In this Latinx YA fantasy inspired by El Zorro, Lola de La Peña becomes the masked heroine Salvación in order to save her family and town from a man who would destroy it for the magic it contains…if she doesn’t fall in love with one of his men first.
Lola de La Peña yearns to be free from the societal expectations of a young Mexican lady of her station. She spends her days pretending to be delicate and proper while watching her mamá cure the sick and injured with sal negra (black salt), a recently discovered magic that heals even the most mortal of sicknesses and wounds. But by night, she is Salvación, the free-spirit lady vigilante protecting the town of Coloma from those who threaten its peace and safety among the rising tension in Alta California after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
But one night, a woman races into Coloma, barely alive, to tell the horrifying tale of how her town was obliterated by sal roja, a potent, deadly magic capable of obliterating anything it comes into contact with and the man who wields it: Damien Hernández. And when Hernández arrives the next day with a party of fifty strong and promises of returning Alta California to México, Lola knows it’s only a matter of time before he brings the region under his rule—all Hernández needs is the next full moon and the stolen, ancient amulet he carries to mine enough sal roja to conquer the land. Determined to protect everything she loves, Lola races against time as Salvación to stop his plans. What she didn’t count on was the distracting and infuriating Alejandro, who travels with Hernández but doesn’t seem to share his ambitions. With the stakes higher than ever and Hernández getting closer to his goals, Lola will do anything to foil his plans, even teaming up with Alejandro—who she doesn’t fully trust, but can’t help but fall in love with.
My Review
The setting of this book took me back to my childhood memories of watching Zorro episodes on TV. It’s set in California in a town built up around a mine where someone has discovered a salt with healing power. Lola lives a privileged life in her town, but she wants nothing to do with the fancy dresses and future romance that her family might want for her. Instead, she wants to help others. Particularly, she wants to protect the people in her town from those who would harm them.
The story doesn’t follow a stereotypical superhero path. For one thing, though Lola has a secret identity as Salvación, she shares the identity with her brother. The two of them work as a team, but he stays in the shadows. As Salvación, she’s the face of their team.
I liked exploring the teamwork and their relationship as brother and sister within the story. Lola also isn’t the kind of hero who charges into danger with a sword every time there’s trouble. She does background investigating. She forms relationships. The girl has layers! I love that.
On the whole, I enjoyed the book. It really delivered the vibe of the Zorro TV episodes I watched as a little kid while telling a Latinx-centered story. If you like historical fantasy, you’ll want this one on your reading list.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content A few instances of profanity.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing.
Spiritual Content Salt with magical properties can either help or harm someone.
Violent Content Situations of peril. Battle violence. A couple scenes include someone killing a captive or enemy.
Drug Content Salt with healing properties cures disease and injury. Salt with destructive properties destroys any living thing it touches.
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.
Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who’s ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU.
There’s a long-running joke that, after “coming out,” a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. THIS IS THAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL. You’re welcome.
Inside you’ll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out and more. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it’s like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.
You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don’t) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book.
My Review
The conversational style of this book and the inclusion of testimonies from people with a spectrum of identities and genders make This Book is Gay a valuable resource for people beginning to pursue romantic and/or sexual relationships.
With books like this, I often find myself hoping there was a little more attention to asexual people or the ace spectrum. There are some mentions, but a lot of the book focuses on romantic relationships, with a fair amount of pages spent talking about sex. I would have liked to see a little more acknowledgment of ace identity and some exploration about how to find or craft the kinds of relationships that one would find satisfying.
Each section of the book features real stories by people reflecting on their relationships and experiences as LGBTQIA+ people. Some stories talk about coming out and what that was like for them. Others offer relationship advice or views on a particular issue. These stories reinforce the idea that relationships and identity are governed by individuals. How you identify is up to you. What kinds of relationships you pursue is up to you. Being gay doesn’t look the same for everyone.
Dawson writes in an upbeat, celebratory way that invites readers to have confidence in who they are and go forth into the world to find people who appreciate and respect them as well. The backmatter has a super fun section listing and defining gay icons that is a lot of fun to read, too.
