Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

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King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars (King of Scars #1)
Leigh Bardugo
Imprint
Published on January 29, 2019

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About King of Scars

The dashing young king, Nikolai Lantsov, has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war–and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, Nikolai must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha general, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried–and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

My Review

Okay. So. I went into this book with some big reservations. When I read SHADOW AND BONE, I was pretty solidly team Alina and Nikolai, so I kind of never got over the fact that they didn’t end up together. I also really didn’t feel like I had a deep connection to or understanding of Zoya, so I wasn’t sure how to feel about reading her perspective. I was looking forward to reading more of Nina’s story, but also not sure I was ready for the wall of grief she’d be experiencing.

So that’s where I was when I picked up the book. It took me a while to get into Zoya’s character. I’m kind of a fool for witty banter, so the back-and-forth between her and Nikolai or her and other members of their team definitely drew me in. Her backstory also deepened her a LOT.

That last quarter of the book, though. Like, I was enjoying reading and getting more into the story all the way through, but once I got to that last 25%, I was definitely hooked. The stakes went up SO much. Zoya and the dragon. Just. Wow. Nina and her plot to change the game in Fyerda. So amazing.

So yep. I pretty much went from finishing the last page of KING OF SCARS to immediately opening up to the first page of RULE OF WOLVES because now I need to see where this ultimately goes. I’m calling that a win.

I think the SIX OF CROWS duology is still my favorite of the Grisha books, but this one is a very close second.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Nina is bisexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A soldier makes a comment that a girl looks like she’d be fun in bed. Nina admires another woman’s beauty in a romantic way.

Spiritual Content
References and some deference to the Fjerdan god, Djel. In Ravka, the people mainly worship saints. There’s some exploration of what it means to be a saint and who should qualify for sainthood.

Violent Content
A horse nearly tramples a soldier, injuring her head. Poison and drug addiction cause injury and death. Some scenes show battle violence. An assassin kills someone and injures someone else. An army of the dead attack a group of soldiers and others.

Drug Content
A highly addictive drug called Jurda Parem changes a Grisha’s power (it’s fatal to non-Grisha) and causes immediate, intense addiction. Nina has taken it before in a dire situation and now carries a sensitivity to it. Nikolai has a team studying the drug looking for a cure or a form that enhances power without creating an addiction.

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Review: Girl, Unstrung by Claire Handscombe

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

Girl, Unstrung
Claire Handscombe
Published November 23, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Girl, Unstrung

You might think it’s fun to grow up around Hollywood with semi-famous parents.

You’d be wrong, and Clara Cassidy would be the first to tell you so.

She’s fourteen, figuring out life with three siblings and a new stepmom, and navigating her freshman year at a stupid high school where she doesn’t even want to be. She was supposed to be at arts school by now.

It’s fine, though, totally fine: she’s going to practice her viola extra hard and get into LACHSA next year. She’s definitely 100 percent focused and not even slightly going to get distracted by Tim, the sophomore Scrabble champion with the swoopy hair and the chin dimple. Nope. Not her.

My Review

I liked a lot of things about GIRL, UNSTRUNG, but I feel like overall my review is going to be mixed.

One of the elements I loved were Clara’s relationships with her family members, especially her stepmom, Ebba. It’s complicated, emotional, and I felt like Clara actually grew the most as a person in the context of that relationship. It felt really real and rich to me.

I found myself wishing that she experienced similar development in her other relationships, though. Clara tended to be highly critical, and while that totally tracked for an overachieving musician, I felt like there were some points where her behavior became toxic. I found myself wanting those moments to be addressed in more than a passing way.

In the story, Clara lists her age as fourteen and a half, but she seemed older than that. It made me wonder about the decision to set her age there instead of bumping her up to fifteen.

That said, I appreciate that this book steps into the sort of dead zone between middle grade and young adult fiction. There are a few books with main characters at fourteen, but not tons. I think the book just felt a little bit divided to me on which age group it belongs in. The family relationships and pursuit of music as well as the first crush elements felt more like upper middle grade. But the obsession with sexy underwear and when to have sex felt more like themes you’d see in young adult lit.

Conclusion

I did really enjoy the descriptions of Clara’s passion for music and her ability, and her foray into the world of competitive Scrabble.

Like I said, I liked a lot of things in the book, but overall, kind of a mixed bag for me. I think readers who enjoy stories about musicians or blended families could find a lot to love here.

Content Notes for Girl Unstrung

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Clara is super interested in having a boy kiss her. She shops for sexy underwear and discusses how far she’d be comfortable going with a boy with one of her friends. A friend relates her own experience making out with her boyfriend with no shirts or bra.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some stories of devastating injuries.

