Matthew reads, I guess...

  Do you ever see a book and get interested in it? And then do you ever read the blurb, or synopsis, and then realise you’ve just picked up a book that might be the most you-coded book? That happened for me with They Hate Each Other by Amanda Woody. The blurbs says that Jonah Collins and Dylan Ramirez hate each other. Jonas views Dylan as a spoiled, arrogant golden boy, whilst Dylan thinks Jonah is an attention-seeking show-off who never shuts his mouth. Their friends are convinced Jonah and Dylan’s mutual disdain is just thinly veiled lust – a rumour that surges like wildfire when they wake up together in one bed after homecoming. Horrified, the pair agree to use the faux pas to their advantage: they decide to keep up the fake dating ruse, then end their “relationship” in a massive staged fight, proving their incompatibility once and for all. But the more time they spend together, the more they begin to question their true feelings. Could there be a fine line between love and h...

  So today I’m talking about Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson. I’ve read a couple of other books by Jackson and enjoyed them, which is why I didn’t really hesitate to read this one either. The blurb says that today’s the day everything changes. Jamal Lawson just wanted to be a part of something. As an aspiring journalist, he packs up his camera and heads to Baltimore to document a rally protesting police brutality after another black man is murdered. But before the protest even begins, the city implements a new safety protocol: the Dome. The Dome surrounds the city, forcing those inside it to subscribe to a total militarised shutdown. No one can get in or out. Alone and in a strange place, Jamal doesn’t know where to turn… until he meets hacker Marco, who knows more than he lets on, and Catherine, an AWOL basic training graduate, whose parents helped build the initial plans for the Dome. As unrest in Baltimore grows throughout the days-long lockdown, Jamal, Marco, and Catherin...

  Today I’m talking about Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher, and I picked this up from the Portal Bookshop that lives in the Shambles in York. Shoutout to that shop, it was one of my favourite places to go when I used to live there, but I don’t live there and don’t get to go all that often anymore. Rip. The blurb is saying that Gwen and Art are not in love, rather inconveniently, however, they are betrothed – and now Art’s been invited to Camelot to prepare for the wedding. It’s going to be a long, hot summer of jousts, feasts and trying not to kill each other. Until Gwen catches Art kissing a stable boy and Art digs up Gwen’s breathless diary entries about the kingdom’s only female knight, Lady Bridget Leclair. Perhaps they’d make better allies than enemies. Maybe it’s worth convincing everyone that they make a disgustingly perfect couple after all. But with Gwen growing closer to Bridget, and Art drawn to Gwen’s brother, Gabriel, the path to true love is looking f...