Tag: female empowerment

The Do-Over by Suzanne Park

The Do-Over by Suzanne Park

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Avon in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Lily is on the verge of getting everything she wants, including the release of a second book (which she technically still needs to write), and her dream job. But the employee background check for the new job turns up a surprise – Lily never actually graduated from college.

Now she has to go back and pick up the last few credits she needs – plus a STEM class to meet the current catalog requirements – and then she can get back to her life.

But the TA in her Computer Science class was her college sweetheart. He’s there finishing a PhD, and Lily wants to pretend he doesn’t exist. But Jake is hotter than ever – and he wants closure on what happened between them. He’s going to be super hard to ignore.

Review

I enjoyed this  – the characters, the attention to mental health, and Lily’s journey through shame to pride in herself as she goes back to school. There are just enough challenges along the way to keep this interesting. And we do get a flashback of what happened way back when between Jake and Lily. I felt like the personal journey for Lily was more satisfying for me than the romance with Jake, but both were good.

The three women at the center of this story are a delight. I would read more books with these three at the center, so if this is going to turn into one of those series where each character gets a book, I am all in for more. You can see my reviews of more books by this author here – there are a couple I would absolutely read again.

Rating: ♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥½ = Good +

REVIEW: Screen Queens by Lori Goldstein

REVIEW: Screen Queens by Lori Goldstein

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

ValleyStart is a summer tech incubator program. The winners of the summer competition would secure an internship at Pulse, the hottest influencer rating app. Lucy is hoping to win ValleyStart to get her off the wait list for Standford. She’s gotten Ryan Thompson, founder of Pulse, as her mentor. Her whole life has been leading her to this moment. She’s ready to crush ValleyStart.

Maddie isn’t happy about leaving her brother Danny to go to ValleyStart. But he’ll be at summer camp while she’s gone, and that will keep him out of the War of the Worlds going on between their parents. But really, ValleyStart is just something else to put on her resumé to help her build her graphic design business. Win or lose, she’ll be fine.

Delia is feeling out of her depth at ValleyStart. She’s more than capable of handling the coding. But she’s working part time while she’s there, and she’s self-conscious about all her parents sacrificed to get her there. If she can win, she can get a tech job. And then that money can save her parents’ theater. No pressure.

ValleyStart has never had an all-female team win the competition before. Tech tends to be a boys club. And all three of these girls are aware of that. But this summer at ValleyStart will be their chance to show what they can do to stand out in the crowd.

Review

I loved this!! In the beginning, the girls are a little prickly, and it takes awhile for them to thaw to one another. But once they started clicking as a team, I was in it until the final page. (And I actually would have been happy to have another couple chapters!)

I loved the core characters. And I loved them even more when they stepped away from ValleyStart and engaged with a middle school tech day camp. It was a fantastic example of what can be gained when you take your eyes off yourself and your situation for awhile and focus on someone else.

There’s an excellent female empowerment message through the whole book – from celebrating the history of women in technology to looking out for the next generation of coders, designers and developers. I can’t recommend this highly enough. Do not miss this one!! (Language)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½