Category Archives: Romance

Review: The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard

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The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard cover shows a bird's skeleton, wings outstretched, with vines and blue flowers woven through the wing bones.

The Hunting Moon (The Luminaries #2)
Susan Dennard
Tor Teen
Published November 7, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Hunting Moon

The highly anticipated sequel to THE LUMINARIES by New York Times bestselling author Susan Dennard.

Winnie Wednesday has gotten everything she thought she wanted. She passed the deadly hunter trials, her family has been welcomed back into the Luminaries, and overnight, she has become a local celebrity.

The Girl Who Jumped. The Girl Who Got Bitten.

Unfortunately, it all feels wrong. For one, nobody will believe her about the new nightmare called the Whisperer that’s killing hunters each night. Everyone blames the werewolf, even though Winnie is certain the wolf is innocent.

On top of that, following her dad’s convoluted clues about the Dianas, their magic, and what happened in Hemlock Falls four years ago is leaving her with more questions than answers.

Then to complicate it all, there is still only one person who can help her: Jay Friday, the boy with plenty of problems all his own.

As bodies and secrets pile up around town, Winnie finds herself questioning what it means to be a true Wednesday and a true Luminary—and also where her fierce-hearted loyalties might ultimately have to lie.

My Review

I loved the first book in this series, so I’ve had this sequel on my reading list since I finished THE LUMINARIES. Susan Dennard has a choose-your-own adventure-type story about these characters on her social media (maybe it’s on her Substack now?), which I followed for a while, but I’ve lost track of it lately. It was a lot of fun, though.

All that to say, the Luminary world stayed fresh in my mind, and I was excited to start reading book two in the series. It was easy to dive right back in. THE HUNTING MOON begins pretty much exactly where THE LUMINARIES ends, as Winnie deals with the aftermath of her trial.

One thing that stood out to me was how the supernatural creatures’ existences are integrated into the story. Like, Winnie often makes comparisons to things based on monsters’ attributes in the story. I liked that and felt like it kept the story anchored in the alternate world in which Winnie lives.

Also– Winnie and Jay. Omg. The tension. And the way they’re both like, “You don’t like me, so whatever.” I couldn’t read fast enough. They’re so sweet and so innocent. I love it so much!

The only thing I felt disappointed about is that I felt like Winnie didn’t make as much progress toward clearing her dad’s name as I expected. From how the first book ended, I thought the second book would be the quest to clear his name and that she would at least make contact with him. That’s not the direction the story goes, though much of what happens is in service of ultimately clearing his name.

Conclusion

I liked the story in this book– it just wasn’t the one I expected to find. The mystery of the werewolf takes center stage, which is another thing that I wanted to know more about, so that easily held my attention.

All in all, I am still a hardcore Luminaries fan. I’m excited to see where the series goes from here, and I will probably try to reconnect with the live and unfolding adventure on the author’s social media again.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Some discussion of kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to shapeshift or perform magic. Winnie lives in a world where supernatural creatures exist and some attack humans.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some battle scenes between monsters and humans. Winnie is part of a clean-up crew that helps collect the remains of dead monsters or people who’ve been killed by them.

Drug Content
Teens drink beer at a party. Winnie drinks a compound that helps her heal but also makes her seem high.

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

Review: A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar

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

A Million to One
Adiba Jaigirdar
HarperCollins
Published December 13, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About A Million to One

Adiba Jaigirdar, author of one of Time‘s Best YA books of all time, gives Titanic an Ocean’s 8 makeover in a heist for a treasure aboard the infamous ship that sank in the Atlantic many years ago.

A thief. An artist. A acrobat. An actress. While Josefa, Emilie, Hinnah, and Violet seemingly don’t have anything in common, they’re united in one goal: stealing the Rubaiyat, a jewel-encrusted book aboard the RMS Titanic that just might be the golden ticket to solving their problems.

But careless mistakes, old grudges, and new romance threaten to jeopardize everything they’ve worked for and put them in incredible danger when tragedy strikes. While the odds of pulling off the heist are slim, the odds of survival are even slimmer . . .

Perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper and Girl in the Blue Coat, this high-seas heist from the author of The Henna Wars is an immersive story that makes readers forget one important detail— the ship sinks.

