Ask Me Anything by Molly E. Leet is a great read.

I loved how the lead was a strong, independent, well-centered character who was not afraid to be herself. This book had a great message to stand up for what you feel is right for you and not to concave to the norm or what is expected.
I also loved the dynamics between both hackers and how there was a realness to it.
I also enjoyed the romance involved.

Overall this was a great read.

*4.25 Stars*

Ask Me Anything makes us dive into the hacking world with two main characters who love coding. Amber is a senior and just broke up with her boyfriend a few months ago. She barely mentions him by name and we know something happened. Dean has always been in awe of Amber but can tell something went down because she isn't as happy and open as she used to be.
When someone pranks the principal of their very private high school, he makes Dean, who was in charge of the equipment, host a "code club." Amber is the only one that shows up and they both decide to start a competition. They have to find a way to annoy Tanner, the principal, and not get caught. That's how Amber starts a hidden blog "Ask Me Anything" where students can ask questions about safe sex and contraceptive means and so much more since their school enforces an abstinence policy and refuses to answer any of those topics.

I really liked this book. It talked about important subjects like feminism and women friendship, and women supporting women in a great way. It also talks of assaults and so much more. It was pretty captivating and the characters were layered. I liked both Dean and Amber, as well as Amber's friends and parents. The dynamics between the characters were interesting and I also enjoyed the romance. I got really angry at times, but also laughed and swooned. It was a really nice read.

Great concept: high school girl seeing that her high school is suppressing important sexual health information decides to start a blog to provide the missing information. And in that regard, this book felt very much like an After School Special, including questions and answers. Of course, Amber's mom is an erotica author and able to provide all sorts of answers. And of course, Amber's dad is a teen psychologist and can provide the answers his wife can't. However, the book falls severely short in the actual personal story portion. I never understood the fear Amber had regarding her identity being uncovered. What would give a school the right to suspend or expel her for a blog? Why would her college not extend an acceptance letter based on the blog? This disconnect took the book from enjoyable and plausible to eye rolling and cliche, even before delving into her relationship with Dean. I think the author underestimated her audience.

Of all the wonderful things Molly E. Lee does in this book, my favorite is how she approaches teen curiosity about sex and relationships. She does so in an interesting way, too, which makes Ask Me Anything one of those books that will open not just the minds of teenagers but their parents’ as well.

Amber’s school is about as progressive as a tree stump (less, really) when it comes to the sexuality of its students. Lee shows you how the intent may be somewhat honorable (I think we can all understand that parents want to protect their child’s innocence as long as possible), the results can be unproductive, to say the least.

The daughter of a therapist who works with teens, Amber is full of ideas, so when fellow hacker Dean challenges her to create the perfect hack–something no one will be able to trace–she takes him up on it and creates a dark web advice column aimed at her fellow classmates. Kids come to her with questions about using birth control to oral sex to coming out. Lee is careful to show that Amber doesn’t come up with the answers all on her own; she relies on her parents to help guide her.

Meanwhile, Amber and Dean grow closer, yet you can feel that Lee is setting up a big fat conflict to pull them apart.

Amber is wholly likable. She isn’t too smart for her own good–she makes mistakes, and the guilt over those makes you like her even more–nor is she too precious. I liked Dean, too. He’s a good guy, someone whose head is so deep into coding that many girls likely bypass him. In Amber, he sees not just a fellow nerd, but someone who thinks like him and challenges him.

I liked what Molly E. Lee did with this book. There are occasional pacing lapses, and the school’s principal seems straight out of John Hughes’ Central Casting, but Lee has important messages that bear heeding. When you read this one, please come back, hit up the comments, and let me know what you think.

