Top Ten Tuesday/ Names In Titles

I’m not going to beat around the bush, which fun fact I didn’t know what that saying meant until after my last English exam, which was too late, but at least I’m using it now. I know I’m cheating by not using this week’s prompt, but I don’t currently have a functioning bookish brain, so I had two options: either don’t make a post or change the prompt, and I chose to change it. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl, who has a new weekly topic.

My prompt: Names in the title.

Goodreads Blurb:

Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community – her world – is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.

Goodreads Blurb:

Yusuf Azeem has spent all his life in the small town of Frey, Texas—and nearly that long waiting for the chance to participate in the regional robotics competition, which he just knows he can win. Only this year is going to be more difficult than he thought, because this year is the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an anniversary that has everyone in his Muslim community on edge.

With “Never Forget” banners everywhere and a hostile group of townspeople protesting the new mosque, Yusuf realizes that the country’s anger from two decades ago hasn’t gone away. Can he hold onto his joy—and his friendships—in the face of heartache and prejudice?

Goodreads Blurb:

Seventh-grade Alex’s favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos of rocket launches with his Papi and spending hours on the NASA website reading about astronauts and planets. He even dreams of going to space one day himself, and knows he’ll have to study hard in order to get there.

But Alex is in his grade’s SC (self-contained) classroom, which means doing the same dull worksheets every day and reading books his sister read back in the third grade. Worst of all, being in SC means nobody thinks he’s ready to join Ms. Rosef’s mainstream science class—the class Alex knows will be the first step on his path to NASA.

When his teacher says “not yet” for the millionth time, Alex decides it’s time to make a change. Now he’s ready to try everything he can to get the people in his life—his teachers, his parents, and the kids at school—to understand that he, Alex Ramirez, is capable of the extraordinary.

Goodreads Blurb:

Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

Goodreads Blurb:

When Chloe Torres plans the perfect summer to reunite her estranged BFFs—a cross-country road trip to see their favorite boy band!—there’s only one difficulty… getting them to actually go along for the ride.

Chloe Torres’ birthday has always marked the end of summer—but as she turns eighteen and prepares to leave for her freshman year of art school, it feels like the end of more than that. It’s the end of her adolescence, which means it’s time to leave the past behind… but can she really let go of the two estranged best friends she left there?

NOPE. Chloe decides to take one more shot at healing the friend breakup she’s always regretted: planning the bucket-list trip neither girl can say no to. She’s taken care of everything: the car, the hotels, and concert tickets to see their favorite boy band’s reunion show in Las Vegas—stage seats, so close they can fangirl right in front of the boys’ faces. But first, her ex-BFFs have to say yes.

And to say yes, they’d all have to be talking… which they haven’t done since Ramona kissed Chloe, and everything imploded.

But with some clever finagling (and some undignified begging) Chloe gets them all on board. Of course, being in a car together for two weeks brings back old feelings… a lot of old feelings… and soon enough, Chloe wants Sienna, Ramona wants Chloe, and everything is on fireeeee.

Goodreads Blurb:

Dear Diary,
Leukemia’s been my life since I was eleven. Now, six years later, I want my life back. Only I’m not sure what that is. The test results came back today. 22,000. Which means I’m officially out of remission—again. I have three options:

1) Another round of chemo.
2) A super-new experimental drug.
3) Dump it all— forget the meds and treatments and enjoy the time I have left.

I think I know what I want. Then, in walks Damian, changing everything.

I mean, everything…

He’s got his own set of issues. It binds us together, you know? We understand what it’s like to lose what matters most in seconds. Still, the last thing I need is to have someone else to crush if I can’t fight hard enough. And the last thing he needs is someone else to grieve.

Never mind. I’m down to two options now.

Somehow I know that whichever one I choose, the result will be the same. With the sand in my hourglass seeping to the bottom, I hope there’s enough left to show Damian that life’s worth living.

Worth fighting for. Worth dying for.

Love Always,
Kate

Goodreads Blurb:

When nonbinary transfemme Cass Fleming created Marginal Notes—a tiny zine shop celebrating voices from the margins—they never expected to find love between the shelves. But when brooding writer Theo Griffin steps in seeking a quiet place to write, their creative connection blossoms into something deeper. As Theo struggles to express his attraction while respecting Cass’s identity, and Cass navigates the scars of a past relationship that tried to simplify who they are, they discover the most powerful stories exist in the spaces between established categories—both on the page and in the heart. Set in the vibrant literary community of Aurora Grove, this tender romance celebrates the courage it takes to be seen fully, to love authentically, and to find home in the beautiful complexity of becoming who you truly are.

Goodreads Blurb:

Sometimes, the last place you intended to go is exactly where you need to be.

When 26-year-old Daisy’s life in London comes crashing down around her, the only thing she can think of is getting away – far away. That’s how she found herself stumbling off a train in England’s picturesque Peak District – 150 miles from home, with no idea why she’d gone there and even less idea how she intended to get home.

But as Daisy explores the gorgeous village of Upper Finlay, she glimpses the possibility of a different life. The Derbyshire Dales offer up new friends, new opportunities, and a distractingly dishy object of attraction in the form of local bookstore owner Alex (and his bumbling Great Dane.) When Daisy discovers Alex’s business is in trouble she steps in to save the day.

But London’s Calling – literally. The life Daisy ran away from is calling her back. Why then, is she so reluctant to heed its call?

Daisy’s got a decision to make: Will she play it safe, and return to what she knew? Or is she brave enough to take a leap of faith and create a bold, new life for herself in the last place she’d ever expected?

Goodreads Blurb:

“What if Peter Pan was a homeless kid just trying to survive, and Wendy flew away for a really good reason?”

Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred to — the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having “one drop of Japanese blood in them” — things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys.

Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naive, eighteen-year-old Nora — the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change.

For months, they’ve lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window.

In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away.

Goodreads Blurb:

A story of the loves, danger and self-discovery of Camellia Norton, orphaned at fifteen when her mother’s body is fished from a river in rural Sussex. After discovering a cache of letters, she runs away to London where eventually she begins the long journey towards uncovering the truth about her background, and also, ultimately, about hers