Review: Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,
Lady's Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Lady’s Knight
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Storytide
Published June 3, 2025

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About Lady’s Knight

An undeniably fierce, unforgettably funny, unapologetically queer feminist romp through the England of medieval legend. Bestselling and acclaimed authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner bring readers along on an epic quest for valor, freedom, and, above all, love. A Knight’s Tale meets the Lady Jane series, with a dash of The Great!

Gwen is sick of hiding—hiding the fact that she’s taken over her father’s blacksmithing duties, hiding her attraction to girls, hiding her yearning for glory as a knight.

Meanwhile, Lady Isobelle of Avington, queen bee of the castle, has never once considered hiding who she is—until now. She’s been chosen as the grand prize in the Tournament of Dragonslayers, to be given to whichever knight can claim her hand. And for the first time in her life, she can’t talk her way out of trouble.

When Isobelle discovers Gwen’s knightly ambitions, they hatch a scheme together—Gwen will joust in the tournament, disguised as Sir Gawain. Winning means freedom for Isobelle, and glory for Gwen. Losing means… well, let’s not go there.

One thing’s for sure: falling in love was never the plan.

But the best laid plans…are often trampled all over by dragons.

My Review

It’s been a minute since I’ve read anything by this duo, but I remember that I enjoyed the last book by Kaufman and Spooner that I read. This novel is a lot of fun, as one familiar with the authors would expect. The characters have serious moments, but they’re often punctuated by asides that highlight the irony of a situation or point out a paradox in the culture of the time.

The characters speak to one another in fairly modern language, which might be challenging for die-hard historical fiction fans, but will make the story more accessible for readers who generally read contemporary fiction.

The romance between Gwen and Isobelle is so sweet. They have very different personalities, and that made watching them fall in love such a joy. Isobelle is the kind of character that might be easy to write off as too silly or shallow at first, but as you get to know her, you see how she uses humor or frivolity to mask her true self. It’s not safe for her to be any other way.

The pragmatic and serious Gwen challenges Isobelle to speak up more, and in return, Isobelle challenges Gwen to believe in herself and take risks. They make a fabulous couple. I loved some of the side characters, especially Olivia, Isobelle’s maid (with a much more exciting history) and Madame DuPont, the swordswoman who helps Gwen prepare for the tournament.

The author acknowledgements say this is the first book in a series, and I say, bring it! I’m absolutely here for more adventures in this story world.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are hedge witches, who use healing herbs to help sick or wounded people and uplift women and marginalized people.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some scenes show knights competing at jousting, which can be deadly. Some participants injure their opponents.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol and play a drinking game (a medieval version of Never Have I Ever).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino

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You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!
Alex Gino
Scholastic Press
Published September 25, 2018

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About You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!

Alex Gino, the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Melissa, is back with another sensitive tale based on increasingly relevant social justice issues.

Jilly thinks she’s figured out how life works. But when her sister, Emma, is born deaf, she realizes how much she still has to learn. The world is going to treat Jilly, who is white and hearing, differently from Emma, just as it will treat them both differently from their Black cousins.

A big fantasy reader, Jilly makes a connection online with another fantasy fan, Derek, who is a Deaf, Black ASL user. She goes to Derek for help with Emma but doesn’t always know the best way or time to ask for it.

As she and Derek meet in person, have some really fun conversations, and become friends, Jilly makes some mistakes . . . but comes to understand that it’s up to her, not Derek to figure out how to do better next time–especially when she wants to be there for Derek the most.

Within a world where kids like Derek and Emma aren’t assured the same freedom or safety as kids like Jilly, Jilly is starting to learn all the things she doesn’t know–and by doing that, she’s also working to discover how to support her family and her friends.

With You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!, award-winning author Alex Gino uses their trademark humor, heart, and humanity to show readers how being open to difference can make you a better person, and how being open to change can make you change in the best possible ways.

My Review

I’m so grateful that middle grade fiction includes work by Alex Gino. They are an incredibly talented writer, but more than simply having a gift with words, they have a wonderful way of bringing important conversations into the middle grade sphere and creating opportunities for MG readers to talk about these important things. I love how they never talk down to their readers, and I appreciated the author’s note at the end of this book acknowledging some components of the story and revealing some of the research done along the journey to bring it to the page.

You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! is the second book by Gino I’ve read. I started with Melissa, and I knew before I’d finished that I would want to read more by this author.

In this novel, Jilly hears troubling news stories about Black teens and children being shot by police. In one instance, a Deaf Black girl is shot after she does not respond to police commands she cannot hear.

At the same time that the news stories unfold around her, Jilly experiences uncomfortable family gatherings. Relatives say sometimes well-meaning but racist things to her aunt, a Black woman. When a rift in the family occurs, Jilly wants to understand why. She wants to know what she can do to support her aunt and cousins.

Additionally, Jilly’s parents have a new baby who was born with hearing loss. As the family navigates medical questions and decisions, Jilly discovers she doesn’t understand a lot about Deaf culture.

