Carmela's Books

Casey McQuiston’s YA debut, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, is nothing short of triumphant. Hilarious, romantic, and true to life, the intertwining stories of Chloe and Shara have carved space in the YA canon for queer youth everywhere.  Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny. But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues...

Casey McQuiston's Red, White, & Royal Blue is staple in both the queer and romcom book communities. It's highly visible on BookTok and Bookstagram, and should you peer at any Gen Z or Millennial's bookshelf for more than five seconds you'll immediately spot the iconic red spine. This is truly a special novel, loud and proud in its optimism and radical queer joy, which is why I personally found it so thrilling to see Rosso, bianco, & sangue blu available in various Italian bookstores. When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a ...