Tag Archives: Romance

Review: The Fate of Magic by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis

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The Fate of Magic by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis

The Fate of Magic (Witch and Hunter #2)
Sara Raasch and Beth Revis
Sourcebooks Fire
Published October 1, 2024

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About The Fate of Magic

The breathtaking sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller Night of the Witch culminates with a sweeping romance and an epic battle to determine the fate of magic…and the world.

Fritzi is a champion. After escaping the clutches of Dieter Kirch, the sadistic leader of the witch hunters, Fritzi and Otto have taken refuge among the witches of the Black Forest. Fritzi is finally ready to assume her place on the council as the coven’s goddess-chosen champion. Plagued by distrust and self-doubt, Fritzi throws herself into her duty to serve the goddesses . . . until she uncovers a powerful secret that could mean the very undoing of magic itself.

Otto is a warrior. He swears himself to Fritzi as her bonded protector, certain the peaceful unity of a witch and hunter will heal the wounds he helped make. But as the horrifying plot that threatens the Black Forest’s magic comes to light, Otto will have to face his both his past and what it means to bind himself to a magic he does not fully understand.

Shadows loom. Truths are revealed. And as dangers new and old arise, Fritzi and Otto must stand together against everything that threatens magic—even if the biggest threat might be the very bond they share.

My Review

This book concludes the Witch and Hunter duology, picking up soon after the first book ended. The story starts off with Otto and Fritzi preparing for a bonding ceremony and sharing some romantic moments together. The pace of the story builds, with stakes growing ever higher, which sent me rocketing from one chapter to another all the way until the end of the book.

I like that the story made space for Otto and Fritzi’s relationship, even though it wasn’t the central plot of the story. It was nice to enjoy those quiet moments in which they returned to the bond between them and why they cared for one another.

I also enjoyed the intensity of the hunt for the magic stones. It wasn’t clear whether they would be able to find them or get to them first, which kept the intensity high. I’ve seen other books that have a quest like this in which the clues don’t really fit together or feel forced. That isn’t the case here. I liked the way the various clues and the quest unfolded. It felt natural and made sense to me.

I also really appreciated that this is a duology. I was absolutely prepared to read more of the series, but it was a pleasant surprise to find that this one book delivered all the things I’d been waiting for from the story. It might be even better than the first book. I’m not sure. They were both great.

If you like historical fiction with a heaping serving of magic, this is definitely a series to put on your list. Start with Night of the Witch before reading this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are German.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. A few scenes show a lead into sex, and one briefly describes it.

Spiritual Content
Otto is Catholic but has rejected some of the church’s teachings, especially those regarding killing or hunting witches. Fritzi and other characters serve a trio of goddesses.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief battles. References to torture and brief scenes showing torture. Otto and Fritzi enter a square in which people have been burned at the stake for being witches. In one scene, they discover the bodies of two people who’ve been beheaded. Someone lights someone else on fire. Monsters pursue some characters.

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: Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian

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Desert Echoes
Abdi Nazemian
HarperCollins
Published September 10, 2024

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About Desert Echoes

From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns.

Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship—and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.

Desert Echoes is a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection.

My Review

I think I have at least one other of Nazemian’s books, but this is the first one that I’ve read. The writing and characters are so compelling in this book. I usually have a really hard time with long chapters, but I couldn’t stop reading this one, even though it only has about nine chapters which are each somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 pages long.

The story follows two different timelines: the present, in which Kam faces a return trip to Joshua Tree, the park where he last saw his boyfriend Ash, and the early days of Kam’s relationship with Ash two years earlier leading up to Ash’s disappearance.

Because the chapters are long, there aren’t a lot of transitions back and forth between these two timelines. This helped keep me immersed in each storyline and meant that I was going to get a lot more information every time I switched to a new chapter. I liked that.

I’ve sometimes read books that show a reflection back to a lost loved one or relationship that didn’t last, and sometimes those stories leave so many unanswered questions that reading the book can feel unsatisfying. Desert Echoes does provide Kam some closure, though it’s not the information he expected to uncover. He does begin to process his feelings and see his life in a new way once he has the information he needs, and once that happens, other things that felt left in limbo in the story begin to shift into place.

