I was trying to think of which of my March ARCs I should read before I start my April ARCs, and I decided on this book, feeling like I needed somethinI was trying to think of which of my March ARCs I should read before I start my April ARCs, and I decided on this book, feeling like I needed something fun and purely escapist as a palate cleanser before I started a pretty thriller-heavy month for me. Plus, I’ve never read a Marie Lu book before (I know, late to the game, right?) and I just wanted to give her writing a try, even though I know this isn’t her usual game.
While not perfect, this book is a ton of fun! Is it absolutely over-the-top ridonkulous? Yes, yes it is! Is it, as described inside, Kingsmen meets The Bodyguard? It totally is! Do I care about how much I had to suspend my disbelief? Heck-to-the-NO!
Marie Lu is an admitted fan of BTS, and when I sent my bestie (who is also a BTS fan) the summary of this book, my bestie said, “OMG I know exactly who she based Winter Young on!”. I could only laugh, because I am an occasional BTS listener and don’t know the difference between any of them. Winter Young, the male protagonist in this book, may be a pop superstar on par with the Taylor Swift’s of the world in this book in terms of stardom, but he’s much poorer in terms of family and the people who truly know him and love him. His brother died when he was a kid, his dad didn’t want him, and his mother hasn’t been able to really look at him or be around him since his brother passed. The three people closest to him, his manager and two main backup dancers, don’t even know about his brother. So really, no one truly knows him completely.
If you know me and have read a good deal of my reviews, then you know how much I love female spies and assassins. Our female protagonist is Sydney Cossette (also known as The Jackal), who works for The Panacea Group, the secret black ops company who recruits Winter for a secret mission to help take down one of the richest men in the world by having him perform at his daughter’s massive, private birthday gala while Sydney does her dirty work behind the scenes. She’s to pose as Winter’s bodyguard while Winter gets to know and distracts the birthday girl. Sydney was recruited by The Panacea Group at 15 when one of their agents was accompanying the CIA on a recruitment mission at her high school. The CIA couldn’t use her, but she was perfect for The Panacea Group. Eager to escape her nightmare life in her small town, Sydney left that day to become an international spy and never looked back. She feels alone too, clinging to her handler almost like he’s her father and keeping a great deal of secrets. (And can I just tell you how tickled I was that the girl from the poor side of the tracks had the last name Cossette? Shout out to Les Mis fans.)
Beyond these two protagonists, this book is like a popcorn movie hyped up on coffee, fandom, BAMF females, pretty boys, shiny toys, and glittering fun. It’s a quick, page-turning read that might actually make a solid movie or animated film. If you just want some escapism in a world less ordinary, pick it up!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All views, ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Contemporary Romance/YA Romance/YA Fiction/Book Series/Coming of Age/Espionage Thriller/LGBTQ Friendly/YA Book Series/YA Drama/YA Mystery/YA Suspense/YA Thriller ...more
This book has the suspense, the characters, the plot structure, and that great dark academia vibe we’re all going ga-ga for right now. Sadly, what it This book has the suspense, the characters, the plot structure, and that great dark academia vibe we’re all going ga-ga for right now. Sadly, what it doesn’t have is charisma or any ability to hold my interest. I saw the bones of a great book, but the book itself was boring enough to me that I had to keep asking people in the house to stop bothering me because I kept looking for excuses to put the book down and be diverted into something more interesting.
Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s how many suspense novels and thrillers I’ve already read this year. Maybe I’m simply too picky. Who knows? Simply put: There are so many great authors out there doing this same thing right now and they’re doing it better that this book just came across as a wet noodle, save that author Jessica Goodman has a knack for building suspense and knowing when to stop with one character’s POV and move onto another’s in order to keep that suspense blooming (this book has three present-day narratives told from first-person POV and then small interludes interspersed from third-person POV that occur after the book’s climatic events).
I wished for something more, since books like these are usually my jam. I just didn’t get what I had hoped to get out of this one.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Personal policy dictates this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website due to receiving a rating of three stars or lower. ...more
For spoiler reasons, I can’t tell you how Eve and Wren end up permanently escaping Compound Eleven and arriving in the camp full of compound outcasts For spoiler reasons, I can’t tell you how Eve and Wren end up permanently escaping Compound Eleven and arriving in the camp full of compound outcasts in worse for wear conditions, but this is where we are at the beginning of Ending Eleven: Eve and Wren are injured, broken in mind and body, traumatized, and (in Eve’s case) suspicious of everyone around them. It’s not like she has it in here to trust easily.
And while Eve loves the outdoors, is trying her best to make allies and friends among the outcasts, and loves exploring the man-made constructions that once covered the world, she knows she has a mission to complete and promises she needs to keep. There is more than one obstacle standing in her way, though, and she needs those resolved or removed before she can make good on freeing everyone inside Compound Eleven and ensuring the “leadership” pay for their reign of terror.
So, listen to me.
I’ve enjoyed reading this trilogy so much because Jerri Chisolm is an underrated and talented as heck writer. Her world building is spectacular and her characters are terrific. She writes terrific, thought-provoking, and intelligent dialogue for the YA set.
There is an inherent issue with the Eleven trilogy, though overall it’s a terrific read in the YA dystopian genre. The issue? It’s too optimistic for its target demographic. Please take into account this is my opinion, and I’m middle-aged, but I found the ultimate ending (AKA, the epilogue) to be too optimistic for the events of the trilogy as a whole. As a matter of fact, I found most of the characters to be in too high of spirits in the last act of this book for the events that were happening and had happened.
