All posts in Young Adult

Fireblood

By Brookelorren on 1 Comment

I recently read Fireblood by Elly Blake. It’s been nearly two years since I read the first book, Frostblood. I liked the story, but I wasn’t enamored with the book (probably because I listened to the audiobook and I didn’t care for the narrator). I read a physical copy of Fireblood so I wouldn’t have those problems.

Because this is the second book in a trilogy, there are probably spoilers for the first book. You can read my review for book 1 here.

Ruby is an anomaly at the frost court. If she didn’t have the favor of the king, Arcus–King Arkanus–she wouldn’t be there at all. Even so, she feels out of place. So when she gets the chance to see the fire kingdom, Sudesia, she takes it. Especially since the fire nation might be the key to destroying the Minax, which is now wreaking havoc in the countryside.

Of course, things aren’t quite as simple as Ruby would hope them to be. There’s trouble at home, Tempesia, there’s trouble in Sudesia, and–there may be a love triangle in this book.

I enjoyed this book and immediately added Nightblood to my TBR lottery. It’s hard to tell whether I liked this book better because I wasn’t listening to the audiobook or whether the book was better, but there was a lot going on in this book from start to finish. And now I want to find out how this ends–because while Ruby meets her goals for this book, there’s another difficulty that arises that she’ll need another book for.

Fireblood is an excellent sequel to Frostblood. It was well-written, had excitement throughout, and I cared about the main character, Ruby. I’m looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, Nightblood, although I’ll probably wait until I draw its number in the TBR lottery before I read it, since there’s so many other books I also want to read on that list.

The Opposite of Always

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Opposite of Always cover

Oh why can’t there be a book like Love and Basketball? A story which doesn’t revolve around black people’s pain and people live fairly normal lives? This is a question I’ve asked myself so many times. Not that there isn’t a place for those books too, but my biracial kids living in the suburbs really can’t relate. The Opposite of Always does have that vibe though (as does Conquest, which I read and have yet to review). I can’t tell you whether it has a happy ending or not (the ending actually surprised me) but it was a great book.

Jack King has a thing for one of his two best friends, Jillian. Until he meets Kate at a party. Which is a good thing, because Jillian is in love with his other best friend, Franny. Kate and Jake hit it off right away, but Kate is secretive. She gets sick and ends up dying (we later find out what it is; it just happens to be something my husband has, but I’ll refrain from saying what she has here). When Kate dies, Jack gets sucked back in time to the moment he met her, sitting on the stairs at a party.

It takes Jack several attempts to try to help Kate. Each time, he messes something up, but each time it’s in a different way. Each time, Kate ends up dying. Often, he messes something else up in his life. Eventually, Jack begins to wonder whether they belong together or not. I won’t tell you the ending, but he goes back one final time… and the story reaches a satisfying conclusion.

My Thoughts

I love Jack’s voice in this story. He seemed like a real person, and his friendship dilemmas seemed realistic as well. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Kate-Jack ship at first (I thought perhaps he should be with Jillian) but they kind of grew on me. The whole repeating time thing was great too. It’s not a unique concept, but The Opposite of Always brings a nice twist to the trope.

Conclusion

Do I recommend The Opposite of Always? Absolutely! I’m sure I’ll recommend it to my boy, although probably when he’s older: the relationship between Kate and Jack is pretty prominent, and Kate has the same thing my husband has. Although I don’t think it would scare my son (my dh is only mildly affected whereas Kate is in the hospital frequently), it might be something for him to read later (he’s 13). But if you’re looking for a story featuring time travel and black people living happy lives finding love and getting ready for college, this might be a book to add to your TBR.

P.S.: I just noticed that the Kindle version of this book is free to read for Amazon Prime members. I paid $1.99 for it (also not a bad price) but free is great too!

The Damned

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The Damned cover

I recently read Renée Ahdieh’s The Damned on audiobook. I always try to have one audiobook going, and when I saw this was available at my library, I was surprised.

The Damned is the second book in The Beautiful duology. This review contains spoilers, but you can read my review of The Beautiful instead, if you haven’t read the first book.

Celine has no memories of Sébastien Saint Germain, but she feels like something is wrong. Everyone tells her that Michael saved her from a brutal attack, and he’s been spending a lot of time with her. He’s interested in more than friendship with Celine, but she doesn’t really feel a passion for him. Should she settle?

