Tag: 7 Rating

Kate’s Review: “A Friend Indeed”

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Book: “A Friend Indeed” by Elka Ray

Publishing Info: Blackstone Publishing Inc, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from Roger Charlie.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: When single mom Jo Dykstra was at her lowest—jobless and penniless—her childhood friend Dana McFarlane helped her out bigtime by securing her a teaching job and thus an opportunity for a new life in the affluent Pacific Northwest town of Glebes Bay. So, when Jo gets a frantic late-night call from Dana, sobbing and desperate for help, it feels like a chance to help her friend in return.

The last thing Jo expects to see when she arrives at Dana’s oceanfront mansion? Her friend’s handsome and wealthy husband, Stan, dead, sprawled face down on the floor. Dana admits to killing her husband following years of secret abuse and begs Jo not to call the police. For nearly two decades, Dana’s marriage and family had looked picture perfect. Who’d ever believe that pillar-of-the-community Stan was a monster? Determined to cover up her husband’s killing and shield her kids from scandal, Dana convinces Jo to help her dispose of the body.

But the cover-up starts to crumble when a blackmailer threatens to expose their crime. Hounded by gossipy neighbors, ill-fated lovers, and zealous cops, truth and lies are laid bare between Jo and Dana, putting their families in danger and threatening to shatter a thirty-year friendship. Shocking and fast-paced, A Friend Indeed is a riveting tale about the power of friendship and the deadly weight of lies.

Review: Thank you to Roger Charlie for sending me a finished copy of this novel!

Summer is so close I can almost taste it, and while it’s not my favorite season (uh, it’s actually probably my LEAST favorite season?), I do like having pool time while the weather is hot. Because at the pool I like to bring easy to read and entertaining books. And when I think of a good poolside read, I think of the kind of book like “A Friend Indeed” by Elka Ray. A tantalizing thriller, with some shady and desperate characters, and some far hidden secrets between friends who find themselves in over their heads when a body lands at their feet. PERFECT POOL READING!

(source)

As someone who has always enjoyed the tongue in cheek ‘a real friend will help you dispose of the body’ meme because of its gallows humor, it’s no surprise that the plot of “A Friend Indeed” is a huge plus in my eyes. When Jo gets a panicked phone call from her long time best friend Dana to come to her house in the middle of the night, she drops everything to help her. When she finds Dana standing over the body of her now dead husband Stan, she is horrified. but decides to help her dispose of the corpse. It’s a great set up on its own, and then you throw in a potential blackmail storyline as well as the rampant gossip of suburbia and it has all the ingredients for an addictive thriller. And I was pretty sucked in. The pacing is fast, the dual perspectives between Dana and Jo are well done, and I loved the examination of a close friendship that is REALLY being tested because of the crazy circumstances… And how perhaps Dana isn’t being fully open with Jo. I really enjoyed seeing both of these women trying to keep it together, and I really liked the examination of their friendship through the years and how, perhaps, it’s not as give and take as it seems. I had a hard time putting this one down because I was so taken with the breakneck pacing and the interesting perspectives of both women.

But I think that where this one stumbled a bit for me was with the amount of reveals, twists, and shocking developments that it throws at the reader. I’m a bit of the belief that less is more when it comes to thrillers and mysteries when doling out twisty moments, and that if you oversaturate the narrative with surprises and shocks it becomes less effective, bordering on tedious. And I felt like that happened a bit with “A Friend Indeed”. I don’t want to delve too deeply into it because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it felt like I was being bombarded with so many reveals, so many shocking moments, and so many twists and turns that it was too much. What could have been a tight thriller with some serious punch got bogged down in the need to be unpredictable, and that derailed my experience a bit. And of course we got another last minute twist. And we all know how I feel about those.

“A Friend Indeed” is going to be a good choice for a pool or beach read with the upcoming summer, as it’s entertaining and addictive. I just wish that it hadn’t relied on too many gotcha moments.

Rating 7: It has a really addictive mystery and it kept me interested until the end, but there are a few too many twists and reveals for my liking.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Friend Indeed” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but if you liked the Netflix show “Dead To Me” you will probably like this.

Serena’s Review: “Twelfth Knight”

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Book: “Twelfth Knight” by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Publishing Info: Tor Teen, May 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Viola Reyes is annoyed.

Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.

But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.

As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…

Review: I knew this one would be a bit out of my wheelhouse when I requested it, but as I’ve seemed to move into also covering the romance genre to some extent on this blog, and the fact that I’ve loved this author’s fantasy work (she also writes under the name Olivie Blake), I thought it was worth a shot! Plus, this is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so I was excited to see it re-imagined into a contemporary setting. Plus, plus, I really loved playing “Baldur’s Gate” which is essentially video-game DnD, so I was definitely interested in a story that focused on this type of gaming.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite land the way I wanted it to. But let’s start with some of the positives. And for me, that largely comes down to the male lead character, Jack. I thought it story was really well done, following the tragic but hopeful arc of a young man who was a rising football star before he suffered a debilitating injury. I thought the exploration of this topic was so well done: the upheavals of identity, the loss of purpose and floundering to find direction, the very real mourning for a life that will now not happen. It was all very touching and well done.

