Namesake (Fable #2) by Adrienne Young

 Book Review:

Namesake 

🫖🫖🫖🫖🫖5🫖

Just like the first part of this duology, this was kind of a quiet story, no epic fights or battles, but rather is a romantic story filled with adventure. Something I truly came to love while reading was Adrienne’s writing style. It’s lovely and beautiful and filled with emotion but it’s concise too. These books aren’t over filled with extraneous details and it makes for an extremely enjoyable read. The tension and imagery aren’t lost to the style. It’s fantastic. 

Picking up right after the events of Fable, Namesake is the tense and wild windup and conclusion to the adventure of West, Fable, and their crew. It’s found family. It’s intrigue and danger. It’s romance and heartbreak. It’s scheming and betrayal. 

A cover made me buy it read that delivered big time.

(Finished July 30, 2021)

Fable (Fable #1) by Adrienne Young

 Book Review:

Fable 

✨✨✨✨✨5✨

I didn’t know what to expect from this book. This was definitely a case of The Cover Made Me Buy It. But I was also intrigued by the things I heard calling Fable a badass girl pirate.

While she isn’t exactly a pirate, Fable is absolutely badass and I love her!!

After my last few reads being so magic type fantasy heavy this was a shift. I’m not complaining just making an observation. 

After the death of her mother Fable is left by her father to fend for herself. She does, but she’s determined to get off the island and prove her worth to her father, the ironically named Saint, and get in his crew. 

What she ends up finding is herself and her own strength and worth. She also finds her chance at a family and love. 

This was kind of a quiet story, no epic fights or battles, but rather is a romantic story filled with adventure.

(Finished July 28, 2021)

Finale (Caraval #3) by Stephanie Garber

 Book Review:

Finale 

💜💜💜💜💜/5💜

While the 1st book in this trilogy told the story of Scarlett and the 2nd book was Tella’s tale, the final piece is really about the power of love. 

Love and sacrifice and pushing past the “almost ending” when it really would be so much easier to stay there and finding “the true ending” was such a lovely twist on the happily ever after way most fairytales end. 

Nothing comes easy for Scarlett and Tella. But they love for real, so deeply, and with such wild abandon, I couldn’t help fall completely and hopelessly for them. I want them for my own sisters!! 

And the boys, Julian and Legend, has also stolen my heart. At times infuriating and stubborn, they are brave and beautiful and so much more than they seemed at the start. 

Like the first 2 books the writing is lovely and dreamy and full of interesting imagery.

This has been a crazy ride!! I’m quite sad it’s over.

(Finished July 25, 2021)

Legendary (Caraval #2) by Stephanie Garber

 Book Review:

Legendary 

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸/5🩸

While the first book in this trilogy told the story of Scarlett, this book is Tella’s tale. I found myself not really liking/caring for Scarlett this time. Which got me thinking about the way we react to things in a story depending on the POV character. 

Like the first book the writing is lovely and dreamy and full of interesting imagery. I’m looking forward to jumping into Finale and even more excited for Once Upon a Broken Heart. 

I didn’t like Tella during Caraval but she grew on me and by the time I sighed and closed the book  I loved her!

Something that this book took to a new level of WTF is the feeling that you can’t tell what is true, what is bullshit, what’s part of the game and what is real. It’s fantastic!! 

This has been a crazy ride!!

(Finished July 19, 2021)

Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber

 Book Review:

Caraval

🎟🎟🎟🎟/5🎟

After my last read, a trilogy packed with war and fighting and heavy magic, this was a shift. It was a quiet slow burn. That’s not a bad thing. 

I’m still not sure how much of what happened during the game was magic and how much was smoke and mirrors trickery and stage craft. But I guess that is a kind of magic too, just a different form. 

Scarlett has been obsessed with Legend and Caraval pretty much her whole life. She was fed tales of the wonder and romance and magic of it by her grandma. So she wants to go. 

She needs to go. Scarlett and her sister Tella live with their brutal father, the corrupt governor of island they live on. She is promised to a man she has never met outside letters he’s sent her, the wedding a week away. And now after years of writing to Legend she has her ticket in.

A chance at a magical wish and escape. But it turns out to be nothing she expected and so much more than she knew she wanted. 

Choices and self-care and loving yourself are heavy themes and lessons here but in a way that isn’t over your head preachy. 

Nothing and no one inside Caraval are who or what they seem. And it’s brilliant and dangerous and confusing. 

I also really enjoyed the flow of and the poetic at times way Stephanie writes. It’s lovely and dreamy and full of interesting imagery.

