Platinum Diaries by K. August Rose

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I was excited to read Platinum Diaries because besides the pretty cover the blurb was giving me remnants of older YA urban fantasy. And I was intrigued by how it bring that into 2022 along with how the root-working grandmother and psychic dreams would play out. It being self published also intrigued me because of the freedom self-publishing provides to tell whatever stories without having to make it overly commercial. So I signed up to received an arc from the author for review.

Sayra has started a new school year and is upset when she's booted from her assigned parking space in favor of returning school golden boy Conrad Bishop. Conrad has returned after an accident and wears white gloves and is adverse to touch. His strange behavior is alarming but makes him even more popular at school. He and Sayra are enemies due to past incidents which include him accidentally pushing her down the stairs. One night Sayra has a dream about a mysterious man being murdered that shakes her to her core. Sayra's dreams always come true. Determined to prevent it from happening Sayra enlists the help of her best friends and grandmother. 

I thought the stuff with the family was done very well. Sayra has a connection to her grandmother who is also gifted. Her grandmother is a root work practitioner who offers her guidance throughout the story. Her parents are very involved trying to understand her dreams as well as keep her safe. Even though they clashed at times they were always able to talk it out and you could feel the love between them.

Sayra has a serious case of not like other girls going on which is a remnant of older YA that needs to stay in the past. She's not like the other girly girls at her school because she fixes cars. Well it's talked about how she enjoys tinkering with cars. We mostly see her on her bike or riding around with others since she can't drive her car to school every day. She's not wealthy like them because her parents are a doctor and an author.  And doesn't like to wear makeup like the other girls.

And speaking of makeup she just puts on some gloss and puts a little effort into her hair and transforms into some sort of goddess on earth the boys at school can't resist. After hearing so much about how awkward her height is and how the boys don't pay her attention the switch flips and suddenly every boy and some grown men are waxing poetic about how stunning she is.

There's plenty of drama to keep this story moving as they try to prevent the murder. Though sometimes the story slows down a little too much in favor of showing the day to day at the school. Despite some pacing issues at some points where it just seemed like the mystery was being dragged out I was mostly satisfied by Platinum Dreams. That is until around the 95% mark where the sole Black boy character we're introduced to and barely got to see on page was unnecessarily thrown under the bus with some harmful stereotypes. Sayra goes to very white private school. Readers are told multiple times that there's only 11 Black kids in the entire school. In a book with a lot of bad white characters and equally favored ones it was a strange decision.