Tag: feminism

REVIEW: Sidelined by Suzanne Baltsar

REVIEW: Sidelined by Suzanne Baltsar

Posted on by Jaymie

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

Summary

Charlie Gibb has been working in recruitment at Georgia Tech for five years. But no matter what she does – playing professional women’s football, assistant coaching special teams, or recruitment – she knows this is the best she will get at Georgia Tech. Too many people think she only has the job she does because her dad is the football coach. So she goes looking for another job. And she ends up head coach at Douglass High School in Minneapolis.

Connor McGuire has been with the Douglass team for eight years. When the coach retired, everyone assumed Connor, the offensive coordinator, would get the job. But Charlie got it instead. Connor knows the players and the parents. He’s put in the time. Who is this woman they chose over him?!

There’s a lot of push and pull between Connor and Charlie as Charlie develops her team and Connor discovers she might actually know what she’s talking about. Charlie’s own past causes her to keep impossibly high standards for herself both professionally and personally, making it hard to feel like she has found a home in Minneapolis.  Add to that the forces at work that want to push her off the team. When push comes to shove, will Connor stand with her or against her?

Review

This was great! I loved the football pieces and the character development in this. The feminist story line had some familiar themes, but they felt fresh in the context of this football story. It was great.

I liked Charlie and Connor as a couple, although it was often more antagonistic than warm between them. The larger circle of their friends, and Connor’s family, had a fun dynamic, too. I haven’t read the first book, Trouble Brewing, which includes some of these same characters, but that didn’t impact my enjoyment of this story on its own.

I enjoyed the wrap up of the conflicts central to the story. I especially enjoyed some encouragement Charlie gets in one part of the book to keep a bigger/wider perspective on her skills and experience. I thought it was a good reminder for anyone in a tough work situation.

Fans of The Playbook series or romance stories in general (and the enemies to lovers trope in specific) should check this one out! (Language, sex)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy

REVIEW: Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Elementia is a trilogy of fantasy books written by the late M. E. Thorne. They’re like a female-led Lord of the Rings. The fandom is just as robust and outspoken. And they aren’t sold on the movie version being filmed in Ireland and directed by a woman.

Iris and Ryder Thorne may be the grandchildren of M. E. Thorne, but they didn’t really know her. As far as their dad is concerned, the books are garbage and they should have nothing to do with them except to bank the royalties as they roll in.

But Ryder fell in love with the books. And after a traumatic run in with a fan, the books seem to help him with the emotional fall out. So he begs their dad to go to Ireland for the filming. Since their dad is on a book deadline, he sends Iris to keep tabs on young Ryder.

Iris would love nothing more than to watch the movie crash and burn. She resents having to parent her younger brother, and she’s terrified of another fan making their family a part of his or her psychotic episode. As Iris gets to know the director and actors for the film, she starts to see Elementia, her family, and herself in new ways.

Review

I stumbled across this one at the library and decided to give it a try. What an unexpected delight! I loved the idea of this – the fantasy book series, the siblings in Ireland, the family drama, and the filming. Iris is awesome – so complicated. The development of her character across the book was one of my favorite things about this. She grows and tries and fails and tries again. She struggles to find her own voice under the barrage of her father’s criticism in her head. It was a terrific journey to watch unfold.

There are so many factors stacked against the movie that there were a lot of roadblocks to keep the story in the book moving forward. The actors, director, and film crew made a little temporary family for Iris and Ryder. Their real family – the off-in-her-own space mom and the angry dad with mother and grief issues of his own – were yet another layer to the larger story.

All of the pieces of this worked for me – the two kids finding their way together in their own lives and with their parents, the romance, the fantasy story in the filming, the feminist threads, and the fandom issues. I thoroughly enjoyed this! Hand this to kids who love fandoms or fandom stories. (Some language)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

REVIEW: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Vivian is a junior at a small high school in Texas. The football team is the pride and joy of the town, whether they are winning or losing. The whole town shuts down for games so absolutely anyone and everyone can go.

