Reading bits and bobs

I'm dividing my time reading-wise at the moment. I'm officially a commuter at the moment, so I've got Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo on audiobook (I really like the narrator, by the way), and I was in the mood for some Jane Austen, so I'm reading Persuasion. I think my desire to pick up that particular Jane Austen novel stems from my recent read of For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund. I am obsessively waiting for her next book Across a Star-Swept Sea, because I've realized that she is one of those authors who speaks my literary language. (L.M. Montgomery...Alysia Painter...Melina Marchetta...Maggie Stiefvater...also authors who speak my literary language. There are more, but those are a few who come to mind).

I recently read a fun YA book as well -- Bittersweet, by Sara Ockler. Considering I'm currently living in the oven of central Texas at the moment, it was the perfect time to pick up a book set in Western New York in the middle of winter. Setting aside, this book had a lot of other things going for it to: a clean, yet descriptive writing style (I really did feel cooler reading it), realistic characters (sometimes I wanted to hug Hudson, sometimes I wanted to smack her), sweet and also conflicted teenage romance (i.e., a love triangle that actually felt genuine and kind of heartbreaking), sports (ice skating! hockey! -- shades of The Cutting Edge!), friendship, family, and a girl who is just trying to figure her life out. She's torn between her home and family, and the lure of getting out of town and dreaming big. And she makes a lot of mistakes in the process. She also makes AMAZING sounding cupcakes. Seriously.