Ask Me Anything is good read. It's told in the dual POVs of Amber and Dean. They are both high schoolers that are really good at computer coding and hacking. I liked the computer hacking elements throughout the story. Amber has gotten out of an relationship with a jerky football player and she's not looking for a new boyfriend. Her and Dean have a lot of interests in common and they become friends. They are perfect together and I was so hoping that they would be more than friends. Amber has very open and supportive parents but some of the other kids at school don't. She starts this super secret blog to answer questions about sex. I liked that some of the blog posts were included in the book. At first glance of the blurb, I thought that the blog would be the only focus of the story but there are a lot of other interesting things going on too. I thought this was was nicely written and I truly enjoyed reading this one.

This is a coder-friendly, patriarchy-smashing, advice-giving whirlwind of a book.  This book is absolutely perfect for many reasons, but I want to bring up two of them: STEM applies to girls, too!, and hallelujah for being sex-friendly.  Too many girls out there don't have access to answers to their questions, so what does Amber do?  She codes a blog on the dark web where they can send in their questions.  She's the best coder in the school, so there's no way she can get caught--right?

This book touches on so many topics that teens have questions about: What's the safest method of birth control?  How do you come out to your parents?  Are you ready to take the next step with your partner?  And--weaving itself throughout the entirety of the book--how do you tear down the walls you've built up post-trauma?  Do you even want to?  

With just the right amount of teen shenanigans, Loki-loving, and desire to forever be done with high school, Ask Me Anything is so important in this day and age.  It's fun, fast-paced, and filled with eagerness to share advice, connect, and build a community.  I can't wait for this to come out--I'll immediately be requesting this for my library!

The world of YA books has been changing for the better and Molly E Lee is at the center of it with her newfound progressive takes on teen life and what is deemed “appropriate” for a YA novel for high school-aged teens (maybe older HS teens). Ask Me Anything takes the essence of feminine empowerment we are teaching ourselves and our daughters and personifies is in this book with Amber Henderson, the heroine. It also tackles the on-going and current hot button topics, sex, and consent (specifically teenagers but anyone could take away from this novel). I also enjoyed having a sneak peek into the world of hacking. I love the originality.

Amber Henderson is a lot as a character. She is a survivor. She is a feminist. She is one hell of a hacker. She is a teenage girl trying not to smash the patriarchy, but instilling truth in her peers so that the patriarchy can change in the years to come. Okay, maybe she is smashing the current patriarchy a bit, but all for the better. Her passion to help her peers is admirable. Her ability to call out her own boyfriend for being chosen over her for being male is bold. Her heart. Her heart is pure and grows by the page despite her past experiences. She is an ode to the modern-day young adult, and I couldn’t love her more.

Dean Winters is what every young male should strive to me sans hacker, can’t have too many of those now can we? His ferocity matches Amber’s as they hack separately but side-by-side from the beginning. It also shows up when the ones he loves are threatened, hurt, etc. However, he always chooses to let them figure it out on their own. He is the perfect balance of protector and up-lifter.

Ask Me Anything pushes boundaries and is unapologetic in the right way. It encompasses the real modern-day high school/young adult female and explores current issues with brutal honesty and passion. This book will hack into your code and save to your hard drive

My Review: First off this is totally a book for those who love hacking. It brought back memories of that old movie Hackers that I fell so in love with I think it was in the 90's. It also is a great story about sex education and how important it is. I think this one would be an amazing story for teens of high school to read. It is just so important especially in our day and age for this story to be told.

Schools need to get away from thinking of sex as evil. Telling kids just don't do it and start accepting it for what it is. Sex isn't the enemy miss information and people being to embarrassed to ask questions is the issue. I love the parts in this where Amber is talking to her mom. They are open and honest about sex and they are both better for it. Have an open policy with your kids about this topic (really any topic). I love that my daughter's know that they can come to me and talk about sex and anything else. It's not taboo, or shameful, or nasty, its part of life and more people need to accept that. Your kids will be safer if they can come to you with their questions.

Another part of this book is about rape. So be warned, Amber goes through a lot of PTSD (lightish vs. other books about this topic.). But I think the author did a wonderful job with the micro flashbacks and Amber talking about it. Another great message in this story is that it doesn't matter if you are a girl or a boy rape is rape and no means no. My best advice about going out and parting is to always make sure your drink in moderation (if you drink at all). Know your limits!! And always do the this rule of thumb! It might sound lame but it will keep you safe.

