Tag: Young Adult

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Book: “The Kiss of the Nightingale” by Adi Denner

Publishing Info: Tundra Books, October 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

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

Book Description: 1890, Lutèce: In this city, Talents are everything: precious gems that gift unrivalled skills to their owners. The most coveted, Elite Talents, are claimed by the aristocracy, passed through generations by blood magic.

Cleodora dreamed of inheriting her father’s Tailoring Talent, but when he died, the magic died with him. Now she’s left with empty promises, a dress shop she can’t keep afloat, and her bed-ridden younger sister.

But everything changes when she meets the dark-eyed Lady Dahlia Sibille. Dahlia offers Cleodora a Singing Talent – a chance to save her beloved sister and rewrite her own fate. From the first instant, Cleodora is bewitched… There’s just one catch: she needs to steal an Elite Talent from the prestigious Lenoir family.

As Lutèce’s nightingale, Cleodora is the star of the opera’s galas and balls, worlds away from the darkness and dust of home. But the handsome yet infuriating Vicomte Lenoir is nothing like she expected.

Soon, the Vicomte’s teasing smiles win her over, even as Dahlia’s seductive whispers linger in her ears. Torn between Dahlia, who gave her everything, and the Vicomte, who holds the price of her freedom, is Cleodora in danger of losing it all? Or can she prove that magic isn’t the only gift that counts?

Review: Anytime a publisher releases a fantasy book set in Paris with an elaborate mask on the cover, you know they’re trying to pull in the “Phantom of the Opera” fans. Works on me every time! Obviously, reading the book summary, we see an even more direct connection with our main character performing at the opera. However, the read-alikes don’t ever directly mention “Phantom” but instead reference Leigh Bardugo and Bridgerton. All of this to say, I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I was going to get when I picked up this book!

Unfortunately, I did struggle a bit with this one. However, I always want to start with some positives, and for this one, that definitely comes down to the overall tone and vibe of this world. As the cover promises, the story takes place in whimsical, lush, and extravagant version of Paris. The author’s writing was particularly strong in these descriptive areas, with a heavy focus on the fashion of this world (unfortunately, I’m one of those readers who needs less as far as these sorts of descriptions go, but for others, this will be a real strength!).

I had a bit of wavering appreciation for the main character. On one hand, I always love stories that revolve around sisterly relationships, and when the story was focused on this, I enjoyed it most. However, as the story progressed, I became more and more frustrated with her decision making and internal thought process. More than once she comes across as incredibly incompetent. I also dislike main characters who are immediately the best at everything, but here we had the other side of the coin. In the same vein, I didn’t particularly enjoy the romance. All of the relationships felt very bland and one-note, and the primary love story never really captured me.

However, my biggest issue came with the world-building. The concept was both too simple and too complicated at times. For one thing, I simply don’t understand why these gems wouldn’t be being stolen all the time by everyone. The story presents Cleodora as this rare being for this approach, but honestly, this is such a basic response to this sort of inequality (where the thing causing the inequality comes down to a basic, material item that is easy enough to steal) that it’s hard to buy that this isn’t a near-universal problem in this world. Beyond that, for being so incredibly powerful, we don’t really see the ways in which a society made of people with these sorts of gifts would be changed from our own. There should be many areas of life that would be directly affected by this. How does law enforcement work? Politics? Wouldn’t corruption being an almost crippling problem within this society?

There were also many nods to “Phantom of the Opera” but not enough to make it anywhere near a direct re-telling. Instead, it walked some strange line where it was clearly influenced by this tale, but also wasn’t interested in following much of the plot of that story. It was odd more than anything else. I’d say, this book would be of most interest to YA fantasy readers who enjoy lush worlds with an emphasis on the descriptions. However, the characters and world-building were on the weaker side.

Rating 6: The writing hits some nice notes with its descriptions of elaborate settings and ballgowns, but the world-building leaves much to be desired.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Kiss of the Nightingale” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Edwardian Fantasy and Fantasy with a healthy dose of romance.

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

Book: “Where the Library Hides” by Isabel Ibanez

Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, November 2024

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

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

Book Description: 1885, Egypt

Inez Olivera is left reeling from her cousin Elvira’s murder, and her mother’s betrayal, and when Tío Ricardo issues an ultimatum about her inheritance, she’s left with only one option to consider.

Marriage to Whitford Hayes.

Former British soldier, her uncle’s aide de camp, and one time nemesis, Whit has his own mysterious reasons for staying in Egypt. With her heart on the line, Inez might have to bind her fate to the one person whose secret plans could ruin her.

Previously Reviewed: “What the River Know”

Review: Surprise! I decided to finish up this duology after all. Sometimes my completionist tendencies get the better of me, and even though I didn’t really enjoy the first book, I thought I might as well finish up the duology. After all, the first book was fairly universally beloved, and my struggles were definitely in the minority. So who knows? Maybe the second time is the charm!

