We Are Family by Nicola Gill  I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Laura and Jess are sisters. They are also polar opposites who have always been divided by their differences and the favour of their mother. Now orphans, Laura and Jess have an opportunity to repair things - or to let their insecurities continue to drive them apart. Gill has created very sympathetic characters who feel very real, like the type of women you'd run into on your way to the shops. This books shows how tangled and complex female relationships can be, no matter if they're with siblings, parents, friends or the mother of a schoolyard bully. Grief is also dealt with every well here and I'd easily have given this five stars without the last couple of chapters. The ending comes across as rushed and the fallout of a large revelation occurs "off-screen". We don't get to see it ourselves (or the various other "events" that we're told about rather rapidly), which is disappointing.
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You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Katie and Libby accidentally create a hot guy (with science! and clay and a kiss) and his purpose in life is to dote on Katie and be the perfect boyfriend. While this should solve Katie's never-been-kissed problem, it threatens to tear apart her life and her friendships. Well, I loved this. It's like Weird Science for girls in the 21st century! And thankfully this is a much more progressive tale than a 1980s iteration - diversity, ace representation, dealing with the fact that both parties must have agency in a relationship, etc. Libby and Kate acting as dual storytellers was inspired and it made the story feel hilariously self-aware. It was also nice to read a YA novel peppered with Australianisms. I'm a huge YA fan but most of them are foreign titles. This is definitely the kind of novel I wish I could have read when I was a teenager. |
AboutAlyce Caswell, when she isn't buried in a book or drinking her way through a giant pot of tea, is a keen writer of science fiction and romance. She has published two novels and four novellas in her space opera family saga, The Galactic Pantheon Series. 
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