Drink Rules: 1 Alcoholic Drink, 1 Glass of Water, 1 Snack or some kind of food, wait a minimum of 1 hour before you repeat this cycle. This gives your body enough time to to start breaking down the alcohol in your system.

One letter that Amber answered in this story is about a girl who is forced to change her shirt because she is showing to much skin. However the boys are allowed to go shirtless. This reminded me of an issue that was going on at a local high school here a few years ago. Girls were singled out and told that they could no longer show their collarbones. Which is so stupid. I totally agree with what Amber told the girl to do that to use her social media and her voice. Because we as women and girls are NOT a distraction.

The story itself was great. With all the elements it had the only one I kind of had an issue with was Dean. Don't get me wrong he was an awesome boy but I found myself just not enjoying his chapter as much as Ambers. By the end of the book I did warm up to his part of the story and it really started to unfold and made more sense since it gave us information that we wouldn't have known. So when it all went down we already knew who knew what.

There is just so much to say about this important novel. But I just do not have the words to say it all here. This is just one of those stories that you need to read. Buy it for your daughters and sons and your schools and libraries!! Get it into the hands of teens because that is where it will do the most good.


Go Into This One Knowing: Dual POV, Sex Education, Hacking, Attempted Rape (PTSD Flashbacks), Doesn't Shy Away from Hard Topics,

A current and topical contemporary young adult book, Ask Me Anything by Molly E Lee is a positive and empowering story that I would absolutely recommend. Amber is a senior in a conservative private high school, counting down the last few months to graduation and eagerly awaiting an acceptance letter for MIT. She likes coding, coffee and Deadmau5 and loves hanging out with her best friend Hannah. She has really supportive parents and a slight crush on one of the guys in her computers class. So far, so good. When a silly prank goes wrong and the school principal goes on the warpath, her crush, Dean , is roped into creating an after school coding class, and soon the pair are getting closer, and betting on who has the best computer skills. Amber's idea to start an anonymous blog where she will answer student questions about sexual health and sexuality seems great at first, especially given the lack of support already available in the school, but it soon has parents on the warpath, and the principal on Dean's back to try to find out who is responsible.
I loved many things about this book, the first being that the author made Amber a coder, positive female representation in STEM is something I love to see in YA fiction. I also loved Amber's character, strong, determined and empathetic, and the supportive relationship she had with her parents. As the book progresses we learn more about a trauma from her past and how this still impacts on her abilities to trust men, and I liked that the author gives her blossoming relationship with Dean time to breathe and develop naturally into one of mutual trust and respect...and not a little lust of course. If I had to pick a fault with the book I would have to say that Principal Tanner is a pretty one dimensional villain character but in the grand scheme of things its a minor flaw in a very enjoyable book.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I loved the characters in this book, the writing style, and the plotline. My favorite part of the book just might have to be the fact that our female MC, Amber, is a hacker. It makes me so happy to see a female lead interested in something that is often dominated by males. I liked how Dean and Amber's relationship started as friends so they have a foundation. It was fun to read about their conversations, texts, IM, etc. It was addicting since their conversations are often hilarious and I live for silly banter between characters.

I also like the fact that Amber's parents are a huge part of the book. Often, parents in YA books just disappear and it was fun to see how they have such and easy-going and open relationship. You can tell how much Amber trusts her parents and how much her parents trust her. Lastly, another thing I liked about this book was the amount of life advice it had. Like Amber's blog isn't just about sex advice, she covers different topics as well.

I am so impressed with this book! It was a refreshing young adult talking about sex in an empowering way, with coding and hacking added in. It’s a super unique book in this genre and I really enjoyed how different it was.

