Thank you to RB Media | Recorded Books and netgalley for allowing me to read this book. This was a fun story

Told from the povs of sisters Rosie and Claro and the new kid, Zeke. Filled with magic, friendship, grief, and family. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The audiobook was done really well.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Imagine being gifted a powerful talesman that solves your specific problems. Do you need a jacket that makes people follow your every command? Maybe an enchanted ring - a love charm? If you are the destructive type, how about a bat that destroys and then magically repairs what you just left in ruins?
In The Girl, the Ring, and the Baseball Bat,
Dominicana Rosie is brilliant and compliant to a fault, but she is still judged by her circumstances by a broken and corrupt educational system. Her sister Caro is a hothead who’s constantly battling her mother‘s ultra conservative values. Then there’s Zeke - their queer Jamaican new pal who is desperately seeking a soulmate.

This coming of age tale has magical realism and multiple subplots. It is told in the first person and alternates between the 3 teens. Camille Gomera Tavarez’s first book, High Spirits was a Pura Belpre 2023 honor book and I predict this one is going to be a home run too!
Thank you to Hear Our Voices Tour, NetGalley and Levine Querido.

I like that there are three narrators. My favorite character is Rosie, but then it's Zeke, and then Caro, meaning they all have their moments, even their mom. She has a great grumpy personality) Also, Yolanda is awesome.

Rosie is an exceptional student but is treated unfairly by the patriarchal authorities of the school who acting in spite can ruin her future with a simple order. I am glad they got some justice on this front. Her talisman is a jacket that makes people do what she says, but it also makes her feel with more intensity, including rage. These talismans in a way help the three teens face the turbulence and injustices of coming of age and growing up but sometimes they need to navigate the consequences.

The book gets even better around the 60% mark and it has a lot of relatable family scenes, school life moments that make me rethink that I missed some experiences in my school life, and relationship trauma (from boyfriends to parents) that we understand well.

The author has a good idea of how teens struggle with the uncertainty of their future, and life, and how they communicate. Although some readers may think characters curse a lot it is a great representation (and very genuine) to teens's reality.

I am glad the author points out that being angry is OK because, when used properly it can bring good change.
Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the e-arc.

Thank you NetGalley and Levine Querido for this ALC. This novel is timely, diverse, and literally and figuratively magical. The novel incorporates magic realism to illumniate themes of loss, acceptance, friendship, family, and the pervasive nature of race and funding in education. Young adults will navigate towards Caro, Zeke, and Rosie, and their quest to uncover the secret behind their mother's past, and Rosie's missing application money. I was taken with the poetic language and magical items in this novel. These tailsmans help each character realize who they are, and what they need. It was a wonderful story, that young readers will love.

I review this book as part of my work on the Printz committee, but I due to committee policy I cannot share my specific thoughts or opinions here. I have rated it 5 stars because I am required to rate the book for this program, but please note this does not reflect my actual rating. I just want to thank you for providing this book for review!

"The Girl, the Ring, and the Baseball Bat" by Camille Gomera-Tavarez, narrated by Amanda Alcántara, Melania Luisa, and André Santana, presents a whimsical tale of three young protagonists and their enchanted talismans. Rosie, Caro, and Zeke navigate through their personal struggles while wielding magical objects that shape their destinies.

Gomera-Tavarez's storytelling is imaginative, blending elements of magic and realism to create a unique narrative experience. The diverse backgrounds of the characters add depth to the story, touching on themes of family, identity, and love.

Narrated by a talented cast, including Amanda Alcántara, Melania Luisa, and André Santana, the audiobook brings the characters to life with authenticity and charm. Each voice actor captures the essence of their respective character, enhancing the listening experience.

While the premise of the story is promising, "The Girl, the Ring, and the Baseball Bat" falls short in its execution. The plot feels disjointed at times, with rushed resolutions and underdeveloped storylines. Additionally, some aspects of the magical elements lack explanation, leaving the audience with unanswered questions. This story tries to be too many things, trying to straddle a variety of genres.

Despite its flaws, the novel shows potential and offers moments of humor and insight. With improvements in pacing and narrative cohesion, it could evolve into a more compelling read. Overall, "The Girl, the Ring, and the Baseball Bat" earns three stars for its creativity and effort, but it ultimately falls short of its full potential.

This is a fun, fairly quick and original read combining the struggles of navigating high school and identity with an entertaining magical object quest/caper. It's a great read to bring up discussion topics around society and fitting in versus originality, and the characters have well-developed sass and pizzazz.

