Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner—the only player without a dragon steed—is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.
But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire—a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form—the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport.
How to Train Your Dragon meets Quidditch through the Ages in this debut fantasy, set in an alternate contemporary world, in which dragons and their riders compete in an international sports tournament.
My Review
The comparison to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and Quidditch definitely fits this book. Once Lana joins the Blazewrath team, lots of chapters take place on the field, describing the game and her team’s efforts to win.
Because Lana isn’t a dragon rider with a shared bond and closeness to any of the dragons, they are all pretty minor characters. I thought it was cool that different regions had different types of dragons, and that the dragons themselves had lots of varying abilities and behaviors.
I liked Lana– she’s smart and determined. She pursues the truth about the Sire no matter the risk to herself, and she stays bold and committed even in the face of danger.
I liked a LOT of things about the book. It’s a wild adventure, and full of Puerto Rican pride and the love of found family. I think fans of DRAGON WARRIOR by Katie Zhao will like the high adventure and alternate contemporary setting. Readers who are interested in but not quite ready for LOBIZONA by Romina Garber should add THE BLAZEWRATH GAMES to their bookshelves.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.
Representation Lana and her teammates are Puerto Rican. A couple minor characters are gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Moderate profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Some flirting, but nothing beyond that.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Some scenes show brief but graphic violence, including a throat being cut. References to torture and execution. The Blazewrath game includes combat-style play which can result in serious injury.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
From bestselling author Jillian Cantor comes a smart, edgy update of Jane Austen’s beloved classic Emma.
Emma Woodhouse is a genius at math, but clueless about people. After all, people are unreliable. They let you down—just like Emma’s sister, Izzy, did this year, when she moved to California for college. But numbers…those you can count on. (No pun intended.)
Emma’s senior year is going to be all about numbers, and seeing how far they can take her. When she and George, her Coding Club co-president, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born—a matchmaking app that goes far beyond swiping, using algorithms to calculate compatibility. George disapproves of Emma’s idea, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.
Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other and her own feelings defy any algorithm? Emma thought math could solve everything. But there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.
My Review
As a contemporary romance, I really enjoyed CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK. I tend to like smart heroines, so it was a pretty strong possibility that I’d love Emma going into the book. And it turns out, I totally loved her.
I’m also a pretty big fan of sister relationships, so I loved the relationship between Emma and Izzy. I loved that they were so different from each other and that sometimes that caused sparks to fly and other times, they needed each other in ways that only sisters truly do.
As an update of Jane Austen’s EMMA, though, I have much more mixed feelings. I missed some of the dynamics in some of the relationships. I missed the Miss Bates of Austen’s version, in all her sweet, trying chattiness. I missed the connection between characters– the Westons and Frank (Sam) Churchill, and between Jane and Miss Bates.
In fairness, I don’t know how someone could bring all those relationships and the complexities they add AND tell CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK without adding like 100 more pages. Which I probably wouldn’t have minded once I was into the story, but I imagine the average reader might not feel quite the same! Ha.
Representation Major characters are white. Some minor characters are gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Couples hold hands. A group of senior class boys who make a bet on who can have sex with an underclass girl first. This behavior is pretty strongly condemned. Kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content Emma remembers a party her sister threw that someone brought alcohol to. She hid upstairs and didn’t participate in the party.
Note: I received a free copy of THE CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
Jillian Cantor is the author of award-winning and bestselling novels for adults and teens, including In Another Time, The Hours Count, Margot, and The Lost Letter, which was a USA Today bestseller. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Cantor lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.
Meet Revver: a little squirrel with big dreams . . . to drive a race car! His siblings might not understand his need for speed, but Revver doesn’t care. And he certainly doesn’t care about looking for food, climbing trees, or any other “ordinary” squirrel activity. He spends his days staring at the racetrack just below his nest, where the cars zoom by day in and day out.
When Revver finally gets the chance to sneak out to the track, he finds that becoming part of the pit crew is more difficult than he expected. He never learned anything about engines in Squirrel School! Then Revver meets tire changer Bill, who luckily has a soft spot for animals. Can Revver prove to Bill that he deserves to be part of the team?
Perfect for fans of Ralph S. Mouse, Revver the Speedway Squirrel is a funny, action-packed, and heartwarming story about family, feeling different, and following your heart.
My Review
The beginning of this book was a little bit weird to me. There’s a lot of setup of mama squirrel and Revver and his siblings (including a somewhat shocking moment when mama squirrel cheerfully warns her babies that if they don’t learn the lessons she’s trying to teach them that she may have to eat them.). Revver doesn’t have time for or interest in ordinary squirrel things. What he really wants is to be involved in the racetrack he’s been watching all his life from the nest.
