Tag Archives: friendship

Review: The City Beyond the Stars by Zohra Nabi

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The City Beyond the Stars by Zohra Nabi

The City Beyond the Stars
Zohra Nabi
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published May 14, 2024

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About The City Beyond the Stars

The captivating sequel to “perfect for fans of Philip Pullman and Tahereh Mafi” ( Booklist ) The Kingdom Over the Sea follows Yara and her friends as they change the fate of the kingdom and their magic forever.

Yara may have stopped the magical plague spreading its way through her new home, but to do so, she had to leave her mother in the hands of the sinister alchemists.

Now Yara longs to return to Zehaira and free her mother from her prison. Yet when her mother’s familiar arrives, close to death and bearing a message, Yara must put aside her plans to rescue her and instead set off with her friends to the official residence of the Grand High Sorceress, convinced it holds magic powerful enough to defeat the alchemists.

After a treacherous journey, Yara finds her mother’s house, and in it, a girl claiming to be the daughter of the Grand High Sorceress—a sister Yara didn’t know she had. Meanwhile, the alchemists are circling ever closer, and the magic that Yara’s mother was working threatens the foundations of their world.

Yara is unsure if her newfound sister can be trusted, but she is going to need all the help she can get if she wants to save their mother and take back Zehaira from the alchemists’ rule.

My Review

Another sister story! <3 One of my favorite things. In this one, the sisters are so estranged. Their relationship is fraught and tenuous, and I love it. It’s a different and still realistic kind of story about two sisters. Aaliyah has a lot of attitude, which I appreciate. She makes demands. She takes charge. Sometimes, she says the opposite of what she means. I like her character a whole lot.

Throughout this book, Yara, Rafi, and Mehnoor remain close friends. They question Yara’s impulsive decisions, prompt her with facts and ideas, and offer their support no matter what happens.

At one point in the book, Yara speaks to someone who’s making destructive choices and points out that what this person needs isn’t more power but more community. I love that she phrases it that way. She talks about how powerful it is to have a team of people who can come together and support one another and how division and isolation weaken us all. This is another message I profoundly agree with.

I’m not sure if this is the conclusion to a duology or a second book in a trilogy. The ending feels pretty final and doesn’t open a new problem for the characters to immediately pursue, but I haven’t seen references to this series being a duology, so I’m not sure. I would love to read more adventures of Yara and her friends. Maybe a future book will be a spinoff and follow one of the other characters? That could be really cool.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the relationships and the intersection between magic and the need for building trust and community in this book. I think fans of the first book will love getting to revisit the world of Zehaira and its familiar characters and magical landscape. Fantasy readers will enjoy the interesting magical system and centering of three young sorcerers who must save their world.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Middle-Eastern coded characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic. The ability is available to anyone but requires intense study. Other characters use the science of alchemy to control magic.

The story delves into a bit of time travel and skirts around some butterfly effect-type theory.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to torture. One scene shows a person being magically tortured. Viewers see no blood or gore, but the person appears to be in incredible pain. References to battle sequences. A room collapses, killing someone and fatally injuring another person.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Not If You Break Up With Me First by G. F. Miller

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Romance, , , , , , , , ,

Not If You Break Up With Me First
G. F. Miller
Aladdin
Published June 4, 2024

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About Not If You Break Up With Me First

Two friends who have unhappily found themselves in an accidental relationship try to drive the other one to call things off in this tongue-in-cheek middle grade romance.

Childhood friends Eve and Andrew are destined to be together— everyone says so, especially their friends and classmates who are all suddenly crush-obsessed. So when Eve and Andrew’s first eighth grade school dance rolls around and Eve, feeling the pressure, awkwardly asks Andrew to go with her, everyone assumes they are Officially Dating and Practically in Love. Overwhelmed, Eve and Andrew just…go with it.

And it’s weird. Neither of them wants this dating thing to mess up their friendship, and they don’t really see each other that way. But they also don’t want to be the one to call things off, the one to make things super awkward. So they both—separately—pledge to be the worst boyfriend or girlfriend ever, leaving it to the other person to break up with them. It would be genius…if the other person weren’t doing the exact same thing.

My Review

This is kind of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, but make it middle grade and where they’re both trying to get the other person to break up with them.

What really makes this great is the writing. Some scenes are hilariously awkward. Others nailed middle school so perfectly, I felt like I had time-traveled. It’s silly, sometimes gross (fart jokes, etc), but it doesn’t skimp on heart.

The chapters alternate between Eve and Andrew’s points of view, so readers are in on each person’s plan to drive the other to dump them and why it seems like a good idea. Writing both viewpoints also shows us how much Eve and Andrew miss their friendship, what they value about one another, and their hurt feelings and loneliness.

The short chapters make this one an easy, quick read. This would work well for readers who aren’t quite sure they’re interested in romance books yet or readers looking for books about changing relationships in middle school or friend drama.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Eve and Andrew are white. Also of interest: Andrew plays quads on his school’s drum line. Eve loves science, specifically space, and compares lots of things to space phenomena. Eve’s parents separate during the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Brief crude humor.

