The Girl and the Grove is quick the thought provoking book. Leila had a difficult life at times. Never knowing her parents. Very complex, and she did grow throughout. (Sarika was so funny.) Enjoyable pop culture references though.

A sweet and touching sorry and the oerisk do the foster care system an fthe wys that nature can heal. Lelia stole my heart in reading this story and I greatly enjoyed getting to see her progression throughout the story.

Ultimately I had to DNF this book. It just didn't mesh well with my reading style. The writing is very lovely and artistic

There were a lot of things I liked, but the things I didn't seriously irritated me. Pacing was a bit all over the place, and I couldn't stand the mean girl character.

My top 4 favorite things about THE GIRL AND THE GROVE:

-The activism- So many teens are engaging on all sorts of social issues, especially climate change, and I love the passion Leila has.

-The representation of adoption- While MG and YA have historically featured so many orphan characters or characters otherwise separated from their parents, it's much less common to see representation of healthy, realistic adoption.

-The writing- The writing style is so smooth and uses incredible imagery, particularly in the scenes with Fairmount Park.

-The relationships- I already mentioned the realistic adoption relationship between Leila and her family, but there's also really fun friend and romantic relationships. The romance took unexpected turns and had me in full grins.

The premise of this book was very unique. I've never read a book like it. The writing style was artistic, in my opinion, but the overall story did not keep me as engaged as I like to be in books. Definitely a good read!

The Girl and the grove was a suspenseful, heartfelt, and atmospheric read. It took a while for the magic to happen, but once it did, the stakes shot up. Leila's insecurities were intense and understandable given her history, and her passion for preserving nature was admirable. Sarika was the best and most badass best friend; I was cheering her on every time she faced down that bitch Jessica, who was an antagonist I loved to hate. The romance with Shawn was a disaster and the romance with Landon was cuter but felt less compelling than the other plot arcs. To be honest, I think this story could have done without a romance.

Thanks to this story, I lowkey want my own owl like Milford even though I know it's not possible or ethical. I love that the theme of family was interwoven into everything and how Leila was given space to process her feelings about her adoptive parents and reach her own place of comfort. I also enjoyed the use of social media as epistolary throughout, which gave the book its contemporary anchor. I think everyone can walk away from this story with not only a full heart but also a greater appreciation for nature and the uphill battle we face with fighting ecological destruction.

The Girl and the Grove was an amazing fantasy story. I wasn't expecting at all what I found in this book although it wasn't the best book I've ever read. The plot was super original but the author missed the opportunity of making it so much better. Complete review in Spanish on my web page.

An entertaining read, lovely characters to follow and a story with potential. The first 10-20% of the book was cool. I liked the main character and loved her adoptive parents. Her friendship with Sarika was also probably the best part of the book. After that initial beginning of the story, I had no idea what was happening. It wasn't as if too much was happening, I just... couldn't understand where the story was going.

I really enjoyed The Girl & the Grove by Eric Smith! I look forward to future books by him! Would definitely recommend!

Errrrrric! I always love Eric Smith's books. A dash a geek, a slice of unique, thats Eric's books to a T. Give me more of this and less of the usual suspects.

Unfortunately this book does not appeal to me anymore so had to dnf it at the moment. Not my kind of book

I have to start by saying this book was unlike anything I’ve read before. I feel like it’s best not knowing much about it before you jump in, because a lot could spoil key points to the story. While there was significant character development, I would consider this one more plot driven.

Leila and Sarika were such fun characters, I loved their interactions and how genuine they seemed. Their banter back and forth made me laugh, as much as their sweet personal moments made my heart swell. I would absolutely want a best friend like Sarika in my life. The fact that they overcame so much was admirable and just made me love them even more. Leila’s adoptive parents were wonderful, I loved all the scenes where they interacted.

If you are looking for a different type of contemporary read, with gorgeous writing, look no further. I have to mention the fantasy parts of the books aren’t super prominent (maybe because I’m an avid fantasy reader), but there is some element of fantasy. The only slight issue I had with it was that the story seemed to unfold extremely fast, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pace.

Eric Smith is a huge advocate for diversity in publication, and an amazing storyteller. I have enjoyed books by diverse authors he reps, like Brave Enough by Kati Gardner ( My review will be up this Friday) and Love, Hate, and Other Filters ( read my review here). I also enjoyed reading his amazing fantasy novel, Inked ( read my review here). So when I saw he had a new book released, and a plotline so unique and intriguing, I had to pick it up.

The Girl and the Grove is a beautiful story composed of multiple factors of awesomeness. It bares it all, from familial relationships, amazing friendships, unique voices, magical elements, to environmental activism and SAD Rep.

I also loved how the book wasn’t just composed of regular chapters in terms of format, but it also literally displayed the message boards and private messages of the Eco-Activists. Toothless always added a lot of spice to the ongoing conversation.

The characters are all well fleshed. Leila is a lionheart; a warrior who has built walls cause she is afraid to accept that she deserves to be loved by her foster parents, yet she cares for them dearly and isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in even if it seems irrational to others. Leila’s foster parents loved and cared for her so much. Sarika is the kind of person I want to befriend and talk to every day.

I feel like this is a book that should be read in schools because it contains a set of golden guidelines that our society needs these days. The way people speak to each other and acknowledge other people’s feelings made me tear up at times.

Eric Smith has weaved a heartfelt Urban Fantasy that explores environmental activism, acceptance, family, and friendship! I can’t wait to explore his upcoming story in Color Outside the Sun.

I received a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I DNF this book. I just couldn't get into the story. And it felt kind of bland to me. I probably would have liked it if I was younger but my reading tastes have changed.

An unusual fantasy story with a strong environmental focus and a rare protagonist in foster care. This will check a few boxes for a number of libraries, but it's also just a good read.

However much I tried, I just couldn't get into this book. It's not that it's badly written, or that it doesn't have important themes. It just wasn't for me.

I’ve been following Eric Smith on Twitter for a while now, and he’s not only a sweetheart but also a champion for diversity, so I naturally ran to add his book to my TBR the moment I heard about it coming out, and ran harder to request it on Netgalley when I realised it was available to me. Especially since it has an adopted MC and books with that kind of narrative are far and few so I was excited to read it and it did not disappoint! I really enjoyed reading The Girl and the grove and the whole bunch of topics it managed to discuss with great nuance.

The writing is absolutely beautiful, Smith’s prose flows smoothly and is very soothing to read. If you look at it closely, it’s nothing overly complicated, but the way he weaves words together make for sentences, paragraphs and pages that are very pleasant to read. The only real problem I had with it is some of the dialogue, not all of it, just the one with a certain character (not gonna say who because hello spoilers), it felt forced and awkward. I know it was meant to make the character come across as ancient and removed from today’s society but it still didn’t fit quite right in my opinion. The book also mixes formats, between regular chapters, Tumblr posts, forum posts, text messages, etc… It all made the reading experience all the more wholesome.

The book is written from Leila‘s POV, and she’s such a fierce passionate character and following her journey was an absolute delight. She has seasonal affective disorder which is something I’ve never come across in a book stated so clearly and it was absolutely refreshing. She’s also adopted and that was discussed and threaded into the narrative with such care that only an ownvoices author can achieve, all her thoughts, struggles, fears, hopes and dreams were raw and came across cristal clear, the way she was wary of her adoptive parents and then her opening up to them little by little was beautiful and it warmed my heart like nothing else.

Her parents were absolute sweethearts, especially with how careful and respectful of her boundaries they were, showing her their love while making sure they don’t overwhelm her and considering how that was their first parenting experience, they sometime had no clue what they were doing. Her dad is such a goofball, making her laugh any chance he gets to try and get her to relax around them and her mom just wants to wrap her in a blanket of love and protect her from every bad thing in the world. What I loved most is that they supported her, all of her, never making her feel bad about something she is or cares about.

