#rachael allen

[raisunii]

Eldest Daughter; Surrogate

After the Ball, Carl Thomsen / Light of Love, Florence & the Machine / God Complex, Rachael Allen / The Split Man, Victor Langheld / A Poem for Women in Rage, Audre Lorde / on being chi hai, Kimberly Nguyen / The Convalescent, Willard Leroy Metcalf / Swear to God the Devil Made Me Do It, The Front Bottoms

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: April 23, 2024

Young Adult Harley Quinn: Redemption by Rachael Allen This is the final book in the Harley Quinn trilogy Harley Quinn and Ivy can’t wait to cross off the final items on their summer bucket list. They still need to: Go to Pride Get mani/pedis Figure out how they can kiss without Ivy’s toxic lips killing Harley. (Every relationship has its challenges!) But their to-do list gets more dangerous…

[alliwanttodoiscollectpoetry]

From God Complex by Rachael Allen

[onlymyqueen]

[sarcasticsouthernbookworm]

Now I’ve got the full Harley Quinn trilogy signed, I’m so happy 🥰

[heavenlyyshecomes]

It is preferable that you talk plainly (simply, concisely) about the material connotations of poverty that are expected, recognisable, entertaining, morally assuaging, and marketable for the middle classes who will be profiting from your doing so, either by publishing your story or consuming it.   This path also makes concessions to an imagined audience who ‘might not otherwise understand’ the book they’re reading. The publishing industry is built on cobwebby and arcane rules. There is a pervading, top-down and patronising mythos of the ‘general public’ or ‘general reader’–an idea peddled about who can tolerate what under the premise that general audiences aren’t able to manage complicated concepts, formally or linguistically innovative books, or other challenging works, precedents for what is deemed to be accessible set by the middle-class anti-intellectuals that decide it.

[maxalotlxl]

Harley Quinn: Ravenous by Rachael Allen

4 Stars.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this as much as the first one. Maybe because, as even as a casual DC reader, the mystery was completely taken from it with who was the problem. And honestly I was frustrated with Harley not connecting the dots sooner.

That being said I think that was my only issue with this.

This book has Ivy in it and that makes me happy, very happy. And the whole Harley back tracking what's happened in the last few months to understand what's happening to her now is very on par for the narrator of Harley Quinn's mind.

The fact this is a complete different origin and timeline, means Joker isn't a huge role. And the cat scene made me giggle. (I don't enjoy Joker especially the Harley/Joker stories)

Can't wait to read the next on in this series, Rachael Allen ma'am keep up the good work!

Finished 28th of November.

[daniellesreadingnook]

The three books I can currently reading!

The physical books are: “Miss Peregrine’s Museum of Wonders” and “Harley Quinn: Ravenous.”

The kindle book is: “The Sun and the Star.”

[treenymphluna]

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

fight on.

[journalofsolitude]

Kingdomland, Rachael Allen

[lilmackiereads]

A TAXONOMY OF LOVE (2018) BY RACHAEL ALLEN - SPOILER-FILLED REVIEW

For the review WITHOUT SPOILERS, click here. To continue WITH spoilers, begin reading after the cover photo.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I am actually surprised with myself for giving this such a high rating as I am easily very bored with the teen romance novels. Of the few YA romance that I have read in the last year this has been my favorite which was a total surprise! I actually almost gave up reading it in the first 50 or so pages because I found the initial few chapters from Spence’s point of view unrealistic. For some reason I just didn’t feel like the dialogue and thought processes going on in this 13-year-old boy’s head felt accurate to the tween boys I’ve known growing up. There wasn’t enough swearing or boyish grossness. For instance, I feel like he needed a bit of a sprinkle of yucky (belching/ nose-picking/ farting/ name-calling) like the boys in Stephen King’s “The Body” aka Stand by Me (1986), The Sandlot (1993) or Stranger Things (2016) because many boys at this age are generally just pretty gross and obnoxious in my experience. (I grew up tween to teen between 2008-2018 and babysat lots of kids and now I work with middle school and high schoolers…)

HOWEVER, I think Allen did nail Spence’s dorkiness, which is why I ultimately kept reading because he is pretty adorable and his taxonomies are pretty funny.

Unlike John Green (The Fault in Our Stars, 2012 and Turtles All the Way Down, 2017) and Becky Albertalli (Simon vs the Homosapien Agenda, 2015) who are two of the best teen writers that can accurately display the minds of the opposite sex in my opinion, I feel like Allen struggles a bit with writing Spence’s point-of-view. I found Hope’s p-o-v more realistic (and relatable) as a female, but I think that Spence became more realistic as the book progressed from age 13 to 19. Especially once he hit puberty, I think the romantic stakes and thoughts were more accurate to a teenage boy. Haha. But what do I know? I’ve never been a teenage boy.

Hope reminded me a lot of myself because I’m generally happy-go-lucky, but I had a major emo-phase in high school that really warped my attitude at the time (and admittedly comes out to play occasionally as an adult.) I wish we had more chapters from her perspective. I was bummed out when her sister died. It's hard to lose someone so close to you, especially when they're so young. The only thing I didn't like about Hope was her last name, Birdsong. I think it was just a little too on-the-nose. If we're really going for the "girl next door" she could have just had a basic last name like Smith or Miller.

I really liked all the little parties the characters through for the holidays and the references to Hamilton (2015), Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Grease (1978), and Pokémon. Jayla and Spencer's Pikachu and Ash costumes sounded adorable. I feel like Hope’s transition over the story is actually a lot like Sandy’s! Also, the two girls at the Halloween party who were Sandy before and after, such a cool costume idea!

Jayla and Dean were both kind of annoying at times, but ultimately, I think they had good hearts, but were just a little too self-involved for their own good. I really appreciated after Dean went to college and grew up a little and started to stand up for Jayla and Spencer.

I also like that the book goes over some important topics like racism and the Civil War, disability awareness, bullying, mental health, and using sexual situations as a coping mechanism.

My top three favorite parts are:

The Vice Principal’s Surprise -- I mean DICK CONFETTI? How much better can it get?

2. The Tree Stand in the Rain -- My little heart at all the romance:

3. The Lightning Bugs -- Just such a sweet and magical moment.

Would I Read this Book Again?

Low key kind of want to read it again right now! I hope they make a movie of this!

[alliwanttodoiscollectpoetry]

Rachael Allen

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (August 29th, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Standalones/First in a Series:

A Tall Dark Trouble by Vanessa Montalban

Pride & Prejudice & Pittsburg by Rachael Lippincott

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt

After You Vanished by E.A. Neeves

The Reunion by Kit Frick

My Father, The Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang

What Happened On Hicks Road by Hannah Jayne

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

The Infinity Particle by Wendy Xu

Night of the Living Queers by Various

House of Marionne by J. Elle

All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen

I Feed her to the Beast & the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea

More Than A Thief by Beverly Patt

Let's Never Speak of this Again by Megan Williams

New Sequels:

Never A Hero (Monsters #2) by Vanessa Len

The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games #4) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Reign (American Royals #4) by Katharine McGee

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Happy reading!

[sarcasticsouthernbookworm]

“I built it with giant plastic pipes and my bisexual audacity” -Harley Quinn

Pretty much sums up the books and why I love her