But, I’d like to directly thank Jerri Chisolm for writing this trilogy, because it was a terrific read in a genre that often doesn’t take the time to hit all the beats or check all the boxes. I hope you go on to write more, and to write just as great.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All views, opinions, and thoughts expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: YA Fiction/Young Adult/YA Dystopian Fiction/YA SciFi/YA Science Fiction/YA Political Fiction/Part of a Fantasy Series/YA Romance/Kindle Unlimited/KU/Coming of Age/YA Book Series ...more
It’s so unfair that I have to give this book (which is by all rights an entertaining slasher film romp where the frat boys aReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
It’s so unfair that I have to give this book (which is by all rights an entertaining slasher film romp where the frat boys are the ones in danger and not sorority girls for once) 3.5 stars. I would’ve loved to have rated it higher; but as it was, if it weren’t such a fun book to read (and I didn’t even manage to guess whodunit!) I would’ve rated it lower because this book has enough plot holes I felt like I might need to send for a work crew to come patch them all for author Cale Dietrich.
Why didn’t I guess who did it? Well, because it didn’t make any sense. If anyone else who has read this book can look back at any point in the book and tell me there was any hint that made you realize in hindsight the murderer was at least slightly suspect, then I’d like to know, because it’s driving me nuts.
And as for the leading suspect for the murders for the majority of the book: If Sam (our MC) was so skeptical, why didn’t he find a way to contact that person’s family and find out if they knew anything about where he was or what happened to him? Moreover, if said person had indeed disappeared suddenly, wouldn't law enforcement have contacted Sam as a matter of course, considering their shared history? I just felt like I kept stumbling into plot holes and if I was watching a horror film I’d be asking Sam out loud as I was watching the television, “Why don’t you make one simple phone call?”
I loved that this was a YA horror novel in the slasher genre with prominent LGBTQ representation and a LGBTQ main romantic relationship but that Dietrich never made this book about being queer. This wasn’t a slasher novel about being gay, this was a slasher novel that just happened to have a heavy amount of queer representation that was presented in a positive light. These young men are simply fresh meat in the college market, trying to find their people and their way in life. Yeah, they’re gay, but that’s never the point. And that’s not the motive for the murders, either.
It really is an entertaining, diverting, fun, and slasher-iffic read that’s good for when you just want to take some time to sink into a book that has the feel of a 90’s slasher film.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley in conjunction with the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
While not as captivating or insanely brilliant as last year’s These Deadly Games (one of my top 10 reads of 2022 and one of the best psychological thrWhile not as captivating or insanely brilliant as last year’s These Deadly Games (one of my top 10 reads of 2022 and one of the best psychological thrillers I read last year no matter the age group it was written for), Lying in the Deep is a fun,thoroughly engaging, and well-written closed-loop suspense mystery with a nice dollop of thriller on the side. (Please note this is closed-loop and not locked-door, because there is a difference).
It’s really a good thing the blurb for this book is rather short on details and blunt in purpose, because this is a book you’ll want to go into blind. That’s one of the best things about a book like Lying in the Deep, where we have a large cast of characters from various locales that all suddenly find themselves in a somewhat trapped situation (a cruise ship, in this case). Each character has their own motivations, goals, purposes, and agendas. The only person we readers know and connect with is Jade, our protagonist, who really just wants to go on this semester-at-sea experience and try to heal the wounds from her boyfriend leaving her for her bestie and said bestie totally ghosting her. But then she can’t even do that because the two of them show up to board the ship, too. That’s only the beginning of Jade’s problems. Before this book ends, Jade’s had more problems than some people have had in their entire lifetimes and will need therapy forever. Trust.
Diana Urban has a knack for writing realistic dialogue for her characters, which can be a concern when you’re writing YA fiction dealing with trauma, grief, violence, addiction, and psychological issues. It’s a talent not every author has, but I saw it in These Deadly Games and again in this novel, and it impresses me. This book deals with all of these issues in one way or another, and Urban navigates it all so well I can’t help but be impressed.
My singular complaint about this novel was me guessing the turn from almost the beginning. I didn’t want to be right. I really didn’t. But everything else surrounding the back half of the third act was a surprise or a delight. I was just sad I guessed the turn.
If you haven’t tried Diana Urban yet, don’t be afraid to jump in with this book (and then go read These Deadly Games). It’s fun and a great closed-loop for the YA set. It also reminded me of why I will never go on a cruise ship, but that’s neither here nor there.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: YA Fiction/YA Suspense/YA Thriller/YA Mystery/Amateur Sleuth ...more
I gave the first book in this series, The Last She, 4 stars because I hadn’t read anything quite like it before and I felt it was not only compelling I gave the first book in this series, The Last She, 4 stars because I hadn’t read anything quite like it before and I felt it was not only compelling but also so refreshing in its writing style and in how much adventure and adversity the motley crew of main characters went through during the book. It was a fantastic read and, at the time, I couldn’t wait to read the next installment.
I don’t know what happened between The Last She and The Last City, but this book has lost so much of the vivacity and suspense the last book had, and I think that’s because we went from wilderness to “civilization”, and it became evident pretty early on what the Chancellor’s (our antagonist in this book) grand plan was. In comparison with the originality and the unknown variables of the first book, the eye-rolling predictability of the evil plot in this book frankly made me a little peeved. It’s been done. It’s been done in a million ways and even the way this book does it isn’t even that original. It feels lazy.
H. J. Nelson’s writing and imagination still manages to keep my attention and make me want to see what’s coming, but I’ve lost so much interest in this series compared to the break between the first book and this book. It’s just a shame that this book seems, for lack of a better term, underbaked. Too many people focused on the wrong things, causing filler material that only served to make the book longer than it needed to be. A plot twist near the end that wasn’t even needed. A question asked repeatedly throughout the book that’s never answered. This book could’ve used more baking and more editing, to be sure.
