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The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White – Review

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes a new fantasy series reimagining the Arthurian legend, set in the magical world of Camelot.

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom’s borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution–send in Guinevere to be Arthur’s wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king’s idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere’s real name–and her true identity–is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old–including Arthur’s own family–demand things continue as they have been, and the new–those drawn by the dream of Camelot–fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur’s knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

*THE FIRST BOOK IN THE CAMELOT RISING TRILOGY*

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Thank you so much to NetGalley for the eARC of this novel! I have been in love with Kiersten’s work since I read Slayer; and I knew that this novel would be no exception. The tale of King Arthur is one of my favorites, and just to have a retelling where Guinevere is the driving force of the plot is everything I didn’t know I needed! Kiersten does such an amazing job writing badass women, and I fell head over heels for this story from the first chapter.

We are introduced to Guinevere as she makes her trek to Camelot; but we soon find out that she’s actually NOT the princess she claims to be. She is a witch sent by Merlin to keep Arthur safe and on the throne, which seems like a simple task at first until she realizes there are dark forces at play trying to emerge and take back what once was theirs. Guinevere must fight through keeping her magic a secret as it is outlawed in her new kingdom, learn who to trust within her court, and juggle the duties of a new fake queen/wife with doing the job she was sent there for. Arthur’s kind heart forces her to grow close to him quickly; like she’s known him for ages. She starts to notice gaps in her memory and begins the journey of figuring out who she really is, where she comes from, and why she is so deathly afraid of water.

The lore in this book is spectacular; it does such a wonderful job of keeping the base story that we have all heard in our English classes growing up but making it much more exciting and easier read in these modern times. The humor is spot on, and so are the gut-twisting battles between good and evil along the way. The magic system is also brilliant. There are so many different kinds, my personal favorite being the knot magic. I think, though, the thing I loved most was Guinevere’s sight when she touched something. It was so beautiful but also heart breaking to see the inner thoughts of a mountain being slowly eroded or an eel who had been baked into a pie. There are so many gorgeous little details that really flesh out this story.

I also related to Guinevere a lot. I too am a child of the forest, and there’s a scene where she talks about how much easier it would be to just be a tree instead of a person. I’ve had this exact thought before. It was so nice to see this strong yet vulnerable character weaving her way through her greatest fears, the uncertainty of first loves, and the constant battle of not just the dark magic threatening their very lives, but also just being around people and knowing how to act without blowing her cover. She is such a well-written main character, and I can’t wait to know more about her as the series progresses. All told, this may be my favorite retelling of the year, and I am so excited to see where the story goes from here.

5/5 stars

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For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones – Review

A cross between Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber and The Three Musketeers, For the Killing of Kings is the first in a new fantasy trilogy by Howard Andrew Jones.

Their peace was a fragile thing, but it had endured for seven years, mostly because the people of Darassus and the king of the Naor hordes believed his doom was foretold upon the edge of the great sword hung in the hall of champions. Unruly Naor clans might raid across the border, but the king himself would never lead his people to war so long as the blade remained in the hands of his enemies.

But when squire Elenai’s aging mentor uncovers evidence that the sword in their hall is a forgery, she’s forced to flee Darassus for her life, her only ally the reckless, disillusioned Kyrkenall the archer. Framed for murder and treason, pursued by the greatest heroes of the realm, they race to recover the real sword, only to stumble into a conspiracy that leads all the way back to the Darassan queen and her secretive advisers. They must find a way to clear their names and set things right, all while dodging friends determined to kill them – and the Naor hordes, invading at last with a new and deadly weapon.

Howard Andrew Jones’ powerful world-building brings this epic fantasy to life in this first book of his new adventure-filled trilogy.

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Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for sending me a copy of this book to read and review! I have slowly been getting more into the fantasy genre as I have newfound love and obsession with Dungeons and Dragons. On the weeks where my party and I don’t play, I miss the world and our characters so much, and sometimes the only thing that soothes that ache is to throw myself into another such beautifully built world with heroic characters hellbent on achieving their goals; whether that be for the good of mankind or just for their own. For the Killing of Kings is one such novel; it couples a wonderfully constructed magic system with compelling melee warriors, and the cast of characters is blessedly diverse. It was a joy to read, and I can’t wait to move on to the second one!