Drug Content
Clara sneaks into her parents’ bathroom and grabs a Percocet from her stepmother’s prescription bottle.

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 GIRL, UNSTRUNG in exchange for my honest review.

I loved some of the characters and relationships but struggled with other parts.

Review: Tidesong by Wendy Xu

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Tidesong
Weny Xu
Quiltree Books
Published November 16, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Tidesong

Sophie is a young witch whose mother and grandmother pressure her to attend the Royal Magic Academy–the best magic school in the realm–even though her magic is shaky at best. To train for her entrance exams, Sophie is sent to relatives she’s never met.

Cousin Sage and Great-Aunt Lan seem more interested in giving Sophie chores than in teaching her magic. Frustrated, Sophie attempts magic on her own, but the spell goes wrong, and she accidentally entangles her magic with the magic of a young water dragon named Lir.

Lir is trapped on land and can’t remember where he came from. Even so, he’s everything Sophie isn’t–beloved by Sophie’s family and skilled at magic. With his help, Sophie might just ace her entrance exams, but that means standing in the way of Lir’s attempts to regain his memories. Sophie knows what she’s doing is wrong, but without Lir’s help, can she prove herself?

My Review

I don’t read graphic novels very often, but I have really enjoyed the few I’ve read– and this one is no exception! I didn’t realize until I began reading TIDESONG how much I missed this style of storytelling. Once I finished reading it, I looked up MOONCAKES by Wendy Xu, and I’ve heard so many great things about it that I want to order myself a copy of that, too. I also had to look and see if Ethan Aldridge had anything new coming out, and yes! He does! So I can tell next year is going to include some amazing graphic novel stories, and I’m excited.

But back to TIDESONG. I loved the vibrant depictions of characters in this book. It’s always fascinating to me the way that illustrations and a few words in the hangs of a brilliant storyteller can bring a story so fully to life. I felt like I knew the characters and could hear them in my head. I loved Sophie so much.

The story hit the perfect level of complexity, too. Like, a lot happens, and there are some unexpected moments that pull things together in different ways. It never felt overwhelming and there weren’t any moments that dragged. The pacing was perfect.

I’m definitely interested in adding this one to my family library. I’ve seen several reviews listing TIDESONG as perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli. I think it’s also a great fit for fans of Ethan Aldridge’s The Changeling King duology.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Written by a Chinese-American author and artist.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to do magic and are called Water Witches. Sea Dragons also have power and some are able to transform into a human form.

Violent Content
One of Sophie’s guardians uses a lot of strict rules and sometimes cruel words. Sophie also has a deeply negative voice in her head that says critical and hurtful things to her.

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 TIDESONG in exchange for my honest review.

Review: You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

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You’ve Reached Sam
Dustin Thao
Wednesday Books
Published November 9, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About You’ve Reached Sam

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.

Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.

And Sam picks up the phone.

In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.

My Review

I love how out of the box this story is. The phone calls between Julie and Sam allow us to see parts of their relationship that often get lost during grief– like just the normal types of conversations or the way they kind of pick at each other, the way couples sometimes do when they’ve been together a long time.

The loss of Sam impacts Julie’s whole community, and she doesn’t realize until she begins talking to him again that she’s withdrawn not only from his family but from her other friends and even her own family. At first the calls seem to help her regain her feet and process her emotions. Eventually, they morph into something else, though. And it becomes more and more clear that the calls can’t continue forever or be an alternative to saying goodbye.

I loved the way music was present in the story. One of the songs that’s really special to Julie and Sam is a song called “Fields of Gold,” which I had to go listen to as soon as I finished reading the book. I’d heard it before, and listening to it again I felt like it fit the story so perfectly.

There are a couple places that I thought the story got a little bit choppy or seemed like it was summarizing things in a hurry to get to the next big moment. Other than that, though, I felt like YOU’VE REACHED SAM tells a beautiful story about loss that’s rich with emotions and celebrates the connections we make with the people in our lives. Readers who enjoyed WE CAN BE HEROES by Kyrie McCauley will want to check this one out, too.

Content Notes for You’ve Reached Sam

Recommended for Ages 13 up.

Representation
Julie’s boyfriend Sam is Japanese American. A minor character is gay. Other minor characters are Asian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to kissing. Sam and Julie go skinny dipping together in a lake.

Spiritual Content
Julie is able to speak with Sam through the phone, even though he’s dead.

Violent Content
A couple of fistfights.

Drug Content
Julie goes to a party where teens are drinking. She accepts a beer but plans to dump it out and refill the bottle with cranberry juice, a trick she learned from her mom.

