Category Archives: Romance

Review: Song of the Forever Rains by E. J. Mellow

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,
Song of the Forever Rains by E. J. Mellow

Song of the Forever Rains (Mousai #1)
E. J. Mellow
Montlake
Published July 1, 2021

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About Song of the Forever Rains

The Thief Kingdom is a place hidden within the world of Aadlior. Many whisper of its existence, but few have found this place, where magic and pleasure abound. There, the mysterious Thief King reigns supreme with the help of the Mousai, a trio of revered and feared sorceresses.

Larkyra Bassette may be the youngest of the Mousai, but when she sings her voice has the power to slay monsters. When it’s discovered the Duke of Lachlan is siphoning a poisonous drug from the Thief Kingdom and using it to abuse his tenants, Larkyra is offered her first solo mission to stop the duke. Eager to prove herself, Larkyra accepts by posing as the duke’s potential bride. But her plans grow complicated when she finds herself drawn to Lord Darius Mekenna, Lachlan’s rightful heir. Soon she suspects Darius has his own motivations for ridding Lachlan of the corrupt duke. Larkyra and Darius must learn to trust each other if there is to be any hope of saving the people of Lachlan—and themselves.

Welcome to the world of Aadilor, where lords and ladies can be murderers and thieves, and the most alluring notes are often the deadliest. Dare to listen?

From the award-winning author of the Dreamland series comes a new dark romantic fantasy about a young woman finding hope in her powers of destruction.

My Review

I liked a lot of things about SONG OF THE FOREVER RAINS. One is the way both central characters wrestled with guilt over a parent’s death. The other is how things happened to challenge what they believed to be true about their own role in those deaths. I found those emotional journeys pretty compelling.

Another thing I liked was the constant banter between characters– especially Larkyra and her sisters, but also between Larkyra and Darius, too. I thought the dialog as a whole was really sharp and well-crafted.

It took me a little while to get into the story, though, and I’m still not totally sure why. The prologue is interesting, but doesn’t intersect the story for a while. So, maybe I was distracted trying to figure out how things pieced together? I didn’t expect the story to be told from the youngest sister’s perspective based on the prologue. The prologue was in an omniscient viewpoint, so maybe it just took me time to adjust to that.

Darius is a strong character and so determined to do what’s right, which I really liked. I think I would have liked his character more if he’d had some kind of flaw, though. Sometimes I had a hard time really believing in him because he just seemed so perfect.

Once I hit about the 25% mark, though, I was really invested in the story. I read the rest of the book probably more quickly than I read that first 100 pages. I liked the first part, but once I got into the story, I definitely invested a lot more time and energy into reading all the way through to the end. When I had to stop and take breaks, I kept thinking about it in between.

I think readers who enjoyed DOWN COMES THE NIGHT by Allison Saft or THE WAKING LAND by Callie Bates will want to check this one out for sure.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. Some minor characters are described as having black or brown skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between man and woman. One extended explicit sex scene and several references to it afterward.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to use magic.

Violent Content – Trigger warning for self-harm and torture/abuse.
A character uses magic to control the actions of another person, including using them to harm the person. Some scenes show or reference graphic self-harm.

Drug Content
People without magic sometimes become addicted to a substance which gives them false magic for a short time. Even the good characters in the story, while acknowledging how destructive the addiction becomes, ignore the issue as long as using the false magic only happens under certain controlled circumstances.

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

Review: Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

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Girl on a Wire (Cirque American #1)
Gwenda Bond
Skyscape
Published October 1, 2014


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About Girl on a Wire

Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni’s dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies.

Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather—an infamous object of bad luck—planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque.

As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.

My Review

So I guess it’s been more than four years since I read the companion novel to this one, and when I reread my review, I said it would be smarter to read this one first so you didn’t get any spoilers. Fortunately for me, my reading brain is so porous that I have zero memory of anything that I read in GIRL IN THE SHADOWS that might have spoiled GIRL ON A WIRE for me. (In fact, I kind of want to go back and reread it to see what happens to Jules and Remy after this story ends.)

First of all, I loved the circus setting. It felt live and exciting and full of adrenaline and I had no trouble picturing the scenes or imagining the smells and sounds of the circus performances.

I thought the nod to the story of Romeo and Juliet was fun and sweet– Remy’s full name is apparently Romeo and Jules’s is Julieta, and they’re from families with a long history of rivalry and distrust. I enjoyed the mystery and suspense as they learned how to trust each other and work together to figure out who was trying to sabotage Jules and her family.

