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Review: Beetle and the Chimera Carnival by Aliza Layne

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Beetle and the Chimera Carnival by Aliza Layne

Beetle and the Chimera Carnival (The Beetle Books #2)
Aliza Layne
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published April 29, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Beetle and the Chimera Carnival

Beetle and her friends attend a carnival full of dragons and magic, only to discover something sinister at play behind the scenes, in this delightful sequel to the Stonewall Honor-winning Beetle & the Hollowbones middle grade graphic novel.

Hidden behind the clouds, giant dragons guard the most powerful magic in the world from prying eyes. On one magical night, once every ten years, these leviathans reveal themselves to a fanfare of costumes, music, and parades in the Chimera Carnival.

But this time, something’s wrong.

When Beetle, Penny, and Kat decide to check out the empty carnival site one night, they discover an injured dragon screaming for help. And the more Beetle uncovers about the Chimera Carnival, the more sinister it gets. Dragons who arrive for the early festivities disappear without a trace. Beetle’s magic begins to go haywire. And Kat’s parents come back to town, worrying both girls about whether they have a future together.

In the catacombs beneath the demolished ‘Allowstown mall, something hungers for dragon magic. And Beetle and her friends are already more entwined with it than they could possibly imagine.

My Review

I remember being surprised at how much I enjoyed Beetle and the Hollowbones, the first book in this series, which I reviewed the year it came out. When I spotted the sequel on the shelf at the library, I grabbed it immediately.

Layne’s illustration style is both reminiscent of Halloween and whimsical. This is definitely the kind of story that The Nightmare Before Christmas fans will enjoy. The book opens with a clever recap of events that looks like pages in a scrapbook. From there, we dive straight into the story.

I had forgotten how much I liked the sweet relationship between Beetle and Kat. They’re in the early days of a romance that leaves them a little swoony about one another. Beetle also worries about the status of their relationship, but she tries really hard to give Kat the space she needs to figure out when to talk to her family.

Though Kat and Beetle end up mired in a dangerous mystery, the story has so many joyful moments. I love the way that Layne shows big emotions and just embraces the goofiness of her characters. The story also has one of the best moments between Kat, Beetle, and Beetle’s Gran’ma. That scene (it’s near the end) was absolutely perfect.

So, two books into the series, and I’m more a fan now that ever. I hope there are more Beetle and Kat adventures to come. Definitely check this one out if you need a boost of joy in your life or are ready to celebrate new love or Halloween.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A couple of panels show a couple kissing. Two characters discuss relationship status.

Spiritual Content
Beetle is a goblin. Kat is a living skeleton. Penny is a ghost. The group plan to attend a festival at which dragons gather. Another character is a vampire. Characters can perform different kinds of magic. References to necromancy.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Kidnapping. Brief cartoon battle scenes. Brief homophobic comments.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my local library. All opinions are my own.

Review: Thirsty: A Novel by Jas Hammonds

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Thirsty: A Novel
Jas Hammonds
Roaring Brook Press
Published May 14, 2024

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About Thirsty: A Novel

It’s the summer before college and eighteen-year-old Blake Brenner and her girlfriend, Ella, have one goal: join the mysterious and exclusive Serena Society. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella’s acceptance is a sure thing—she’s the daughter of a Serena alum. Blake, however, has a lot more to prove.

As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella’s pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she’s bold, funny, and unstoppable—and the Serenas love it. But as pledging intensifies, so does Blake’s drinking, until it’s seeping into every corner of her life. Ella assures Blake that she’s fine; partying hard is what it takes to make the cut.

But success has never felt so much like drowning. With her future hanging in the balance and her past dragging her down, Blake must decide how far she’s willing to go to achieve her glittering dreams of success—and how much of herself she’s willing to lose in the process.

My Review

What an incredible book. I felt as though I was right there with Blake, riding the high of being deeply in love and long summer days. But even from the early pages, you get this sense that something is off. Blake doesn’t see it yet, and at first I thought maybe it was just me not buying into the narrative.

(Can we pause for a sec and just appreciate the kind of writing that can do that? Draw you into a story so completely that you both root for the main character and suspect she’s lying to herself? Amazing.)

As the story progresses, it becomes crystal clear that Blake’s relationship with Ella comes at a high personal cost. Even though Blake loves her. Even though Ella loves Blake.

I don’t want to give away what happens, but I do want to say that I appreciate that Hammonds doesn’t end the story where I expected. We follow Blake into the first chapters a life she couldn’t have imagined at the start of the story. We get to see the working out of some of her choices. I love that, and I think that kind of representation is incredibly important in young adult literature.

Thirsty is the second book by Jas Hammonds that I’ve read. Their debut, We Deserve Monuments was fantastic, and yet, somehow, I think Thirsty might be even better. I’m pretty sure Hammonds is now a must-read author for me.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing, references to sex and showering/undressing together.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Non-consensual outing. Transphobic rhetoric. Toxic relationship elements. Racial microaggressions. Suicidal ideation and self-hate.