This Book is Gay was One of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2023
This Book is Gay was one of the top ten most challenged books of 2023. Among the reasons I saw cited for the challenges and book bans were that it contains testimonies of LGBTQIA+ people, information about sex education, and sexually explicit content.
The book does have some information on sex between partners with a focus on safety. Obviously, it also contains information about partnerships between LGBTQIA+ people.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Some swearing is used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content One chapter offers tips for engaging in sexual intimacy. Dawson includes information such as how to have safe sex and the risks of sexually transmitted infections.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content References to homophobia or transphobia, for example, in a family member’s response to someone coming out.
Drug Content Brief, candid discussion about going to clubs or bars to meet people and use drugs or alcohol. Dawson acknowledges that this is something some adults prefer to do and offers tips on how to stay safe.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.
You might remember the short story, “The Lady or the Tiger” from your reading in school, but this YA author brings a fresh take on that concept. Lady or the Tiger author Heather M. Herrman is here via Q&A to talk about what inspired her to create this gritty, Wild West murder mystery.
We’ll talk about misconceptions about the Wild West time period and why we need stories beyond romance in YA. We’ll also discuss the importance of telling stories with complex heroines and challenging tropes. It’s awesome stuff!
Let’s get right into it, shall we? Here are some details about the book for some context before we get into the Q&A.
A twisty, darkly seductive murder mystery, starring a teenage killer whose trial in the Wild West is upended when her first victim, her husband, arrives alive with a story to tell.
When nineteen-year-old Belle King turns herself in for murder, the last thing she expects to see is her abusive husband standing outside her Dodge City jail cell. He was the first man she ever meant to kill (but certainly not the last!). Somehow, though, her husband is there, hale and hearty, and very much not dead. With his arrival her plans in jail are jeopardized, and she’ll be forced to resort to all the tricks in her arsenal to prevent him from ever being in control of her again. But as a girl in the 1880s Wild West, the last thing anyone will believe is a woman—even when she confesses to her own crimes.
This story—of how Alice Springer, a mountain girl from Kentucky, became the infamous Belle King, of how she found the tiger in her heart, becoming the wickedest woman in the Wild West—is a love story that cuts through time and patriarchal ties.
Q&A with Heather M. Herrman
1. Is there a particular idea that inspired you to write Lady or the Tiger?
First of all, thank you so much for including me on The Story Sanctuary. I really love and respect the important work you’re doing on your site. And thank you so much for reading Lady or the Tiger!
In terms of this particular story, I started with the germ of an idea about a possibly possessed young woman in the Wild West who cuts out men’s hearts and replaces them with stolen diamonds. But from there, the story grew to be more of a response to the current landscape of the Young Adult genre.
In the past few years, I’ve noticed a trend of YA becoming synonymous with Romance. I think some of this is due to the age of YA readers, with polls suggesting that over fifty percent of readers are actually adults. I love a great romance and am in awe of the incredible authors out there giving us spice. Teen readers, too, need romance as they begin to navigate their own relationships. But they also need other stories. Unlike adult readers who often read for escape, teen readers are still in the process of forming an identity. Romance by its very nature centers the pleasure—and in some ways value—of its female heroines on an external source instead of providing examples of girls who please themselves. I want to see more complicated girls and women in young adult stories who are allowed, even encouraged, to first fall in love with themselves—shadow and all—before worrying about someone else.
2. In both The Corpse Queen and Lady or the Tiger, you’ve written strong female characters who make difficult choices. I love that! Do you think female anti-heroes are underrepresented in teen fiction? And/or what do these stories bring to the genre that we need more of?
Absolutely. I think the world is still very uncomfortable with a woman choosing to do something that doesn’t serve other people but, instead, serves herself. This, coupled with the discomfort surrounding a woman’s sexual autonomy and desire, often gives us girls who can save the world but don’t know how to save themselves. This is why I’m so drawn to the antihero in fiction. These women are allowed to be exactly who they are without cowtowing to the demands the status quo places on them to be both helpful and beautiful. Including more female antiheroes in young adult books gives readers a chance to see the parts of themselves they’ve often been asked to discard—their shadow selves or “outlaw energies” as Jungian psychologist Lisa Marchiano dubbs them—being accepted and valued instead of ignored. Girls and women deserve to be whole. And only by accepting our shadows can we ever truly shine our light.
