Jen Ryland Reviews

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Review: Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau

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Are you in the mood for a book that is light and fluffy as a croissant? Check out my review of Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau

Review of Kisses and Croissants

What’s Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau about?

Review of Kisses and Croissants

Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau. Published on April 6, 2021 by Delacorte.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance review copy.

I do freelance work for Underlined (part of Random House Books) who are the publishers of this title.

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Mia, an American girl attending an elite summer ballet program, has six short weeks to achieve her dreams: to snag an audition with one of the world’s best ballet companies. She’s also trying to solve a family mystery and stay one ballet step ahead of Audrey, her arch-rival in the program, a girl whose dancing is impossibly perfect. But there’s more to Paris than ballet—especially when a charming French boy, Louis, wants to be her tour guide—and the pair discover the city has more than a few mysteries and a lot of romantic detours up its sleeve.

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YA Books to Read if You Like Dark Fairy Tales

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If you like your fairy tales filled with menace and danger, definitely check out this list of YA Books to Read if You Like Dark Fairy Tales!

YA Books to Read if You Love Dark Fairy Tales

I think the Disney-fication of fairy tales has obscured the fact that many traditional fairy tales (including European tales like Grimm’s and Hans Christian Anderson’s, or Middle Eastern stories like One Thousand and One Nights) had some pretty grim and dark elements. So, if you like your fairy tales on the darker and more sinister side, what are some YA books you should read?

Here are some suggestions. Please leave your own in the comments!

YA Books for People Who Love Dark Fairy Tales

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Review of Amelia Unabridged: a Must for Book Lovers

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If you love emotional books and stories that celebrate the love of reading, be sure to check this one out. Here’s my review of Amelia Unabridged!

Review of Amelia Unabridged

What is Amelia Unabridged About?

Review of Amelia Unabridged

Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schmacher. Published on February 16, 2021 by Wednesday Books. Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Synopsis (spoilers edited out): Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. Then a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, and Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia finds an amazing surprise.

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Review of The Project by Courtney Summers

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That feeling when you’ve been a fan of an author forever and 2021 brings a new book! Check out my review of The Project by Courtney Summers

Review of the Project

What’s The Project About?

The Project by Courtney Summers. To be published on February 2, 2021 by Wednesday Books. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

Synopsis: Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it.When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her—to the point she can no longer tell what’s real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn’t know if she can afford not to.

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Review of The Project by Courtney Summers

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Review of What She Found in the Woods

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What She Found in the Woods was a genre-spanning book that took a while to get going, then had me hooked. Check out my review of What She Found in the Woods.

What She Found in the Woods by Josephine Angelini. To be published on December 1, 2020 by Sourcebooks Fire.

Synopsis: Running from a scandal at her New York private school, Magdalena heads to her family home to recover under the radar.Over-medicated and under-confident, she’s fearful she’ll never escape her past.Until she meets Bo out hiking. Wild, gorgeous and free, he makes her believe she might finally be able to move on. But when a mutilated body is discovered in the woods, Magdalena realises she can’t trust anyone.

Review of What She Found in the Woods

Have you ever completely changed your mind about a book? I was about to DNF this one. It started out as a girl who got kicked out of her private school for some undescribed scandal and heads to visit her grandparents, bottles of pills in tow. It was taking a while to get going and I wasn’t all that invested.

Then I went on Goodreads and a friend whose opinion I trust said she found the book really different … and good. So I kept reading.

What She Found in the Woods was one part Girl, Interrupted (psychiatric hospital) one part Girl on a Train (impaired and unreliable narrator) one part Deliverance (horror in the woods.) With a romance.

Magdalena (referred to in the story as both Magda and Lena) has been sent to her grandparents in the Pacific Northwest after a stint in a psychiatric hospital. She’s on multiple medications and has been writing in her journal as a way to make sense of everything that’s been happening. Slowly, we get the story of what brought her to this point.

That might actually be enough story for one book, but … there’s more. Lena starts volunteering at a women’s shelter, one where the residents are mysteriously disappearing. She also starts taking long walks in the woods, where she meets Bo, a boy who lives there with his family, completely off the grid. Is there a reason his family is hiding?

Slowly, the threads of Lena’s past and present start coming together as she tells the reader more and more about what happened to her, and becomes more and more involved with Bo and the women at the shelter.

What She Found in the Woods was much darker than the typical YA thriller, and much more complex. (I’m not surprised; Josephine Angelini has written some pretty elaborate YA fantasy with time travel and mythology and dual timelines.) I did eventually guess who was responsible for the murders, but it took me some time to figure it out.

If you are a thriller lover like I am, consider trying this – it was a wild ride and definitely unique!

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