Reading, Writing, and Me

I'm so excited to be chatting with Lyla Lee, author of I'll Be The One, today. Her K-Pop competition based book is a fascinating, heartwarming read and is also tons of fun. You don't have to have an existing knowledge of K-Pop to get in on the fun. If you haven't had a chance to read Lyla's book, you can find my review here , and if you want to get a copy of your own, I'd love it if you'd consider using the blog's Bookshop store *.  I hope you enjoy our conversation! Share it with your friends who also loved I'll Be The One . 1. I’ll Be The One centers around an LA based K-Pop competition. What was it like to come up with each of the different rounds? How did you go about structuring the competition? I based the competition in  I'll Be the One  on real K-pop competitions that I watched as a teen as well as the ones that my family members and family friends entered in the past. I researched the structures of several other reality TV co...

Running  by Natalia Sylvester  Get a Copy * Overview: Mariana has always known her place was to stand by her father's side, smile, and support him. He's been on the path towards becoming president since she was a little kid. She's grown up going through local, state, and national elections leading up to this moment- the GOP presidential primary. Even though politics have been at the center of her life, they don't discuss policies or principles as a family. As Mari makes new friends and her city is confronted by a climate related crisis, she starts seeing the cracks behind her father's hero facade. The more questions she asks, the more she finds her own voice. Overall:  5 Characters: 5 I loved Mari as a character. She shows so much growth over the course of the book. She starts quiet and eager to please her family because it's all she knows. She's proud of her father because she's been told she should be. She doesn't question her family's v...

I haven't made a Music Meets YA pairing in a while, and I thought I'd bring it back. If we weren't living with COVID-19, I would be seeing Louis Tomlinson tonight with my mom on his first headline tour. Obviously, those kinds of gatherings were cancelled a while ago, but I thought I'd have a little fun by matching his first album, Walls, with some YA books. If you want to give Walls a listen, I'll leave links to it down below, and you can find the individual book reviews by clicking the title. Also, I'll include buy links for each of these in my BookShop store in case you want to pick up a copy. It is an affiliate link, so I might make a small commission at no cost to you. Have you heard Louis's music before, or are you a fan of one of these books? Let me know in the comments! We Are Okay  (Always You)   Get a Copy This book is short and quiet and is the closest prose can get to poetry without crossing over. It's all about the images. Marin fled ...