I am here for Grace K. Shim & her amazing writing about the struggles of not necessarily knowing who you are as a person, when you look different than everyone else.

This is a great collection of samples that allow one to have a glimpse into several books before committing to a specific one. I always enjoy reading samples of books I'm interested, and even those I am not. I've found several books I wouldn't have been likely to consider after reading an excerpt/sample of it.

This sampler was a great way of discovering new voices and stories. Alongside the front cover and blurb, I like that for each book we get the first couple of chapters so you can get a feel for the writing style and the characters before committing to reading the entire book. Out of the five books presented in this sampler, I would be interested in reading Not Your Average Jo by by Grace K. Shim, as I find the themes of nepotism and discrimination within the music industry very interesting, as well as Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin.

I wish more thought had gone into the visual look of this sampler as it feels quite simplistic and rushed in places. However this didn't detract from the content and it was all still clear and easy to read.

Overall I love these samplers as a way of discovering new books to add to my TBR!

AANHPI Month Contemporary YA Sampler! Also known as Celebrate Asian and Asian American Voices 2024. Overall it was okay. Nothing too exciting."The Breakup Lists" was a typical boy meets boy story. "Just Another Epic Love Poem': A girl meets girl story with lots of feelings. "Not Your Average Jo" Arkansas girl wants to move to LA. Rules for Rule-Breaking" has some life to it. A boy and a girl who don't particularly like each other prepare for a wild trip. The best writing of the bunch can be found in the last sample, "Wish You Weren't Here." The main character reveals her shock and jealousy over a rich celeb. For me, too much love and too many feelings.

A terrific sampler of AANHPI titles, perfect for teens and young adults. Love reading these important stories!

My Thoughts:

As an English teacher who teachers other teacher candidates to become English teachers, the running question for them has been around the "canon"less classroom and how to diversify your bookshelf to create more "mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors" (Rudine Sims Bishop). Then I Zoomed into a Nebraska Writing Project advanced summer institute with teachers who were all from Nebraska. The majority of their population are white students. The teachers are white. Their canonical reads are: Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger; To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee; The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald. Diversity in the book choices becomes a job risk for these teachers and so I'm not sure how much they are reading if they cannot bring in new materials.

I am sad about that, but I am also doubling down on my quest to read YA that is mostly made up of diverse authors writing about experiences that showcase mirrors of themselves. In fact, this has made me more committed to ONLY reading BIPOC and Indigenous authors who are writing not about their own ethnicity/culture, but writing THROUGH their own ethnicity/culture. The difference is this. The inner city black, police brutality, violent, gang banger, single mom story, is not the only story. Off the top of my head, my favorite black female character in a science fiction book is not American, nor is shie from the inner city -- Binti and the following two novellas by Nnedi Okorafor.

Finding the right kind of readings for my commitment to diverse authors means that I need to read more of these types of books. This one is from the Penguin Young Readers Group, one of my favorite YA publishers. They know how to bring in the authors that make a difference. Unfortunately for me, I have to wait for the one month a year when the AAPI books are in the forefront. For the rest of the time, I just have to follow authors and keep up with their IG accounts.

It helps that this book starts with Adib Khorram's The Breakup Lists. As the author of Darius the Great is Not Okay, we know we are going to get lots of voice. Mr. Khorram's characters are immediately likeable. This is immediately going on my TBR list because I want so badly for Jackson Ghasnavi to get the boy.

From the Publisher:
This sampler includes the following titles:

The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram
Love is more complicated than “boy meets boy” in bestselling author Adib Khorram’s sharply funny new romantic comedy, set in the sordid world of high school theater.

Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari
Best friendship blossoms into something more in this gorgeously written queer literary romance.

Not Your Average Jo by Grace K. Shim
From the author of The Noh Family, a second standalone YA novel that follows a Korean American teen as she navigates the treacherous world of nepo babies and cultural appropriation that is the Los Angeles music scene.

Rules for Rule Breaking by Talia Tucker
Booksmart meets Never Have I Ever in this debut YA rom-com about two Korean American teens forced into a shared college visit road trip where they discover that the reasons they’ve been rivals their entire lives might actually be signs they’re a perfect pair.

Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin
A sapphic summer romance filled with plenty of enemies-to-lovers sparks and swoony moments.

This was the first few chapters of each book to give you a taste of the author’s writing. While the stories were interesting, I don’t know that I would continue on with any of them.

The Breakup Lists: 3/5

I was confused by the formatting throughout the sample with all the crossed out markings. It seems like that's an intentional part of the storytelling, but it's not obvious, especially in an e-arc format where it's possible that errors or weird formatting may happen.

Jackson is an okay main character from the get-go. A bit quiet and shy, but has a lot of potential. I love the dynamic he has with his sister, Jasmine and the love interest, Liam, is SO cute. I'm intrigued enough by him and his character to give the rest of this book a chance upon release.

The Never Ending Poem: 4.5/5

I'm not a huge poetry girlie, but this book is GOOD. The writing is stunning and our two main characters Bea and Mitra are what manic-pixie-dream-girls wish they were. I love a sapphic story with a religious setting, and this one is no exception. I am absolutely going to pick up a copy of this one at some point in the near future because I have a NEED to know what happens next.

Not Your Average Jo: 2.5/5

Definitely the least compelling story in the bunch for me. It felt a bit younger than the rest of the titles in this sampler. Additionally, the music school setting and musical journey is just generally not for me. I think this story has a lot of readership out there, but I think it's just not for me.

Rules for Rule Breaking: 4.5/5

The premise of this story is so cute. I love a forced proximity romance and road trips are a super fun trope as well. I love the fact that Winter and Bobby are rivals that basically everyone in their town sees as a perfect match. The idea of them making a set of rules to go on a college visit road trip and do "rule breaking" things before they are adults is so cute and wholesome. The chemistry between Winter and Bobby is absolutely off the charts and I definitely want to pick this one up ASAP.

Wish You Weren't There: 5/5

Erin Baldwin is a MASTER of banter and witticisms. I lol'ed my way through the waaaayyyyy too short sampler of this story, begging for more. Juliette and Priya are sort of enemies.... but really only from Juliet's perspective. And it's only because Priya is so darn perfect and annoying.... and maybe really really pretty? I love that th main setting of this title is at a summer camp-- it's a premise I haven't seen too many times before. This book just released less than a week ago, and I will absolutely be buying my own copy before the end of the week.

Overall, giving this sampler a 4/5. This title is not available to review on Goodreads or Storygraph.

I really enjoyed this contemporary YA sampler for AANHPI month. In particular, Wish You Weren’t Here (Erin Baldwin) and Not Your Average Jo (Grace K. Shim) were very interesting. The Breakup Lists (Adib Khorram) and Just Another Epic Love Poem (Parisa Akhbari) were new to me and I will definitely keep an eye out for the books to release.

Thank you to Penguin Group Young Readers Group and Netgalley for a free sampler in exchange for honest feedback.

These were all cool! My favorite was Parisa Akhbari’s book.
I can’t really comment of any specific, since they were all just few chapters of the books!
But very cool idea

So happy to check these titles out. Very excited for these books. Happy to find myself interested in books I had passed on previously. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for these excerpts.

A nice collection of stories by AAPI authors. I really enjoy stories like these where they highlight how Asian people face stereotypes and how harmful they are. I also like the LGBTQ+ representation within the Asian community because I feel like it isn't talked about a lot.

PENGUIN GROUP published five romantic and romantic comedy books this year by Asian American authors and in this sampler there are about 30 pages of each one. Great introduction.