Top 5 Tuesday – Dear Santa, I’d like these books, please!

This week Star brings us her Top 5 Books I Want For Christmas

Let me start this off with: Dear Santa, I have been a good girl this year, I promise.

Now, if only I had the time and money to read everything.

But, here are some books I’d really like, and ones I hope to get to buy, and actually read, in 2020 (that’s so gross writing that, by the way. 2020 isn’t a real decade! Pft!)

Note: These are all 2020 releases, which is why I’m not really expecting Santa to deliver them to me. Though, if he’s as good as he says he is…

1) Loveless by Alice Oseman

Georgia feels loveless – in the romantic sense, anyway. She’s eighteen, never been in a relationship, or even had a crush on a single person in her whole life. She thinks she's an anomaly, people call her weird, and she feels a little broken. But she still adores romance – weddings, fan fiction, and happily ever afters. She knows she’ll find her person one day … right?

After a disastrous summer, Georgia is now at university, hundreds of miles from home. She is more determined than ever to find love – and her annoying roommate, Rooney, is a bit of a love expert, so perhaps she can help.

But maybe Georgia just doesn’t feel that way about guys. Or girls. Or anyone at all. Maybe that's okay. Maybe she can find happiness without falling in love. And maybe Rooney is a little more loveless than she first appears.

LOVELESS is a journey of identity, self-acceptance, and finding out how many different types of love there really are. And that no one is really loveless after all

2) We Used To BeFriends by Amy Spalding

Told in dual timelines—half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backward—We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood besties. At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they’re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce. Funny, honest, and full of heart, We Used to Be Friends tells of the pains of growing up and growing apart.

3) The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.

Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.

4) The Falling InLove Montage by Ciara Smyth

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.

But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.

Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.

5) The Long DistancePlaylist by Tara Eglington

Taylor and Isolde used to be best friends - before THAT FIGHT, 18 months ago. It's been radio silence ever since - until Taylor contacts Isolde to sympathise with her breakup: the breakup that she never saw coming; the breakup that destroyed her confidence and ended her dreams of joining the National Ballet School.

Taylor's had his own share of challenges, including a life-altering accident that has brought his hopes of competing at the Winter Olympics to a halt.

Isolde responds to Taylor, to be polite. But what starts out as heartbreak-themed Spotify playlists and shared stories of exes quickly becomes something more.

And as Taylor and Isolde start to lean on each other, the distance between them begins to feel not so distant after all ...

A boy. A girl. A one-of-a-kind friendship. Cross-country convos and middle-of-the-night playlists. With big dreams come even bigger challenges.

Follow Star at Little Miss Star, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads

What's your pick for this week? Share on your blog, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or in the comments below! Make sure you tag your posts with #AusYABloggers so we can share the love.

Every Saturday we will bring you a short snippet from page 77 of a book. It might be a book one of us is reading or perhaps just the book closest to us.

The Rules:

Pick up a Book (your current read, or the closest book to you, or your next read, etc)
Turn to page 77(or 77% if you are on an e-reader)
Find a Snippet, Sentence or Paragraph you like.
Share it on your blog or Twitter or Instagram and link back to us (AusYABloggers) and use #77Saturday

Star's Choice

Title: With The Fire On High
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Released: 07th May 2019
Publisher: HarperTeen
Add it to Goodreads

Some days I'm convinced Babygirl has an old soul, the kind of spirit that makes me imagine she was meditating and holding yoga poses in my belly. I'm less convinced of that these days, when she's started spending more time away with her dad. I don't know if they're spoiling her over there, or have jumbled up her whole routine, but it is sure an adjustment to get her back to the Santiago way of doing things after the weekends she spends away.

Star's Thoughts

Babies with old souls never fails to speak to me on a personal level. I can also empathise with the MC getting her daughter back into a routine after she's spent time away. It's an endless source of frustration when dealing with children. I empathise with the MC.

Follow Star at Little Miss Star, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads

Seventy-Seven Saturday was inspired by The Friday 56 by Freda's Voice. If you decided to share your Seventy-Seven Saturday on your blog please link back to us and tag us on Twitter of Instagram @AsuYABloggers and #77Saturday

Throwback Thursday #Diverse edition is our way of spreading the love of backlist diverse books that you might have missed. We'll hopefully be posting a new book every second week, and we'd love you to join us!