I thought the story was a really fun adventure to read and a nice escape from reality. I’m only sorry it took me so long to read it!

You can check out my review of the companion novel, GIRL IN THE SHADOWS here.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Jules and her family are Italian Americans. Remy and his family are Latinx Americans.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used once.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Jules wonders about sex and how to know when she’s ready for that kind of intimacy in a relationship.

Spiritual Content
Jules’s grandmother reads Tarot cards and believes she can perform magic. She also believes that certain artifacts contain a kind of bad luck curse that will hurt anyone connected with them. One item contains good luck for whoever possesses it.

Violent Content
Two boys square off to fight. A performer is killed in an accident during a performance.

Drug Content
Jules (and other performers) drinks champagne to celebrate her success.

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Review: The Fever King by Victoria Lee

Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

The Fever King (Feverwake #1)
Victoria Lee
Skyscape
Published March 1, 2019

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Fever King

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.

Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

My Review

THE FEVER KING is a really intense read packed with so many things. It starts with a dark dystopian setting. The government struggles to control a deadly pandemic and uses it as an excuse to harm refugees. Add to that a hopeless but desperate love between two boys.

Noam is a hopeful revolutionary. So many times his hope and trust are pitted against pretty sinister things, and I definitely got caught up in worrying for him when it seemed like he was trusting the wrong people and worrying for him when he took reckless risks, led by his passion for his cause.

I felt like the breadcrumbs of the story were perfectly laid out so that I picked up on hints about what was going to happen and then felt a lot of suspense watching it all play out. There were crushing moments of betrayal and moments that had me cheering at a character who came through.

One thing I will say about this book, though, is that it’s pretty short on female characters. The ones that are mentioned are often rallying points for Noam’s emotions. His grief over his mother’s death. His outrage at his friend’s father who purposefully got her whole family sick, hoping they’d become Witchings. I would have enjoyed seeing more active female roles in the story.

I think readers who enjoy books by Cassandra Clare will like the forbidden romance and dark story world of THE FEVER KING. Please check out the content section below, especially the trigger warnings.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Noam is Jewish and Colombian and bisexual. His mentor is also Jewish. Another character is Brown (perhaps Iranian American) and gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty often.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger warning for rape of a minor.
Contains brief a brief scene alluding to sexual abuse and rape followed by someone confronting the victim about what happened to him.

Two boys kissing. One scene briefly describes them having sex.

Spiritual Content
Survivors of the virus have magical abilities. Noam touches a mezuzah before entering a home. References to celebrating Shabbat.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning for pandemic
Noam goes to a protest rally that turns violent. He stops a group of men from kicking a girl by pointing a gun at them. Noam acquires bruises from his sparring sessions with his mentor. Someone murders a prominent government official by stabbing them multiple times. Someone murders a prominent political figure by electrocuting them.

There are several scenes and descriptions of people very ill, suffering and dying with the virus.

Drug Content
Dara and his friends drink a lot of alcohol in multiple scenes. One girl does lines of cocaine. One adult character smokes cigarettes.

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

Review: A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro

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

A Question of Holmes (Charlotte Holmes #4)
Brittany Cavallaro
Katherine Tegen Books
Published March 5, 2019

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About A Question of Holmes

Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson think they’re finally in the clear. They’ve left Sherringford School—and the Moriartys—behind for a pre-college summer program at Oxford University. A chance to start from scratch and explore dating for the first time, while exploring a new city with all the freedom their program provides.

But when they arrive, Charlotte is immediately drawn into a new case: a series of accidents have been befalling the members of the community theater troupe in Oxford, and now, on the eve of their production of Hamlet, they’re starting all over again. What once seemed like a comedy of errors is now a race to prevent the next tragedy—before Charlotte or Jamie is the next victim.

My Review

First, I want to say this: I’m not very good at sticking to a series, much less a series with more than three books (gasp!), but I listened to most of the books in the Charlotte Holmes series this year during the pandemic, and having something energetic and fun to look forward to at the end of the day really helped me get through some stressful and difficult days. I love this series for that, and I am really glad I listened to all four books.

That said, A QUESTION OF HOLMES wasn’t my favorite book in the series. I liked the idea, and the mystery itself– the theater group, the disastrous events, the fact that Jamie and Charlotte had to figure out how to work a case when their reputations were already known to the people involved.

I think I just wanted the story to tie together some of the big rivalries and larger elements from the earlier books, and there’s a hint of that, but it didn’t feel like enough to me, if that makes sense. I wanted more of that, and instead the book kind of reads like a standalone mystery featuring some familiar characters.

