What happens when a bully crosses a nerd?When Elli is forced to move from Hawaii to Toronto in the dead of winter, she resists with all the saltiness of the ocean she left behind. She befriends a studious boy named Julian and discovers he's being used as a punching bag for the school's boxing champion. She quickly realizes the only way to get this guy off her friend's back is to beat him at his own game. With the help of a cute jock, a sweet tattooed loner, and a burnt out boxing has-been, she and Julian enter a boxing tournament where Julian will have to face his bully in the ultimate showdown.Like the book? Leave a review!
Kareena Thakkar’s world is turned upside down when she learns she’s landed an invitation to the US Open, which could lead to a spot on the first-ever Muay Thai Olympics team. To make it to the US Open, she has to come clean about being a Muay Thai fighter—a sport that her traditional Indian community deems too violent for girls—and own her destiny.
A Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction An InStyle Best Book of the Year A Refinery29 Best Book of the Year By the end of high school, Bunny Lampert is 6’3 with the abs of a ninja turtle and the face of a boy angel. Her dad has chaotic salesman energy and her mom is dead. But from the outside, Bunny seems to have it all—she’s blonde, rich, and an Olympic volleyball hopeful. Michael—who has a ponytail and a septum piercing, works at Rite-Aid, and has a secret Grindr—lives with his aunt in the cramped cottage next door to Bunny’s McMansion. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. Their friendship is as improbable as it is irresistible, but when Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny’s futures. A beautiful and darkly comic book about doing things you didn’t mean to do, wanting things you wish you didn’t want, and loving people you can’t afford to love.
An intimate and unflinching memoir exploring Mia Kang’s journey from self-loathing to self-love Mia Kang is many things: a sought-after model, an immigrant, an eating disorder survivor, and a Muay Thai fighter. Her first book, Knockout, is the story of how she eschewed normative body standards and learned to use martial arts to redefine her sense of self-worth. In a charming, fierce, and intimate voice, Kang invites readers into her world. She once lived and died by her weight, but she is now defined by her confidence in being a woman who lives outside the mold of what we’re taught is “feminine.” After dealing with bullying, addiction, body dysmorphia, anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts, Mia acknowledges that she is lucky to still be alive to tell readers what she’s learned: to not let anyone else dictate who you are supposed to be.
Levi just wants to be treated like a typical kid. As a baby, he had a serious disease that caused him respiratory issues. He's fine now, but his mom and overprotective brother still think of him as damaged, and his schoolmates see him as the same class clown he's always been. He feels stuck. So when his dad—divorced from his mom—suggests he take up boxing, he falls in love with the sport. And when he finds out about a school with a killer boxing team and a free-study curriculum, it feels like he's found a ticket to a new Levi. But how can he tell his mom about boxing? And how can he convince his family to set him free?
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD Full of verve... Revelatory. --Los Angeles Times A dazzling and darkly comic novel of love, violence, and friendship in the California suburbs Bunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore--beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard. Michael--with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing--lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. Michael has secrets of his own. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him. When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures--and of their friendship. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.
Nobody understands why Tori has suddenly become so moody and violent. When she attacks a stranger in a store, she ends up doing community service at a shelter for victims of domestic violence. She bonds with a little girl named Casey, but when Casey is abducted while in Tori’s care, Tori is racked with guilt, certain that she should have been able to prevent the abduction. During the search for Casey, Tori comes face to face with an ex-boyfriend who sexually assaulted her at a party. Only when she speaks out about the assault is she able to begin to heal.
Logan Rettino never imagined she'd fall so far. Dropped by her ex on national TV, she's gone from prima ballerina to ring card girl, reduced to revving up the crowds before MMA bouts. However distasteful she finds her new job, it pays well...and she needs the money if she's ever going to rebuild her life. Promised a huge bonus if she can convince a brooding, gifted welterweight to keep fighting, she'll do whatever it takes to earn his trust. Keane O'Shea is unbeatable in the octagon. A former marine, he fights with a ruthlessness no gym jockey can match. He knows his brutal strength is too much for the delicate ex-ballerina, regardless of how fascinating he finds Logan's tight dancer's body. But one private performance and he's drawn to her in a way he can't—or won't—resist. As Logan discovers the heartbreaking truth that lies beneath this handsome warrior's rage, she'll need to forfeit everything she thought mattered for the one thing that matters the most: saving Keane from himself. 89,000 words
As I was going out of my bedroom door I remembered my nungas. Perhaps I should take some precautions to keep them under strict control. Maybe bits of Sellotape on the ends of them to keep them from doing anything alarming? I'd like to trust them, but they are very unreliable. The irrepressible heroine of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging is back, and funnier than ever! Georgia has finally landed Robbie the Sex God, but he's never around, and Georgia's ex, Dave the Laugh, is starting to look quite dreamy. Strangely, so does just about every other guy Georgia meets, even the new French teacher. In this third installment of Georgia's hilarious confessions, Georgia's "red bottomosity" is out of control! Whatever will happen next?
The 13th book in Catherine Coulter's hugely popular FBI series. After witnessing her relatives burying a pile of dead bodies in the middle of the night, a seven-year-old uses her telepathic powers to call a man she's seen only on television: FBI Agent Dillon Savich. Now Savich and his wife and partner, Agent Lacey Sherlock, face their most elusive foes to keep the child out of harm's way-before it's too late.
