Seventeen-year-old Evan Panos doesn’t know where he fits in. His strict Greek mother refuses to seem him as anything but a disappointment. His quiet, workaholic father is a staunch believer in avoiding any kind of conflict. And his best friend Henry has somehow become distractingly attractive over the summer.

Tired, isolated, scared–Evan’s only escape is drawing in an abandoned church that feels as lonely as he is. And, yes, he kissed one guy over the summer. But it’s his best friend Henry who’s now proving to be irresistible. It’s Henry who suddenly seems interested in being more than friends. And it’s Henry who makes him believe that he’s more than his mother’s harsh words and terrifying abuse. But as things with Henry heat up, and his mother’s abuse escalates, Evan has to decide how to find his voice in a world where he has survived so long by avoiding attention at all costs.

I am crying from 38,000 feet in the air as I type this. The Dangerous Art of Blending In has given me every feel, even some I didn’t know I had. It was beautifully and eloquently written. It was heartbreaking and soul shattering and amazing. It was overwhelming and wonderful and I’m currently so hungover I can’t figure out how this world existed before The Dangerous Art of Blending In and how it will continue to exist now that I’ve finished it.

Big trigger warning ahead: This book deals with child abuse in a very real and a very raw way. If this is something that is triggering to you, proceed with caution.

Li has a father and a sister who love her. A best friend, Mirabae, to share things with. She goes to school and hangs out at the beach and carefully follows the rules. She has to. Everyone she knows–her family, her teachers, her friends–is an alien. And she is the only human left on Earth.

Alright, I admit it. I judge books by their covers. I totally do. I’m going to guess most of you do, too. It’s okay, really. Here’s the things about book covers: they help us to mentally categorize books in our head. We all know a fantasy book from a mile away, even if that’s not a genre we’re familiar with, based solely on the cover. Almost 90% of the time. Sometimes publishers even use this to their advantage. When I was in college, right after Twilight became the sensation it was, some publisher recovered classic novels like Pride and Prejudice to looks just like Twilight. And it worked because we all judge books by their covers.

Secrets are con artists: they trick you into letting them out.

This book was not what I was expecting when I first downloaded it. The blurb that accompanied it was vague and mysterious and something about that intrigued me.

Sadie loves her rocker boyfriend Henry and her running partner and best friend Lucie, but no one can measure up to her truest love and hero, the dazzling and passionate George. George, her secret.

When something goes wrong and Sadie is taken to the hospital calling out for George, her hidden life may be exposed. Now she must confront the truth of the past, and protect a world she is terrified to lose.

I don’t know why I was so drawn to this blurb, but it spoke to me and I wanted to read it immediately. And I’m so glad I did!

I started my year off reading You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon. It was such a wonderful read and really something unlike I would regularly read.

A little bit about this book. It’s a short-story collection predominantly about army wives at Ft. Hood. The stories focus on families and the way they are changed and affected by their husbands’ involvement in the army. The stories are well-written and thoughtful and poignant.