Drug Content
Blake and other teens drink alcohol and smoke using a vape pen. While a lot of scenes show drinking, they also show the consequences and regrets that Blake has later. The scenes explore the harm that drinking causes. The character who smokes decides to quit during the book.

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: Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire by Don Martin

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Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire
Don Martin
Page Street Press
Published August 5, 2025

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About Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire

Witch apprentice Verity Vox has never encountered a problem magic can’t solve. So when a cryptic note invites her to Foxfire, she goes.

With her apprenticeship limiting her services to a year, Foxfire will be her biggest challenge yet. The town has already lost its only bridge, and many loved ones have disappeared in dealings with a shady magic peddler named Earl—leaving the whole town wary of magic.

Even as Verity wins the townsfolk over, she realizes she may not be able to save them. Going after Earl only returns Tacita, the missing girl who summoned Verity, but no one else. And the fight costs Verity the ability to fly and draws her to the old dark magic beneath the mountain.

As Verity hones her powers and grows to care for Tacita, she must learn that not everything can be solved with strength alone.

My Review

One of the really cool things about this book is the personal connection to the author’s life and real U.S. history the story contains. In an author’s note, Martin reveals that the fictional town of Foxfire, where the novel takes place, is inspired by a real town that was cut off from outside contact when a bridge failed. As an Appalachian native himself, Martin pulled the character names from his heritage. I love knowing the personal connection an author has to their work, and in this case, I think it adds a special spark to the story, too.

The tone of the writing is very whimsical, which is fun. This is a book that begs to be read aloud. It also feels like the kind of story that you’d imagine someone sitting by the fire on a long winter evening and sharing with their family.

I love the main characters, especially Verity’s familiar, Jack, or Jack-Be-Nimble, if you’re being formal. What is it about a cat who is not a cat in a fantasy novel? I love them all. Jack reminds me a little bit of Max, the cat-who-is-not-a-cat from the Ravenfall series by Kalyn Josephson, so if you’re a fan of that series, and Max specifically, definitely add this book to your reading list.

The story is stepped in magic with a sinister villain. Verity has to figure out what’s driving the dealmaker holding Foxfire in his grasp and how to use her magic to protect them. This is a perfect book for readers to graduate into after reading the Witchlings series by Claribel A. Ortega or the Ravenfall series by Kalyn Josephson.

Conclusion

If you like fairytale-esque stories, there’s a lot to love about Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire. It definitely has that fairytale feel, but it offers a fresh story. Except for a battle scene toward the end and a couple of brief descriptions that teeter on body horror, it’s a very accessible story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used super infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Characters attend a wedding.

Spiritual Content
Verity is a witch in training who can perform magic. A magician named Earl uses magic to bind people to deals. References to gods and powerful magical beings of old.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief descriptions of body horror in a few scenes.

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: Pretty Girl County by Lakita Wilson

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Pretty Girl County
Lakita Wilson
Publisher
Published July 1, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Pretty Girl County

The glitz of Gossip Girl meets the hustle of Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown in this charming and hilarious story of ex-BFFs from PG County, Maryland, perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Elise Bryant.

Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George’s County. Reya is rich and she’s not afraid to show it—she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.

Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller—and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad’s bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.

Reya and Sommer used to be BFFs—back when Reya lived in Seat Pleasant, too. Now the girls are from different stratospheres—but when Reya desperately needs help to prove to FIT admissions officers that she has what it takes to make it in fashion, the only person who can help is Sommer. Reya promises to help Sommer in return—she’ll pay her for her services, helping Sommer afford the school her parents can’t.

As the girls work together, slowly they begin to trust each other again. But when new relationships push them both, and Sommer’s dad’s bookstore is suddenly in danger of closing, old wounds bubble up. Can the girls find a way to repair their friendship and stay true to themselves along the way?

My Review

This is such a great story of friendship. The story alternates between Sommer and Reya’s points of view. At the beginning of the story, their old friendship has ended, and Sommer isn’t interested in renewing it or connecting with any of Reya’s new friends. An opportunity associated with a schoolwide fashion show changes that, though.

The story has great pacing in terms of relationship development. The ways that Reya and Sommer’s friendship changes and each girl’s romantic opportunities develop feels natural and easy to follow. Each relationship faces challenges, and in both cases, the girls have to ask themselves hard questions about who they are and what they want their lives to look like.

It took me a minute to get into Reya’s character, but I ended up being really glad that the story was divided between both girls. I like the lessons that each of them learned.

Pretty Girl County is also a pretty lighthearted story. Sure, there’s some relationship drama and some family struggle. But this is the kind of book that anyone could read. It would make a great choice for a reader aging up into young adult books.

