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Society as we know it, falls into one of two very clear, divisive categories. Everyone has an opinion. Depending on where you live, that opinion borders on a political statement. It even came up at dinner with my family recently. The gossip, the fallout. Who’s lying? Who’s not? Who has something to hide? What’s he hiding? (My mother: invested. My dad: less so. My brother: OVER it, and the news cycle needs to move on. Me: Here for the…*checks notes* tea.)
You have to pick a side. You just do. So you tell me: are you sick of the British Royals? I keep thinking I should be. I should have been sick of them a year ago. But I like mess. I like big messes. I like big, arching, generation-spanning family drama that I can sink my teeth into and lose hours on Wikipedia. And this, as we all know, is a big. Damn. Mess. In the interest of being candid, I have not yet finished Spare, as much as I want to. The spoilers have been minimal, and for that I am grateful, but there’s something about Harry’s voice (the written voice, not his actual voice, which is also quite pleasant) that makes me keep reaching for the book, despite its weight, in both printed pages and consequence. It’s his candidness, I think. All of this was intended to remain behind palace walls for the rest of eternity, and now it's out, and that itself is fascinating. And here I thought the Kardashians were the most dysfunctional. I digress. Because talking about Spare is like wading into a tub of alligators, or a daycare room with a fistful of suckers you have no intention of sharing, I’d rather talk about other royal-themed books. (They’re fiction, though they may rely on reality for both reference to jewels and parts of well-trod history.) In the event that you’re not sick of the Royals, and may even be hosting a lil’ itch to spend more time in such a fanciful, stuffy, golden-plated world, I got you. THE ROYAL WE: Bex travels to Oxford for her studies. She’s from Chicago. A big ol’ Cubs fan, her dreams of seeing ‘em finally win are just as big dreams of finding herself overseas. Her family is of new money, and surprising absolutely no one, there ain’t much new money found at Oxford. In fact, most of her classmates come from very, very old money. Perhaps even from a nobler blood. Enter: Nick. He’s down to earth, and yeah, he’s got undercover bodyguards, but at university he’s so well insulated that they blend into the antique and well varnished woodwork. Nick has a little brother, a playboy, a dreamer, and a dad who’s pretty stuffy and hands-off, and a granny whose face is on printed currency. Whatever, Bex thinks. Life is short. Nick is chill. Nick is kind. Nick is easy to fall in love with. Nick is the heir to the British crown. And everything that goes with it. But the reality of dating the third in line is heavy on Bex’s head - much like a crown. Loving Nick comes with a price: relentless paps, flat-out wrong gossip, a list of ex-girlfriends that make much more sense on paper than Bex, the pressure of not ever stepping out of line, the panty hose and pumps and broaches the size of her face, the giving up of everything Bex has ever known. Bex agonizes: can she do it? Can she be herself, and be the future Queen? Of note: The Royal We was written by my two all-time favorite bloggers, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the Fug Girls, of Go Fug Yourself. They taught me that the Breton stripe has a name, a little lippy goes a long way (both on one’s lips and in sassiness) and that it’s entirely okay to still call Joshua Jackson “Pacey”. Also, they liked a tweet of mine once, and it knocked my socks right off. BUY HERE TAYLOR ERAS: Lover, Reputation + New Romantics THE HEIR AFFAIR: The sequel to The Royal We, without spoiling , picks right up in the days following the end of the first book. Family shenanigans evolve (Granny turns out to be quite the handful), secrets are uncovered, and Nick and Bex learn that there’s a timeline in place to produce yet another heir, but of course, it comes with difficulty. Bex continues to come to terms with more reality of thriving inside one of the world’s most famous institutions and businesses: what good is a family tree if the roots aren’t as tangled as the branches high above? BUY HERE TAYLOR ERAS: Folklore and Midnights AMERICAN ROYALS: The Revolutionary War happened. The colonies were freed. But rather than adopting the democracy we know today, George and Martha Washington were offered King and Queen, rather than President and First Lady. Today, the Washington family still rules America, and Princess Beatrice, a recent graduate of Kings College just down the road from the palace, finds herself preparing to become the country’s first Queen. Meanwhile, Bea’s siblings, Prince Jefferson and Princess Samantha run the royal roost, traveling, skipping class, falling in love, enjoying and questioning their lives - their freedom - as the heirs. While her siblings galavant all over, Princess Beatrice longs for freedom to marry the man she loves, who is absolutely not an option. When disaster hits the Washingtons, and America, Beatrice only then begins to appreciate what her father, the King, prepared her for. BUY HERE TAYLOR ERAS: 1989, Fearless (TV) + Long Live RED, WHITE, AND ROYAL BLUE: My favorite enemies-to-lovers novel of all time. I add Casey McQuisition’s book because it's so underground, so unheard of, so never-covered-on-TikTok, so not un-famous, so not mid-movie-filming, or special-edition-released, or so dearly beloved that it spawned many an Etsy shop with embroidered slogans from the book, that I wanted to be the first to tell you about this delightful underrated tale that no one's ever heard of. Wait, sorry? You’ve heard of it? History? Bet somebody made some. (Ifykyk.) BUY HERE TAYLOR ERAS: Midnights, Reputation, Red After Red, White, and Royal Blue exploded onto the scene - initially I couldn’t find a copy to save my life - I had a feeling a royal (sorry) onslaught of royal-themed books would come along. It happened. It wasn’t quite as intense as the vampire and supernatural teen love stories that bloomed overnight post Twilight, but take a walk through YA and some adult fiction aisles in bookstores now. If anything, Spare will rouse the royal-obsessed among us. Clearly, it sells. What’s your favorite book (fiction or not) featuring royals?