It has the kind of ending that might feel too easy to some people, but readers looking for an uplifting ending will definitely appreciate the way that Nazemian closes Kam’s journey. The back of the book has a moving note from the author explaining his emotional connections to the story, too. It explains why he writes about these topics with so much authenticity.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book a lot, even though it’s a story of grief. I’m glad I read it, and I am excited to read more by Abdi Nazemian.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Several major characters are queer. Bodie, Kam, and their families are from Iran and recently moved to the United States from Canada.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some f-bombs and profanity used here and there. Some references to homophobic comments, particularly by Kam’s dad.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. Very brief descriptions of sexual contact in a couple of scenes.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A character is missing, presumed dead. There’s some question as to whether this person died by suicide or an accident of some kind.

Drug Content
References to drug addiction. One scene shows a person with drugs and an intent to take them. Kam’s dad is an alcoholic and is frequently drunk when he’s in the house.

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: Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

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

Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart #1)
Stephanie Garber
Flatiron Books
Published September 28, 2021

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About Once Upon a Broken Heart

How far would you go for happily ever after?

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings… until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy…

My Review

It’s been a while since I read the Caraval series, but I enjoyed them, so Once Upon a Broken Heart has been on my reading list since it came out. I hadn’t planned on waiting until the whole series was published before reading them, but I’m honestly not sorry I did. It took a few weeks to get the audiobook version of this one from my library, but they do have the whole series, so I’m now back in line for the second one.

I liked this book. It has some of the same things I liked about Caraval, but it has a more open world rather than the more closed-circle experience of that trilogy. It’s got unpredictable, sometimes brutal magic and a brooding, unattainable love interest. It’s got the sweet, starry-eyed girl at the center who has more power than she realizes but whose ability to believe in something may prove to be her greatest strength.

One of the things I liked best was the relationship between Evangeline and her step-sister, Marisol. I wish that a little more of the story had centered around them, actually. They have a tenuous relationship that, for a long time, Evangeline struggles to truly understand. She wants a relationship with her, but worries she can’t trust her, and her guilt over turning Marisol and her entire wedding party to stone definitely interferes.

Oh. So there’s a moment late in the book that I won’t spoil, but I literally sat there saying, “Don’t do it. Nope. Don’t!. You’re about to get Tess of the D’Urberville’d*. Don’t do it!”

Anyway. So I knew I was pretty invested in the story when I was literally shouting at the recording. Haha!

There were a couple of moments that I kind of just had to go with. For instance, at one point, a super-hungry vampire bites someone, but instead of feeding, they inject the person with venom. It seemed very bizarre that they didn’t try to feed since there had been this whole buildup about how hungry this vampire was. But nope. The bite just injected venom for some reason. Maybe that will be explained more later?

For the most part, though, I was absolutely carried away with this wild magical story. I’m looking forward to book two in the series.

*If you haven’t read Tess of the D’Urbervilles, there’s a part in the book in which someone confesses a dark secret to her. It’s a person she has been keeping her own awful secret from (something she feels terrible about, but which isn’t even her fault). So they confess, and Tess is like, oh, whew, you’ll understand my secret then. So she confesses, and nope. It’s not okay. Not at all. I really hated that book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Evangeline spends the night curled up in a boy’s lap as part of a medical recovery.

Spiritual Content
A group of immortal Fates have limited special abilities. If a human finds the chapel of a Fate, they can pray to them and make a bargain. The Fate may choose to help them but will ask for something in return.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Evangeline hears about a wolf attack that leaves a boy horribly scarred. A boy dies, apparently from some kind of poison. Someone poisons a girl. A large number of vampires bite people. Someone ties up another person and threatens to torture or kill them.

Drug Content
Evangeline drinks wine at a social event.

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: Don’t Let It Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne

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

Don’t Let It Break Your Heart
Maggie Horne
Feiwel & Friends
Published August 27, 2024

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About Don’t Let It Break Your Heart

You only get one soulmate, and I’m not throwing mine away.

Alana and Gray have been the perfect pair all through high school, and neither of them think that should have to change just because Alana came out as a lesbian. Sure, their romantic relationship is over, but their best-friends-since-forever dynamic is stronger than ever. Really, the only difference is that instead of kissing Gray herself, Alana sets him up with other girls to do that.

Enter Talia: tall, confident, gorgeous. Gray’s master plan is simple: befriend Tal and charm her into being his girlfriend. With Alana’s help, of course.

But as Alana spends more time with Tal, she is introduced to a world of possibilities. A world outside her small town. A world in which Alana can fully embrace her queer identity. A world where Alana and Talia are . . . together.

As the two get closer, Alana must juggle her loyalty to Gray with her growing feelings for Tal. Can she stay true to herself and to her best friend? More importantly, does she want to?

My Review

I started to read this book with the back cover copy in mind. It left me with some pretty specific expectations of what Alana and Gray’s relationship would be like, and I was a little confused when it played out differently. I didn’t really see Alana setting Gray up with other girls. It seemed more like she endured his prowling and did her best not to roll her eyes about it because she felt guilty about breaking up with him.

There’s something about Don’t Let It Break Your Heart that feels like a train wreck you can’t look away from. The writing is good—consistently insightful and full of compelling, realistic characters. The relationships between Alana and her friend group have this ticking-time-bomb feel to them. Some of that comes from the group’s toxic patterns and the undercurrent of homophobic feelings among some characters.

I liked that Tal’s addition to the crew altered the dynamics of the group a bit and brought a fresh perspective to relationships that Alana had been in so long that she never stopped to question. She voiced some of the things I’d been thinking, which felt validating as a reader, too.

Alana’s journey of self-discovery is frank and vulnerable. She recalls the slow demise of her romantic relationship with Gray and her growing inability to deny her identity, as well as her deep feelings of guilt and inadequacy at some points in her experience. I felt like those feelings were pretty real and Horne explored them in a way that I haven’t seen done in young adult literature before and adds some important notes to the conversations about identity.

Readers who enjoy upper young adult stories exploring messy relationships and first love will find a lot to love about this bold story. Perfect for fans of Marisa Kanter and Robin Talley.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Alana is a lesbian. She meets other queer characters, including a nonbinary person.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Pretty liberal use of profanity and f-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Veiled homophobic comments and manipulative behavior.

Drug Content
Several scenes show teens drinking alcohol and getting drunk. References to smoking pot.

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: A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen

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

A Bánh Mì for Two
Trinity Nguyen
Henry Holt & Co.
Published

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About A Bánh Mì for Two

In this sweet sapphic romance about two foodies in love, Vivi meets Lan while studying abroad in Vietnam and they spend the semester unraveling their families’ histories—and eating all the street food in Sài Gòn.

In Sài Gòn, Lan is always trying to be the perfect daughter, dependable and willing to care for her widowed mother and their bánh mì stall. Her secret passion, however, is A Bánh Mì for Two, the food blog she started with her father but has stopped updating since his passing.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese American Vivi Huynh, has never been to Việt Nam. Her parents rarely talk about the homeland that clearly haunts them. So Vivi secretly goes to Vietnam for a study abroad program her freshman year of college. She’s determined to figure out why her parents left, and to try everything she’s seen on her favorite food blog, A Bánh Mì for Two.

When Vivi and Lan meet in Sài Gòn, they strike a deal. Lan will show Vivi around the city, helping her piece together her mother’s story through crumbling photographs and old memories. Vivi will help Lan start writing again so she can enter a food blogging contest. And slowly, as they explore the city and their pasts, Vivi and Lan fall in love.

My Review

If you’re looking for a sweet romance set in a beautiful city and packed with tantalizing descriptions of food, you will not want to miss this book. It’s also a super quick read at a little over 200 pages.

I love the descriptions of the city of Sài Gòn. The author describes the book as partly her love letter to the city, and that affection comes through on every page of this novel. I felt like I could hear the noise of the city and smell the food made by the street vendors.

Lan and Vivi’s relationship is really sweet. Spending time together and showing an actual person the things she loves about Sài Gòn reinvigorates Lan. The fog of writer’s block that surrounded her begins to dissipate, and she begins writing again. Lan also helps Vivi find her family through her connections with people and her knowledge of the city.