Meanwhile, Sébastien is learning how to be a vampire, and we learn more secrets about him and the fey creatures he hangs around.

With the way The Beautiful ended, of course Celine and Sébastien meet up again. There are surprises in store for them, however. I was surprised at some of the things that were revealed in this book. I certainly did not expect this series to take the turn that it did. But I enjoyed it nevertheless.

While I enjoyed most of this book, I thought it ended quite abruptly. There were things revealed in this book that I thought should have been explored more thoroughly. I don’t think a third book is planned for this series, but it really should have one.

Update: It IS getting a third book so the ending is fine.

Conclusion

The Damned was a good continuation of The Beautiful duology; however, there were several twists that were introduced in this book that should have had further exploration. (Edit: It IS getting a third book!) I think this series should have been a trilogy. Otherwise, I did enjoy reading this book.

The Crow Rider

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The Crow Rider

I recently read The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the Advanced Reader Copy, sorry I’m late with this because–pandemic). It is the second book in The Storm Crow duology; as a result, there are spoilers. If you haven’t read the first book, you can read my review of The Storm Crow instead. This book wraps up the duology nicely.

Thia has left Illucia; the queen is dead-set on waging a war against her people and she needs allies. Meanwhile, she is also conflicted in her feelings about Ericen. Can he be trusted? Does she care about him?

The Crow Rider does an outstanding job of covering the emotions one might go through in a traumatic situation (or even a ::cough cough:: pandemic). Thia went through a deep depression in the last book; now, she’s dealing with feelings of inadequacy in the face of insurmountable odds. She’s not the only person in this book to deal with trauma. Even Res, the crow, goes through a period of difficulty. The villain’s past, and how she became the horrible person she turned out to be, is explained here (but not in an infodumpy type of way).

Another thing I loved about this book were the battle scenes. They were well-done and I could imagine them in my head. There were no guarantees either. In a couple places, I thought that perhaps all was lost.

The Crow Rider answers questions and adds new magical depth to the world. Where did the crow magic come from in the first place? Why can only certain people hatch eggs? If you’ve been wondering this and other questions, they’re answered here.

The only downside to this book that I can think of is that it has a huge cast. If you haven’t started the series yet, I would recommend you read The Storm Crow and The Crow Rider in a short time span. There were some characters I had forgotten about that get re-introduced later in the book and it was a little confusing. Ms. Josephson does do a good job at explaining who they are, but still–the cast seemed a little large.

Conclusion

If you liked The Storm Crow, I recommend you finish reading the duology with this great book. I don’t recommend The Crow Rider if you haven’t read the first book; a lot of things in this book are dependent on events from the first book. It captures emotion well, has a realistic teen protagonist, and wraps up everything nicely.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky

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10 Things I Hate About Pinky cover

Sandhya Menon’s books are always so amazing! Her most recent book (out last Tuesday) was 10 Things I Hate About Pinky. It’s the third book in the Dimpleverse, and if you haven’t read the others, you should! This latest book stands on its own, but! If you read them in order, you’ll be familiar with some of the characters and situations and it will be a little bit cooler.

I haven’t written a lot of reviews lately (I’d love to fix that at some point) but today’s review is going to be a little different than normal. I’m writing a list:

10 Things I Love about 10 Things I Hate About Pinky

1. Pinky. Pinky is such a great character! We meet her first in There’s Something About Sweetie, but we get to know her a lot better in this book. She’s such a sweet, caring person. I love how we get to see this side of her in this book.

2. Samir. Samir, who begins a fake-dating relationship with Pinky, is almost her opposite. While Pinky is a free-spirit, Samid has a planner and his life revolves around it. Over the course of 10 Things I Hate About Pinky, he learns that some things just can’t be planned. Including how he ended up fake-dating Pinky in the first place. It happens towards the beginning of the book, but I’ll leave that up to you to discover.

3. Family relationships. We mostly get to see the relationship between Pinky and her mother, but there are other relationships here. Her mother starts out as very antagonistic towards Pinky, but they work things out. Samir and his mother have some things to work out too. We don’t see much of her here, but their relationship does evolve.

4. Friendships. The main friendship here is between Pinky and Dolly, whom we haven’t met before. We hear a little from Ashish as well. Summer friendships are great!

