Tag: young adult fantasy

Book Review: Keeper of the Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities #1) by Shannon Messenger

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Middle Grade Fantasy
Length: 496 pages
Author: Shannon Messenger
Publisher: Aladdin
Release Date: October 2nd, 2012
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Twelve-year-old Sophie Foster has a secret. She’s a Telepath—someone who hears the thoughts of everyone around her. It’s a talent she’s never known how to explain.

Everything changes the day she meets Fitz, a mysterious boy who appears out of nowhere and also reads minds. She discovers there’s a place she does belong, and that staying with her family will place her in grave danger. In the blink of an eye, Sophie is forced to leave behind everything and start a new life in a place that is vastly different from anything she has ever known.

Sophie has new rules to learn and new skills to master, and not everyone is thrilled that she has come “home.”
There are secrets buried deep in Sophie’s memory—secrets about who she really is and why she was hidden among humans—that other people desperately want. Would even kill for.

In this page-turning debut, Shannon Messenger creates a riveting story where one girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world, before the wrong person finds the answer first.

A NEW MG FAV.

This book reminded me of why I enjoy reading middle-grade books. I absolutely adored it and can’t wait to continue this series.

I love Sophie! She’s a great character with a mix of the obvious naivety that comes with being 12/13, but also the resilience that comes from being put in difficult situations. Not to mention finding out so much information about herself in a matter of months. I hope this character grow continues throughout.

The side characters were added gems too. I thought they were fun, cute, and I can see the budding friendships solidifying. I love a fantastic friend group and want more of this casts antics.

I struggled with the kids at school trope (like I do in all cases), but this didn’t detract too much from how much I appreciated the story. They might have been at school a lot but I thought the development of the story was well laid out. I have plenty of questions and am curious where all the strings will start tying together.

Overall audience notes:

  • Middle grade fantasy
  • Language: none
  • Violence: physical altercations, kidnapping (by drugging them to sleep), fires, magic

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Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: July 2021

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May have hit a new personal best for the month, 38 books y’all! I did read a lot of graphic novels mixed in with my big fantasy books. But I really love changing the pace between reads. Keeps slumps at bay.

Favorites this month: The Traitor Queen, How to Walk Away, Always Only You, The Poppy War, Otherwise Engaged, Well Matched, The Gravity of Us, Six Crimson Cranes, Falling for Your Enemy, Jade War, The Second Blind Son

Least Favorites: Redemptor, A Lady in Attendance, Gods & Monsters

  • [ARC] Redemptor (Raybearer #2) by Jordan Ifueko
  • Come Back to Me (Waters of Time #1) by Jody Hedlund
  • [Reread] The Traitor Queen (The Bridge Kingdom #2) by Danielle L. Jensen
  • [ARC] Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn
  • How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
  • Always Only You (Bergman Brothers #2) by Chloe Liese
  • The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels #1) by India Holton
  • [Graphic Novel] Sheets (Sheets #1) by Brenna Thummler
  • The Mostly Real McCoy (Apple Valley Love Stories #1) by Julie Christianson
  • [Graphic Novel] Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
  • [Graphic Novel] Barely Functional Adult: It’ll All Make Sense Eventually by Meichi Ng
  • The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1) by R.F. Kuang
  • Otherwise Engaged by Joanna Barker
  • Caught Bread Handed (A Bakeshop Mystery #4) by Ellie Alexander
  • Roomies by Christina Lauren
  • Reckless Memories (Wrecked #1) by Catherine Cowles
  • A Lady in Attendance by Rachel Fordham
  • The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan
  • The Extinction Trials: Rebel (The Extinction Trials #3) by S.M. Wilson
  • [ARC] Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
  • [ARC] Well Matched (Well Met #3) by Jen DeLuca
  • [Novella] Pursuing Miss Hall by Karen Thornell
  • On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga #1) by Andrew Peterson
  • The Gravity of Us (Elements #4) by Brittainy C. Cherry
  • Carving for Miss Coventry (Sons of Somerset #1) by Deborah M. Hathaway
  • Counting Down With You by Tashie Bhuiyan
  • [Non-fiction] Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
  • Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1) by Elizabeth Lim
  • Falling for Your Enemy (Love Cliches #6) by Emma St. Clair
  • Ever After Always (Bergman Brothers #3) by Chloe Liese
  • Jade War (The Green Bone Saga #2) by Fonda Lee
  • [Graphic Novel] Heartstopper, Vol. 3 by Alice Oseman
  • The Second Blind Son by Amy Harmon
  • [Novella] The Twelve Holidates (Love Cliches #4) by Emma St. Clair
  • The Tea Dragon Festival (Tea Dragon #2) by Kay O’Neill
  • Gods & Monsters (Serpent & Dove #3) by Shelby Mahurin
  • [Graphic Novel] Fence, Vol. 1 by C.S. Pacat
  • [Graphic Novel] Fence, Vol. 2 by C.S. Pacat

