Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,
Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift

Cast in Firelight (Wickery #1)
Dana Swift
Delacorte Press
Published January 19, 2021

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About Cast in Firelight

Adraa is the royal heir of Belwar, a talented witch on the cusp of taking her royal ceremony test, and a girl who just wants to prove her worth to her people.

Jatin is the royal heir to Naupure, a competitive wizard who’s mastered all nine colors of magic, and a boy anxious to return home for the first time since he was a child.

Together, their arranged marriage will unite two of Wickery’s most powerful kingdoms. But after years of rivalry from afar, Adraa and Jatin only agree on one thing: their reunion will be anything but sweet.

Only, destiny has other plans and with the criminal underbelly of Belwar suddenly making a move for control, their paths cross…and neither realizes who the other is, adopting separate secret identities instead.

Between dodging deathly spells and keeping their true selves hidden, the pair must learn to put their trust in the other if either is to uncover the real threat. Now Wickery’s fate is in the hands of rivals..? Fiancées..? Partners..? Whatever they are, it’s complicated and bound for greatness or destruction.

My Review

I really liked the concept of this book, and I’m generally a fan of the enemies-to-lovers types of stories, so CAST IN FIRELIGHT definitely has that going for it. I liked Adraa and how quirky and awkward she is, too.

There were a few things I struggled with, though. One was the magic system. It’s nine different types and coordinating gods/goddesses and colors. That made it a lot to keep track of, but also characters that then could use most or all types of magic seemed almost too powerful?

I also had a hard time understanding some of the structure of the royal family/palace. Like, I couldn’t understand if the palace was just really small, with a really small staff? (Was the kitchen maid the same girl who styled Adraa’s hair?) Sometimes things happened that seemed strange, like when a guard takes Adraa to his room to speak with her privately. Wouldn’t that be a huge breach in propriety? And with the prince’s fiancée??

They were small things, so it wasn’t hard to kind of just shrug and move past them to see where the rest of the story was going. I liked that it had a lot of twists and turns, and I definitely wanted to know where Adraa and Jatin’s relationship would head, so I was definitely invested in the story.

I also appreciated the author’s note at the end of the book explaining that while it’s not an #ownvoices story, she wrote the book for her children, who will be Indian. That and the nod to her husband’s family was really sweet.

I feel like this book would be a good one for middle school readers. It’s solidly a young adult book, but not really dark or gritty, so a great fit for readers who need something a bit lighter– readers who read and enjoyed The Lunar Chronicles, for instance.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are Indian-coded characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Characters use “blood” as a swear word.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. At one point a boy and girl fall asleep on top of a building, and he teases her about them “sleeping together”.

There are references to some sexual bullying.

Spiritual Content
Nine gods and goddesses have the power to bestow gifts of different types (and colors) of magic on humans.

Violent Content
Some battle violence and situations of peril.

Drug Content
Some people use a powerful drug called Bloodlurst that causes enhanced magic for a time before causing damage. It’s viewed very negatively in the story, and Adraa is working hard to try to stop a group which sells the drug to her people.

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

Review: This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

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

This Golden Flame
Emily Victoria
Inkyard Press
Published February 2, 2021

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About This Golden Flame

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.

My Review

I think this book was pretty good. I struggled with a few things, but it’s hard to tell if they’re personal issues or problems with the story. I’ll explain, but I want to talk about the good stuff first.

So first, I enjoyed the setting. Something about it felt vaguely Roman (oops– it’s based on Ancient Greece, so not Roman!) to me. I loved the pirate crew and especially Zara, with her no-nonsense, never-give-up sensibilities. I liked the friendship between Karis and Alix, and the way she identified with him and his past as well as her love for her brother.

All that said, I struggled a bit with Alix’s character. In the story, there are giant machines called automatons that have been lying dormant for a long time, and the people holding Karis captive have been studying them, trying to figure out how to get them working again. In general, it seems like they have kind of an interactive book that can be used to control them. Write a command, and the automaton will execute that command. So they’re kind of like robots operated with magic??