Amber is a fierce, strong female dealing with a really bad breakup. She loved coding and hacking. Her parents were absolutely fantastic! Dean is the love interest. He was seriously the best guy; patient, kind, funny and sweet. He was living a bit in his brother’s shadow in the coding community. They decide to challenge each other to an epic senior prank. She decides to create an anonymous website answering questions from teens, that the school and parents don’t want to talk about. It's obviously quite controversial in the community.

It’s a dual POV, interspersed with chat boxes, and blog format throughout the book. I loved these characters and I thought the love story was beautiful. There are a lot of serious topics talked about throughout the book, including sex, rape, transgender, and pregnancy. But, these were all handled absolutely perfectly. The only thing I had an issue with was the pacing of the book. There were no details, yet huge jumps in time.

If you are looking for something refreshing and different in the young adult genre, you should definitely pick this one up!

* ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Another really good teen/YA title from Molly Lee. Amber and Dean are the two best hackers at their high school, and both have their sights set on acceptance to MIT. They end up being the only two who show up for Coding Club, and they challenge each other to a friendly competition to see who can pull off a better hack. Amber's project is a secret blog, "Ask Me Anything," where teens can write in with questions that will never be addressed by their school's abstinence only policy. As Amber and Dean spend more time together, they develop a true friendship and then more. The book dealt with a lot of circumstances I think teens face. There were a few elements I didn't love, but overall it was a good read and kept me interested.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Amber is the best hacker in a school with the most obsolete concepts, especially about sexual education.
So, she had an idea, she created a blog to help all of those afraid to ask questions about sensitive topics.
First of all, let me tell you that this blog “Ask me anything” should be something real. Let’s face it, the reality is that no matter our beliefs or our ideas, teenagers are curious per nature, they need guidance and education especially on a topic so delicate like sex, and for me, the author nailed the subject brilliantly; the plot is unique, original and well done delivered. There are sensitive situations that the writer handled carefully and smartly.
I liked the characters, especially the protagonist and her parents. Amber is strong, determinate and sweet, a great combo, and Amber’s parents are great, for once I liked to read a story where the main character has a good relationship with mom and dad, and that they are good listener and supporter, bravo! Descriptions, scenes, setting, in my opinion, the author hit every right button when she wrote this book. Excellent!
Now, what I didn’t enjoy much as the rest.
Repetitions. The story is told from both main characters POV, and that is one of my favorites writing. However, they go on and on with the same inner thought which makes the story slower than what it should be.
We know there have to be secrets, if not what is the point of the story but, in this book, it’s ‘I have a secret, but I can’t tell you’ kind of thing. It would be much better if the reader walks the path without being told.
And every good part of the story is discovered because somebody walks behind the character and read something over their shoulder. It’s like everybody flies instead of walking. It’s too convenient. Once can be okay, but more than that, not so much.
Despite this minors’ things, I think Ask me anything should be read not just for a teenager but for everybody it has a good message and again it’s well-done delivery.
Note: I received an ARC from Entangled Publishing LLC through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. And I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A little over a month ago, I got an email from Entangled asking me if I wanted to share an excerpt of Ask Me Anything. A sex-positive YA book that features an awesome female hacker? SIGN ME UP. I shared that excerpt, which only made me more excited to read this book.

For the first half of the book or so, I was sure this was going to be a four- or even five-star read. I loved Amber and her friends. I loved Dean and his sister. I loved the Code Club and the whole idea of the competition between Amber and Dean. I loved the idea of the Ask Me Anything blog and I loved that the book gave reasonable, realistic advice in the form of blog posts. Simply put, I loved everything.

The second half, though? It’s not like it was bad or anything. It just wasn’t as good. Amber and Dean were cute together, but a few things happen that felt entirely unrealistic. Principal Tanner was a ridiculous character, completely over-the-top, and almost a caricature of a villain. There are also two points that I can’t really discuss without spoilers, so click below for that.

These are spoilers!
Alright, so the first thing I want to talk about is Amber and Dean’s first time. In general, this book is pretty realistic when it comes to sex. I expected Amber and Dean’s first time to be at least semi-realistic. I did not expect it to be complete and utter perfection, where Dean knows exactly how to make Amber “fly apart” (or whatever euphemism the author used for having an orgasm) despite it being both of their first times.