Romance/Sexual Content
A boy and girl hold hands. Some mentions of kissing between other couples, but not on scene. At one point, someone asks a girl what her sexual identity is, and she responds that she doesn’t want to think about that yet, can’t she just be thirteen for now? A nice nod to kids who aren’t sure and resent the pressure of being asked as a way to explain why they aren’t dating or reject someone who asks them out.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A prank war escalates, causing some hurt feelings and consequences when shool property is damaged.

Drug Content
None.

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

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs posting about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Where Was Goodbye? by Janice Lynn Mather

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

Where Was Goodbye?
Janice Lynn Mather
Simon & Schuster
Published April 30, 2024

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About Where Was Goodbye

A teen girl searches for closure after her brother dies by suicide in this breathtaking novel from the author of Learning to Breathe and Facing the Sun.

Karmen is about to start her last year of high school, but it’s only been six weeks since her brother, Julian, died by suicide. How is she supposed to focus on school when huge questions Why is Julian gone? How could she have missed seeing his pain? Could she have helped him?

When a blowup at school gets Karmen sent home for a few weeks, life gets more things between her parents are tenser than ever, her best friend’s acting like a stranger, and her search to understand why Julian died keeps coming up empty.

New friend Pru both baffles and comforts Karmen, and there might finally be something happening with her crush, Isaiah, but does she have time for either, or are they just more distractions? Will she ever understand Julian’s struggle and tragedy? If not, can she love—and live—again?

My Review

If you know me, you probably know why this book would be difficult for me to read and review. I also think it’s a really important topic and one I want to see young adult literature cover and cover well, so I wanted to read it anyway.

Karmen’s quiet life at home in the Bahamas turned upside down the night her family learned about her brother’s death by suicide. As Karmen tries to piece together what happened and why, she hunts down people who knew Julian and the places he visited, including the cliffs where he ended his life.

At its core, Where Was Goodbye is a grief journey. It’s Karmen wrestling with unanswered questions. Her anger. Sadness. The emptiness around the dining room table. The growing distance between her parents.

People around Karmen react differently to grief as well. Her parents handle it in different ways, some causing additional harm to other relationships. Karmen’s best friend wants desperately to help, but doesn’t seem to understand what she’s going through. Instead, she reduces it to a clinical process.

I like that the author set the story in the Bahamas. I can’t think of anything else I’ve read off the top of my head that’s been set there. The setting is significant in a couple of places in the story, but many other scenes include quiet cues about Bahamian food and culture.

In the story, Karmen also learns to skateboard. She primarily uses the board for transportation and to connect with others.

Identifying with Karmen’s grief and her questions in the wake of her brother’s death felt easy. Her parents’ grief felt raw and real, as did Karmen’s. I like that the author was careful to avoid language and statements that stigmatize depression and suicide, though the story does include a few people harassing Karmen about her brother’s death.

This is definitely a book to approach with care, but it may be helpful for anyone who knows someone who has thought about suicide or experienced depression.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Karmen’s brother has died by suicide. Karmen and her family are Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Karmen and her friend attend youth group at their church. Karmen ends up ducking out for the service.

Violent Content
References to her brother’s death and specifically how he died. A boy at school says something cruel to Karmen, referencing her brother’s death. Later, a tabloid reporter tries to pressure Karmen into talking about her family’s loss. One scene includes suicidal ideation and a description of a moment when someone nearly attempts to end their life.

Drug Content
Karmen goes to a bar with friends. She sips a drink they give her and realizes it’s alcoholic. One of her friends gets very drunk. Another person offers to drive the group a short distance. Karmen gets out of the car when it becomes obvious the driver is drunk.

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

Review: Burning Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber

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

Burning Crowns (Twin Crowns #3)
Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber
Balzer + Bray
Published April 25, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Burning Crowns

Twin queens Rose & Wren survived the Battle for Anadawn and brought back magic to their kingdom. But danger lurks in Eana’s shadows.

Wren is troubled. Ever since she performed the blood spell on Prince Ansel, her magic has become unruly. Worse, the spell created a link between Wren and the very man she’s trying to forget: Icy King Alarik of Gevra. A curse is eating away at both of them. To fix it they must journey to the northern mountains—under the watchful guard of Captain Tor Iversen—to consult with the Healer on High.

Rose is haunted. Waking one night to find her undead ancestor Oonagh Starcrest by her bed, she receives a warning: surrender the throne—or face a war that will destroy Eana. With nowhere to turn and desperate to find a weapon to defeat Oonagh, Rose seeks help from Shen-Lo in the Sunkissed Kingdom, but what she finds there may break her heart.

As Oonagh threatens all Rose and Wren hold dear, it will take everything they have to save Eana–including a sacrifice they may not be prepared to make.

My Review

I’ve followed this trilogy since the beginning, so I’m really excited to have had a chance to read the conclusion. What a wild ride it was!

Wren and Rose share a connection, but they’re really different as people. I liked the way they related to one another but yet had their own values and approaches to ruling Anadawn. Each sister has her own romance underway from previous books, and those progress here, too. I’m not gonna lie, I kind of hoped one sister would make a different choice than she did, but I felt like the ending was satisfying nonetheless.