There were also elements of the romance I liked, especially the fact that it came across as believable and relatable. All too often, romcoms seem to get caught up in overly complicated “meet cutes” and then a “paint by numbers” style conflict/resolution in the third act. This one hits many of the expected notes, but I think one of this author’s strong suits has been her dialogue, and with this book, the very natural, realistic dialogue helped ground the love story in a way that I appreciated. That said, I was surprised to see the romance essentially take a back seat to some of the gaming stuff for the first half of the story. And, even for me, someone who enjoys gaming quite a bit, this was frustrating. Not only did I pick this one up first and foremost for the romance, not the gaming, but it also forced the actual love story to have to go through all of the stages in a rather short period of time in the second half of the book.

I also struggled to enjoy Viola. And this made for a complicated reading experience, because on one hand, her anger is justified and much of her arc is her learning how to lower her shields, even when she’s been hurt in the past. But on the other hand, even if some of her anger is earned, she was also incredibly unlikable for much of the first half of the story. And as much as my brain could understand this, especially the fact that she is a teenage character which makes all of these big emotions even harder to wrangle, the rest of me was so often annoyed at her that I struggled to enjoy her. I had to keep stopping and essentially explaining to myself why she behaved the way she did, but…having to give yourself a pep talk about enjoying a book doesn’t make for, well, enjoyment.

Overall, this was kind of a “meh” read for me. There were elements that I liked, but there were enough issues with the pacing of the love story and the likability of one of the lead characters that left me feeling rather cold on the story by the end. Fans of YA contemporary romance might still want to give this one a shot, however, as the author’s quippy dialogue is still as fun as ever! Plus, there’s a nice little barb launched at the “Game of Thrones” finale towards the end of the book. Always love to see it.

Rating 7: Just ok. I thought the book touched on some important themes, but the love story felt oddly paced and I struggled to like Viola as a character.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Twelfth” can be found on this Goodreads list: YA Novels of 2024

Serena’s Review: “What Monstrous Gods”

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Book: “What Monstrous Gods” by Rosamund Hodge

Publishing Info: Balzer + Bray, March 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Centuries ago, the heretic sorcerer Ruven raised a deadly briar around Runakhia’s palace, casting the royal family into an enchanted sleep – and silencing the kingdom’s gods.

Born with a miraculous gift, Lia’s destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god – or die.

To make matters even worse, Ruven’s spirit is haunting her.

As discord grows between the old and new guards, the queen sends Lia and Prince Araunn, her betrothed, on a pilgrimage to awaken the gods. But the old gods are more dangerous than Lia ever knew – and Ruven may offer her only hope of survival.

As the two work together, Lia learns that they’re more alike than she expected. And with tensions rising, Lia must choose between what she was raised to believe and what she knows is right – and between the prince she is bound to by duty…and the boy she killed.

Review: I always enjoy fantasy stories that tackle religion and gods and the many ways these can affect society in both beneficial and horribly tragic ways. It can really go either way! So the description immediately appealed! Plus, the fact that it sounds vaguely like a “Sleeping Beauty” re-imaging, and I’ve read a few other fairytale re-tellings by this author that I liked were also good signs in its favor! And while pieces of all of these things were present (plus a very romantic cover), in the end, I didn’t think any of them fully lived up to their potential.

The story started off with a bang, introducing our main character Lia who has been raised for a large chunk of her life in a convent after the loss of her family to a deadly plague that has ravaged her country for centuries. Her initial goals and drive were clear, and the plot progressed quickly to her harrowing journey through the dangerous hedge around the castle, and from there to her confrontation and eventual murder of Ruven, the man behind the curse. I liked all of this so much and was fairly confident at this point that I was going to like this story! I appreciated Lia’s drive and devotion to her cause, and I always like to see heroine’s who can back up their talk with action. So while her killing of Ruven definitely reads with a large question mark aside of it, from Lia’s perspective, this was her mission and she fulfilled it.

Sadly, the book seemed to fall off a steep cliff from here. What had initially felt like intriguing world building, especially the pantheon of gods and their various saints, soon seemed to become a mire of pitfalls and inconsistencies. Suddenly, information was just popping up here and there, seemingly whenever the plot of the book needed it to. It’s not a spoiler since the summary of the book gets to this plot point, but the manner in which Lia’s engagement comes up in the book is literally some character being like “Oh, you didn’t know about this history of this law? Well, ta da! We must wed!” I really hate when stories just throw in crutches like this that seem to come out of nowhere, with no one, reader or character, having heard of it until it conveniently needs to happen for plot purposes. And this sort of thing happens again and again as the story progresses.

