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Is this a horror story? Depends. Do you think The Eighties were a horror? I'm of an age with the main characters and this book immediately brought me back to The Eighties and left me there in a world of satanic panic. bodybuilding, and tough love. The author calls it Beaches meets The Exorcist, I call it Heathers where maybe J.D.'s a real demon and maybe the real villain is the time and the adults who'd rather control than understand. This is a love letter to The Eighties--we've got the beat--and an indictment, and I cannot stop thinking about it.

This book is a combination romantic ghost stories with a practical and healthily skeptical main character, too many suspects both ghostly and non, and horror movie twist. I adored and devoured it.

This is a counting book for kids. About dead squirrels. The illustrations are adorable and I had tears from laughing at the end. Some of you out there, and you know who you are, will want this book for yourselves as well as your kids.

(Review copy provided by publisher.)

Ruth is a hustler on a righteous mission of revenge via prenup against a terrible rich person. Then she meets his sister Sol. Then she bumps into a much more dangerous criminal on a not so righteous mission to harm that sister. And that sister's a flirt. And that sister knows Ruth isn't the woman she's masquerading as, even if she doesn't know anything else. Then it gets complicated.

This is a space opera, a con, and a bit of a rom-com in that old-style we're nemeses, no we're into each other way. It's clever and fun, the banter and emotional vulnerability between Ruth and Sol is at times raw and at others steamy. There's also some danger, multiple cunning plans, and a happy ending.

Secret schools are among my favorite tropes. Blackwood is a secret school for actual witchcraft inside a school for the study of witchcraft. The scholarship students (read: misfits and outsiders) aren't quite as lucky to be there as they thought, since they were recruited for the secret school whose multiple hundreds of years old Dean just tried to kill one of them.

Ultimately, this is a love story. (What?!) And that's why I think you should read it. It's everything I told you and nothing you'd expect. Also there's a curse and a very angry chimp. Delightful.

The thing I enjoy most about this series is the hope that permeates everything. No matter the despair, the family find hope for each other. There is a moment in this book when one of the most beautiful things occurs and it is during one of the worst times of their lives, and somehow Cherie Dimaline writes characters who can contain both. I highly recommend this series.

This book is about dreaming and surviving and hoping. It's beautifully written, with devastating lows and, something I did not expect, highs that make your heart soar.

This short story is the tiniest bite of bliss. For the most part it's epistolary, and, those tentative caring emails had me grinning and squeeing.

My favorite thing about this book is the ever-changing style of Vicky Van Tassel, as she experiments with identities.

Mamo, the Witch of Haresden, has died, and everything is going wrong. Jo's mom is sick and Jo needs the help of a witch, and the only one around Mamo's granddaughter Orla, who does not want to become the new Witch of Haresden. But Jo is persistent, and Orla is a good witch, even if she doesn't want to be theirs.

This is a really sweet story about embracing who you are, taking a chance on who you want to become, and falling in love.

Heartbreakingly beautiful and ultimately uplifting.

A cranky meet-cute, literal electricity, and a team-up to vanquish unkind foes. This was a sweet and adorable love story about a not so great witch and a doughnut seller/rock musician who annoy the heck out of each other at first.