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 YOU’VE REACHED SAM in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Marvelous by Claire Kann

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The Marvelous
Claire Kann
Swoon Reads
Published June 8, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Marvelous

Everyone thinks they know Jewel Van Hanen. Heiress turned actress turned social media darling who created the massively popular video-sharing app, Golden Rule.

After mysteriously disappearing for a year, Jewel makes her dramatic return with an announcement: she has chosen a few lucky Golden Rule users to spend an unforgettable weekend at her private estate. But once they arrive, Jewel ingeniously flips the script: the guests are now players in an elaborate estate-wide game. And she’s tailored every challenge and obstacle to test whether they have what it takes to win–at any cost.

Told from the perspective of three dazzling players–Nicole: the new queen of Golden Rule; Luna: Jewel’s biggest fan; and Stella: a brilliant outsider–this novel will charm its way into your heart and keep you guessing how it all ends because money isn’t the only thing at stake.

My Review

The concept of this book had pretty much already hooked me before I ever opened the first page. And then, the writing hit me. Wowza. I am a huge fan of Kann’s style in this book. It’s smart, a little bit sharp, and just never stops delivering great moments.

I’ve read some solve-the-riddle type stories before that, when I got to the finish of the riddle, left me feeling like, wait that was it? THE MARVELOUS absolutely delivered on an ending as fabulous as its setup.

So that’s the plot in all it’s amazing, twisty, high-stakes glory. I need to talk about the characters. At first I think I had a tendency to mix up Luna and Nicole. Maybe because of the similarity in them both not living with parents? I’m not sure. Once I was a few chapters in and knew them both better, I was mystified at myself for ever having confused them.

I loved Luna’s exuberance and her easy friendship with Alex. Nicole’s more self-contained nature and her compassion totally won me over. And then there’s Stella At All Times. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of her. Once she found her feet in the game and once I felt like I really got into her head, I couldn’t wait for the chapters from her point-of-view.

THE MARVELOUS is one of those books that I thought I’d enjoy but not rave about, and I was so wrong. There’s SO MUCH about this book that I loved. If you like twisty, mystery-slash-riddle stories with strong characters, you have to check this one out. I think fans of ONE OF US IS LYING will love THE MARVELOUS.

Check Out Twinkl’s 2021 TBR List

My review of THE MARVELOUS is featured on a book resource site called Twinkl in their 2021 TBR List! You can see it and a whole bunch of other great reading recommendations in that list. It’s totally worth checking out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are Black. A couple characters are LGBT+

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to attraction, some hand holding. A girl falls asleep with a boy.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some dangerous situations. No blood and gore.

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 The Marvelous in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

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The Marrow Thieves
Cherie Dimaline
Dancing Cat Books
Published May 22, 2017

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Marrow Thieves

In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America’s Indigenous people, and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world.

But getting the marrow, and dreams, means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a fifteen-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones and take refuge from the “recruiters” who seek them out to bring them to the marrow-stealing “factories.”

My Review of The Marrow Thieves

I picked up this book without reading the back cover copy, so I was not prepared for the story at all. In a way, I think that was really good because it allowed me to feel the full force of my shock as I took in what was happening in those opening scenes. THE MARROW THIEVES isn’t an easy read, and it’s not supposed to be.

The writing is really beautiful though, if that makes sense. It’s not overly poetic or lyrical necessarily, though it does drift that direction especially in its descriptions of nature and the natural world. It’s raw and gripping and there’s a desperateness about it that made me feel like I needed to keep reading.

The characters are really well-crafted. I felt like I knew them and could picture them, and sometimes even predict what they were going to do. I loved Miig so much. And Rose, Wab, and Minerva! Such great characters.

I think the only thing that felt weird to me was how little French thinks about his brother, who’d been captured. At first he thinks of him a lot, but then not so much for the rest of the story. I didn’t expect that, especially with how much the story focused on family and those left behind.

Besides that, though, this book totally gripped me. It’s dark and a bit grim, but also threaded with hope and strength and courage. I think readers who liked THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy or maybe THE FEVER KING by Victoria Lee would definitely enjoy this one.

Content Notes for The Marrow Thieves

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
All central characters are Indigenous.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. One scene shows some intimate touching. References to sex. Kissing between two men. Two men in the story are married.

Spiritual Content
Shows some beliefs and traditions of Indigenous people.

Violent Content – Trigger warning for gun violence and violence against women and children.
Situations of peril. Multiple scenes showing violent capture or fighting. More than one woman shares her story which involves brutality against her. A child is murdered. Those who’ve escaped the schools or recruiters often have horrible scars.

Drug Content
A couple characters smoke tobacco. One character gets high on some kind of pills.

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