Losing the Field by Abbi Glines - ADULT

Losing the Field (Field Party, #4) by Abbi Glines, 319 pages.  Simon Pulse, 2018.  $19.  

Content: Language: R (165+ swears; 108 ‘f’); Mature Content: R; Violence: PG.  

BUYING ADVISORY: ADULT 

Tallulah has been picked on her whole life because she is overweight, but the one person who has always been kind to her is Nash Lee.  The day before summer break of her junior year in high school, Tallulah overhears Nash laughing at a fat joke about Tallulah, which spurs Talluah’s weight loss over the summer.  When Tallulah returns to school skinny and attractive, nobody realizes who she is, except for Nash.  But Nash doesn’t realize that Tallulah is out for revenge.  

The over the top use of foul language makes this hard to recommend.  Usually, this series set among football players is a fun romance, but this time I had a hard time liking the characters.  I don’t think it’s a good message to lose weight for revenge or to make other people pay attention to you.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.

Sincerely by F. S. Yousaf - OPTIONAL

Sincerely by F. S. Yousaf, 160 pages. POETRY. Central Avenue Publishing, 2020. $15.

Language: PG (2 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Yousaf bears his soul in prose written for the woman he would ask to marry him. Contained within the covers of this book are several short poems about love and belonging sprinkled with sketches that are amateur but shine with sincerity.

I enjoyed these poems, but I think I liked them more because of the context Yousaf gives his readers in the long dedication at the beginning. As Yousaf expresses his love for the woman he is asking to marry him, I read them as poems about hope -- hope for the cute-and-romantic-but-also-durable kind of love that seems idealistic and impossible to find most of the time.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine - OPTIONAL

Smoke and Iron (Great Library #4) by Rachel Caine, 448 pages.  Berkley (Penguin Random House), 2018.  $18.  

Language: PG-13 (16 swears); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

The friends and rebel Scholars are continuing their rebellion against the Great Library in a quest to make knowledge and books available to all.  Jess escaped Philadelphia by passing himself off as his brother Brenden, but it leaves his friends unsure of his loyalty to their cause.  The Archivist has found a new and powerful weapon that is a formidable foe against the rebels.  Once again the rebels have to work together and believe in the greater good instead of the long followed tradition of controlled knowledge. 

This fourth book, much like the other books in the series, has a lot of action but not a lot of forward movement.  I like the characters, and care what happens in the overall sense, but at this point the story is dragging on and I wish this book had a better conclusion.  Unlike the other books in the series, each chapter is from the point of view of a different character, instead of it all being from Jess’s point of view.  The violence is fighting that is bloody.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.

Nameless Queen by Rebecca McLaughlin - ADVISABLE

Nameless Queen by Rebecca McLaughlin, 352 pages. Random House, 2020. $18.

Language: PG (15 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG-13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

As a Nameless, the most 17yo Coin can hope for is to not get caught pickpocketing today. But when the king dies and the tattoo revealing his named heir appears on her shoulder, Coin has to face a new reality: being named as heir means that she has a name and that those of higher rank just gained another reason to dislike her.

All around, McLaughlin has crafted a splendid read. I loved how there was so much adversity to overcome alongside the problems needing to be solved and how McLaughlin brought things together in the end. I loved all the different characters with their varying motivations and how they ended up helping each other. I loved the messages of social classes and the definition of family. I even loved the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, which I don’t normally read. While McLaughlin has set things up to potentially write a sequel, part of me doesn’t want any sequels because I am so content with how great Coin’s story was and how satisfied I am with the ending.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Slay by Brittney Morris - HIGH

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Slay by Brittney Morris, 321 pages. Simon Pulse, 2019. $19

Language: R (100+ swears, 5 “f”); Mature Content: PG (drinking mentioned); Violence: G (RPG game fighting)

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Kiera, 17yo, has balanced being a black girl in a white world all of her life, but for the last three years she has also been hiding her identity as the creator of SLAY, a +500,000 player MORPG based around black culture, available only by invitation. When a player is murdered IRL because of something that happened in SLAY, Kiera’s game and her identity is at risk.  And someone wants to wrest control of SLAY from her.

Morris does an excellent job of portraying the tightrope every black person walks on a daily basis, but also shows more facets of life as black, as each experience is not the same, nor each ideology. And her portrayal of life inside SLAY is masterful – I can only hope that this is a or will be a real game that someone gets to play soon.  I’d love to see the 1200+ cards she mentions. I don’t know why the cover is so pink – it should be green, as anyone will enjoy Kiera’s story.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland - HIGH

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, 480 pages. Balzer + Bray (Harper), 480 pages. $10 (paperback)

Language: R (71 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: R (many descriptive deaths)

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Jane, 17yo, is close to graduating from Miss Preston’s School of Combat.  As a negro in Post Civil War America, this is one of the few options available for black girls. Her combat training will give her a chance for a job as an Attendent – her job protecting a white girl from the zombies that have overrun their world. But Jane has a lot of suspicions about the leaders of her town, about the origin of the zombies and when she sneaks around to find answers, she is captured, handcuffed and sent off to Summerland – a white enclave meant to be a haven, guarded by more and more black lives.

Who would have thought that a historically set zombie book would be such a treat! You will have to handsell this or place it prominently in a zombie display, because the cover gives only the smallest hint at it’s zombie deliciousness. 

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS

Goodbye From Nowhere by Sara Zarr - HIGH

Goodbye From Nowhere by Sara Zarr, 384 pages. Balzer + Bray (Harper), April 2020. $19

Language: R (100+ swears, 6 “f”); Mature Content: PG-13 (affair); Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

It’s Thanksgiving and Kyle has just had a great time introducing his girlfriend to his extended family at the family homestead, Nowhere Farm. When spring break rolls around, Kyle’s dad tells him that his mom is having an affair, which sends Kyle’s world into a tailspin. He tries to act normal, but just can’t keep up the front.  As his life cracks apart, he starts seeing the bigger cracks within his extended family.

Zarr adds compelling details and complications to Kyle’s story as she twists it far away from where you thought you were going.  Kyle’s mother just flabbergasts me with her behavior and attitude. That the book focuses on a boy’s perspective is even better.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS