Last Survivors Series by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

2016 review: Amazing book about what the world is like after an asteroid pushes the moon slightly closer to the earth. Told through the journal of Miranda, a teenager who is trying to help her family stay together.

2025 review: This was a re-read for me, but I’ve thought of the series so often since I read it in April 2016. When the author recently died, I knew it was time to read it again! I loved this first book so much. It’s wild to me that I originally read it before Covid, and now we’ve been through that and are possibly on the cusp of who knows what in the world… so it was really interesting to re-read it through that lens of what we’ve been through and what’s right around the corner.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

2016 review: Second book in the Life As We Knew It series. Not a bad storyline, but was a bit boring since it was the same time period as the first. A good placeholder to develop some backstory for the third book though.

2025 review: I’d previously read this series so I had vague memories of book two, but it really took me aback on a re-read for it to be a totally different set of characters in a totally different place, but experiencing the same time period. Once I got into it, I appreciated the drastically different interpretation of what happened, and it was well-written in terms of what happened to these characters, but I still think it’s an interesting choice that the writer used the same time period for a second book, even knowing that they’d come together at a later time in the third book. I guess it was easier to write a full second book about the different characters instead of trying to cram all the backstory into the book where he meets Miranda.

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

2016 review: Really good, satisfying third installment in the Life As We Knew It series. Just as engrossing as the first.

2025 review: I liked how this one brought together the characters from the first two, and while I didn’t care for how religious the second book was, at least it fit the characters. It seemed like everyone was forcibly religious in this book, even though Miranda and her family didn’t seem that way in the first. Not a big deal, maybe just passage of time and the author’s views changing so she put them in the book more? Either way, I think this was a really logical next step for the series.

The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

The funny thing about this book is that I only read it in 2016. Since then, the library has gotten rid of their copy of the book, and once I checked out my review for it, I decided not to buy it myself. I read the sample chapter at the end of the third book and realized it's more about Miranda's little brother, and that Miranda and Alex married (which I remembered, but thought it happened in the third book until I re-read that one), but overall even that sample chapter wasn't intriguing enough to make me re-read the fourth.

2016 review: This book was really slow, and I didn’t feel anything for the characters. Overall it was a pretty satisfying ending to the Life As We Knew It series, as long as it’s the last one. I don’t think much more can be written about this without it being overkill. I kind of wish the series had ended with the third.

Divergent Series by Veronica Roth

Divergent

I thought I read this when it came out but I guess there were so many dystopian YA books that I got it mixed up with something else. When someone mentioned it to me recently, I actually was picturing the cover of “Matched” so I guess that’s where I got my wires crossed. I’m glad I got it figured out, though, because I read about 300 pages of this in a day, and then finished it soon after. I really like the story but am hesitant about it devolving into war at the end. I’ll try the second one and see how I like it.

Divergent (film)

I absolutely loved this movie. I thought it stayed really true to the book and pulled me right in. I'm not a huge Shailene Woodley fan (she'll forever be the brat in The Secret Life of the American Teenager to me) but I think she pulled it off.

Insurgent (film)

I got the second book from the library but also got the second movie, so I decided to watch the movie first. I rarely ever do that. I'm a book before movie gal through and through. But I was already feeling kind of "meh" about reading the second book. A friend who had watched all the movies (but not read all the books) suggested I watch the movie and see if it made me want to read the book. It was a decent movie in terms of continuing on from the first, but it wasn't enough to make me want to read the book. Theo James was the best part. So this is as far as I got in the Divergent series, but I don't feel the need to continue on.

Once Upon a Con Series by Ashley Poston

The Once Upon a Con series by Ashley Poston

Geekerella by Ashley Poston. I read this book back in 2016 when I was a teen librarian and was sent a copy to review. I loved it then and, since it’s been so long (and my memory sucks a bit) I wanted to re-read it before reading the others in the series for the first time. I didn’t remember much of the story so it was like reading it for the first time, and really pulled me in emotionally more than I remembered before. I love these characters and am excited to read the other books and see what else happens to them!