[I was provided an audiobook arc on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review]

The Girl, the Ring, & the Baseball Bat is YA magical realism book following three teenagers navigating the highs and lows of high school life. The book was very fun to read and I enjoyed the friendship between our three protagonists. Still, the excitement and freedom the kids got from these magical items made the book so fun and me smile! If the author ever choose to write a prequel story, I would eat it up!

This was fun! I especially appreciated that the audio had three separate narrators. My biggest complaint is that the description really sets up this book to be very full of magic and very heavily focused on the items, which I was excited about, but the items don't really play that much of a role. This felt like you could take the items out and it would've been a contemporary novel and still been practically the same. Kind of a let down because I love magical realism.

A solid 3 star, average book.

Overall, the story was fun and I liked the idea of magical items showing up in the next generation without their prior knowledge of them. That said, the magical items that the book is named for are more side characters to a plot that didn’t really go anywhere. I was expecting Rosie, Zeke, and Caro to really grow up throughout the book, but they all stayed pretty much the same even after learning their lessons.

The narrators for Rosie and Zeke did a great job throughout the book! The narrator for Caro was just okay. She definitely got more comfortable/better as it went on, but for the first half of the book her cadence was way off.

Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for the audiobook ARC.

I was excited to read this bc I always love reading books about characters who are different to me. I find it refreshing to get stories told by and about people of all backgrounds and cultures. So this was very enjoyable, and the magical aspect seemed so cool to me.

I enjoyed that they got a different narrator for each POV, I really love with audiobooks do that, so each character feels like their own story.

The story is narrated from the perspectives of Rosie, Caro, and Zeke in alternating order. The three individuals are dealing with their respective problems and situations while also crossing paths and becoming entangled in their shared plot (along with some other prominent essential characters). The author expertly merged realistic and down-to-earth events with fantasy magical components, which worked very well.

The reader is given enough knowledge about the background location and magical components to make it feel authentic and credible, but not so much that we become bogged down in the specifics.

My only complaint would be the amount of Spanish utilised by the characters in the novel. I understand that this was authentic to the characters but because I don't speak Spanish, it detracted from my pleasure of the work.

The Girl, The Ring, and The Baseball Bat is a story about three teenagers that are living in New Jersey. The main characters are Rosie, her sister Carl, and Zeke, a school mate of Rosie. As the story develops, each character discovers a magical item, their talisman, which contains a different magical power
Rosie, named after a relative that she has never heard of, discovers a vintage Jacket, that calls to her.
Caro, Rosie’s sister, discovers that her talisman is a baseball bat.
Zeke discovers a vintage ring that calls to him, and he can’t pass up the opportunity to have it, so he spends $20 to purchase it.
As they discover the magical powers that each object holds, they have to learn how to use them. Will they learn to control the objects? How will they wield the power that they now possess?

I was super excited to read this as it’s not only a paranormal style ya book, but it’s based in New Jersey. Unfortunately I was disappointed in a few ways. This book should not be YA. The amount of curses in this book is extremely excessive with the f bomb dropping every few minutes. In some spots it’s even more than that. I feel the amount of cursing detracts from the story and is unnecessary, especially when you take in mind that these are high schoolers. I felt that the author tried to make it ghetto with the curses, and didn’t consider that the cursing could be a major deterrent to people. The way in which Rosie interacts with people is cringy. She is rude and over the top.
The cursing had a large part in my rating. It soured me to the story, and could easily been left out. It had no value to the story, which is a shame because the storyline had so much potential.

The characters are well developed ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The storyline is interesting ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The magical items are intriguing ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Imagery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The cursing ⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed the audible narration. They use different narrators and I was easily able to follow which character was speaking.

I received this ARC as an audio version in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio.

I enjoyed this book. It was a first from this author for me and it will not be my last. I liked the sisters bond and the bits of magic. The story was great and I enjoyed all of the characters.

This was different from anything I had read before. We follow three different POVs which was easy to keep up with and not confusing. I really loved the magical elements involved in this book. I do think Zeke was my favorite character, but the other characters were well developed and has interesting storylines. No issues with swearing or profanity, but not sure if that would be considered YA. I personally don't mind it, but others might wonder why it's categorized as YA.

This is my first book by this author, but certainly won't be my last.

This book wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't for me. The narration was awesome. But the pacing of the book was so drawn out. It was hard for me to stay interested.

Authentic voices and fast moving action and dialogue are nice for listening, but the multiple voices and characters are sometimes difficult to follow.