Review: Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

Rating: 4 hoots out of 5 hoots

Published: July 7 2020

Number of pages: 336

Format: electronic advanced reading copy

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Genre: fantasy, romance

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

Soraya has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens. She is cursed to be poisonous to the touch and she must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time.

A demon is inside the dungeons and holds the knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of Soraya with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison. Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she wonders who she is and who she is becoming.

My Review:

I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Quick note: I received the advanced reading copy late and I took my time reading it because July was a weird month for me. A lot of things were happening to me for the past two months that it was hard for me to focus on reading and writing this review. 

Review: Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie Mclemore

Rating: 3 out of 5 hoots

Published: October 9 2018

Number of pages: 375

Format: hardcover

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: fantasy, LGBT, magical realism, romance

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

The del Cisne girls are not only sisters-they are opposites and rivals. Blanca is obedient and graceful, and Rosa is manipulative and vicious. They know that of the powerful curse passed down for generations, that their family is bound to swans where one sister is chosen to turn into a swan and the other sister stays human.

But when two local boys cross their paths, unbeknown to them they are drawn to the swan’s dangerous game and are intertwined with the strange and the unpredictable magic found deep in the woods. Only the truths that face all four of them could save or destroy them.

Review: Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Published: September 5, 2017

Number of pages: 372

Format: ARC

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Genre: fantasy, retellng, romance, LGBTQ

Audience: YA

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

At sixteen, Mina’s mother died and her vicious magician father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. Her heart has never beat at all since then. When she moves into Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, she forms a plan: win the king’s heart, become queen, and finally know love.

At fifteen, Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers that a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do and who to be, to win back the only mother she’s ever known.

I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Copying and editing my words is prohibited.

Review: Cinder by Marissa Mayer

Published: January 8 2013

Number of pages: 448

Format: paperback

Publisher: Square Fish

Genre: scifi, fantasy, mystery, fairy tale retelling, romance

Audience: YA

Rating: 5/5 owl hoots

Find it on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo

 

 

Summary: 

Humans and android live in the streets of New Beijing when a deadly plague ravages the population. Sixteen-year-old Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past and is reviled by her stepmother. But when she meets with Prince Kai, she immediately finds herself in the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attention. Cinder must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. Because there is something unusual about Cinder, something that others might kill for.

My Review: 

After hearing about how amazing this series is and how everyone on social media was recommending it to anyone, I have finally sat down and read Cinder. I’m in the minority who hasn’t read any of Marissa Meyer’s books and since her last book in the series came out, and she has another new release coming out in the fall, I thought it was time I finally read her books. I was afraid that this was going to be one of those overhyped books, which doesn’t end up living to the hype at all, but I was wrong. This is one of the best scifi and fairy-tale retelling I’ve ever read, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to discover this author!