This month I’m participating in the AVA Readathon Challenge with Bookshelves and Paperbacks. I listed the ARCs (advance release copies) of books I’m planning to read this month in an earlier post, and last week, I posted an update on what I’d read so far. This week I read a few more from the list, so I’m posting another quick update.
Here’s an updated list from the one I posted at the beginning of the challenge:
Note: I originally included Between the Lies by Cathy MacPhail by mistake, since it doesn’t come out until September 2017. I’ve replaced it with Shadow and Thorn by Kenley Davidson which came out in March and I haven’t managed to read yet. Also, you can see I’ve greyed out the covers of the books I read and talked about at my last update. Here are my reviews for Defy the Starsand Letters to the Lost.
What I Read This Week
Unblemished by Sara Ella I wasn’t at all sure what to expect from this story. Thomas Nelson books have been hit or miss with me lately. The voice in this novel totally rocks. It’s different– much more immediate-felling than typical first-person narrative, but it gives El’s character a real punch and made the story a lot of fun to read.
The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia
I had put this one off because I worried it’d play too much to the typical good-girl-meets-bad-boy romance. Right from the beginning, though, I found Frankie to be deep and fascinating and love the stuff about street racing and the play between the two communities of the Heights and the Downs. All in all, I’m super glad I finally got this one read!
Up Next:The Falconer by Elizabeth May, which I’m super excited about, since Krysti at YA and Wine said she really liked it!
What about you?
Have you read a book lately from someone’s recommendation? How was it? Have you recommended a book to a friend recently? How did that work out?
From Goodreads
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
My Review
After reading her novel-in-verse Locomotion, I knew I had to read Brown Girl Dreaming. I loved the descriptions of character and emotions in each poem. It’s easy to feel the family connections and the love of places, especially her grandmother’s home in South Carolina.
It’s funny—I think there’s this idea that reading and writing always come easily to people who grow up to be writers. Sometimes that’s really not the case. As a little girl, Jacqueline’s relationship with story far exceeds her ability to read or write, something that I think gives a lot of hope to young readers who struggle. There’s a strong element of courage that runs through the whole story. I loved feeling the connections between family members and the strength each one carried and how those relationships affected Jacqueline in her life and her quest to understand her place in the world.
Brown Girl Dreaming would be a great pick for a child struggling with reading, both because of the way it’s told and the struggle in the story itself. It’s also a great place to begin introducing the Civil Rights movement to younger readers.
Recommended for Ages 8 up.
Cultural Elements
Jacqueline Woodson writes about growing up as a young African American girl in South Carolina and later in Brooklyn in the 1960s.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Jacqueline’s grandmother brings her and her siblings to services to learn about being a Jehova’s Witness. They attend classes and go door to door to spread their faith.
Violent Content She learns about a woman who fell down stairs and died.
Since angels of the apocalypse swarmed the skies, humanity has been on the run. With their supplies running low, Penryn and her small family risk their lives to scavenge for food and find themselves in the middle of an angel battle. When angels carry Penryn’s sister away, she’ll do anything to get her back, even form an alliance with one of the enemy.
Angelfall is dark and twisty. Penryn not only battles outside evil, but also struggles to cope with her mother’s mental illness and the voices she hears which tell her to do things that sometimes put Penryn and her sister in danger. I liked Penryn’s fierceness and her intelligence. Her determination keeps her going even when the odds stack steeply against her. I liked Raffe, the angel with whom she forms an alliance, too. He definitely has that quiet, wounded-warrior thing going on, but as he and Penryn get to know each other, he also consistently acts honorably toward her, and uses his strength to compliment hers.
There were a couple of moments in the story that required a heavy dose of willing-suspension-of-disbelief. Though Raffe’s other injuries heal super-quickly, the place where his wings have been severed remains raw and open. There’s some plot armor happening there, and we sort of accept it as, hey, angels clearly have different bodies than we do. Later, when Penryn and Raffe conceal themselves among humans, Raffe hides his wounds and the fact that he weighs far less than a man his size would with little trouble. I was pretty willing to buy into the necessary setup of the story, so those things didn’t trip me up too much. Another hurdle for Christian readers may be the secularized story of angels. Angelfall does reference verses about angels in the Bible, but in this story, angels are cut off from God, with only one leader claiming to be His mouthpiece.
For readers interested in urban fantasy and fans of Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Bloods series, Angelfall is a sure win. (It’s also quite a bit cleaner in terms of content.) The angels vs. humans element might also appeal to readers of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but the style of Angelfall is much more urban, if that makes sense. Less artsy, more adventure-ish.
Recommended for Ages 13 up.
Cultural Elements
Penryn’s sister Paige is in a wheelchair due to an accident. Penryn and her family are Asian-Americans.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used fairly frequently (maybe once per chapter or so?)
