Book of the Month YA Review August 2019
Book of the Month YA is a monthly book subscription box. Every month they release 5 new books which they have narrowed down from hundreds of new releases (so you don’t have to). Books are announced on the first of the month, and members have six days to decide which book they would like to receive. Monthly subscriptions include one book, but members can purchase up to two additional books each month for $9.99 per title. They kindly sent me this box for review.
Oh my goodness! I am so excited about today’s review, I can’t even describe it in words. If you follow my reviews you will know that Book of the Month is one of my absolute favourite subscription boxes. I anxiously wait for it to arrive every month. So imagine how excited I was when I found out that they had released a new subscription option – Book of the Month YA! Best news ever!
Subscription Details
How Book of the Month YA works:
1. New selections are announced on the 1st of the month: The BOTM team selects 5 new books each month, one of which is included in your membership.
2. Choose your Book of the Month YA by the 6th: Visit the site to select your Book of the Month, or leave it up to them and they will choose one for you.
3. Read, react and discuss with other members: All books ship on the same day. Return to the site to share and discuss with other members.
Here’s a closer look at the Book of the Month YA selections for August……
House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.
Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?
When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender.
While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta’s most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light.
Color Me In by Natasha Diaz
Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom’s family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time.
Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but one of her cousins can’t stand that Nevaeh, who inadvertently passes as white, is too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices they face on a daily basis as African Americans. In the midst of attempting to blend their families, Nevaeh’s dad decides that she should have a belated bat mitzvah instead of a sweet sixteen, which guarantees social humiliation at her posh private school. Even with the push and pull of her two cultures, Nevaeh does what she’s always done when life gets complicated: she stays silent.
It’s only when Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom’s past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces that she begins to realize she has a voice. And she has choices. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she find power in herself and decide once and for all who and where she is meant to be?
Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry
Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happened the night they met outside the police station—both deciding whether to turn their families in.
Winona has been starving for life in the seemingly perfect home that she shares with her seemingly perfect father, celebrity weatherman Stormy Olsen. No one knows that he locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them.
Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there’s more out there for her than disappearing waitress tips and generations of barely getting by.
One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they can’t wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can’t hurt.
Mind Games by Shana Silver
Arden sells memories. Whether it’s the becoming homecoming queen or studying for that all important test, Arden can hack into a classmate’s memories and upload the experience for you just as if you’d lived it yourself. Business is great, right up until the day Arden whites out, losing 15 minutes of her life and all her memories of the hot boy across the school yard. The hot boy her friends assure her she’s had a crush on for years.
Arden realizes that her own memories have been hacked, but they haven’t just been stolen and shared… they’ve been deleted. And she’s not the only one, the hot stranger, Sebastian, has lost ALL of his memories. But how can they find someone with the power to make them forget everything they’ve learned?
Book of the Month YA Review August 2019 – Final Thoughts
So….are you all as excited as I am? Here we have a quick peek at my very first Book of the Month YA delivery. For review, BOTM kindly sends me all of the book choices each month. They do this for both the regular box and now the YA box. Typically what I do is choose one of the books to read and do a separate review for that specific book. But, this month my regular BOTM for July and August arrived at the same time as my new YA books. Therefore, I have about 5 (or 15) books to get through in the next few weeks.
So for this month, I wanted to just give you a quick look at the kind of books you can expect to see each month from Book of the Month YA. So far I am very impressed. I think we have a great mixture of book choices, two of which are standing out more than the others – Mind Games and House of Salt and Sorrows. I feel the need to read both of them. House of Salt and Sorrows is giving me a bit of a Cinderella vibe, but a little more dark and twisty. And as for Mind Games, I am loving the idea of selling memories – especially when it comes to high school and all the high school type things – homecoming, test, footballs games, etc….
I’m hoping to start one, or both of my YA book choices in the next week and will try to give you my thoughts in the next review. Until then, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Book of the Month YA for yourself!
-AYOB