3. What’s your favorite thing about Belle King?
I love that she is completely unapologetic about being herself. As a trained people-pleaser, I personally often find that hard, and I know a lot of other girls and women do too. Our culture often teaches us to meet others’ needs before our own. I love that Belle is willing to consider what she wants first.
4. What made you choose the 1880s Wild West as a setting for Lady or the Tiger?
I think that the setting is an interesting one because we typically think of the “Wild West” as a white, straight, male-dominated space. This was absolutely not the case. But this misconception does show exactly what a woman was up against in that time period and by comparing and contrasting our current climate, it also reveals what she continues to face today. By pushing back on certain tropes prominent in typical westerns, I got a chance to challenge these ideas.
For example, the “damsel in distress” trope has always stood out to me—Western films and novels often revolve around cowboys rescuing beautiful women or, if not rescuing them, using their untimely deaths as backstory for the hero. Often, these women serve as justification for a hero’s violence. I wanted to subvert that convention by placing a woman at the heart of the story rather than on its margins. I also wanted to give her the same depth and moral complexity typically reserved for the rugged male outlaws and antiheroes that dominate the genre. I also tried to challenge the myth of a homogenous, cisgender American frontier by including diverse characters and historically grounded details that reflect the cultural richness that existed long before white settlers arrived and continues to exist today.
5. Is there a scene or character that was the most fun to write, or something in the book that you couldn’t stop thinking about, even after you finished the scene or draft?
I mean I loved the ending. That was really fun to write. But I think I also had a great time crafting the scene with Alice, Ama, and Dom on the riverbank. They really reveal themselves to each other there and admit things that other people would maybe judge them for because they know that it’s a safe, accepting space. That was a real moment of trust for the characters, and I think it brought back all the beautiful friendships I’ve been lucky enough to have over the years. I wanted Lady or the Tiger to be a love story, just not a traditional one. Because of this, I wanted it to also highlight some of the more important love stories that we maybe don’t always talk about. For me, my girlfriend growing up were life-changing, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.
6. What do you most hope that readers take away from your novel?
First and foremost, I hope they enjoy it. Creating Belle was a wild ride, and I’m so excited for readers to get to know her. Beyond that, I hope seeing her be exactly who she is without apology will maybe stick with them. That in some future moment, however small, they remember Belle and feel free to choose themselves instead of trying to please someone else.
7. What is your favorite question readers have asked you about your books?
I had a reader ask me which character from my books I’d most like to go to dinner with, which I thought was such a cool question. Not sure what it says about me, but I immediately chose the murderer.
Heather Herrman is the author of the adult horror novel, Consumption, and the Junior Library Guild selected Young Adult Novel, The Corpse Queen. The Lady or the Tiger, a new YA novel by Heather about a female serial killer in the Wild West will be available from Nancy Paulsen Books June 10, 2025.
Heather’s fiction seeks to explore the relationship between body and landscape, utilizing genre as a medium. She believes that American Horror Fiction provides a lens through which we can undress and view the timeless dis/ease of our society.
Heather holds an MFA from New Mexico State University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications including the Dark Screams Anthology:Volume 10, Cemetery Dance, The Alaska Quarterly, South Carolina Review, and Snake Nation Review. Her fiction has earned the Frank Waters Prize, an Individual Artist Grant from the Nebraska Arts Council, and a scholarship to the Prague Summer Program for Writers.
She is represented by Barbara Poelle from the Word One Literary Agency.
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.
About Malcolm Lives!: The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers
In collaboration with the Malcolm X Estate, this powerful biography for young readers is a modern classic in the making, written by #1 New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi.
Published 100 years after his birth, Malcolm Lives! is a ground-breaking narrative biography of one of the most influential Americans of all time.