As far as Lia’s character goes, I appreciate what I believe the author was trying to do, exploring religious trauma and indoctrination in a system that is not what it seems. However, the way it plays out on the page leaves us with a character who comes across as incredibly passive and one who for too long refuses to act in the face of new information. This is especially frustrating to read after the action-packed beginning of the story where we see a very different version of Lia.

The romance is also fairly lackluster. I will say, one of the strengths of this book is Ruven’s character, especially the witty dialogue that we get from him in his ghost form throughout. That said, the love story itself felt a bit like an after thought and hit some strange beats. There was never really any explanation for why these two would fall in love with one another, especially after some late-game betrayals between them. It was a strange situation where, on one hand, I enjoyed the interactions between Ruven and Lia more than anything else in the story, but I also struggled to really buy their love story as a whole.

Unfortunately, this book ended up as a disappointment. I will say that the writing was strong throughout, and for readers who are especially interested in the exploration of religious trauma in a fantasy world, this might be a good read to check out. However, I feel like the inconsistent world-building and characterization of the main character were on the weaker side, in the end.

Rating 7: While it started off on a strong note, this book took an unfortunate dive into inconsistent world-building and weaker characterization.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Monstrous Gods” can be found on this Goodreads list: Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2024

Serena’s Review: “Draw Down the Moon”

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Book: “Draw Down the Moon” by P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, April 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: NetGalley!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Wren Nightingale isn’t supposed to have any powers. Born of magickal parents but not under a moon sign, she was destined for life as a Mundane—right up until she starts glowing on her eighteenth birthday. In a heartbeat, Wren’s life is turned upside down, and she’s suddenly leaving her home for the mystical Academia de la Luna—a secret magickal school on a hidden island off the Seattle coast.

Lee Young has always known about his future at the Academia. He has one goal: pass the trials, impress the Moon Council, and uphold his family’s reputation. But he wasn’t expecting to be attending alongside the girl he’s been secretly in love with for as long as he can remember.

As Wren and Lee are thrown into the Academie’s gruelling trials, they quickly learn there’s something different–and dangerous–about the school this year. Wren will have to navigate a web of secrets, prophecies–and murder. And Lee will have to decide who to protect–his family’s legacy, or the girl he loves.

Review: I’ll be honest, I was drawn into this one mostly because of its whimsical cover! And then I read the description which focuses on a magical school and academia, and I knew this was one I’d like to check out. I haven’t read anything by either of these authors before either, so I went in with very few expectations. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite work for me.

But let’s start with some of the pros first, as always. I really enjoyed the magical school and the fantasy components of this world. The idea of characters gaining certain powers based on the lunar cycle is very intriguing and not something I’d come across before. I also liked that the concept, while new feeling, wasn’t overly complicated, but felt approachable, especially for younger readers. And this is where part of my problems come in, I believe. When stepping back from my reading experience, I would say much of the reason I didn’t enjoy this one was because it seems to be the type of book best suited towards one fairly specific audience: middle school to young teen readers who are fairly unfamiliar to the fantasy genre and its conventions. For these readers, much of what is being done here may hold more interest, but for older readers, or those who read a lot of fantasy, much of it feels standard to the point of banality.

Further, this book is a perfect example of the YA “genre” being a bit to broad, or perhaps the marketers/publishers getting it wrong when promoting this book. The characters are meant to be 18, but throughout the entire story they read much, much younger. This shows itself in the dialogue, but even more so in the rather simplistic approaches to life that they incorporate, as well as some of the more ridiculous decisions they make. I believe even older teenagers would struggle to really connect to these characters without growing quickly frustrated by their storylines, let alone the many adult readers of YA fantasy fiction.

As far as fantasy concepts go, the story also follows a fairly tried and true “chosen one” plot line, very rarely veering into any territory that truly feels original. And, again, while I think the simplicity of the magic system can also be a pro, it can work against the story as well, coming across as overly basic at times, with very little room for growth, depth, or context. The romance, too, struggles in much the same way. There is nothing overtly wrong with this aspect of the story, but it never felt like it was ever taking any risks or swerving in any way that might surprise readers.

Ultimately, this book could be a success for younger readers looking for an entry point into fantasy fiction. But older readers, even just older teens, and those well-versed in fantasy stories will likely find themselves bored for much of this read and would do better to look elsewhere. For these readers, I’d likely rate this a 6, but I’ll bump it up since so much of this rating comes down to this disconnect between reader and book, more so than any distinct failures on the book’s part.

