Welcome, welcome! Today we bring you something really special to this blog. With Sue, Aila, Shelly and ourselves, we made this sort-of yearbook of the Class of 2016. It's all about Young Adult books and characters today. We, the Yearbook Committee (we like to call ourselves that lmao), made superlatives and chose some books as winners and definitely chose a lot of books as runner-ups (WE COULDN'T CHOOSE, ALL OF THEM ARE FAVORITES). And while we might have chosen a winner for the categories, don't doubt that all of the runner-up books just as amazing and epic and beautiful in their own way as the winners. We recommend all of them to be honest, and we hope you guys pick them up to read and enjoy the journey they give you. 

The post and yearbook will be in images so you can click them and enlarge/see them more clearly! We made it this way so it looks more like a yearbook and (we hope it looks kinda cool at least hehe).

// most likely to be famous
Winner: Jessica Tran from Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
#2 Gigi from Shiny Broken Pieces (Tiny Pretty Things #2) by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton
#3 Charlotte Holmes from A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
// most athletic
Winner: Jasmine de los Santos from Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz
#2 Taylor from Defending Taylor by Miranda Kenneally
//
Winner: Miel and Sam from When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
#2 Denna and Mare from Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
#3 Alex and Rishi from Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
#4 Nix and Kash from The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
#5 Shazi and Khalid from The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh
// most likely to succeed
Winner: Alex dela Cruz from Prom Queen Perfect by Clarisse David
#2 Eros from Beyond the Red by Ava Jae
#3 Andrea Faraday from Perfect Liars by Kimberly Reid
#4 Autumn from This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
// most likely to be president
Winner: Adelina Amouteru from The Midnight Star (The Young Elites #3) by Marie Lu
#2 Cass Leung from The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie
#3 Royce Blakely from Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz
// best all-around
Winner: Mimosa from The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee
#2 Elias from A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2) by Sabaa Tahir
#3 Kash from The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
#4 Miel from When The Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
// most academic
Winner: Trixie and Ben from The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson
#2 Natasha from The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
#3 Alex from The Blazing Star by Imani Josey
// most artsy
Winner: Corinne and Ada from Iron Cast by Destiny Soria
#2 Amanda Hardy from If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
#3 Addison Sullivan from Everyone We've Been by Sarah Everett
// biggest trouble maker
Winner: Zoe and Digby from Trouble Makes a Comeback (Trouble #2) by Stephanie Tromly
#2 Portia from The Blazing Star by Imani Josey
#3 Mare from Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
// most likely to brighten your day
Winner: Colton from Timekeeper by Tara Sim
#2 Kara from Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember
// prom king
Winner: Magnus Damora from Crystal Storm (Falling Kingdoms #5) by Morgan Rhodes
// prom queen
Winner: Maya from The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
// class clown
Winner: Noah from Take the Key and Lock Her Up (Embassy Row #3) by Ally Carter
#2 Magiano from The Midnight Star (The Young Elites #3) by Marie Lu
// best school spirit
Winner: Jasmine de los Santos from Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz
// most sarcastic
Winner: Kamala from The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
#2 Mercy Wong from Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

Hello, lovely people! Today we bring you a very special, a very fun blog post. If you're still searching for a perfect gift for your friends, if those particular friends love books or if they don't usually read but you want to gift them something to start and you just want to find something that they would like BECAUSE YOU WANT TO SHOUT AND GET ALL EMOTIONAL WITH THEM WHEN YOU READ, well, I think this is a good place to start.

♡ The Blazing Star by Imani Josey

♡ The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

 ♡ Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

♡ The Unforgettables by G.L. Tomas

♡ When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
♡ The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
♡ The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee
♡ Noble Love by Té Russ
♡ Save The Cake by Stella Torres
♡ Settle the Score / Hustle Play by Tara Frejas
♡ Well Played by Katrina Ramos Atienza
♡ Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
♡ Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland
♡ Interim Goddess of Love by Mina V. Esguerra
♡ Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
♡ Marian by Ella Lyons
♡ Prom Queen Perfect by Clarisse David
♡ Timekeeper by Tara Sim
♡ The Reader by Traci Chee
♡ A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson

Contact: Website | Twitter

Title: Thanks a Lot, John LeClair

Series: A Companion Novel to previous book (Can be read as standalone!)

Author: Johanna Parkhurst

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Release date: December 15th, 2016

Add on Goodreads | Amazon | Harmony Ink Press

First of all, this book was really cute. It starts off really well with Emmitt and his love for hockey. He's worried because his boyfriend Dusty didn't go to his game. Emmitt is really cool and he's your typical golden boy. He wears khakis and he is one the most popular guys in school. He is the ace of his hockey team and in the novel, the team is trying to have an undefeated season ~ which is awesome tbh. 

