Book Review: The Reunion Dinner (Busybodies Collection, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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The Reunion Dinner (Busybodies Collection, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto is the second book in the Busybodies Collection on Amazon Prime. It opens to an Asian American family gathering to celebrate the Chinese New Year when one of the guest unexpectedly dies. The cops are called, and the family matriarch is trying to figure out who committed murder. I enjoyed the first short story in this series so much that I decided to read the next in the series. These are all stand alone stories by different authors and are available to borrow for free or purchase from Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this installment as the first one as I didn't care for the characters as much, and the main character seemed a little overbearing. However, I did like learning a little about the Chinese New Year, some of the food served, and a tradition or two.  What kept me from rating this story higher is that I absolutely hated the ending of the story. I won't say more as I don't want to g
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Book Review: If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner

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book review if you can hear this faith gardner
If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner is a Young Adult Mystery & Thriller novel about a high school AV Club and the search of their teacher who is missing. The expected publication date of this book is November 19, 2024. I'd like to thank NetGalley for sending me an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this book for free in exchange for my honest review. 

Overall, I can say that I really enjoyed the storyline. It reminded me of the Point Horror Books of the 1980's and 1990's and followed a similar formula. There were plenty of suspects and motives throughout but was a bit predictable.

Additionally, I liked that the author had a diverse group of characters in the book, including two or three from the LGTBQ+ community, a couple that were people of color, and one that had a mental illness. I think it's important to include a diverse group of characters so that everyone has a book to read that depicts someone like them as well as educating others on people who are different from them.

What surprised me the most is that the school newspaper was disbanded and that there was actually an AV Club. I'd think that it would've been called something more updated like the Multimedia Club or having a school television show. Do kids these days even know what an AV Club is? I know that the television show Stranger Things might have brought some light to these type of clubs, but I don't know if that would be enough for it to be relatable to kids and teens today.

Four out of five stars is what I gave If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner. It's great for tweens and teens as I think they will find certain situations relatable. Adults who like to read YA should enjoy this book for the nostalgic features.


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