I’m old enough for that to be romantic and adorable before reading Kelly Anne Blount’s and Lynn Rush’s In The Penalty Box.
After a horrendous injury, Willow Covington is home nursing her wounds. She’s doing what she can to work her way back to the Olympic Figure Skating Team she was on before getting hurt. It just isn’t going well. Going to open ice time at the local ice rinks is giving her practice and keeping her sane.
I’m a huge Pintip Dunn fan, and it doesn’t matter if she’s writing sci-fi or contemporary YA I adore the stories she writes. If there is one thing, Pintip Dunn gets its conveying teen temptation in a repressed and traditional Asian community, and I always appreciate the diversity of her characters. This book is a fantastic introduction to her books if you’ve not read her before!
Dating Makes Perfect characters Winnie and Mat remind me of Alice and Bandit from Malice, but this story has zero sci-fi elements. Like Alice and Bandit, Winnie and Mat are a contentious pair, and Winnie, of course, thinks Mat is the entire problem when the actual issue is Winnie’s arrogance. These two are one of my favorite YA pairs of 2020. Mat is just the sort of book boyfriend you want for your sister, and I say that as a Bunny.
So much happens between page 1 and page 407 that I can’t even. Donna Grant just kept dropping hints, leads, and bombs, I had whiplash. I started wondering if she was worried her readers were losing interest and needed to reel us back in or what, but Flame never lets up and never lets one down. I need a nap.
Title: Malice Author: Pintip Dunn Genre: YA Sci-fi, Thriller My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Are you the same person now as you will be ten years from now?
One of the existential questions Pintip Dunn’s asks of her heroine in her newest page-turning YA Sci-fi, Thriller. Malice is Pintip Dunn doing what she does best, testing her readers to see possibilities that lay just outside what we accept as possible.
Who is Alice Sherman? She would say she’s a loyal sister, loyal friend, a person who sees the best in things, but admittedly, the worst baker. Alice is chugging along despite difficulties in a broken family, keeping a STEM preoccupied older brother anchored to the outside world. And this girl has her eyes on the prize; she isn’t going to let boys distract her from surviving highschool. She doesn’t date.
Pintip Dunn sets up this story with slow-rolling reveals which increase the pace and urgency of the evolving narrative. Couched inside the mystery is an ever-present reminder that there is no way we can know today what challenges to come will change us fundamentally. What motivates us right now can flip on a switch with a new catalyst.
