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Review: Liar’s Kingdom by Christine Calella

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Liar's Kingdom by Christine Calella

Liar’s Kingdom
Christine Calella
Page Street YA
Published January 14, 2025

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About Liar’s Kingdom

Ell has spent years slaving away for her cruel stepfamily. So when Prince Bayard—who seems to have difficulty recognizing faces—shows up at her door with a glass slipper, Ell allows him to believe she danced with him at the ball. There’s just one problem: Ell didn’t attend the ball and she’s never met the prince before in her life. But if it’s a choice between moving to the royal palace or staying home, Ell is willing to say anything to escape.

However, Ell finds that being royalty comes with its own problems. Bayard’s sister, the princess, has gone missing. The king is preparing for war against the fae. And Maxim, Bayard’s treacherous (and handsome) best friend, appears to know Ell is lying.

If Ell wants to keep this life she’s stolen, she’s going to have to roll up her sleeves and rescue herself.

My Review

This reimagining of the popular fairytale places Cinderella at the center of the action. Instead of a passive girl whose goodness magically opens a path to royalty, the lead character drives her story forward.

Though at first Ell thinks of nothing beyond her escape from imprisonment in an abusive home, she soon forms a deep friendship and cares for the prince with face blindness. She cares for the girl who becomes her first lady-in-waiting and her maid, wanting to know their true feelings and thoughts and to protect them from a volatile king.

I like that Ell makes choices that change the course of the story and that she still has the internal goodness that Cinderella is so classically known for. I also liked how the prince’s face blindness is handled throughout the story. There were moments when the narrative could have erased this part of his character and instead chose a different path forward. I appreciated that.

The pacing of the book was a little bit uneven for me. The first half of the book sets up a lot of dominoes that fall in the second half of the book. I like the idea of that, but there were things in the second half of the story that felt like they happened fast. I felt like I was supposed to have put together all the clues from the first half of the story and then been expecting some of the things in the second half. The romance, in particular, seemed to happen quickly. I would have liked to see a little more development there.

Overall, though, Liar’s Kingdom is a fresh, inspired reimagining of the story of Cinderella. I loved how the author transformed some of the story elements and preserved the heart of the classic tale.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some limited use of profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are fairies and have some ability to do magic. Other fantastical and dangerous creatures exist in the book, such as ogres and giant spiders.

Violent Content
Ell’s stepmother is violent and abusive toward her. Her stepsisters also participated in abusing her. Ell has violent urges in which she wants to strike out at someone but stops herself. A few scenes contain brief battle violence in which someone uses a sword or crossbow to injure or kill someone.

Drug Content
References to alcohol. Some characters appear under a spell and are unable to control their bodies or voices.

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: Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee

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

Breath of the Dragon (Breathmarked #1)
Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee
Wednesday Books
Published January 7, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Breath of the Dragon

The first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy duology based on characters and teachings created by Bruce Lee!

Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Earth to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s honor—righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother.

But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. There is no future in honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.

As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself.

My Review

Jun displays a huge amount of growth as a character through this first book in the duology. He begins as a talented and ambitious kid whose interest in the tournament has more to do with proving his ability to others and finally making his dad proud of him. As the story progresses and he meets other fighters and allies, he begins to see the larger picture and the broader scope of responsibility in the role of the Guardian.

I thought that growth was really realistic and well-paced. I also enjoyed the ways that his relationships with other characters developed over the course of the story.

For some reason, I didn’t expect as much of the story to be centered on literal one-on-one fighting in a competitive setting. The early chapters show Jun competing for victory at his martial arts school, where the top student will go on to compete in a national tournament. Then, once he gets to the city, more scenes focus on the matches between fighters.

At some points, I could see why a scene was important to the larger story. The fights started to feel repetitive after a while, though.

Breath of the Dragon nicely wraps up the central plot of the book while setting up the major conflict in the sequel. We are left with new threads to pull in the next book, and I’m interested to see where the story goes.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some swearing and a few F-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Jun feels attracted to a girl and jealous when someone else shows interest in her, too.

Spiritual Content
People revere the Dragon, whose breath gives extraordinary ability to certain people, and the Lady of Many Hands, who recorded his teachings in two indestructible scrolls. In the West, only the Guardian and those he permits to can look at the Dragon scroll.

Some characters have dragon scales on their bodies, which is evidence that they have special abilities from the Dragon. Others have a strong presence of Breath inside them, which they can draw on for energy and power.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle violence. Fatal combat. Soldiers kill unarmed workers. Reference to execution. Death of a parent.

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 Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard

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

The Secret Year
Jennifer Hubbard
Viking Books for Young Readers
Published January 7, 2025 (Orig. 2010)

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About The Secret Year

For fans of Laura Nowlin’s If Only I Had Told Her, a deeply romantic novel that explores the raw emotions of love, pain and grief.

Colt and Julia were secretly together for a year . . . and nobody knew. Not that anyone would suspect–Colt and Julia were from two different crowds: Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt down in the flats. They’d meet in secret by the river–their chemistry electric, exhilarating, intoxicating.

Until everything came to a screaming halt.