It might seem like the book has a lot of threads running through it, and it does. Gino ties all these ideas together nicely through Jilly’s experience trying to learn the right things to say and sometimes making big mistakes.

Ultimately, Jilly learns that avoiding mistakes isn’t the solution. Learning to try, make changes, and brave uncomfortable conversations help her form closer bonds with people from different communities. I love this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Jilly has a crush on a boy.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Reference to police brutality and the deaths of two Black children at the hands of police. (Nothing happens on scene.)

Some racist or ableist comments. (No slurs used. These are more like microaggressions and ignorance, but still harmful and hurtful.)

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray

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Heir of Storms (Storm Weaver #1)
Lauryn Hamilton Murray
Roaring Brook Press
Published June 3, 2025

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About Heir of Storms

Red Queen meets Shadow and Bone in this explosive start to a YA romantasy trilogy about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and a cut-throat competition for the throne in an empire where crowns are not inherited — they’re won.

The very day Blaze came into the world, she almost drowned it. A Rain Singer born into one of the most powerful fire-wielding families in the empire, Blaze’s birth summoned a devastating storm that left thousands dead. She’s been hidden away ever since with a dark secret: the same torrential power that branded her an outcast disappeared that fateful day. And she’s not sure she wants it back.

When an unexpected invitation arrives for Blaze and her twin brother, Flint, to compete as future rulers of the empire, she’s suddenly thrust into the limelight again — and into battle. Threats abound at the Golden Palace, where intrigue and romance await with not one but two handsome suitors: the enchanting Crown Prince and a dangerously alluring newcomer at court.

As Blaze explores her untapped power, she discovers the throne may be within her grasp. But in order to take it, she’ll have to leave behind the stories that others have told about her, and find the courage to write her own.

My Review

Wow. Okay. I am having a hard time organizing my thoughts about this one. It was super easy to read. I just had surgery, so I was struggling to get back into reading, having a hard time focusing, stuff like that. And when I picked up this book, the story immediately drew me in.

Blaze has a lot of guilt. She’s a twin child in a family with powerful fire magic, but she somehow has water magic. And not just water magic, but water magic that killed a ton of people on the day she was born.

I thought it was interesting that the book created this moment to focus on what might happen when babies are born with magic power. She had no understanding of what she was doing to anyone else. She was literally a baby. And yet, people died. It’s one of those things that maybe other magic-based fantasies skim past or overlook. It was interesting for this book to highlight that and make it a critical moment in Blaze’s life.

I loved the magic competition. Basically, the gods of the story world determine when it’s time to pass the crown to the next generation. When this happens, there’s an eclipse. Competitors with different types of magic fight for the top positions serving the emperor as kings or queens. They remain rulers of their own magic users and serve as advisors to the emperor. So that process begins and Blaze, of course, must compete.

The competition brings up some interesting magic rules and political intrigue. Blaze herself feels caught between the attention of two powerful guys. I wasn’t the biggest fan of either one of them, but I’m intrigued to see where the story goes. The conclusion of the book kind of makes it clear who the true love interest is, and I think I’m willing to see if he’s actually worthy of her.

Conclusion

Overall, I definitely see the comparisons to Red Queen and Shadow and Bone. There’s a lot of politics and magic, as well as at least one possible love interest who might turn out to be the villain? I will absolutely follow this series into the second book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are born with the ability to do certain kinds of magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Bullying. Battle scenes. One character is enslaved.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol at social functions. One character gets very drunk on a painful anniversary.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa

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These Vengeful Gods
Gabe Cole Novoa
Random House Children’s
Published May 27, 2025

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About These Vengeful Gods

ALL GODS MUST DIE in this searingly relevant YA from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Bargain and Most Ardently. In a world bound by violence, a teen descended from the god of Death must keep their true identity a secret as they fight their way through a gladiator-style competition towards victory and rebellion against the gods who murdered their family.

Years ago, the descendants of the god of Death were murdered. The few that remain are in hiding, including Crow, a teen who survived the genocide and hides their magic to stay alive. After fleeing their village, Crow now lives with their uncles in the lowest part of the the Shallows.

Life in the Shallows is tough, but Crow’s even tougher. Hiding their magic has made Crow resourceful, cunning, and unbeatable — which comes in handy as a fighter in the city’s lucrative underground fighting ring.

Then, Crow’s uncles are arrested for harboring Deathchildren.  

With fists tightly clenched, Crow vows to set their uncles free. But to do that, they’re going to need to enter a world that threatens Crow’s very existence. Carefully navigating the politics of the wealthy and powerful, they enter the Tournament of the Gods — a gladiator-style competition where the winner is granted a favor. As they battle their way towards the winner’s circle, Crow plans to ask the gods for their uncles’ freedom as their reward.

But in a city of gods and magic, you don’t ask for what you want.

You take it.

My Review

I absolutely devoured this book. When I first opened it, I wanted to read the opening line, and I think I literally didn’t look up from the pages until twelve chapters later. So, yeah, this one is pretty immediately engrossing.