Rating 7: Perhaps a story that will work for middle grade readers looking to first dip their toes into fantasy fiction, but there’s not enough in this book to truly appeal to general fantasy readers.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Draw Down the Moon” can be found on this Goodreads list: Cover Illustrated by Afterblossom (Kelly Chong)

Kate’s Review: “You Know What You Did”

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Book: “You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen

Publishing Info: Dutton, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In this heart-pounding debut thriller for fans of Lisa Jewell and Celeste Ng, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares past and present…

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.

A prominent art patron disappears, and the investigation zeroes in on Annie. Spiraling with self-doubt, she distances herself from her family and friends, only to wake up in a hotel room—naked, next to a lifeless body. The police have more questions, but with her mind increasingly fractured, Annie doesn’t have answers. All she knows is this: She will do anything to protect her daughter—even if it means losing herself.

With dizzying twists, You Know What You Did is both a harrowing thriller and a heartfelt exploration of the refugee experience, the legacies we leave for our children, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

It’s been a little bit since I’ve tackled a straight unreliable narrator thriller on the blog, though that isn’t super surprising because of all the tantalizing horror novels that have been coming out this Spring. But we are finally firmly back in this genre, and this time with a debut that caught my eye awhile back! “You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen has been patiently sitting on my NetGalley for awhile now, and like I almost always do with my NetGalley books this was because I wanted to read it closer to the release date. By the time I came to it it had been kind of simmering on my book back burner, and I was eager to dive in.

As far as a thriller and as a mystery, I generally enjoyed this one. It has a unique hook and a unique voice, as we follow Annie, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee who has tried to maintain a complete control over her life and identity in the face of a difficult upbringing and OCD diagnosis. After her mother dies, Annie starts having a potential relapse of her disgust driven OCD, and starts to question her reality and the things that she is, or maybe isn’t, doing. It’s a pretty solid device that is meant to deepen the mystery of what is going on with Annie (more on that below), as well as what involvement she may or may not have when one of her clients goes missing, and her erratic behaviors ramp up. In terms of the straight up mystery of Annie’s role in the combustion of her sanity and her potential propensity towards violence that she can’t recall, I had a pretty good guess from the jump as to what was going on. That isn’t to say that Nguyen didn’t have a well thought out mystery, as she did. The puzzle pieces were placed very well and it all came together seamlessly. The suspense about Annie’s mental state was also well done, as I was definitely worried about her. But if you look past the various red herrings, the truth of it all was fairly easy to predict.

And while I am generally apt to kind of side eye thrillers that have mental illness as a plot device to propel the conflict, I thought that “You Know What You Did” did a VERY good job with these themes. It almost certainly helps that Nguyen has an author’s note about her own experiences with OCD, and how that helps contextualize the symptoms and the thought processes that Annie has which intrude upon her every day thinking, and adds to her unreliability. Her OCD makes her fixate on things and makes it so she has a hard time potentially knowing what is real and what isn’t, and as strange and at times violent things happen in her vicinity, it makes for questions about how much is due to her own actions, even if she doesn’t realize it. But it also never paints it as a grotesque caricature of the condition, which can be a trap when various mental illnesses are used to drive the conflict of a thriller. I also appreciated that this doesn’t just apply to Annie, but also as we peel back the layers of her emotionally distant and abusive mother. When we start learning about Annie’s mother, we see a woman who is a hoarder, who does little more but insult her daughter, and who has decimated her self worth to make her dependent on her and within her control. But we also explore what made her this way, by learning about the trauma and loss as a refugee in the years after the Vietnam War. It doesn’t make excuses, but shows how generational trauma and untreated mental illness can have far reaching consequences, and how we don’t always know the full picture of things, be it a person or a thriller novel.

I am definitely eager to see what K.T. Nguyen brings next, because “You Know What You Did” was entertaining as hell.

Rating 7: A unique and well plotted thriller that succeeds in using mental illness as a plot device without being exploitative, this mystery is entertaining, though perhaps easier to untangle than I was expecting.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Know What You Did” is included on the Goodreads lists “Mystery & Thriller 2024”, and “Female Psychological Thrillers/Suspense Written by Women”.

Kate’s Review: “The Darkness Rises”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Darkness Rises” by Stacy Stokes

Publishing Info: Viking Books for Young Readers, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A gripping speculative thriller perfect for fans of Lauren Oliver and Ginny Myers Sain, about one girl with the power to see death before it happens–and the terrible consequences she faces when saving someone goes wrong.

SOMEONE WANTS REVENGE…

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.

Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity Inc. for sending me an eARC of this book!

I will forever and always be a complete sucker for a supernatural tale that involves a psychic character who is trying to cope with their powers. That has been my absolute jam for a VERY long time, and therefore if any book has a hint of that and ends up in my radar, I’m going to be on board. So it’s no surprise that I was totally in when “The Darkness Rises” by Stacy Stokes ended up in my mailbox. A teenage girl dealing with a psychic gift which has led to uncertainty and guilt, and has led to a mysterious stalker going after her for the perceived part she played in a tragedy. OH, YES PLEASE.