My original Geekerella review: I don't like scifi or the related conventions, and I'm not a fan of fairy tale retellings, therefore you'd think Geekerella is not the book for me. But it drew me in with the quirky cover, and when I started the first page, I was hooked. You kind of forget it's a Cinderella story because the plot is so interesting, and the characters are great. You're rooting for Elle from the beginning, hating her evil stepmother and stepsisters, and you also get sucked into the story of Starfield and the fandom surrounding the show. I totally loved this book and already want to re-read it! It's going to be a hit.

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston. I wasn’t sure how I’d like a story centered on Jessica Stone after how she came across in Geekerella, but Poston did a great job making her more likeable. I liked that the story centered around the con again so we could “see” some characters from last time, but overall, I didn’t love this one as much. I think I had trouble with the identity swap, mostly in relation to Harper, Imogen’s online friend who met Jess instead of Imogen. If Harper was falling for Jess… wouldn’t some of that be because she thought she had a solid friendship with Imogen? And if Jess and Imogen look so much alike, would she also be in love with Imogen? I know Jess and Harper connected that weekend, too, but it just stuck out in my mind that the whole situation was pretty weird, and as petty as it may be, that kind of tainted my thoughts on the book.

Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston. Maybe reading this series back to back was too much for me, because I was pretty burned out on cons and Starfield by this point. Thankfully, the book isn't set at a convention, and Starfield is kind of minor despite the main character loving the show/books/movies and the love interest being an actor in the films. But there was much less Starfield overall. There were a few mentions of the previous characters and some appearances, so it was nice to see what they were up to, but overall, this one felt a bit phoned in for me. I initially thought it was just me reading them too close together, but I think Poston and the editors might have been feeling the same way, because there were so consistency issues that stuck out to me. One in particular was at the end of the book when Vance is worried about tabloids getting their text messages and call histories because he told her "so much--too much." Yet a few chapters before, Rosie told him that she lost her phone, and he said "Huh, so that's why you never asked for my number." So... how did they text and talk and share so much?

Overall, this was a fun series to read. I liked how one of the secondary characters in the first book became a main character in the second, and the same thing happened for the third. However, it got a bit tiring that each of the celebrities had these huge blocks about trusting someone even though they were falling in love so quickly. They always felt at risk of being exposed or taken advantage of, and while I get that's a real risk, it was tiresome after the second book.

There were also some other overused ideas (which I've noticed in Poston's other books, too), like unique birthmarks (often on the neck), scars (on the face or mouth area), and giving "finger-guns" (to express... quirkiness?). So while Poston books are fun escapes and quick reads, I think it's time to take a break and venture back to some other authors.

The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams

The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams

I’m a huge Babysitters Club fan so The Babysitters Coven had a more grown-up and modern (and WITCHY) twist on it that was right up my alley. I loved how it introduced the world and the characters so we were getting to know their powers along with them. The ending was so action-packed that I really just wanted to see it as a Netflix series so I could watch it all play out. 

After reading this book, I looked it up and was surprised to see that it was a re-release (apparently?) because the initial reception wasn't so hot. Publishers Weekly mentions that the slang, pop culture references, and political stances could make it seem dated, but those didn't stand out to me. Also, I still think 1999 was 4 years ago, but still. 

Complaints from Smart Bitches Trashy Books include that the narrator is "wildly insecure but also extremely judgmental" and that the book "tries VERY hard to sound teen-like while not sounding teen-like at all." Again, I feel like not noticing these issues probably speaks very clearly about where I am in life, ha, but honestly, the book rang true for me. As true as witchy babysitters can be, anyway. 

Kirkus Reviews said the humor was not funny at all (I laughed to myself many times) and that it was a ripoff of Buffy (which I have never seen) so yeah... I guess all of that just fuels my argument that this was a good read for me but might not land for you, unless you're a lot like me. (And if so, sorry, it's miserable, isn't it? Ha.)

The biggest bummer is that my library only has book one. However, I think I’ve got to get this series to read them all. I can’t wait to see how things progress!