Five Star Reads

My Five Star Reads Roll Call (a continuous scroll started in 2019)

Weapon: #LoveOzYA Review

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45880884. sy475 Weapon (Whisper #2) by Lynette Noni
Genre: YA, Sci-FI, #LoveOzYa
Publication: November 4th 2019
Publisher: Pantera Press
Source: Review copy from publisher – Thank You
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

The #1 bestselling WHISPER series concludes with WEAPON:

I already knew he was a psychopath. But now?
He’s more dangerous than ever.
And I have less than twenty-four hours to stop him.

After escaping Lengard and finding sanctuary with the Remnants, Alyssa Scott is desperate to save those she left behind ─ and the rest of the world ─ from the power-hungry scientist, Kendall Vanik. But secrets and lies block her at every turn, and soon Lyss is left questioning everything she has ever believed.

When long-lost memories begin to surface and the mysteries of her past continue to grow, Lyss battles to retain her hard-won control. Allies become enemies and enemies become allies, leaving her certain about only two things: when it comes to Speakers, nothing is ever as it seems… and the only person she can trust is herself.

I love Lynette Noni’s writing – That won’t come as a shock to any of you. I loved her Medoran Chronicles and I love this Whisper duology. If you’ve never dived headfirst into a world created by Ms Noni you are doing yourself a disservice.

Noni’s The Medoran Chronicles consists of six books set in a fantastical parallel world (the world building is epic) and are all about friendship and finding inner strength. The Whisper Series is also about friendship, learning how to trust others and yourself and discovering who you really are – well, who Subject 6-8-4 really is and what she’s made of.

The Medoran Chronicles is epic YA fantasy. The Whisper Series is modern day Urban YA sci-fi. Most of The Whisper Series is set in a secret underground facility, but we do get glimpse of real-world Sydney city, the city in which this secret facility lies beneath.

Whisper and Weapon follow the story of Subject 6-8-4, let’s call her Chip for the purpose of this review. We learn about Chip’s past with her and her real name isn’t revealed into really the end of book one.

In Weapon we see Chip away from the secret facility that kept her locked up and tortured her for two and a half years. We see her discover the immense power she can wield. From the start of Whisper I immediately felt drawn to Chip and was rooting for her all the way to the end of Weapon.
Weapon kicks off right where Whisper finished. If you thought Whisper was edge of your seat intense, Weapon is more so. I tore through the pages, needing to discover what happened next! Needing to know what was going to become of Chip and her friends! At one point I was so stressed I almost skipped to the end just to make sure everything was going to end up okay (see I still haven’t forgiven Noni for Niyx in the Medoran Chronicles). But I didn’t sneak a peek and rode the intense roller coaster right to the magnificent end. Thankfully I didn’t lose any favourite characters in this series and I was satisfied with their hope filled endings.

Who would like The Whisper Series: People who love stories about secrets hiding right under their noises, conspiracies and mysterious government testing, side effects causing special abilities to develop in the test subjects children, hidden facilities, power corrupted leaders, and the strength of friendship. Any #LoveOzYa aficionados and Sci-Fi lovers of all ages.

You’ve done it again Lynette Noni, five out of five stars from me for the thrilling conclusion that is Weapon, I can’t wait to see what you write next!

Check out the hashtags #whisperseries #weapon and #speakup to follow along with Pantera Press’s blog tour for Weapon, taking place between November 1 and November 15.

Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

SLAY: YA Review

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Hachette Australia, together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of SLAY by Brittney Morris. On tour, you will find Aussie bloggers, reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts on SLAY, beginning on October 28th and running until November 1st 2019. AND TODAY IS MY STOP ON THE TOUR.

SLAY by Brittney Morris
Published by Hachette Australia
ISBN 9781444951721
Published October 9th 2019
Add to Goodreads
RRP $17.99 AUD

We are different ages, genders, tribes, tongues, and traditions… But tonight we all SLAY.

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is a college student, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. By night, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game, SLAY.

No one knows Kiera is the game developer – not even her boyfriend, Malcolm. But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, the media labels it an exclusionist, racist hub for thugs.