Despite all that, I love that the story continues in the epilogue and we get a glimpse of Charlotte and Jamie and who they might be going forward into adult life. I thought that was a really cool way to end the series, kind of a final gift to readers.

I’m still really glad I read this one and have no regrets about spending my one monthly audible credit on A QUESTION OF HOLMES. It was a lot of fun, and I think anyone looking for a good escape read should check out the series.

Here are my reviews of earlier books in the Charlotte Holmes Series:

#1 A Study in Charlotte

#2 The Last of August

#3 A Case for Jamie

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Charlotte is from London. Jamie is white American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. They sleep in the same bed.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. A girl is missing, possibly murdered. A woman dies in a suspicious manner.

Drug Content
Charlotte and Jamie drink or pretend to drink alcohol with a group of teens who get very drunk.

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

Review: The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro

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The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes #3)
Brittany Cavallaro
Katherine Tegen Books
March 6, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Case for Jamie

The hotly anticipated and explosive third book in the New York Times bestselling Charlotte Holmes series.

It’s been a year since the shocking death of August Moriarty, and Jamie and Charlotte haven’t spoken.

Jamie is going through the motions at Sherringford, trying to finish his senior year without incident, with a nice girlfriend he can’t seem to fall for.

Charlotte is on the run, from Lucien Moriarty and from her own mistakes. No one has seen her since that fateful night on the lawn in Sussex—and Charlotte wants it that way. She knows she isn’t safe to be around. She knows her Watson can’t forgive her.

Holmes and Watson may not be looking to reconcile, but when strange things start happening, it’s clear that someone wants the team back together. Someone who has been quietly observing them both. Making plans. Biding their time.

Someone who wants to see one of them suffer and the other one dead.

My Review

I feel like suddenly this year I’ve become such a series reader! THE CASE FOR JAMIE is another book I listened to through my insomnia (during election week), and it was such a great book to distract me from the things that were on my mind.

I liked that in this one, the chapters alternate between Charlotte and Jamie’s perspectives, where in the past the story has been mostly Jamie’s point-of-view. For much of the story the two are separated, so that also brought something different to this one, because instead of Jamie reporting on and analyzing and pining after Charlotte, he kind of works on his own stuff a bit. I was into it.

Another thing that I enjoyed was again getting to see the relationship between Jamie’s dad and Charlotte’s uncle, so a previous generation of Holmes and Watson besties. That was interesting and fun, too.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, I definitely recommend that you start with book one, A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE, because the stories do continue and build on one another. This one especially has lots of threads in it that relate to things that happened in the first two books.

I think fans of mysteries and star-crossed-ish romances will love the fast-paced adventure of this series and the complex relationship between Charlotte and Jamie.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Charlotte is from London. Jamie is white American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to a conversation between boy and girl about whether they should have sex. One scene hints that two characters are about to have sex and then cuts to pick up afterward with no details about the exchange.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. In one scene, a man beats a boy. A boy beats a man. Several times guns are pointed at people. A couple times people are shot.

Drug Content
Charlotte is an opiate addict. She carries two pills with her and takes a picture of them each day to send to a contact for accountability. Jamie and his friends attend a party where teens are drinking alcohol.

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

Review: We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published June 8, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This

Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response.

Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.

Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher.

Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.

A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author of TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW.

My Review

While I’m definitely not disillusioned about love, I felt like Quinn’s character really resonated with me. Her feelings about being trapped in the family business and being at a loss as to what her real passions are felt so real that sometimes I squirmed while reading (in a good way though). It was really fun reading a book about a romantic guy, too– I don’t see a lot of those, and I found Tareq absolutely charming.

I loved the way the story explored Quinn’s connection with music, though. I don’t know much about the harp, so I can’t speak to the technique, but I found the performances engrossing and believable. And the way Quinn’s journey with the harp guided her through other conflicts in her life was really cool. I loved that.

The romance was great, too– Quinn’s fears were relatable and the conflicts had me reading one more chapter long past my bedtime, and even peeking ahead a couple times. (What can I say, sometimes I just NEED to know what happens so I’m emotionally prepared.)

I think fans of Solomon’s other books will enjoy this one a lot, and readers looking for a summer romance with a bit of spice should definitely add this to their reading lists.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Quinn and her family are Jewish. Tareq and his family are Muslim.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some references to sex and explicit sexual content between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Some references to Jewish and Muslim beliefs and traditions.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Some scenes show teens drinking alcohol.

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