We start this novel with tragedy. We are introduced to N’lahr, who lost his life in a war seven years prior. His end caused a treaty of peace to be made, but the squad he was a part of, the Altenerai, slowly falls to pieces. Some have lost faith in their queen, others have been sent on treacherous journeys to find ‘hearthstones’, magical stones that contain and harness magic, and now some are even losing their lives. Irion, N’lahr’s famous sword, is thought to be a fake, and as word trickles slowly through the kingdom of this, everything goes sideways. It is in the middle of this chaos that we are introduced to Elenai, a squire to the Altenerai. She is incredibly talented and whip-smart, and she carries the weight of responsibility on her shoulders well as she takes up with N’lahr’s best friend, Kyrkenall the archer. The two set out to find the sword before the queen can, worrying about a nefarious plot. Stakes are high as they have no idea who they can trust, and the lands that they are to travel are incredibly dangerous.

We meet an incredible cast of characters along the way, each with their own quirks and so fleshed out they could each carry their own novel. I loved the normalized inclusion of other sexualities within this group; it was just simply stated and the relationships felt genuine. There were also so many strong women in this novel; it seems as though this world trusts them more in power than our own, and a lot of the magic users were also female. It felt like something I would have loved to have read as a kid when most fantasy novels were dominated by men, but I am glad to see we are riding away from the ‘knight in shining armor’ trope. Howard Andrew Jones does a lovely job giving a voice to everyone he is able to, and I can’t wait to see how that develops in the last two novels of this series.

I love a good lore more than anything, and this novel is packed to the brim with it. While other books tend to get bogged down in the details and make me lose interest pretty quickly, For the Killing of Kings feeds you tidbit after tidbit while you are chasing after the Altenerai and the mystery; leading you with that carrot on a stick. The magic system had to be my favorite thing in the whole novel, but especially the fact that certain stones are used to enhance your magic ability, one of those being Elenai’s necklace with faces housing different emotions that she uses to control her enemies. The world itself is unlike any fantasy I’ve read before, and its originality sets it apart.

All in all, I feel so lucky to have gotten access to this book that I may not have found on my own thanks to St. Martin’s Press. I don’t go outside my bubble much, and I’m trying to get better at that, but I am very grateful to the publishing company for broadening my horizons! Howard Andrew Jones has a new fan, and I can’t wait to finish this trilogy! The ending of this book left me needing more, and I can’t wait to see how the action picks up in book two!

5/5 stars

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Blood Countess by Lana Popovic – Review

A historical YA horror novel based on the infamous real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula

In 17th century Hungary, Anna Darvulia has just begun working as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Báthory. When Elizabeth takes a liking to Anna, she’s vaulted to the dream role of chambermaid, a far cry from the filthy servants’ quarters below. She receives wages generous enough to provide for her family, and the Countess begins to groom Anna as her friend and confidante. It’s not long before Anna falls completely under the Countess’s spell—and the Countess takes full advantage. Isolated from her former friends, family, and fiancé, Anna realizes she’s not a friend but a prisoner of the increasingly cruel Elizabeth. Then come the murders, and Anna knows it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Countess turns on her, too.

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Thank you so much to Netgalley for this ARC! It was such a quick and exciting read, and I feel like I have gained a better understanding of the Blood Countess herself from reading it! It is a spectacular account of Lady Bathory’s descent into darkness, and there are a lot of names, places, and even tortures that are worked in from her actual history! I loved that we saw the story through a chambermaid’s eye, as it is someone who would have been close enough to Elizabeth to be privy to all of her inner workings. The author used this closeness to her advantage, and made her someone the countess couldn’t live without to justify why she was never slain in kind. Lana pieced this story together so beautifully!

When we meet Anna, she is a peasant. She lives with her violent father, her midwife mother, and her siblings. She is smart, kind, and talented, but she harbors a tortured heart. When she meets Elizabeth, she sees herself in her, and she is taken with her from the start. She thinks their chance meeting is the last time she will see her, but her haunted face never leaves her mind. So when the countess entreats her to come help her in her time of need, she does not hesitate; now leaving her mark on Lady Bathory as well. She is soon after sent for to be her chambermaid, and although things hold her back from doing so, a macabre series of events launches her forward and brings her to Elizabeth’s castle. At first, she is given a job in the scullery, trying to help keep her family afloat as she tries to win back Elizabeth’s favor. While there, the other girls regale her with stories of Elizabeth’s cruelty, but she can hardly believe her ears. Surely the kind countess she had met was under some sort of duress that made her act this way.