The second thing I want to address is Tessa’s pregnancy. As I said, the majority of the book is pretty realistic. Tessa’s pregnancy, though, felt contrived, almost like something out of a bad educational film they’d have made us watch in Catholic high school health class. (That’s right, kids, have sex and you’ll get pregnant, there’s no way around it.) It seemed to add a lot of unnecessary drama without really adding to the plot, other than giving Amber and Dean an excuse to have an argument.


Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. I think it’s timely and important and I wish something like it would have existed when I was a teenager.

Quick note: This book contains many descriptions of sexual assault. If that’s something you’re sensitive to, know that it’s handled well, but it’s still a definite presence and a fairly large part of the story.

Ask Me Anything by Molly E Lee a five-star read you would ask anything for. I really didn’t know what to expect with this one, I started it and enjoyed it, but then all of a sudden I couldn’t put it down, the competitive edge took over and I couldn’t help myself I had to finish this no matter the time. I am not the target audience for this story as I finished high school many moons ago (back when the internet was a new thing), but I did attend a Catholic school that had the highest teen pregnancy rate in all of Europe at the time and they still didn’t believe that we needed to know more much like Tanner in this story. I know people who would have killed for something like this website, Much like Amber I was one of the lucky ones and my mum was one of the best I could ask for, my only wish was that I had a Dean of my own as he made this story so sublime.

Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review in any way. All opinions shared are my own.

I’m going to throw this out there now. If it wasn’t obvious from the synopsis, Ask Me Anything by Molly E. Lee is a very sex-positive novel. Personally, I think Lee addressed the topic of sex education in a very unique and positive way, and I absolutely loved it. Not only is it a solid YA romance, but I think it can spark discussion about sex education in schools. Also, Ask Me Anything does have a feminist vibe, which was a nice addition. As a warning, it does reference sexual assault and rape in the novel. I believe it’s discussed tastefully, but if you are triggered by those topics, please proceed reading Ask Me Anything with caution.

The story focuses mainly on Amber and Dean, two hackers that are acquaintances and become friends in Code Club. It all starts with a competition between the two hackers to end their senior year on a bang, particularly by annoying their principal. However, things quickly escalate. I really enjoyed reading about Amber and Dean. They had quite the chemistry, and I thought there was obvious growth in the story as they succeeded and made mistakes. I particularly loved that there were moments when they admitted they needed help. It made me love Amber and Dean even more.

I also enjoyed the format of Ask Me Anything. It included chats between Amber and Dean along with some of Amber’s blog posts. It really enforced the coding aspect of this story without using a ton of code speak, if that makes any sense. Personally, as someone that knows nothing about coding, I appreciate that it wasn’t very technical. The inclusion of blog posts also helped enforce Amber’s intentions. Truthfully, I thought the blog posts were very relevant topics.

I did find the situation with their principal to be a bit over the top. I also wish there was a stronger presence by the secondary characters. However, I absolutely loved the story regardless. I also appreciate the fact that the adults weren’t completely absent from this story. Amber’s parents and the vice principal makes various appearances throughout the story.

I highly recommend reading Ask Me Anything by Molly E. Lee. I found it to be a wonderful YA romance, and I think it’s a great discussion starter. I know not everyone will agree with the viewpoint of the story, but I think regardless, it at least expresses the importance of discussion between teens and parents and between romantic partners. If you choose to dive into Ask Me Anything, I hope you love Amber and Dean as much as I do.