Well, I’ll say that this duology will not go down as a great read overall, but I’ll give credit it where it is due and say that this second entry is a definite improvement on the first. So let’s start with these positives. One thing that I struggled with in the first book was the inexplicable magic system. I still have questions about the history of the world and the role that magic has played in it, but this book did a good job of digging further into how all of this worked together, which I appreciated.

This book also benefited in being the second in the series, which helped with some of my pacing concerns from the first book. There, I felt like the action worked against the character development of our main character. But here, as we’ve already met and followed Inez’s story through one book, when this story’s plot took off, I didn’t feel as if I was following around a character I barely knew. In that way, I felt like the fast-paced tone of this book better fit with the story it was telling and was less of a hinderance to the character arcs themselves.

However, the one place where I continued to struggle was with the characterization as a whole. I just can’t get myself to like Inez. She’s the kind of female main character who I feel like exists primarily on sass and spunk, but then when you step back from the book and actually look at her story, it’s one full of blundering around making silly decisions and being rewarded for it because it is necessary to the plot. She seems incapable of reading those around her, misunderstanding almost everyone she meets. And, worst of all, she seemed to instantly forgive the romantic interest for a massive breach of trust, pretty much for no other reason than instalove purposes.

Whit also continued to be an annoyance. At best, he remained a stereotype of YA romantic heroes. But, unfortunately, he went downwards from there. Like I mentioned, part of the book includes some fairly despicable actions/lies told by this character that he is then simply let off the hook for with zero repercussions. What’s worse, by the end of the book, there is a character switch that comes out of nowhere, with Whit suddenly morphing into an endearment-loving sweetheart. Who is this guy and where did he come from? Character arcs do involve changing from one thing to another, for better or worse, but it should be shown on the page as something happening gradually and as a direct result to what is going on in the story. Here, he seemed to turn into this completely different person by the end of the book, seemingly to almost gaslight the heroine and the reader into forgetting who he had been throughout the rest of the series.

Overall, while the characters were still a struggle for me, this was a definite improvement on the first book. I feel like both the world-building and pacing were better handled. There were still some plot points that I found unlikely to the point of disbelief, but I was mostly able to lose myself in the inertia of the story. That said, the characters became increasingly annoying and unlikable as I read. However, those who enjoyed the first book will likely love this one. And if you were on the fence, it may still be worth checking out!

Rating 7: While the characters still proved to be a stumbling block to my enjoyment, I did think this one improved on the first book with more complex world-building and a better paced story.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Where the Library Hides” can be found on many Goodreads lists, including Most Interesting World.

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

Book: “The Wild Huntress” by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Publishing Info: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, October 2024

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

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

Book Description: Every five years, two kingdoms take part in a Wild Hunt. Joining is a bloody risk and even the most qualified hunters can suffer the deadliest fates. Still, hundreds gamble their lives to participate—all vying for the Hunt’s life-changing prize: a magical wish granted by the Otherking.

BRANWEN possesses a gift no other human has: the ability to see and slay monsters. She’s desperate to cure her mother’s sickness, and the Wild Hunt is her only option.

GWYDION is the least impressive of his magically-talented family, but with his ability to control plants and his sleight of hand, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his cruel older brother from becoming a tyrant.

PRYDERI is prince-born and monster-raised. Deep down, the royal crown doesn’t interest him—all he wants is to know is where he belongs.

If they band together against the monstrous creatures within the woods, they have a chance to win. But, then again, nothing is guaranteed when all is fair in love and the Hunt.

Review: I am going to start this review off with a general lament: Emily Lloyd-Jones is the most under-rated YA fantasy writer currently putting out books! It’s wild to me that she still seems to fly so far under everyone’s radar. The quality of her storytelling, the strength of her characters, the excellence of her dialogue, and the lovely secondary romances are truly on a whole new level from so many other YA fantasies that seem to take off. It’s bizarre to me. She’s an auto-buy author for me at this point, so it was a given that I was going to review this book. It was all the more exciting when I received an ARC copy to boot!

Sometimes it’s harder to write reviews for books that I absolutely adored than it is for ones I have mixed feelings about. With nothing to question or complain about, it quickly devolves into incoherent gushing. But I’ll start with something that I think makes Jones’s books stand out from much of the current YA fare: she allows her characters to behave in natural ways, making choices that can lead to tragedy and real conflict, and then forcing them to truly live with the results, both in a practical sense as well as an emotional sense. Too often, conflict that is introduced in other similar books is hand-waved away quickly, with characters seeming to easily forgive massive transgressions. Or characters will make bad decisions or poor judgements of character, but because the plot necessitates it, things always work out perfectly. In this way, Jones’s stories and characters feel somehow more real, more true, and I’m easily more invested in their stories. The lows are truly tragic, but this makes the highs all the more sweet.

