Tag: diverse
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F. C. Lee
Super powers, hilarity, demon spawn and Chinese mythology make The Epic Crush of Genie Lo an awesome book. Genie is busting her butt trying to get into a great college and get out of the community she lives in outside of San Francisco. Everything is going to plan until Quentin shows up and strange things start to happen, like demons arriving and the possibility of the whole city being destroyed.
Here’s the abridged version; turns out Quentin is actually the Monkey King and Genie is the Monkey King’s former all powerful weapon, the Ruyi Jingu Bang, reincarnated as a human. Of course this takes Genie some time to wrap her head around. Turns out being the Ruyi Jingu Bang also means she has awesome super powers. Since the Ruyi Jingu Bang, is incredibly powerful everyone is after Genie because they want to harness her power. Genie has no interest in belonging to someone else. Genie and Quentin begin to train together, because of those aforementioned demons. There are over 100 demons that have escaped from hell and Genie and Quentin need to take them all down to save the day. Note – that is not a simple task. While all that is going on Genie is still trying to manage her day to day life including applying for colleges, friendships, crushes and her divorced parents. She has her hands full to say the least.
Warcross by Marie Lu
Hacker and bounty hunter Emika Chen is short on cash and options. When she hacks into the world championship game of Warcross, an online game everybody plays, she can’t pass up an opportunity to grab a power up equal to her monthly rent payment. It was grand opportunity, but once she grabbed the power up the whole world, including Warcross founder Hideo Tanaka, knew she had hacked in. Instead of finding the police banging on her door the next morning, she instead has a phone call from Hideo asking her to come to Tokyo for a meeting. Turns out someone else is hacking into Warcross and Hideo needs Emika to track that person down. As part of her cover Emika is drafted on to a Warcross team, and has to dig into her team mates personal lives. As she digs Emika begins to realize that the Warcross plot goes far deeper and is more dangerous than she dreamed.
Bang
Guilt is a heavy thing. Sebastian doesn’t know if he can live with it anymore. At age four Sebastian picked up his father’s gun and accidentally shot and killed his baby sister. Sebastian and his family never fully recovered. Now as a teen Sebastian is planning out his last days. But, his plans are put on pause when new neighbors move in, including fellow teen Aneesa. Aneesa and Sebastian soon become besties, spending much of the summer launching a YouTube pizza making channel. But, Aneesa doesn’t know Sebastian dark secret and he’s afraid what will happen when she figures it out.
Tiny Pretty Things
Drama, romance, back stabbing and ballet fill the intriguing pages of Tiny Pretty Things. Told from three points of view, you see the rise of Gigi, the fall of Bette, the insight of June and all of their dirty secrets. Everyone’s hiding something. Gigi is sweet and authentic, scoring the lead role in the Nutcracker and Bette’s man. Bette will do anything to stay on top; she’s been known to end young ballerina’s careers. June is trying to earn a place in the spotlight and uncover her mother’s past. A great juicy read and guilty pleasure complete with a sequel, Shiny Broken Pieces , you can devour.
Short by Holly Goldberg Sloane
There’s one word Julia, never says out loud anymore. In fact she tries not to even think it. Short. Julia is tired of being short, called short and excluded because she’s short. While summer has just kicked off for Julia, she’s not really excited for it. She’s still mourning the loss of her beloved dog, Ramone and her best friends are both gone for the summer.
The outlook for the summer completely changes, when Julia’s mom takes her and her younger brother to try out for a production of The Wizard of Oz. Julia’s never thought of herself as an actress, singer or dancer, but all that is about to change. Even though she’s cast as a munchkin, Julia begins to see things in a new light. Julia’s new friend and munchkin co-star Olive, shows her how being an adult with dwarfism doesn’t stop her from going after her dreams. Plus the director, Shawn Barr, really sees something in Julia and assigns her a second role. Julia starts to look at herself and her abilities in a whole new way. Short is a lovely summer and realistic read with characters that can inspire anyone.