Tag Archives: curse

Review: Squire & Knight by Scott Chantler

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Squire & Knight by Scott Chantler cover shows a black dragon's head bent low to the ground in the left foreground, its tail holding up a knight in the background. In the right foreground, a boy holds up a lantern, his back to the dragon. A skeleton dog sits at his feet looking curiously at the dragon.

Squire & Knight
Scott Chantler
First Second
Published May 9, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Squire & Knight

A young squire tackles mysteries, monsters and magic, but the inept knight he serves takes the credit. Every time.

Squire is brainy, bookish, and terribly under-appreciated by the brawny, inept knight Sir Kelton, who somehow always gets all the glory. So when the two mismatched heroes find themselves in a cursed village plagued by a demonic dragon, Kelton rides off to slay it and Squire stays behind to catch up on some reading. But Squire starts to notice that something isn’t quite right about this town . . . Can he uncover its strange secrets?

My Review

I tend to be really picky about the artwork in graphic novels that I read. The cover of this one really drew me in. There’s so much going on in just that one image. The knight wrapped in the dragon’s tail and held upside down. The squire holding up the lantern and looking thoughtful– I love that the cover conveys this part of his character. He’s a thinker, which is probably harder to draw, since it is an internal process. Then there’s the skeleton dog standing beside the squire and the dragon’s face, behind him as if he’s sniffing a trail of some kind.

I loved the dragon’s character and how he talked. It’s different than the way the other characters talk, and that kind of cracked me up. I like the way the pieces of this story fit together, and the fact that it’s the squire who solves it. Brains over brawn for the win!

I think readers who enjoy fantasy graphic novels like THE LEGEND OF BRIGHTBLADE will like this one. I always read graphic novels thinking of my nephews and niece, who prefer them, and I think this is one I’ll add to my shelf for them to read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Most human characters are white. One family from the town Squire helps has bronze skin and pointed ears.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used once.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
The squire hears rumors of a ghost haunting the town’s well. The town was founded by a wizard, and appears to be under some kind of curse. The townspeople blame a local dragon for their problems.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. The townspeople rally, intending to kill the dragon. The knight intends to kill the dragon. The dragon intends to eat the knight.

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 SQUIRE & KNIGHT in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays

Check out other blogs talking about middle grade books today on Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Last Sunrise in Eterna by Amparo Ortiz

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

Last Sunrise in Eterna
Amparo Ortiz
Page Street Press
Published March 28, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Last Sunrise in Eterna

Three teenagers are invited to spend seven days on the secluded island floating off the coast of Puerto Rico to learn the magic of the elves.

All they have to do is give up their dreams.

Seventeen-year-old goth Sevim Burgos hates elves. Everyone else on earth loves the elves (especially their handsome princes) and would give anything to participate in Eterna’s annual Exchange, where three teens can trade their dreams for a week of elven magic.

But Sevim knows things most people don’t. She can see through the illusions the elves use to conceal their crimes. Ever since elves killed her father, Sevim has longed for revenge. So to help support her single mother, she has been selling abandoned elf corpses on the black market.

But it turns out that the elf prince Aro has noticed Sevim bodysnatching, so he kidnaps her mother in retaliation. To get her mother back, Sevim must participate in the Exchange.

In the home of the elves, Sevim will have to surrender her dreams and put her trust in the charming prince who took the last family member she has in order to master the art of elf magic. And in working with him, she will discover how the royal elves might be more tied to her own history than she ever suspected.

My Review

I liked several things about LAST SUNRISE IN ETERNA. First, I loved the setting. The story takes place in Puerto Rico, and all the characters have brown skin. I loved that we got to see elves reimagined as Puerto Rican and anchored to the island and language. I’ve never read anything like this, so it felt very fresh and pulled me in.

Second, I liked the characters, especially Sevim, Aro, and his brother, Feyn. Sevim goes full speed ahead, even when she knows she’s outmatched. Her determination and her loyalty to her mom along with her refusal to believe things just because someone told her they were so made me a big fan from the early chapters of the book.

The plot also goes some interesting places, some that I really didn’t expect. That plus the Puerto Rican elves element gave the whole book a totally unique vibe for me. I really enjoyed reading something so different and with such high stakes.

I struggled a bit with the writing at times. It seemed to jump around a bit, so that sometimes I had to reread things before I could figure out what was going on. I read an ARC, a pre-release version, of the book, so it’s possible that the final version reads more smoothly. Or it could just be me– I was reading pretty fast because I wanted to know what happened next.

All in all, I think fans of this author’s earlier books will not be disappointed in this one. I think fans of TOGETHER WE BURN by Isabel Ibañez will love the magic and high-stakes adventure of LAST SUNRISE IN ETERNA.

Content Notes for Last Sunrise in Eterna

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters have brown skin. Sevim is Puerto Rican.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Brief mentions of attraction between two boys.

Spiritual Content
Elves have magic and the ability to create illusions that affect how humans see them. Other characters have the opportunity to gain magic through challenges and other rituals.

