Category Archives: By Age Range

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)
Laini Taylor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published September 27, 2011

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About Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Review

I first read DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE years ago, but I somehow skipped over ever posting a review. I remember that even when I first read it, I found the story super addicting and loved the cast of characters. Reading through it again has been like picking up an old friend– a very addicting friend! I still flew through the story on my second read.

One of the things that struck me and stayed with me after reading is what Karou shares about having regrets about having sex with her boyfriend, who turns out to be a a pretty big disappointment. It felt super real and very easy to relate to.

I also realized that I somehow always picture Akiva completely wrong. I’m not sure how I did that since the story described him, particularly his golden eyes, lots of times. But this time through I’ve tried to picture him more closely to what the author describes.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE contains some violent scenes and threads. There’s this underlying sense that the world– both worlds, really– are a violent place. I had forgotten about that element to the book.

If you liked SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo or The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta, you want to add this series to your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Most human characters are Czech.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex.

Spiritual Content
The monsters Karou sketches are chimaera from another world which also includes angels– which look like humans with fiery wings. Each of those groups has myths about their creation and worships gods and goddesses.

Karou receives wishes in payment for running errands. They can only be used for small things, like wishing an itch on someone or something like that. Larger wishes are available.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of battle or fighting and situations of peril. References to war. References to some grisly murders. Karou runs errands which include meeting with some unsavory characters.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand

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The How and the Why
Cynthia Hand
HarperTeen
Published November 5, 2019

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About The How and the Why

A poignant exploration of family and the ties that bind, perfect for fans of Far From the Tree, from New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Hand.

Today Melly had us writing letters to our babies…

Cassandra McMurtrey has the best parents a girl could ask for. They’ve given Cass a life she wouldn’t trade for the world. She has everything she needs—except maybe the one thing she wants. Like, to know who she is. Where she came from. Questions her adoptive parents can’t answer, no matter how much they love her.

But eighteen years ago, someone wrote Cass a series of letters. And they may just hold the answers Cass has been searching for.

Alternating between Cass’s search for answers and letters from the pregnant teen who gave her up for adoption, this voice-driven narrative is the perfect read for fans of Nina LaCour and Jandy Nelson.

My Review

I had so much fun reading THE HOW AND THE WHY. First off, there’s so much humor– both situational (like when Cass blurts out that she wants to get a boyfriend and have sex only to realize her whole family has overheard her) and that witty banter between characters that I absolutely could eat with a spoon.

But it’s not just a funny, silly story. Not only is Cass wrestling with wanting to know her biological mom, but she’s also facing potentially losing her adopted mom to a heart problem.

Even thinking back through some of the scenes has me tearing up. So many moments are just packed with emotions that leap off the page and grab you by the tear ducts. I think I full-on ugly cried at one point.

When I realized that the story was going to alternate between Cass’s life and the letters she ends up receiving from her biological mom, I wasn’t sure how that was going to work. I feel like it’s really hard to do that kind of a back-and-forth story and do both parts well, create two individual voices, keep tension and interest in both stories, etc.

But oh my gosh did Cynthia Hand do that well! I felt like the balance and the character/plot development were perfect. I had questions, I felt tension at all the right moments. I invested in both stories.

I feel like the obvious comparisons are to books like PAST PERFECT LIFE and WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE because they wrestle with estranged family. But I think any readers who enjoy strong contemporary stories, especially ones about drama kids, will love THE HOW AND THE WHY. I think also fans of HOW TO BE BRAVE by E. Katherine Kottaras will want this one on their reading lists.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Cass’s best friend is Mormon and black. One of her friends comes out to her as gay. Both Cass and her best friend are adopted.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Cass tells her friend she wants to have sex.

Spiritual Content
Some reference to Cass’s best friend’s Mormon beliefs, including that she doesn’t swear or drink caffeine.

Violent Content
Some reference to physical abuse (happens off-scene).

Drug Content
Some details about a high school teen drinking alcohol with a college boy.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE HOW AND THE WHY in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Dragon Warrior
Katie Zhao
Bloomsbury USA Kids
Published October 15, 2019

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About The Dragon Warrior

As a member of the Jade Society, twelve-year-old Faryn Liu dreams of honoring her family and the gods by becoming a warrior. But the Society has shunned Faryn and her brother Alex ever since their father disappeared years ago, forcing them to train in secret.

