The Girl and the Grove is quick the thought provoking book. Leila had a difficult life at times. Never knowing her parents. Very complex, and she did grow throughout. (Sarika was so funny.) Enjoyable pop culture references though.

A sweet and touching sorry and the oerisk do the foster care system an fthe wys that nature can heal. Lelia stole my heart in reading this story and I greatly enjoyed getting to see her progression throughout the story.

Ultimately I had to DNF this book. It just didn't mesh well with my reading style. The writing is very lovely and artistic

There were a lot of things I liked, but the things I didn't seriously irritated me. Pacing was a bit all over the place, and I couldn't stand the mean girl character.

My top 4 favorite things about THE GIRL AND THE GROVE:

-The activism- So many teens are engaging on all sorts of social issues, especially climate change, and I love the passion Leila has.

-The representation of adoption- While MG and YA have historically featured so many orphan characters or characters otherwise separated from their parents, it's much less common to see representation of healthy, realistic adoption.

-The writing- The writing style is so smooth and uses incredible imagery, particularly in the scenes with Fairmount Park.

-The relationships- I already mentioned the realistic adoption relationship between Leila and her family, but there's also really fun friend and romantic relationships. The romance took unexpected turns and had me in full grins.

Thank you to Flux and Netgalley for sending this book my way!

I was so so excited for this book! Somehow, I missed the email that I had been accepted for this book. I do intend to get my own copy and read it soon.

The premise of this book was very unique. I've never read a book like it. The writing style was artistic, in my opinion, but the overall story did not keep me as engaged as I like to be in books. Definitely a good read!

The Girl and the grove was a suspenseful, heartfelt, and atmospheric read. It took a while for the magic to happen, but once it did, the stakes shot up. Leila's insecurities were intense and understandable given her history, and her passion for preserving nature was admirable. Sarika was the best and most badass best friend; I was cheering her on every time she faced down that bitch Jessica, who was an antagonist I loved to hate. The romance with Shawn was a disaster and the romance with Landon was cuter but felt less compelling than the other plot arcs. To be honest, I think this story could have done without a romance.

Thanks to this story, I lowkey want my own owl like Milford even though I know it's not possible or ethical. I love that the theme of family was interwoven into everything and how Leila was given space to process her feelings about her adoptive parents and reach her own place of comfort. I also enjoyed the use of social media as epistolary throughout, which gave the book its contemporary anchor. I think everyone can walk away from this story with not only a full heart but also a greater appreciation for nature and the uphill battle we face with fighting ecological destruction.

The Girl and the Grove was an amazing fantasy story. I wasn't expecting at all what I found in this book although it wasn't the best book I've ever read. The plot was super original but the author missed the opportunity of making it so much better. Complete review in Spanish on my web page.

An entertaining read, lovely characters to follow and a story with potential. The first 10-20% of the book was cool. I liked the main character and loved her adoptive parents. Her friendship with Sarika was also probably the best part of the book. After that initial beginning of the story, I had no idea what was happening. It wasn't as if too much was happening, I just... couldn't understand where the story was going.

I really enjoyed The Girl & the Grove by Eric Smith! I look forward to future books by him! Would definitely recommend!

Errrrrric! I always love Eric Smith's books. A dash a geek, a slice of unique, thats Eric's books to a T. Give me more of this and less of the usual suspects.

Unfortunately this book does not appeal to me anymore so had to dnf it at the moment. Not my kind of book

I have to start by saying this book was unlike anything I’ve read before. I feel like it’s best not knowing much about it before you jump in, because a lot could spoil key points to the story. While there was significant character development, I would consider this one more plot driven.

Leila and Sarika were such fun characters, I loved their interactions and how genuine they seemed. Their banter back and forth made me laugh, as much as their sweet personal moments made my heart swell. I would absolutely want a best friend like Sarika in my life. The fact that they overcame so much was admirable and just made me love them even more. Leila’s adoptive parents were wonderful, I loved all the scenes where they interacted.

If you are looking for a different type of contemporary read, with gorgeous writing, look no further. I have to mention the fantasy parts of the books aren’t super prominent (maybe because I’m an avid fantasy reader), but there is some element of fantasy. The only slight issue I had with it was that the story seemed to unfold extremely fast, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pace.

Eric Smith is a huge advocate for diversity in publication, and an amazing storyteller. I have enjoyed books by diverse authors he reps, like Brave Enough by Kati Gardner ( My review will be up this Friday) and Love, Hate, and Other Filters ( read my review here). I also enjoyed reading his amazing fantasy novel, Inked ( read my review here). So when I saw he had a new book released, and a plotline so unique and intriguing, I had to pick it up.

The Girl and the Grove is a beautiful story composed of multiple factors of awesomeness. It bares it all, from familial relationships, amazing friendships, unique voices, magical elements, to environmental activism and SAD Rep.

I also loved how the book wasn’t just composed of regular chapters in terms of format, but it also literally displayed the message boards and private messages of the Eco-Activists. Toothless always added a lot of spice to the ongoing conversation.