Romance/Sexual Content Raffe and Penryn crash a party of sorts in which girls seem to be serving as escorts or prostitutes. The girls wear provocative dresses. Some kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Raffe and the other angels have a story that begins in the Bible (Raffe references this in a conversation with Penryn), but it diverges. Angels seem to be cut off from God. Raffe himself makes a comment about not having spoken with God in a very long time. One angel seems to serve at God’s mouthpiece, but there’s some doubt about whether or not he’s speaking truth. There’s a sense of hopelessness or abandonment. A demon forms an alliance with some of the angels. A swarm of demon-like creatures sweep through a forest attacking anyone in reach.
Raffe speaks to Penryn about the history of angels who took humans as lovers and the judgment they faced. He made a commitment to prevent his kind from ever experiencing that again, though it seems not all of his angel brethren feel the same.
Violent Content Battles between humans and angels and angels vs. angels. Gangs control the streets and murder people. Penryn’s mother stabs a dead man. Starvation has led some to cannibalism. A scorpion-like monster feeds on energy from humans in a really creepy scene. Later it attacks a girl.
This month I’m participating in the AVA Readathon Challenge with Bookshelves and Paperbacks. I listed the ARCs (advance release copies) of books I’m planning to read this month. Some have been lingering in my to-be-read stack for far too long. Others were a bit of a cheat because they come out this month, so I wanted to read them anyway.
Here’s the list I posted at the beginning of the month:
Note: I don’t know why Between the Lies ended up on this list, since it doesn’t come out until September. Probably I got it mixed up with something else, though now I can’t remember what. So that one is last on my list for now.
What I’ve Read So Far
Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality
This is a basic breakdown of what racial profiling is and the areas in our society in which it’s still having a profound impact on our lives. While it’s a pretty charged and political topic, I felt like the author worked very hard to make this a really informative look with a lot of statistics and historical context. I think it was a great read for me, though I want to go back and look at a few passages again because sometimes the statistics were a bit overwhelming to me.
Letters to the Lost
I met Brigid Kemmerer at ApollyCon in March and recognized the cover of her book. I thought I’d requested the ARC already via NetGalley, but apparently I did not! So I sent off my pretty-please-can-I-review-this request and sure enough, Bloomsbury sent me a copy. Yay! Gotta say– this is one of the best angsty (but clean, apart from a bit of language) romances I’ve read in a LONG time. I loved it.
Defy the Stars
I’d been meaning to read some Claudia Gray since hearing buzz about A Thousand Pieces of You. The characters were fantastic and the plot took me some interesting directions. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, but overall, the characters and story world still make this one a win for me.
Next on my list?
Up next is Kami Garcia’s The Lovely Reckless. I’m still hoping to work through my list by the end of the month, even though I’m running a little bit behind. I hope to have a bit more time this weekend and next for some catch-up reading.
What are you reading?
How about you? What book have you been meaning to read, but haven’t gotten around to cracking open just yet? What book has you cranking through pages right now? Leave a comment to let me know. I would love to commiserate over impossibly long TBR lists and celebrate finding a great read with you.
About Spindle Fire Half sisters Isabelle and Aurora are polar opposites: Isabelle is the king’s headstrong illegitimate daughter, whose sight was tithed by faeries; Aurora, beautiful and sheltered, was tithed her sense of touch and her voice on the same day. Despite their differences, the sisters have always been extremely close.
And then everything changes, with a single drop of Aurora’s blood–and a sleep so deep it cannot be broken.
As the faerie queen and her army of Vultures prepare to march, Isabelle must race to find a prince who can awaken her sister with the kiss of true love and seal their two kingdoms in an alliance against the queen.
Isabelle crosses land and sea; unearthly, thorny vines rise up the palace walls; and whispers of revolt travel in the ashes on the wind. The kingdom falls to ruin under layers of snow. Meanwhile, Aurora wakes up in a strange and enchanted world, where a mysterious hunter may be the secret to her escape . . . or the reason for her to stay.
Spindle Fire is the first book in a lush fantasy duology set in the dwindling, deliciously corrupt world of the fae and featuring two truly unforgettable heroines.
My Review Strangely, this is the second book I’ve read lately that’s written in third person point-of-view with present-tense action. I liked the storytelling but the verb tense didn’t seem to fit as well as in Defy the Stars.
The characters were a huge win. I can’t think of a single character I didn’t like—even including the villains. I will keep on rooting for Gil because he’s awesome. I loved the scenes from his perspective, and his descriptions of how Isabella interacted with him were so deep and emotive.
As far as plot, I wasn’t sure what to expect before I started reading. I knew it had elements from Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty but was having a hard time seeing exactly how those two stories would stack together well. I thought the mash-up was a success. The villain(s) reminded me of both stories, and Aurora’s journey definitely reminded me of the 2010 film version of Alice in Wonderland in the way she had to find her true self through the adventure in the Borderlands.
This has a bit of a darker edge to it than some other fairytale-inspired stories, but I liked it a lot. I think fans of Forbidden Wish or The School for Good and Evil will find Spindle Fire to be a worthy addition to the genre. I’m so glad I had a chance to read it and can’t wait to read the sequel and find out how the rest of the story ends.
Recommended for Ages 13 up.