Julia is pronounced dead from a car accident, and suddenly Colt’s memories come flooding back. One about the fight they’d had on their last night together . . .

When Julia’s diary falls into Colt’s hands, it gives him the chance to learn all her hidden thoughts, private details she refused to share with him. It might even answer his questions about what happened on the night she died.

Julia’s words have the power to mend Colt’s broken heart, or they can reveal a web of secrets that threaten to shatter his entire world.

My Review

I have so many questions.

It looks like this was first published in 2010 and has recently been re-released. I’m not sure when the story is supposed to take place. I think only the Black Mountain (wealthy neighborhood) kids have cell phones, so I assume maybe this was supposed to happen during the late 1990s when cell phones first became widely available. There’s no mention of texting, just calling. There are a couple of mentions of email, which could still track with the late 1990s timing. I don’t think the narrative specifies.

The story’s tone has a little bit of a Holden Caulfield vibe. Colt isn’t trying to be particularly likable. Neither is Julia, honestly. And that was fine. I mostly appreciated their frankness. After someone comes out as gay, Colt does a couple of things that are not great. I get that his reaction is realistic, but I wish the narrative had at least weighed in on his thoughts as negative.

Julia’s letters to Colt interrupt the scenes periodically, and sometimes, I got confused at the bouncing back and forth between her letters and Colt’s perspective. I also felt like the back cover copy implies that the story has a lot more suspense than it does. Colt does remember details about a fight he had with Julia. He does read letters she wrote to him. But I didn’t feel a sense of suspense about any of that. This isn’t a story about uncovering secret reasons for her death. This is the story of a boy who’s experiencing complicated grief because his relationship with a girl was a secret, and he can’t grieve publicly.

I found the story of his grief compelling, but it wasn’t really what I expected the book to be about.

For me, the uncertainty of the timeline (which could have contextualized some of the characters’ behavior) and the confusion over the genre of the story made this one a weird read. I read the book pretty quickly, so I’d say the writing is compelling.

Readers who like books by Matthew Quick might enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
One character comes out as gay in the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some f-bombs and other profanity used moderately.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex and making out. In a couple of scenes, characters remove their tops. One scene briefly references a girl pacing around a room naked. The story doesn’t focus on the romance. Mostly, it leads up to the start of a sexual encounter and then jumps ahead to afterward.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Colt learns that Julia died in a car accident. He briefly references thinking about her injuries. A group of boys attack another boy, seriously injuring him. Brief references to Colt’s mom smacking him or his brother.

One character comes out as gay, and his family reacts with homophobic comments and rejects him.

Drug Content
Julia mentions drinking alcohol. She calls her boyfriend an alcoholic and mentions that he abuses prescription drugs.

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: Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar

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Rani Choudhury Must Die
Adiba Jaigirdar
Feiwel & Friends
Published November 12, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Rani Choudhury Must Die

In this sapphic dual POV Young Adult romance by Adiba Jaigirdar, Meghna and Rani (ex-best-friends-turned-rivals) realize they’re dating the same guy, so they team up to beat and expose him at a big science competition!

Meghna Rahman is tired of constantly being compared to her infuriatingly perfect ex best friend now rival. Everyone, except, at least, her boyfriend Zak, seems to think that Rani Choudhury can do no wrong—even her own parents! It doesn’t help that Rani is always accepted into the Young Scientist Exhibition, while Meghna’s projects never make it. But this year, she finally has a chance at defeating Rani in something.

Rani Choudhury is tired of feeling like she doesn’t have much say in her life—not when it comes to how her mom wants her to look and act or how her parents encourage her to date incredibly charming close family friend Zak. She would much rather focus on her coding, especially once she places high enough at the Young Scientist Exhibition to go on to the European Young Scientist Exhibition.

When Meghna and Rani figure out that Zak has been playing them both, they decide to do something no one would see coming: they team up. They’ll compete in the EYSE as partners, creating an app that exposes cheaters and a project that exposes Zak. But with years of silence and pressure between them, working together will prove difficult. Especially once each girl starts to realize that the feelings they had for the other may have been more than platonic…

Hey, no one ever said science was easy!

My Review

So far, for me, this type of rivals-to-lovers romance is the sweet spot of Adiba Jaigirdar’s books. The tension between the characters is perfect, the cultural themes are immersive and engaging, and the romance leaves me swooning. I loved The Henna Wars and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, and I will gladly put this one on the shelf right next to them.

The plot of Rani Choudhury Must Die starts off slowly and winds through a bit of setup before it really gets going. We learn about Meghna’s secret dating relationship and Rani’s relationship with the boy her parents expect her to marry… the same boy secretly dating Meghna. Yikes.

We also learn that Meghna and Rani have history. It’s unclear at first what happened and who, exactly, is to blame for the rift between the girls. It’s pretty clear that Meghna’s mental image of Rani differs from her real self, though, and I found myself intrigued by the difference.

It highlights the way that unresolved conflict can leave us with a specific, hurtful image of a person that doesn’t at all match who the person truly is. Yet, while we’re still nursing that hurt and anger, we can’t see that there is a difference. This delicate mining of nuance in relationships is one of my favorite components of Jaigirdar’s books. She does this so well, and her characters are so rich because of it.

