Acedia High School’s student council elections are usually a popularity contest, with this year being no different. Except when pictures of “Frankengirls”, or photoshopped images of scantily clad girls at the school show up creating “perfect 10’s”, two candidates jump to action. Angeline Quinn and Leo Torres both come in to propose solutions to this problem and secure the election. However, their messy break-up may be hindering their win, as their battles are watched by the school crowds. It gets worse when the two school newspaper groups get involved. Angeline’s sister Cat, who only wants to report on the straight facts and the The Shrieking Violet, which is written by an anonymous source that seems intent on writing inflammatory pieces that blatantly support Leo. Rumours will fly and secrets will be leaked, and they’re only getting started.

My goodness, the amount of DRAMA this book has truly does bring me back to high school. Angeline is a social media influencer with inspirations of growing her channel, and seems to be very ambitious in how she goes around to getting what she wants. She seems to have an okay relationship with her sister, Cat, who is more reserved and used to seeing her sister in the spotlight. They don’t share the same group of friends and Cat has always felt distant because of the way her sister treated her when they were young. While the two have a very complicated relationship, it’s clear they’re going to have to work together a little in order to help Angeline go forth with her election campaign.

Leo was a meh love interest (for me) because he seems to toe this line between being an asshole and caring for Angeline. At times it felt like it bordered on toxic from both sides, which also speaks a lot to high school relationships (not all of them, please don’t come after me if you married your high school sweetheart). I think if this had been approached in a little more depth it might have changed the overall mostly lighthearted tone of the book, so I’m glad we didn’t go too deep into it. My personal preference for love interests in this story was honestly Cat’s and that’s mostly because it was a very friends to lovers type of situation.

I’m digging the themes of this book. The toxic nature of social media coupled with sexism in the classroom. Angeline and her friends face harassment from someone in the school who is using pictures of their bodies to enhance the features they think would make them a “perfect 10”. The response by the school felt very on par with what a lot of young women experience: “we’ll do something about it if we can, but it just seems like a harmless prank otherwise”. While this pushes Angeline to use her social media platform to push for justice, it also shows how easily that attention can backfire. Everyone has an opinion, and the internet can be forever.

The story moved quickly for me, and I loved the combination between chapters, newspaper articles, and text messages that go back and forth between Angeline and her friends or Cat and her friends. It adds really neat layers to the story that make it flow a lot easier and just increase the enjoyability of it. Sometimes you just need a break from the traditional chapter layout.

There were a couple of moments where I felt we didn’t have enough explanation in the story for a full picture. One of them was with Angeline and Cat’s dad as their relationship is strained, but I wanted to get into this a little more. Also, I wanted to explore Cat’s romantic situation a little more because although the summary seems to look at Angeline pretty heavily, I felt like the perspectives were pretty even between Cat and Angeline.

Overall, this was a very intriguing story and I look forward to seeing what Lori comes out with next. Definitely go and put it on your TBR if you’re looking for something funny sprinkled with a bunch of drama in between!

Sources Say is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up Sources Say? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Two exes. One election. All the drama.

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Morgan Matson comes a funny, hearfelt novel about fueding exes running for class president and the scandal that makes the previously boring school election the newest trending hashtag.

At Acedia High School outside of Boston, student council has always been nothing more than a popularity contest. Nobody pays attention. Nobody cares.

But all that changes when the Frankengirls show up. During the very first week of school, someone plasters the halls with Photoshopped images of three “perfect tens”–images of scantily clad girls made from real photos of girls at school. The student body is livid. And the two presidential candidates, Angeline Quinn and Leo Torres, jump on the opportunity to propose their solutions and secure votes. After their messy break up, Leo and Angie are fighting tooth and nail to win this thing and their constituents are mesmerized as they duke it out.

As if things couldn’t be more dramatic, the school’s two newspapers get involved. The Red & Blue is run by Angie’s sister Cat and she prides herself on only reporting the facts. But her morals are tested when The Shrieking Violet–written by an anonymous source and based less on facts and more on fiction–blatantly endorses Leo. Rumors fly, secrets are leaked, and the previously mundane student election becomes anything but boring.

The post Review: Sources Say by Lori Goldstein appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Summertime has always felt like peak reading season for me. Work is slower, the days are longer, and nothing feels better than sitting outside and reading a great book. So I’ve put together a list of books perfect for summer reading. Even if you don’t have a beach near you, you can pick up one of these and head out to the pool and pretend!

Whether you’re in need of a page-turning thriller or an adorable romance, there is something for everyone on this summer reading list!

1. A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell | Goodreads
2. The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory | Goodreads
3. The Other Mrs. Miller by Allison Dickson | Goodreads
4. Breathe In, Cash Out by Madeleine Henry | Goodreads
5. Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim | Goodreads

6. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman | Goodreads
7. Layover by David Bell | Goodreads
8. Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer | Goodreads
9. The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan | Goodreads
10. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo | Goodreads

11. Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food and Love Anthology | Goodreads
12. The Last Guest House by Megan Miranda | Goodreads
13. The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley | Goodreads
14. Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner | Goodreads
15. Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey | Goodreads

16. Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune by Roselle Lim | Goodreads
17. Man of the Year by Caroline Lousie Walker | Goodreads
18. Honestly We Meant Well by Grant Ginder | Goodreads
19. The Perfect Date by Evelyn Lozada & Holly Lorincz | Goodreads
20. Providence by Caroline Kepnes | Goodreads

21. Screen Queens by Lori Goldstein | Goodreads
22. Naturally Tan by Tan France | Goodreads
23. When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri | Goodreads
24. The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen | Goodreads
25. If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann | Goodreads

26. Mine by Courtney Cole | Goodreads
27. The Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley | Goodreads
28. The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren | Goodreads
29. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston | Goodreads
30. The Southern Side of Paradise by Kristy Woodson Harvey | Goodreads

Will you be adding any of these to your list? Or do you have any others you would recommend? Tell us in the comments below!