As a supernatural thriller, this very much falls into the category of Young Adult in a number of ways. Our main character, Whitney, is a teenager, and she has pretty expected teenage problems (a scummy ex boyfriend, an ex friend who has become an antagonistic rival, a strained relationship with her mother, the list goes on), but is also someone who can predict a person’s death due to being able to see a dark cloud over their heads that no one else is privy to. She struggles to keep this to herself, as she wants to help people, but it has bitten her in the ass a number of times. In more mundane ways it has made her seem weird and creepy when she tells someone to go to the doctor or not to drive a certain way, only to find an illness or to narrowly miss a car accident. But in the biggest way, she once stopped the school weirdo from jumping off a building… and a few days later he brought a gun to the school football game and opened fire, killing eight and wounding many others. When someone starts hinting that they know her secret, and that they are going to expose her, or worse. The mystery was pretty easy to figure out from the get go, and while I liked Whitney and liked how complex she was, her detective work, as well as some side plots involving her nemesis and a new boy at school that she has feelings for, were in a lot of ways pretty well worn territory for the young adult age group. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, and it works for the audience at hand. It just means that it wasn’t doing much outside of the box in the thrills department.

But there is absolutely something that elevated “The Darkness Rises” from what could have been a run of the mill YA thriller, and that was the frank and realistic way that Stokes tackled the topic of gun violence in schools and how the trauma reverberates through everyone who is touched by it. While we have a clear conflict of Whitney feeling guilty for saving the shooter from suicide in the days before his rampage, we also have the conflict of how Whitney feels like she should have done more in the moment once it was clear what was happening, and her survivor guilt is couched in with the guilt of saving him as if doing so made the shooting and all the deaths her fault. At first I was thinking ‘oh come on, Whitney, he’s the one who pulled the trigger, he’s the one who killed these people’, but thinking about it, I imagine that trauma, survivor’s guilt, and grief would probably twist one’s perceptions in this way, even if you take the supernatural elements out. I liked that Stokes was able to address these themes without sounded like she was checking boxes of necessary things to say, and that it felt natural and flowed well, and grounded in the harsh realities of gun violence in this country. And as an author’s note she had a good section about resources, statistics, and facts about school shootings and gun control measures. I really appreciated the way she approached it as a plot point.

“The Darkness Rises” is a speculative thriller that makes darker subject matter easy to parse through without diluting it. Fans of YA Thrillers absolutely should check it out.

Rating 7: A pretty typical YA thriller is elevated with a stark and intense take on gun violence.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Darkness Rises” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Psychic Heroes in Mysteries and Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “The Black Girl Survives In This One”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Black Girl Survives in This One” by Desiree S. Evans (Ed.) & Saraciea J. Fennell (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one.

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.

The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L. L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maritza & Maika Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado, with a foreword by Tananarive Due.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this short stories collection!

2023 was the year of the Short Stories collection for me, as I tackled so many anthologies and had a pretty good time doing so. I think I can safely retire my previous disclaimers about me not being super into short story collections, as lately they have been working pretty well for me. Because of this, I had no hesitation when requesting “The Black Girl Survives in This One”, a YA horror anthology edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell. I’m always looking for more diverse voices in my genres, and seeing a collection that showcases some well known Black YA horror authors was pretty neat. I was lucky enough to have my request granted, and once I dove in I found a pretty fun horror anthology.

As I am wont to do for short stories collections, I will pick my favorite three stories to spotlight, and then I will talk about the collection as a whole.

“Ghost Light” by Erin E. Adams: As a former theater kid who did both acting AND tech work (Saturday mornings were usually spent at the auditorium building and painting sets in high school), I knew that “Ghost Light” was going to be a favorite from the jump. Janine, a stage manager with ambitions and drive is running a show of “Macbeth”, and after a performance she is left behind to tend to the theater. While working, she meets up with the resident ghost. And that ghost is up to no good. This one was probably one of the less traditionally scary stories in the collection, as Janine is dealing more with a poltergeist and having to duke it out with her, but I really loved the action, and I really loved the way that Adams worked theater superstitions regarding ghost lights and The Scottish Play into this story. It made me all nostalgic for my theater days as a teenager.

