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: His Hideous Heart Edited by Dahlia Adler

Rating: 3 out of 5 hoots

Published: September 10 2019

Number of pages: 480

Format: advanced reading copy

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Genre: goth, mystery

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

 

Summary:

Readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales and how they’ve been brought to life in thirteen unique and unforgettable ways by favourite YA authors.

My Review:

There were a few short stories that I really enjoyed. The two stories I liked were Happy Days, Sweetheart and Changling. This anthology also includes thirteen of the original Edgar Allan Poe stories the retellings are based off of too, so I’m giving this book another star. The whole anthology was alright in terms of taking some of Poe’s classic stories and rewriting them in a different setting that is either this present time or somewhere in the far future.

Review: Hungry Hearts Edited by Elsie Chapman and Caroline Tung Richmond

Rating: 4 out of 5 hoots

Published: June 18 2019

Number of pages: 352

Format: hardcover

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Genre: contemporary, romance, LGBTQ

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

Welcome to Hungry Hearts Row, were the answers to life questions are cooked, boiled, kneaded, and baked. Where magic, food, and love are sometimes one and the same. Told in interconnected stories, a group of young adult authors explores the many meanings food can take on beyond mere nourishment.

Review: Nocturna by Maya Motayne

Rating: 2 out of 5 hoots

Published: May 7 2019

Number of pages: 480

Format: hardcover

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Genre: fantasy, romance

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

Set in a Latinx-inspired world, a face-changing thief and a risk taking prince must team up to stop the most powerful evil they accidentally unleashed.

Meet Finn Voy: a thief who can hold a knife under your chin faster than she can change her disguise. As a talented faceshifter, Finn has not seen her own face for many years and she enjoys it. But after caught by a mobster, Finn is forced into stealing a legendary treasure hidden away in the royal palace’s vault, or else be stripped of her power forever.

Meet Prince Alfehr: a young prince full of grief since the murder of his older brother, he is first in line for the Castallan throne. But Alfie can’t help but feel that he will never live up to his brother’s legacy. Obsessed on bringing his brother back, Alfie finds a way even if it means fiddling with forbidden magic.

But after Finn and Alfie’s paths collide, they accidentally unlock an ancient dark power imprisoned for centuries, which if not contained, will devour the world. And with Castallan’s fate in their hands, Alfie and Finn must vanquish what they unleashed before it devours the entire city.

My Review:

An advanced reading copy was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

After I finished reading, I realized that I read a book like this before. V.E. Schwab fans have commented on Goodreads how this book bears too much resemblance to A Darker Shade of Magic, and they are right. It was like reading A Darker Shade of Magic but in a Latinx-inspired world. I don’t mind authors borrowing ides off of each other, but this story was too much like ADSOM, even the characters were strikingly familiar.

Book Review: Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

Rating: 2 out of 5 hoots

Published: April 2 2019

Number of pages: 385

Format: advanced reading copy

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Genre: fantasy, romance

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

In a centuries long war a girl, a prince, and a boy with a monstrous secret, meet together in a shadowed world of blood and mysterious saints where a forbidden romance erupts and threatens their plan to assassinate the king and stop the war. 

My Review:

An advanced reading copy was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ok right after I read ten chapters I had mixed feelings about how the plot and the characters were progressing. Then by the time I met in the middle, the story turned interesting and I found myself pulling through, but then after reading twenty eight more chapters, I was bored, like really bored and worse, I lost all interest with everything. If I drew a diagram that shows my experience with this it would look like a cliff where my experience slowly began as a positive and then after reaching the peak, I fall flat. I made the tough choice to skim through the last seven chapters just to see how this ended.

Book Review: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Rating: 4 out of 5 hoots

Published: February 28 2017

Number of pages: 279

Format: paperback

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Genre: fantasy, adventure

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the whereabouts of an ancient treasure. To retrieve it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested in the thief’s abilities. When Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Their journey to find the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, and lightens up when they share tales of the old gods and goddesses.

My Review:

So funny story, I had not heard this series until after I found about the last book, Return of the Thief that was set to release this year – until they decided to set back the publication date to next year in 2020. That means fans have another year to read the conclusion but this gives me more time to read the rest of the books, so I’m not complaining. I set myself up with no expectations before reading and as a result I was pretty surprise as to how much I really enjoyed this.

Book Review: Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Rating: 4 out of 5 hoots

Published: April 7 2017

Number of pages: 320

Format: paperback

Publisher: Quirk Books

Genre: contemporary, romance, 

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Geek girl, Elle Wittimer lives for Star Field, her favourite and classic scifi series she grew up with her father before he passed. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Star Field movie, she quickly enters with her eyes on the prize: a pass to ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a change to meet with Darian Freeman who is slated to play the Federation Prince Carmindor in the new reboot.

Teen actor, Darian Freeman used to live for cons until he became famous. Now his life is about autographs, interviews, and meet and greets. Playing Carmindor is all he wanted but the fandom thinks he isn’t good enough for the role. As ExcelsiCon draws nearer, he feels more like a fake, until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.

Minor spoilers ahead!

My Review:

I have heard bloggers and book tubers raving about this book since the year it came out. I have been meaning to buy this book for awhile and I have finally got around to reading it! What we have here is a geeky love story about two characters that are opposites of each other and from different lifestyles: a celebrity bred for his looks and a fangirl who blogs, does cosplay and works part time inside a vegan food truck to pay for her con tickets, and hopefully her ticket away from her step monster mother and stepsisters. 

Review: A Blade So Black by L.L. McKenney

Rating: 1 hoot out of 5 hoots

Published: September 25 2018

Number of pages: 359

Format: ARC

Publisher: Imprint

Genre: romance, urban fantasy, mystery

Audience: young adult

Get it at: Chapters Indigo

Shelve it at: Goodreads

Summary:

The first time Nightmares came, Alice almost lost her life. Now after learning how to fight and armed with magical weapons, she battles these monsters in the dark dream realm called Wonderland. But life in real world Atlanta isn’t so simple as Alice juggles between school, her overprotective mom, and a high maintenance best friend. Fighting monsters is a full time job and comes with a curfew.

When Alice’s handsome and mysterious mentor, Addison is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland, and using everything she’s learned in both worlds to save her mentor and her friends from a new threat.

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

My Review:

I really wanted to like this story. The plot seemed interesting enough and it’s been a long time since I read an reimagining of Alice in Wonderland that I was very excited to receive an ARC of this and dive back into the whimsical world that I love. In this Wonderland there are monsters called Nightmares that are running amok in our world. On top of that, Alice our heroine, is threatened by the Black Knight who forces her to find a magical artifact that is missing so she and her Wonderland friends are looking for it to save both their worlds.