The story world is rich. A class system divides the people in Crow’s world, with levels ranging from literal gods to the poor barely scraping by in the Shallows. Crow’s one chance to escape the Shallows and rescue his family from prison comes in the form of a game in which competitors battle, often to the death. This part has a little bit of a Hunger Games vibe. Crow and the other fighters are signed up to compete in this tournament, and there’s all this pageantry surrounding them. And yet, essentially, their potential deaths are part of the entertainment.

Crow becomes part of a team who help each other within the competition. I enjoyed the way those relationships developed and the balance it brought to the story. Crow is the kind of character that gets pretty lost in his own head, so it worked well for there to be allies that drew him out.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, tournament-focused fantasy novel, I highly recommend this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. In one scene, a couple fall into bed kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are literal gods with certain kinds of magic. Runemagic also allows people to cast spells.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to genocide. Battle scenes. Also, spiders appear in multiple scenes.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Time After Time by Mikki Daughtry

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Time After Time
Mikki Daughtry
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

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About Time After Time

From the screenwriter and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel and film Five Feet Apart comes an epic YA sapphic romance, unfolding over two sets of lives, one hundred years apart.

Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself—even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn’t take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia. A love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth’s journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?

My Review

Sometimes when I read a book, the premise strikes me as something so clever or unusual that I wonder if that’s what brought the book to publication. This is one of those books.

The narrative has a lot of moving parts. We have chapters set in 1925, from the perspective of a young woman whose family lived in the Victorian house. We also follow two points of view from the present day. First, there’s Libby, a girl who just bought the house, and Tish, a girl she meets in her college classes and who offers to help her fix up the house.

As we get to know each narrator, we notice some striking similarities between Elizabeth from 1925 and Libby from 2025. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that those similarities are more than simple coincidences.

One of the story’s strengths is in its minor characters. I enjoyed the banter between Tish and Joe, the junkyard owner who helps her fix up her scooter, and Tish and her best friend Bari. Libby’s relationship with her mom was also fascinating.

I think readers interested in LGBTQIA+ stories in a historical setting will like getting to see the 1925 timeline in this novel. If your taste for romance leans a little more in the Hallmark movie vein, I can see this being a great pick. It feels a little more like a book to curl up with under a warm blanket, so maybe save it for a stormy summer afternoon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Two characters wake up in bed together.

Spiritual Content
Some references to reincarnation.

Violent Content
Brief prejudiced statements against an Irish woman. A man becomes violent in a confrontation. Someone sustains injuries in an accident.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking wine together.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Summer Girls
Jennifer Dugan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Summer Girls

From the author of Some Girls Do comes a YA sapphic romance about two girls from different sides of the tracks.

Cass has a rule about dating summer girls—just say no. Every year the idyllic beach town Cass’s working-class family calls home is flooded with summer girls, the obnoxious daughters of the rich, who stay in their families’ summer homes, sail their yachts, and generally make things unbearable for townies like Cass.

Birdie is the ultimate summer girl. She’s the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer dad and a social media influencer mom, and this summer Birdie happens to be in big trouble for accidentally crashing her boyfriend’s very expensive car.

As punishment, Birdie must spend the summer with her father at the beach—but it won’t be a vacation. He’s enlisted the help of Cass, whose dad works for him, to keep Birdie on the straight and narrow, including getting her a job as a beach parking lot attendant.

As the summer heats up, Cass realizes some rules are made to be broken, and Birdie just might be different from other summer girls. Soon they can’t help falling for one another . . . But will the love the two girls have discovered be strong enough to overcome their differences?

My Review

Summer Girls is the first book by Jennifer Dugan that I’ve read. I’d heard great things about her other books, especially Hot Dog Girl or Melt with You. So, she’s been on my list of authors to check out for a while. Now that I’ve read one of her books, I only want to read more.

I’ve read more than one book lately that shines light on the harmful effects of gentrification on neighborhoods and communities. Summer Girls shows the classism at the root and offers a version of a “Prince and Pauper” kind of romance.

I like that in Dugan’s world, people are more than one thing. The characters continually wrestle with the moral weight of their choices, and struggle to evaluate the decisions others make on a moral scale. For example, Birdie’s dad makes a lot of money buying up foreclosure properties and flipping them as vacation rentals, something which exacerbates the housing crisis for local residents. Yet, he appears to be a big supporter of Cass’s dad’s community organization which helps homeowners retain their property. So, is he a good guy or bad guy? Is he taking advantage of a system and pretending friendship with Cass’s dad to keep his enemies close, or is his support genuine? I liked that the story explored this question.

The romance between Cass and Birdie is also very sweet. It’s got an estranged friends to lovers vibe that was a lot of fun. Birdie is also bisexual and wrestles with some biphobia. I like that Dugan brought this to the page, too.

All in all, I think this is a lovely summer romance, especially perfect for a beach or vacation read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Someone posts a photo of a boy cheating on his girlfriend with another girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One scene includes a car accident with minor injuries.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.