YA Books & Halloween Treats

Fake Skating by Lynn Painter Goodreads Winner in 2025. Right off the bat I love a book with a playlist! I cue it up and listen to songs as they come up and it adds an extra layer of fun to the reading experience! Up until recently, I’ve been a hockey fan my entire life. Like other books, I’ve read from Lynn Painter, this is broken up into two perspectives, Alec’s and Dani’s. Alec and Dani were summer best friends growing up and each other’s first kiss, and then Dani went away, but now they’re seniors and she’s back. When her parents separate Dani and her Mom move in with her Grandpa, retired NHL legend Mick Boche. I grew up in a house like Alec’s lol my husband was an airforce kid, so I got the dynamic and it made me comfortable right away. The city she moves to is in Minnesota and is a big hockey town. I actually grew up in Winnipeg and the closest city is Minneapolis, so there were so many similarities. Dani doesn’t know anything about hockey and doesn’t like jocks. Alec has grown into a guy that does like hockey, in fact he is the high school hockey God, literally. After a series of indiscretions and a misinterpreted locker room run in, Alec and Dani agree to fake date as means to their ends. There’s a lot of miscommunication in this book and so many things could have been resolved earlier and easily. I grew up going to hockey games and haha I TOTALLY remember my hockey boyfriend coming out after the game, in dress clothes and wet hair! I really liked how the hockey community is written in this book, the family and friends aspect, especially after all the darkness of the hockey culture of the last few years. As a sports fan, I KNOW that feeling of wanting your team to win so badly and really felt it in this book. I loved this book just like I love all of her books. She writes young love so well and it is such a nostalgic experience to read her books.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg Classic You’ve Meant to Read & A book about or featuring a museum. I read this book when I was very young, but I only remembered the premise. I took it out from the library for both my children when they were in middle school, but neither of them read it. My oldest started it, but found it old-fashioned and stopped. So, I took that as a challenge and over the years, I’ve been meaning to read it to see if it is as good as I remembered. Or at least the feeling that it gave me that I remember. I listened to this as an audiobook and it felt like my grade 4 teacher reading out loud to the class lol. The story is about Claudia. She has a plan, she is running away. However, Claudia knows that she likes the finer things in life and wouldn’t make it on the streets so she enlists the help of her younger brother Jamie, and with their combined money of almost $30 (thanks to Jamie’s gambling) they head to New York to run away to the fanciest place they can think of, the Metropolitan Museum of Art! Their journey from Connecticut to New York was funny and exciting! I loved how the narrator, Mrs. Basil F Frankweiler, tells the story. She tells the story of a brother and sister who became more than just a brother and sister. They became friends, confidants, teammates. I’ve been to the Met as an adult and picturing it as a child after dark gave me feelings of excitement and like anything is possible. Halfway through the book the kids read an article and we find out who Mrs. Basil F Frankweiler is, an elderly art collector with no family. After the first two days of joining children’s school classes and field trips, they begin to make a plan. The plan is to learn everything they can about the mysterious Angel statue. The children become used to the schedules of the Met employees, they do their laundry at the laundromat and frequent the libraries around the museum. Their adventure sounds magical and yet very mature for example having a bath in a sculptured fountain is wondrous but also, the children made sure to take baths lol. Like it was a plausible place to runaway to which is probably why that is the only part of the book that I remembered lol. After the statue is moved, the kids find an important clue as to who the artist of the statue is. The children write a letter with their findings, but don’t get the result they were looking for. So, they go visit Basil for some answers. I loved all the juxtapositions in this book, “trading safety for adventure”, and that the secret IS the adventure. I really liked Claudia and her brother Jamie as well as Basil. This is a fabulous book for adults, but it is such a wonderful book for kids, especially kids that like to collect knowledge. This is like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for kids that like books/art/history lol what a wonderful adventure with so many life lessons.

Love Me Tomorrow by Emiko Jean A book whose title include a measure of time & About a Musician. Emma is a senior in high school who comes from a family of divorced parents and has given up believing in love that lasts. At the beginning of the book, she makes a wish, for proof, proof that love can last. Emma and her mom are a team and as a person that owns a housecleaning business, Emma’s cleaning job and the unwritten rules of being a housecleaner, made me laugh. Emma‘s “I cut the meat“ blurt reminded me of “I carried a watermelon” lol still funny. After Emma makes her wish, she begins receiving notes. Or rather, love letters, from the future. Emma wonders who the notes are from and there are three options, her next-door neighbour, the hot rich guy, or her musical mentor. All three are fabulous choices and I like them all. I also like Emma‘s mom, her best friend Delia and her murder board lol and Camille her dad‘s girlfriend‘s daughter. All the side characters were great. I really enjoyed the message of being present, taking risks and following your heart. Even though the ending wasn’t as clear as I would’ve liked it lol I really enjoyed it.

