Kendra's Brilligs
Kendra loves reading feel good romances (especially a sapphic romance!) and sci-fi adventures that really take you into their world. She runs the social media for the Jabberwocky so say hi sometime!
Red, White and Royal Blue is my most favorite book in the whole wide world. It follows Alex Claremont Diaz who is the son of the first female president of the United States who has had a rivalry with the Prince of England for as long as he can remember. Until they cause an international incident by both falling into the royal wedding cake. They then have to pretend to be friends to make amends to the media, the White House, and the Royal family. The more time they spend together they realize they aren't that different from each other after all and together they navigate what it means to be bisexual and gay as sons of world leaders. If you're looking for both shenanigans and something truly heartfelt or love royal romances, you need to read this book!!!!
This book follows Poppy and Alex as they reunite on one last vacation after not speaking for two years. The book goes back and forth in time between their current vacation and all of the previous vacations they took until we learn what split them apart. It is a wonderful feel good read and I would die for Poppy and Alex. I love Emily Henry's writing style and if you're looking for a heartfelt beach read (check out her other book Beach Read!), this is it!
I love love love Alice Oseman's writing so much. Alice Oseman has fundamentally changed my life. Loveless follows college freshman Georgia as she navigates her world turning upside down. She's never been in love (at least she doesn't think so) and she is trying everything to be more like her roommate who is so out there and going to parties and dates every single night. What Georgia doesn't know is that while she has only two close friends, her roommate doesn't have any close friends at all and they are all just acquaintances. Georgia reexamines her life and sees that her friendships are so deeply felt because she is asexual and doesn't have any romantic interest towards anyone (even though she wishes she did) and that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I related to Georgia so deeply that when I first read this book I read the first few chapters and then proceeded to not pick the book up for three whole months because of how real it was. But if anything I learned that you can't just avoid your problems (like me and Georgia) but that you have to face them head on even though they can be uncomfortable! Please take care reading this book, it is so wonderful, but it did make me cry several times.
Payback's a Witch follows Emmy who lives in Chicago and living out a normal life, but is summoned back home to be the arbiter of the Gauntlet ceremony that takes place in Thistle Grove every 50 years. She comes back to Thistle Grove and realizes that her ex boyfriend (Gareth) is the front runner to win the Gauntlet, like his family has done for the past 3 centuries. She teams up with Talia, who also dated Gareth, to try and hatch a plan to take him out of the competition, or at least prevent him from winning. Emmy's powers are lacking though because she's been away from Thistle Grove for 9 years now. Through working together, Emmy cannot take her mind off of Talia, even though the goal is to take down Gareth, and all I have to say without spoilers about the rest of the story is I love the bisexuals.
Cool for the Summer is named after Demi Lovato's hit song of the same name. Lara works at a bookstore, but she's been sentenced to working in the cafe and learning how to make latte art instead of where she really wants to work, recommending books and curating the graphic novels section. But she has the boy of her dreams and good friends so it's not all bad! Except when she goes back to school after the summer is over and realizes that the girl she had a fling with over the summer now goes to her school. If she finally has the boy she's had a crush on for years, why can't she stop thinking about the girl?
Imagine living in the same apartment as someone, but never meeting? That's what life is like for Tiffy and Leon. Tiffy works 9-5 so she isn't in the apartment during the day, Leon works the night shift so he isn't there at night. Sounds like the perfect arrangement for people who are short on cash living in central London. They start leaving each other notes about what day to put out the recycling and what stuff in the fridge is available to use, but then as time goes on the notes get more in depth and intimate. Leon loves writing bad jokes and talking about his brother that is wrongfully in prison and Tiffy talks a lot about her favorite tv shows and what is going on with her abusive ex boyfriend. They get to know each other so deeply without ever having met until one day Tiffy oversleeps and stumbles into Leon getting out of the shower. Oops! Happens! While this book was very funny at times, it was also really heartfelt and I loved every minute of it. Tiffy and Leon were the weirdest couple and I was obsessed with them.
Who doesn't love a good Christmas when you're Jewish? Shani doesn't. She moves to Washington D.C. for a prestigious internship with the Museum of Natural History because it is her dream to work with fossils. While down there, she ends up walking a famous D.C. weatherman's dog for one of her roommates and meets May. May hates this dog and refuses to have anything to do with Shani, until one day when she begrudgingly joins on a very snowy day. May shows Shani all of her favorite spots in D.C., and is able to share the joys of celebrating both Christmas AND Hanukkah. This enemies to lovers lesbian jewish rom-com (truly amazing I know) was nothing but wonderful holiday joy and the joys of being queer. Plus, a delightful corgi who steals the show.
Yadriel is scared that because he's trans, he won't be able to summon spirits like the rest of the brujos in his family. He goes behind his family's back, because they refused to throw him a quinces for his 15th birthday and is now 16, to try and summon his missing cousin Miguel. He ends up summoning the ghost of Julian Diaz, a spitfire and most definitely not someone Yadriel has the time to deal with. But, his family doesn't know he summoned a ghost and he's not strong enough to send him back. So it looks like he's stuck with Julian! Through this book we see Yadriel, Julian, and Maritza try and track down Miguel and learn how he went missing, and how Julian died. When Miguel doesn't show up for Dias de los Muertos, everyone knows that his spirit is being held up somewhere. Yadriel ends up becoming one of the most powerful brujos in centuries and the plot twist at the end had me on the edge of my seat. 300/10 read this book!
Have you ever gone on a Tinder date set up for you by your mom and 3 aunties and end up accidentally killing him in the process? Me neither, but Meddy has. In this both hysterical and heartfelt novel, Meddy has to decide if she wants to stay at her family's wedding planning business, or venture out on her own, but in the meantime, her and her aunties have to take care of a dead body, no big deal!
This is the only Bridgerton book I have read but I love it so so much. It's a fantastic enemies to lovers, but also it really shows just how much Anthony suffered by being the eldest child and having to take over as the head of the family. I love Kate and Anthony AND Newton, Kate's corgi. Like How to Excavate a Heart, we love books that feature dogs, especially corgis.
This book follows the Montoya family after they're invited by their matriarch, Orquídea Divina, to her funeral. When they all show up worried and confused because well, she's not dead, the events of the day are a shock to everyone. Everyone always thought Orquídea was just wonderfully weird and stubborn to the point she stayed in Ecuador when the rest of the family migrated to the United States. However, when Orquídea starts turning into a tree, Marimar realizes that Orquídea wasn't just wonderfully weird, she had magic that protected her and the Montoya family. With Orquídea no longer around for protection, the family members who left Guayaquil, Ecuador start dying off one by one. Marimar is determined to face the Living Star who she believes is after her family and with the help of her cousin Rey and her niece, Rhiannon, they track down and confront the Living Star. With a twist you won't see coming, this book takes you on an adventure through magic and what families inherit from each other, magic and otherwise. I loved the truly visual journey through Guayaquil and it was (like Orquídea) a wonderfully weird story.
Thistlefoot is a stellar trip through Jewish history and the lore surrounding Baba Yaga. It follows Bellatine and Isaac who are bequeathed a house on legs from their great grandmother the one and only Baba Yaga. They take Thistlefoot on the road to give a puppet show in attempts to escape the longshadow man who is trying to erase Thistlefoot and its legacy. I highly highly recommend this book for a powerful but also really fun read.