70. Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

listened on Audible
read by Brittany Pressley and Kirby Heybourne
Unabridged audio (10:16)
2017, Bloomsbury
391 pgs.
Contemporary YA Fiction
Finished 7/29/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.36 - 15,403 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary America

First line/s:   "I need to stop staring at this letter."

My comments: This was a pretty intense story about the relationship between two high school seniors who poured out their hearts to each other via anonymous letters and then emails.  Both had baggage.  Lots of baggage.  And very weird home lives, sad for one, debilitating for the other.  Their correspondence was better than therapy, and it was fun to watch as they discovered each others' real identity.  Definitely more intense than lighthearted, an interesting thought-provoking read.

Goodreads synopsis:  Juliet Young always writes letters to her mother, a world-traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother's death, she leaves letters at her grave. It's the only way Juliet can cope.
          Declan Murphy isn't the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he's trying to escape the demons of his past.
          When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he's opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.

67. The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

read on my iPhone (eBook)
2015, Feiwel & Friends
304 pgs.
YA Romance
Finished 7/21/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.93 - 13,480 ratings
My rating:5
Setting:  Contemporary San Francisco

First line/s:  "The last train wasn't coming."

My comments:  Ignore the reviews that put this book in the "so-so" category.  Those reviewers have read huge amount of ya literature and are probably quite a distance away from being young adults themselves.  This is a modern romance that includes a little bit of everything and treats teenage sex with healthy respect.  I've gotten to know San Francisco a bit in the last ten years, and it was really fun to follow Bex and Jack around the city.  Both are artists who come from very different families and income brackets, and both are suffering from a backload of family "stuff."  Who isn't, so almost any ya can relate!  The two themes that I truly appreciated in this book were those of honesty and schizophrenia.  Both were handled really well, though so were single parenting, being gay, and sexuality.  Really good book.

Goodreads synopsis: Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.
           Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?