The Cuffing Game written by Lyla Lee and reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Summary: Mia Yoon, a driven freshman at a film school in California, dreams of producing her own reality dating show. Her plans take a twist when she must enlist Noah Cho, a popular senior and social media influencer, as a contestant. Despite their initial animosity, Mia and Noah create "The Cuffing Game," a dating show for straight and queer couples. As Noah participates in romantic dates on the show, Mia grapples with her own crush on him. The dynamic between the two evolves, leading to unexpected personal growth journey and romantic tension. With a diverse cast and an engaging plot, the story explores themes of ambition, identity, and love. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: YA readers will like the vibrant mix of romance, humor, and drama in "The Cuffing Game." The book offers a fresh take on the enemies-to-lovers trope, with relatable characters and a unique reality TV setting. Its inclusivity, featuring diverse gender identities and cultural backgrounds, provides diverse representation in this YA book. The dual perspectives of Mia and Noah allow readers to see both sides as they navigate personal challenges and relationships. With its engaging plot and heartfelt moments, this story is perfect for fans of romantic comedies, Kpop fans and reality TV drama.  This book would fit well on a winter themed book display, it would mostly be for fun reading.  It is possible to make some Korean/Kpop connections.  The characters in this book are college age, so there is some reference to drinking, but no explicit scenes. I think the story encourages readres to consider influencers online personalities vs. their real personalities.  It also gives readers an idea of what a film major's life consists of in terms of classes and projects. It's a fun choice for older high school students.

Kissing Lessons, written by Sophie Jordan, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Summary: Hayden Vargas is just waiting to graduate. She lives in an unsafe environment and is counting the days until she can finish high school, move, get a job, and have her own place. She is gorgeous, confident and not concerned about what others think about her. Emmeline is envious of how Hayden seems to be a man magnet. Emmeline has never even kissed a boy; she is a high school junior. She thinks her big brother, Nolan, has a lot to do with her lack of fun in life. She has secretly had a crush on Beau for a while now. Nolan is hot, popular, smart, and in charge of his family after his dad died. He feels responsible for his sisters and does everything he can to protect them. Beau is Nolan’s friend and lives in the same poor neighborhood that Hayden lives in. He’s a player and has never committed to a girlfriend. Lots of high school drama is going on, but also some real issues dealing with friendships, living in poverty and not having a safe place to sleep. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book is told in alternating viewpoints in the different chapters. Hayden, Nolan, Emmeline and Beau are the different narrators. Hayden has a bad reputation and she tries not to care. But really the most she does with boys is kiss them. In return, she is labeled as a slut. Hayden supports herself with a job because her mom is an alcoholic and drug addict. Beau does the same things with girls, he kisses them, but he is just labeled as a player and it is fine. Nolan and Emmeline live in a more privileged part of town, but they have suffered their own losses when their dad died. Nolan has to be the man in the family and protect him mom and sisters. He has had a steady girlfriend for two years, but now he is questioning his feelings because Hayden has really stirred up his emotions. I would say they both judged each other, without really knowing each other and that is incorporated into the story. Emmeline hires Hayden to teach her how to be seductive because she thinks there is something wrong with her since no boys seem to be interested in her. This book is recommended for grades 10 and up and I agree with that. There is mostly kissing in the book and I would say that it is pretty realistic for older high school students. There is a scene where there is slightly more sexual activity (not sex) and a lot of the reviews have reacted negatively to it. But the characters are 17 & 18 and consent plays a big role in any intimate scenes. The book has also been criticized for an abrupt ending, but the future is uncertain for all the characters as they are about to graduate. They might not know what the next month brings. So it’s a happy-for-now ending and not a typical happily ever after. Which is fitting for 18-year-olds. They are still figuring out their lives. I really enjoyed the pace, the dialogue, the setting. I think that it would be fine for a high school library and I’m guessing it would be popular with fans of contemporary romance. I thought it was a great read and really enjoyed it.

