Category Archives: Fantasy

Review: Dance of the Starlit Sea by Kiana Krystle

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
Dance of the Starlit Sea by Kianna Krystle

Dance of the Starlit Sea
Kiana Krystle
Peachtree Teen
Published August 6, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Dance of the Starlit Sea

“Hades and Persephone” meets Phantom of the Opera by way of Laini Taylor, in a sensually rendered world that seethes with intrigue and indulges the senses. Welcome to Luna Island.

Lila Rose Li arrives at her aunt’s cottage with dashed dreams. For years, she pushed herself to become the perfect ballerina her parents would approve of, but after collapsing on stage, she snapped and lashed out violently. Now, exiled to Luna Island, with its sparkling blue waters and rose-covered boutiques, Lila struggles to believe that a girl like her—a natural disaster—deserves good and gentle things.

As the islanders gear up for their beloved tradition, the Angel of the Sea pageant, Lila vows to remain on the sidelines. But the more she learns about the island’s lore, the more she grows suspicious. Luna Island was nothing more than a failed fishing village before angels supposedly came and blessed them with abundance. The pageant is a competition to seek a High Priestess for their commune. To win is to be loved and adored by all, the ultimate blessing.

However, the Angel of the Sea is supposed to reign for seven years, and the previous winner only reigned for one. Something is haunting the island, throwing off the balance the pageant ensures. And as an eerie voice calls to Lila, drawing her closer to the ocean—to its depths—she worries its haunting her, too. The only way to discover what’s really going on, and protect herself, is to win the pageant. But how can a monstrous girl like her ever hope to be crowned by angels?

Kiana Krystle’s enchanting debut simmers with forbidden romance and dark secrets. A lush and sinister blend of paranormal mystery and mythology, wrapped up in fairytale about a teen girl’s hard-earned journey toward loving every part of herself.

My Review

I really struggled with this book. It has a definite ethereal feel, but the voice keeps the reader at a distance. Lila often describes things in terms of metaphors or symbols, so I found myself struggling to interpret what was meant literally versus what was meant metaphorically. For example, one chapter ends with characters watching the sunset and then a statement about the island beginning to burn. In the next chapter, there’s no reference to a fire, so I assume that comment is metaphorical.

Lila frequently references an altercation she had with her mom that resulted in her parents sending her to the island. Late in the book, Lila revisits that moment again, but we stay in her head, steeped in how she felt and these brief slices of descriptions of what happened. This style left me feeling disconnected from her as a character and unsure about what specifically had happened.

I enjoyed the references to ballet and the descriptions of Lila dancing. I loved that her magic was so connected to dance. The connection between dance and magic added something unique to the story. It felt a little bit like reading a ballet, like Giselle or Swan Lake or something.

On the whole, I wish I felt more connected with Lila and understood the story more deeply. The story world is interesting and the ballet references beautiful, but this one kind of went over my head.

If you like dark, ethereal stories, especially those with a forbidden romance or dance theme, this one might be worth checking out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Lila is Chinese American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and other profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to a romance between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Lila encounters angels and hears a voice in her head she believes to be the devil. The islanders worship the moon goddess, Luna.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Instances of self-harm. References to a violent assault. References to domestic abuse. In one scene, a man whips his son. Near-drowning experiences.

Drug Content
Lila eats a hallucinogenic fruit as part of a ritual.

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

Review: The Blessing by Lyla Stone

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, New Adult 18up, Paranormal, Romance, , , , , , ,

The Blessing
Lyla Stone
And She Was Publishing
Published May 24, 2024

Amazon | Goodreads

About The Blessing

It’s a fine line between a blessing and a curse.

When ancient Water Spirits seek revenge against the Forest Witch who imprisoned them thousands of years earlier for the crime of blessing one ancestral line while cursing another, they each enlist modern-day descendants as their champions in a fight to the death.

Margot comes from the blessed line. Jessica from the cursed one. Neither wants to fight someone else’s war.

As their town is pulled into a battle between land and sea, the distinction between good and evil becomes as indistinguishable as the line between love and hate. Margot and Jessica are forced to choose between saving their love or saving themselves.

My Review

The story alternates between Margot and Jessica’s perspectives. I think Jessica is my favorite character. She’s spunky and has great exit lines. I liked the way she uses sarcasm and snark as armor even though underneath that prickly exterior, she does care about people and feels incredibly lonely.

Margot is a great character, too. She wrestles with guilt over her best friends’ deaths in a car accident. She also wants desperately to protect her little sister, who will be next in line as the three spirits’ conduit if Margot refuses to do their bidding.

The whole book is set in a small Maine town, which I also enjoyed. I liked the vibe of the town and the way it felt hemmed in by the power of nature and the natural disasters that the supernatural battle spawned.

The beginning was a little bit slow as the story introduces the history of the blessing and curse, but once Jessica and Margot meet, the pacing picks up considerably. I flew through the last half of the book, really eager to see how things resolved and what the girls would have to do in order to free themselves from the battle between spiritual forces.