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I hate teenage heartbreak.
Hate it. So much. In reality, I get it. Everyone’s sixteen, hormones are raging, and statistically, if we all stayed with our OTPs from high school, 98% of us would be miserable. (I made up that stat, but I stand by it.) But I don’t YA read for reality. I read it for escape. To live the dream. And even more importantly, to avoid unnecessary heartache. And if teenagers do one thing reliably, it’s break their own hearts regularly. So if characters can manage to keep their hormones and their brains on (mostly) the same track, and not engage in truly Stupid Plot Anvils of Misunderstanding (trademark pending), I am intrigued. Ask my husband - my obsession with Riverdale Season 1 was…a lot. See: Betty and Jughead. In season one those two really nailed the whole Well, We’re Doing This, So Let’s Talk Through Our Shit and I ate it up. I was pregnant, calming my own erratic hormones with stories of teenage shenanigans and murder, and you know, in retrospect, it probably prepared me for motherhood on some warped level. (I jest. Kinda.) What I’m saying: inject that business into my veins because I can’t - I won’t - quit it. Consequently, I’m always on the hunt for fictional Communicating Teenagers Books. When I’m writing, I try to keep my characters talking effectively, because all I wanted when I was a teenager was to be recognized for how well I communicated and functioned within my relationships. (Spoiler, I didn’t, but I thought I did!) But well into adulthood, I continue to look for books that prove to me, if no one else, that I was that kid, that mini-adult who knew her own way around her thesaurus, as well as her heart. Here are a few of my favorite books, so far: Today, Tonight, Tomorrow, Rachel Lynn Solomon Know this: I love a Story-Within-24-Hours trope. People discover something deep within themselves, and bring it to light in less time than it takes for a day to pass? Bonus points if the bulk of the plot is overnight. AND on the last day of high school? With mortal enemies? I mean. Rowan and Neil have been at each other’s throats for all of high school, competing for Valedictorian, and just about everything else. After Neil is crowned, Rowan digs in and knows she absolutely must win Howl, a scavenger hunt dedicated to letting each senior class bid farewell to their childhood. Naturally, Neil is on her heels the entire time, and as the minutes tick by to sunrise, both Rowan and Neil begin to wonder if maybe they’ve had it wrong all along. Today, Tonight, Tomorrow is pitch perfect in terms of the main characters communicating. Even though they spend the first two thirds of the book bickering relentlessly, Rowan and Neil find their brand of bickering key to their communication style. (Sarcasm really should be declared a language.) Later, during a scene in which I will not spoil, but has stuck with me for a long time, there is very clear direction about what Rowan asks from Neil in her, uh, moment of need. And you know what - telling your partner what you need in the bedroom is crucial at every stage, and it's also incredibly impressive coming from an 18-year-old woman. TAYLOR SWIFT ERAS: Lover, with a side of 1989 BUY IT HERE Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell Woman after my own heart, Cath loves fanfiction. Every day, she has a new opportunity to not, oh, correct the source material, but fluff it up a bit. Dig in deeper on the Simon Snow world, and add meat to relationships where it's looking lean. She’s even got a LOT of followers online - while in high school, she accumulated nearly the readership of her beloved Simon Snow series…but now Cath is at college. And in real life, when she looks up from her ever-present laptop - fanfiction is pretty nerdy. (Or entirely unacceptable, according to her creative writing professor.) Also, Wren, her twin sister, is a mess. And her roommate might hate her? And her once-vanished mom is back in the picture? And there’s a boy interested in … her? Cath is a glorious writer, even though no one knows it because of her pen name. But when she’s gotta use her voice, man, that part’s killer. As the novel progresses, and we see why Cath’s twin is partying too hard, and why Cath over-corrected and shut herself in her room with Simon Snow and her fanfiction, it becomes clear why she best channels her voice through someone else’s story. The level of protection, of never having to entirely own yourself or anything you put into the world is cathartic. Dizzying. We watch Cath come into her own, and begin to not only hear her own voice, but understand the roots of what she’s capable of