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Blog Tour + Review: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

February 10, 2021

Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard.
Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.
Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.
People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.
But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.
A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.

Review: Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

February 3, 2021

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.
Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.
Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.
Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.
When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

Review: The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

January 27, 2021

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each other, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised… and curious.
Their parents are all clear on one point—not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious—and dark—their family’s past is.
The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over—and this summer, the cousins will learn everything.

Spotlight: Caitlyn’s Most Anticipated February Releases by Black Authors

January 20, 2021

One of my favorite things about starting a new month are the new book releases. There are some truly amazing books coming out this year, my TBR seems to grow every day. As February is Black History Month, I will be prioritizing reads by Black authors. There are lots of great books by Black authors being released in February, and I thought I’d highlight 5 that I’m especially looking forward to!

Book Recs: 2021 Releases Based off of Your Favorite Schitt’s Creek Character

January 13, 2021

Just like everyone else we know, Caitlyn and I have rewatched Schitt’s Creek over quarantine (maybe even a couple times), and it’s really helped us cope during this time. In celebration of Schitt’s Creek first premiering on this day in 2015, we’ve teamed up again to bring you all a book recommendations post, based off of your favorite Schitt’s Creek character. Without further ado, here’s what 2021 release we think some of our favorite Schitt’s characters would pick up!

Review: Roman and Jewel by Dana L. Davis

January 13, 2021

If Romeo and Juliet got the Hamilton treatment…who would play the leads? This vividly funny, honest, and charming romantic novel by Dana L. Davis is the story of a girl who thinks she has what it takes…and the world thinks so, too.
Jerzie Jhames will do anything to land the lead role in Broadway’s hottest new show, Roman and Jewel, a Romeo and Juliet inspired hip-hopera featuring a diverse cast and modern twists on the play. But her hopes are crushed when she learns mega-star Cinny won the lead…and Jerzie is her understudy.
Falling for male lead Zeppelin Reid is a terrible idea–especially once Jerzie learns Cinny wants him for herself. Star-crossed love always ends badly. But when a video of Jerzie and Zepp practicing goes viral and the entire world weighs in on who should play Jewel, Jerzie learns that while the price of fame is high, friendship, family, and love are priceless.

Review: The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre

January 6, 2021

Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Nina LaCour, this #ownvoices romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley has something for everyone: backstage rendezvous, deadly props, and a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to True Love.

Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything.

What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over.

Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet and funny, and care as much about the play’s success as Mel.

Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.

Spotlight: Caitlyn’s Favorite Books of 2020

December 30, 2020

Well, everyone, we did it. We survived 2020! I am very proud of all of us. With the year coming to a close, I thought it would be nice to look back on all 147 books that I read this year (as of this post) and spotlight my favorites! Picking favorite reads is always incredibly difficult, especially this year, but I wanted to make sure that I took a moment to appreciate all of the amazing books that helped me get through this year. When I was choosing my favorite books of the year, I also wanted to make sure that I chose books that were new to me and not include rereads. That being said, here are my favorite reads of 2020.

✼: ARC
✧ Debut

I have done my best to list all trigger warnings that I can think of from my own personal notes, other reviews, and from websites like Book Trigger Warnings and Trigger Warning Database. That being said, there may be things that I have forgotten and if so I apologize! If you’ve read any of these books and notice that I’m missing some triggers, please please let me know so that I can update the trigger lists!

Review: I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

December 23, 2020

Kimi Nakamura loves a good fashion statement.
She’s obsessed with transforming everyday ephemera into Kimi Originals: bold outfits that make her and her friends feel like the Ultimate versions of themselves. But her mother disapproves, and when they get into an explosive fight, Kimi’s entire future seems on the verge of falling apart. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi’s estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life.
When she arrives in Japan, she’s met with a culture both familiar and completely foreign to her. She loses herself in the city’s outdoor markets, art installations, and cherry blossom festival – and meets Akira, a cute aspiring med student who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. And what begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies.
In I Love You So Mochi, author Sarah Kuhn has penned a delightfully sweet and irrepressibly funny novel that will make you squee at the cute, cringe at the awkward, and show that sometimes you have to lose yourself in something you love to find your Ultimate self.

Title: I Love You So Mochi
Author: Sarah Kuhn
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Rom-Com
Targeted Age Range: Young Adult
Representation: Predominantly Japanese/Japanese-American cast, Black and lesbian side character
Trigger Warnings: Family estrangement, mentions of Japanese internment camps (chapters 8 & 15), racism (chapter 12), mention of cancer (chapter 15)
Rating: ★★★★★

Spotlight: Taylor Swift Playlistathon Wrap Up

December 16, 2020

Hello, yes it is another Taylor Swift related post on teatimelit. We really do love Taylor, folks, and you know what? She has blessed us in 2020. Today I’m posting my wrap-up of the Taylor Swift Playlistathon on Twitter, hosted by the lovely Lisa (@lisamariereads), Daryan (@daryanreads), and Kasey (@kaseycanread). The read-a-thon took place from November 13th 2020-December 13th 2020, featuring prompts inspired by every song on Taylor’s eight studio albums from Debut to folklore (rip us we had no idea another album was coming).

With a total of 121 prompts, there were lots of options and I personally am the kind of person who will pick a book to read and then see if it fits one of the prompts as opposed to picking the book because of the prompt. I’m big on mood reading, so if I’m not in the mood to read the book I just won’t finish it. That being said, I completed 25 of the prompts, which is actually way more than I had anticipated reading, so I’m really happy with that!

✧: ARC
✬: An ARC but as now been released
✢: Reread

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