Once Revver reaches the track and begins to learn about being part of a team and the importance of thinking things through, the story gains a lot of momentum. Revver’s dream is within his grasp, but only if he can learn the squirrel lessons he once thought were so useless.
On the whole, this is a fun story that combines animal narrators and a racetrack setting that should appeal to readers with both those interests. It’s probably best for readers who are right between chapter and middle grade books.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 10.
Representation Main characters are squirrels.
Profanity/Crude Language Content No profanity. Some crude references to bodily functions. One of the squirrels is named “Farty” because he has lots of gas.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content The mother squirrel tries to teach all her babies about dangers and survival. She tells them if they don’t learn all the lessons, she may have to eat them. A man kicks a squirrel into the air. Coyotes surround a squirrel, hoping to eat her.
Drug Content None.
Note: I received a free copy of REVVER THE SPEEDWAY SQUIRREL in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
One of the few good things about this year has been that I’ve ended up with a bit more time to read– and thank goodness, because this year has been an incredible one for finding new favorite books.
This month brings even more fabulous titles packed with romance, humor, explorations on social justice and racial issues, and lush fantasy landscapes. Here are a few of the titles I’m most excited about coming out October 2020.
The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass by Adan Jerreat-Poole
What you need to know: Francie Frye, a reluctant northwoods Nancy Drew tackles her third mystery and hopes to uncover the truth about her mother. Loved it!
What you need to know:Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen. (I’m intrigued!) A quest for her missing best friend pairs a girl with a team of unconventional allies.
What you need to know: A girl faces a terrible curse in order to save the lives of those she loves. Magic and alchemy. Sounds perfect for fans of GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE and TO BEST THE BOYS.
What you need to know: A cursed wood encroaching on a peaceful kingdom. A girl who can save it with the help of a pesky fox, a powerful bear, and the magic in her veins. Poston is on my auto-buy list, so I MUST have this one!
Available October 20, 2020
What’s on your October reading list?
Have you read any of the books on my list already? Which books are you looking forward to reading this month?
Eli isn’t just a teenage girl — she’s a made-thing the witches created to hunt down ghosts in the human world. Trained to kill with her seven magical blades, Eli is a flawless machine, a deadly assassin. But when an assignment goes wrong, Eli starts to question everything she was taught about both worlds, the Coven, and her tyrannical witch-mother.
Worried that she’ll be unmade for her mistake, Eli gets caught up with a group of human and witch renegades, and is given the most difficult and dangerous task in the worlds: capture the Heart of the Coven. With the help of two humans, one motorcycle, and a girl who smells like the sea, Eli is going to get answers — and earn her freedom.
My Review
The story world in GIRL OF HAWTHORN AND GLASS is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It’s both contemporary and fanciful, charming and full of teeth. A tiny coffee shop to a forest of awake trees to a walled compound of violent witch children to a library where the books might attack. It kind of has everything.
From the first page I found Eli likeable. Right away I wanted to follow her down the path of solving the mysteries of her existence and to learn more about the mysterious motorcycle rider who befriends her. I loved the banter between Cam and Tav, too. Those two were fantastic.
The story is a bit dark. The magic has that eye-for-an-eye feel to it, where the rules are unbreakable, and it’s all about figuring out how to make what you need conform to the rules of the magic. And Eli is, after all, an assassin, so she thinks a lot about killing, and, until things start to go sideways, she never questions her assignments.
Representation Tav is Black and nonbinary. Cam is Asian-American and gay. Eli is pansexual.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between two girls. Kissing between a girl and nonbinary character.
Spiritual Content Witches, who live in a connected but separate world, created Eli to kill ghosts in the human world. Eli is made from stone and blood and other materials. Witches have rituals– sometimes about giving gifts or accepting favors.
Violent Content One scene describes Eli killing someone she believes to be a ghost. Other situations of peril. In the witch world, there are children who are fixated on violence. Eli can transform into a toothy crocodile girl and does so to bite an opponent.
Drug Content None.
Note: I received a free copy of GIRL OF HAWTHORN AND GLASS in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
It’s hard to believe that the last (also first) time I did a post like this was the end of April. It’s been more than SIX MONTHS, y’all! They went by in a blink.