creating, if she simply lets herself. But also - back to the boy, and the romance hook. Levi is dreamy. He listens. He asks. What is with all of these new adults running around with confidence enough to tell their partners what they need? I am here for it. If I drug my knuckles on the sidewalk at seventeen so these girls could walk, so the next generation can run, godspeed, lovelies. You go get what you want. TAYLOR SWIFT ERAS: Fearless (TV) and Speak Now BUY IT HERE My Life Next Door, Huntley Fitzpatrick Samantha understands that the grass is always greener - particularly as she watches the Garretts next door from her bedroom window. Sure, the Garretts always let their grass get too long and trampled from the basketball team-sized family they have. With that many people coming and going every day, it's a miracle they have grass at all. And yet…Samantha cannot get enough of daydreaming she’s in their family. She’d never eat dinner alone. Yeah, the WiFi would run slower, and the water heater would probably never be as hot as prefers, but the pure silence of her house would never overwhelm her either. It helps that Jase, the boy closest to her age, is also the dreamiest. When Samantha and Jase do connect, and fall in love (hardly a spoiler, I promise), her welcoming into the family is real and warm and right. She doesn't just love Jase - she loves all of them. So when Samantha’s own mother - who by the way is running for political office - accidentally yanks the Garretts and her daughter into her a scandal big enough to swallow lives whole, Samantha has two choices: use that voice her mom gave her and ruin their lives, or keep her mother’s secret, and ruin the Garrett family. The back third of this book is addicting. I feared blinking. I drank it in like a coconut vanilla latte. I swear it swam through my veins for a few hours. I had to know how Samantha and Jase would solve this. I needed them to talk their way to their happily ever after, and I needed them to start that happily ever after before the book’s climax, because I swear - there is nothing better than a couple figuring out the family secrets together, being aghast together…and then fixing it together. That shit is balm to the part of my heart that’s still 17, and watching his red sports car swirl up orange and brown leaves in the gutters, as the taillights grow fuzzy and disappear in a veil of dust. I wasn’t disappointed. (In My Life Next Door, that is.) TAYLOR SWIFT ERAS: Red (TV), with a sprinkling of Folklore and a dab of Sweet Nothing and Lavender Haze. BUY IT HERE. In short - what's the point of writing a novel, if you're going to avoid the characters' very real need to discuss what's going on in their minds? Teenagers especially are prone to voicing their ongoing thoughts with those they trust deeply, and those people tend to be their friends and partners. The most unreliable thing I find in YA literature is when a character - a person - doesn't use their voice, and the plot keeps toiling away without them. Teenagers talk. They analyze, dive deep, look for deeper meaning in everything. Why stop them for the sake of the plot? Move the plot with the character. It'll make me happy, anyway. What do you think? Have you read any of these books? What’s your favorite YA romance? Hi! In the true tradition of very part-time blogging from just about every millennial human ever: it's been a hot minute since I hopped on here! There was a pandemic, there was life, there was a ton of excuses and blah blah whatever-blah.
Long, pointless story short: I've been up to a lot! I opened an Etsy store! I finished my second book! I started book reviewing for Net Galley! I started a new 8-5! I finally got the COVID (in June, 2022, so take that!) And now, I'm in the process of figuring out how to put this all together, under one banner. The creative writing. The copywriting. The book reviews. The Etsy. Oh, the Etsy of it all. Moving forward, you'll mostly find book reviews here, with miscellaneous announcements and blog posts from me, when things get extra interesting. In the sage words of the one and only Taylor Swift: long story short, I survived. And I'll be back again, and this time - I promise. Unpregnant, by Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan, tells the story of seventeen-year-old Veronica, who just found out she was pregnant via a test in her high school bathroom. Like, just found out. She’s still pinching the pee stick in her fingers when Bailey, her ex-best friend busts into the bathroom. Shenanigans ensue that include a flying pregnancy test, a secret kept between two girls who quit keeping each other’s secrets years ago, and the story’s off.