“The Brides of Devil’s Bayou” by Desiree S. Evans: This was one of the stories that wove in dark historical themes with the horror elements, and it was my favorite to do so. Aja is a college freshman who has returned to her childhood home in the Louisiana Bayous, who has been haunted by a supposed family curse that takes the eldest daughters down the family line on their nineteenth birthdays. With her birthday approaching, Aja wants to confront her fears and prove to herself once and for all that it’s not real. But then she starts seeing visions of the ancestors who were lost, and wonders if the demon is coming for her after all. I am always a huge sucker for family curse and prophecy stories, but what I really enjoyed about this one is that Evans creates the lore around a female ancestor who was so desperate to escape slavery she makes a pact to sacrifice people down the family line. It makes for an added layer of tragedy and injustice, as well as a really solid metaphor for the familial and generational trauma Aja’s family has suffered because of slavery in America. It’s powerful (and scary) stuff.

“The Skittering Thing” by Monica Brashears: I think this was my favorite story in the collection, and for me it was definitely the scariest. Friends Sunny and Charlotte accept the invitation of their new classmate Ray to sleepover at her house. When the family brings up playing a game they call “Skitter”, which is a blackout version of hide and seek, Sunny and Charlotte find themselves in a dark house playing a weird game. And it may not be one of the new family members that is on the hunt in the dark. This was was so uneasy and so unsettling, the tension building higher and higher until it reaches a weird and disturbing conclusion. I really loved this one.

As a full collection, it was a bit more of a hit or miss endeavor for me. I think that part of this is that this is, at its heart, a YA collection, and while the authors are all talented story tellers and are really hitting the nail on the head when it comes to audience and message, young adult horror and I have a complicated relationship due to the fact I’m not the target audience. What I mean by that is that it always feels like YA has a tendency to feel a need to really spell things out for their readers, and it can sometimes feel hamfisted for me. But as noted, I’m not the target audience, and this kind of writing choice could very well go over better with a teenage reader than it does me.

“The Black Girl Lives in This One” is a fun collection that showcases some great authors. If you have teenage horror fans in your life, especially Black girls who may be sick of a lack of representation in the genre, this is the book to check out!

Rating 7: A solid horror collection written by and about Black women who will not be stopped, “The Black Girls Survives in This One” is scary and empowering.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Black Girl Survives in This One” is included on the Goodreads lists “2024 Books by Black Authors”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.

Serena’s Review: “Mountains Made of Glass”

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Book: “Mountain Made of Glass” by Scarlett St. Clair

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Bloom Books, March 2023

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: All Gesela’s life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn’t a single curse—it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk’s well goes dry, it is Gesela’s turn to save her town by killing the toad that lives at the bottom. Except… the toad is not a toad at all. He is an Elven prince under a curse of his own, and upon his death, his brothers come for Gesela, seeking retribution.

As punishment, the princes banish Gesela to live with their seventh brother, the one they call the beast. Gesela expects to be the prisoner of a hideous monster, but the beast turns out to be exquisitely beautiful, and rather than lock her in a cell, he offers Gesela a deal. If she can guess his true name in seven days, she can go free.

Gesela agrees, but there is a hidden catch—she must speak his name with love in order to free him, too.

But can either of them learn to love in time?

Review: Scarlett St. Clair is a powerhouse of a romantasy writer. She’s prolific and beloved, and I hadn’t read anything by her up to this point. So I was excited to check this book out when I was approached by the publisher for a potential review. I won’t lie, I was especially excited to check out a novella and one that is pulling from various fairytales. I best know St. Clair through references to her “Hades and Persephone” series, and that’s a tough one to get right, so I felt more confident with a fairytale re-telling as an initial entry point to this author’s work.

After now reading this book, I feel like I’m just as unclear on whether or not St. Clair’s books are for me or not. That said, I can now easily understand the appeal for many romantasy fans. Let’s start with that part. Right away, the style of writing appealed to me. There was a nice balance between quick pacing and descriptive prose. The author had clearly read a bunch of fairytales and had no problem capturing the correct tone, writing a story that felt both whimsical and beautiful at times, and violent and disturbing at others. I especially liked just how many fairytale sources were all drawn upon to craft this story. The author even included a note with more details on all of the points of inspiration she pulled upon when writing this book, which I found fascinating.

I also really enjoyed the dialogue and much of the inner monologues we saw from both the hero and the heroine. And while I enjoyed Gesela, Casamir’s chapters turned out to be the most fun. There were a bunch of side characters with whom he interacted, and I loved the ridiculousness of their scenes attempting to point out to their great Fae lord just how inept his attempts at wooing Gesala really were. There was also a captured fairytale prince whose own story veered off into some truly surprising directions.

However, almost from the very start, I struggled with the balance being struck here between plot and spicy scenes. In that…there really was no balance and it was predominantly the latter. No judgement, of course, to readers who are happy with books that lean more in this direction, but for me, I still have fairly high expectations as far as plot goes for my romantasy books. I still want a story, you see. And while yes, there was one here, it was sometimes hard to keep sight of it through all of the insta-lust we had going on.