In a dream, Sevim encounters a character who talks about feeding on the magic of others.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some descriptions of battle violence. In a couple scenes, Sevim encounters the bodies of elf children who’ve been mutilated. The person responsible for the mutilation talks about enjoying harming them.

Drug Content
Sevim takes an elixir that is meant to allow her to see through the elves’ illusions.

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 LAST SUNRISE IN ETERNA in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

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The Severed Thread (The Bone Spindle #2)
Leslie Vedder
Razorbill
Published February 7, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Severed Thread

Which threads of fate will hold—and which will break?

Clever, bookish Fi and her brash, ax-wielding partner Shane are back in this action packed sequel to the bestselling THE BONE SPINDLE, the gender-flipped Sleeping Beauty retelling, perfect for fans of SORCERY OF THORNS and THE CRUEL PRINCE.

Fi has awakened the sleeping prince, but the battle for Andar is far from over. The Spindle Witch, the Witch Hunters, and Fi’s own Butterfly Curse all stand between them and happily ever after.

Shane has her partner’s back. But she’s in for the fight of her life against Red, the right hand of the Spindle Witch who she’s also, foolishly, hellbent on saving.

Briar Rose would do anything to restore his kingdom. But there’s a darkness creeping inside him—a sinister bond to the Spindle Witch he can’t escape.

All hopes of restoring Andar rest on deciphering a mysterious book code, finding the hidden city of the last Witches, and uncovering a secret lost for centuries—one that just might hold the key to the Spindle Witch’s defeat. If they can all survive that long…

Set in a world of twisted fairytales, THE SEVERED THREAD combines lost ruins, ride-or-die friendships, and heart-pounding romance.

My Review

Okay, this is easily one of my most-anticipated books coming out this year. I absolutely LOVED the first book in this series, THE BONE SPINDLE, and was counting the days until THE SEVERED THREAD came out.

The first couple chapters were a little rough for me. I don’t know if there were a lot of longer sentences (It felt like that reading it, but I haven’t gone back to look.) or if the writing just took a minute to really find a strong voice and get me back into the characters I know and love.

Once I was a few chapters in, though, I was just as hooked on this story as I was the last one. I didn’t think it was possible to love Shane and Fi even more, but I completely did. Red and Briar Rose both grew on me more, too. I totally missed the Red Hiding Hood references with Red in the first book, but at some point in this one, I was like OHHHH. I see it now. (Can we have a Red backstory novella somewhere in the future??? I’d be completely in for that.)

At any rate. I loved the places this story went. I loved the things we learned about the characters, and I loved the setup for the third book in the series. It is, I believe, a trilogy, so the third book should be the last. So now I’m counting down the days until that one comes out!

If you enjoy fairytale retellings or high fantasy, definitely put this series on your list. I can’t recommend it enough.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Shane and Red, two women, are attracted to one another.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic. Briar Rose has a magic that’s connected to the Spindle Witch, a powerful witch who cursed his kingdom more than a hundred years ago, and still seems bent on its destruction. Fi has a curse mark on her hand which means that if she stays in one place for more than three days, harm will befall the people and places she loves the most where she is.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle violence. References to torture.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

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The Buried and the Bound
Rochelle Hassan
MacMillan
Published January 24, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Buried and the Bound

A contemporary fantasy YA debut from Rochelle Hassan about monsters, magic, and wicked fae, perfect for fans of The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Hazel Wood.

As the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts—an uncommonly magical place—Aziza El-Amin has bargained with wood nymphs, rescued palm-sized fairies from house cats, banished flesh-eating shadows from the local park. But when a dark entity awakens in the forest outside of town, eroding the invisible boundary between the human world and fairyland, run-of-the-mill fae mischief turns into outright aggression, and the danger—to herself and others—becomes too great for her to handle alone.

Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He’s road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn’t even know his true love’s name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it’s haunting.

Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he’ll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she’ll help him break the curse.

When the creature in the woods sets its sights on them, their survival depends on the aid of a mysterious young necromancer they’re not certain they can trust. But they’ll have to work together to eradicate the new threat and take back their hometown… even if it forces them to uncover deeply buried secrets and make devastating sacrifices.

My Review

I absolutely loved PRINCE OF NOWHERE, Rochelle Hassan’s debut novel, so THE BURIED AND THE BOUND was one of the books I most looked forward to reading this year.

Though it took me a few chapters to get into the book, I was delighted to find characters just as rich in a world just as magical as the author’s debut. I loved Aziza immediately. Leo took me a minute, but once I saw his big heart and how determined he truly is, I couldn’t help loving him. Tristan grew on me much more slowly, but in the end, I loved him, too.

The story world. Okay, so this is a real world setting right next to an entirely magical world with fairy bargains, magical creatures, curses, and alliances. The magical world felt so rich and alive. I loved the way different parts of it came together in different ways.

On the whole, I had a second of uncertainty at the beginning of this book, but once I got oriented to the story, I was completely hooked on it. I’m super glad I read it, and I’ll be eagerly waiting for Hassan’s next book, which hopefully will be a sequel to this one??

Content Notes for The Buried and the Bound

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Tristan is gay and homeless (his parents threw him out when they learned he is gay). Leo is bisexual but closeted. Aziza is Lebanese American and lost both her parents as a very young child.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a relationship between two boys.

