I can’t say this book is reinventing the YA star-crossed teenage love story trope, but it has a few things I like that are a bit different. We have Ethan, who’s lived a small South Carolina town all his life, and has wanted to leave for ages. His high school is full of people who […]
Beautiful Creatures – Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl Read More »
This book is nominally set in the Grishaverse, but is all the fairy tales they would tell there. You can definitely see the parallels to tales in our normal world. My favorite story was “Ayama and the Thorn Wood”, which is sort of a cross between “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast”. The younger son
The Language of Thorns – Leigh Bardugo Read More »
With the help of the Reckoners, David has managed to bring down the Epic Steelheart, and free the city if Newcago. But pretty soon, more Epics are on the way to try and bring down the Steelslayer. It’s quickly clear that they’re being sent by Regalia, who rules the city of Babylon Reborn, aka New
Firefight – Brandon Sanderson Read More »
Jess Brightwell was given a position in the Library’s High Garda – he knows it’s so that the head of the Library can keep an eye on him, after they kidnapped and killed his best friend, Thomas, for his heretical ideas. The rest of their friends in their initial training class have moved on to
Paper and Fire – Rachel Caine Read More »
We’ve got owl plates that apparently turn into owls, a whole British Romeo and Juliet-ish across classes love story in a cottage in Wales on summer break, and the ancient Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd. I suspect I would have gotten a lot more out of this story when I was in the midst of my
The Owl Service – Alan Garner Read More »
Alina and Mal have escaped the Darkling’s invasion of the Little Palace, and know that they need to search for the final of the three amplifiers that will allow Alina full use of her power. They think that the firebird that has that amplifier can be found in the valley where they both were born,
Ruin and Rising – Leigh Bardugo Read More »
This is the second books in the Queens of Renthia series. Delaina has come to the throne as the last survivor of all the heirs in Aratay. And while she is young and should have many years ahead of her to reign, she finds she has contracted the False Death. When she has spells, the
The Reluctant Queen – Sarah Beth Durst Read More »
This is the fourth book in a series about the daughter of the first woman president. I received the first one as a gift in middle school, and read the other two quite a while ago. It took me a while to track this fourth one down (and it was written quite a while after
Long May She Reign – Ellen Emerson White Read More »
Alina and Mal have tried to run from the Darkling, but he finds them, and brings them back to Ravka. But the Darkling isn’t aware that his allies are not all that they seem, and the privateer he has hired to bring them back to Ravka instead saves Alina and Mal for his own ends.
Siege and Storm – Leigh Bardugo Read More »
This the final book of the Beka Cooper books, and it’s a doozy. She and her partner are summoned with some haste to the Summer Palace, where they find that half of the servants and guards there have been slaughtered, and the young prince has been kidnapped. Beka promises the frantic queen that she will
Mastiff – Tamora Pierce Read More »