I was especially put off when, during the very first scene between Gesala and Casamir, we have Gesala completely losing her wits and falling into immediate lust over this complete stranger. And not just “oh, he’s good looking” lust, we’re talking “let’s jump in bed now!” lust. From there, I felt like there were numerous moments where any of the tension or build to the actual love story were undercut by these moments of straight spice. And at a certain point, it became so comical how often Gesala was ending up in contrived situations where she was naked that I started counting. Which really isn’t what I want from a story: to be so distracted by some sort of silliness that I start counting.

I’m not quite sure where to go from here. Reading between all of the spicy scenes, there was a lot to like about this book. I thought the characterization was great, the dialogue was witty and often hilarious, and the fairytale inspiration was spot on. I just didn’t like how much the spicy scenes seemed to overshadow any actual story that was being drawn. The author’s note said she plans on writing stories for all of the other Fae brothers, so maybe I’ll check out the next one of those and go from there. That said, if you enjoy romantasy books with insta-lust/lots of spice, this may be for you. But if you’re looking for more story or plotting to hold things together, this one is on the weaker side.

Rating 7: A bit of a hit or miss reading experience, I really enjoyed the story we had here, but unfortunately the plot often fell to the wayside in lieu of romance scenes.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mountains Made of Glass” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Romantasy for Adults and Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2023

Serena’s Review: “A Flame in the North”

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Book: “A Flame in the North” by Lilith Saintcrow

Publishing Info: Orbit, February 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: An elemental witch and her shieldmaiden journey into a world of ancient myth and unexpected destiny in this sweeping Norse-inspired epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Lilith Saintcrow.

The Black Land is spent myth. Centuries have passed since the Great Enemy was slain. Yet old fears linger, and on the longest night of the year, every village still lights a ritual fire to banish the dark.

That is Solveig’s duty. Favored by the gods with powerful magic, Sol calls forth flame to keep her home safe. But when her brother accidentally kills a northern lord’s son, she is sent away as weregild—part hostage, part guest—for a year and a day.

The further north Sol travels, the clearer it becomes the Black Land is no myth. The forests teem with foul beasts. Her travel companions are not what they seem, and their plans for her and her magic are shrouded in secrecy.

With only her loyal shieldmaid and her own wits to reply upon, Sol must master power beyond her imagination to wrest control of her fate. For the Black Land’s army stirs, ready to cover the world in darkness—unless Sol can find the courage to stop it.

They thought the old ways were dead. But now, the Enemy awakens…

Review: This is the second Norse-inspired fantasy I’ve read this month! It’s funny how these trends come and go; even as I go through what I though was a fairly randomly-ordered TBR list, I often find myself reading books with strong similarities to one another. I’ve read a decent amount of fantasy fiction that draws from Norse mythology, and have typically enjoyed them quite a bit, so this was an obvious pick for me. On top of that, I love the idea of taking a typical fantasy duo (the hero and his shield) and switching it to a female heroine/witch and her shieldmaiden. I still enjoy the former as well, of course, but it’s nice to see such variety popping up throughout SFF.

This book is a bit tough to review, simply because some of my struggles with the book came down more to my needing to properly categorize the type of book I was reading. Starting out, it was clear that this book was aiming for a specific sort of high fantasy, the kind that uses dense language, both in the vocabulary chosen and in the longer sentences structures used, and also is playing a long game as far as pacing and plotting go. The story takes its time laying out its world, its characters, and even getting to what seems to be the true action of the story.

As I continued to read, at some point it occurred to me to compare this read to “Lord of the Rings,” and frankly, that kind of saved the experience for me. Both books have a similar dense sort of feeling, the kind that can be overwhelming to begin with, and the sort that then pays off later. Similarly, there were a few world-building aspects that were simply dropped in with very little explanation. For example, at one point they refer to the “All Mother” which, of course, seems like a similar character as Odin the “All Father.” Changes like this are, of course, fine, but then I was left a bit unsure as to where I was supposed to be placing this world. Are we in some sort of alternate world where there is an All Mother instead of an All Father? Or is this our world with magic and this is just changed? Things like this aren’t necessarily a big deal or bad, but it does add to the initial challenge with the point of entry to the story. The reader really has to work for it get dive in.

But this slow pacing did pick up towards the end, and this is where the LOTR comparisons worked even better. If read as the rather slow-paced entry to a grand spectacle, a sprawling series, the dense nature of this book is easier to digest. I also really liked Solveig and her shieldmaiden as characters. The author did a fantastic job with these two, balancing their fierceness with the sort of sly reserve that they would need to employ in the world in which they are living.

This is the kind of book that I would definitely recommend for a specific sort of fantasy reader, those who like epic fantasy and are willing to put in the time with denser language and a slow plot. Readers who want to be immediately drawn in to an action-packed story will likely struggle this one. But, like I’ve said earlier, if you like “Lord of the Rings” and can remember some of the slower parts, especially in “Fellowship,” this book does seem to promise an intriguing series overall!