With threats coming from both inside and outside the game, Kiera must fight to save the safe space she’s created. But can she protect SLAY without losing herself?

I loved SLAY. It is the kind of book that’s so engrossing you can’t put it down. The placing and the plot are phenomenal.

This is a book celebrating Black power and Black pride. This is a book about finding a safe space to be 100% yourself. This is a book about the good and the bad of online gaming. This is a book of a girl growing into a proud, brave and strong black women despite our modern society.

I loved the celebration of black history in this book. I loved the incite it will give non-gamers into what it feels like to immerse yourself fully into an online world. I loved being on this sometimes-nerve-racking journey with Kiera and Claire.

The POV alternates between game developer Kiera, game moderator Claire, with a few chapters sprinkled in from SLAY players. I loved the chapters from game players, but especially Jaylen’s, it really built out the whole SLAY experience. I wanted to jump into the pages and hug Jaylen, then give her a safe place to live were she could be a her and be the Queen she is in on the inside.

For three years Kiera has made and maintained a safe online space for Black gamers, but she has kept it a secret from the people in her life, each for different reasons. The secret catches up with her when everything she’s created comes under fire after a tragic event causes the mass population (white assholes) find out about the game and their exclusion. Nothing is over exaggerated in this book, as a white person I read it and thought, yep that’s how all those white males who never had to want for anything in their life would react and F*** you they deserve a safe place away from you assholes.

The dedication for this book reads “To everyone who has ever had to minimize who you are to be palatable to those who aren’t like you”. And the last line in the author’s acknowledges reads “To the Black gamers out there hungry for more heroes who look like us, I wrote this for you. #SLAY” I think these two sentences tell you all you really need to know about this fantastic read.

I say it all the time when I’m talking about queer books, everybody deserves to see themselves represented on the page, and that goes for on the screen also. I think this book perfectly gets that message across from an inside perspective. This book is never preachy, but it is real, and the message comes through loud and clear.

I loved this book and I think everybody should read it.

Side note: The whole time I was reading this book I was thinking what a fantastic movie this would make, fingers crossed it makes the jump like THUG and the world gets an equally awesome movie adaptation.

“Kings and queens, you know the drill. We are here first and foremost to celebrate Black excellence in all its forms, from all parts of the globe. We are different ages, genders, tribes, tongues, and traditions. But tonight, we are all Black. And tonight, we all SLAY.”

To follow along on the tour head on over to the AusYABloggers blog tour master post HERE, it has all the links to all the tour hosts.

Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

Small Spaces: #LoveOZYA Review

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36242050. sy475 Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
Genre: Thriller, #LoveOzYa
Publication: August 1st, 2019
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Source: Publisher – Thank You
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing.

As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?

Enter the lovely Star who read and reviewed Small Spaces on my behalf.

Small Spaces is a book that I found would stay with me for a long time after I finished reading it. If I had to do something, I found myself thinking about when I could pick it up again. I thought about it constantly, and wondered what was going to happen next in the story.

The book had me hooked from the start. I was intrigued about Sparrow and just exactly what was going on with them.

Tash Carmody, the main character, was an interesting character to read about. She has had obvious childhood trauma when she witnesses her friend Mallory Fisher be lured away by her imaginary friend, Sparrow. But surely that can’t be? An imaginary friend can’t actually lure away a little girl from a carnival. After the incident, and after Mallory is found, the Fishers move away to never be heard from again.

Tash spends years trying to get past the memory, but it all comes rushing back when the Fishers move back to town several years later.
At the same time, Tash starts seeing Sparrow again.

She’s understandably confused, and all of the old memories of Sparrow, and no one believing her that he was real, comes back to her. She has no idea what to do, or how to begin to process it, but one thing she does know is that Mallory, who is mute, is the key to finding out exactly what went on that night Mallory was abducted.

Small Spaces had me on the edge of my seat, and not only did I doubt Tash, but I doubted everyone around her.

This book was thrilling, a bit creepy, and explored having an imaginary friend in ways that I had never thought of, or experienced, before.

This was an absolutely enthralling read for me.