Except then, enter Alix, who is similar to an automaton, but not?? Because he has a personality and LOTS of emotions and the ability to think for himself and choose his own actions. He still has a book that can be used to control him, though.

I guess, I felt like I didn’t really get what he was supposed to be. I kept expecting him to be more like a high level android, with internal calculations and limits and maybe emotions layered on top of that? But it seemed like, no, he was really supposed to be exactly like a person, but also an automaton.

It felt confusing to me. I don’t know if my expectations got in the way of the story or if more explanation would have been helpful? I’m not really sure. But it definitely became an obstacle to me enjoying the story.

Other than that, I enjoyed the story, though, and I thought it was great to see a book focus on a friendship relationship rather than a romance and to center an aromantic asexual character. I thought that was very nicely done.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
The main character identifies as aromantic asexual. One minor character is nonbinary. Another is gay. Other minor characters represent different races and cultures.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl. One boy identifies another boy as his lover.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to read or write magic runes that have an effect on objects and automatons around them.

Violent Content
Some reference to human slavery. A couple brief battle scenes.

Drug Content
The captain purchases a round of drinks for the crew at a tavern. (What they drink isn’t specified.)

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

Review: The Project by Courtney Summers

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, New Adult 18up, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

The Project
Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books
Published February 2, 2021

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About The Project

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it.

When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her—to the point she can no longer tell what’s real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn’t know if she can afford not to.

My Review

I could not stop reading this book. It’s super intense in all the best ways. And it seemed like with every chapter, the stakes only got higher. I really needed to know what would happen.

The beginning confused me a little bit. It begins with Bea’s point-of-view, told in third person present tense. Then alternates between her point-of-view and Lo’s (first person present tense), and once I got that far, I felt like I found a rhythm.

THE PROJECT has so many great things. I loved the juxtaposition of the zeal for writing news at SVO, the magazine where Lo works for a charismatic, energetic boss against the magnetic change-the-world attitude of the Unity Project. It felt like a sly contrast showing the difference between a cult and a passion project, if that makes sense??? And also a great way to show some important things about Lo’s character that make some of the events late in the story make sense.

So the Unity Project… at first I was a little creeped out because the leader uses a lot of bastardized Christian ideas (which some cults do, so it’s pretty real). As a Christian myself, it’s always icky to see something be twisted like that, but I felt like as the story went on, it was so clear that the Unity Project not only wasn’t preaching Christian doctrine, but wasn’t pretending to, either. For some reason that made a difference to me.

Anyway– Lo and Bea. Okay, so I’m a huge, ginormous fan of sister stories, and this one is no exception. I loved that their relationship wasn’t perfect, and that they always seemed kind of like seesaw sisters? You know, where one is up when the other is down, never really synced up with each other. But through the narrative, you see that they love one another and how their lives impact each other, even through the time they’re not close.

One note on age range: Though I think this is billed as young adult fiction and Lo is seventeen (I think Bea is in her early twenties), I’m not sure I’d put it on the shelf with YA. I think the themes and attitudes of the characters place it more solidly in a new adult age group.

On the whole, THE PROJECT pretty much swallowed me whole. I felt like I read it all wide-eyed, barely blinking because I didn’t want to stop reading even long enough for that! It’s got some heavy content, so please check that out, but if you enjoy darker suspense novels, this is a top notch one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Representation
I think the major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief and longer descriptions of sexual contact between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
The leader of the Unity Project uses Bible verses to reference himself (as a stand-in for God or Jesus) and explain his actions. A Catholic priest offers help to Lo.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning for domestic abuse and torture.
References to domestic child abuse. Some references to and descriptions of torture.

Drug Content
Lo’s coworkers often meet after work at a bar, but she skips those gatherings because she’s underage.