The post 30 Perfect Summer Beach Reads For 2019 appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

8 / 10

I love stories about the empowerment of women, especially in the tech world. Screen Queens will make readers quake with outrage at the injustice that women face everyday in the industry, and then turn that stereotype into fodder for change through three young women who’ve had enough. I laughed, I raged, and I ultimately loved this story. We get to see relationships challenged and change for the better, or at times, worse. More importantly, we get to see women empower each other, not just tear away at themselves.

At the crux of this story are Lucy, Maddie, and Delia. All three of these young women have just made it into ValleyStart, the tech program where they can jump start their dreams. For Lucy, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, getting to rub elbows with the big-wigs in tech as a future CEO in training. Maddie sees it as the ultimate chance to bolster her design portfolio and nothing else, while Delia is ready to find out if she can make it in the tech world as a self-taught coder. As the competition begins, these girls realise how challenging the weeks ahead will be, adding on the fact that if they win…they’ll be the first female only team to win. Let’s also add a first love, a nemesis ex, and a two faced mentor and we’ve got a wild ride ahead.

The story is told in three perspectives, which I quite liked, getting insight from Lucy, Maddie, and Delia really helped round out the story. More importantly, it helped distinguish their personalities, thoughts, and feelings. The character development in this story was really something. While I do love rooting for the main characters in the story, I will openly admit that I was a little underwhelmed with Lucy at the start. She comes off as superficial, fake, and ultimately only seeking to better her social status. I was disappointed, however, she does eventually grow on you. Not only that, but readers will begin to understand and see the motivations and drive behind her actions.

Maddie is quite the opposite in terms of Lucy, she likes to keep to herself, and is not in any way interested in Lucy’s machinations until she gets to know her. She’s a tough nut with a squishy center. The relationship she has with her brother was sweet, and I loved that this also showed in her interactions with other kids her brother’s age. Delia is the shyest and youngest of the group, very timid and soft spoken. However, she’s got a back-bone of steel. One of my favourite scenes is toward the very beginning, where she stands up for herself in front of Lucy. It’s an assertion that she might be shy, but she will not let people bully or put her down.

These girls are besieged by challenges of all kinds, but I think the most important one is how they’re treated by some of the men within this book. They are objectified, ridiculed, and their accomplishments minimised especially in comparison to men. It made their pushback so incredibly satisfying to read. It expressed the solidarity that women should have in the face of someone attempting to tear them down.

Though the story did feel to start off a little slow, it definitely gained momentum and strength as I kept reading. I couldn’t put it down toward the end. There was a sweet romance as well that slowly builds, and felt satisfyingly quirky. There’s also a lot of humour to be found in this story, and I loved it, even when I got side-eyed at work while reading. That being said, at times there were moments where I felt there was a disconnect between certain characters, like we were potentially missing some important development in certain scenes. It isn’t enough to be really bothersome, but I think other readers might also find the same thing happening as they are reading.

Ultimately, Screen Queens attempts to dismantle outdated ways of thinking; especially sexism and the attitudes of men towards women in the tech world. Though there are some minor things that I didn’t love, overall, it’s a great story. It’s an 8/10 for me. I encourage others to pick up and read this story, especially if you need a dose of women empowerment. It will also make an excellent summer read.

Screen Queens is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.

Have you read Screen Queens? Or will you be checking it out? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

The Bold Type meets The Social Network when three girls vying for prestigious summer internships through a startup incubator program uncover the truth about what it means to succeed in the male-dominated world of tech.

This summer Silicon Valley is a girls’ club.

Three thousand applicants. An acceptance rate of two percent. A dream internship for the winning team. ValleyStart is the most prestigious high school tech incubator competition in the country. Lucy Katz, Maddie Li, and Delia Meyer have secured their spots. And they’ve come to win.

Meet the Screen Queens.

Lucy Katz was born and raised in Palo Alto, so tech, well, it runs in her blood. A social butterfly and CEO in-the-making, Lucy is ready to win and party.

East Coast designer, Maddie Li left her home and small business behind for a summer at ValleyStart. Maddie thinks she’s only there to bolster her graphic design portfolio, not to make friends.

Delia Meyer taught herself how to code on a hand-me-down computer in her tiny Midwestern town. Now, it’s time for the big leagues–ValleyStart–but super shy Delia isn’t sure if she can hack it (pun intended).

When the competition kicks off, Lucy, Maddie, and Delia realize just how challenging the next five weeks will be. As if there wasn’t enough pressure already, the girls learn that they would be the only all-female team to win ever. Add in one first love, a two-faced mentor, and an ex-boyfriend turned nemesis and things get…complicated.

Filled with humor, heart, and a whole lot of girl power, Screen Queens is perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, Jenny Han, and The Bold Type.

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