The romance between Rani and Meghna is a very slow burn. I loved that, too. It honors the history between the two girls and the complexity of the circumstances that brought them together. I think it would have been hard to tell a compelling story in which they immediately hook up after discovering they’ve been dating the same boy. This really worked and lets readers hope for and root for the romance as it begins to blossom.

All in all, I had a great time reading this book. Fans of slow-burn romance, rivals to lovers, and/or STEM girls definitely do not want to miss this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The story is set in Ireland. Meghna and Rani are from the same Bengali community in Ireland. Both are dating a boy and are romantically interested in girls.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

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

Spiritual Content
References to cultural family events, holidays, and celebrations.

Violent Content
A boy manipulates and uses words to gaslight a girl.

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: Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis

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Thieves’ Gambit
Kayvion Lewis
Nancy Paulsen Books
Published September 26, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Thieves’ Gambit

The Inheritance Games meets Ocean’s Eleven in this cinematic heist thriller where a cutthroat competition brings together the world’s best thieves and one thief is playing for the highest stakes of all: her mother’s life.

At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance.

In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world–a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.

Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn’t Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.

My Review

This book deserves more buzz than it got. The beginning started a little slow, and I kept forgetting it was young adult because Ross seemed so young. Though the seventeen-year-old lives this wild, heist-filled life, she is really young because she is so secluded from others. As I got to know her more as a character, that young-sounding voice made a lot of sense.

By the time she enters the Gambit, she already sounds older than the girl in the opening pages. As she reaches the final phase of the game, she sounds older still. I’m pretty impressed with the author’s ability to seamlessly shift the writing with Ross’s maturity while the story careens around hairpin turns with the stakes climbing all the time.

I also really liked the characters, especially the team Ross works with during the middle of the book: Kyung-soon, Mylo, and Devroe. They each add something different to the team, and the experience of working with them changes Ross in ways she wasn’t prepared for. I loved that.

I think readers looking for an Inheritance Games meets Ocean’s 11 story will not be disappointed in this wild ride of a tale. I’m eager to read the sequel.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Ross is Bahamian and Black. The other players in the Gambit are a diverse, inclusive group.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Swearing scattered throughout. No F-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Ross works as a thief, stealing items for clients who’ve hired her and her mom. She enters a high-stakes game in which she must race against other players to steal things. One character gets shot. Another threatens people with a firearm. The plot involves kidnapping and ransom.

Drug Content
Some characters use a drug to make people too intoxicated to perform specific assigned tasks. A character pours a glass of champagne for another.

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 Other Lola by Ripley Jones

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The Other Lola (Missing Clarissa #2)
Ripley Jones
Wednesday Books
Published March 12, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Other Lola

The sequel to Ripley Jones’s unforgettable YA thriller MISSING CLARISSA, THE OTHER LOLA is about what happens when the people you love the most are the people you can trust the least.

In the months after Cam and Blair broke their small hometown’s legendary missing-girl story and catapulted to accidental fame, they vowed never to do it again. No more mysteries, no more podcasts, and no more sticking their heads where they don’t belong.

Until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, shows up on their doorstep, begging Cam and Blair for help. Mattie’s sister Lola disappeared mysteriously five years ago. No trace of her was ever found. Now, she’s back–but Mattie is convinced the girl who returned is an impostor. Nobody believes Mattie’s wild story–not Mattie’s brother, not Mattie’s mother, and not even Cam and Blair. But something is definitely wrong in the Brosillard family. And Blair has her own reasons for wanting to know what really happened to Lola while she was gone.

With Cam and Blair still struggling with the aftermath of their first mystery—and with new secrets swirling between them—the stakes are higher than ever in this can’t-miss sequel to MISSING CLARISSA.

My Review

I really appreciated how the author acknowledges the trauma that Cam and Blair’s experiences in the first book caused for them. Cam has night terrors and panic attacks and is not sure what to do about them. Blair has her own fears and feels a lot of pressure to use those experiences for something.

When they encounter a new possible mystery, Blair is eager and excited. Cam is scared and feels like getting involved is a terrible idea. That struck me as so realistic. These are teenage girls with no special training for these situations. It makes sense that they would have really different feelings and unprocessed trauma.

The story includes both Cam and Blair’s perspectives, but it also adds some journal entries from Lola’s journal and a few scenes that follow Mattie. I liked the way that contributed to the feeling of putting the pieces of a mystery together.

The pacing of the story kept me reading. New things kept happening, and I really wanted to know what happened to Lola. I had a theory early on that turned out to be pretty close to the truth, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the ride as Cam and Blair figured out what happened and faced down the people responsible. I think it was more of a lucky guess than anything.

All in all, this was a tense, fun read. I hope there are more Cam and Blair mysteries to come.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Cam is dating another girl and is neurodivergent. Mattie is nonbinary.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and a sprinkling of other swear words.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. Kissing between two girls and references to sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to someone pointing a gun at others.

Drug Content
References to drug use that happened off-scene.

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 OTHER LOLA in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.