Environmental activism is the center piece of the book and a huge part of Leila’s life, she cares about nature and making sure we preserve it, playing her individual part as best as she can. This is something I’ve never seen discussed in YA books and although it took me a little while to get into at first, once I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and couldn’t wait to get back to the book. Something else I couldn’t really get into is the romance, it felt underdevelopped and superfluous. I could have done without it in the book and if that relationship was kept as a friendship because the romantic feelings weren’t developped properly.

This is honestly such an important read, in the marginalisations it represents, in the the themes it discusses and the way it does all that. I’d really recommend picking it up when it’s out!

As a whole I felt that this book was a bit of a disappointment to me. It wasn't what I expected at all, and although it is readable, I wasn't enjoying myself while reading.

Starting with some positives though, I loved that this book brought environmental issues and also the issues of adoption to the forefront of the story. Leila learning to love her adopted family, and to realise they were her real family was a great sentiment throughout, even when she struggled. I also enjoyed seeing kids in a book loving the environment, and working to save it.

But, I had fully expected this book to be more fantasy, and the fantasy elements didn't appear until around 50% in (at least!). And by this point, I think I would have preferred this to have been a contemporary read with the issues it was trying to portray. There's also very limited exploration of the magic in this book, and so I did feel like you could pull these sections and rewrote the ending a little bit without changing the plot. As a whole, I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I usually enjoy the fantasy genre, and it's probably because it's not a good genre fit.

I also got really un-immersed with the book every time the characters started texting or just talking sometimes. The author had included extremely awkward and cringe-worthy teenager talk which was awful to read. It was made even clearer that the author had clearly never experienced being a teenage girl. This along with the pacing being so slow made it quite difficult for me to care for the storyline.

POSITIVES
+ Environmental issues

+ Adoption and what family means

NEGATIVES
– Less fantasy than expected

– Awkward teenage talk

Trigger Warning: This book features racism.

When I read that the main character from The Girl and the Grove by Eric Smith, Leila, has seasonal affective disorder, I desperately wanted to read it. But sadly, this book just wasn't for me.

Leila has recently been adopted, and is struggling to come to believe that this is her life now, that she won't end up back in the group home. She also has seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mental illness that has been too difficult for previous foster parents to deal with. And then there are the voices she's heard in her head all her life, that no-one but her best friend Sarika knows about, which have been growing louder and clearer. To distract herself from her worries, she throws herself into her passion for saving the environment. She and her best friend Sarika join the local environment club, and during a field trip to Fairmount Park, and she's drawn to a certain area. After exploring with Park Ranger Langdon, and following the voices only she can hear, Leila discovers something in the grove of Fairmount Park, days before everything in the grove is meant to be flattened; the trees, the nearby derelict mansion, and the mansion's gardens that lead to the grove. Leila quickly becomes determined to save the grove, and save what she's found their - because if the grove is torn apart, then Philadelphia will be in jeopardy.

The Girl and the Grove is by no means a bad book. The problem is me rather than the book; it heavily focuses on saving the planet, which is important and something I'm interested in, in general, but not something I enjoy reading about in fiction, I have now discovered. So it's just down to personal taste here. The description above clearly states that Leila is into environmental advocacy, that she monitors message boards and joins and environmental club, but I thought they were just hobbies, things we would read about, sure, but I didn't realise the whole point of the book was going to be based around environmental activism.

This is a fantasy book, but the fantasy elements are quite small. It's difficult to talk about without spoiling the story. However, we don't really see that The Girl and the Grove is a fantasy until just before 50% into the book. I felt it was quite slow to get going, and, considering the title, quite a while before Leila discovered the grove. Despite being slow, and being about something I now know is not my cup of tea, the writing kept me reading. It's written in such a way that I was interested in the story, even though I wasn't interested in the topic. Most chapters end on mini cliffhangers, and I always wanted to know where the story was going next, and the more I read, the more questions I had. But once we discovered what was in the grove, the focus switched to saving the grove, rather than on what was in the grove itself. We get very few answers to the questions that pile up. In the great scheme of things, not much time is spent with what's in the grove, so we find out very little. This looks to be a stand alone novel, so I don't think I'm going to find out any of the answers, which is a little frustrating.