I’ll look for the third installment when it comes in the hopes Nelson can salvage this story and resolve the whole arc, but this installment on its own wasn’t a solid read.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Due to personal policy, this review will not appear on any bookseller or social media website due to the 3 star or lower rating. Thank you. ...more
You know, the blurb for this book says something about this book being like if The Hunger Games met 2022’s highly-successfulReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
You know, the blurb for this book says something about this book being like if The Hunger Games met 2022’s highly-successful novel Station Eleven, but in my opinion it didn’t remind me of either of those. You know what this book did remind me of, though? The Eleven Trilogy by Jerri Chisolm. Of course, Chisolm’s entertaining YA dystopian novels with similar themes except set underground don’t have the same brand recognition as Katniss Everdeen, but I just want to point out that I never once thought of The Hunger Games while reading The Stranded.
This book was a little above average. It was engaging and readable, with a solid plot (no matter how familiar it feels I’m almost always down for adventures and daring-dos on a ship) and some interesting (even colorful!) characters. The antagonist was deliciously sociopathic and full of hate stemming from a personal incident that he’s turned into a towering inferno of rage and transferred to just about everyone. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even like himself and he just hasn’t realized it yet. I actually found the antagonist’s machinations to be the most entertaining parts of the book.
Sarah Daniels has a solid writing style and a good idea here. Some pages have said this is the first book in a series but others haven’t, so I don’t know if another book is on the way. This book certainly does leave room for more story in this universe, but it also could just stand alone without any follow-up. If Daniels did decide to write another book in this universe she has laid a very solid base in this book for the world she’s writing it in, giving it a solid history, a good current state of affairs, and a good working knowledge of who’s currently on what side and what they’re up to.
I’m not recommending to run out and buy it, but if you are a fan of this genre, it’s a solid enough entry to check it out.
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
File Under: YA Fiction/YA Mystery/YA Thriller/YA Suspense/Dystopian/Speculative Fiction ...more
The Invocations is the type of book I live to read. Love to read. The kind of book that when I open it during my ARC reading I do a fist pump and congThe Invocations is the type of book I live to read. Love to read. The kind of book that when I open it during my ARC reading I do a fist pump and congratulate myself on finding an absolute gem of a novel that speaks to me on every level–that resonates with me on a molecular level.
The Invocations is the kind of book I read the ARC of, then buy a physical copy of and put on my bookshelf so I can read it and show it off and recommend it to people again and again.
Am I the “target audience”? Heck no. I’m in my mid-40s. The Craft came out the year I graduated high school. Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out the year after. I was a fan of the movie before the show, for pete’s sake. My own era of witchery came and went before I even had my first kid. You know what has come and not left since then, though? My anger. My rage. My fear. My fear of men. My rage at systemic patriarchy. My anger at myself for still being so afraid, even though I know there’s still so many reasons to be afraid every single day. (Then there’s more rage). It’s those feelings that make this book something I completely vibe with, along with how much I adored every single female character within.
Krystal Sutherland pulls no punches with her female characters and I’m loving it. I’m never here for females who approach this world like it’s not out for our blood. I’m never here for female characters who think we’re safe or who are complacent. Jude, Emer, and Zara are all angry at the world in their own ways and none of them are complacent about it. They’re all trying to fight in their own ways. Sure, in the beginning they’re all fighting in self-serving ways–but when they find a common cause and common enemy (hint: it’s a man) they band together to stop it. They fight through pain, blood, sweat, tears, dirt, and more. They sacrifice. Because they know no one else will.
It’s not an easy book to read. My belief is that books like this shouldn’t be an easy read because women’s lives aren’t easy. Books like this remind us it’s okay to be angry. That we can be angry. That we should be angry. And it does it in a glorious, gory, blood-soaked, demonic way. I loved it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Talk about a book that grabs you by the throat right from the get, drags you right into its pages, and never lets you go. My issue? It should’ve let uTalk about a book that grabs you by the throat right from the get, drags you right into its pages, and never lets you go. My issue? It should’ve let us readers go a little earlier.
I know, I know! I’m always complaining books are too long. So sue me. Or that books have too many epilogues when just one would suffice, thank you very much. This books suffers from that rare combination I call “The Return of the King Syndrome” (for those who have seen Peter Jackson’s “LOTR: The Return of the King”): Too many chapters at the end that read like epilogues so you think this chapter must be the ending, but then there’s another chapter that makes you think the same way, but then there’s another chapter that would’ve sufficed as a perfectly good ending as well. This goes on for several chapters. I would’ve nixed all but maybe two or three of them.
But the ending? *chef’s kiss*
This book feels a little like The Village, a little like Midsommar, a little like Hannah Whitten’s Wilderwood, and there’s a touch of The Handmaid’s Tale in there too. Even as I write this list of cultish/occult/horror/ and speculative fiction influences that I felt traces of in the framework of this novel (and, for some reason, there’s an episode of Criminal Minds that involves someone running through a sunflower field to hide from an unsub, I think), I know I can’t write this list down without acknowledging the other half of this book, which involves women working the soil, spilling their blood, sweat, and tears into it to bring forth crops mostly for the menfolk to eat before they do and flowers to bring beauty to the world.
If you pay attention to the narration clearly in the very beginning of the chapter you can tell it’s the time of the Dust Bowl Migration, and the town of Bishop is established when the land there calls to one particular migrant from the eastern seaboard, who had restlessly been searching for a place to establish his own town. We don’t find out until later that the place where the town founder has picked to become Bishop, the town where the events of our book take place, is in Kansas, which suffered the most drought and agricultural damage of any state during the Dust Bowl period. It was a truly damaged land, deprived of life. It called to this restless soul searching for a place all his own, and it spoke to him. And he paid the price many times over to establish Bishop, a town that was his, and his alone.