The cover notes that this is a new adult fantasy, and the writing does fit that age group and genre. I think the main characters are in high school, so the book will appeal to some young adult readers as well. Another reviewer recommended the book for Amanda Hocking fans, which is a great comparison. If you liked Watersong, you will want to check this book out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
The Blessing is a retelling of a Yiddish fairytale. Margot and Jessica are both Jewish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some f-bombs and other strong profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a one-night stand. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
References to Jewish faith and practice. Three sister spirits blessed one family and cursed another. A Forest Witch imprisoned the sisters in ice when they cursed a family line she protects. Now the sisters are free and want vengeance on the Forest Witch and the girl from the cursed line. Some supernatural things happen in the form of weather and other strange events. A character gives Jessica tarot readings to try to figure out what she should do next.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Waterspouts, flash flooding, and other natural disasters occur.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol at a party.

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

Review: Mind Over Monsters by Betsy Uhrig

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Mind Over Monsters
Betsy Uhrig
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published July 16, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Mind Over Monsters

Gordon Korman meets Scooby-Doo when anxiety-prone middle schoolers try a mindfulness app that has them face their fears all-too-literally in this spooky and humorous middle grade adventure.

FACE YOUR FEARS! That’s what the meditation app with the cheesy name De-stress-o-rama is telling Lena to do. She’s one of seven always-worried middle schoolers trying out this new app to see if it can help students handle stress. But something is going wrong—very, very wrong.

The group’s fears are becoming all too real, first lurking and dangling, then chasing them around and threatening to swallow them whole. From a stubborn inky blob that is fear of the dark, to the queasy giant in sweaty underpants that is fear of public speaking, monsters are invading Cranberry Bog Middle School! Can Lena’s group of worriers figure out how to conquer their fears before the whole school is swarmed?

My Review

This was a really fun book with some really cool moments. I liked that the story featured meditation as a helpful practice for people with anxiety. Of course, if your meditation app created real creatures based on your fears, it wouldn’t be very helpful. I still liked that meditation is shown in the book, and many kids found it helpful (sans monsters).

Another thing I liked a lot was Lena’s relationship with her mom. There was a moment in the book where I thought I knew what was going on, and I remember thinking I was going to be mad if the book left this thing unaddressed. And Betsy Uhrig proved yet again that my trust in her is well-placed because I loved how she handled the issue between Lena and her mom.

The monsters that emerged from the app made sense but also weren’t meant to be super terrifying. It made sense that the kids in the book would be scared, since the creatures were tailored to the kids’ specific fears, but they didn’t make the book overly scary. I think the story is really accessible to kids with big fears. I love that, too.

The monsters emerging into real life in this book made me think of The Darkdeep by Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs. I think readers who enjoyed that series will like this one. I recommend it for middle grade readers struggling with fears, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Lena is white, but her group of friends, the Worriers, is pretty diverse.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Lena’s best friend seems to have a crush on a boy who likes her.

Spiritual Content
Fears begin appearing in the form of three-dimensional beings.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Descriptions of fears.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

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

The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
T. Kingfisher
Argyll Productions
Published July 21, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.

But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…

My Review

I heard about this book from Mara at BooksLikeWhoa on YouTube. I can’t remember which video in which she talks about this book, but she doesn’t often review middle grade, and she liked this one, so I knew I needed to try it. I’ve also really wanted to read something by T. Kingfisher since I hear so many positive things about her books. I think this was a great place for me to start, since I had a great time with this book.

There’s something really special about fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously and kind of makes fun of some of the fantasy tropes. In this case, this story is about a girl who has a magical affinity for bread. She can make gingerbread men dance. She can convince the baguette of her enemies to be so stale it’s a brick. And she’s somehow the only person who can stop a serial killer.

I loved the goofiness of some of the moments in the book. Mona is fourteen, and still feels young and awkward. She sometimes makes analogies and then says funny things that acknowledge the hyperbole of her analogy. It’s a really playful book. I also loved the way that Mona grows throughout the story. She finds courage and confidence in her abilities, and she builds relationships with other characters.

WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING is a quirky, fun read that will appeal to fantasy lovers looking for a laugh. I could see fans of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Cressida Cowell enjoying this a lot.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
I don’t remember character descriptions that included race details.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to use magic. One character can reanimate dead horses and their bones.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. In the opening scene, Mona finds a girl on the floor of the bakery who has been murdered. Mona’s sourdough starter, Bob, has become carnivorous, or so the rat skeletons she found in the basement seem to indicate. Someone attacks Mona more than once. Brief descriptions of a people group who burn villages to the ground before moving on to a new place to burn. A few scenes describe a battle.

Drug Content
Mona mentions that once, as a child, she and a boy stole a bottle of sacrificial wine and drank it. This made them both really sick.

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

Review: Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen

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

Of Jade and Dragons (Fall of the Dragons #1)
Amber Chen
Viking Books for Young Readers
Published June 18, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Of Jade and Dragons

Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a brilliant engineer just like her beloved father – but her life is torn apart when she arrives a moment too late to stop his murder, and worse, lets the killer slip out of reach. Left with only a journal containing his greatest engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, Ying vows to take revenge into her own hands.

