't incorporated into the characters' lives in the way that they were living it, so it seemed very surface-level, but that's just my view of it. I'd love to know if someone else thinks otherwise! Ultimately, I wasn't a huge fan of this book, as much as I wanted to be, but my faith in Isabella as an author isn't lost by any means. She had some great elements in this book and it's still fully capable of being enjoyed, as long as you're not as nitpicky as I was. This book is totally clean, so I did enjoy that aspect, but there's a lot to be desired with this one. But that said, it was pretty good! Hope this helps! (P.S. If you read this book, please keep in mind that it's not a standalone. I read it thinking it was and was muffled screaming at the end, so... there you go)

Audience: Young Adult Genre: Psychological Thriller/Horror Overall Content Rating: Somewhat Unclean Content Warnings Overall Review This heartbreaking story is a complicated look at pain and death. The romance is sweet, but the book is definitely an acquired taste, mainly one for people who don't mind death or their books being dark. The imagery is harsh, dark, and strong, but very impressively written. The book has a very sad and overall unsatisfactory ending, at least in my opinion, but that's based on my preference for books with endings that are happy and wrap up the story. There is a second book that I have not read, so it might have a happier more cohesive ending. Some parts of this book overall are hard to understand, which makes it harder to be immersed in the world portrayed by Lockhart. How the book is worded is sometimes confusing (in my opinion), and though I admire her writing and aiming for a big twist at the end, the actual pacing of the story seems lopsided. In the beginning, it's slow, but by the end, it's quick and rushed. I would recommend this book to some, but not to others. I would not recommend it for sensitive people. This book handled the things that were unclean pretty poorly, especially the drinking and profane language. The mentions of explicit romance scenes seem to be thrown into the book just because the author could. Overall, it was an okay book, but not one I would read again.

Audience: Young Adult Genre: Coming-of-Age/Contemporary Fiction/Romance Overall Content Rating: Somewhat Unclean Content Warnings Overall Review This is one book that I heard a lot about from a lot of people. They've said it was great, said it was terrible, and honestly, I'm not sure it was either. It was just kinda... meh. At the beginning, it was a little bit hard for me to get into, and by the end, I wasn't entirely appreciative of the kinds of things the characters did. I think the plot overall was a little bit... underwhelming. It was primarily about how everything came down to one summer, the first summer Isabel "Belly" was "pretty" in anyone's eyes. Not that she never was pretty, but that now she's drop-dead gorgeous in a more noticeable, almost sensual way. It brings up her body a lot when it talks about beauty, but I know there's a lot about her attitude that was not pretty in the slightest. She honestly wasn't really appealing to me as a main character, mainly because she was very into backtalking, whining, tattling, throwing fits, etc. And while some of it was more minor, everything she did seemed very dramatized and it honestly just seemed ridiculous. It also seemed very... corny. I'm not even sure if this one is a good or bad thing. Basically, the mom and the kids are "best friends" (at least the moms are; saying the kids are may be pushing it a little. That said, they're pretty close seeming most of the time.) and there's a whole dynamic with that. It's hard to summarize in a short paragraph because as with most relationships, there's a lot of pushing and pulling and fights and whatnot, but this seemed to just be a little cliche. Like of course everyone's friends, of course there's tension, let's add an overprotective brother dynamic in, too. Actually, let's make the friends overprotective brother figures too. It just seemed a little ridiculous. Also... CAN BELLY NOT JUST LEAVE IT AT ROMANCING ONE BOY??? Why does she need to have all three at the same time?? Like I'm not sure what the definition of cheating is and I guess if you're not officially dating it's not cheating yet but like... can we not have this content in there? That's just a little aversive. I was honestly disgusted by how casually she took these relationships, how she played up how old she was to get with the boys, and ultimately how she went with society and what it seemed to say she should do. Overall, I really don't get the hype about this book. It sounded great on the surface, but the more I read, the more I disliked it. If you want to talk about it more, feel free to comment below but I really don't think this book lived up to the hype.