The romantic plot contains some of the most mature elements of the story. It does fade to black before characters go further than undressing, but the characters definitely have some lusty thoughts and desires. The rest of the story feels solidly young adult. Rose and Wren are both still figuring out how to step into their adult roles as queens. They’re falling in love for the first time. I felt like those components really anchored the story as a young adult fantasy.

Wren and Rose and their relationship stands at the center of the story. In this particular book, they face a threat from their shared ancestry, one they can only vanquish together.

All in all, I enjoyed the series, and I’m glad I read all the way to the end. I think readers who are just outgrowing Disney fairytales would like the Twin Crowns series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Minor characters with brown skin. Two minor female characters are in a romantic relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. In two scenes, characters undress one another, and the scene fades to black.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have magic. Wren and Alarik performed forbidden blood magic in an earlier book, which bound them together under a curse. A cruel past queen raises humans and animals from the dead, creating an undead army.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle scenes. References to torture. Descriptions of desecrated graves.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Puzzleheart by Jenn Reese

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

Puzzleheart
Jenn Reese
Henry Holt & Co.
Published May 14, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Puzzleheart

Get ready to solve the mystery at the heart of this middle grade adventure about family—and a house with a mind of its own.

Twelve-year-old Perigee has never met a problem they couldn’t solve. So when their Dad’s spirits need raising, Perigee formulates the perfect road trip to Dad’s childhood home to reunite him with his estranged mother. There’s something in it for Perigee, too, as they will finally get to visit “Eklunds’ Puzzle House,” the mysterious bed & breakfast their grandparents built but never opened.

They arrive ahead of a massive storm and the House immediately puts Perigee’s logical, science-loving mind to the test. Corridors shift. Strange paintings lurk in the shadows. Encoded messages abound. Despite Perigee’s best efforts, neither the House nor Grandma will give up their secrets. And worse, prickly Grandma has outlawed games and riddles of any kind. Even the greatest of plans can crumble, and as new arguments fill the air, the House becomes truly dangerous. Deadly puzzles pop up at every turn, knives spin in the hallways, and staircases disappear.

The answer lies at the heart of the House, but in order to find it, Perigee and their new friend Lily will need to solve a long-lost, decades-old riddle… if the House itself doesn’t stop them first.

My Review

If a family drama escape room adventure was a book, it could very much be this one. This book has great moments between characters, family secrets, new friendships, and so many puzzles.

Putting puzzles (which often have really specific visual or spatial components to them) into a book without bogging it down with too many details has to be a big challenge. It’s so well done here. I felt like I could visualize the extraordinary rooms and intricate puzzles, but I never lost sight of the action and drama unfolding in the midst of trying to solve them.

The story also balances the emotional elements with fun and mystery elements. Lily has a cat and her litter of kittens in tow, and they never stop getting into trouble. The scenes alternate between scenes from Perigee’s point of view and the House’s perspective, which really emphasizes its sentience– another great element.

I think readers who enjoyed Six Feet Below Zero by Ena Jones (one of my favorites) or Deephaven by Ethan Aldridge should definitely check out Puzzleheart.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Perigee is nonbinary and has anxiety. Her dad has depression. (Maybe her grandmother, too.)

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A sentient house.

Violent Content
A woman hits her head on a cupboard and is knocked out. The house rolls out some increasingly threatening puzzles or traps, including a floor of tiles that shock someone and a pit with spikes at the bottom.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Girl in the Window by Lindsey Hobson

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, , , , ,

The Girl in the Window
Lindsey Hobson
Publisher
Published

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Girl in the Window

When Izzy breaks a window in the creepy house next door, her summer plans suddenly go from playing baseball in the backyard to doing yard work for mysterious Mr. Johnson to pay for the damage. Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, she encounters a ghost girl with a cryptic HELP ME.

As Izzy begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the girl’s death, she discovers a whole new meaning to being friends… forever.

My Review

Though the book is a little dark and creepy, it does a great job balancing those elements with goofy kid shenanigans like playing baseball and performing chores as penance. I liked that the characters weren’t always what they seemed to be at first. Izzy has to learn more about people and relationships as she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to the ghost girl who asks for her help.

Izzy has two siblings. Her older sister, Anna, and younger brother, Steven. Their dad has died before the story begins. I kind of wish there had been a little more to the backstory about the loss of their dad because who their dad is intersects with the story in some interesting ways. Izzy briefly flashes back to the car accident when her dad died, but she doesn’t think a whole lot about it other than in that scene and immediately afterward.

The book’s short chapters and low page count (under 200 pages) make it a pretty quick read, too. It’s very easy to just-one-more-chapter your way all the way to the end of the book.

I think readers who enjoy stories with a ghostly presence in them will like this spine-tingling tale.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are white. One minor character has lost an eye and wears a patch.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some discussion about whether a boy has a crush on a girl.

Spiritual Content
One character is a ghost.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Izzy hears rumors that a little girl was poisoned to death. References to someone injuring someone else and causing them to lose their eye. References to the death of a child.

Drug Content
None.

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