Auto Focus, written by Lauren Gibaldi, reviewed by Stephanie Wilson

Summary: Maude’s photography teacher assigns a photo shoot centered on the theme of family. Maude struggles with how to approach the project. She’s adopted, and her birth mother died in childbirth. She could take the predictable path and do a shoot based on her adopted parents. Maude decides to focus her project on her birth mother instead. Maude’s birth mother was a freshman at Florida State University when she learned she was pregnant. She hatches a plan to take a road trip to Florida State University in Tallahassee to visit her friend Treena. Maude’s adoptive parents and Treena worry about Maude’s choice. She’s tried to uncover information about her birth mother before and it ended in heartbreak. Maude heads to Tallahassee and soon learns that Treena is too preoccupied with her college life to be much help. The Treena Maude knew in high school was quiet, shy and focused on her studies. Now Treena has a boyfriend and her priorities are completely different. Treena just wants to have a good time and party. She drags Maude along for the ride even though neither girl is old enough to drink legally. Maude finds herself spending more time with Bennett, a boy who lives on Treena's floor than with Treena. Bennett offers to help Maude chase down clues about her birth mother. Maude is torn between wanting to be with Treena and continuing her quest to answer her questions about her mom. Bennett helps Maude sort out her conflicted feelings about her birth mother and her changing relationship with Treena. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: Auto Focus is a sweet coming of age story that deals with the issues of adoption and being adopted. Maude is typical teen on the cusp of adulthood struggling to find her place in the world. The characters are somewhat diverse: Maude is white, Treena is Indian-American and Bennett is half Columbian. The issues the characters wrestle with are common to young adulthood. The novel is best suited for older middle school students and high school students. There are several instances of underage drinking, making out and one instance of sexual harassment. Unfortunately, there are times when the novel makes dated references. Maude’s mom watches The Real World, a reality show that was waning in popularity when the novel was published and has subsequently been cancelled. There are also multiple references to a character potentially wanting to get into another character’s pants which is a slang reference for having sex. This phrase is no longer in common usage among young adults.

Frannie and Tru, written by Karen Hattrup, reviewed by Bethany Bratney

Summary: Frannie is looking ahead to an unremarkable summer when her mother receives a mysterious phone call and subsequently announces that her cousin, Tru, will be coming to stay with them for the summer. Frannie, who has recently become outcast by her friends and is headed to a new school in the fall, is both thrilled and nervous about Tru’s extended visit. Tru has always been unpredictable and unsettling to her, but he could provide the excitement and thrills that Frannie’s summer needs. When Frannie overhears her parents discussing that Tru has come out as gay, and she realizes that this revelation must be the catalyst that caused his parents to send him away, she instantly takes his side and spends the majority of the summer trying to entertain and delight him, a challenging but worthy goal. But as Frannie and Tru become closer, Frannie notices the wall that Tru has built around his true thoughts and feelings, and vows to crack that facade and find the real Tru. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: It’s difficult to put a finger on what the reader is supposed to get out of Frannie’s story. Frannie’s lack of self-confidence and self-awareness is hard to read at times, and the way she idolizes Tru and his exciting, mature ways (which mostly amount to basic high school rebellion) feels too intense to be accurate. But Tru does manage to expose Frannie to some new people from different backgrounds, who help open Frannie’s eyes to some racial and socio-economic disparities that Frannie has never recognized before. Frannie starts to recognize her own racial privilege as she begins new friendships with Sparrow and her younger brother, Devon. Frannie’s family is also struggling with money, so socio-economic issues amongst teenagers are an appropriate and important component of the story. But Frannie’s coming-of-age is almost painfully subtle, highlighting Frannie’s initial naivety more than her growth. The story is not without its moments or merits, and I appreciate the wide representation of characters from different races, backgrounds and sexual orientations. In the end, this is a perfectly fine book, but it is unlikely to draw major attention.

True Letters from a Fictional Life, written by Kenneth Logan, reviewed by Bethany Bratney

Summary: Everyone in his small Vermont high school knows James Liddell. He’s a popular athlete who’s been on-again, off-again with Terese for years. But at night, when James can’t sleep, he writes letters that reveal his true feelings; letters so honest that he could never mail them. He tells Teresa how much he wants to like her as much as she likes him, he tells his soccer coach how much his off-hand homophobic remarks hurt, and he tells one of his best friends that he’s had a crush on him for years. These letters go into his locked desk drawer as James continues to hide his true feelings. He could never tell his friends or his parents that he’s gay. He knows they wouldn’t approve. The one openly gay boy at their school is ridiculed constantly, sometimes by his own friends. That’s not who he is or wants to be. When James meets an openly gay boy named Topher, who attends a different school, his emotions move from small, hypothetical crushes to big, real feelings. And when his letters are stolen and systematically mailed to their once-theoretical recipients, James realizes that he is going to be forced to explain those big feelings sooner than expected. Could he ever be the old James and the real James at the same time? 

Straight Talk for Librarians: While I have been looking for more nuanced, intersectional stories featuring LGBTQIA teens for the last few years, books that deal with coming out, especially in potentially difficult situations, will likely always have a place in school libraries. Letters from a Fictional Life shines particularly in its treatment of James’ sexual identity in a small community where everyone knows each other and all of the students at James school have grown up together. The struggle to understand and label oneself is always challenging, but James’ conflict feels especially severe to him because his prior experiences have led him to believe that he cannot continue to be who he always has been if he also comes out as gay. His two identities, in James’ mind, within his family and close community, are mutually exclusive. James’ relationships with his friends, while initially ripe with heteronormative “bro” humor, are strong and complex, providing a full range of realistic emotions and reactions to his revelation. While this book is not telling a new story and is unlikely to provide major surprises to many readers, it tells an always important story in a compulsively readable way without hiding the complicated emotions or even ugly behavior that people can exhibit when they are in the middle of an internal struggle. It deserves a place on your shelves.

