6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe

Fanfic fans will recognize immediately by the title that Tess Sharpe got her start in fanfiction. I am actually surprised, now that I think about it, that nobody has used this trope before, because it's such a fun one.  Who doesn't love a slow burn?

This is a young adult novel about two girls whose mothers are lifelong best friends and have to move in together for the summer.  Reading the title, the premise, and the back cover I had one idea of how this novel would go, and I could not have been more wrong. Our main characters are processing serious trauma, and although of course the novel hits some familiar romance beats, it does not simplify the reality of that trauma and one conversation doesn't fix everything at the end.  (I'm particularly thinking of Penny's relationship with her mom, wow. That gave me, as the fanfic writers say, all the feels.)

This YA has some real depth to it, and the relationship of the main characters is handled beautifully and not in a contrived way at all. Tess Sharpe has serious talent and I look forward to reading more from her.

Mercury Pictures Presents (by Anthony Marra)

Really wonderfully written epic, with an amazing setting (Italy and Hollywood in the late 1930's and early 1940s) and a fabulous main character in Maria. (I also loved her love interest, Eddie Lu.)  Yet somehow it took a long time to get through it for me. 

Maybe it's just long and I'm out of practice or something. Maybe it is the narrative switching from stories I was engrossed in to other characters who I found less interesting. Maybe it is the flash-forwards that often removed some of the suspense for me, as the narrator just tells us how things will turn out from time to tie.

But I was really into it at the beginning and the end, and I love the writing, the verisimillitude, the characters, the ending, the plot. So much to love! Just maybe.... it could have been shorter.  Still, I think it's going to be a ToB contender, so I'm glad I read it.

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman (Alan Rickman)

I read an excerpt from Rickman's diaries in the Guardian and as a fan, was interested enough to read the whole thing. For some reason I got the idea beforehand that he wanted his diaries published; in fact, nobody is claiming that, exactly, but he does seem to be writing for some kind of an audience at times.

This diary is extremely long and also extremely samey - a lot of name-dropping and not a lot of details about anything. Especially disappointing when it comes to some of my favorite films featuring Rickman: Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually. (He does talk quite a bit about Harry Potter by comparison; then again, there were eight movies.) 

I was engaged enough in his voice and the tiny tidbits of his life to keep reading to the end, but I would only recommend the diary for die hard (lol) Rickman fans.

The Passing Playbook (by Isaac Fitzsimons)

As I continue to work through the two three books I'm reading that are left over from last year, I quickly zipped through this young adult novel, for the category "a novel about a trans character written by a trans author." It's about a soccer player who, bullied at his previous school for coming out as trans, transfers to a new, progressive school and has to decide if he wants to pass or to come out here too.  Throw in some romance with a fellow player from a hellfire and brimstone Christian family and voila, this book.

This debut author clearly wanted a feel-good trans story, and I'm glad that trans kids have this book! But as an adult, the unrealistic elements of it and the rushed, too-good-to-be-true conclusion didn't quite work for me. That said, there are some wonderful elements here, and it's interesting to read a trans YA from the point of view of a very privileged character who, for the most part, understands his own privilege.  I would recommend Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith or If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo ahead of this one, but I think the YA canon needs more trans books and I look forward to seeing what Isaac Fitzsimons does next.