She worms her way closer to Elizabeth as a way to gain more coin to send to her ailing family, and as she does, she realizes the problem must be her husband, Ferenc. Anna and Elizabeth grow even closer, shedding their professional relationship and becoming something more akin to lovers. Anna begins to see flashes of Lady Bathory’s evil herself, and takes it upon herself to try and calm the storm raging inside of her. When not even losing her husband helps, Anna slowly realizes that maybe Elizabeth was the terror all along, and she steadily declines into madness, using Anna’s affinity with herbs and healing for much darker purposes until the former chambermaid has had enough. She bites back, much harder than the countess ever expected, and Elizabeth’s story ends much like it does in real life; locked away in a tower until her death.

I love how this is, at its heart, the story of a girl who will fight for what she loves, and what she loves changes greatly in this book except for one thing; her family. She prizes her mother and her sister above all else, and it ends up being a weakness for her, as does her eventual love for the countess herself. It blinds her, as love is wont to do, to a lot of the bad parts of Elizabeth until it is nearly too late. At that point, she learns that the person she should love is herself: the stone-hearted witch that Elizabeth always thought her to be. She is such a strong and intelligent main character, and it was so cool to me how her tie to nature was something to be feared, as it more than likely would have been in this era. However, since she was the ‘pet’ of the countess, no one could touch her, but you could see everyone turn against her, even more so for continuing to stay at Lady Bathory’s side. When it was all said and done, this was an extremely quick and interesting read, full of lore and gore for those with dark hearts but also a glimmer of sunlight that is love; familial and otherwise. I immensely enjoyed it!

5/5 stars

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Foul Is Fair by Hannah Capin – Review

Elle and her friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Elle’s sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Elle as their next target.

They picked the wrong girl.

Sworn to vengeance, Elle transfers to St. Andrew’s. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She’ll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school’s hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly.

Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes.

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Thank you so much to Netgalley for the ARC of this emotionally devastating and beautifully written novel! When I read the premise, I thought I knew exactly what I was in for. I was looking forward to a cast of badass women who were done sitting back and letting men take what they wanted from them. I definitely received that story, but what I had no idea was to come was the fangs and the claws that would grow from these women, and the absolute carnage that they were going to inflict with them. This book is exciting from start to finish, bringing life to each character and every scene with the most intricate and haunting language I have had the pleasure to read.

We are dropped into Elle’s life as she is destroyed by a group of private school boys. They take what they can from her, but what they don’t get is her spirit. She is reborn as Jade, who has one mission and one mission only; to bring down the wolves that thought they had lured a sheep into their midst. Little did they know that she was one of them as well. She enlists the help of her three best friends, whom she calls her coven. It’s mindblowingly fitting as these girls are magic together. It brought to mind my group of friends, and how I know they would do anything for me, and I for them. It’s an indescribable bond, and when they hear what has happened to their beloved, they go feral. They are sworn to their sister until the deed is done and forever.

Jade comes clean about her rape, at least bits of it, to her parents, who are devastated for her. She says it was someone from the school she currently attends, and so requests to transfer to St. Andrews, where the real group of boys go. They are willing to agree to her demands; her father being well connected enough to make the switch flawlessly. Jade joins the school and immediately seeks out her prey. She spends her days making an in with these people, and plotting how to tear them apart from the inside. She sets her sights on their golden boy, Mack, as he is the softest of all of them and will be the easiest one to corrupt.

What she doesn’t expect, however, is to fall for the boy. She fights to stay true to her mission while dealing with these feelings that she doesn’t want to have. She is rage, she is fire, she is an avenging angel. She has no time for this weakness. So she uses it to fuel the flames, both in her and in Mack, and it only takes a matter of weeks for the house of cards to fall. It is a brilliant descent into madness, and Jade is our smiling guide. The plot that she carefully crafts, even when there are hiccups, is masterful and is aided by her loved ones. It truly is a story of the power of women, and a cautionary tale to remind the world that actions have consequences, no matter if it takes days, or weeks, or months, or years. Your sins are never as buried as you think. They lurk under the surface, waiting to rise anew.