Free to Fall, written by Lauren Miller, reviewed by Bethany Bratney

Summary: Rory has always been an exceptional student, but she’s never really felt like she fit in with her peers. She is overjoyed when she hears that she has been accepted to Theden Academy, an elite boarding school which she has always dreamed of attending. Perhaps at Theden, she will finally feel accepted. Just before she leaves, her dad reveals that her mother, who died during Rory’s birth, also attended Theden, but dropped out just before graduating. Rory receives a gift, a relic from her mother’s past with a clue hidden inside. At Theden, for the first time in years, Rory hears The Doubt, a rebellious inner voice that most people hear as children, but manage to suppress as they age. The sudden reappearance of the Doubt, the mysterious connection to her mother, a secret society on campus, and several characters whose intentions are unclear leave Rory feeling unstable and keep the reader guessing until the very end.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book is a page turner filled with nearly constant suspense. It begins very typically, starting with romantic tension with townie, North, and a frenemy roommate, but then verges out into secret societies, spy behavior, and historical connections to power and money that have been hidden for centuries. As Rory’s understanding of her mother’s involvement at Theden grows through carefully crafted clues, the depths of Rory’s connection to a major global conspiracy become clear. Timely topics around the concept of artificial intelligence, vaccinations, and the abuse of technology may provide curricular connections while also ramping up the excitement of the plot. Rory is a fully developed character that readers will root for, though some of her friends and relatives are not as clearly drawn. Nonetheless, the plot of the book is so exciting that even reluctant readers may pick up this novel if they can look beyond the length.

Uninvited, written by Sophie Jordan, reviewed by Carrie Conner

Summary: Davy is a gorgeous, musical genius about to graduate from high school and go to Julliard when she is diagnosed by the government as positive for “Homicidal Tendency Syndrome” based on genetic testing. Suddenly, her perfect life is in disarray as she is “Uninvited” from her private school and forced into a special program for a handful of HTS+ students in the basement of a public school. Her former friends and eventually her perfect boyfriend reject her as damaged and violent. Among her new classmates, Davy discovers an even more beautiful (and dangerous?) boy named Sean who is already marked with the “H” tattoo of a violent offender. As government internment begins for select members of her kind, Davy must decide who she is and if she really is a killer at heart. Despite an uneven start with a picture-perfect and unrealistic protagonist, the plot deepens as the book introduces competition among the interred students and reveals government conspiracies that introduce the inevitable sequel. Give this book to students who loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, but be aware there are suggestions of sexual coercion, attempted rape, and violence.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This is a recommended or additional title for a high school collection. While some teens will overlook the uneven writing and idealized lifestyle, others may be turned off by how perfect the main character is portrayed at the beginning. This book features a boyfriend pressuring his girlfriend for sex, underage drinking, sexual coercion by a faculty member towards a student, and attempted rape. The new love interest, Sean, also has a protective streak that teen girls could swoon over, but with a level of violence that is disturbing to see touted as “sexy” in this modern era. The themes of internment and genetic screening offer interesting discussion points, but without the depth needed to hit a curricular level. Perhaps the sequel will allow for greater depth as the government’s motivation is left largely unanswered.

Queen of Hearts, written by Colleen Oakes, reviewed by Kalie Mehaffy

Summary: Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes brings new light to the classic Alice in Wonderland tale. Queen of Hearts focuses on Dinah, the girl who will eventually become the Queen of Wonderland. All the classic Alice in Wonderland characters are involved in this novel, although they are in different forms: the Mad Hatter is the Mad Prince and the Cheshire Cat is the King's Adviser. As Dinah travels through her own story, she discovers hidden truths and schemes in her court that threaten her life and her throne. Queen of Hearts is the first novel in Colleen Oakes' Queen of Hearts Saga.

Straight Talk for Librarians: I think this novel has a very interesting point of view. I adore twisted fairy tales, and Queen of Hearts absolutely falls under that category. Colleen Oakes does drop her reader right into the story, and the reader has to piece together the background information as they read, and I think that works in theory, although there is enough changed about the classic tale that I believe there should be a bit more background information earlier in the novel. With that being said, this is an amazing novel, and I would absolutely use it to teach different perspectives and points of view, using Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll as a companion text. I think this is a great novel for those who love to see new takes on classic stories, and I would absolutely recommend it to my students or use it in a lesson.