Thank you to the author for the complimentary ARC audio version.

Grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, closed door romance. 

When quirky, friendly Olive gets a job as a server working on a catering gig, she makes quite an impression on Ignacio, the serious, grumpy head chef. Their paths cross again when she shows up to work at his family restaurant.  The addition of an LA surfer gang was a unique twist (do those really exist?). I loved the part where Olive and Ignacio go to Arizona to celebrate his Abuelo's birthday and she continues to make quite an impression. I mean, what do you when you go down on one knee to catch a scorpion in a box, and your entire extended family (watching from a distance) thinks you've just proposed to your fake girlfriend? 

This is book #2 in the Precio brothers series.  I haven't read book #1, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Language: None

Sex: None

Violence: None

The Order of Things by Kaija Langley

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC.

April and Zee are best friends and are looking forward to turning 12.  April wants to be a professional drummer and Zee is a prodigy violinist.  When Zee starts to attend a special school, it begins a chain of events that will change April in ways she never imagined.

This middle-grade novel in verse tugs at your heartstrings.  The main character experiences loss, finding out a new friend is in trouble, her parent beginning a new relationship, helping a neighbor in need, and growing in ways she never imagined. Langley paints a setting of real community and chosen family in her novel. I loved the tender and compassionate way the author tackled such serious topics and themes as depression, death, addiction, domestic violence, mourning, single parenting, a gay parent dating, and foster care.  

Language: None

Sex: None, April's mom begins dating a woman

Violence: April's friend is in a home with addiction and domestic violence, violent acts are not described.