My Review

I think my two favorite things about this book are that it’s an all-female heist and that it’s a diverse cast. The heist is carried out by four women, each with a special talent. Emilie, the forger, is Haitian and French and has romantic feelings for another woman. Hinnah is Indian and an immigrant to Ireland. She’s also an acrobat. Violet has an uncanny ability to charm her way into anything she wants. Josefa, the strategist, is hoping to help her younger brother escape an orphanage in Croatia through this job’s success.

Though at times I felt like the historical details were slim, I often lost myself in the descriptions of the Titanic. I loved the way the author described the opulence of the vessel juxtaposed against the unfolding disaster as the ship began to sink.

I also really enjoyed each of the main characters’ points of view. Each one felt specific and unique. It seemed like the chapters just flew past as I was reading, too. I read almost this whole book in a single day, which isn’t usual for me these days.

On the whole, I super enjoyed the intersection of all the elements in A MILLION TO ONE. I would love to see more historical stories like this.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Josefa is Croatian and likes women romantically. Hinnah is Indian and estranged from her family. Emilie is Haitian and French and interested in women romantically.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two women.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. A man pulls a knife on the girls. He holds one at knifepoint. A man with a knife pursues Josefa and the others. The ship sinks. Vague references to people drowning or having drowned.

Drug Content
Passengers drink alcohol with dinner. One character gets a bit tipsy.

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

Review: Valiant Ladies by Melissa Grey

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

Valiant Ladies
Melissa Grey
Feiwel & Friends
Published June 14, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Valiant Ladies

Two teen vigilantes set off on an action-packed investigation to expose corruption and deliver justice in Valiant Ladies, Melissa Grey’s YA historical novel inspired by real seventeenth century Latinx teenagers known as the Valiant Ladies of Potosí.

By day Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are proper young seventeenth-century ladies. But when night falls, they trade in their silks and lace for swords and muskets, venturing out into the vibrant, bustling, crime-ridden streets of Potosí in the Spanish Empire’s Viceroyalty of Peru. They pass their time fighting, gambling, and falling desperately in love with one another.

Then, on the night Kiki’s engagement to the Viceroy’s son is announced, her older brother―heir to her family’s fortune―is murdered. The girls immediately embark on a whirlwind investigation that takes them from the lowliest brothels of Potosí to the highest echelons of the Spanish aristocracy.

My Review

Okay, so the premise completely sold me on reading this book. It pretty much had me at “real seventeenth-century Latinx teenagers known as the Valiant Ladies of Potosí.” I also really liked THE GIRL AT MIDNIGHT by Melissa Grey, so I was excited to read another book by her.

The cover copy also mentions them taking on the patriarchy, and like, I guess they do fight some individual men. I kept waiting for that to solidify into a larger conspiracy or something. For them to have a more overt victory over a system that oppressed women. I don’t know. Maybe I missed something.

I liked Ana and Kiki’s characters. I felt like the romantic storyline was a little uneven. There was a lot of focus on it at the beginning and then almost no focus on it for a while and then lots of focus on it again. I don’t know if that was supposed to be because Kiki got engaged, and so Ana backed way off, and Kiki repressed her feelings? It wasn’t really clear to me, but maybe I missed some more subtle clues.

Unanswered Questions

There are several places in the story where the girls make choices that really don’t make sense to me. At one point, they go to a brothel looking for a girl who lives there. This is the same place Ana grew up, so the girls are familiar with it. For some reason, they go at night. Guards won’t let them in. They get caught when they break into the girl’s room (which they find completely destroyed). The owner (who raised Ana) asks the girls to leave quietly.

Instead of asking her what happened to the obviously destroyed room and where the girl is, they attack the guards and kill one of them. It just seemed weird to me that it didn’t occur to them to ask the owner what was going on or to assume maybe she hired guards to protect the rest of the girls. At the least, they might want to know why the room was destroyed or what happened.

There are some other places where it felt like maybe some scenes got deleted, and the information in them maybe didn’t make it back into the surviving part of the story if that makes sense? When Kiki’s brother is murdered, for some reason, everyone assumes he died by suicide, but no one really explains why they think this? It was kind of odd. There were other instances where characters made assumptions that didn’t really make sense to me, too. It left me wondering if these were things that had been more obvious to the author but just weren’t as clear to me.

I’m not sure what happened.

Conclusion

On the whole, I love that this book raises awareness about Ana Lezama de Urinza and Dona Eustaquia de Sonza. If you’re interested in knowing more about them, Broads You Should Know has a podcast episode on them.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
All characters are Latinx. The main characters, Anna and Kiki, are attracted to women.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing and attraction between two girls. Ana grew up in a brothel. Both girls are friends with a sex worker.