Since it’s been a bit, let’s do another check-in. Grab yourself a hot (or cold!) drink and let’s do a bit of catching up, friends.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that we just recently started school. My oldest is doing e-learning through her high school, and so far it’s been a mixed blessing. It’s not like homeschool– her teachers are doing live classes. She thrives on individual attention and a relationship with her teachers, though, and that’s not easy to establish online (not to mention that her teachers are all juggling the extra work of in-person and online students).
She’s a really motivated student, and right now that’s sometimes translating into an intense perfectionism that makes for really long homework sessions. She’s also lonely (understandable) which means that I spend a lot of my evenings with her, just being present and available while she works on homework. I love having that one-on-one time with her which we often don’t get during the day with the littlest awake, but it makes for really long days, so by the end of the week, I’m exhausted.
My littlest will be doing some “enrichment” activities at home that we’re calling school time. She’s two, so it’s really just more for structure and fun since we aren’t doing a lot of outings right now. My mom is taking this on and it’s honestly so amazing. She’s super creative and patient, so I think (hope) this is giving her a meaningful way to engage in all of that plus teach the littlest lots of new things. I would seriously be losing my mind right now without my mom.
If we were having coffee, I would say that since my last update, my family has made hundreds more masks. Right now, we’re making them to give to my daughter’s school and other community members.
Honestly, it’s been incredible to have something we can physically do that feels useful. We can help people, even if it’s in a small way. A book reviewer I follow on Twitter recently shared that she’s a preschool teacher with few PPE supplies and worried about her safety at school. To be able to put a package together for her and send it off felt so good.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I’m still having trouble sleeping. Between the pandemic, hurricane season, the election, and all the extra hoops to jump through for safety, sometimes I just can’t get my brain to shut off. I hate it. Not only does it mean I’m losing sleep, but then I’m snappy and irritable with my family. And then I have guilt for all the snappiness and irritability and inability to just shut off my brain and sleep.
Audiobooks seem to help. Listening to a story focuses me long enough to let my brain rest and helps me fall asleep.
Meditation also helps. I recently read a couple books about it, one that I reviewed, and another that I haven’t reviewed yet on Christian meditation. It has helped SO much to have a physical practice that calms and centers me. So that’s been good.
If we were having coffee, we’d have to talk books. I recently read WHERE DREAMS DESCEND by Janella Angeles and I’m still completely in love with it. It’s got so much to love– an incredible story world, unforgettable characters, and totally swoon-worthy romance. I also thought that FOREVERLAND by Nicole Kear was super cute. It’s about a girl who runs away because her family is splitting up, and she decides to live in the theme park where her family once took a fun family trip. I’d want to know what you’ve been reading and what’s on your list that you can’t wait to read.
If we were having coffee, you might want to know how some of the things I was planning to do in my last coffee post are going. I mentioned wanting to start up my Bookstagram account again, which I have done. I’m a bit hit-and-miss with posting still because life has been very chaotic. But I feel like it energizes me about books and my blog and reading, so I’m really excited to keep doing it.
I also mentioned wanting to do more list posts on my blog. I’ve done a few (I’ll list them at the end of the post in case you want to check them out), and have a few more in the works. I’m really excited about my debut novel lists. The MG Debut list is up, but I’m still wrestling with the YA list. I think I need to break it into two lists, and I just haven’t figured out how I want to do that. By what I’ve read vs plan to read? By genre, like Contemporary vs Fantasy? I’m not sure yet, but there are WAY TOO MANY for just one list.
I also posted a huge list of #ownvoices Asian-Inspired Fantasy, which was super fun to put together. I’ve read lots of the titles on the list, but found so many more to add to my reading list.
1 / 6
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that some of the books I’ve read this year have really challenged me. I read one that cast a bit of shade at adult reviewers, and I’m kind of embarrassed at how much it undermined my confidence.
I had a whole blogger identity crisis where I was like omg, am I a complete weirdo and need to just stop doing this and start one of those lifestyle blogs where I review books sometimes but also post about, like the kids, and do product reviews, and I don’t even know, fashion or something? Honestly, I love those blogs and follow some really incredible ones, but that is so not me. I don’t think I’m at all interesting enough to be the subject of an entire blog. Ha. But seriously, no.
For now, I’m still here doing my thing. I’m trying to be more sensitive to the others in the YA community, and to step outside my shell a bit more and post some personal stuff, which is super hard for me.
So that’s pretty much my life over coffee.
If we were having coffee, what would you say?
Tell me about you. What’s been happening that you’d want to share with me over a cup of coffee? It can be bookish or personal or just totally random. Leave me a comment and let me know how you are.
