Reviews written by Christina Franke, Staff

What I Liked: Tunnel Vision really excels from a plot perspective. I called an early twist, but everything else was really surprising. Adrian took a lot of chances, and she made the book a bit darker than I'd anticipated. Shit gets real for Jacob, and he has to make...

What I Liked: Unsurprisingly, Pip Bartlett’s is far removed from Stiefvater’s previous works, considering that it’s for a different age group and it’s a coauthor project. The writing style isn’t the ornate, lyrical prose that I’ve grown used to at all. The writing’s perfectly suited to the story and...

Janet Gurtler has proven to be a really steady author for me. The Truth About Us was my third of her books that I’ve read. Though I’ve only read her three most recent novels, I do really feel like her writing and characterization is just getting stronger with time. In...

After years of waiting, Shadow Scale is finally here! I adored Seraphina when I read it back in 2012, so my expectations were high. Before going into Shadow Scale, I actually reread Seraphina, because my memory is not the most reliable, and I didn’t want anything to detract from my...

Not gonna lie, I was scared of this book. I mean, everyone has been loving it and I have been known, very occasionally, to be the black sheep of my little corner of the interwebs. For the record, I hate being the black sheep. Every Breath seemed a bit suspect...

The Secret Sky isn’t a book I would ordinarily pick up. While I love diverse novels, I tend to steer clear of that little phrase “forbidden love,” which in this context likely meant “sob story.” In most cases, I like my love stories to end happily. The Secret Sky sounded...

For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions. Everyone, aka Lindsay Ribar and Dahlia Adler, told me that Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda was a Christina book. While I totally love this, it also makes me nervous. What if I let...

For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions. Dahlia Adler, Recing ball and author extraordinaire (Behind the Scenes/Last Will and Testament/Under the Lights), wins again. She told me over and over to read The Chapel Wars. I wasn’t sure, not having heard...

Emery Lord debuted incredibly strongly with Open Road Summer. Her debut proved her talent in writing character, friendship, and romance. I loved it so much that Bloomsbury actually put my blurb on the back of the ARC. (Shameless bragging I know, but it’s never happened before and I’m excited!) The...

For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions. Incarnate was interesting, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it was my thing. After The Orphan Queen, I’m very much tempted to go back and try Meadows’ debut series again, because this book was...

This is a series review. Once again, upon reread, I’m finding that this manga isn’t quite as amazing as I remembered. It’s funny how much of a difference familiarity with a genre can make, sometimes for better or worse. I loved a lot of the first manga...

Middle grade, as I keep saying, isn’t my jam most of the time. However, all of the praise made me want to check out The Imaginary, so, when the time came, I requested it, crossing my fingers I wouldn’t regret my choice. I’m so grateful that I tried The Imaginary,...

Catherynne M. Valente’s series is one I believe is destined to become a classic in years to come. The Fairyland series references beautifully the classics that came before, most notable Alice in Wonderland, but has a magic all its own. It is by turns absurd, incredibly deep, and deeply...

Not Otherwise Specified was my third Hannah Moskowitz novel, so I thought I knew what to expect. I liked the other two. Not Otherwise Specified, though, has this totally unfortunate cover compared to the others, and I don’t know. Basically, my body was not ready for the emotional impact this...

Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy remains one of my favorite books. There’s nothing like classic Shannon Hale novels, if I can call novels from the early 2000s classics. Well, they are to me, so I will. In more recent years, though, I haven’t been quite as entranced by Hale’s fiction. Despite...