Tash's pick

Title:  Withering- by - Sea
Author:  Judith Rossell
Released:  November 2014
Publisher: ABC Books
Add it to Goodreads
Rating :★★★★

High on a cliff above the gloomy coastal town of Withering-by-Sea stands the Hotel Majestic. Inside the walls of the damp, dull hotel, eleven-year-old orphan Stella Montgomery leads a miserable life with her three dreadful Aunts. But one night, Stella sees something she shouldn't have... Something that will set in motion and adventure more terrifying and more wonderful than she could ever have hoped for...

Review

This was a whim purchase that I'm now glad that I did purchase. Withering - by - Sea is a play on the classic Wuthering Heights. Aside from period of time , that where the similarities end. Instead readers are taken on an magical adventure that is not for the faint hearted. Stella Montgomery lives in one of the bath hotels that is known in this time period. The setting is key to this story as allows for the liberties that take place and explain the incident that unfolds and changes Stella's life

Stella is a free spirit that is controlled by her aunts. Until 'the incident' happens and then her word explodes. Stella is adventurous sort of young girl. Whilst her Aunts expect a prim and proper miss.Stella's true nature shone through and it played well with the mystery that unfolded.

The mystery at first seems to be a straight forward but the hints the author releases, indicate something more. The childish nature of Stella shows despite her bravery. It allows for growth and time to understand the gravity of the situation.

As this story isn't typical in any shape or form which makes it special. Rossell captures the time period well . With little nods to the history of the time that enhanced the mystery and help shaped the story.
The storyline is perfect for the target audience given the day and age. With YA fantasy releasing books like this now. This book is perfect for those who want to find a similar MG series.
The supporting characters fit the sort of people you would find in a town like this which relies on tourists and bathing houses.
Aunts are the dowdy type, the ones you find like in other novels. They don't care much for Stella and subscribe to the saying of that time. Little children shouldn't been seen or heard.

Encouraging Stella to fight and this bodes well given this is the first in three book series. This loveozmg was recently re-released by the publisher and it's perfect time as allows new readers to discover this magical series.

The perfect combination of history and fanasty allowing readers to enjoy a simpler reader before expanding their horizons to heavy fantasy. Stella is a character you won't forget any time soon.

Follow Tash at Blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads

What's your pick for this week? Share on your blog, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or in the comments below! Make sure you tag your posts with #AusYABloggers so we can share the love.

Hello there fellow bookish gals, guys and otherwise.

For our Reading Challenge in 2020 we are doing things a little different, in the hope that we can get our non Goodreads using friends and followers to join in on the fun. Each month we will have a theme that participants will pick a book to fit. So a minimum of 12 books to be read all up, there is no maximum. A Chat Post will go live on the group blog on the first Monday of the month, with a reminder of the months theme and questions. We ask that you do not read ahead, but you can always go back and report for a month you missed later on. To report your months reads participants are asked to comment and answer the questions either on the group blog Chat Post or on the Goodreads 2020 Challenge discussion post [HERE]. There will be two prizes up for grabs, but to be eligible all twelve prompts have to be completed by the 31st December. 1st prize - $50.00 Booktopia Voucher (Aus & NZ only). 2nd prize - a book up to the value of $20 from The Book Depository (international). * You do not have to comment on both the blog Chat Post and the Goodreads post, the idea of having the two platforms is so our non Goodreads using friends can still join in - pick whichever platform is easiest for you. ** Our aim of getting you to answer questions to report your read, is to open up conversations and get us all talking about the books we’re reading in 2020. *** So this year to be eligible for a price, all you have to do is read 12 books that match the 12 months prompts, and report them via answering the set questions on your read book either via Goodreads or the group blog.

MONTH – THEMES

January – New Beginnings

February – Fun in the sun

March – Lost and Found

April – Spookalicious

May – After Dark

June – Coming Out

July – Indigenous Voices

August – Tropes-ahoy

September – Awesome Anthologies

October – Mental Health

November – Glorious Graphics

December – Happy Holidays

Reporting questions

1) What book did you pick for this month’s read?

2) Did you enjoy it?

3) What rating would you give it out of five?

4) Was there anything in your book that touched you /resonated with you in some way?

5) What was your favourite part of the book?

6) Who would you recommend read this book?

7) Try to sum up the book in one sentence.

Happy Reading :-)

Every Saturday we will bring you a short snippet from page 77 of a book. It might be a book one of us is reading or perhaps just the book closest to us.