Disguised as her brother, Ying heads to the capital city, and discovers that the answer to finding who killed her father lies behind the walls of the prestigious Engineers Guild – the home of a past her father never wanted to talk about. With the help of an unlikely ally – Aogiya Ye-yang, a taciturn (but very handsome) young prince – Ying must navigate a world fraught with rules, challenges and politics she can barely grasp, let alone understand.

But to survive, she must fight to stay one step ahead of everyone. And when faced with the choice between doing what’s right and what’s necessary, Ying will have to decide if her revenge is truly worthwhile, if it means going against everything her father stood for . . .

My Review

This book definitely has some Mulan vibes. It reminded me a bit of Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, especially in the first quarter. (Girl goes to a big city and attempts to enter an elite, male-only guild.) I liked the relationships Ying cultivates with the other guild hopefuls, especially a younger one who becomes a close ally. (I hope book two includes this character.)

When I first saw this book, for some reason, I thought it was a middle grade book. It’s not. It’s clearly intended for a young adult audience. Sometimes, the writing and the way the characters related to one another felt more in line with a middle grade story. That isn’t to say anything is wrong with the writing or character relationships. It’s possible I felt that way because I had the other age group stuck in my head already.

There is a romantic subplot in the story, too. I love that the author doesn’t follow every expectation readers might have with a romance story. Ying is a strong character and has a deep commitment to her mission. She doesn’t want anything to distract her from finding out who had her father killed. She wants entry into the engineers’ guild to finish his work.

I love that this book includes so much about engineering as a field of study. A lot of the lessons and tests shown in the story involve defensive or offensive vehicles and weaponry, but some characters mention other kinds of engineering. I would have enjoyed seeing more of a spectrum of engineering projects, but I can see why those focuses would fit better in the story because of the push toward war.

On the whole, I enjoyed this one. It looks like the start of a series, so I’m curious to see where the story goes from here.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Characters are Chinese-coded.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Characters pray to and mention Abka Han, the god of the skies and guardian of Ying’s homeland. When a good or bad thing happens, it’s taken as an omen from Abka Han.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Characters face assassins and armed enemies in several scenes. References to and reports of warfare. In one scene, an assailant stabs an unarmed man after ransacking a room.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol at social events.

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

Review: Goblin 2: The Wolf and the Well by Eric Grissom and Will Perkins

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, , ,

Goblin 2: The Wolf and the Well (Goblin #2)
Eric Grissom
Illustrated by Will Perkins
Dark Horse Books
Published July 16, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Goblin 2: The Wolf and the Well

What would you give up to protect the one you loved? Uncover the mystery in the thrilling sequel to the fantasy adventure graphic novel Goblin.

One dark and stormy night, Rikt meets a mysterious fortune teller in the woods. Looking into his future, she foresees that his best friend and only companion, a wolf named Fish-breath, is in mortal danger. Overcome with the fear of losing his four-legged friend, Rikt trades the freedom of the wild for the protection of Underwood—a boarding school for monster children and a sanctuary for wolves. Was his bargain worth the price? And what terrible fate awaits the children who live there?

After losing his parents, Rikt struggles with a fear of being alone. The anxiety becomes unbearable when he receives three prophecies from a mysterious witch, one of which foretells a terrible fate for his best friend, a wolf named Fish-breath. After the first two prophecies prove true, Rikt meets Ms. Evelyn, a friendly human who offers them protection at Underwood, her boarding school for monstrous creatures and wayward wolves. Rikt soon learns things at Underwood are not what they seem and suspects the other children are in danger. With the help of a servant troll girl and a neurotic faun, Rikt must uncover the mystery of Underwood before he learns first-hand what horrors await at the bottom of an ancient well.

The Wolf and the Well is perfect for fans of fantasy adventure graphic novels like Amulet, Lightfall, and City of Dragons.

My Review

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite graphic novel series. I’d never heard of these books until the author approached me to ask if I’d be interested in reviewing the book. I’m so glad he reached out!

My favorite part of the series so far is the relationship between Rikt and Fish Breath, the white wolf. In the first book, Rikt forms a grudging attachment to the wolf. By the end, though, it’s clear she’s really important to him. I love that this second book in the series centers a little more around their relationship and the connection between them. It also introduces a lot of new characters and a sinister magical threat.

This book is one of those where the sum is greater than its parts. The dialog is great and shows a lot of emotion and depth. The illustrations add even more, creating the sense of a woodsy magical world with the browns and greens of the color palette. They show rich character expressions and settings, too.

I’m excited to see where the series goes next. I think readers who enjoyed Estranged by Ethan Aldridge will love this one.

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Main character is a goblin named Rikt. Other characters of other fictitious races face prejudice for their identities.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Rikt has met the Goddess he grew up worshipping. He meets another deity on his journey, and a woman offers to tell his future through a tarot card reading. A strange liquid appears to transform creatures into powerful, deadly beings.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief battle sequences. Rikt witnesses what appears to be the murder of children.

Drug Content
None.

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

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs posting about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.