What attracted me to Unpregnant was the broken friendship trope. (Is it a trope? I feel like it should be, if it isn’t already. This is not to say tropes are bad. We each have our favorite. And when one is done right, its done RIGHT.) Unpregnant navigates the pitfalls and consequences of ex-best friends partnering to solve a problem, each mixing in their own motivators, to get the girls on the road by the 50 page mark. By the time they climb in Bailey’s Mom’s boyfriend’s car and set off to the clinic in Albuquerque, literally everything they leave in the dust is moot. As a reader, all I cared about was in their car. What kept me reading Unpregnant, once I was fully invested in the broken friendship, was the reality of the story, seeped in situations ranging from amusing to downright bizarre. (Example: there’s a run-in with a stripper who’s also a religious zealot. And now that I think about it, hailing from the Midwest like I do, those two things aren’t on opposite ends of the spectrum as much as I thought.) While Veronica and Bailey are on a frantic road trip to reach a clinic that can perform Veronica’s abortion, every weird thing they counter is weird, yes, but none of it distracts from the whole: Veronica is pregnant. Veronica doesn’t want to be pregnant. What can Veronica do to stop being pregnant? What I wish had been addressed explicitly within the story was Veronica’s ex- boyfriend Kevin’s actions: he poked a hole in the prophylactic without unequivocal clearance to do so from his partner. I gasped in a blind rage as I read those pages. The direct discussion of sexual assault does not come up, though I wish it did. Veronica and Bailey get revenge, yes, but the consequences should have been far more severe. While in Albuquerque, attempting to “procure a hasty abortion”, as Juno has said many, many times on my television, Veronica and Bailey separate as Bailey (a fully rounded character in her own right) had her own motivations for driving 14 hours overnight to New Mexico. Their reunion, without spoilers, is everything a reader could hope for. Just know: a friendship is restored. I was skeptical about Unpregnant pre-cracking of the spine. I was aware of HBO’s movie (of which I still have not viewed), but crazy gal pal road trips tend to veer into "Thelma and Louise" territory in a hurry and I didn’t much have desire to watch two teenagers fly off the side of a cliff. And I doubted that Kevin looked much like Brad Pitt. I need girls who are powerful and strong and sassy AF…who don’t dive into nothingness. (I haven’t watched "Thelma and Louise" since, oh, second grade. Maybe my adult eyes would see something different. I just googled the plot, and yes...I'd probably see an entirely different story. Also, let’s not talk about how I watched "Thelma and Louise" in second grade.) But I must tell you, without diving too far off the proverbial cliff into a mini-therapy session: Unpregnant hit the sweet spot for me. Yeah, the girls do dumb shit. You don’t find yourself attempting to tip a cow without wondering what in the hell you did to take you to that moment. (This South Dakota born and bred girl knows, from experience, that tipping cows is a worthless endeavor.) But Veronica and Bailey also do two huge things right: they take care of each other when it matters, and they support each other’s decisions. And in Young Adult literature? That’s insanely, crucially key for representation. +++ PS – I read on @jenniandted’s Instagram that Unpregnant was originally set in Rapid City, SD. I’m not sure which direction Jenni and Ted had the girls traveling to find a clinic, but if it was Sioux Falls, I would have met them down street, taken them cookies, and offered to let them sleep in my basement until they were ready to venture out again. Yours in pro-choice sentiments, Stephanie Post-inauguration and I’m still riding that high. I’m probably always going to ride that high. I took the morning off to watch the ceremony, and I can’t lie – when Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris walked in with Mr. Doug Emhoff I started crying immediately. Tears flew out of my eyes horizontally, I swear. My face looked like the side of a windshield when the wipers turn on and squeegeed water soars off the edge.
