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This is a really interesting novel aimed at older Middle Grade Fiction readers, as it requires a certain amount of knowledge of WWII. The novel is set in Britain in 1940 when the country was in the midst of the so-called Phony War. Unbeknownst to most British people who were still carrying on with their day-to-day lives, a team of expert mathematicians had been assembled at Bletchley Park to try and crack the Nazi’s Enigma Code. Jakob is a nineteen year old expert who has been selected to work at Bletchley as one of the code breakers, whilst his younger sister, Lizzie, has been summoned to stay with their grandmother in USA after the recent loss of their mother. The siblings’ mother had gone to Poland on a diplomatic mission and was missing, presumed dead. Lizzie, however, does not believe this, and it soon becomes apparent that she is just as clever and resourceful as her older brother. She manages to escape her chaperone and goes in search of evidence that her mother is still alive. She makes her way to Bletchley Park and together, her and Jakob become entwined in their own mystery of codes and riddles.

I will never, EVER stop raving about this book. This is one of the best, if not the best YA book that I have ever read. Jandy Nelson is a absolute genius and her writing is phenomenal. I have not stopped thinking about this book since I finished it. Oh, and the ending made me cry and that is very rare for me. I was not just crying because of how it ended, but I was sad because it was over. I don't want to give too much away because I think it's best to go into this book without knowing a lot about it, so here we go. This story revolves around the three Fall siblings who live in Northern California wine country (very East of Eden vibes). The Fall siblings live with their single mother, as their father mysteriously disappeared years ago after he seemingly rose from the dead (you must read it to find out more!!). Each sibling has a little bit of magic in their own ways, and they all stumble across a girl who seems even more magical then they are. As the siblings each become drawn to the girl, they discover more about her broken background and the broken and tragic history of the Fall family. This book has everything I want in a story: love, drama, mystery, magic, and heartbreak. These characters have left their mark on me and I can't wait to fall back into this world when I reread it in the future. This book truly made my world tip over.

I fell in love with each character as they were introduced. The author has a talent for pulling you in to the story and allowing you feel every single emotion along side Libertad and her friends and family. From first high school crushes, political turmoil all the way to unfathomable devastation; I howled with laugher, ugly cried, felt the stickiness of humidity in the air and felt butterflies in my stomach with Libertad. The story is extremely relevant to our world's current landscape and will be a resource to generations to come.

“Mister Worthington,” Leopold said evenly. “I’m of the opinion that it would be completely irresponsible of us to leave here tonight without first doing some magic.” Emmet nodded seriously. “Stupid, even.” Kaye arrived with the check. “You guys have a coupon, is that right?” If Ransom knows how to do anything it is write a fantastic modern reality bending fantasy novel series. And this novel is nothing different. We start off this novel meeting Leopold/Larry a devastatingly average person. He is having strange visions of another world that coincides with one a show called Sunderworld that is seemingly lost media. We soon find out that what Leopold is seeing may actually not just hallucinations but he is actually seeing into the magical fantasy world of sunder. With help from his best friend Emmet he starts to unravel the mystery. Miss Peregrines is one of my all time favorite series of all times so when I saw the announcement that Ransom was releasing this new series I was ready to unhinge my jaw and devour it whole. From the beginning of the novel I could tell this was gonna be a high rated read for me. Ransom just has a way to pull you into the characters story and make you invested into what is happening. This was a fast passed novel that felt high stakes and wanting to continue reading. I wanted to know where the story was heading and couldn't turn the page fast enough. He amazingly sets up for the rest of the series.

I’m not sure how to feel after reading this. I appreciate the author’s note at the end and understand what she meant to do with this story, but I’m not sure it translated that way for me. I mean this as no disrespect to the author whatsoever - these were just my opinions and thoughts whilst I read. To the Bone did display the horrifying realities of colonial life, but as for the indigenous tribes side of the story and effectively communicating the brutality indigenous people faced from colonizers — it was really lacking for me and may have even created the opposite result. Since our protagonist is an indentured servant girl, we barely hear/learn of the trading between tribes and colonizers, and we also don’t hear much (we do hear some in the beginning but it fades out pretty quickly) of how the colonizers attacked and brutalized the natives. Most of the scenes with indigenous folks are of the tribes committing violence toward the forts and killing what readers are led to believe are “innocent” people. We only get two short scenes of a positive interaction between Ellis and a native woman. In the author’s note, she writes that we should not vilify the indigenous people for defending themselves and their land and their resources; however, her novel does not really make an effort to humanize the indigenous people and almost *does* invite readers to blame them as equally as the colonizers for the violence and brutality.

I had so much fun with this novel. It was action-packed and had a great, fast-paced plot.

This is a beautiful story that is weaved together throughout different timelines. I loved it so much. Five stars.

Very wholesome and heartwarming tale of love.

Very well executed.

The Name Drop is about two Korean teens who travel to New York for a summer internship, but soon find out that their positions have been switched because they both have the same Korean name. They make a deal: Elijah Ri, the CEO's son decides to stay in Jessica Lee's role as a regular intern in order to be free from his father's expectations and see what the other side lives like. Meanwhile, as the executive intern, Jessica has access to lots of opportunities she wouldn't have had before and realizes that this may be her way to a good scholarship and a better life. This book just fell flat. It wasn't well-researched or developed. Jessica's college situation was incredibly unrealistic and wasn't logical. The internship shouldn't have been her last resort for a recommendation. The author kept mentioning how driven and passionate Jessica was. She could have likely gotten college aid and explored other options without accidentally switching with Elijah. Speaking of Elijah, his character was such a stereotype: the spoiled, privileged rich boy who's had everything catered to him since the day he was born and only tries to change when he meets the female love interest. Besides, his behavior still stemmed from the height of privilege during the entire course of the book and didn't appear to have much, if any growth. I do truly love the cover though, and I was mildly entertained towards the end of the book.

I loved this.

Book was great, but beginning was a little slow

This was AMAZING

This book has a good premise, but the ending was extremely predictable.

One of Marie Lu's best books.

It was okay.

Thank you to Bookish First for sending me and arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was extremely excited to read Kismat Connection by Ananya Devarajan because of the intriguing synopsis and absolutely gorgeous cover. It was one of my most anticipated books of the year, but sadly it did not live up to my expectations. This is about a girl determined to prove her mother's astrological predictions wrong by dating her best friend and not falling for him. The characters were not well-developed at all and therefore difficult to connect with, leading me not to care about what happened to them. There was also ZERO chemistry between the two main characters. The romance was just clunky. It was too fast-paced in some chapters and incredibly slow in others. I found myself skimming the last 50 percent of the book or so because of my complete lack of interest in the characters and the plot.