By the time the story of our four friends starts in earnest, it’s much further into the future. Twins Whitney and Jude, angry Bo, and lost Delilah. All four live together in Deliliah’s house, since their mothers collectively disappeared one day two years ago and haven’t been seen since. Was it murder? Did they just decide to leave their daughters and run away? No one knows. But the answers to what happened that day have haunted all four girls every moment since, and they still long for closure. For answers. Each of them have their own theories and opinions they don’t tend to share with the others. All four of them have secrets, some of them painful. And all four of them know something is wrong with the town of Bishop, but none of them are able to put their finger on it.
Andrea Hannah writes in her acknowledgements, “This is the first book I’ve written in a long time that feels like me.” Well, I applaud you, Ms. Hannah, for getting your literary groove back, because the juxtaposition between these large flowers blooming in the sunshine and yet knowing somehow that becoming sunflowers would both give the men reason to not cut them down but also would give the women of Bishop some protection if they needed it with their sheer height was a stroke of genius. You gave the men the wind and the earth, but you gave the women the flowers and the water. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the dead women of Bishop used what was once theirs to invent a way to fight against the patriarchy that ruled their town until the day would come when the town could be freed.
There’s not a lot of world building to do in this book, and there’s not a magic system, per se. This book is almost entirely driven by the characters and their emotions. I’d actually wager this book would be nothing without emotion. They flow, fly, simmer, and rage through every character, sometimes to the point where it almost feels palpable. I love a book where I can almost taste a character’s feelings in my mouth, like the saltiness of tears or the sourness of disappointment. Keeping this book small in geographic scope fit Ms. Hannah’s writing style so well I kind-of hope she doesn’t stray to anything in the epic/high fantasy genre, where characters are far-flung around another world, where time will be taken away from intense and passionate characters.
This book could’ve been rated 5 stars, if it weren’t for the awkward and stuttered denouement.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions contained therein are mine and mine alone and are given of my free will. Thank you.
Okay, writing nerds: Did any of you play the writing game “Round Robin” when you were younger? Heck, maybe some of you stillReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Okay, writing nerds: Did any of you play the writing game “Round Robin” when you were younger? Heck, maybe some of you still do. You know, you start a story, then you fold the sheet of paper over so only the last line or so is visible, and the next person in the circle only has those two lines to go off of to continue the story…and so on until the circle is completed and you see how the story played out under those limited circumstances.
That’s part of the vibe I got while reading The Grimoire of Grave Fates. An overarching concept story, each of the chapters done by a different author (which gives it an almost-anthology feel due to the variations in each author’s writing style and voice), and each author carrying their assigned character through the story with only the limited knowledge of what’s already happened in the story prior to their chapter to guide the way. It’s a sophisticated game of Round Robin, with Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf playing the roles of (essentially) comperes: checking for continuity and other possible goofs so that, when the individual chapters are collected from the contributing authors and put together, the story blends almost seamlessly into a single compendium made of many disparate parts.
The most important part of this book, which I didn’t realize when I requested it, is that the release date on the first Tuesday of June (HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!) was not coincidental: The Grimoire of Grave Fates is a book where every chapter is written from the POV of a marginalized member of society. Minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ people, mentally ill people, and even a young criminal who’s no stranger to jail. Not only that, but more than one allusion is made about the school in this book (Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary) that likens it to the Hogwarts of the transphobic JKR’s brain (and points out how inaccessible castles like that are to the disabled), and the central mystery of the book centers around the murder of a professor at the school who is somewhat like Snape, if Snape cared about money.
(But, the castle also wins points for being able to fly like a gyroscope and Howl’s Moving Castle is mentioned. So mad props.)
See, I get what Owen and Alkaf were trying to do. I don’t know if it’s my age (I read YA all the time, but this felt like maybe it was made for the younger section of the YA set–maybe closer to 13 than 16-18?), but this book felt a little simplistic in the writing and ran too long for my tastes. It’s not the book was bad; it’s just that the book seemed to go on far too long and I started to feel like Owen and Alkaf were just trying to shoehorn in as much diversity as possible.
By all means: Do that. We need diversity. We want diversity. It’s necessary. The more diversity there is on bookseller websites and library bookshelves and home bookshelves the less excuses there will be to take them down. I’m all for publishing diverse reads in ever genre and every format possible.
Will that change my mind about how I rate this book, though? No, it won’t. But I can tell you this is a book I’d recommend to someone like my 13 year-old niece. She’d probably give it 5 stars and a place of honor on her bookshelf.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the creators/editors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Bwhahaha! My inner Arthuriana fangirl was itching to get its hands on this book, being such grabby hands for books tied to the infamous mythological bBwhahaha! My inner Arthuriana fangirl was itching to get its hands on this book, being such grabby hands for books tied to the infamous mythological barbarian king, his loyal knights, Merlin (lord, let’s not get into HIM), Tintagel, Camelot, yada yada yada. However, there is one specific group of people that will always capture my attention more than any other when it comes to books related to this sub-genre of fantasy novels: any novels having to do with Morgan/Morgana, Elayne, and/or Vivian/Viviane/Vivane. (Example: Laura Sebastian’s beyond excellent Half Sick of Shadows). I’ll even throw in Morgause, since she’s sometimes substituted for one of the other three or even included with the other three, depending on your source material.