Maze Runner by James Dashner Crazy Premise. This is a difficult book to get into at first because the main character, Thomas is dropped into a situation and he only knows his name, he doesn’t know where he is or why. So, when a group of boys talk to him using a whole new vocabulary that doesn’t make sense, we are in the same boat as him. Thomas and the reader have no idea what is going on when the story begins. As Thomas gets a tour of his new home, he realizes the entire place is ran by teenage boys, and none of them have any memories outside of the walls, besides their names. The only thing they think they know is to get out, they need to go through the maze. Thomas also realizes, his surroundings are familiar to him, but he doesn’t know why. The next day the box appears again, this time the newbie is a girl which has never happened before. Then other things start happening that have never happened before. The Glade is made up of different sections where all the boys work jobs like farming, ranching, building, cleaning, security, and runners. The runners leave every morning when the walls open, and enter the maze. They return every evening before the walls close and gather information from the other runners in hopes of finding a way out. Within the maze are machine beasts they call grievers. Within the first week, Thomas finds himself inside the maze. It is very well written in the way that you feel actual fear for Thomas. This book has a lot of unknowns and plot holes but it is entertaining and kinda terrifying. What a cliffhanger!

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert Actually Romantic – An enemies to lovers book. I have read a few Hibbert’s adult books and LOVED them so I was curious to see how she would write a YA romance. First off, the glossary is ridiculous. She should have fired her American editor and found one that will let her write a British story without apology or explanation. Oh and not using British spelling? Ugh. Moving on. This is a true enemies to lovers book because the female main character, Celine and the male main character Bradley, do not like each other. At all. They used to be best friends, but their friendship came to an end four years ago. Now, they are seniors, and both of them are at the top of the class in their respected fields. They are both competitive and honestly, they are both pretty unlikable. When an accident brings them together, they both end up at an enrichment camp competing for a full scholarship to university. In their first expedition, they end up being paired together, so they quickly form a truce, a not forgiven but forgotten type deal. However, Bradley is unaware, self involved, and his inner thoughts don’t have any tenderness towards his ex best friend. Celine has a lot of patience from what I can tell, but also does not harbour any warm feelings for Bradley, she is mostly indifferent to him. Which doesn’t make a lot of chemistry for the two main characters. But I guess that’s what makes it satisfying when people do come to their senses and realize how their behaviour affects other people. In a lot of books, it’s almost fake enemies, I like that there was actual hurt in this relationship that needed to be repaired. Also, douche canoe! Bahahahaha I really enjoy how they not only normalize therapy, but he is positive about how therapy impacts his life. I liked them as friends much better than as enemies and I’m glad that it was only like that for the first half of the book. I enjoyed that dating wasn’t the only topic in this book. Bradley has taken struggles with his OCD and it was interesting to read his inner monologue. Healthy and unhealthy thoughts. Celine is dealing with abandonment issues and really looking inside of herself to see what choices are hers and what are the result of what other people have done to her. I also really liked all the side characters, all the friends were written well, and even the jerk jocks were written very well. It was also funny and had some amazing quips and observations like “it turns out Scotland is like a fear factor version of England” Bahahaha. I was very satisfied with the ending.

Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington A book written by a woman of colour Adina is a recent graduate from Edgewater, a prestigious private school that she has never truly belonged at. Gifted a scholarship to attend because her parents are professors there, Adina knows that being a middle class, black girl, she will never be fully accepted by her rich white classmates, so she keeps her head down and puts in the work to get out of school with an Ivy League scholarship. Unfortunately, she makes one error right at the end, and loses it all. After graduation, there’s only one way to get into an Ivy League college, the Finish. The Finish is a deadly game that a very wealthy family who owns the land the school sits on, the Remington’s, play. They invite a number of female graduates to compete in a 2 week trial, for full scholarships to their post secondary colleges of their choice. OK, so the Finish, it’s messed up. Extremely wealthy people using teenage girls as entertainment in hopes of finding the perfect wife for the heir. Sounds like a fantasy, but it’s not, it’s more like a cutthroat Inheritance Games meets The Elite? Lol In a house full of deceivers, Adina is a great character. I really like how Adina loves music and curates playlists according to the moment, she’s a good friend and she is smart. She develops bonds with her roommate Saint, who I like, she is the only other person of colour invited to the Finish. Also with Pierce‘s older brother, Graham, who I wasn’t sure about at first but he clocks Adina pretty quickly, and she does him as well, which I enjoyed. And then there’s Aunt Leighton who is a psychiatric doctor and imbeds herself in Adina‘s life as a mentor very quickly. With her high school frenemy also invited, the boy she kissed and the prize at the end of it, plus his girlfriend, the competition should be fierce. The first event is The Ride and the girls must complete an extreme trail race on horseback over jumps, water and harsh terrain. Adina has 3 days to learn how to ride a horse before the brutal competition begins. The remaining competitors move on to The Raid, and then finally, with only 3 girls left, The Royale. This book is absolutely unbelievable lol as in this could never happen, but boy is it entertaining! I really enjoyed the ending and how Adina flipped it around.