You can find Star at her Book Blog, Twitter and Instagram.
Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

The Man In The Water: #LoveOZYA Review

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47239279The Man in the Water by David Burton
Genre: Mystery #LoveOzYa
Publication: October 1st 2019
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Source: #AusYaBloggers Tour
– Thank You AusYaBloggers & UQP
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

On the first day of year 10, Shaun sees a dead body.

When 16-year-old Shaun discovers a dead body in the lake of a quiet mining town in outback Queensland, he immediately reports it to the police. But when he returns to the site with the constable, the body is gone.

Now his mum and the authorities question whether he saw a body at all.

Determined to show the town the truth, Shaun and his best friend, Will, open their own investigation. But what they discover is far more sinister than a mining mishap or a murder, and reveals a darkness below the surface of their small mining town.

The story kicks into action immediately with POV character Shaun finding a dead body floating in the lake. He runs (literally) to the cop shop for help, but by the time a Copper comes back with him to the lake the body is gone, and Shaun looks like a liar.

Only Shaun’s best mate Will believes him and together they mount their own investigation. The fast who-done-it pace pushes you through the story, rapidly flipping to the pages to find out the who”s, whats, whens, and hows.

After some sleuthing, interfering and putting themselves in danger the boys do ultimately catch the “bad guys”, but it doesn’t exactly go down how you think it will.

On the surface this is a fun, captivating, page-turning who-done-it mystery. But it really does highlight the darker human casually side of the mining industry, of small mining towns, of the working conditions /quality of live /mental health dangers of such a money hungry industry.

The town the year ten students Shaun and Will call home grew into existence because of and revolves around coal mining. Will’s dad was a coal miner who’s declining physical health thanks to his job’s poor conditions lead to the decline of his mental health, and later suicide. And then there is the man in the water and all the people involved in that – which for spoiler reasons I obviously won’t go into.

So while this is a fantastic who-done-it romp, with a relativity happy ending for the two boys we grow to care for, that I absolutely enjoyed reading – it does tell some hard truths – but it’s done in a way I think kids will absorb without releasing it.

This story is a must read for any and all #LoveOZYA aficionados and who-done-it mystery aficionados.

 

Follow along the rest of the #themaninthewatertour via the hashtag on IG and Twitter or head on over to the tours master post HERE for links to all the participants.
Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

My Father’s Shadow: #LoveOzYA Review

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46163179. sy475 My Father’s Shadow by Jannali Jones
Genre: Thriller, #LoveOzYa
Publication: August 1st, 2019
Publisher: Magabala Books
Source: Review copy from publisher – Thank You
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

Kaya is completing her Higher School Certificate when she is woken in the middle of the night by her mother. They are to pack immediately and go to their holiday home in the Blue Mountains. Her father is ‘not coming back’. He has been involved in a court case to give evidence against some dangerous criminals.

Months later, they are still in hiding and the mysteries are multiplying. Kaya is not sure who to trust: her mother’s new friend, the policeman or her new friend, Eric, from the local store. She is also recovering from memory loss caused by PTSD after a chilling encounter with the criminals. She is seeing a psychologist in an attempt to recall the evidence she might have to give in a forthcoming trial.

Her best friend, Jemma, has gone overseas and Kaya is trying to make sense of what is really happening. Jannali Jones has crafted a thrilling story which stays on the edge right to the end.

My Father’s Shadow is the kind of book you just can’t put down – it was so hard to rip myself a way from. The constant uneasy vibe that Jannali Jones has created with her magnificent writing propels you forward and keeps you right on the edge of your seat.

An intense prologue kicks the book off showing us the night that POV Kaya and her mother go into hiding. This is a fast pace book that doesn’t let up for the whole 217 pages, but never feels rushed. I commend Ms Jones for fitting so much story into so few pages.

Kaya suffers from memory loss caused by PTSD after an encounter with the criminals her father was trying to gather evidence on. Throughout the book she slowly gets her memories back, which we witness through flash backs, it’s a brilliant mechanism for ramping up the unease and tension – As are the two particular characters that you spend most of the book wondering; are they goodies or baddies.