Audience: Young Adult Genre: Steampunk/Gothic Fiction, Spy Fiction, Overall Content Rating: Clean Content Warnings Overall Review My marking this book as "clean" is entirely my own opinion. While there are some slightly suggestive/crude bits, it's only crude or suggestive if you understand what words they're using, and even then, it's so minor and so barely noticeable in the grand scheme of the whole book that it would make it onto my clean book list for sure. However, I do understand that some people would see this book as somewhat unclean due to these things, so I did mention them in the content warnings section just so some warning is available. Can I just say, though... I adore this book. I've read it once before and I picked it up again knowing that it was going to have minimal content warnings and sure enough, I remembered correctly on that end. What I didn't remember quite correctly though was just how much I loved it before. Reading it again made me realize that I'm probably downplaying how much I loved the gothic/steampunk theme that encompasses the whole book. The mystery of who is hiding what secrets and what every name means. There are groups of people called Flywaymen and Picklemen and all these other things that these teenage girls are learning to fight as they also learn to be "intelligencers" at an all-girls finishing school—in the air, no less! This book includes vampire and werewolf characters, along with mentions of petticoats and layered dresses galore. It's set in a more Victorian era, hence the gothic tone, and gives off a vibe of intrigue that you never lose even as you get through the book. As usual, there are some characters that you're bound to hate (Monique, for starters) and others that you just have to love (Soap & Vieve were my favorites), and together, they make the story a true gem. Sophronia, our narrator, is rather funny, as demonstrated by one of my favorite quotes: "I feel like a partridge wrapped in bacon, thought Sophronia." There are many of these rather interesting and faintly humorous bits scattered throughout the book like little pieces of treasure just waiting to be found. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a clean read and who likes anything steampunk, spy-fiction-esque, historical fiction (specifically Victorian era), or anything of the sort.

Audience: Young Adult Genre: Contemporary/Romance Content Rating: Somewhat Clean Overall Review The Geography of You and Me is a riveting book about life, love, and loss. It is a beautiful story about two people with completely different lives coming together on one magical (and strange) night to find that opposites really do attract. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, constantly waiting for the characters' next move. It will make your heart ache and fill you with laughter all at the same time. What I loved the most was how rich with emotion and how real the characters are in terms of their problems and the confusion as to how to deal with them. It will have you rooting for them the whole time. Besides the very minor profanity in this book, there wasn't much I didn't like about it! There were a few characters that I didn't like (which was totally planned by the author), but overall, this book was really awesome. I would totally recommend this book for people who want a clean romance but are okay with a few words here and there. Its soulful story is so heartfelt and draws you in before you know it. I love books with endings that wrap up the stories, but this book gave me something different. It's the perfect balance of closure and letting us know that this is not the end of their story—that they will have problems, but this time, they have each other.

Audience: YA/Adult Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romance Overall Content Rating: Unclean Content Warnings Overall Review One thing I noticed while reading Colleen Hoover's book, and the reviews of this book, was that her stories are highly controversial in content. Some people love her, some people hate her, and there's not much of any in-between. From the very beginning, I knew that this was going to be a book that wasn't going to be exactly "clean" but the number of things that happened throughout the course of the book shocked me. I've read other stuff of hers before and the last book certainly wasn't this graphic. This is definitely an adult book in my opinion. There were a number of things that I thought were questionable at best and others that were explained too thoroughly for me to think that the audience was younger teens. Details that I didn't want or need were given as if that would draw me into the book more rather than repel me. Even as an adult, I find myself repulsed by the number of things that were mentioned so casually in this book. Many people claimed they cried during this book, and that I understood. The push-pull feelings that Hoover writes into her story between Ledger and Kenna (the two main characters), all tied up with Diem (Kenna's daughter) made this quite a dynamic book. However, the romantic element was pervasive throughout the whole story. You're empathizing with how Kenna wants to be forgiven and have a relationship with her daughter and then she's thinking about Ledger and there's always this tension that some people would think is "hot" or "sexy" or whatever else, but honestly it's just full of lust and that's all that is. There's no suspense to the plot really. By the time you reach a quarter of the way through the book, you most likely know what's going to happen. That's not to say you necessarily stop reading, but if you thought about it, you could know what was going to be happening next. I wouldn't really recommend this book for people under the age of 18. I've heard of younger teenagers reading Hoover's books and I've read some of hers that are totally acceptable for that, but this one was just not it and I really wouldn't recommend this for anyone who wasn't looking for a smutty read. Additionally, there are a lot of moments where you have to suspend your disbelief, providing a bit of frustration because why can't it just be reasonable? Overall, there was a lot of explicit content, lots of suspension of disbelief, lust, cliche characters and plot, a few moments where I couldn't connect with the characters at all, and the ending was super rushed and like they tried to tie it up with a bow at the last minute. Like we're talking a few chapters and an epilogue after around 40 chapters of everything else. Ultimately, depending on what you're looking for in a book, I'm not sure I'd recommend this one. That said, if this book sounds right up your alley after all that I've said, go give it a shot! I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Audience: Young Adult Genre: Nonfiction Overall Content Rating: Clean Overall Review Natasha Bure's "Let's Be Real" is a book that takes on many different forms. Biography, self-help book, and encouragement manual all in one, she gives snippets of her life as well as giving her readers motivation to continue on with theirs, but not in the same way as before. In Chapter One, she establishes how to find who you are—and not just address who you think you are. From this, she builds many other ideas of what to do to really live out the book's tagline: "living life as an open and honest you." This book approaches life from a Christian point-of-view, so for those of you who aren't looking for that: beware. However, for those of you who are, I have a spectacular book for you. This book is perfect for teens and adults, but to be more specific, it's primarily for young women who are in that stage of life where they aren't sure who they are and what they want to be. Each chapter of this book includes little mini-sections that are formatted to really pop out at you. Things like quotes from the book, mini-takeaways, next steps, and more for her readers to discover, allowing them to not just follow her main words, but also get some of their own takeaways—from themselves! With many journaling prompts throughout the book, she allows you to really take her words for a ride and make new discoveries all on your own. This is one book that I honestly bought for myself when I was around thirteen and here I am, five years later and I'm only just now reading it for the first time. And do I regret getting it? Absolutely not. Do I regret not reading it sooner? One hundred percent. This book is one that has the ability to change lives for the better, and while I didn't get as much out of it as I could, a lot of that was because I was analyzing instead of engaging. My next goal is to reread this while taking notes to really take what Bure put on the table. This is another important topic that I need to address with this book: Don't read it expecting to just get something out of it regardless. While you may be able to see and understand what she's trying to tell you, you aren't going to be able to really put it to use (at least, not as well as you could) unless you follow her step-by-step as she walks you through what to focus on and what to really work on changing in your life. Overall, I think this is a great book of encouragement for Christians to be who God made them to be and ultimately, be empowered to encourage others to do the same.

