About Us

Alana is a marketer, young adult writer, and reader of everything.

Liss is a musician, crafter, mom, former youth pastor, and reader of everything.

We decided that typical young adult book reviews don't cut it because they miss the main point: Does it end well?

So that's why we're here.

This is us.

Follow Liss on Instagram. Follow Alana on Instagram and Twitter.

Popular posts from this blog

On the Come Up - Angie Thomas

Image
Conclusion: Worth It If you get to the end, Angie Thomas makes it worth your time in spades. But getting through this book was rough . We both felt it. Part of it was the way it picked at old sores for me—Bri's just trying to get through school okay, but she's worried about money. The rent's late. The electricity got turned off. There's no heat. They might get evicted. Her mom can't find a job. Thomas writes about this incredibly well, and if you've never experienced that kind of poverty as a child, you'll still get it. It feels like there's a vice grip around your chest. Like you can't breathe. If you've experienced some measure of childhood poverty, it'll strike much harder. So there's that. And then there's all the relationship drama. You'd think that a book about a girl wanting to be a rapper would be less intense than a book about a girl who saw her friend get killed by police, but  On the Come Up was so much mor...
Read more

Strange, The Dreamer - Laini Taylor

Image
Conclusion: It’s Good, But.... The scenery described in this book paints beautiful, contrasting pictures of a strange new world. And it does a crazy good job of telling a love story between two people who never actually meet face to face.   But..... It’s a super long book that tells half a story. It gives the impression of resolve and the glimmer of conclusions to many questions. And then the rug comes out from under you in the last pages. This book is a tragedy in the truest sense, but it lacks the hopefulness or even finality that you are given in other tragedies. And it’s a freakin long book! So in the end I was disappointed. There’s an ugliness to the tale (mass murder, rape, to name a few) that I was willing to work with because I was committed to the handful of characters I learned to love. And then it ended so hopelessly. The second book just came out, and I haven’t heard much about it yet. Based on the length of the book, however, and the preview ...
Read more

Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi

Image
Conclusion: Sorry But You Lost Me Welcome to the book that changed our rating system. Originally, this book would have fallen into "Frankly, I Didn't Care". But that didn't work because I did care. I cared a lot. Right until the halfway point. Which was so frustrating because I was so excited about reading this and absolutely loved the first part. Here's why this book isn't rated "Worth It": The first half of this book is a complete delight. Fascinating world. Great main character. Such excellent plotting . The book moves you along at a quick pace, with increasingly difficult tasks--sell a fish, save a princess, restore magic by traveling to a hidden island. I was having the time of my life! And the world she's created--stunning. From the story of how magic came to be, to the description of Zelie's town and family. I especially love that Zelie is a female character who feels rage. What a breathe of fresh air! So what went wrong? ...
Read more