Dusty is the cute, brother's best friend boy. He is dating Emmitt and everything seems to be going good and beautiful. What Emmitt doesn't know is that Dusty is hiding something really big, and he is not telling anyone about it. This plot is the big part of the first half of this novel. Everything follows around this big thing that Dusty is keeping hidden. 

The pace of the novel is great and there are fun things to look forward in this book. The family relationships were amazing. I really liked Dusty's family aka the coach and his brothers. Also Emmitt's family is everything; his brother is always supporting him and they have fun together. Plus the little fact that Dusty is Emmitt's brother's best friend. You get the see their first meeting through both POVs, so that's kind of cool too.

It also tackles things like how it's wrong to fetishize m/m relationships (though they don't actually do anything, just comment it's wrong), how it's weird that there is a big quantity of white players in hockey, etc. This is also a companion novel to another book Johanna wrote called Here's To You, Zeb Pike. I didn't read that one but this book, the one I did read, really talks a lot about what happened in the other one. Like scenes and things the characters did in the other book. I was confused for a bit like I didn't know anything that happened before. It is a companion novel and tbh it can be read as a standalone. But advice? You'll understand better if you read that other book before reading this one because it does have the same main characters/couple. Though it is written in Dusty's POV. 

There are various things I didn't enjoy in this book and I want to talk about them. Maybe you've seen my tweets about this but it's important to say them again. 1) It's wrong, so very wrong to out someone to another person. Even if that other person is friends with the guy being outed. You can't do that!!! without!!! consent!!! Never. I mean Emmitt forgives and forgets. But tbh it's so wrong. It's not that person's decision to tell other people about something a friend told you in secret. 2) Also wrong? Pressuring someone to tell everyone they're gay. Each person has the way they want to do this. If you pressure someone or if there is a situation where the character is being pressured to tell everyone they're gay, that's also very wrong because they're not doing it for themselves, they're doing it so the situation doesn't get out of control or they're doing it so your boyfriend doesn't guilt-trips you. 

Though overall, you will enjoy it if you love sports (there is so much of it, I'm so happy!! We actually get to see and experience with Emmitt many hockey games!!) and romance. But do take in consideration the points I made earlier if you decide to pick it up.

Johanna Parkhurst grew up on a small dairy farm in northern Vermont before relocating to the rocky mountains of Colorado. She spends her days helping teenagers learn to read and write and her evenings writing things she hopes they’ll like to read. She strives to share stories of young adults who are as determined, passionate, and complex as the ones she shares classrooms with.

Johanna holds degrees from Albertus Magnus College and Teachers College, Columbia University. She loves traveling, hiking, skiing, and yelling at the TV during football and hockey season.

Hello/good morning/good afternoon/good night, guys! Wherever you are right now, we hope you're okay, fine, having fun and reading lots of fabulous books that you'll love forever. Today is such a fun day to publish this blog post! I literally love this blog post a lot ~ I seriously am in love, I will forever remember it and I don't know how I will top this for another blog post. I couldn't have done it without Leah (@nickyoflaherty) and Mason (@AmzngBookshelf)! They are amazing and they know lots of books okay, also they are so creative and fab. This post couldn't be what it is without their help and support and their selves. I love you guys! Thank you for saying yes to this crazy idea. 

So, after all the love fest I gave in the upstairs paragraph, here comes the part of explaining what this is about. As I said this is a very special post filled with love and support for these books. Some are debuts, some are veterans, there is seriously everything here. We decided to make a sort of "guide" so you can find a 2017 book. This is for the people who want something specific, you can find it here (probably? hopefully?) You'll find a little bit of everything in this book guide! We hope this helps and we hope that you support the authors and buy their books ~ 

Note: The guide's format is in images so for better quality, click the image for you to see it larger, bigger, better! Though I will put titles and links to Goodreads below the image.
Note #2: Many books can fit in other categories. Example: Many fit in the category W ~ Books starring women! or in R ~ Representation is important! As many more for sure. 

*cover* 

*page 1*

A. Artistic Main Characters

~ You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner 

~ The Gallery of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz

~ Noteworthy by Riley Redgate 

~ Kaleidoscope Song by Fox Benwell

B. Bisexual Representation

~ Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

~ The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

~ 27 Hours by Tristina Wright

*page 2*

C. Cute YA Contemporaries

~ When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

~ I Believe in A Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

~ My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma

D. Down With The System!

~ Frostblood by Elly Blake

~ Blood Rode Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves

~ Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel José Older