Month: January 2024

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YA Review: The Thing About Lemons

Title: The Thing About Lemons
Author: Tasha Harrison
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: The Thing About Lemons

This is a sweet YA romance, and therefore not my usual choice of reading, but it grabbed me from the start and kept the pages turning right up until the satisfying ending. It’s a perfect holiday beach read, with the power to make it feel like summer even as I was reading it in October.

Ori is looking forward to a summer of camping and festivals with her best friends from school. Her mum will be in Chicago with her new boyfriend, their flat is being rented out on Airbnb while they are both away, and everything is lined up for the perfect holiday … until Ori makes a really, really big mistake and loses most of her friends overnight. Camping is off, festivals are off, and the flat will be someone else’s home while her mother is out of the country.

Enter Ori’s grandfather Claude – a notoriously clueless womaniser who lives in France, and calls in to see her once every few years. She’s dreading spending time with him, let alone staying with him in his small French village, helping him convert an old barn into a music venue for the local community. But that’s what her mother has organised, and she has nowhere else to go.

But Claude turns out to have hidden depths, eccentric family connections, and neighbours with a student grandson who is also staying for the summer. Despite life giving her lemons, Ori decides to make metaphorical lemonade, and enjoy her enforced holiday as much as she can.

It’s a fun story, with family feuds and secrets to uncover, neighbours and extended family to meet, and an absolutely gorgeous setting. I wanted to join Ori and her grandfather as they spent their days preparing the barn for a grand opening, and their evenings swimming in the river at the edge of his property. The descriptions of the village, the great food and drink, and their progress on the barn made the story glow.

Feel-good and engaging, this book surprised and hooked me, a taste of summer between its pages.

Have you read The Thing About Lemons? Do you think Ori deserved to lose her friends after her mistake? And who had the better summer in the end? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: The Thing About Lemons cross-posted to GoodReads.

Please keep your comments YA appropriate. Be patient! We want to hear from you, but comments are moderated, and may take some time to appear.

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YA Review: Ocean Heart

Title: Ocean Heart
Author: Ally Aldridge
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Ocean Heart

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of paranormal romance or love triangles. That said, while Ocean Heart is a PNR with a love triangle, it’s also a gripping story where the rival love interests are integral to the plot. And – possibly my favourite kind of fictional relationship – there’s a lovely male/female friendship that I really wanted to survive the story!

Mariah has no idea she has powers. She’s just an ordinary teenager with a hippie single mum, and her best friend Jace living next door. True – she has an allergic reaction to seawater, and she’s not allowed to swim, but allergies aren’t uncommon. When she’s persuaded to join the swimming club at school she has to keep it from her mother, who would not approve. But Mariah feels at home in the water in a way she can’t explain, and she’s soon promoted to a place on the school team.

Meanwhile Jace is trying to spend time with his girlfriend, Kiely, but her brother Murray, star of the swim team, is always around as a chaperone. When Jace asks Mariah to distract Murray so he can finally kiss Kiely, he has no idea what the consequences will be. Powers are awakened, secrets are exposed, and Mariah has to decide whether to follow her destiny or her heart.

Mariah’s story had me turning the pages and staying up late to find out what would happen next. I loved her relationship with Jace, and their very real questioning of the way they felt about each other. Murray is an interesting but flawed character, and I was constantly dreading what he might do next. Mariah’s relationship with her mother felt natural, and her mother’s spellcasting and potion-brewing felt innocent and eccentric – at least in the beginning. No spoilers, but all the relationships evolve throughout the book, and the explosive showdown opens up intriguing possibilities for the sequel. Bring it on!

And could we just please take a moment to appreciate this book’s gorgeous cover? It’s stunning (and it would look great on your bookshelf!).

Have you read Ocean Heart? What did you think of Mariah’s story? Did you enjoy the love triangle, and do you think Mariah makes the right choice? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Ocean Heart cross-posted to GoodReads.

Please keep your comments YA appropriate. Be patient! We want to hear from you, but comments are moderated, and may take some time to appear.