The only thing that seemed a little odd was that we never really see anything about the educational part of Vivi’s study abroad program. I don’t remember there being descriptions of the university or even her traveling to and from classes. It wasn’t a major part of the story, so it wasn’t a big deal. Just something I noticed.

The story alternates between Lan and Vivi’s points of view. Both share complicated relationships with their moms. After losing her dad unexpectedly, Lan wants to protect her mom and support her so much that she’s closed off other parts of her life. Vivi desperately wants to know about her mom’s past in Việt Nam, something her mom refuses to talk about despite their closeness in other ways. I like that the book explores different mother-daughter relationships and the roles of parents and children.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book for its sweet romance (it does get a bit sappy in a scene or two, but I didn’t mind) and fabulous descriptions of the city of Sài Gòn.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Most characters are Vietnamese. Cindy is Latine.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs. Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Lan’s family lights incense on an alter for her dad as part of celebrating the anniversary of his death. References to other holidays.

Violent Content
References to war and torture. References to hard times after the war in Việt Nam.

Drug Content
Vivi drinks a beer with her peers. (The legal drinking age in Việt Nam is 18.)

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: Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool

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Garden of the Cursed (Garden of the Cursed #1)
Katy Rose Pool
Henry Holt & Co.
Published June 20, 2023

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About Garden of the Cursed

In this thrilling YA fantasy/mystery duology from award-winning author Katy Pool, cursebreaker Marlow Briggs reluctantly pretends to be in love with one of the most powerful nobles in Caraza City to gain entry into an illustrious—and deadly—society that holds clues to her mother’s disappearance. Perfect for fans of Veronica Mars, These Violent Delights, and Chain of Iron.

Since fleeing the gilded halls of Evergarden for the muck-filled canals of the Marshes, Marlow Briggs has made a name for herself as the best godsdamn cursebreaker in Caraza City. But no matter how many cases she solves, she is still haunted by the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

When Adrius Falcrest, Marlow’s old friend and scion of one of Caraza’s most affluent spell-making families, asks her to help break a life-threatening curse, Marlow wants nothing to do with the boy who spurned her a year ago. But a new lead in her mother’s case makes Marlow realize that the only way to get the answers she desperately seeks is to help Adrius and return to Evergarden society—even if it means suffering through a fake love affair with him to avoid drawing suspicion from the conniving Five Families.

As the investigation draws Marlow into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies, a shocking truth emerges: Adrius’s curse and her mother’s disappearance may just be clues to an even larger mystery, one that could unravel the very foundations of Caraza and magic itself.

My Review

This book hooked me from its early pages. I love the gritty world of the Marshes and the magic system, which uses spells contained within cards. The city reminded me a little bit of where Kaz lives in Six of Crows. The magic system and main character being a fish-out-of-water reminded me of Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody, which I also enjoyed.

Once I got to know Marlow and Adrius, I could not put this book down. Their past relationship was a little different than I thought from the back cover description, but that was because I made some assumptions that I didn’t realize I made. They’re both great characters. Some of the side characters, like Swift, Silvan, and Gemma grew on me as the story went on. Silvan is Adrius’s best friend and seems sullen and angry, but he’s fiercely loyal, and he has a pet snake that is always with him, which is somehow endearing.

Swift is another great character. He’s Marlow’s best friend. They have a super close bond, too, from past adventures together. I also love Marlow’s cat, Toad. She’s great.

The blend of fantasy and mystery elements really worked for me in this book. The magic system is unusual, and it gets used in interesting ways. The chemistry between Marlow and Adrius keeps their relationship sparky in more ways than one.

This is the first book in a duology. It has a satisfying conclusion that opens up a whole new set of problems for book two. As soon as I finished reading Garden of the Cursed, I bought and started reading the second book. I have to know how this story ends.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main character is white. One minor character has had same-gender romantic relationships. Another might be queer. Other characters’ race is ambiguous.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs. Other profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to a romance between two girls.

Spiritual Content
References to gods. Cards contain spells or curses and can be activated by saying a magic word.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to torture. Threats of torture. Harmful magic such as hexes and curses. A character tries to kill another character with a knife.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol.

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.