The team is the pride of the school as well. Money is funneled to the football program while other areas – girls soccer, textbooks, the science lab – are making due with decades-old material and supplies. And the football players themselves are untouchable.

Vivian has watched these things play out for years. The boys on the football team make derogatory comments to girls or make sexual references, and they never get called out by a teacher. In fact, the principal’s son is one of the worst offenders – but his daddy protects him at every turn.

Vivian is starting to take notice of her mom’s old feminist zines and music. And she’s tired of watching the injustices around her. She doesn’t want to just duck her head and endure the harassment anymore. If she could dare to show a little “moxie” at school, would anyone else step up and push back, too?

Review

This was exceptionally good. And also completely infuriating. The injustices going on in the story made my blood boil. And Viv’s reaction was realistic. She wanted to speak up, to fight back. But she also wanted to spare herself and her family any trouble. She felt helpless to stop a culture of misogyny that had been around for ages. The system was set up against the girls. What power does one 16-year-old girl have in such a situation?

Part of the power of the story was the message of what can be accomplished when enough people decide to be brave. Viv took the first (anonymous) step. But Moxie wasn’t just her thing. It became a counter-culture, little by little. It let students feel like they weren’t alone.

One of my favorite parts of the book was Viv’s clueless, well-intentioned  boyfriend. He’s a great guy who sees and recognizes the big issues, but some of the more subtle pieces he misses. He’s been indoctrinated in some ways – we all have. And that is explored in the novel, too.

This is an important and timely story for teens – and adults – regardless of gender. These issues need to be seen and discussed so we can make things better for those who come behind us. I highly recommend this novel. It’s one my whole family will be reading and discussing this summer.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: Frat Girl by Kiley Roache

REVIEW: Frat Girl by Kiley Roache

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

When it’s time for Cassie to apply for college, the only place she wants to go is Warren University. So that’s the only place she applies.  They promise tons of financial aid for everyone. Unfortunately for Cassie, the school’s definition of “financial need” and her real life do not line up. So if she’s going to attend her dream school, she’s going to need a miracle.

Enter The Stevenson Scholarship. With the right project, Cassie can win the money she needs to go to Warren. And in a sea of IT proposals, a gender studies project could really grab the committee’s attention.

Warren University was in the news recently when they placed the Delta Tau Chi fraternity on probation for “creating a hostile environment for women.” So Cassie’s project is to rush the fraternity and write a first-hand account of the experience as a woman. Sure enough, Cassie wins the scholarship.

Armed with a Project Coordinator from the scholarship board, a faculty adviser Cassie has idolized for years, and more than a few pre-conceived ideas about Greek life at a university, Cassie is ready to take on the men of DTC and make history that will help her fund college for the next four years.

Review

I almost gave up on this book a few times early on. I found Cassie to be abrasive and crass at times and entrenched in her own ideas of men and women and feminism and fraternities. For a student hoping to be a social researcher, her biases were startling.

But as the story evolved, and Cassie was challenged in some of her assumptions, I started to like her a little more. But to be honest, I liked several of the frat guys even more in the end. As Cassie got to know some of these young men, it changed how she thought about her project, which was great. (She still could use some growth in how she looked at the women around her, though.)

No matter what enlightenment Cassie or the “brothers” might achieve through the story, it was still working toward the inevitable moment when her research would be published and her secret agenda would be exposed. It was painful to wait for that unavoidable calamity (but in a good way). In the end, I was glad I stuck with the story all the way through.

In some ways, this is an abrasive and crass story – it’s not just Cassie. This hits all the stereotypes about fraternities. There’s a ridiculous amount of drinking considering most of the characters are college freshmen. There’s drugs and foul language and a lot of conversation about sexual double standards and sexual conduct. But there are also these fantastic character moments. And challenging conversations about what feminism is and what equality should look like for many minority groups. These sections made me think, which I liked.

If the feminism angle appeals to you, and you are comfortable with the details mentioned above, I recommend this as a thought-provoking story about equality and feminism and the relationships between men and women – and what all of those things might look like on a college campus.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for the opportunity to read an electronic review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions about this book are my own.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