In particular to this book, there is drawn-out consequence of one character’s choices that comes to play in the final quarter of this book. From this moment on, all of the other characters dramatically shift, and the rest of the book is not only wrapping up the plot, but truly dealing with the emotional fall-out of this situation. There are a few choices here that feel almost shocking. But, importantly, they feel shocking NOT because they are unrealistic; indeed I think they are very true to the impossibilities of the situation. But they feel shocking in the sense that I can’t think of a contemporary author writing in this same genre that has the bravery to fully commit to the decisions her characters would make in their story as Jones does here (and in her other books.)

But, even though I’ve now spent much of this review talking about the darker aspects of this story, this is largely a fun, funny, and sweetly romantic tale for 80% of the book. As I mentioned above, for all that the plotting and world-building is so excellent, one of the things that also stands out is the strength of the dialogue. There were several moments that had me laughing out loud and re-reading a few times before moving on.

On top of this, I’ve now come to rely on the romantic subplots that Jones includes in her fantasy novels. While I like full-on romance novels, as far as my absolute favorite reads go I always tend towards book that have a more reserved approach to the love story. Here, the relationship is clearly secondary to the main plot, but somehow this made the sweet moments we got all the more special. Above all, I appreciate the way the characters slowly come to know and begin to care for one another. There’s not a whiff of instalove or instalust to be found here.

I could go on and on. Even with all of this writing, I didn’t even get to the fantastic fantasy plot, full of adventure and magic. Or the fact that there are fun little nods to her other books that can be spotted throughout. If you haven’t read anything by this author, RUN (don’t walk) to the bookstore and just get all three at once. They’re that good!

Rating 10: One of the most under-rated YA fantasy authors writing today, Emily Lloyd-Jones shines and shows the highs that the genre can truly reach!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Wild Huntress” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Books for rainy tea-filled days  and My favorite Medieval Fantasy novels.

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

Book: “Immortal Dark” by Tigest Girma

Publishing Info: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, September 2024

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

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

Book Description: The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.

It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

Review: I’ve been looking forward to this one for a few months! While vampires aren’t my favorite supernatural beings, I’ve had a lot of success with some of the recent books featuring them. On top of that, this one added in several other tropes I enjoy: dark academia, gothic fiction, and an enemies-to-lovers romance.

Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a mixed bag for me. But it was by no means a complete loss, and by the time I had finished the book, I had mentally slotted this author into the “worth checking out again” category in my head. So, let’s start with what I did like. The writing had a lot of potential, I think. It got bogged down a bit in info-dumping and confused world-building, but on its own, it was good. There were several turns of phrase and story-building moments that stood out, and the strength of the writing itself is largely what pulled me through when I began to struggle.

I also liked a lot of the ideas that went into this world and its society, especially the dark academia aspects. There was a lot of creativity to be found here, and, as much as I hate the term, the gothic “vibes” were well done. I definitely wanted to learn more about this world, and became increasingly frustrated when the book continued to lack clarity with some of these elements.

Clarity, overall, was a real problem. Which was odd because there were also significant moments early in the novel that felt extremely info-dumpy. There were also a plethora of different plot lines and magic systems that were all introduced early in the book. So even with clunky exposition moments, I still felt unclear on exactly how any of this worked exactly and how these various plotlines were meant to weave together.

I also struggled with the characters themselves. For all that I love enemies-to-lovers romances, I’ve realized that I’m also fairly picky in this regard. Sure, they can be enemies, but there’s a point of animosity that it’s difficult to believe anyone would come back from. And that’s what we had here. These characters HATED one another and were truly terrible to one another, so much so that it was difficult to buy their slow reconciliation. To be fair, the book doesn’t rush this, and even by the end, it’s more of a “hate less” situation than anything.

But the biggest problem here was the struggle I had to become invested in the main character. She was truly terrible at times, and her hatred of the vampires was uncomfortable at times. On one hand, I appreciate books that don’t shy away from demonstrating what bigotry can look like. Many authors simply take the safe route and show villains being bigots and then pat themselves on the back for “tackling” a tough topic. But here, our main character is too truly blinded by her hatred of an entire group of people to engage honestly with the individual in front of her. However, while I appreciate the difficulty of this task, it still left me following a character I struggled to like.

As for the rest of the characters, most of them felt like cardboard cutouts of characters, reading as very flat. And while I think the writing was strong in its descriptive elements for the most part, the dialogue was a mess. There were many times where I honestly have no idea what the characters were even trying to say. It’s like they were talking in riddles simply because it was meant to make them seem deep. But in reality, they were saying nothing and no one talks like this.

This book was a bit all over the place. I think there was a lot of potential here, and perhaps the author will settle in to her style a bit more as she moves forward. But on its own, this book was a bit of a struggle for me to get through. I think it will best work for dark fantasy/romance readers who enjoy fairly extreme versions of enemies-to-lovers romances. Take “The Cruel Prince” dynamic and elevate the cruelty, essentially.

Rating 7: While the descriptive writing was good, the story felt bogged down by too many plot lines and inscrutable magic systems.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Immortal Dark” can be found on these Goodreads lists: The Vampire Renaissance and Magic Schools, Academies & Universities.