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Book Review: A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes #4) by Sabaa Tahir

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 528 pages
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: December 1st, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir’s beloved New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: Who will survive the storm?

Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off…

The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.

STUNNING FINALE.

It’s time.

It’s time you read this series.

It is beautiful, raw, strikes so many chords and is nothing short of a magnificent story.

I love these characters and how real everything feels to me because of how the writing conveys their tale. The highs and lows and everything in between drag out all of the emotions and made me sit there and hug this book afterwards. This isn’t a happy-go-lucky story. A lot of bad things do happen, but I love the infused sense of hope that something is better out on the horizon. That we’ll get there.

You’ll never find yourself bored or dragging through any of these points-of-view. The high stakes action bouncing off of angsty moments had me gripping pages to know where things were going. I feel like even the side characters got some great spotlight and I was hooked on them by the ending too. While yes, totally hate how some things went down (without a doubt had me in tears), it all still somehow worked out in the end. That’s what I love. The loss of who/this/that didn’t overshadow where everything was leading.

This entire series took me on a such a journey and I have a hard time putting into words what the closing of this final chapter meant. An Ember in the Ashes will definitely go down as one of my favorite young adult fantasy series. The amount of dedication and work that clearly went into this jaw-dropping. I’m a fan for life and can’t wait to see what Tahir writes next.

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult fantasy
  • Language: little light
  • Romance: kisses/make-outs; some little detailed fade out scenes (still felt appropriate for YA genre)
  • Violence: depictions of war, gory and bloody murders and battle scenes
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of multiple loved ones

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Book Review: The HOOK (The PAN #2) by Jenny Hickman

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Rating: ☆
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 350 pages
Author: Jenny Hickman
Publisher: Midnight Tide Publishing
Release Date: March 3rd, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Tomorrow isn’t promised, no matter how immortal you think you are.

In the aftermath of Vivienne’s capture, she discovers she’s destined to become one of the forgetful P.A.N. The devastating diagnosis leaves her questioning her relationships—and her place in Neverland. While on her second recruitment mission, she ignores a cardinal rule, and one of her fellow P.A.N. pays the ultimate price for her mistake.

Outrage over the death spurs Lee Somerfield’s growing rebellious faction to fight fire with fire, leaving H.O.O.K. in ashes and Neverland ripped apart from within.

Navigating new love and old secrets, Vivienne must now face the consequences of her actions … and decide if living forever is worth forgetting everything.

INCOMING.

A rant is incoming because I can’t even with this book.

First and foremost THERE WAS NO PLOT. NONE. Nothing happened.

The whole time the book focused on Deacon and Vivienne trying to bang each other but they keep getting interrupted. Or my personal favorite, they would get in a stupid argument and blow up at each other without communicating whatsoever to turn around and get back together within a chapter. AAAAAAAND the MANY instances of CHEATING that was played off as nothing. It was cheating. It should be taken seriously. Goodness gracious the rage I felt was next level.

I just couldn’t handle the level of immaturity Viv and Deacon resonated. They’re older teens (19 and 26). You would think they would be a bit more rational. I’m just begging for a little.

I am definitely not continuing this series. Even if a few side characters were okay and the only redeeming thing about this entire book.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Fantasy Romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: kisses to closed door scenes
  • Violence: physical altercations, fires, gun violence

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