Spiritual Content
A family seeks to have a loved one buried, but the church refuses since it’s believed that the man died by suicide. References to demonic rituals. Kiki and Ana attend a funeral service at a church.

Violent Content
Situations of peril and battle scenes. Ana and Kiki fight criminals together. A group of men attack Ana. One punches her in the face. They find the body of a murdered young woman. A woman reveals scars that indicate someone tortured her. Men kidnap two women, threatening them.

Ana attacks a man who then sends his accomplices to beat her up. Ana discovers a man’s body hanging from a tree.

Drug Content
Several characters drink alcohol, including Ana. While drunk, she makes some choices she regrets later.

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Review: With or Without You by Eric Smith

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With or Without You
Eric Smith
Inkyard Press
Published November 7, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About With or Without You

New from Eric Smith comes a delightful YA rom-com about two teens caught in the middle of their families’ orchestrated rivalry between their Philly cheesesteak food trucks.

All’s fair in love and (food truck) war.

Everyone knows Jordan Plazas and Cindy Ortiz hate each other.

According to many viral videos of their public shouting matches, the Plazas and Ortiz families have a well-known food truck rivalry. Jordan and Cindy have spent all of high school making cheesesteaks and slinging insults at each other across their shared Philadelphia street.

But the truth? They’re in love, and it’s all just an act for the tourists.

When the fake feud lands them a reality TV show pilot, Jordan and Cindy find themselves having to lie on a much bigger scale. Trapped between pursuing their dreams or their love, can they find a way to have their cheesesteak and eat it too?

My Review

I think my favorite thing about this book is that it gives you a standalone romance storyline, but the kind of plot you don’t usually get unless you read a series. Jordan and Cindy are together at the start of the story, so there’s none of the figuring out if the other person has feelings. It’s all about the tension between the public rivalry between Cindy and Jordan and their families and their private lives, which include a romantic relationship.

There’s a lot of cool stuff happening in this book, too. From loads of musical references to very different approaches to food truck fare and ingredients, I felt like I got the characters and could easily picture their reactions to things that happened.

I also think the story has a great balance in focus on its characters. Both Jordan’s and Cindy’s parents have unique personalities, but none of them dominate the story. Understanding their characters helps us better understand Cindy and Jordan, but they also feel like fully developed characters on their own.

One of my favorite things about the book (besides the excellent breakdown of a perfect breakfast sandwich) is the banter between the characters. I loved the snarky comments and goofy exchanges with friends. Those scenes felt natural and made me laugh out loud more than once.

I think readers who enjoy books about food and friendships or reality TV and sweet romance will find so much to love in this fun tribute to Philadelphia and food truck life.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Both Cindy and Jordan are Latine and American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A boy calls a girl some unkind names. Banter escalates into a bit of a scuffle, but it’s quickly defused.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of WITH OR WITHOUT YOU in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Before the Devil Knows You’re Here by Autumn Krause

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Before the Devil Knows You’re Here
Autumn Krause
Peachtree Teen
Published October 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Before the Devil Knows You’re Here

A deliciously dark folk horror for fans of Maggie Stiefvater and Erin Craig, blending the tall tales of Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan with Faustian elements, and centering a fierce Mexican-American poet on a quest to rescue her brother.

1836. Wisconsin Territory. All Catalina has left is her little brother—Mama died years ago, and Papa was buried just yesterday. She and Jose Luis are alone now, in their ramshackle cabin on the edge of the Wisconsin wilderness, with the cold weather coming.

As Catalina sets plans to ensure their survival, a strange man appears—a man covered in bark, leaves growing from his head, and sap dripping from his eyes. Before Catalina can stop him, he scoops Jose Luis up and disappears. He leaves behind a strange bird with crimson wings. She can’t let this man—if that’s what he is—have her brother. With no idea where they’ve gone, she tracks the bird in hopes it will lead her to Jose Luis.

Along the way, she finds help from a young Paul Bunyan, whose life has also been changed by the Man of Sap. As they travel deeper into the Northwoods, they uncover more of the Man of Sap’s history and the connections he and Catalina share, ultimately learning her fate is deeply entwined with his—set in seeds planted long ago—and now, giving her the power to change his life or end it.