Spiritual Content
Aziza is a hedgewitch, which means she can perform magic that reinforces boundaries between the human and fae worlds. The story contains magic creatures like nymphs, fairies, witches, kelpies, selkies, and a necromancer. A powerful creature has a bond agreement with Tristan in which he must serve her for ten years in exchange for a magical favor. She uses him to lure victims to her which she kills to power herself.

Violent Content
References to murders by Tristan’s master. Murders and harm carried out by immortal hound-like creatures. References to other harm done by magical creatures. Situations of peril. Battle scenes with some graphic detail.

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 BURIED AND THE BOUND in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle #1)
Diana Wynne Jones
Greenwillow Books
Published August 1, 2001 (Originally published 1986)

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Howl’s Moving Castle

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle.

To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

My Review

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE is the first book by Diana Wynne Jones that I’ve ever read. I think that’s weird, considering how popular her books are and how much I read as a kid, but there you go. First time for everything, I guess.

I wasn’t sure whether I would like this book or not when I first started it. I felt like the author was kind of making jokes about fantasy as a genre, and I wasn’t always sure I was in on them? For instance, Sophie worries about being the eldest of three sisters, because it means there’s no likelihood that anything magical or amazing will happen to her. I wasn’t sure if that was something that was particular to her world or a joke about fairytales?

Anyway, once the witch cursed Sophie and she ran away, I got a lot more invested in the story. She’s smart and loyal, and I loved her from the first moment she rescued the dog stuck in the hedge.

I also thought it was clever to tell the story from the perspective of a girl under a curse that makes her look like an old woman. Normally I’m not a fan of children’s books written from the point-of-view of an adult, but Sophie wasn’t really an adult… she just looked like one. Which was an interested juxtaposition.

All the way through the book, new pieces get added to the mystery of Sophie’s curse and the story of Howl and why he is what Sophie terms, “a slitherer-outer”. I loved the book, and really want to read more stories by Diana Wynne Jones.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to Howl falling in love with lots of women and trying to make them fall in love with him.

Spiritual Content
Some characters use magic. Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste. Howl has a contract with a fire demon.

Violent Content
Situations of peril.

Drug Content
Howl comes home drunk one night.

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

Review: The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West

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The Bitterwine Oath
Hannah West
Holiday House
Published December 1, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Bitterwine Oath

Every fifty years, a cult claims twelve men to murder in a small Texas town. Can one girl end the cycle of violence – and save the boy who broke her heart?

San Solano, Texas, is a quaint town known for its charm, hospitality, and history of murder. Twice now, twelve men have been brutally killed, and no one knows who did it. A shadowy witch? A copycat killer? Or a man-hating murderess?

Eighteen-year-old Natalie Colter is sure that the rumors about her great-great-grandmother’s cult of wronged women are just gossip, but that doesn’t stop the true-crime writers and dark tourism bloggers from capitalizing on the town’s reputation. It’s an urban legend that’s hard to ignore, and it gets harder when Nat learns that the sisterhood is real. And magical. And they want her to join.

The more Nat learns of the Wardens’ supernatural history, the more she wonders about the real culprits behind the town’s ritualistic murders. Are the Wardens protecting San Solano from even darker forces? There are shadows in the woods, bones on the outskirts of town, and questions Nat needs answered.

But everything becomes more urgent when people start getting marked as new victims–including Levi Langford, the boy whose kiss haunted Nat for a year. With Levi in danger, doing nothing would be harder than fighting back.

Nat knows that no one is safe. Can she and the sisterhood stop the true evil from claiming their town?

My Review

I went on a bit of a paranormal kick this year, so this is a book I agreed to read while I was kind of in that mindset. I liked the idea of a sisterhood taking on a decades old curse in a small town, and I think the author really delivered on all those concepts.

Nat is a neat character– I liked that she keeps herself a little bit apart from her friends. She has some secrets, just things she isn’t ready to talk about yet. I found that really relatable. I also liked the back and forth between her and Levi. It’s not banter, but I definitely got the sense that they were locked in some kind of emotional thing. Not adversarial, but not exactly friendly either. So that hooked my curiosity right away.

Some elements of the book reminded me a bit of things I loved about THE LUMINARIES. It’s not exactly the same kind of story, but it does have some similarities: an elite team of warriors taking on monsters that the rest of humanity can’t see or know about; a small exclusive town; a complicated friendship-slash-maybe-romance. So all those things were big wins for me, too.

I think readers who enjoyed THE LUMINARIES definitely want to try this one. I am really glad I read it, and will definitely have to check out other things by Hannah West.

Content Notes for The Bitterwine Oath

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
The curse began when four girls used magic to ask for revenge against men who’d wronged them. The magic revisits the town every fifty years, claiming twelve new victims.

Nat learns that the magic still exists, and that a coven of women use it to fight back against the cursed magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle violence. In one scene, a pet is found injured. Several scenes show animal carcasses or bones. Several scenes show creatures made of bones and carcasses attacking people.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking beer.

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 BITTERWINE OATH in exchange for my honest review.