The budding friendship with Eric was a lovely bit of light in the darkness that had become Kaya life and provides some balance in the story.

I would have loved an epilogue showing Kaya safe and happy, seeing what becomes of Eric and with the “bad guys” being brought to justice – but the ending does hint at this, so I’ll just happily daydream about it.

I don’t want to say too much and risk spoiling the story for others, so I will just say that – My Father’s Shadow is an outstanding #ownvoices #loveozya debut. It is nail bitingly, edge of your seat brilliant!! A must read for all #loveozya aficionados and crime/mystery/thriller buffs.

Jannali Jones Links: Twitter | Website | Magabala Books | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram

It Sounded Better in My Head: #LoveOZYA Review

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47324659. sy475 It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood
Genre: Contemporary #LoveOzYa
Publication: August 6th, 2019
Publisher: Text Publishing
Source: Review copy from publisher – Thank You
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

When her parents announce their impending separation, Natalie can’t understand why no one is fighting or at least mildly upset. And now that Zach and Lucy, her two best friends, have fallen in love, she’s feeling slightly miffed and decidedly awkward.

Where does she fit in now? And what has happened to the version of her life that played out like a TV show—with just the right amount of banter, pining and meaningful looks?

Nothing is going according to plan.

But then an unexpected romance comes along and shakes things up even further.

It Sounded Better in My Head is a tender, funny and joyful novel about longing, confusion, feeling left out and finding out what really matters.

It Sounded Better in My Head is a new #LoveOzYA Contemporary YA Romance that is adorable, entertaining, relatable and warmed my heart. And while it may be a romance, there is also a heavy focus on friendship – which is always a winner for me.

The story begins: Natalie’s parents are getting divorced, her two best friends are hooking up, she’s just finished high school – Her whole world is changing at a rapid speed and she struggling to keep up.
Cue a kiss from a cute boy, who in her mind is way out of her league, and she is foundering all over the place. Natalie has no idea what the kiss meant. We the reader know right away. But it’s fun watching all the adorable awkwardness of Natalie trying to figure it out.

18-year-old Natalie is an easily likeable protagonist. Natalie spent her early teens with serious skin problems that needed a lot of heavy medication to get under control, thanks to those years she has zero self-esteem, endless anxieties and still sees herself as “gross”.

This is a story that deals with figuring out what to do once high school is over, a story of navigating first loves and how friendships change and grow. It also deals the fallout of parental divorce. The romance is soft and beautiful, and keeps the story feeling light while some heavier things are dealt with.

It sounded better in my head is an adorkable, fast flowing, easy to read, heart-warming story that I can see myself picking up again if I’m in need of a pick me up.

Who would like it: any #LoveOZYA aficionados. Fans of Rainbow Rowell and Jenn Bennett. Lovers of soft and sweet getting-to-know-myself-while-getting-to-know-you romance.

Five out of five.

Nina Kenwood is a writer, who lives in Melbourne. She won the 2018 Text Prize for her debut young adult novel, It Sounded Better in My Head. You can find Nina via Twitter | Instagram | her Website | Goodreads | Amazon | Booktopia.

Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

Rogue: #Loveozya Review

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This fantastic #AusYABloggers and #macmillanaus tour that I’m taking part in is to celebrate the release of Rogue the second book in the Hive duology by A.J.Betts, but I read the books back to back. I finished the last page of Hive, made a fresh cup of tea and started reading Rogue, so for me it was one 618-page epic dystopian Australian story. I loved it.

Any of you #LoveOZYA aficionados out there, any of you dooms day and dystopian lovers out there, to you I say; if you haven’t already read Hive, get on it. I recommended you buy/borrow them both and read them back to back as I did.

44787359. sy475 Rogue (Hive #2) by A.J. Betts
Genre: Dystopian #LoveOzYa
Publication: June 25th 2019
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Source: Review copy provided as part of the tour – Thank you
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

There was no going back; there was no choice, anymore. I’d chosen out and this was it: hot-cold, dry-wet, bright-dark and lonely.

Hayley has gone rogue.

