Overcoming Trauma

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir is a 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee.

Sal and Noor have been friends since childhood. They are Pakistani, and have endured varying levels of racism and isolation.

Their relationship is put to the test during their senior year of high school. First is their separation after Noor tried to kiss Sal. Then they lose Sal’s mom (she was also Noor’s mother figure) to kidney disease.

The story gradually reveals that both characters have different abusive backgrounds. Noor’s is still occurring. Her only out is to go to college, but she has been denied by most of them. Sal has turned to selling drugs to save his family’s motel, while his dad spirals deeper into alcoholism.

Events transpire between both characters’ viewpoints, along with various chapters devoted to Sal’s mom. Her chapters reveal how she became married and their move to California, as well as her hopes for the future.

One impactful message: “If we are lost, God is like water, finding the unknowable path when we cannot.” The author did an amazing job of weaving their stories together, and in doing so, providing strength and beauty amidst misfortune.

Home Run

Golden Arm by Carl Decker is a 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee that explores privilege versus poverty in sport recruitment. It’s a realistic fiction book.

Laz is a solid pitcher, but he doesn’t get any attention at his current school. When his high school’s new principal cuts the baseball team, he is fortunate enough to get an offer to play at a nearby high school with way more opportunity.

Laz begins getting positive attention. But he is torn between this new life and his real life. In real life, he has a half brother caught up with a known drug dealer. And his family was just relocated to a new trailer home without enough space for him.

This book will appeal to sports fans, especially baseball. It was a straightforward story with a positive message about working hard and staying true to oneself.

Magical Powers

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is first in a series and also a 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee.

The main character, Galadriel, is a student at a wizard school. She is basically on her own until another student begins impacting her existence. He repeatedly saves her life (and the lives of other classmates) from the various monsters that prowl around the school. As graduation day approaches, more and more creatures are on the loose. El and her new friends will need to work together to ensure their safety and their hopes to reach senior year alive.

For me, this story had a great premise but I struggled to finish it. The narration was very chatty and assumed the reader would understand all the wizarding jargon. This left me feeling a bit lost and not hungry for more.

Breaking Patterns

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover explores the struggles and perspectives around abusive relationships.

The story begins following Lily’s father’s funeral. She isn’t very broken up considering his abusiveness toward her mother growing up. She meets Ryle in this moment. He is a handsome neurosurgeon who is only interested in one night stands.

Fast forward a year and Lily is opening her dream flower store. It turns out that her new hire is Ryle’s sister. It’s only a matter of time before they become involved.

Meanwhile, flashbacks are provided through Lily’s letters to Ellen Degeneres, her favorite tv personality as a teen. Through her letters we discover her first true love was a homeless young man that she developed a relationship with as he was staying in the abandoned home near her.

All seems great until Ryle shows his aggressive side on more than one occasion. Lily doesn’t want to repeat the abusive pattern that she witnessed growing up, but she acknowledges the complexity of the situation.

The book was predictable for me, but still kept my interest.

Kansas Killers

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a classic that I hadn’t read until now.

It is an account of the real-life murder of the Clutter family in 1959. The family of four was well-respected and liked in their small Kansas town. Their murders shocked the town and instigated a tireless search to apprehend the killers.

The book provides background on the two men responsible for their deaths. Events detail their eventual capture, trial and deaths.

It is a chilling story due to its reality. The murderers are two very different men who managed to connect during time in prison. They shared a desire for easy money and disregard for human lives.

Girl Life

Pieces of a Girl by Stephanie Kuehnert is a memoir. In it Stephanie shares her growing up experiences through journal entries, sketches and photographs.

She recounts her awkwardness and being bullied as a young girl to bouts of depression and self harm through her teen and young adult years. She endured abusive relationships while working to find her voice and strength.

Her outlets were music and her writing. Eventually following and writing for zines provided her with a sense of girl power. Friends also supported her through life’s ups and downs. Stephanie was able to overcome her struggles to find her purpose.

Crime Solvers

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is first in a crime mystery series.

Cassie learned the art of reading people from her gypsy-like mom. After her mom’s apparent murder/disappearance, she went to live with her paternal grandmother. She never quite felt that she belonged.

Enter an offer to join a special teen squad training with FBI agents. Each teen in the group, the naturals, offers a unique ability to help solve cold cases. Dean is a natural people profiler like Cassie, Michael can read emotions, Sloane is a statistician, and Lia is an expert lie detector (and pathological liar).

Cassie begins learning more about each of her peers. Some have seemingly more to hide than others.

A recent slew of murders seem connected to Cassie’s mom’s death. She can’t help but get involved, even though she may be the next victim. The story follows twists and turns before resolving the case.

Family Road Trip

Huda F. Cares by Huda Fahmy is a story about family and acceptance. It is a graphic novel.

Huda is on a road trip to Disney with her parents and three of her four sisters. Her parents split the sisters into differing pairs each day to explore the park. The only rule is to meet back for meals at the correct time.

Huda meets a possible friend, but struggles with her Muslim identity amidst a sometimes unaccepting public. Overall, she comes to better understand and respect her sisters while gaining confidence in herself.

Love or Friendship

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead is book four of the Vampire Academy series.

In this one, Rose travels alone to Siberia to find Dmitri who was turned into a Strigoi at the end of book three. She aims to fulfill their promise to kill the other if they ever get turned.

Rose meets a group of humans called Alchemists whose role is to keep vampires hidden from the regular population. She also meets Dmitiri’s family and contemplates staying with them for good. However, her quest is stronger. She joins a rogue group of Dhampir to hunt Strigoi in hopes of finding Dmitri. Things don’t go as planned once she is captured.

Dmitri is determined to turn Rose and is feeding off her to keep her weakened and dependent on him. Meanwhile, she keeps tabs on events at the Academy by slipping into Lissa’s mind and through Adrian’s dream visits.

Spoilers- Rose senses that Lissa is in danger due to another Moroi spirit user named Avery. This is just the push she needs to come to her senses and fight back. She manages to get away, but now the Strigoi she was chasing is after her. A twist is that there may be someone who can heal Strigoi, but he’s related to Victor (the Moroi they just had imprisoned for life). This will mean leaving the Academy again for a seemingly impossible fairy tale.

I can’t wait to see where this goes in the next and final book of the series.

Dark Aura

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead is book three of the Vampire Academy series (two more to go!).

Rose’s Strigoi kills in book two further enhance her shadow-kissed state. Now she is able to see ghosts and has a physical reaction when Strigoi are near. Mason’s ghost keeps appearing and she realizes he is trying to give her a warning. Her bond with Lissa has also changed. Now she is taking on Lissa’s negative emotions which is making Rose more violent at times.

They travel to the royal court for Victor’s trial. The Queen makes her intentions clear- she wants Lissa close by so she can monitor her. She also wants to keep her away from Christian so she can try to match her with her nephew Adrian. Rose and Dimitri’s relationship also progresses, but hits a major roadblock at the end.

Mason’s warning plays out in a massive battle against a large group of Strigoi who manage to break the wards and stage an attack within the Academy. Lives will be lost or turned to Strigoi. Rose decides to leave the Academy, which is where the story ends for now.