Upon reading the premise of this book, it sounded to me like just the feminist-centric read I've been missing in my reading life for the last few months. Reading this book felt exactly like watching a teen movie, a heartwarming romance, a tragic backstory, a nasty and overbearing principle, really involved parents, a funny best friend with her stellar hot boyfriend, and of course, your favourite manic-pixie dream girl. Literally, her nickname is pixie. How much more obvious can you get?
This book literally has all the elements of a teen movie wrapped neatly in one readable story. It seems like the author tried to make these characters as un-one-dimensional and original as she possibly could, both characters just happen to be top tier hackers, Amber's hair is... I mean, random, but okay. This isn't entirely unbelievable, I'm just saying that I sensed the attempts to make your characters interesting right off the bat without introduction.
The introduction in this book is weird. Like, right at the beginning, we start a few months after the main events of the book, so we get a tiny glimpse into the climax of the book, but we are left wondering what happened between the characters for the situation to have occurred. On one hand, I think that this is brilliant storytelling, especially when you're trying to captivate your audience right away in order for them to actually want to keep reading. This book grabs you right from the start, where you pretty much have to keep reading to find out what went down. On the other hand, this kind of weighs on your mind the entire time you read the relationship between Dean and Amber develop, you're rooting for these two characters, but at the same time you know that they're doomed from the start based from what we read at the beginning, so there's a romance your readers could have been way more invested in had they not been informed beforehand that there's a huge rift that's going to tear them apart at some point in the story.
Because of Amber's trust issues and trauma that we're made aware of very early on in the story, this makes the knowledge even more disheartening. You want to root for them together, but knowing what you do, you know that Dean ends up betraying her in some way later on anyway, so it's hard to really like him as a character and their relationship in general despite how nice of a guy he's portrayed to be.
Speaking of, I found Dean to be super unrealistic, simply because he's a guy. There's no way a guy would be that gentle and sweet and understanding, he was literally almost the perfect guy and that's just some hella unrealistic expectations.
This book handles subjects of sexual assault, safe sex, trauma and other subjects very well, I think that this book is a great read for anybody who resonates with any of the content it showcases, however, keep in mind the potential triggers while reading, as there is a lot of mention of sexual assault.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. Ask Me Anything is a unique look at a private school with abstinence-only sex education. Amber sees the lack of sex education access as an issue. Like many teens, she sees the internet as a solution. Using her coding skills, she creates a blog that shares matter of fact sex information. Dean is the cute guy from school who is tasked, via some questionable school administration, with uncovering the creator of the blog. The mistaken identity drama that ensues will be enjoyable for teens who enjoy reading romantic angst stories. Teens who enjoy reading about other teens finding solutions and standing up for themselves will appreciate Amber's solution based thinking. Adult YA readers may find some of the poor communication-based angst problematic and secondary characters are not as well developed as they could be.

“He’d brought me my favorite late-night fuel on four different occasions, but I tried not to read into it. He was a decent guy. A good friend. A gorgeous, mysterious, funny, perceptive, way-out-of-my-league friend.”

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After her last relationship went awry, Amber swore off dating until college. But spending quality time with fellow hacker Dean has her reconsidering her decision. Dean is nothing like her jerky jock ex-boyfriend, and soon she’s finds herself opening up her heart to him.

They decide to go head to head to determine who the better hacker is by messing with uptight Principal Tanner. Amber creates a dark web blog for her fellow students, which provides no holds barred advice on everything from sex to gender identity. The principal demands Dean expose the creator of the blog, so Tanner can pull out all the stops to deliver the maximum punishment. Tanner’s set on destroying the student’s future for making him look bad, and he’s fine with Dean as collateral damage, should the boy fail to deliver up the blogger’s identity. Dean stands to lose his coding comrade and destroy their budding romantic relationship in the process.

I love that Dean and Amber are well matched in computer skills. The great relationships Amber and Dean have with their parents shines through. Dean is close to his siblings, and Amber has her BFF and Hannah’s boyfriend Jake. The book delves into many of the serious issues teens face and the problematic nature of social media. Amber and Dean’s love story is sweet, a bit steamy, and a whole lot of fun to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to experience this book in advance of its release.

*Please note that my review is based on uncorrected text.

Nope, did not like this story at all.

The writing is so sllllooooww. I knew I was in trouble from the first chapter. I mean, how many times does the main character have to write no before the other party gets it?

Just not able to get into it.