5. Saving the World! Okay, Pinky and Samir don’t exactly save the world, but they do try to save their little part of the world, which is under threat. While I won’t say whether they succeed or not, they get involved in a little protesting.

6. Animals! Pinky rescues a wild animal early on in the book. Also, there’s a butterfly habitat that Pinky and Samir visit. Both animals play roles in the book.

7. Laugh out Loud. One of the things I love about Sandhya Menon’s books is that they are funny. There were several places where I couldn’t help but to laugh out loud.

8. The Cover. This is such a beautiful cover! I think it personifies Pinky perfectly. It would have been cooler, maybe, if there was a butterfly on the cover, but it matches the rest of the Pinky set, and it’s so happy.

9. Uh Oh. The Big Misunderstanding. Of course, not everything in this book could be as happy as the cover, could it? There are several misunderstandings that are cleared up, including a huge one that almost tears Pinky and Samir apart.

10. The Happily Ever After. You couldn’t call this book a romance without it.

So, was there anything I hated about 10 Things I Hate About Pinky? Absolutely not! I loved this book. It just came out last Tuesday, and I encourage you to go pick it up. If you like fake-dating and enemies to lovers, then you’ll probably like this too.

The Summer of Impossibilities

By Brookelorren on 3 Comments
The Summer of Impossibilities cover

Don’t you just love summer? It’s almost the end of April, school is starting to wind down, and it’s almost time to break out those summer books! I recently read The Summer of Impossibilities by Rachael Allen (thank you Netgalley and ABRAMS Kids for the Advanced Reader Copy!), and think this will make a lovely summer book. It deals with a lot of things that teens struggle with, and cumulates with beautiful friendships.

The Characters

One of the things that stands out to me in this book is the characters. Their situations are all different, but many teens will find someone they resonate with.

Skyler – She loves playing softball, but suffers from juvenile arthritis. She’s afraid to tell her parents that she’s in pain. They have so many expectations for her–plus, they’re having some problems of her own.

Scarlett – Sky’s twin sister, she’s having some problems of her own. She’s not sure how to deal with her boyfriend. She’s also recovering from cutting, and at times feels like she’s broken.

Amelia Grace – She likes girls, but she also wants to be a youth pastor. When she’s accidentally outed, her church doesn’t want to allow her to be a youth pastor anymore. Amelia has to figure out if there’s any way to be the person she wants to be without giving up part of who she is.

Ellie – Ellie has been homeschooled for most of her life and has difficulty making friends.

The Story

These girls’ parents were best friends as teens and started the Southern Belles’ Drinking Club (SBDC) when they were teenagers. When Sky and Scarlett’s parents are having difficulties, they call up their old friends and spend the summer at their lake house together. The girls know about each other, but haven’t seen each other in years. They end up starting their own SBDC (drinking is optional: Ellie is a Muslim) and make a pact to do something impossible over the summer. Each girl’s impossible thing has something to do with their struggles.

Conclusion

The Summer of Impossibilities is such a sweet friendship story, and is perfect for summer reading. Do the girls all achieve the impossible? Well, I’m not going to give away the ending, but I will say the girls like how their summer resolves and grow as people in the process.

The main down side to this book was that the characters tended to have similar voices. Sometimes I’d have to flip back to tell who’s POV the story was coming from, or I’d tell which character was speaking by their unique situation. The story is told from four points of view, which can be incredibly difficult to write, especially when you’re writing characters of the same gender and age (I’ve written a story with 3 POVs before, and it helped that they were either different genders or ages). However, POV issues aside, it was a lovely book I think will make a great summer read.

The Best Laid Plans

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

I hope everybody is doing well staying inside and social distancing. Recently I requested The Best Laid Plans by Cameron Lund from my library, and they kindly bought it. If you’re looking for a sweet end-of-high school story about first loves, this might be the story for you.

It’s Keely’s 18th birthday, and she’s having a horrible time. Her best friend, Andrew, is having a party–and the last of her friends has lost her virginity. Keely feels all alone and inexperienced. Are things going to be worse when she’s in college?

Then, she meets a cute boy that looks like James Dean, and he seems to like her. Only now Keely has an even bigger problem. Her friends are telling her that he’s not going to like her if he finds out that she’s a virgin. So she hatches a plan. Ask her best friend Andrew, who’d never hurt her, to help her gain experience. After all, he always seems to be with a different girl.

The Characters

The characters in The Best Laid Plans seem realistic. Keely, the main character, is insecure about her experience with boys and has ideas of how she needs to behave in order to keep the boy she wants. Her girlfriends think they’re experts on relationships, but like a lot of high school girls, they aren’t. Andrew is a sweet boy and–some of the boys in the school are a little crude. But aren’t they in real life? Dean also seems like a lot of college boys that might find themselves interested in high school seniors without really developing a friendship first.

The Story

Over the course of the story, Keely realizes what she really wants. Her high school friends are involved in a little drama, and we realize at the end of the story what the cause of the drama is all about. I thought the story was great and tied up nicely at the end.

Controversy?

Some readers may or may not find the book controversial, especially if they don’t finish the book. There are things that are revealed at the end of the book that clarify the meaning of the book. For one, everybody seems to be sex-crazed. Seems is probably the best word for it, because we’re seeing this through Keely’s eyes, and this is something she’s anxious about. It’s something her circle of friends seems to care about. Are there people in her school that aren’t? Probably, but since the book is from Keely’s perspective, we don’t see that.

The other controversy in this book is that one of the characters is being slut-shamed. The book doesn’t condone that happening. By the end of the book, we find out who is doing it and why. Not all of the people in this book are nice. Some people in this book are pigs. But isn’t that reality? Especially in high school?

Conclusion

Overall, I thought the book was good. Perhaps not everybody is going to agree with Keely’s choices, and Keely’s view of the world may be skewed, but I think that makes it a realistic first-person POV book. The ending was sweet and slightly surprising–obviously since this book is categorized as a romantic comedy we know there’s going to be a happily-ever-after (or at least, for now), but I really enjoyed the lessons Keely learned and how things ended up turning out. If you’re looking for a sweet, best-friends-to-lovers book to take your mind off the news, I recommend it.

The Lucky Ones

By Brookelorren on 1 Comment
The Lucky Ones

I recently read The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson (thank you Netgalley and Delacorte Press for offering me an Advanced Reader Copy). This book came out April 7th so you can read it now!

This book deals with two characters that were affected by a school shooting. May lost her twin brother Jordan during the shooting. She hid in the closet while the shooter killed everyone in her band class. Zach’s mother is the lawyer who decided to defend the killer–most of his friends decided to abandon him after that. When they meet at a band audition, you would think that this might be a match made in hell. Or… maybe not?

The Characters

I have to admit, I didn’t like May at first. She wasn’t very nice, even to her friends. Even before the shooting, we probably wouldn’t have been good friends had we gone to the same high school. After May went through this trauma, she became selfish and mean. However, she sees tremendous growth in this story and by the end, I’m rooting for her.

Zach seems likeable enough. Again, we probably wouldn’t have hung around with each other had we gone to high school together, but he makes a good match for May. But first, they both have some issues to work through.

The supporting characters make the world vibrant and lifelike. Both May and Zach have slightly dysfunctional families. May’s parents were so wrapped up in her brother’s life before he was shot, that they really don’t pay much attention to their daughter, even after their son died. Zach’s mother is always off at work, and his dad has been struggling with depression and isn’t present, even though he lives with them. Their friends seem like the kind of people that would make good friends with Zach and May.

The Story

The Lucky Ones has a great story to it. Both Zach and May have to deal with a lot of things, including how to deal with each other. They both have to deal with guilt resulting from things they couldn’t control. Eventually, with some help from their friends, they learn to begin living again. Even their parents take their heads out of the sand.

Although it took me a while to get into the story, I was definitely invested in the characters and the outcome by the end of the book.

Conclusion

The Lucky Ones is a fairly serious book that deals with a fairly serious issue. Although we don’t have to worry about school shootings while we’re all isolating ourselves in our homes due to coronavirus, it’s likely to be a problem that comes back once schools reopen. The people that have been affected by school shootings, or will be affected, can have their entire lives altered. It’s a book that deals with depression and guilt, and as a result, can be something that a lot of teens can relate to.

I did enjoy the book, and recommend it if your heart can tackle more weighty issues right now. If you’re already in a dark mood due to the coronavirus and are looking for a lighter book that deals with school shootings, I recommend That Night by Amy Giles (link is to my review). If your heart can’t take it right now, I do recommend coming to this book at some point, as it was good.

Once a King

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Once a King cover

One of the things I’ve been doing since this coronavirus threat started strangling the world is taking more walks. This means… more audiobooks! I just finished listening to Once a King, part of the Clash of Kingdoms series by Erin Summerill. While I enjoyed the book itself, I didn’t care for the audio narration.

The Story

Once a King is narrated by Aodren, king of Malam, and Lirra Barret, daughter of the Arch-Traitor of Malam, and a wind channeler. Many people in the kingdom are gathered at a summit of nations. King Aodren is concerned because his father murdered channelers; he’s trying to right the wrongs of the past, but a lot of people don’t want to put the past behind.

Lirra’s father sends her a letter and asks her to deliver it to the “Bloody King of Malam,” as she calls him. They don’t have any respect for each other at first, but as they work together to solve a problem that is threatening the citizens of Malam–and Lirra’s da–they begin to like each other.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed the story, but I don’t think I was as enthralled by Once a King as I was with Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave. I think the character’s relationship in the first two books of this series was more engaging. However, part of this could be due to the fact that I listened to this via audiobook, which I’ll get to later.

I enjoyed the setting in this book, and the villain did surprise me. There were tense moments and how they got out of these situations surprised me as well.

The Audiobook

I really did not like the audiobook narration. Almost everybody’s accents were unnatural and got on my nerves. King Aodren narrated half the book and I especially didn’t like his voice. He spoke with drawn out words that made him seem like he was bored. The side characters often had nasally, drawling, or otherwise unnatural voices that were often more annoying than not.

Overall

If you enjoyed Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave, you’ll probably like Once a King. This book can be enjoyed without reading the other two books; however, they do give the background information on the magic system that would make getting into this book easier. Britta and Cohen get the briefest of mentions in this book (they’re away on their honeymoon), so don’t bother looking for more on that couple. If you liked the world and the magic system and want a little more of the world, I recommend this book. I don’t recommend the audiobook though.

Night of the Dragon

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Night of the Dragon cover

Hello! I recently read Julie Kagawa’s Night of the Dragon. I really liked it (and look at that drool-worthy cover!). It is the third book in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy. If you haven’t read any of the other books, you might want to binge this series while you’re social distancing. Because this is the third book in the series, there may be spoilers for this review. You can read my reviews for Shadow of the Fox and Soul of the Sword, the two previous books, at the links above. A big thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with Advanced Reader Copies!

Yumeko, Tatsumi/Hakaimono, and their companions must finish their quest to disrupt the Night of the Wish. Of course, as with any great adventure, their final leg of the journey is not without its perils. The final battle won’t be easy either. It left me in tears. But my tears of sadness turned into sweet tears of happiness at the end, so you’ll be okay reading this book.

Night of the Dragon has a massive plot twist. I won’t tell you what it is, but the book will answer questions you didn’t even know you had. There are villains in this book you weren’t even aware of. But I absolutely loved it.

The Setting

I loved Night of the Dragon. One of the things I enjoyed about the Shadow of the Fox trilogy is the medieval Japanese setting. In a really odd coincidence, I just happen to be reading an old book from 1970, Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times by John Whitney Hall, right now. You don’t have to be reading a history book on medieval Japan to enjoy the setting (I loved the first two books last year) but it is making it more interesting for me. There are some terms that you might find unfamiliar, but there’s a glossary at the end and you can always google any unknown words. Even though there are things you might be unfamiliar with, to me, it makes the setting stand out even more.

The Characters

I love these characters! They all have come a long way since Shadow of the Fox, where Yumeko was a naïve half-kitsune and the rest of them all had something to learn. They are still the people they started this journey out as, only better. In this final segment of the story, they step up and fulfill their destinies. I can’t say much else because I don’t want to spoil the plot, but I did love how it all turned out. Even though it made me cry.

Conclusion

Night of the Dragon is definitely worth reading. A lot in this book’s plot depends on the other two books in the series, so you’ll definitely want to read those first. If you have read those (or if you haven’t, just binge all three books) then I definitely recommend this book. It will probably put you in tears (fair warning) but it was well worth reading.