(Finished July 11, 2021)

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #3) by Holly Black

 Book Review:

The Queen of  Nothing

💗💗💗💗💗/5💗

What a way to wrap up!! This is what a fairytale should be. Riddles, deception, war, love, loss, answers where they are least expected and aren’t what you thought they’d be. It’s all here. And more. Magic. Beasts. Curses. And so much more. I totally loved this trilogy so much. 

I love Jude so deeply and relate to her, the fear and pain making love so scary. 

I love Carden so very much. I relate to his believing he is unlovable and finding it easier to be prickly and avoid the rejection. 

I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this story. 

It was a ragweed steed ride and it was thrilling. 

Thank you Holly Black!!

(Finished July 7, 2021)

The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black

 Book Review:

The Wicked King

🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️/5🧜🏽‍♀️

I absolutely devoured every moment of this piece of the story. And I’m so ridiculously anxious to see what Jude does next, how she will react to what happened to her, what she has been through. 

This middle book is a fabulous bridge, the tension started slowly and built up until reaching a fevered pitch right at the end. And then wham!! A totally kick to the heart. I don’t know what to feel, I don’t know what to hope for. My heart is racing and my mind is filled with all kind of thoughts and worries. 

I love Jude for all her stubbornness and the heart she tries so hard to pretend she doesn’t have. 

There were times while reading that I felt like I couldn’t breathe and it was so much fun.

Holly Black really is an incredible story teller!! 

So now I am on the conclusion, joyfully yet terrified at the same time.

(Finished July 5, 2021)

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black

 Book Review:

Book Review:

The Cruel Prince

👑👑👑👑👑/5👑

When my middle and youngest kids where littles they were obsessed with The Spiderwick Chronicles. Then my youngest discovered and become obsessed with Doll Bones, still one of his favorite books ever. I later read and really enjoyed The Coldest Girl in Cold Town & The Darkest Part of the Forest. All that to say Holly Black has been such an important and loved part of my reading life for quite some time. So I’m not sure why it took me so long to read The Cruel Prince. But I did and I absolutely loved it. It was fairytale. It was mystery. It was magic and hinted at romance. It was finding power when you feel the most powerless. And it was incredible world building. 

Everything I’ve come to expect from her writing. I need to see where this is going. And will be staying up late to begin the next part of this trilogy. 

Jude is so complex and strong, even as she thinks she isn’t. 

And as much as I hate to admit it, Carden has grown on me and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for Jude and me.

(Finished July 4, 2021)

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

 Book Review:

Ace of Spades

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥/5🔥

Holy shit. This book. This book is so important. This book is heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking because it’s a magnifying of reality. It’s an allegory for the history of the world that has led us to this time and day. For the way Black bodies are treated as disposable. For the way Black minds are not valued. For the othering and lessening of people who have fought twice as hard for half as much and been told to be grateful. Are there schools doing this exact thing this explicitly? I don’t know, I hope not. But what happens to Chiamaka and Devon is what happens in all areas of life to BIPOC, has been happening for hundreds of year. 

If I had to give you a descriptive I’d say if you take the supernatural elements out of the film Get Out leaving all the evil and dropped it into a high school you’d have Ace of Spades. I hope Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé writes more books because her writing is vivid and brilliant and real and raw. 

My only complaint is that this book was not the B&N YA bookclub book during a time when we could have had groups in store. The conversations that could have taken place would have been important and difficult and necessary.

(Finished July 2, 2021)

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

 2021 Pride Read-A-Thon Book Review:

Lost In the Never Woods

🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️/5🧚‍♀️

Yes, another retelling. As I said, I’m a sucker for them. Aiden wrote the amazing Cemetery Boys (a must read if you haven’t already) and so when this came out I knew I had to have it. Plus being a Wendy, I’m a sap for Peter Pan and twists on the fairytale. 

This one takes place over the summer between high school and college and in modern day Oregon. 

Wendy Darling survived something, she can’t remember exactly what, but it’s been 5 years and her brothers have been missing the whole time. Since “it” happened she has been drawing Peter Pan and a mysterious tree without realizing she’s doing it. And kids are going missing…kids she has a connection to. 

Then she hits Peter with her truck and the real heart of this story starts. 

What happened to her brothers? Why can’t she and what can’t she remember? How is Peter Pan real? 

This is a such a moving and deep story. It’s magical and real. It’s about loss and the mind and how it protects us from pain and trauma. And it’s about love. 

Aiden did it again!! An incredible story!! Scary at times and wonderful from start to finish.

(Finished July 1, 2021)