I can’t speak enough of the characters in this book. There is so much great representation, and all of the women have their own battles that they’re fighting, but they rally around Jade in her time of need, just as she has for them over the years. I also appreciate that this book started out with a trigger warning, as the content is very dark and heavy, so for someone who has dealt with rape, suicide, or transphobia, it could take an even darker turn. Even for the subject matter to be what it was, underneath it all was a strong message to all women everywhere; not just those born physically into it, but mentally and emotionally as well. We will not be silenced. We will not be torn asunder. We will unfurl our wings and fly. We will be seen for the magnificent and malicious creatures that we are.

5/5 stars

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Ghoster by Jason Arnopp – Review

Jason Arnopp – author of acclaimed cult hit The Last Days of Jack Sparks – returns with a razor-sharp thriller for a social-media obsessed world. Prepare to never look at your phone the same way again . . .

Kate Collins has been ghosted.
She was supposed to be moving in with her new boyfriend Scott, but all she finds after relocating to Brighton is an empty apartment. Scott has vanished. His possessions have all disappeared.
Except for his mobile phone.
Kate knows she shouldn’t hack into Scott’s phone. She shouldn’t look at his Tinder, his calls, his social media. But she can’t quite help herself.
That’s when the trouble starts. Strange, whispering phone calls from numbers she doesn’t recognize. Scratch marks on the walls that she can’t explain. And the growing feeling that she’s being watched.
Kate refuses to leave the apartment – she’s not going anywhere until she’s discovered what happened to Scott. But the deeper she dives into Scott’s digital history the more Kate realizes just how little she really knows about the man she loves.

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Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit for this ARC! I read The Last Days of Jack Sparks last year and was struck by Jason’s dark wit and true talent for the horror genre. It’s really rare for me now to find scary novels that actually DO scare me, having grown up immersed in the world of spook. However, this book genuinely was hard for me to read at night because I got the heebie jeebies from its unique premise and tantalizing mystery. I was actually reminded of my own ghostly experience from when I was a kid; a moment where I saw a jerky, static-y figure looming in the hallway of my kitchen. The specters in this novel are quite similar, so I was on edge the entire novel.

Jason starts us off slow; introducing us to our protagonist, Kate. She has fallen in love with seemingly perfect guy, and is getting ready to move in with him. The only problem is, she only has days left before she makes the trek to his apartment, and he has gone completely silent. She can’t reach him on his phone, and she has taken a devout vow against using social media because of an incident on the job that left her best friend unable to walk. She decides to go through with the move anyway, and is greeted by a gutted apartment with no Scott in sight. She is of course enraged, and when she finds his phone laying on the balcony of the apartment, she is sucked in to the mystery of cracking the code on Scott’s disappearance. Did he trick her into the ultimate prank, or did something happen to the man she loved?

What follows is a roller coaster ride of a journey. Strange things start to happen; wood is gouged out of Scott’s apartment door, blue apparitions appear in the bathroom, and Kate is brought back into the digital world that she tried so hard to stay out of. Scott’s social media seems to be the key to unlocking the secrets that so elude her, and it consumes her every waking moment; leaving her job as a first responder and all other relationships or duties on the line. Once you think you have everything figured out, Jason throws a wrench in the gears with slow revelations that happen between snippets from Kate and Scott’s budding relationship, Kate’s present, messages between Kate and her best friend Izzy, and journal entries on a super secure diary app called TrooSelf. I loved the mixed media aspect, which Jason included in his debut novel as well, so I can only hope and pray that he brings a third book with the same feel, because I am head over heels for his style.

All in all, this was the perfect book to get me in the mood for Halloween. I had to sit down and finish it in the sunshine, as reading it in bed, in the dark was not working out for me. It’s amazing how real and present Jason makes his novels feel; there are so many references to pop culture and the characters don’t feel stilted or dated. It’s all wonderfully raw and exciting, and maybe that’s what drives the scare factor home is how honest it is. He also has a wonderful way of tying in real world issues with his works; this one being our obsession with our phones and the internet. I honestly can’t wait to see what he tackles next.

5/5 stars

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Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis – Review

Hatchet meets Wild in this harrowing survival story from Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis.

The world is not tame.

Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the realization that she’s alone – and far off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with nothing but the clothes on her back, Ashley must figure out how to survive despite the red streak of infection creeping up her leg.

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for this ARC! I am no stranger to the woods, having lived in the country my whole life. While I can’t say that I’m incredibly active, I do enjoy being outside and have always sought solace within the company of trees. It’s something I’ve done from a young age, and the thought of the forests I love so much being as wild as what as is in between the pages of this novel is just stunning. We take an unbelievable journey at the side of the iron-willed Ashley Hawkins, who has a hard head to match. She is a strong and compelling character, and every moment with her was such a thrill. The chapters are written in a day to day format, so at the beginning they are much longer, whereas once time has taken its toll, there are some instances where a chapter may only be a paragraph.

It’s an exciting read from page one, where we get a snapshot of Ashley’s life; her friends, her boyfriend, her enemies, but beyond that, her uncanny knack for survival. She has spent her childhood with her dad, her mom having left the two of them. She struggles to come to terms with her guilt for the loss, and builds a tough outer shell because of it. She and her dad are not well off, but make the most of what they have. He introduces her to the wild, and she never looks back. By the time her dad drops her off at Camp Little Fish, she is well versed in how to catch a fish, how to spot animal tracks, and how to defend herself. She impresses one of the counselors, Davey Beet, and forges a quick friendship (and later, infatuation) with him. He imparts holy wisdom upon her, and solidifies himself in her mind as her patron saint of the woods.

These things work in her favor when she goes into the Smokies to have a party with classmates, only to wake up in the middle of the night to pee and to unfortunately come across her boyfriend with his ex. Not knowing how else to react, she lashes out, and in a blind panic subsequently runs away from the scene; not wanting to deal with her emotions or the pity of her friends or the real threat of forgiving Duke altogether. A series of unfortunate events causes her to fall into a ravine, crushing her foot but not her spirit. She uses what she has learned over the years to not only take care of herself, but to attempt to find her way to civilization, and along the way, she learns more and more about the woman she is becoming, and the things that have happened in her life to make her that way. It’s a really beautiful tale of self-discovery; complete with fear, pain, and a hindsight that not everyone is fortunate enough to obtain. Ashley goes through some harrowing trials, but she keeps going. It’s inspiring in such an unexpected way.

I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’ll just say I love the intertwining of Ashley and Davey’s stories, the respect for nature Ashley holds, and how each thread of this story is tied up beautifully at the end of the novel. There is incredible character development, and the environment that the novel is set in is so vivid, terrifying, and breathtaking. I felt very connected to Ashley in that I was that tomboy who was too stubborn to ask for help. I won’t kid myself; I wouldn’t have made it a day in the conditions that she found herself in, but I like to think that I have the potential to be as strong as she is in other ways. There’s a line in the book that says something to the effect of ‘the world is wild, and so are people’. Don’t ever lose your wild. It’s what keeps us alive, and Ashley’s tale reverberates that from the hilltops.

5/5 stars

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Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith – Review

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.

Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.

At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds…and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line…

And she isn’t going down without a fight.

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Thank you so much to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book! I have been following Eric Smith ever since I saw him at a book festival, and the way he is so down to earth and into the online community spoke volumes to me, and I knew from seeing the synopsis to this novel that it was going to be very genuine. I had been counting down the days for an ARC to be released, and I loved it more than I knew I could. The storyline is so here and now. It feels young, honest, and real. I haven’t seen a novel tackle streaming and online trolling before, and because I have friends that do stream, it made it that much more of a compelling and meaningful read for me. It was also so wonderfully nerdy and trendy, making me feel in the midst of friends and like-minded individuals as I turned each page.

Divya and Aaron are two gamers from very different walks of life. They are expertly crafted and feel like people you would meet, both online and face to face. Divya has a Glitch stream where she has built up a following (the Angst Armada) in the game ‘Reclaim the Sun’ and is steadily getting sponsors and donations. She streams not for herself, but for her mom, who is trying to put herself through school after Divya’s father left them. It’s hard on her mom, seeing the things that internet trolls write about her daughter, but Divya has one hard and fast rule for herself; don’t read the comments. Aaron on the other hand is an aspiring video game writer, and he is trying his hardest to break away from his mother’s expectations of him while working for someone who is sketchy at best (not paying him and shooting down his origina ideas) but he is able to lose himself in the very game that Divya streams and dream of a life all his own.