As our VP-Elect became our VP, my deck door was open, and it’s a miracle our neighbor Dale didn’t come running over to check on me and my howls of relief and happiness. Buddy, my beloved golden retriever, who has comforted me too many times to count, once again nestled his head in my lap and didn’t move until the sobbing stopped. (If for NO other reason than Buddy’s mental health and anxiety, can we have a calm year or ten now?) All this to say: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS for POWERFUL, DRIVEN, WOMEN. And ALL women. To that, and to honor my beloved Leslie Knope, Galentine’s Day is in a few weeks. Christmas can sometimes sneak up on me. Lord knows Valentine’s Day shocks me on the calendar every year. (Sorry, dear husband.) But Galentine’s? Nope. I am prepared. Name a thing that’s better than celebrating the women in your life who support you, drive you, inspire you, and lift you up? I’ll wait. You just made your list of who to celebrate, right? Me too. Because this is a blog about writing and celebrating the written word, and because I’m a proponent of forcing things I love on people I love (Leslie Knope resides deeply in me), I made a list of book suggestions to gift your Galentine. These are books I read this year that made me feel close to my friends, my mother, the girl I was in high school, and the kind of friend I want to be. 2020 stole a lot, between literally taking our family and friends away to making us feel distant from ourselves in our own hearts. 2021 is about reclaiming those pieces. This is my small way of helping the women I love. (Fun fact – I get no $$ from these links, but they do all link to bookstorelink.com that allows you to purchase these books from your locally-owned bookstore - or pick one and get mail from, say, Georgia.) FOR THE FRIEND WHO: LOVES HER YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY Holding Up the Universe, Jennifer Niven. On the outside, Libby and Jack are the most unlikely duo. But are they? Your Galentine will love the equal parts of romance, self-discovery, and self-acceptance. It also might mend together a crack or two in her heart. DIGS ON RELEASTIC HEARTBREAKING ADULT ROMANCE The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, Ann Packer. Carrie is already falling out of love with her college sweetheart when tragedy strikes. Packer explores how much of yourself you must give to the people you love in your search for yourself, and what that sacrifice looks like…or doesn’t. IS YOUR PRO-CHOICE BESTIE Unpregnant, Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan. A roadtrip woman-focused buddy story about getting seventeen=year old Veronica to the nearest abortion clinic three states away. Shenanigans ensue, a broken friendship hangs in the balance, and the story holds fast to the truth of the terrible decisions women are forced to make, about their bodies, but also their lives. DOWN FOR A MYSTERY AND GORGEOUS PROSE We Are Okay, Nina LaCour. This book is a devastating piece of art, best for your Galentine who loves getting her.mind.blown. It’s the story of a set of best friends, one of whom lives with her grandfather, and you think its pretty cut and dried (and gorgeously written), but then wham! Third act! I wouldn’t blame you if you read it and then gifted this one. LOVES CONTEMPORARY, ACCESSIBLE POETRY Swimming Lessons, Lili Reinhart. Reinhart looks at the exquisite and untouchable joy of falling in love, and how it all just goes to shit. She doesn’t hold back but remains clear in her prose and in her respect for herself, as well as the person she was in love with. Balancing both is a feat, and I’m here for it. PS – Reinhart is a fierce fighter for mental health and body/self image initiatives. Her star is only rising. THE PARENT WHO HATES PARENTING BOOKS This is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel. We all know (or are) that mom who’s striving to up her game and is ALSO convinced she’s not good at parenting - when you know damn well she’s the very best. Frankl’s prose is spectacular and fairy-tale-esque which is appropriate given the plot thread that pulls the entire book along as this unique family navigates the needs of their youngest kid. YEARNS FOR BEST FRIENDSHIP STORIES WITH SATISFYING ENDINGS Little Do We Know, Tamara Ireland Stone. I picked up this book because I had to do research on how a religious teen interacts with the world outside her church. I was shocked to find I loved it as much as I did. Stone interweaves two former best friends’ stories, happening concurrently, over one event, while laying the framework for why their friendship fell to pieces. By the end, I was wishing I’d written it. IS A TRUE CRIME JUNKIE Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow. Is there a more timely and relevant true crime snapshot than Farrow’s magnificent story of how he wrote his damning and industry-changing Harvey Weinstein story that finally allowed so many survivors to be heard. (warning: parts are intense and get into Weinstein’s crimes quite explicitly. Keep in mind as you think about gifting.) KNOWS HERSELF Little Weirds, Jenny Slate. Perhaps your Galentine marches to her own beat and is mostly secure about it but wouldn’t mind a little representation. Slate structured her tale in a series of short stories and vignettes of her journey to accept that of which she cannot change, and that she has no desire to tamper down her weirdness. It’s a true, deep breath of fresh air, particularly her work on the last several pages, picturing her life near death. Grounding and simultaneously uplifting. I focused this list on books that didn’t get a TON of press coverage (save for Catch and Kill because Ronan Farrow is a household name he very well should be, and this book is a must read). I sincerely hope you and your Galentine love these recommendations. What would you add to the list? I need recommendations too! Yours in words, Stephanie PS - Down for online book shopping, curb-side pick up, or responsible in-person shopping with your mask? Hit your local indie bookstore: Indie Bookstore Finder | IndieBound.org. |
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