Then, during an errand into San Francisco, Faryn stumbles into a battle with a demon–and helps defeat it. She just might be the fabled Heaven Breaker, a powerful warrior meant to work for the all-mighty deity, the Jade Emperor, by commanding an army of dragons to defeat the demons. That is, if she can prove her worth and find the island of the immortals before the Lunar New Year.

With Alex and other unlikely allies at her side, Faryn sets off on a daring quest across Chinatowns. But becoming the Heaven Breaker will require more sacrifices than she first realized . . . What will Faryn be willing to give up to claim her destiny?

Inspired by Chinese mythology, this richly woven contemporary middle-grade fantasy, full of humor, magic, and heart, will appeal to readers who love Roshani Chokshi and Sayantani DasGupta.

My Review

This book was such a fun adventure. It reminded me a lot of the books by Rick Riordan, only instead of meeting Greek or Egyptian gods and goddesses, the characters in THE DRAGON WARRIOR meet Chinese gods and goddesses.

I found myself wishing the book had a glossary list of each god and goddess with a couple sentences about them (note: I read a pre-release version, so it may be that the finished copy has this). For the most part I was able to follow them in the story and keep them all straight, but I’m not as familiar with the mythology as I am with Greek mythology.

On the whole, I think readers who enjoy books like A WRINKLE IN TIME or THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL will enjoy this fast-paced adventure.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Main Characters are Chinese American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Faryn is part of a group of warriors who train to defeat demons, which appear on earth to cause mischief. She begins to encounter not only demons and dragons but other gods and goddesses who seek to either help or thwart her mission.

Violent Content
Battle scenes and situations of peril. No gore.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE DRAGON WARRIOR in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Speak Your Mind by Allyson Kennedy

Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Speak Your Mind
Allyson Kennedy
Published November 24, 2018

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About Speak Your Mind

No friends. No confidence. All mind.

Victoria Harding—the scared-silent girl of Grahamwood Junior High—survives the seventh grade from the confines of her mind. After her best friend moved away due to a secret Victoria can’t reveal, she’d rather sit alone at lunch and live in her imagination than befriend the classmates who joke that she’s plotting violence against the school. Between being called names and having a teacher who’s out to get her, Victoria’s confidence is at an all-time low, until she’s volunteered to escort her new neighbor around school. With the new kid showing up everywhere, will she finally find the courage to be heard again through their forged friendship? Will she forever be locked within the restrictive cage her doubts have created, or will she realize that relying on God is the only way to defeat her anxiety once and for all?

My Review

I’m kind of a sucker for the sweet, quiet girls who like rules– probably because I can really identify with that kind of person. Sometimes rules just make us feel safe.

Victoria is a layered character with a lot to offer. She’s got hurts and passions and so much inside her all bottled up. I liked that the events in the story gave her opportunities to push past her comfort zone and speak up, and that doing so created some really positive changes in her life.

But it sure wasn’t easy. And we sure didn’t have the whole story at the beginning! I think the way information is revealed– the pacing of it– was great in SPEAK YOUR MIND. It felt like all the pieces came together so that Victoria’s feelings and struggles made even more sense when everything came to light.

I have mixed feelings about the way that school administrators responded to the situation, though. It just seemed a little strange and maybe too gossipy? I also wondered why her parents didn’t ask for her to have a schedule change to address the conflict Victoria was having.

On the whole, though, I felt like SPEAK YOUR MIND was a fun read with sweet characters and positive lessons about confidence and speaking up.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
I think the major characters are white and Christian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Scenes show Victoria at church and youth group. Some references to prayer. She faces criticism for her faith from an adult in authority over her.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of SPEAK YOUR MIND in exchange for my honest review.

Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

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

An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes #1)
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill Press
Published April 28, 2015

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About An Ember in the Ashes

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

My Review

I feel like the last person in the world to finally read AN EMBER IN THE ASHES. I’ve had a copy for years, and still, it took me forever. Not for any reason to do with the book. I heard Sabaa Tahir speak in 2016 at YALLFEST, and have been a fan of hers since then. For some reason, it has just taken me FOREVER to read her books. Can I just pretend I’ve been waiting until the fourth book is published before starting the series so I can binge read them? (Actually, no, I can’t, because the fourth one doesn’t come out until next year.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the setting of AN EMBER IN THE ASHES. I like the desert setting and the complex political landscape. It’s not as simple as the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. I liked that a lot.

And the character development. Laia grows SO much from the first page of the book to the last, and I love that. I found it so easy to identify with her timidity and her commitment to rule-following and staying safe at the beginning of the story, but I cheered for her every step of her journey, too, as she got bolder and more fierce.

I love that the story feels like it has so many layers, too. Laia and Elias each have goals and plans. The resistance has a plan. The emperor has a plan. And the Augers (like fates) have a plan, too. It definitely makes the story feel larger-than-life and like there are so many places it can go.

I think readers who enjoyed the DIVERGENT series by Veronica Roth or THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Mass will like AN EMBER IN THE ASHES.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Laia has bronze skin and dark hair and is from an oppressed and often enslaved people called Scholars.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Some references to sex.

Spiritual Content
One character uses magic to heal another. Augers relay prophesies about certain characters.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
Soldiers execute family members of a suspected traitor and threaten to rape another. Laia becomes a slave to a cruel master who mutilates her slaves. Some graphic descriptions of those instances. A man tries to rape a woman after beating her.

Elias belongs to an elite unit of soldiers which uses extreme methods of discipline as part of training, including making soldiers watch/jeer at a younger trainee being whipped to death for trying to run away. He participates in some violent challenges which pit him against his peers.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg

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The Music of What Happens
Bill Konigsberg
Arthur A. Levine Books
Published February 26, 2019

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About The Music of What Happens

Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn’t want to think about, ever.

Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His “wives” and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won’t like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he’s the only one who can keep the family from falling apart.

Throw in a rickety, 1980s-era food truck called Coq Au Vinny. Add in prickly pears, cloud eggs, and a murky idea of what’s considered locally sourced and organic. Place it all in Mesa, Arizona, in June, where the temp regularly hits 114. And top it off with a touch of undeniable chemistry between utter opposites.

Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they’re willing to risk — to get the thing they want the most.

My Review

I think I’m totally a sucker for a book with great voices in it. You know those books where you can tell whose point-of-view you’re reading because each character talks and thinks in a way that’s uniquely them? THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS totally has that, and I love it. I bought in to Max and Jordan’s stories and their very different lives with single moms and with their very different friend circles. Honestly, I couldn’t get enough.

I loved that THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS made use of stereotypes to help us understand some minor characters but also used the character cast to challenge stereotypes and assumptions. A few times I found myself re-examining a conversation or situation and thinking of things from a new perspective because of a point Max or Jordan made, and I love that, too. Love that the story makes me think in unexpected ways.

One thing I didn’t like so much was the amount of profanity. I get that people really talk that way, and maybe using the words makes it feel more authentic, but sometimes it felt like overkill to me. Like, we get who these guys are, we don’t need quite so many reminders everywhere. But that’s a personal preference for me.

On the whole, I really enjoyed THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS. I think I have at least one other book by Konigsberg, so I’m eager to check that one out soon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16up.

Representation
Both main characters are gay. Max’s mom is Mexican. A couple side characters are also Latinx.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently. Some crude language used as well.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning
A couple references to arousal. Some hints or statements that characters have had sex, but no descriptions of the event itself. Some descriptions of kissing and cuddling.

One character shares memories of being raped. The sexual part isn’t described in detail, but the way the character feels comes across very strongly. Sensitive readers or readers recovering from trauma may find those scenes difficult to read.

Spiritual Content
Jordan briefly talks about his mom going through a phase in which she was very interested in Christianity.

Violent Content
One boy punches another in the face and misaligns his jaw.

Drug Content
Max drinks a few beers to loosen up at a party. Another boy offers him pot, but Max declines, though he’s in the room when the other boy smokes it.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS in exchange for my honest review.