Also, bonus: there’s a fabulous reading list of books by Black authors in the back that’s worth checking out as well. The characters mention many of those titles as they work at the bookstore or talk about their own reading. I’ll definitely be adding some of those titles to my own reading list! The ones I’ve read already have all been well worth the time.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
References to church.

Violent Content
Some classist comments.

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: A Treachery of Swans by A. B. Poranek

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A Treachery of Swans
A. B. Poranek
Margaret K. McElderry
Published June 24, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About A Treachery of Swans

An enthralling sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, for fans of Allison Saft and V.E Schwab.

Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal. Odile has always known she’d be the one to restore it.

Raised by a sorcerer, Odile has spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime. It’s perfectly simple. Impersonate a princess, infiltrate the palace, steal the king’s enchanted crown and restore magic to the kingdom.

But when the King is unexpectedly murdered, she’s forced to recruit the help of Marie d’Odette, the real princess, and the two begin to unravel a web of lies and deceit that leaves Odile uncertain of who to trust.

Soon though Odile must decide – her mission or the girl she’s falling for?

The fate of the Kingdom depends on her making the right choice. . .

My Review

I loved Poranek’s debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still. Switching from that kind of story to this one was almost like reading Gilded Wolves after reading The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi. It’s the same author, and technically the same genre, but the flavor of the stories is very different.

As a former dancer, I’m always interested in reimaginings of or stories inspired by the Swan Lake ballet. This one keeps a lot of the original story’s beats but changes many of the relationships between the characters and centers the story around the relationship between Odile and Odette. The story is told from Odile’s perspective, and rather than being a prop that the sorcerer uses to trick the prince, Odile is an active character who drives the story forward herself.

I liked both Odile and Marie d’Odette’s characters, and watching the relationship develop between the two was fabulous. It was easy to feel the magnetism between them, but it didn’t feel insta-lovey or forced.

The narrative revisits this idea of agency and speaking up for oneself in Odile and Marie d’Odette but also in the prince. I liked that common theme and how the author used that challenge to shape the growth of the characters over the course of the story.

If you enjoyed Gilded by Marissa Meyer and her treatment of the story of Rumpelstiltzkin, grab a copy of A Treachery of Swans by A. B. Poranek.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Reference to making out and falling asleep together.

Spiritual Content
Three goddesses created and ruled the world until a sorcerer overthrew them. Some characters (with golden blood) have the ability to perform magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to and some descriptions of a beast tearing up and devouring people. Some instances of toxic/manipulative/abusive behavior of a parent toward a child.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol socially. Reference to other tonics and concoctions.

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: Out of Step, Into You by Ciera Burch

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

Out of Step, Into You
Ciera Burch
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Published May 20, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Out of Step, Into You

Out of Step, into You is a sapphic contemporary romance following childhood friends turned cross-country team rivals who are forced to work together to win the state championship – for fans of She Gets the Girl.

You can’t outrun love.

Taylor and Marianna were each other’s whole world – best friends, running partners, practically sisters – until Marianna moved away and Taylor promptly ghosted her. When the former best friends turned rivals end up on the same cross-country team three years later, everything is a competition… and a reminder of past feelings, as well as blossoming new ones.

Marianna runs because she’s angry. The oldest child of a single mother, she knows all about responsibility – for her siblings, at her part-time job. She just has to stay focused and be faster than the past nipping at her heels if she wants to secure a new, brighter future. With or without Taylor.

Taylor runs to prove herself. The only child of an almost-Olympian, she’s no stranger to high expectations. With enough effort, she knows she can immortalize herself with a state record and make her parents proud. Then, she can figure out her own passion. She definitely doesn’t have time to untangle her feelings towards Mari.

Can this pair figure out a way to work together before their past catches up with them?

My Review

A long time ago I saw someone posting that their favorite trope was friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, which I hadn’t thought much about. Since then, I’ve read several books that qualify, and I tend to enjoy them (as long as the reconnection and romance don’t seem forced). While Taylor and Marianna aren’t precisely enemies, they begin the story on rival cross-country teams after an estrangement in their friendship. So, just about as close as you can get to that trope in a contemporary romance.

The story alternates between each girl’s point of view, and I liked both right away. Marianna is under so much pressure at home with her mom needing her help with her younger siblings. Taylor’s dad has a serious health issue that she can’t always count on her parents to be honest with her about. They both have a lot on their plates in addition to competing on the cross-country team.

The romance develops tentatively, and it has several really sweet moments between the girls. They dance around whether they can be friends again (or even want to) while they each feel a growing warmth toward one another that is definitely more than friendship.

I’m also not super familiar with cross country as a sport, so it was cool reading something that informed me about it and helped me understand the stakes and celebrate the victories that each girl faced.

All in all, this is a fun romance read, perfect for summer.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Characters attend a party where some of them drink alcohol. The next day, they perform poorly at cross country.

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.