She’s left everything she’s ever known – her friends, her bees, her whole world – all because her curiosity was too big to fit within the walls of the underwater home she was forced to flee.

But what is this new world she’s come to? Has Hayley finally found somewhere she can belong?

Or will she have to keep running?

I think you could read Rogue as a standalone, but you’d be going in without already having established a connection with the POV character Hayley and you’d be depriving yourself of Hive.

Now for those you that have read Hive. Any questions left from Hive are answered in Rogue and it all ends well for Hayley. There are some super tense times in between and the journey is one you will be immersed in.

I am now going to attempt to sum up the duology without spoilers.

HIVE: I warmed to Hayley immediately. And I found myself caring about her from the start.

We meet Hayley living what could be described as a cultish life with a few hundred other people in a Beehive like home. A Dystopian world, without any real grasp of when or where they are existing, but they all have this extreme belief in “god”, that causes the inhabitants to never question the world in which they live. Except for Hayley. Hayley always asks questions. Along the course of the first book Hayley makes some new friends/allies who open her mind – this puts her danger… etc etc. Que dramatic ending that makes you need to move onto to Rogue straight way.

ROGUE: Their life. Their world. Their people’s history a fabricated hive of lies.

Hayley is out. Free from the Hive, but not from danger.

Hayley meets new people as she explores this whole other part to the world that she never knew existed. Some people are kind and take her in and help her, not all of them are what they seem, and some are only out to use her for their own gain.

In this book we find out when and where it is; the year 2119, Australia. A hundred years into a terrifyingly possible feeling future.

Up above the water religion has long been outlawed. And there are all sorts of rules about where people can and can’t go. Many species are extinct, including bees and cows.

We find out all about the underwater Vault that Hayley had thought was the whole world, which is located off Australia, down past Tassie, further out and very deep down. With find out why the first people hid down there, what happened to the ones that didn’t and why the one’s that did never came back up.

There are warnings and parallels to our lives now running through Rogue and I think that makes it feel all the more real when you are reading it.

But that’s okay because the ending makes you smile and your heart hum.

A.J. Betts LINKS: Goodreads | Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

The Little Wave: #LoveOZMG Review

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44282630The Little Wave by Pip Harry
Genre: Middle Grade Verse Novel
Publication: May 7th 2019
Publisher: UQP Books
Source: Review copy from publisher – Thank You
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

When a Manly school sets out to bring a country class to the city for a beach visit, three very different kids find each other and themselves.

Noah is fearless in the surf. Being at the beach makes him feel free. So where does his courage go when his best mate pushes him around?

Lottie loves collecting facts about bugs, but she wishes her dad would stop filling their lonely house with junk. She doesn’t know what to do about it.

Jack wants to be a cricket star, but first he has to get to school and look after his little sister. Especially if he wants to go on the class trip and see the ocean for the first time.

The Little Wave was is a delightful Middle Grade verse novel. The POV switches between there year five students, Noah and Lottie from the beachy inner Sydney suburb of Manly, to Jack from the beach-less more rural town of Mullin.

Three different kids dealing with different things.

Noah is being bullied by the boy who is supposed to be his best friend and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

Lottie is on the outside at school, with no friends other than the insects she spends her time studying. And for the most part Lottie feels she has no father either as he has been emotionally absent since the death of her mother.

Jack’s woes are more socioeconomic and at one point in the story he and his sister are sleeping on the floor at his aunties place.

The Little Wave deals with grief, bullying, navigating new friendships and the struggles of low-SES families. Ultimately it is a book about the healing power of friendship and even though the book deals with some heavy things, it is an immensely enjoyable read.

Pip Harry has done a remarkable job putting so much story and heart into so few words.

The Little wave is well worth the read. Regardless of your age it will leave you with a smile on your face and warmth in your heart.

Pip Harry: Goodreads | Twitter | Website | Instagram | Booktopia | Amazon

Find a Bookshop

Thanks for visiting sarahfairbairn.com 🙂
Until next time, enjoy your shelves 🙂

Lost in L.A: #LoveOzYA Review

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Lost in LA (The Bikini Collective #2) by Kate McMahon
Genre: Contemporary
Publication: February 28th 2019
Publisher: Self-Published
Source: Review copy from Author
Thank you Kate
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

Three friends discover, surfing just got serious.