So I was so excited to get a chance to read Silver in the Bone, urban fantasy meeting the realm of Avalon, with a character named Emrys (Merlin’s name in the Welsh Arthuriana texts), a desperation to save a sibling, some enemies-to-lovers action vibes, curses, dark magic…sign me up! I cracked this baby up, settling in for a good, day-long read (it ended up being a day and a half because reasons).
The verdict? Besides being very predictable in a lot of ways (to the point where I got downright mad at the obliviousness of some characters) with some solid (but obvious) red herrings thrown our way, Silver in the Bone is an enjoyable fantasy read, but not an enjoyable fantasy romance. It’s the start of a fantasy romance, but this book is way more epic and dark fantasy than it is anything else.
I enjoyed the first and second acts of this book far more than I did the third. The third act may be where all the questions are answered and where all the serious action is, but it’s also where I facepalmed the most because I was constantly saying, “DUH” because everything I had already predicted (including the very end) was coming true).
Alexandra Bracken does a fantastic job of building both the mortal world in this book for the Hollowers and sorceresses (where Tamsin, Emrys, Cabell, and Neve come from), but she deserves even more props for her worldbuilding in Avalon. I can’t tell you about the Avalon worldbuilding because it’s not included in the summary and it would be a huge spoiler; but trust me, it’s some of the most intricate worldbuilding I’ve ever read when it comes to a rendering of Avalon.
I’d say the characters in this book stand out, but they really don’t. They feel familiar because they are familiar. A snarky, cynical, closed-off female protagonist. A yearning, slightly softer, slightly vulnerable, out-of-place, yet loyal brother figure. A bubbly, friendly, extroverted bestie who manages to melt the female protagonist despite her emotional shields. A dark-haired, handsome MMC with whom the FMC has a rivalry with even though she can’t stop thinking about him and even though she knows he’s nothing but trouble.
I could keep going. You know them and you’ve met them because these same archetype characters have been in so many fantasy novels over the past decade or so you can recognize them right away. Still, I can’t help but love Tamsin (our FMC) because I loves me a snarky and sharp-tongued woman fueled by spite. Reminds me of me.
The pacing is solid, but the plot obviously needs work if I found it so predictable. This isn’t me saying I didn’t enjoy it, because it’s an interesting and fresh take on Avalon and Arthuriana. Plus, the ending had me greedy for the next book. I was left with that urgent feeling of, “What comes next? I need to see what comes next!” And that feeling is what you want from the first book in any book series.
This book does end on a major cliffhanger. It’s a doozy. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. But do try and pick this up and give it a read. I think you’ll enjoy it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All ideas, views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Arthuriana/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance/YA Fiction/Fantasy Series/Book Series/Coming of Age/Dark Fantasy/LGBTQ Friendly/Epic Fantasy ...more
In my last year of high school, I felt like I was more than ready to blow that popsicle stand. It was almost a physical itch to get out of that schoolIn my last year of high school, I felt like I was more than ready to blow that popsicle stand. It was almost a physical itch to get out of that school and out of my small town. In my mind, I was already gone and it was only my physical body that was stuck with these small minds and forked tongues. I always knew I was somehow mistakenly born in a small town when I was meant to live in big cities. I was not born to live in the small dairy town I was born and raised in. I hated every moment spent there.
So I completely identified with all of our four boys as we rejoin them in Afterglow after the events of Golden Boys (which was also a brilliant novel). After a summer away from one another, each of our main characters comes back to their hometown to find they feel even more out of place than they felt before the previous summer. Not only that, but their best laid plans may not be the best of plans after all, and isn’t senior year hard enough without having to worry about changing your life plan, too?
Just like Golden Boys, Stamper writes Afterglow as a bittersweet ode to those formative friendships that build and hold as fast as Urban Decay’s All Nighter Setting Spray (Ha! Makeup joke!). No matter how circumstances change, no matter how mad they get at one another, no matter how many times relationships form and then break, these four boys are tied together by years of laughing, crying, celebrating, making playlists, throwing parties, supporting each other at events, and comforting one another through yet another breakup.
See, I seem to have liked the first book better than Afterglow, but that’s because I have a great affection for yearning. Golden Boys had acres and acres of yearning. For home, for friendship, for love, for connection, for inspiration, for motivation, and more. Afterglow feels more like a combination of disillusionment, pressure, discovery, drifting, and time sneaking up on you.
And, of course, I want to thank Phil Stamper for writing not one, but two optimistic, lovely, realistic, relatable, non-toxic books about LGBTQ+ youth in middle America. I could just stop at saying, “Thanks for writing great LGBTQ+ books!”, but I think it’s important to acknowledge so many books in this genre are set on the coasts in the major metro cities, and yet Stamper chose to make the hometown setting in these books somewhere in the midwest, where queer representation in literature is not prolific; and, if there are queer characters in books set in the midwest, they usually aren’t shining stars who get the best representation. I may live on the west coast, but I can acknowledge this choice will probably give heart and hope to a lot of LGBTQIA+ folx in the midwest, no matter what the age.
I was provided with a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Friendly Reads/LGBTQ Romance/YA Romance/Young Adult/YA Book Series/Coming of Age/High School/YA Drama/YA Fiction ...more
I struggle with labeling this book as a young adult book. Not because I don’t think it’s age-appropriate, but because I think it’s doing the book a diI struggle with labeling this book as a young adult book. Not because I don’t think it’s age-appropriate, but because I think it’s doing the book a disservice: this book should be promoted to be read by all ages. There have been a great deal of novels over time that could technically be labeled as being “young adult” (“The Call of the Wild” comes to mind), but since they were written prior to the time when the publishing industry started marketing books toward certain demographics to maximize profit they simply were read by anyone who found them interesting and then some of them became classics. Now some of those same books and some that I would argue aren’t even relevant to young adults or even important for them to read during their formative years are still considered required reading, while books labeled as “young adult” still struggle to be included in middle school and high school curriculums, even if they might be more relevant to today’s teens and young adults. Not to mention there are a great many adults who turn their noses up at any books labeled as “young adult” simply for the label, when they might be passing up a great opportunity to read an important and beautifully written book.
