5 YA Contemporaries You Should Be Reading // Mini Reviews!

I have read so many wonderful books lately.

I owe that all to the many book blogs I read, all of which have provided me with ample book recommendations and succeeded in burying me in my TBR. 😉 I’ll make it out someday. I think. Today I’m really excited to be doing a few mini reviews of some books I’ve been especially loving lately!

I read all of these books in the past two months or so, and they’re all books I highly recommend to you all. Oh, and a disclaimer- there will be no spoilers in any of these reviews (I try to never do spoilers, and definitely not without saying so), so feel more than welcome to read on even if you haven’t read any of these.

Let’s get right into the reviewing!

1. Girl Made of Stars, by Ashley Herring Blake

 

Page Count: 304

{Goodreads}

Rating: ★★★★★

 

You know those books that are so beautiful, so heartbreaking, so incredibly important that you don’t even know how to describe them?

Girl Made of Stars is one of those books.

It has already gotten a lot of love from book bloggers and bookstagrammers (and probably on other platforms too), but it deserves way more. GMOS explores a topic that no one wants to think about but that everyone needs to think about, and does so eloquently and in a very real manner.

It also deals with changing relationships (familial, romantic, and friendships) and the emotions and heartache associated with that. I was instantly drawn into the story and became emotionally attached right away.

I could ramble on for a lot of blog posts, but I’ll stop myself here- just know that I hold this book in the highest regard, and I really think you should read it.

2. Always Never Yours, by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka

 

Page Count: 336

{Goodreads}

Rating: ★★★★☆

 

Well, this was adorable.

Shakespeare, love, a gorgeous cover that I’m still obsessing over, and the most wonderful characters? I’m in, thank you very much. 😉

I LOVED all the Shakespeare, even though I’m not really a fan of Romeo and Juliet, it still was utterly adorable! It also had the BEST friends to lovers romance. *squeals* (Owen, one of the main characters, was completely perfect ((mostly)) and definitely has my heart. After Gansey and Harry Potter, ‘o course.)

Also, I think it’s so cool how this was written by a husband and wife duo. It was overall very well-written and kept me entertained the whole time. I would definitely call this a fluffy contemporary, but it was full of fluff of the very best sort- would highly recommend.

3. Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram

 

Page Count: 316

{Goodreads}

Rating: ★★★★★

 

This may be one of my favorite reads of 2018.

My three favorite parts about this novel (and the three things that I think made this book such an incredible reading experience for me) were Darius himself, the Persian culture, and the friendship between Darius and Sohrab.

First of all, DARIUS. Darius was so soft and cinnamon-y and he is obsessed with tea (the drinking sort) and he is very much someone I would love to be friends with. He is a very, very real character. He struggles with depression, and while I can’t speak for the depression rep in this book, I felt much more educated after reading this book from his perspective.

Next, the culture. I’ve never read a book with Persian culture, but WOW, this was amazing. The culture was described so richly, and all the food and traditions and everything- it was really amazing to read about. I felt very immersed into the story.

And finally, I adored the friendship. We need more books with just completely supportive, I-jump-you-jump-Jack, amazing, strong, friendships. The bond between Darius and Sohrab was so lovely, and it made me so happy to read about.

There were so many other great parts to this book (Darius was the best older brother, great family relationships and also some that had to be worked on, very well written) but I will stop here before I write an entire essay on the wonderful book that is Darius the Great is Not Okay.

4. When Dimple Met Rishi, by Sandhya Menon

 

Page Count: 380

{Goodreads}

Rating: ★★★★☆

 

If you ever hear a deafening shriek coming from this blog post, it’s probably me screaming over how much I loved this book.

Even though When Dimple Met Rishi only came out in 2017, I feel like I’ve had it on my TBR for at least three years. XD At any rate, I definitely feel as if I waited so long to read this, and the hype only grew and grew as I waited.

My favorite part of this book was definitely the characters. I loved the two main ones, Dimple and Rishi, for very different reasons. Dimple was amazing because she’s independent, ambitious, driven. Rishi was absolutely adorable, respectful, and romantic. I was cheering both of them on from the very beginning.

I also loved the dual perspective, because it’s always so interesting to be able to read from the point of view of two different characters. It really gave me a better insight into the story, which I loved! It was also interesting to read about the relationships both characters had with their parents, and how those relationships changed over the course of the novel.

5. How to Make a Wish, by Ashley Herring Blake

 

Page Count: 336

{Goodreads}

Rating: ★★★★☆

 

This was a book full of relationships.

You have the relationship between the main character (Grace) and her mom, the relationship between Grace and the new girl to town (Eva), and the relationship between Grace and her long-time best friend (Luca). Oh, and a lot more thrown in there.

There was a lot going on, but I felt really invested in the characters, and that is really important to me. It was definitely not fluffy, but a lot of parts gave me all the feels.

For example, the platonic love between Grace and Luca was EVERYTHING. Please, I’m 1093093028% here for all the platonic friendships that don’t turn to romance. There was also a friends to lovers romance, which I was 34830948029% here for also. 😉

Overall, super lovely book that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a great YA contemporary.

And that concludes my collection of reviews! I was really looking forward to writing this post all month, because you all know how much I love to scream talk about books I love. 😉 I hope I’ve been able to give you some recommendations!

I still have a lot of books waiting on the queue to be reviewed (I’ve read too many amazing ones lately?!), so I might have to do another post like this next month…y’all, there are too many books and not enough time. I wanted to make this post longer, but I decided against it for the sake of all of our sanities. XD

Have you read any of these books? What were your thoughts? Which do you want to read? I’d love to chat with you all in the comments.

Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash >> credits for the image I used in my featured image!