Dr. Kendi expertly crafts a propulsive telling of Malcolm X’s life—from birth to death. He provides context for both Malcolm’s choices—and those around him—not just painting an intimate picture of a famous figure, but of the social and political landscape of America during the civil rights movement. Ultimately, Malcolm’s true legacy is a journey toward anti-racism. Just like history, Malcolm lives.
With short, evocative chapters, exclusive archival documents, photographs from the Malcolm X Collection at the NYPL Schomburg Center, and extensive backmatter, this is a thoughtful and accessible, must-read for all Americans.
My Review
I feel like my history textbooks never gave the appropriate amount of space to Malcolm X, his life, and his work. I suspect that some of that has to do with the fact that his message was a lot more challenging, especially for white Americans. At times, he was very clear that he had nothing to say to white America. For much of his life, he saw his mission, his calling as being to Black America.
This book doesn’t only relate Malcolm X’s life story from beginning to end. It also offers some context for the choices he made. At certain points, Dr. Kendi asks readers directly to consider the facts of history. He asks reader to think beyond what happened in one moment of Malcolm X’s life, but to look at the pattern of history before his life and since.
Some of the story follows Malcolm X’s life as a member of the Nation of Islam. I think the book explains the goals of the organization and their values really well. It also discusses where the leaders fell short of the values they preached. Dr. Kendi offers some thoughtful critique and, again, some historical context that will help readers place these events in the larger arc of history. He also emphasizes some of the reasons it’s important to know this history.
Conclusion
Earlier this year, I read a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Jonathan Eig. It’s interesting thinking about the lives of these two men, who lived through many of the same moments in history. They had very different experiences and different ideas about what the best path forward for Black Americans would be. I think reading both books or at least learning about both leaders is something that we should all be doing. Malcolm Lives! does a great job educating readers about Malcolm X’s life and his work in America.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 10 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content References to marriage and dating relationships.
Spiritual Content The book explains the establishment and history of the Nation of Islam and its teachings. Some brief explanations delve into the difference between the teaching of the Nation of Islam and the Islamic faith.
Violent Content References to racist violence, lynching deaths, destruction of property, attempted murder, murder, and police brutality. Some reference to self-defense. These things are not described in any detail and are mentioned in the context of history. For example, the narrative discusses how someone set fire to Malcolm X’s house when he was a young child, and how it happened again while he was an adult, and that triggered those childhood memories. The author also draws a parallel between the police response to both crimes.
Drug Content References to smoking cigarettes and using drugs. Nothing shown graphically. This also shows how seriously Malcolm X took his faith, because he stopped smoking or using drugs when he joined the Nation of Islam and later converted to Islam.
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.
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief meets One Thousand and One Nights in this thrilling middle grade fantasy from Rick Riordan Presents author Sarwat Chadda about a girl with the magical power to control the elements with her song.
In a land ruled by fierce winged warriors known as eagle garudas, twelve-year-old Nargis is just a poor, lowly human, a Worm who hates the garudas that killed her parents. But even though she can’t fly—and her childhood attempt left her walking with a crutch—she is far from powerless. Nargis is a spirit able to coax small bits of wind, water, fire, and earth to do her bidding through song…well, sometimes.
When Nargis loses control of her power in a high-stakes kite fight, she is exiled. Cast into the desert, she discovers Mistral, an injured boy who turns out to be an eagle garuda, the prince of her enemies! He’s on a mission to take back his throne from a terrible vulture garuda. In spite of their mutual distrust, the two have no choice but to forge an unlikely alliance if they want to escape the desert alive.
And as Nargis and Mistral battle dangerous assassins, befriend crafty sky pirates, and sneak into the mysterious sky castle of Alamut, Nargis discovers she carries a family secret, one that could bring Monsoon’s rains back to the desert, but only if she’s willing to risk her life in the bargain…
My Review
This book covers so much ground in its 368 pages! We meet Nargis, a Spirit Singer, who can speak to spirits such as wind and fire and ask them for their help. She is still learning her craft and makes many mistakes along the way. The discovery of a wounded stranger sets Nargis off on a somewhat unwilling quest to save her village. This proves challenging for her as an old injury that didn’t heal properly makes it difficult for her to walk without a crutch.