The characters are all well fleshed. Leila is a lionheart; a warrior who has built walls cause she is afraid to accept that she deserves to be loved by her foster parents, yet she cares for them dearly and isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in even if it seems irrational to others. Leila’s foster parents loved and cared for her so much. Sarika is the kind of person I want to befriend and talk to every day.

I feel like this is a book that should be read in schools because it contains a set of golden guidelines that our society needs these days. The way people speak to each other and acknowledge other people’s feelings made me tear up at times.

Eric Smith has weaved a heartfelt Urban Fantasy that explores environmental activism, acceptance, family, and friendship! I can’t wait to explore his upcoming story in Color Outside the Sun.

I received a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I DNF this book. I just couldn't get into the story. And it felt kind of bland to me. I probably would have liked it if I was younger but my reading tastes have changed.

An unusual fantasy story with a strong environmental focus and a rare protagonist in foster care. This will check a few boxes for a number of libraries, but it's also just a good read.

However much I tried, I just couldn't get into this book. It's not that it's badly written, or that it doesn't have important themes. It just wasn't for me.

I’ve been following Eric Smith on Twitter for a while now, and he’s not only a sweetheart but also a champion for diversity, so I naturally ran to add his book to my TBR the moment I heard about it coming out, and ran harder to request it on Netgalley when I realised it was available to me. Especially since it has an adopted MC and books with that kind of narrative are far and few so I was excited to read it and it did not disappoint! I really enjoyed reading The Girl and the grove and the whole bunch of topics it managed to discuss with great nuance.

The writing is absolutely beautiful, Smith’s prose flows smoothly and is very soothing to read. If you look at it closely, it’s nothing overly complicated, but the way he weaves words together make for sentences, paragraphs and pages that are very pleasant to read. The only real problem I had with it is some of the dialogue, not all of it, just the one with a certain character (not gonna say who because hello spoilers), it felt forced and awkward. I know it was meant to make the character come across as ancient and removed from today’s society but it still didn’t fit quite right in my opinion. The book also mixes formats, between regular chapters, Tumblr posts, forum posts, text messages, etc… It all made the reading experience all the more wholesome.

The book is written from Leila‘s POV, and she’s such a fierce passionate character and following her journey was an absolute delight. She has seasonal affective disorder which is something I’ve never come across in a book stated so clearly and it was absolutely refreshing. She’s also adopted and that was discussed and threaded into the narrative with such care that only an ownvoices author can achieve, all her thoughts, struggles, fears, hopes and dreams were raw and came across cristal clear, the way she was wary of her adoptive parents and then her opening up to them little by little was beautiful and it warmed my heart like nothing else.

Her parents were absolute sweethearts, especially with how careful and respectful of her boundaries they were, showing her their love while making sure they don’t overwhelm her and considering how that was their first parenting experience, they sometime had no clue what they were doing. Her dad is such a goofball, making her laugh any chance he gets to try and get her to relax around them and her mom just wants to wrap her in a blanket of love and protect her from every bad thing in the world. What I loved most is that they supported her, all of her, never making her feel bad about something she is or cares about.

Environmental activism is the center piece of the book and a huge part of Leila’s life, she cares about nature and making sure we preserve it, playing her individual part as best as she can. This is something I’ve never seen discussed in YA books and although it took me a little while to get into at first, once I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and couldn’t wait to get back to the book. Something else I couldn’t really get into is the romance, it felt underdevelopped and superfluous. I could have done without it in the book and if that relationship was kept as a friendship because the romantic feelings weren’t developped properly.

This is honestly such an important read, in the marginalisations it represents, in the the themes it discusses and the way it does all that. I’d really recommend picking it up when it’s out!

As a whole I felt that this book was a bit of a disappointment to me. It wasn't what I expected at all, and although it is readable, I wasn't enjoying myself while reading.

Starting with some positives though, I loved that this book brought environmental issues and also the issues of adoption to the forefront of the story. Leila learning to love her adopted family, and to realise they were her real family was a great sentiment throughout, even when she struggled. I also enjoyed seeing kids in a book loving the environment, and working to save it.

But, I had fully expected this book to be more fantasy, and the fantasy elements didn't appear until around 50% in (at least!). And by this point, I think I would have preferred this to have been a contemporary read with the issues it was trying to portray. There's also very limited exploration of the magic in this book, and so I did feel like you could pull these sections and rewrote the ending a little bit without changing the plot. As a whole, I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I usually enjoy the fantasy genre, and it's probably because it's not a good genre fit.

I also got really un-immersed with the book every time the characters started texting or just talking sometimes. The author had included extremely awkward and cringe-worthy teenager talk which was awful to read. It was made even clearer that the author had clearly never experienced being a teenage girl. This along with the pacing being so slow made it quite difficult for me to care for the storyline.

POSITIVES
+ Environmental issues

+ Adoption and what family means

NEGATIVES
– Less fantasy than expected

– Awkward teenage talk