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

Review: Written in Starlight by Isabel Ibañez

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

Written in Starlight
Isabel Ibañez
Page Street Kids
Published January 26, 2021

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About Written in Starlight

If the jungle wants you, it will have you…

Catalina Quiroga is a Condesa without a country. She’s lost the Inkasisa throne, the loyalty of her people, and her best friend. Banished to the perilous Yanu Jungle, Catalina knows her chances of survival are slim, but that won’t stop her from trying to escape. It’s her duty to reclaim the throne.

When Manuel, the son of her former general, rescues Catalina from a jaguar, a plan forms. Deep in the jungle, the city of gold is hidden, home to the fierce Illari people, who she could strike an alliance with.

But the elusive Illari are fighting a battle of their own—a mysterious blight is corrupting the jungle, laying waste to everything they hold dear. As a seer, Catalina should be able to help, but her ability to read the future in the stars is as feeble as her survival instincts. While searching for the Illari, Catalina must reckon with her duty and her heart to find her true calling, which could be the key to stopping the corruption before it destroys the jungle completely.

An adventerous South American Tomb Raider! This hotly anticipated companion to Woven in Moonlight follows an outcast Condesa, as she braves the jungle to forge an alliance with the lost city of gold.

My Review

I always feel super nervous going into the sequel of a book that I adored. WOVEN IN MOONLIGHT was one of the best books I read last year, so I had high expectations for the companion novel, and I really wanted to read Catalina’s story.

I thought the book was great, so let me go no further without saying that. The jungle setting felt so spongy and deadly real. Catalina’s fierceness, her total, unquestioning commitment to her people made her admirable. I liked the slow burn, forbidden romance.

Perhaps the thing that kept me from falling in love with this story the way I did with WOVEN IN MOONLIGHT is that because I’d already walked with Ximena through her journey to understand and love the Llacsan people, it was difficult not to feel like Catalina was being selfish and narrow-minded as she dug into her prejudices and clung to them.

On the other hand, I think the things she felt and believed made a lot of sense for her character. I guess I just wish that the resolve of her hate had begun to crack sooner. That would have allowed more time for her spiritual journey, too, which I would have liked to see.

Even with all that, I enjoyed the book and loved seeing Catalina grow into the person she was meant to become. The jungle setting was fantastic, and the slow burn romance totally delicious.

I think fans of GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson (still one of my favorites) would really enjoy this book. It could probably be read on its own, though some characters and relationships from the first book are referenced. I think it’s written in such a way that you could infer a lot of what happened in the first book. (That said, if you want to read both, definitely start with the first book, otherwise WRITTEN IN STARLIGHT will spoil a lot of the plot.)

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Characters are Latinx-coded.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. At one point they bathe together but stay pretty far apart.

Spiritual Content
Catalina was raised worshipping the moon goddess, Luna, and believing that her people were the only ones to do so. Other people worship the earth goddess or the sun god. Some prayer and meditation rituals are shown, and some characters speak with and experience the presence of the gods.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. The jungle is full of dangerous animals and people who attack Catalina and her allies. A vicious monster literally tears some limb from limb. Magic wielders use their magic against Catalina and the others.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Into the Heartless Wood
Joanna Ruth Meyer
Page Street Kids
Published January 12, 2021

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About Into the Heartless Woods

The forest is a dangerous place, where siren song lures men and women to their deaths. For centuries, a witch has harvested souls to feed the heartless tree, using its power to grow her domain.

When Owen Merrick is lured into the witch’s wood, one of her tree-siren daughters, Seren, saves his life instead of ending it. Every night, he climbs over the garden wall to see her, and every night her longing to become human deepens. But a shift in the stars foretells a dangerous curse, and Seren’s quest to become human will lead them into an ancient war raging between the witch and the king who is trying to stop her.

Epic, heartbreaking, and darkly atmospheric, Into the Heartless Wood is the story of impossible love between a monstrous tree siren and a boy who lives at the edge of her wood.

My Review

I feel like the back cover copy, shown above, for this book is a great summary of the story. Now that I read it after having read the whole book, it feels like it is packed with a lot of hints at things that I didn’t see until I read the book. Which is pretty cool, actually.