My Review

The cover of this book somehow suggested a totally different story to me. I kind of wish that it included some of the story elements or characters– Catalina with her strength and pride, and Paul with his axe. An apple tree, heavy with fruit.

At any rate, I loved the concept of this story from the beginning. Taking familiar American folklore and adding Faustian elements to it created a high-stakes story that felt like it was set in old America. I loved the magical elements and eeriness of the tale.

It’s called horror, and there are a few strange/scary moments. I thought on the whole that it was more eerie than terrifying.

I loved the characters in this book, from the story of John (Johnny Appleseed) and the curse he encounters to Catalina and her quest to rescue her missing brother. Paul Bunyan’s character was really cool, too. He almost had that folk hero too-good-to-be-real thing going on, but I liked the way the author layered his character so there was more to him than met the eye.

This is a fairly quick read at less than 250 pages, which is great for anyone looking for a shorter young adult fantasy novel. I think readers who enjoy creepy stories and historical fantasy or reimagined history will like this one a lot.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The main character and her brother are biracial: white and Mexican American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently. In one scene, someone says something racist toward Catalina’s family.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
One character is the devil in disguise. A man receives a curse that turns him into a tree-like person, with bark for skin and sap for tears. He must carry a heavy satchel of seeds that grow into trees that produce poisoned apples that seduce people into eating them.

Violent Content
Situations of peril and some scary imagery. Catalina witnesses someone’s death from poison. Brief battles include fatality.

Drug Content
Poisoned apples kill anyone who eats them.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE HERE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Flower and Thorn by Rati Mehrotra

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Flower and Thorn
Rati Mehrotra
Wednesday Books
Published October 17, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Flower and Thorn

One girl. One boy.
A promise broken.
A magic stolen.

Irinya has wanted to be a flower hunter ever since her mother disappeared into the mysterious mist of the Rann salt flats one night. Now seventeen, Irinya uses her knowledge of magical flowers to help her caravan survive in the harsh desert. When her handsome hunting partner and childhood friend finds a priceless silver spider lily–said to be able to tear down kingdoms and defeat an entire army–Irinya knows this is their chance for a better life.

Until Irinya is tricked by an attractive imposter.

Irinya’s fight to recover the priceless flower and to fix what she’s done takes her on a dangerous journey, one she’s not sure she’ll survive. She has no choice but to endure it if she hopes to return home and mend the broken heart of the boy she’s left behind.

My Review

One of the things I’ve learned about myself as a reader lately is that I struggle with long chapters. Chapter length isn’t something I usually know about a book before I start reading. Some books genuinely need longer chapters because of how they’re structured. This one is one of those. But, because I am a reader who struggles with long chapters, it took me a long time to feel like I hit my stride with this book.

Once I did, though, I was completely hooked. Like, I enjoyed the story from the early scenes, but it felt like it was taking a long time to read, and I kept having to stop mid-chapter, which really threw me off when I started reading again the next time.

I loved the story’s setting. It’s set in India at a time when the country is besieged by the Portuguese. The characters hope to use magic flowers as a weapon in the war, and hope to keep their existence secret from the invaders, though it isn’t clear if they can.

The story has some commentary on markets and unfair systems, particularly those that marginalize nomad communities. I thought the commentary on that was thoughtful and well-integrated into the story. Irinya hopes to help her people find a way to sell the magic flowers for a fair price, as opposed to the current system, in which a few powerful, wealthy individuals control the system.

I really liked Irinya’s character. She’s stubborn, willful, and deeply loyal to her people. She’s fierce and brave. Definitely my kind of heroine.

Conclusion

Definitely by the 20 or 25% mark, I was deeply invested in the story and needed to know what really happened with the mysterious stranger who’d promised the world to Irinya and the deep betrayal between her and her best friend, Fardan. I’m super glad I read this book, and I’m eager for more by this author. I really enjoyed her debut, NIGHT OF THE RAVEN, DAWN OF THE DOVE, as well.

Content Notes for Flower and Thorn

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Characters are Indian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Two women are in a romantic relationship. Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Some flowers have magic abilities to heal or travel through time or space. Irinya can hear the flowers speaking to her.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Irinya sees a person killed by deadly wasp stings. Several characters engage in battle with swords and other weapons. Some are fatally injured. Irinya uses a blowpipe with poison thorns as a weapon. Thugs kill a man with a knife. A woman hits someone with a cooking pot in a battle.

Drug Content
References to alcoholic drinks.

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