Reclaim the Sun is a large MMROPG where players pilot themselves across a vast universe, finding planets, claiming them, and mining their resources for upgrades to their gear, ships, or avatars. Unless you’re in a party like the Angst Armada, coming across another player is very rare, so when Divya and Aaron find each other as they attempt to claim the same planet, the two forge a quick friendship. Things get rocky quick in both of their lives as the online trolls spamming Divya’s stream start coming after her, both in game and in real life, and Aaron finds out that he may not know everything about the ‘friends’ he’s been making a game with, or his own family. Their relationship is a safe haven in both of their rocky lives.

I think my favorite thing in this book is how it showcases the discrimination that girls still get when they play video games. The line ‘you’re good, for gamer girls’ set my soul alight with fire, because it’s just another way that men have been built up to be better than women. Divya and her best friend (and streaming co-host), Rebekah, are such strong, talented, and driven ladies, and seeing them hold their own and combat the gaggle of threatened boys coming after them is so empowering. It’s sickening to think that these kinds of things really do happen in real life; the discrimination, the bullying, the online and personal attacks, and not just to women, but to minorities, especially POC like Divya herself. I love how she never backs down, and how her Angst Armada stands behind her every step of the way. There are a bunch of moments in the book where Divya is at her lowest, and you think she might be losing her resolve, but then a random act of kindness reminds her what she stands for, and I may or may not have cried each time.

The internet can be such an ugly and unforgiving space. However, I myself have made some of the best friends in my life right now from Twitter. Even as a kid, playing around in places such as Neopets, I had a ‘guild’ where we talked about books and music, and these were and still are communities that I return to when the real world hustle and bustle gets me down. It’s amazing to think of the technological progress that we’ve gone through as a country, and that I could be as connected to my friend from England as I am to my coworker that I see face to face every day. It’s an incredible privilege, and this novel is a beautiful reminder to see it and treat it that way. We should be making content as uplifting, and posting comments that induce a smile, not tears. I usually agree, Eric, don’t read the comments, but I hope you read this one: you’ve made a true work of art.

5/5 stars

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Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki – Review

Harleen is a tough, outspoken, rebellious kid who lives in a ramshackle apartment above a karaoke cabaret owned by a drag queen named MAMA. Ever since Harleen’s parents split, MAMA has been her only family. When the cabaret becomes the next victim in the wave of gentrification that’s taking over the neighborhood, Harleen gets mad.

When Harleen decides to turn her anger into action, she is faced with two choices: join Ivy, who’s campaigning to make the neighborhood a better place to live, or join The Joker, who plans to take down Gotham one corporation at a time.

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass is at once a tale of the classic Harley readers know and love, and a heartfelt story about the choices teenagers make and how they can define–or destroy–their lives. This is the first title in DC’s new line of original graphic novels for middle grade and young adult readers.

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I am so grateful to NetGalley for this ARC! I had requested it so long ago that I had almost forgotten it was in my queue until I got my acceptance email! I wasn’t sure what to expect going in; all I knew is that I love Harley Quinn and I was so excited to see another new version of her. I fell in love with the character during the New 52 run of her comics, and from there I fell down a rabbit hole digging deeper into this anti-hero with so much love in her heart. I was so happy with what I found within these pages that after I finished, I cried.

We find ourselves in the midst of a teenage Harleen Quinzel. She has not yet donned her jester costume and harlequin mask, but she is an at-risk-teen of sorts; bouncing around from place to place with only $5 to her name. The main thing, though, is that she’s happy. She sets off to Gotham to find her grandmother, only to learn that she passed away. She instead is greeted with her ‘fairy godperson’ who is a drag queen named Mama. Mama lets her live in her grandmother’s old place, but insists that she goes to school and behaves. Harley does so, meeting Ivy, and deciding after watching her in a few classes that she is meant to be her friend. They brave the school’s rich bullies and start up protests, giving Harleen a taste of rebellion.