Such is the case with “The Hunger Between Us”. The cover, on first blush, almost makes the book look like it’s a sapphic romance. What it is, though, is a tragic, moving, violent, desperate tale of a starving girl named Liza during the Siege of Leningrad during WWII (this event was not classified as a war crime at the time, but many historians consider it to be close to an attempted genocide). During the two-plus years this event lasted, Leningrad’s citizens were trapped in the city with no way to get food or medical help, causing millions to starve or die of various illnesses or infections. Many were brutalized by their own country’s soldiers, not to mention Russia’s secret police (the precursors to the KGB), who were hiding in plain sight everywhere and ready to report on anyone showing the slightest bit of disloyalty.
I have a… fondness for Russian history. On my father’s side there’s a good deal of Russian in our blood, and out of me and my two siblings, I look the most Russian. (My siblings look like great big Anglo Saxon Germans.) That’s what piqued my interest in this book, and I wasn’t disappointed. The research that went into his book shows in the intricate, depressing, atmospheric, and painful details. You could feel the illness and the starvation on a visceral level. You can vividly imagine the feelings of longing for just one person you could trust–just one person you could hold onto as your world crumbles around you. You can feel the momentary yearning Liza has every once and awhile to just close her eyes and give up. What keeps her going is the search for her best and closest friend, who went out for food one day and didn’t come back. Liza is determined to find her, no matter what she has to do to find the answer.
It’s a compelling read, but not an easy one. As a reader, I needed to find out the answer as much as Liza did, even though I had an inkling what the answer was from the start. I just didn’t want to believe it, because I wanted Liza to have just a smidge of something happy in her life. Just that one thing she yearned for, the one thing from her life before the war she could hold onto. Liza is so sick and so depressed, but she’s brave and determined in the face of so much hate, evil, violence, and death. I’m rarely so invested in seeing a character succeed like this. But if anyone deserves a happy ending in a book, it’s Liza.
Thanks to NetGalley and FSG for granting me access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to read a book based on real-life teenage twin spirit mediums from the early 20th century set in Sacramento, the ciI wasn’t going to pass up a chance to read a book based on real-life teenage twin spirit mediums from the early 20th century set in Sacramento, the city I’ve lived in most of my adult life (don’t look for me there right now though, lol). Not only do I love a good tale about spiritualists and spiritual movements, but I love historical fiction set in Sacramento. I think it’s the part of me that wants to test the mettle of the author and gleefully see if they’ve done their due diligence when it comes to researching California’s weird capital city.
I absolutely loved the accuracy Glaze got with all of the real-life historical elements of Sacramento, right down to the historically accurate street layouts of the time (which are somewhat different now) and the modes of transportation available at the time and which streets they were available on (for instance, the omnibus only ran on K Street). It’s that kind of research and detail that absolutely thrills a reader like me who is intimately familiar with the history of Sacramento (part of my Geography degree is in Urban Planning, so I did some field studies in our downtown area and became familiar with the historical layout of that area). And I love seeing mentions of real historical figures (Miss Crocker, whose family name and mansion would go on to become the Crocker Art Museum, which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city) and real historical landmarks like the Union Hotel, which is located inside of the Old Sacramento waterfront (a state historical park and a historical landmark) and currently houses an Irish pub.
Like I said, it’s stuff like this–the devil in the details–that separates great historical fiction from mediocre historical fiction.
So, I think it’s safe to say I loved the plot of the book. Where the book lost some points for me was the pacing. It started off slow and took me a while to get into. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to really get into it for about the first 25% of the book. Then it started to pick up a little, but I still wasn’t fully invested until close to 35%. After that? It was smooth sailing and I enjoyed it all the way through to the end.
I do have one warning: While I personally don’t have literary triggers, I know some others do. Eugenics is a huge trigger for me as a talking point, but not in fiction. There is some talk of eugenics and asylums due to the time period in which this book is set. If you feel this may trigger you, proceed with caution and take care of yourself.
Thanks to NetGalley and Union Square & Co. for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
What do you do when a crew of asexual teens decide to play “Ocean’s 11” when one of their own’s mother has been thrown in jail and his family’s casinoWhat do you do when a crew of asexual teens decide to play “Ocean’s 11” when one of their own’s mother has been thrown in jail and his family’s casino legacy is on the line? Well, you get this bouncy, clever, cute, and screwball YA casino heist novel, “Aces Wild”.
This is the third title from Peachtree Teen I’ve read this year so far, and so far they’re knocking it out of the park with these unique titles in the OwnVoices category. Saying that I enjoyed reading a YA book where the last thing most of these teens are thinking of is sex seems incredibly patronizing and reductive, but I can’t deny that taking the usual sex and objectification that would usually be part and parcel in your usual heist novel out of the equation leaves a lot of room for more story, more actions, more genuine friendship and character development, and just a more well-rounded story all around.
Now, I’ve never been to Vegas, so I can’t tell you if half the stuff the characters manage to do in this book are even possible. I mean, from what I’ve seen in other movies and on television, I don’t think it would work that way, but I chose to suspend my disbelief because the book was fun and an entertaining page-turner full of characters that were so easy to love.
Was the turn a surprise? No. But a lot of this book wasn’t surprising because these kids are just teenagers who are wrapped up in their ideals and want to be the ones to save their friend and the day. Of course they aren’t going to walk away with the keys to the kingdom. But they sure are going to give it their best try, and it’s a lot of fun to read about it all going down.
Thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for granting me early access to this title. ...more
For all that steampunk seems to have been a pop culture phenomenon that lurked in subculture before becoming mainstream for a couple of years a while For all that steampunk seems to have been a pop culture phenomenon that lurked in subculture before becoming mainstream for a couple of years a while back before fading back into the subculture once more, you could believe it was part and parcel of the YA literary landscape with the passion and zeal A. G. Howard builds an entire novel around it in “Shades of Rust and Ruin”. The alchemy of this novel is amazing: A substantial fantasy world built around the fey mixed with steampunk and a dash of cyberpunk, a chunk of plot built around one interpretation of Christina Rossetti’s poem “The Goblin Market”, a smidge of wink nudge references to the movie “Labyrinth”, and both an ode and a dirge to sisterhood. In my opinion, the only flaw this book has is its tendency to be so in love with its own world it can’t help but tip into overly descriptive at times. Even then, you can’t help but forgive the author just a little, since the world is fascinating enough you kind of want to linger a little yourself. But we’re not reading this book for a grand tour of a fantasy world: we’re here for the story. And what a story it is.
Phoenix has a fear of Halloween, and for good reason: Her parents died on Halloween and her sister died on Halloween. Usually, Nix and her Uncle sit vigil at home from midnight on the 31st until midnight on November 1st, staying together and never leaving the house, completing simple rituals together to remember the family they’ve lost and to keep each other afloat for the 24 hours they are determined to stay awake and ensure they stay safe and alive together. But then Nix’s uncle breaks their routine to run a few errands and doesn’t come back, forcing Nix to leave the house as well, despite her desperate fears. Turns out, she had good reason to fear.
The less said about the plot of this book, the better. I hope no one posts a whole bunch of spoilers or reviews that are simply summaries of the plot, because going in blind is so much better. Trust me on this. Before I go any further in my review I will say this: The ending of this book made the whole book worthwhile. I pumped my fist and literally said, “Yes!”
Much of this book hinges on the story arc present in Christina Rossetti’s much-beloved poem “The Goblin Market”, but there’s more than one interpretation of this beautiful work. The more popular interpretation (and the only one I had heard of up until this book) was of the two main characters, Laura and Lizzie, being lovers who try their best to keep one another safe from the greedy eyes and hands of men. In “Shades of Rust and Ruin”, the interpretation of the poem is adjusted so that Laura and Lizzie are sisters and the goblins were actually goblins. So bear this interpretation in mind when you go to read this book, because it did take some mental rearranging for me to not get a little creeped out when I discovered how much this book leans on the poem.
The world-building in this book, as I’ve mentioned before, is mind-boggling. It’s colorful, it’s allegorical, it’s metaphorical, it’s figurative, and it’s incredibly imaginative. There’s a world living on a world that’s parted from “our” world by a veil. There’s a funhouse scene early on that is both incredibly intense and incredibly well-crafted. It has the feel of a demented Wonderland crossed with a dark Legend of Zelda. If it weren’t an adrenaline-fueled moment in the book I would’ve wanted to sit there and meditate on the whole scene for a minute.
Writing about the magic system would be fruitless because it would only result in the dreaded spoilers, so I won’t give it a go, but the characters are unique and varied, with the primary cast being large enough to cause the author to struggle just slightly with giving them all page time enough to fully develop identities, save for Nix. Once again, I believe this choice wasn't inherently a bad one, it was a choice made in sacrifice of the plot and the world. It made sense to me when I was reading the book, and maybe it will be clear to you when you read the book too.
I’m going to note that while this is a YA fantasy horror novel, it does tip heavily toward the darker and meaner side of the genre and while I’m firmly against censorship in reading I believe if you’re a parent and you have a younger reader who has picked up this book you might find them having questions or deep feelings regarding the book and its themes. They may especially have questions about the ending. I will stick by my assessment that the ending is absolutely the way the book should’ve ended and was a fantastic dismount (stuck the landing!), but some less mature readers may not feel the same. Heck, this ending may prove to be controversial to all readers.
I highly recommend this novel, goblin warts and all.
Thanks to Bloomsbury YA and NetGalley for granting me early access to this title. ...more
If you read the synopsis for this story, it sounds cool. It sounds interesting. When I read it, it sounded like a book I definitely wanted to read. LeIf you read the synopsis for this story, it sounds cool. It sounds interesting. When I read it, it sounded like a book I definitely wanted to read. Let me tell you, that synopsis is as accurate as it can be for the space it was given and without spoiling anything, but the book beneath the spoiler? Hoo boy, it’s a spectacular, mysterious, tragic, magical, dramatic doozy!
This is definitely a case of a cover deception, because what you see on the cover, a sly Clement and a cunning Cristine (our two main characters and twins), is not representative of the Clem and Cris we spend at least 90% of the book with. Clem and Cris are vastly different characters in a lot of ways save that they both love their family more than anything. Their family used to be at the top of the New Orleans magical community until 30 years prior to the events in this book, and it seems bad luck, discord, and tragedy has followed them ever since.
Even so, you will quickly fall in love with adorable Clement and feel conflicted about evasive Cristine. The twins drifted apart almost immediately after their father’s death and only fall completely into accord when it comes to caring for their mother, who is mysteriously ill. Their discord comes not from lack of love, but from Cristine’s refusal to practice magic anymore and how she emotionally withdrew from her brother after their father died. Clement doesn’t understand his sister, and she won’t explain herself. It doesn’t help that Clement believes Cristine’s boyfriend is suspicious and Cristine believes Clement is sleeping his way through the male population of the French Quarter.