Rating 7: Tough to get into but well worth it in the end, I think.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Flame in the North” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists currently, but it should be on Vikings and Viking-Inspired Fantasy.

Serena’s Review: “To Cage a God”

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Book: “To Cage a God” by Elizabeth May

Publishing Info: DAW, February 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: To cage a god is divine. To be divine is to rule. To rule is to destroy.

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost.

With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn.

While Sera reunites with her estranged lover turned violent rebel leader, Galina infiltrates the palace. In this world of deception and danger, her only refuge is an isolated princess, whose whip-smart tongue and sharp gaze threaten to uncover Galina’s secret. Torn between desire and duty, Galina must make a choice: work together to expose the lies of the empire―or bring it all down.

Review: Let’s just say, I’m glad this is the cover for the U.S. version of the book. Check out the U.K. one if you don’t believe me! I mean, it’s definitely a statement…but it’s also not the type of cover I’d necessarily want starting out at me from my shelves! However, what truly caught my interest was the promise of a Russian-inspired fantasy world in which two sisters head up a rebel cause. I mean, that checks a pretty decent number of my personal preferences right there. Add in a dash of romance, and yep, I was excited to check this one out!

This book was a very hot and cold affair as far as my changing enjoyment levels throughout the story. It started off great, I will say. I was immediately drawn in to both Sera and Galina’s narration and their different styles. Here, finally, was a case where the two POVs felt distinct but each was enjoyable. I even felt fairly confident that the prickly but powerful Galina was going to be my favorite of the two. However, this strong start didn’t last. Much to my dismay, as the book progressed, we were introduced to a whopping three OTHER POV characters. And five…five is just too many.

And in this case, it was incredibly apparent that at least two of them had no business having POVs at all. We had a fair number of chapters from one of the Queen’s handmaidens, and yet every single chapter we heard from her, she literally went through the same exact story beats: the Queen killed her sister when her sister was a handmaiden, the Queen is violent and may kill her at any moment, she hates the Queen. Rinse and repeat and get ready to hear the same story about six more times, all to conclude in…yeah, nothing really. From there, we also got a handful (maybe three or four? not enough to amount to anything, that’s for sure) of chapters from Sera’s love interest, Vitaly. Again, this character had no arc or story of his own. The entire purpose of his chapters, apparently, was to give readers a glimpse into his mind as he repeated over and over that he was a bad guy, but he’d do anything for Sera. Which…we’d already heard him say aloud several times to Sera herself, thus completely negating any reason to hear directly from this character himself.

Lastly, we also had chapters from the Princess Vasilisa’s perspective. These, at least, were more worthwhile in that Vasilisa has the remnants of an arc to be found, in that she has had a troubled upbringing with her mother, the Queen, and must face the reality of her mother’s violent and unchanging nature. I’ll also say that this character having POV chapters was fairly necessary for this romance. Not for the reasons you’re thinking though! But because if she didn’t, we’d have had about a grand total of three interactions between her and Galina to build up a romance. As it stands, I really struggled with this romance either way. It’s classic instalove, and if you actually add up the time Galina and Vasilisa spend together, it rounds out to a few hours! Total! Before they’re professing love and Galina is insisting to Sera that Vasilisa will turn on her mother and side with the rebels. And she’s right, a few hours was all it did take! It’s all pretty crazy, and the focus on this romance was one of the reasons my interest in Galina’s storyline dropped quickly from my favorite to one I barely cared about.

Sera, instead, became my favorite character and actually took up the bulk of the action of the book. She’s the only one who is truly doing anything much of the time, and almost all of the action scenes come through her storyline. And if we had taken out Vitaly’s unnecessary chapters which I think managed to actually hurt the romance, I would have enjoyed this second chance love story as well.

Honestly, this book was a bit of a hot mess. The world-building and fantasy elements (the idea of gods being caged within people who can then harness their powers) all had a lot of potential. But the story fell apart due to failures of craft. There were moments when the writing was incredibly strong, but others when it felt all over the place. And then, worst of all, the decision to include so many POV characters, especially when so many of them had no real arcs of their own, really hurt the overall book. If things had been kept to just Sera and Galina’s stories, I think the story would have been massively more successful. As it stands, the bones of a good book can be seen in this one, but the author got into her own way too many times for it really come together. If you enjoy large casts of characters, however, you may still want to give this a shot. Sera’s story is still enjoyable, if you go in focusing on that.

Rating 7: I enjoyed one of the main characters a lot; unfortunately, she was one of five POVs, which drastically reduced my overall experience.

Reader’s Advisory:

“To Cage a God” can be found on this Goodreads list: Russian motifs in fantasy