Harleen spends her nights with the lovely ladies of Mama’s drag club, and feels more at home than she ever has. Things start to go south as building after building in their neighborhood goes belly-up, and Harleen is face to face with someone who claims he can help. The Joker is played in such a fresh new way in this graphic novel, and his demeanor and even more simply, the mask he wears are so terrifying. He pushes Harleen further to the dark side, as the Joker always does, and she slowly finds her own way to Harley Quinn, a name given to her by one of her queens. In true Harley fashion, she does questionable things for a good reason. She is always there for the ones that she loves, even if it means that she’ll hurt a few bad guys in the process.

Special thanks to Warner Brothers and DC Comics for the art!

I don’t want to go too much into detail, but the story is so wonderfully spun. There was a reveal of a character that made me gasp out loud, and I so hope that this is the first in a series because I really want this storyline to continue! I liked the diversity in the book; the drag queens were so wonderful and they handled homophobia in such an empowering way. I loved that Ivy and her family were POC, and how racism and sexism were also extremely important issues within this novel. It made me so happy that Harley was in control of herself in this; in other versions of her story, she is a hapless pawn in the Joker’s game. While he is still a figure in her not-quite-fairytale, he is more of a driving force for her in that she wants revenge, not his love. I like that what is most important to her is her friendships, and that she can hold her own and be her own person.

I went in expecting to love the story, but I had no idea how much it would truly effect me. The art was so incredibly beautiful that sometimes I had to stop and stare at a page for a few minutes, taking in Harley’s incredibly expressive eyes or the pops of red on an otherwise muted screen. This is one of the best versions of Harley that I’ve read so far, and I want so badly for it to continue. I think this will go a long way with teenagers who love superheroes, showing them that they have their own power and that for better or for worse, it is their decision how to use it. They are not defined by their parents, the place they come from, how much money they have, or their friends or loved ones. They can take the hand they were dealt and play it with confidence, knowing that they can make a difference in their own way. This book really touched my heart. Thank you, DC, and thank you Mariko Tamaki!

5/5 stars

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Grit by Gillian French – Review

Raw and moving, this contemporary realistic debut novel unfolds the tragic secrets being kept in a small, deceptively idyllic town.

Seventeen-year-old Darcy Prentiss has long held the title of “town slut.” She knows how to have a good time, sure, but she isn’t doing anything all the guys haven’t done. But when you’re a girl with a reputation, every little thing that happens seems to keep people whispering—especially when your ex-best friend goes missing.

But if anyone were to look closer at Darcy, they’d realize there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. Staying out late, hooking up, and telling lies is what Darcy does to forget. Forget about the mysterious disappearance of her friend. Forget about the dark secret she and her cousin Nell share.

Forget about that hazy Fourth of July night. So when someone in town anonymously nominates Darcy to be in the running for Bay Festival Princess—a cruel act only someone with a score to settle would make—all of the things that Darcy wants to keep hidden threaten to erupt in ways she wasn’t prepared to handle…and isn’t sure if she can.

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I have read three of Gillian’s works now, but this one quickly became my favorite. It is a thrilling look under the skin of a small town’s facade, and knowing how much of her teenage self that she gave to the narrative makes it feel that much more raw and real. I was born and raised in such a small town, and even though I left it for awhile, I found myself drawn back in because of the peace and the undeniable home-ness of it all. Reading this book was like being a teenager again, living in my own beloved trailer and picking blackberries every summer. Of course, in this novel, it’s set in Maine, not Alabama, and the blackberries are blueberries, but it was a blast from the past either way.

The characters in this are stunning. I love Darcy and how strong, brave, and stubborn she is. I remember being just as hard headed as she was, and standing up to the boys because I knew I was just as good as they were. Mags and Nell are such compelling secondary characters: Mags with her kind heart and nose for justice, and Nell for her generous spirit and just the other-worldliness of her. She is like a specter from another time, dropped to a place in the future where her stunning beauty, grace, and soft-spoken manner are treasures that go largely unappreciated, except by her family. We have such a great contrast in small town mothers with Nell’s mom Libby, the strict and overbearing one, and Mags and Darcys mom, the lax but loving one. All of the residents in the town held their own fascinations for me, and all of them were so incredibly fleshed out.

We are placed into Darcy’s hands as she works through a blistering summer raking blueberries; saving up money to get her own car and get far away from her little town. Rumors have been circulating about her, especially after her friend, Rhiannon, went missing. She attempts to keep her head up and stoke her budding romance with Jesse, one of the other blueberry rakers, but all the while there is something she is hiding. There are several mysteries unraveling at once here, and it makes it incredibly easy to pick this book up and not put it down again until you have solved every single one of them. Rhiannon’s disappearance looms the largest, but as Darcy and Nell spend alone time working on the pageant that they’ve both been nominated for, you can see them splinter as something they share slowly eats them both alive.

Darcy keeps her head high despite the constant murmur of voices at her back, and with Shea, a mistake of a fling, becoming more and more violent towards her, her strength is irrefutable. She is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she refuses to let anyone help her, despite their many attempts to do just that. I like to think that by the end of the tragedies she wades through that she has learned that she doesn’t have to do it all alone.

She manages to close out her story with us in a hopeful way, which most books like this aren’t able to do. We can rest assured that when we leave her, her family, and her town, that things are repairing, slowly but surely. It’s heartening to know that even when things seem their worst that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, and no matter how much grit you’ve collected on your body, your heart, your soul, that you can always come clean again.

5/5 stars

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Frozen Beauty by Lexa Hillyer – Review

BEFORE
Everyone out in Devil’s Lake, Michigan, knows the three Malloy sisters: perfect big sister Kit; tomboy Tessa, who shares more with Kit than most people realize; and Lilly, the baby of the family, determined to make her own mark. Yet as close as they are, there are certain things sisters don’t tell one another. And one of them is keeping a secret that will turn their little world inside out.

NOW
No one knows exactly what happened to Kit in the woods that night—all they have are a constellation of facts: icy blue lips and fingers cold to the touch, a lacy bra, an abandoned pick-up truck with keys still in the ignition. Still, Tessa, even in her fog of grief, is certain that her sister’s killer wasn’t Boyd, the boy next door whom they’ve all loved in their own way. There are too many details that don’t add up, too many secrets still tucked away.

But no matter how fiercely she searches for answers, at the core of that complicated night is a truth that’s heartbreakingly simple.

Told in lush, haunting prose, Frozen Beauty is a story of the intoxicating power of first love, the deep bonds of sisterhood, and a shocking death that will forever change the living.

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for this advanced copy of a thrilling murder mystery! I was hooked from the synopsis itself, having been the daughter to a single mom with two sisters herself, so the mostly female cast of characters felt so familiar to me; like home. I love a story with good twists and turns, and although I don’t see myself as a very good sleuth in the slightest, I still don’t think anyone with more honed observation skills would have predicted the end of this one!

We enter the broken lives of the Malloy sisters after one of them, Kit, is found dead. She suffered from hypothermia and a head wound, and was found in the back of her childhood friend’s truck. The narrative goes back and forth from the remaining sisters trying to figure out how to pick up their lives and live again to flashes of the past as we slowly piece together who Kit really was. It’s always scary to think how much you don’t know about a person; especially when you’ve grown up beside them. Everyone has their secrets, and the Malloy family is no stranger to that. The familial bond is tested more than once as Boyd, their friend, is put on trial for the murder and Tessa does everything in her power to prove her innocent, while Lily is figuring out who she is in the wake of Kit’s passing and encountering growing concern about her two best friends who are falling apart before her very eyes.

I liked how, past the tragic end of a girl who had her whole life in front of her, this was also a story about the end of childhood and faerie tales, and the beginning of young adulthood and the dangers and anxiety that follows. Too often we are deceived into thinking that there’s a pattern we must follow. If you haven’t had sex, you’re a prude. If you haven’t tried drugs or alcohol, you’re not cool. If you haven’t lined your while future out in front of you, you’re a slacker. Even now, I appreciate reminders that life isn’t a race, and your life is your own. This shined brightest in Tessa, who felt extremely close to Kit in a way that made her feel like a lesser copy. We also see it in Lily as she combats being the younger sister who feels invisible most of the time.

This book has its fair share of romance, intrigue, heart, and tragedy that I really believe lends the narrative to being for any reader. It’s engaging and I loved the usage of poetry in Kit’s diary entries that showcased the author’s background in writing. It was also mixed media of sorts, which is something I actively seek out in books; having not only the aforementioned diary entries but also text and phone conversations. All in all, it was a beautiful and heartbreaking read that made me want to hold the women in my family a little closer.

5/5 stars