My Week With Him by Joya Goffney

Pages: 400 

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 11th of July 2023 

Nikki's always had a difficult relationship with her mum. So when she finds herself homeless at the start of spring break, she decides to rage-quit Texas and give California a shot, to pursue her dream music career.

Until her best friend and long-time crush, Malachai, discovers her plan, and convinces her to spend spring break with him, so he can show her all the reasons she should stay in Texas.

But when Nikki's little sister goes missing their plans are interrupted, and Nikki is forced to face her feelings about both her mum and Mal. Can Nikki find the love she's always been missing? And will it be enough to convince her to stay in Texas?

TW: Abuse 

What I Have to Say 

While I didn't enjoy this as much as Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl, it definitely had the cute romance plot with series issues behind it that I found good about the first book. The masterful way that Goffney weaves the seriousness of the abuse scenes in between the sweet romance just has me in awe. 

I love how wholesome Goffney's male love interests are. Although I thought for a while that the plot would be Nikki choosing between love and her career, I was glad to see that as we got further into the book, Malachai got more supportive of her. It's really nice to see these cute boys who know how to treat the women in their lives. 

I really liked the ending of this book too. It was really uplifting. Can't wait for the next Joya Goffney book! 

4 stars 

My thanks goes to Hot Key Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

Sing by Vivi Green

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books 

Released: 2nd of June 2016 

America’s most famous pop star flees the spotlight to recover from her latest break-up in Maine – only to fall for a local boy and be faced with an impossible choice at the end of the summer: her new guy, or her music.

Multiplatinum pop icon Lily Ross’s biggest hits and biggest heartbreaks (because they are one and the same):

1. AGONY. (That feeling when her ex ripped her heart out of her chest and she never saw it coming.)

2. GHOSTS. (Because even famous people are ghosted by guys sometimes. And it sucks just as much.)

3. ONCE BITTEN. (As in: twice shy. Also, she’s never dating an actor or a musician ever again.)

But this summer’s going to be different. After getting her heart shattered, Lily is taking herself out of the spotlight and heading to a small island in middle-of-nowhere Maine with her closest friends. She has three months to focus on herself, her music, her new album. Anything but guys.

That is… until Lily meets sweet, down-to-earth local Noel Bradley, who is so different from anyone she’s ever dated. Suddenly, Lily’s “summer of me” takes an unexpected turn, and she finds herself falling deeper and harder than ever before. But Noel isn’t interested in the limelight. She loves Noel-but she loves her fans, too. And come August, she may be forced to choose.

What I Have to Say 

I feel there was too much romance in this book. It's not that I'm against romance, though I do think a lot of YA books insert romance in when it's not necessary to the plot far too often. And it's not that I think that Noel and Lily's relationship shouldn't have been part of the book. I just think that it should have happened differently, that the emphasis shouldn't have been on whether or not they end up together. 

I just feel that the whole point of the book, of Lily leaving the city and her schedule behind, was to learn how to live and write music on her own, without a man in her life. While part of the story was concluded, I feel that it wasn't quite as strong as it should have been. I feel that Lily didn't really stand up for herself and say "No, I need to be alone for a while" like I would have liked. 

Though it fell flat to me on that one issue, the rest of the book was enjoyable and interesting. I liked the viewpoint of a big name celebrity and how nice a person Lily was. Often in books, celebrities can come off as jerks, so it was a really cool concept. 

This is perhaps not one that I'd go out of my way to recommend, but if you think it sounds interesting then I'd definitely say to read it! 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing me with this copy for review.