Audience: Young Adult/Adult Women Genre: Nonfiction Overall Content Rating: Somewhat Clean Overall Review I'll be honest, I'm not sure I got the audience "right" on this one. And I say that because I'm not even sure if the audience is well-established in this book. One moment I think teens could read it, the next moment it starts talking about the Christian view of sex or having to "raise your babies." To put things simply, I'm confused by the point of this book. On one hand, it's meant to be an encouraging book. Written by entrepreneur Rachel Hollis, CEO of Chic Media, we have a book that is supposed to uplift you and tell you the truth about many things that are lies. But I'm not sure it does that as well as it could. Some reviewers put this really accurately when they say it was written by a "white woman" with "white woman problems." Meaning, quite simply, it's a rather entitled way of writing "you've got this." We all know there's a lot of struggle in this world, and we all appreciate books written from a Christian point of view, but I'm not sure that this book really captures what it tries to claim it's selling. I wasn't impressed like I expected to be when I saw "#1 New York Times Bestseller" on the front cover, and just because it was Christian, that didn't mean it didn't mention things like sex. And while she didn't mention it in a vulgar way... why was it dropped in there in the first place? She goes from a somewhat boring but semi-okay book to adult territory faster than I can snap and I wasn't ready for it. And looking at the table of contents, I should've seen the chapter literally titled "The Lie: I'm Bad at Sex." But truly, when she mentions post-birth bladder control, showing off her body to her first boyfriend, being his "booty call" for a while, and then adding the whole chapter on sex, it makes me stumble a little bit. While the sex chapter was something I had just honestly missed, the other stuff was just hidden in there and I didn't like it. I don't think it helped the story out in any way, I don't think it really added relatability, and yes, while it was a part of her story... I wasn't able to appreciate it the way that I wanted to, and I think this has to do with how it was conveyed. When I read Christian books, I think there will be an absence of these topics. That's not to say that Christian books don't handle these topics well, but in this case, she didn't seem to handle it with enough seriousness. All throughout the book we have mostly humor and while she can look back at her past experiences and laugh, her readers still may cringe and there are no signs of her indicating that she understood that. However, I think a lot of this was her attempted appeal to other audiences, too. She wasn't just writing this for a Christian audience but instead was also writing this for a larger religious audience that crosses what we see as boundaries. She talks about this in a positive way, but in the end, I'm not sure she managed to convey herself to any of them properly. That said, I'm a Christian. I'm not Islamic or Catholic or Buddhist or Mormon or any of the other many religions that are under the sun. All that said, despite there being a lot I didn't like about this book, there were some things I did. After each chapter, there was a set of "Things that Helped Me" that she put in there. This isn't her prescription for all your woes, but it's a step forward and I liked that she didn't force it on anyone. It wasn't some giant journaling assignment, but instead, it was another look into her life in a way that you could see might work or might not work depending on who you are and what your preferences are. Ultimately, whether or not you read this book is up to you and I'm not of the opinion that it's a bad read, it's just not a great read either. And regardless, you're totally allowed to have a different opinion. So go ahead, pick up this book, and challenge yourself to find something you liked about this book that I maybe didn't mention. I'd love to know what you come up with!