Choose a Taco, Get a Book to Read While You Eat By Bill Grace </p> <section> <h2> <h2><strong>Choose a Taco, Get a Book to Read While You Eat</strong></h2> </h2> <p><p>I order tacos A LOT. And when I say “a lot” I mean there have been weeks, especially this past year, when I’ve ordered tacos four or more times. At this point, I’m pretty sure my regular taqueria (shoutout to El Santo) knows to expect my order. Given the severity of my taco habit, reading <em>Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet </em>was a unique challenge. Everything Pen cooks just sounds so mouthwateringly delicious (I’m getting hungry just thinking about her cocada)! If you’ve found yourself in a similar predicament while reading a book with sumptuous food descriptions, I think I may have a solution for you. Choose a taco and get a book to read! You may still be hungry, but at least you’ll have a new book to read. Is it taco time yet?</p> </p> </section> <section> <h2> <h2><strong>Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp</strong></h2> </h2> <p><p>Penelope Prado has always dreamed of opening her own pastelería next to her father’s restaurant, Nacho’s Tacos. But her mom and dad have different plans-leaving Pen to choose between disappointing her traditional Mexican American parents or following her own path. When she confesses a secret she’s been keeping, her world is sent into a tailspin. But then she meets a cute new hire at Nacho’s who sees through her hard exterior and asks the questions she’s been too afraid to ask herself.</p> <p>Xander Amaro has been searching for home since he was a little boy. For him, a job at Nacho’s is an opportunity for just that-a chance at a normal life, to settle in at his abuelo’s, and to find the father who left him behind. But when both the restaurant and Xander’s immigrant status are threatened, he will do whatever it takes to protect his newfound family and himself.</p> <p>Together, Pen and Xander must navigate first love and discovering where they belong in order to save the place they all call home.</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>Indivisible by Daniel Aleman</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p>Mateo Garcia and his younger sister, Sophie, have been taught to fear one word for as long as they can remember: deportation. Over the past few years, however, the fear that their undocumented immigrant parents could be sent back to Mexico has started to fade. Ma and Pa have been in the United States for so long, they have American-born children, and they’re hard workers and good neighbors. When Mateo returns from school one day to find that his parents have been taken by ICE, he realizes that his family’s worst nightmare has become a reality. With his parents’ fate and his own future hanging in the balance, Mateo must figure out who he is and what he is capable of, even as he’s forced to question what it means to be an American.</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>A Season of Sinister Dreams by Tracy Banghart</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p>Annalise may be cousin to the prince, but her past isn’t what she claims, and she possesses a magic so powerful it takes all her strength to control it. Evra is a country girl, and has watched as each friend and family member came into their own magic, while hers remains dormant. But everything changes after Annalise loses control of herself and Evra begins experiencing the debilitating visions of a once-in-a-generation clairvoyant meant to serve the crown.</p> <p>Thrown together at court, Evra and Annalise find that they have the same goal: to protect their kingdom from the powerful men who are slowly destroying it. But neither is quick to trust the other — Evra’s visions suggest a threat to royal rule, and Annalise worries that her darkest secrets will be revealed. Their magic at odds, the young women circle each other, until the truth must come out.</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p>Alina Keeler was destined to dance, but one terrifying fall shatters her leg–and her dreams of a professional ballet career along with it.</p> <p>After a summer healing (translation: eating vast amounts of Cool Ranch Doritos and binging ballet videos on YouTube), she is forced to trade her pre-professional dance classes for normal high school, where she reluctantly joins the school musical. However, rehearsals offer more than she expected–namely Jude, her annoyingly attractive cast mate she just might be falling for.</p> <p>But to move forward, Alina must make peace with her past and face the racism she had grown to accept in the dance industry. She wonders what it means to yearn for ballet–something so beautiful, yet so broken. And as broken as she feels, can she ever open her heart to someone else?</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>Daughter of Sparta by Claire Andrews</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p>Sparta forged her into a deadly weapon. Now the Gods need her to save the world.</p> <p>Seventeen-year-old Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis—who holds Daphne’s brother’s fate in her hands—upends the life she’s worked so hard to build. Nine mysterious items have been stolen from Mount Olympus and if Daphne cannot find them, the gods’ waning powers will fade away, the mortal world will descend into chaos, and her brother’s life will be forfeit.</p> <p>Guided by Artemis’s twin-the handsome and entirely-too-self-assured god Apollo-Daphne’s journey will take her from the labyrinth of the Minotaur to the riddle-spinning Sphinx of Thebes, team her up with mythological legends such as Theseus and Hippolyta of the Amazons, and pit her against the gods themselves.</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>Incendiary by Zoraida C</strong><strong>ó</strong><strong>rdova</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p><em>I am Renata Convida.</em></p> <p><em>I have lived a hundred stolen lives.</em></p> <p><em>Now I live my own.</em></p> <p>Renata was only a child when she was kidnapped by the King’s Justice and brought to the luxurious palace of Andalucia. As a memory thief, the rarest and most feared of the magical Moria, Renata was used by the crown to carry out the King’s Wrath, a siege that resulted in the deaths of thousands of her own people.</p> <p>Now Renata is one of the Whispers, rebel spies working against the crown. The Whispers may have rescued Renata years ago, but she cannot escape their mistrust and hatred-or the overpowering memories of the hundreds of souls she drained during her time in the palace.</p> <p>When Dez, the commander of her unit-and the boy she’s grown to love-is taken captive by the notorious Principe Dorado, Renata must return to Andalucia and complete Dez’s top secret mission herself. Can she keep her cover, even as she burns for vengeance against the brutal, enigmatic prince? Her life and the fate of the Moria depend on it.</p> <p>But returning to the palace stirs childhood memories long locked away. As Renata grows more deeply embedded in the politics of the royal court, she uncovers a secret in her past that could change the fate of the entire kingdom-and end the war that has cost her everything.</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>Sister of the Bollywood Bride by Nandini Bajpai</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p>Mini’s big sister, Vinnie, is getting married. Their mom passed away seven years ago and between Dad’s new start-up and Vinnie’s medical residency, there’s no one but Mini to plan the wedding. Dad raised her to know more about computers, calculus, and cars than desi weddings but from the moment Mini held the jewelry Mom left them, she wanted her sister to have the wedding Mom would’ve planned.</p> <p>Now Mini has only two months to get it done and she’s not going to let anything distract her, not even the persistent, mysterious, and smoking-hot Vir Mirchandani. Flower garlands, decorations, music, even a white wedding horse — everything is in place.</p> <p>That is, until a monster hurricane heads for Boston that could ruin everything. Will Mini come through as sister of the bride and save the day?</p> </p> </section> <section> <h3> <h2><strong>Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan</strong></h2> </h3> <p><p>The boys of Kings Row are off to a training camp in Europe! Surrounded impressive scenery and even more impressive European fencing teams, underdog Nicholas can’t help but feel out of place. With the help of a local legend, though, he and the rest of the team finds it within themselves to face superior fencers, ex-boyfriends, expulsion, and even Nicholas’s golden-boy, secret half-brother, the infamous Jesse Coste. Will Aiden and Harvard end up together, though? En garde!</p> </p> </section> <section> <h2> <h2><strong>Choose a Taco</strong></h2> </h2> </section> <p>