The cast of this book, writ large, is mostly filled with characters of gray morality. There are those who are definitely our big bads for this first installment of the series, but even Clement and Cristine are gray in their morality and flexible in their scruples. Even so, all of the characters are fascinating in their own way, some solely for what they can do or the impact they have on the story from a simple action, and some because they are complex in word and deed. Being white, I can’t fully identify with the pain and sadness that comes from generational racism and the complexities of intergenerational family feuds in old black southern families, but from the perspective from merely being a decent human being (I hope), I felt for Clement and Cristine every time pieces of their family history were withheld from them because the adults of their family didn’t feel they should hear them, and then empathized with their anger when they found out that same information from a third party or figured it out for themselves and then were forced to confront their own family for keeping secrets when the last thing they wanted was more discord in their fractured family.
For a book absolutely packed with story, exhibition, worldbuilding, magic, character building, and shifting POVs, the writing is absolutely smooth and the pacing is perfect. Not being familiar with voodoo left me fumbling with understanding the magic system for a lot of the book, but the story and characters more than make up for that. I’m absolutely looking forward to the next installment and highly recommend this novel. Don’t let the YA label fool you–it’s a great read for all.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All ideas, views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: LGBTQ Fiction/YA Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Book Series/Coming of Age/Occult Fiction/OwnVoices/YA Book Series/YA Fiction/YA Suspense ...more
The truth has three sides. Memory is fallible. Families do what they think are best for us. Families try to spare us the dark side of life. Sometimes The truth has three sides. Memory is fallible. Families do what they think are best for us. Families try to spare us the dark side of life. Sometimes families just lie.
Families keep secrets. They may not even mean to, but maybe one day someone says, “This isn’t something we should talk about right now,” and then it’s never spoken of again, and then it becomes a tacit, silent agreement between all parties to never speak of it again. Before you know it, a generation or two has passed, and that secret has either become a family legend or a secret kept so well no one ever knew it ever existed.
“The House of Yesterday” is an elegantly put together paranormal-urban fantasy that relies heavily on a neat bit of serendipity: Sara’s family owns a house-flipping business on Long Island, New York, and they get a wonderful house with good bones that they want to flip pretty quickly. However, on the very first day Sara and her mother enter the house to take the very first pictures before renovations start, strange things start to happen at the house. These things start small but grow very quickly, all centered around Sara as she comes to realize that at some point in time, her beloved grandmother (who now has dementia) lived here and once had a daughter that no one else in the family has ever heard of nor ever seen. It becomes clear the house will not let Sara rest until she solves the mystery of what happened to little Malika, the family member none of them ever knew.
In the background of this book there is a heartrending and dramatic subplot about the separation of Sara’s parents, how much pain her mother is going through, and how much Sara blames herself for the situation they are now in. Another subplot involves her best friend, Sam, whom she hasn’t spoken to since the night her dad left her mom and for some reason she can’t get herself together enough to mend their friendship, even though he keeps reaching his hand out to her.
This book draws you in with its promises of ghosts and secrets and deep emotions, and it keeps you there with all of those things plus how invested you get in solving the mystery of the house (or, in exchange, if Sara’s mind and memories are medically fallible and someone needs to get her professional help) and with how deeply Sara really does love her family and wants to heal it however she can. So much of what she loves has been broken that she just wants to fix something for once. It just so happens her opportunity comes at a high, paranormal price.
It’s a beautiful book, full of melancholy, grieving, loss, and hopelessness. There are times when you don’t know if this is going to end well at all. I wouldn’t hold out for a happy ending: it’s more of a it-will-be-okay-someday ending. But it’s well worth reading simply for the beautiful intergenerational relationships and lovely prose.
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
When I read and reviewed "Daughter of the Moon Goddess" I wasn't very kind. Not only did I give it 3 stars, but I basically boiled my opinion down to When I read and reviewed "Daughter of the Moon Goddess" I wasn't very kind. Not only did I give it 3 stars, but I basically boiled my opinion down to "I couldn't lock in and fully engage" and that I would look forward to the second half of the duology but I didn't think I would be eager to come back to this duology even if the second half was sheer brilliance.
Well, it looks like I had it right on the money: This book, the second half of the duology we're talking about, is actually a really solid back half to a really weak front half. It was strong in all the places "Daughter of the Moon Goddess" wasn't, but it had two fatal flaws that kept it from being as brilliant as I wish it could've been.
1. A love triangle, which I have always hated, continue to hate, and will always hate 2. It was too long and could've been shorter if some of the filler material had been removed
Now, "Daughter of the Moon Goddess" was severely guilty of the second of these sins, which is why I was never completely able to engage with it. "Heart of the Sun Warrior" is less guilty of it, but it's not free of it either. The sadder part is that the filler is actually in the latter part of the second half, when the action and emotion should be building to an almost fever pitch, but it seems our three main characters are too busy whining, moaning, pouting, and crying over their love triangle to focus on the plot instead.
And people wonder why I hate love triangles. There's more important stuff to do, people! Personally, if two people want to fight over my affections, I'm walking away from them both. Jealously and I don't jive.
But the writing is beautiful, the imagery is absolutely splendid, the emotions are strong, and the plot arc is engaging and compelling. It certainly keeps you on your toes.
I'm reluctant to recommend the duology as a general fantasy read, due to the weakness of "Daughter of the Moon Goddess", but if you're specifically looking for East Asian mythological fantasy, then I do think you should give it a go. Just take into account that the latter half is the stronger half, in my humble opinion.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for granting me access to this title.
File Under: Myth Retellings/YA Book Series/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance/YA Fiction ...more
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