Well, I just finished Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, and I was expecting it to be this weird, but seeing the number of people who read and reviewed it, it will have multiple Goodreads Awards. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl, who has a new weekly topic.
October 20: Things That Make Up My Perfect Day (Share the people, places, activities, foods, circumstances, etc. that make a day perfect for you. Go into as much or as little detail as possible!). Honestly, I wouldn’t know where to start with this prompt, so instead I’m making a list I would love to re-read if I had the time.
Goodreads Blurb:
There are two things Bailey Walsh loves: Christmas and helping animals. Working for the Silver Bell Falls pet hospital should mean she’s living her dream. And she would be if it weren’t for Dr. Maguire, the pet hospital’s very own grinch, who’s acting anything but merry.
Gavin Maguire just wants to look after the animals in his care, not have to worry about putting up holiday decorations. But when you live in Silver Bell Falls the holiday season comes with high expectations—expectations he’s more than happy to ignore even if it costs him his assistant.
Just as Bailey is getting ready to leave the pet hospital without a backwards glance, she finds herself snowed in with Dr. Grinch. But somewhere between saving a litter of puppies and waiting for the storm to pass, they find more than just holiday spirit.
Goodreads Blurb:
Kai, Orla and Zak grew up together, their days spent on the patch of wilderness in between their homes, a small green space in a sprawling grey city. Music, laughter and friendship bind them together and they have big plans for their future – until Kai’s family suffers a huge loss.
Trying to cope with his own grief, as well as watching it tear his family apart, Kai is drawn into a more dangerous crowd, until his dreams for the future are a distant memory. Excluded from school and retreating from his loved ones, it seems as though his path is set, his story foretold. Orla, Zak and classmate Om are determined to help him find his way back. But are they too late?
Goodreads Blurb:
Angela Gillespie’s annual Christmas letter has always been full of her family’s triumphs.
But this year she surprises everyone, including herself – because she tells the truth . . .
Angela’s husband is in the throes of a mid-life crisis. Her daughters are more out of control than ever. And her youngest child spends all of his time talking to an imaginary friend.
And as the repercussions of her ruthlessly honest letter begin to pile up, a shocking event takes Angela from her family, and she realises that perhaps she should have been more careful of what she wished for . . .
Goodreads Blurb:
Daisy Ellery is back to doing what she does best: making pies and killing guys. And it’s about to get more dangerous than ever. Daisy knows the statistic–domestic violence perpetrated by cops is rampant. It was only a matter of time before she was called in to help. But when this request arrives in her inbox, it isn’t accompanied by the required referral and that makes Daisy nervous. Is this really a woman trapped in a violent relationship, or is it a shady cop trying to uncover Daisy’s murdery side hustle?
Daisy hesitates to accept the job–until the woman who left the request goes missing and it’s clear her boyfriend is responsible. Knowing the boyfriend’s work buddies won’t be any help with the investigation, Daisy sets out to find the woman and plans a little justice of her own. When Daisy finds evidence that the boyfriend wasn’t just a monster in private, but corrupt at work too, things get even more perilous.
Feeling guilty that she hesitated to help the woman, Daisy is determined to find her and get her justice–whatever it takes.
Twelve-year-old Mimi Laskaris is inspired by the Wijsen sisters of Bali to turn her focus from classical piano to a new forming a grassroots, kid-led movement to ban plastic bags in her new island home in Florida. Written in accessible verse, this timely story of environmental activism has extensive back matter for aspiring activists. With a foreword by Melati Wijsen, cofounder of Bye, Bye Plastic Bags.
Mimi has a plan for her seventh grade play piano in the Young Artists competition at Carnegie Hall with her best friend, Lee; enjoy a good old Massachusetts snow day or two; and work in her community garden plot with her dad. But all that changes when her family’s Greek restaurant falls on hard times.
The Laskarises’ relocation to Wilford Island, Florida, is a big key change for Mimi. Where does she fit in in this shell-covered paradise without Lee? Mimi is taken by the beauty of the island and alarmed by the plastic pollution she sees on the beaches.
Then her science teacher, Ms. Miller, shows her class a TED Talk by Melati and Isabel Wijsen. At ages twelve and ten, they lobbied to ban single-use plastic bags on their home island of Bali—and won. Their story strikes a chord for Mimi. She’s twelve.
Could a kid like her make such a big change in a place that she’s not yet sure feels like home? Can she manage to keep up with piano, her schoolwork, and activism? And does confident and flawless Carmen Alvarez-Hill really want to help her with the movement?
In this story of environmental activism, friendship, and self-discovery, Mimi figures out what’s truly important to her, and takes her place in the ranks of real-life youth activists like the Wijsen sisters, Greta Thunberg, and Isra Hirsi.