I enjoyed the banter between Nargis and Mistral, the garuda she agrees to help. They have very different backgrounds and beliefs about one another’s culture, so they frequently clash over those ideas or prejudices. The longer they travel together, though, the more they come to respect and trust one another.
At one point, they team up with twin sisters who ride a giant owl. Those girls added some energy and humor to the scenes in which they appeared, too. It also further showed what a diverse world Nargis lived in, and how isolated the communities had become from one another.
Storm Singer was an engaging read. I think it’s a standalone, too, which I love to see in fantasy. It’s nice to have some books where we can enjoy a complete story arc all in one book, especially for people like me who struggle to keep up with a series or remember all the relevant plot points between books. Ha!
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Some characters can see and interact with spirits of the earth, wind, water, and fire. Some characters are based on or inspired by Hindu mythology.
Violent Content Situations of peril. Nargis is present when her parents are murdered. She hears what happened, but she can’t see anything. Some scenes describe battles between characters. Descriptions of how a snake and other predator eat their prey are a little graphic. Very brief, though.
Drug Content A man hides a sleep-inducing substance in a bowl of soup to subdue enemies and escape from them.
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.
In this exuberant YA romance from the critically acclaimed author of And They Lived…, a budding social media influencer sets out to win back his first love at a family wedding in an Italian lemon grove.
Ever since he was a kid, Fielder Lemon’s large, opinionated Italian-American family has lived next to Ricky DeLuca and his large, opinionated Italian-American family. For almost as long, Fielder has known that he wants to marry Ricky one day. And he thought Ricky felt the same way-until Ricky breaks up with Fielder, saying he needs to figure out who he is on his own.
One year later, Fielder is asked to be one of the best men in his cousin’s destination wedding on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, but there’s a twist: his cousin is marrying Ricky’s sister. Fielder hasn’t talked to or seen Ricky once during the last entire, terrible year, but he hasn’t given up on his first love quite yet-and isn’t a wedding in an Italian lemon grove the perfect setting to rekindle their relationship? Except Ricky might have already moved on.
Now, Fielder has less than a week to win back Ricky’s heart while also trying not to ruin his cousin’s wedding. But if there’s one thing Fielder knows, it’s that when life gives you lemons, take a bite!
My Review
I feel like this is going to be a tough review for me. I have loved every book by Steven Salvatore more than their last, so I went into this one with sky-high expectations.
Which proved tricky because I really struggled to like Fielder’s character in those early chapters. He’s really focused on his social media. Clearly he’s missing signals from his boyfriend. He doesn’t seem like a great listener. I wanted to be totally on board with his quest to get his ex back, but I found myself having real questions about whether restarting the relationship would be what was best for Ricky, his ex.
I stuck with the book because it had so many other things that I was enjoying. References to My Best Friend’s Wedding? I’m SO here for it! Big Italian family does wedding in Italy?? YES PLEASE! So I definitely had things I was enjoying. I just really wanted to like Fielder more than I did at the beginning.
However!
Whew. Okay. Does Salvatore know what they’re doing? Yes. Yes, they do! Because wow, the story hit that half-way mark, and Fielder all of a sudden starts to see himself and his life in a different light. His passion to help someone else ignites. It’s like, all these pieces click into place. And in that moment, when Fielder is in the lemon grove, finally understanding how he wants to use his social media account and what he willdo to learn and grow himself, I became the biggest Fielder fan.
From there onward, I just couldn’t get enough of this story. It makes room for complexity and nuance, but it delivers those big romantic moments, too. It was great celebrating the whole adventure with those families.
This book unapologetically centers young gay men, and I’m so happy to celebrate that. We need it.
Ultimately, I am really glad I read this book. I loved the references to My Best Friend’s Wedding. Those quotes and chapter titles referencing the movie were fabulous. If you’re looking for a messy summer rom com with big Italian families, don’t miss this one.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Some instances of strong profanity.
Romance/Sexual Content References to sex. Kissing. One scene leads into a sex scene with a vague description.
Spiritual Content References to prayer.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content References to underage drinking (happened off-scene).
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.