I loved how the story dealt with adoption and fostering. It should also be noted that Smith was himself adopted, which I knew before reading having previously read the article, and so this part of Leila's story felt especially poignant. Leila really struggles with accepting she's now been adopted. Time and time again, she's been let down by foster carers and potential adoptive parents who always sent her back to the group home, partly down to her having SAD. So, understandably, despite actually being adopted now, she's worried it's going to happen again. She calls her parents by their names, Jon and Liz, rather than mom and dad, and she tries not be too much trouble. At one point, during a conversation about a willow tree in their garden that has been struck by lightning - damaged beyond repair, needing to be torn down - Leila feels they're giving up on the tree, and gets anxious that that's how they'll feel about her, and because of the emotional turmoil, accidentally cuts her hand badly enough to need stitches. Her parents want to take her to the hospital, but she misunderstands and thinks they want to take her back to the home, and panics. It's a heartbreaking scene, as, in tears, she practically begs to stay at home, saying it won't happen again, saying she'll just bandage it and will be fine. It's so upsetting. It's really emotional but also so beautiful to see her realise, over the course of the story, that Jon and Liz don't want her to go anywhere, that this is it for her now. They are her parents, and this is her home.

I also loved how it covered the stupid questions people would ask about her being adopted and her biological parents. I was completely dumbfounded that anyone would be that ignorant not to know you just don't ask. My Nan was a foster carer, so I grew up knowing lots of foster children, so perhaps that's why it seems so obvious to me, as I was brought up not to ask. But come on; you don't know anything about the past of a person in foster care, or who has been adopted. In Leila's case, she doesn't know her biological parents, but no-one asking the questions knows that, they have no idea what she may have been through that led to her going into foster care. You don't ask about things that could be painful and upsetting, or even triggering. You just don't. You wait to be told, or you never know. It's none of your business. So it just made me so mad whenever it happened.

The Girl and the Grove is the first book I've ever come across that features a character with seasonal affective disorder, which is why I wanted to read it so much. What's great about it is, it's not about Leila having SAD - this isn't a book about mental illness, it's about a girl who's trying to save a grove, who has a mental illness. We don't find out too much about it; we know Leila can feel depressed, she takes medication, and has to use a therapeutic light box for fifteen minutes each morning - which we see each morning at breakfast. We know foster parents in the past didn't really get it, and would ask questions about how she was feeling depending on what the weather was like, even though the weather had nothing to do with it. But we're not really told what it means. We see Leila experience anxiety and at least one panic attack, and she mentions that she has depression, but there's never a "I have SAD, and this is what that means," moment. But that seems realistic for me, because she's already adopted, so her parents already know, as does her best mate, and it's no-one else's business, so there's no reason to explain it to a person, and she's not going to randomly "think" about what SAD is as part of her narration to explain it to the reader. And as it's not a story about Leila having SAD, I think it would seem weird and clunky, to have her explain it when it's not a major part of the story. If the reader doesn't know what SAD is, the reader just has to look it up. Yes, that means more work for the reader, and that may be frustrating, but it's not Leila's job - or any real person with a mental illness's job - to explain and educate about their mental illness. And those with SAD who are reading this book? They don't need an explanation, they know what it is. This is about representation, so teens with SAD can see themselves in a book, not about educating everyone else.

And speaking of representation, it was great to see the various marginalised characters in this book. As well as having SAD, Leila is also black, which is important as I've found only a few YA novels featuring mental illness where the protagonist is also a person of colour. It's not just white people who have mental illnesses, but from looking at YA books, you would think it was - or at least rarer for people of colour to have mental illnesses. Leila has also been adopted by interracial parents, with Liz being black and Jon being white. Sarika is South Asian - and, sadly, experiences racist bullying, and has a racist slur used against South Asian people hurled at her.

As I said, The Girl and the Grove isn't for me, but that doesn't mean it's a bad book. The writing is captivating, and the adoption side of things is so beautiful. It was just a mismatch with me on the environment/conservation side of things. Do read more reviews before deciding whether or not you'll read this book.

Thank you to Flux via NetGalley for the eProof.