Goodreads Blurb:
Pop singer Avery Fox has become a national joke after posing scantily clad on the cover of Rolling Stone in a feather warbonnet. What was meant to be a statement of her success as a Native American singer has turned her into a social pariah and dubbed her a fake. With threats coming from every direction and her career at a standstill, she escapes to her estranged grandmother Lottie’s ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the rez is new to Avery—not only does she have to work in the blazing summer heat to earn her keep, but the man who runs Lottie’s horse ranch despises her and wants her gone.
Red Fox Ranch has been home to Lucas Iron Eyes since he was sixteen years old. He has lived by three rules to keep himself out of trouble: 1) preserve the culture, 2) respect the horses, and 3) stick to himself. When he is tasked with picking up Lottie’s granddaughter at the bus station, the last person he expected to see is the Avery Fox. Lucas can’t stand what she represents, but when he’s forced to work with her on the ranch, he can’t get her out of his sight—or his head. He reminds himself to keep to his rules, especially after he finds out the ranch is under threat of being shut down.
It’s clear Avery doesn’t belong here, but they form a tentative truce and make a Avery will help raise funds to save the ranch, and in exchange, Lucas will show her what it really means to be an Indian. It’s purely transactional, absolutely no horsing around…but where’s the fun in that?
Goodreads Blurb:
Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school transforming the lives of everyone around them in this searing and timely story.
Who are the Nowhere Girls?
They’re everygirl. But they start with just three:
Grace Salter is the new girl in town, whose family was run out of their former community after her southern Baptist preacher mom turned into a radical liberal after falling off a horse and bumping her head.
Rosina Suarez is the queer punk girl in a conservative Mexican immigrant family, who dreams of a life playing music instead of babysitting her gaggle of cousins and waitressing at her uncle’s restaurant.
Erin Delillo is obsessed with two things: marine biology and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but they aren’t enough to distract her from her suspicion that she may in fact be an android.
When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school, which includes boycotting sex of any kind with the male students.
Goodreads Blurb:
Elsie has a crush on Ada, the only person in the world who truly understands her. Unfortunately, they’ve never met in real life and Ada lives an ocean away. But Elsie has decided it’s now or never to tell Ada how she feels. That is, until her long-lost best friend Joan walks back into her life.
In a summer of repairing broken connections and building surprising new ones, Elsie realises that she isn’t nearly as alone as she thought. But now she has a choice to make…
Goodreads Blurb:
Two days. Fourteen dead. The next victim could be you.
The first bullet punches through the windshield of an SUV. A head shot. The driver’s death is instantaneous.
And it’s only the beginning.
By the time Special Agent Violet Darger arrives in Atlanta, the city teeters toward panic. The vacant streets and restaurants paint an eerie picture. No one dares to venture out.
A killer walks among them. A shadow. And the public cowers just the way he wants them to.
A sniper along I-20 kills eight and causes a 36 car pileup. Brutal. Efficient.
The next morning, the same individual stalks through a grocery store parking lot with a handgun. He takes out six innocent shoppers along with the store’s front window before fleeing without a trace.
Once more Agent Darger must identify with a murderer, must stare into the darkness to anticipate his next move. Putting herself in his head may be the only way to stop him.
The longer she takes, the higher the death toll. He will kill again and again.
But what hatred drives a man to such desperate, violent acts?
And what price must one pay to invite that chaos inside themselves?
Goodreads Blurb
Ready…
Four years ago, Sylvie Fairchild charmed the world as a contestant on the hit baking show, Operation Cake. Her ingenious, colorful creations captivated viewers and intrigued all but one of the judges, Dominic De Vere, the hottest pastry chef in London. When her glittery unicorn cake went spectacularly sideways, Dominic was quick to vote her off the show. Since then, Sylvie has managed to use her fame to help fulfill her dream of opening a bakery, Sugar Fair. The toast of Instagram, Sugar Fair has captured the attention of the Operation Cake producers…and a princess.
Set…
Dominic is His Majesty the King’s favorite baker, the go-to for sweet-toothed A-List celebrities, and a veritable British institution. He’s brilliant, talented, hard-working. And an icy, starchy grouch. Learning that the irksome Sylvie will be joining him on the Operation Cake judging panel is enough to make the famously dour baker even more grim. Her fantastical baking is only slightly more troublesome than the fact that he can’t stop thinking about her pink-streaked hair and irrepressible dimple.
Match…
When Dominic and Sylvie learn they will be fighting for the once in a lifetime opportunity to bake a cake for the upcoming wedding of Princess Rose, the flour begins to fly as they’re both determined to come out on top.
Alex