When I read the first page of the book, which I did really just to gauge how much I might like it, I found I couldn’t stop reading. I think I read the first forty pages or so just sitting on the edge of my bed, without actually taking a minute to get comfortable.

The whole story hit me like that. I felt like I needed to keep drinking it in, line by line, as quickly as I could, all the way to the very last page.

I loved it. Owen’s gentle spirit. His mischievous little sister. Seren’s terrible strength and her longing to not be a monster any longer. The transformative power of love and the destructive power of betrayal. The healing power of a little kindness. I loved the hints of gender-flipped Beauty and the Beast. (Aha. See? I got you there, didn’t I?)

As I’m writing this review, I’ve only just finished reading maybe an hour ago, and I still feel like I’m buzzing with all the adrenaline from those last chapters. It’s so good. INTO THE HEARTLESS WOOD is definitely a must-read book for this year!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Most human characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used a few times.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. Vague reference to sex.

Spiritual Content
Human souls can be collected and used as a source of great power. A witch uses magic to create beings who enchant humans. The trees in a magical wood are aware and dangerous.

Violent Content
Multiple scenes show the brutal murder of multiple people. Sometimes the description is pretty brief, but other times it’s more drawn out. A few scenes show torture or an enemy causing terrible injuries. A mother character is particularly brutal to one of her daughters.

Drug Content
Owen drinks liquor from a flask to numb him before a medical procedure.

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

Review: Fortune’s Fall by Katherine Barger

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Fortune’s Fall
Katherine Barger
Anaiah Press
Published November 3, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Fortune’s Fall

While her classmates prepare for elite careers across America, Nyssa Ardelone trains for her secret job as the president’s dream interpreter. But when her mentor lies to the president about the prophecy in his latest dream, Nyssa must figure out why before the lie unravels. What she learns could destroy her own future.

Fearful of a rumored rebellion, the president has launched a gas attack on Nyssa’s hometown, and her mentor lied about the dream to protect the survivors from more harm. When Nyssa learns her parents were injured in the attack, she flees with a stranger sent to steal the antidote—a stranger who claims to know her.

Together, they race to deliver the cure as well as an interpretation of another prophetic dream only Nyssa can provide. But a devastating loss dulls her caution, and she learns too late that not everyone is trustworthy. To survive the president’s deadly pursuit, Nyssa must break every rule she’s ever followed, learning along the way that faith is the only thing that can save her.

My Review

I feel like Biblically-inspired fiction as a topic is always a little dicey, so while I was super fascinated with the idea of this tale, I was a little nervous that it might fall flat or be too political or the characters too perfect.

Instead, though, I found a really gripping dystopian setting with a controlling, paranoid leader right up there with President Snow from The Hunger Games. The story world has advanced technology paired with this earthy, simple feel that I thought really worked well together.

I liked the characters a lot, especially some of the minor ones, like Greer and Nyssa’s mentor and Cass. (I hope they all reappear in a sequel!)

The story kept me really intrigued and I thought the pacing was pretty good. At times I felt like things maybe happened too easily, like I wanted the process of achieving a smaller goal to be more complex, but the story moved quickly enough, that those bumps didn’t pull me out of enjoying it at all.

I think readers who enjoy dystopian books, especially MATCHED by Ally Condie, will like this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Most characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Nyssa feels some attraction to a couple of the boy characters.

Spiritual Content
Some resistance members believe in God and the Bible, something that’s been outlawed for a long time. They tell Nyssa that dreams and the ability to interpret them come from God.

Violent Content
References to torture. Prisoners are hanged for their crimes. Nyssa is there but tries not to look, so it’s not described in any detail. A fighter uses a biological weapon to kill soldiers. The same weapon was used on civilians before the story began. Soldiers treat an older man roughly, killing him. A man cuts a boy’s face.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of FORTUNE’S FALL in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog.