Holly Black knows how to write an interesting urban fantasy with a magic system intertwined with a healthy dose of crime. You’ll find this same dark and gritty fun in The Charlatan duology, and having loved that, I decided it was time to read White Cat, one of Black’s earlier works that had a similar…
Tesia Tsai’s young adult fantasy novel, Deathly Fates, tells a story you’ve likely encountered before: a serious young woman is inconveniently thrust into an adventure with a frivolous male counterpart that makes her situation more difficult. It’s a comfortable read with its formulaic and predictable plot. It won’t make you work very hard, but it…
The Belladonna series by Adalyn Grace is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA stories. In the second book, Foxglove, Grace crafts a compelling romance and keeps the stakes rising with a new mystery that makes this story even stronger than the first. Foxglove picks back up on a scene in progress: a duke has…
Fate Breaker by Victoria Aveyard is the third and final installment of the Realm Breaker series. After finishing her sophomore series, I can’t help but think over and over again that this is the type of YA I want to read. The plot, characters, and the thread that ties them all together have been lovingly…
I did not want to finish this book, but I did. I set a goal this year to DNF anything I wasn’t enjoying at the 50% mark, but the hype for Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven was too big, and my bewilderment too incomprehensible, that I had to see it through. Evelyn has lived…
The Prison Healer ended on such an incredible twist that nothing could stop me from continuing the series. I HAD to know how Kiva’s story progressed, and I prepared myself for another story that would surprise me at every turn. Instead, The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni grew too big, too fast, and left the…
I did a double-take when I saw the cover for The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland during a recent book date with my friend. The premise sounded interesting, but I was a little nervous about the YA energy it was bringing, so I put it back down and we carried on our way. The book must…
When I initially read the summary of Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, I was not interested. Maybe I was off the heels of a bad book when I first encountered it, but when I rediscovered the book a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised to find…
It’s time to get locked up with The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni. If your recent YA lineup has been rinsing and repeating the same story, I highly recommend you read this refreshing tale and follow a young girl’s ability to use compassion to combat the harshest of environments. The Zalindov death prison is home…
I’ve been feeling alien vibes lately, thanks to some of my favorite podcasts discussing the subject. Because of this, I finally picked up The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey after it sat on my TBR for years. It’s a popular young-adult science fiction novel that came out in 2013, and you may be familiar with…
