Books about music usually are full of heart and soul. On the Come Up is no exception. In fact, it far surpassed more than a few of such books I’ve loved before. On that front, I actually am a bit surprised. I knew that coming from Angie Thomas, this one would be a good book. However, hip hop isn’t generally on my radar, so I did go in with slightly tempered expectations.
CHRISTMAS CAKES AND MISTLETOE NIGHTS by Carole Matthews
Technically, Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights is a sequel to Cake Shop in the Garden but it stands quite well on its own. I actually only realised that it’s a sequel due to the summarised info dump during the first couple of chapters — think throwback highlight reel at the start of new seasons of TV shows. Once that’s done and dusted, it’s back to regular writing and storytelling.
ARCHENEMIES by Marissa Meyer
ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART by Katherine Webber
MIRAGE by Somaiya Daud
For some reason, I’ve had a significant slow down with YA novels this year. I’ve just not been able to settle down and focus on reading, no matter how intriguing various books sound. Most of the time I’ve resorted to audiobooks for which I tend to pick non-fiction books. Thanks to a long haul flight though, I had no distractions to keep me from Mirage. I was happily entertained.