Cultural Elements
Both princesses have fair skin. One reference says the Aubin prince has darker skin.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content A few kisses between a boy and girl. In one scene it’s unclear what happens, if anything, beyond kissing.
One of the faeries tithes (collects) sense of touch. She is rumored to have many lovers, both men and women. Another of the fae remembers playing a card game involving stripping with this faerie who happily gave up most of her clothing. It’s kind of a brief in-passing sort of comment.
Spiritual Content A prince and princess take refuge in a convent. They make a disparaging comment about the god the nuns serve. The nuns rebuke them. At one point Isabella wishes to pray and realizes she doesn’t know how. She admires the nuns for their courage and care for young orphaned girls, who are not especially valued in her culture.
The fae (fairies) tithe an ability from someone in exchange for what the person wants. For instance one might take luck from someone in exchange for information.
The princesses learn of a rumor about two sister fae who fought until one killed the other.
In the Borderlands, a magical place, illusions which might look like innocent children lead naïve travelers to their deaths.
Violent Content A few brief battles with soldiers and fae opponents. The crew of a whaling ship attempt to kill a narwhal.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Lexa Hillyer is the co-founder of Paper Lantern Lit, former YA editor, and author of Proof of Forever. Lexa is also an award-winning poet: Her first collection, Acquainted with the Cold, won the Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize as well as the 2012 Book of the Year Award from ForeWord Reviews. Her poetry has been anthologized in Best New Poets 2012, and has appeared in several journals. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their daughter.
People throughout Gehenna are disappearing, even the feared executioner Tyburn. Many of the nobles believe the kidnappings to be the work of the northern trolls, raiding south for the winter, and when Baron Sable and others head off to fight them, Castle Gloom is left guarded by only the squires.
Lily is struggling with her growing necromantic powers. The castle fills with ghosts, drawn like moths to a flame by the brightness of her magic. Zombies roam the country, some left over from those raised in SHADOW MAGIC, others awakened by Lily. Families are troubled by the returning dead, so Lily tries to incorporate them into day-to-day life, much to the resentment of the living.
Then Lily is attacked in her own castle by a mysterious sorcerer known as Dreamweaver, a young man determined to conquer Gehenna using jewel-spiders, strange crystalline creatures whose bite doesn’t kill, but sends victims to sleep. Lily soon discovers that Dreamweaver is harvesting dreams to fuel his magic.
Lily enters the realm of sleep known as the Dream Time, in an attempt to awaken all the captive dreamers. Instead she finds herself trapped within a dream, one where her family is still alive. With the help of Thorn and the ever loyal Hades, she must somehow overcome the evil Dreamweaver by using his own magic against him – and reclaim her kingdom.
My Review
This is one of those books I wanted to review because it sounded so original. I had not read SHADOW MAGIC before reading this one, but I had no trouble following the plot and characters of DREAM MAGIC, the second book in the series. I absolutely loved the writing. It’s dark, for sure—I mean, Lily’s magic interacts with the dead. Zombies, ghosts, and trolls fill the pages of the story. But it’s also cheeky and off-beat and fun! Maybe a little bit of a Nightmare Before Christmas kind of tone, though obviously a completely different story. (It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, so don’t quote me on that.)
Both Thorn and Lily had me from their earliest scenes. I loved his courage and her determination to bring justice and fairness to every one of her people. There’s a gentle romantic pull between them which was really fun, too. Their struggles to figure out what their roles are in the midst of their crazy world felt real and compelling.
Another thing I really enjoyed were the illustrations at different places in the book. I liked getting to see drawings of some of the critical moments, and character depictions brought the story even more to life.
Thorn and Lily’s ages (Thorn is twelve and Lily thirteen) make this more of a middle grade read, but the writing struck me as more like young adult. I guess it’d be considered upper middle grade, but I think it’d have strong appeal to young adult readers as well. Definitely a great fit for fifth and sixth grade readers especially.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 up.
Representation DREAM MAGIC takes place in a fantasy landscape without a lot of racial descriptions. Some of the names sounded reminiscent of Asian culture. The biggest and most interesting social conflict in the story relates to Lily’s magic. Rumors of curses on women with magic leave people with strong prejudice against any woman who uses magic. Lily faces some harsh criticism and fear simply for being a female with magic. The conflict is well-grounded within the story. Other groups like trolls and zombies face discrimination as well. Lily and Thorn advocate fair treatment and acceptance for all creatures.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild and in context. For instance, a couple uses of Hell refer to the actual place. One use of damned refers to those cursed.
Romance/Sexual Content A brief kiss between a boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Lily, a necromancer, rules a kingdom closely associated with death. She possesses powerful magic that controls the dead and can summon ghosts and interact with undead creatures. Other kingdom rulers possess different types of magic—one controls wind, another light, etc.
Thorn possesses the ability to summon a giant bat monster named Hades to help him in battle. He doesn’t control Hades’s actions, but it’s clear he does have some influence and a relationship with it.
Violent Content Battle scenes. Some creepy stuff related to zombies falling apart and such. Lots of spiders!
Drug Content Brief references to drinking ale at a celebration.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.