Pack your bags, the Bikini Collective girls are California bound to compete in their very first overseas surfing event. The LA sun is shining, Santa Monica’s shops are bursting with bargains and the point break is pumping. It should be happy days, right? Wrong! Mel has her party pants on and is ready to ravage this Hollywood scene, but her best friend and wingwoman, Jaspa, is welded to the hip of her new boyfriend. If Jaspa wants to be the Mayor of Lame Town, Mel figures she’ll just have to find someone else to get into trouble with. Swept along by the local celebrity brat pack, Mel finds herself on a wild ride that soon lands her in deep water, and she is way out of her depth. Will Mel be kicked off the World Junior Tour already? This is an adventure to rival any rogue set, so hold your breath and dive down deep … and pray you pop back up again!

In the first book we saw the three friends – Jaspa, Mel and Carolyn – competing in Australia, while learning how to navigate staying friends and competing against each other. The second book sees the girls head to Malibu to attend their first World Junior Tour as part of the Australian team. The first book focuses more around Jaspa, her awkward adorableness and her relationship with her brother. This book was all up in Mel’s head as she learns how to tell who her real friends are and learns to appreciate the things she has in life.

Hollywood baby! Mel gets caught up in the glitz and glamour and of wanting something more. She gets herself in a sticky situation that sees her nearly lose the things/people she cares about the most.

Lost in L.A. is full of all the things I loved from the first book. Fast and furious surfing action scenes that are written so descriptively you feel like you are out on the wave. It’s full of girl power; friends sticking up for each other and woman banding together to make the sport/world better for the next generation.

Lost in L.A. is a short and sweet ride, one that could probably be read as a standalone, but then you would be depriving yourself of book one and building a deeper connection to the characters.

Who would like this book: This is a clean book with a 15 year old POV. This book is perfect for the younger YA readers, even a high-level MG reader and hey I enjoyed it as an adult. I applauded Kate for managing to create an exciting series that doesn’t use sex, violence, or OTT romance to make it captivating. So many of the YA books coming out these days feature 17/19-year-olds doing things that 13/14-years-olds just cannot relate to, this is a perfect in-between.

I sincerely look forward to the next installment of the Bikini Collective and following these girls’ journeys onwards and upwards.

Kate McMahon: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

View my review of book one HERE.

Thanks for visiting The Adventures of SacaKat.
Until next time, enjoy your shelves :-).

We Are Okay: YA Review

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43694552We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Genre: Queer YA Contemporary
Publication: March 5th 2019
Publisher: UQP
Source: Review copy from UQP – Thank You
Add to Goodreads
Rating: ✵✵✵✵✵

You go through life thinking there’s so much you need…

Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

I was a little apprehensive going into this read. I knew being a book dealing with grief that it would be a ‘sad book’ and I was afraid it might drag up somethings for me. But being that I had only heard good things about the book from trusted bookish friends, I dived in.

I found We Are Okay to be a slow burning and beautiful queer contemporary tale of a young woman drowning in, then dealing with her grief for the grandfather and life she’s lost and for the mother she never knew.

I adored the protagonist Marin and connected with her deeply.
I liked how the chapters go back and forth between the present and the past, slowly bringing the truth to light.
And I felt that the ending leaves with the reader with the knowledge that while Marin still has a lot of healing to do, she is on the mend and she will be okay.

We Are Okay is a beautiful story that will break your heart, then turn around and heal it.
We Are Okay is a story for everyone who has lost something or someone.
We Are Okay is a story for anyone who has ever ran away from pain.
We Are Okay is a for anyone who has every lost themselves and had to fight to get themselves back.

Nina LaCour’s Goodreads | Twitter | Website.

Jade and I did a little We Are Okay book chat over on the
#AusYABloggers group site, you can view it HERE.

Thanks for visiting The Adventures of SacaKat.
Until next time, enjoy your shelves :-).