Bestselling author Danielle Paige puts a dark spin on fairy godmothers in a new YA series for fans of Brigid Kemmerer and Maleficent.
For centuries, the enchanted members of the Entente have worked in tandem with the Three Fates—the Present, the Past, and the Future—to maintain destiny across the Thirteen Queendoms. But when Queen Magrit learns of her untimely demise from Hecate, Fate of the Future, Magrit burns Hecate at the stake and decrees death to all Entente in order to live forever.
But some survive, including sixteen-year-old Farrow, who hatches a dangerous plan to seek revenge. Along the way, she finds herself falling for the one person who could ruin everything. With life and love hanging in the balance, she must decide who to trust and what’s most important: living in the past or forging a new future.
Bestselling author Danielle Paige launches a brand-new fairy godmother origin story full of intrigue, magic, and romance.
My Review
I found the pacing of this one a little different than I expected. Sometimes an origin story takes us right up to the beginning of a familiar tale, or right up to a character’s involvement in a familiar tale. I expected something like that here. To follow Farrow’s story until she meets a crying girl in a wrecked dress who just wants to go to the ball.
Instead, about half of the book tells Farrow’s history, relating how she has magic, what happened to drive her to the palace, and why she’s interested in helping Cinderella in the first place. The second half basically tells the story of Cinderella, but from the fairy godmother’s point-of-view.
My favorite parts of the book were how the setup changed or reflected the story of Cinderella. I really liked the setup involving Cinderella’s step-family. That reflected the original story and turned it around completely differently. It created connections between the fairy godmother and the family that added a lot of interest and stakes.
I also expected a lot more romance in the book. There are a couple of kissing scenes, but they’re mostly performative, and Farrow spends so much time focused on revenge and survival that she barely spares a thought to her feelings about a certain boy. It’s possible that the romance develops more in a subsequent book in the series, though.
All in all, I thought this was an imaginative origin story/retelling with some clever changes to the original tale. Fairy tale readers will like getting the often-overlooked perspective of the fairy godmother in a female-dominated cast.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation Farrow is described as having light brown skin.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used somewhat infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. At one point, a boy’s friends tease him and ask him to have Farrow disrobe in front of them as part of the aftermath of a ceremony where she’s presented to him. She obliges, down to her undergarments.
Spiritual Content Some characters have magic. Three of the Entente have the ability to see events: past, present, or future. Some characters refer to Fate as a source of power or guidance.
Violent Content Situations of peril. Some brief descriptions of women being burned alive or drowned. A few scenes contain some body horror, in which a person’s body transforms into beetles, bees, or scorpions. Soldiers attack using magic-suppressing weapons.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog. I received a free copy of WISH OF THE WICKED in exchange for my honest review.
Every fifty years, a cult claims twelve men to murder in a small Texas town. Can one girl end the cycle of violence – and save the boy who broke her heart?
San Solano, Texas, is a quaint town known for its charm, hospitality, and history of murder. Twice now, twelve men have been brutally killed, and no one knows who did it. A shadowy witch? A copycat killer? Or a man-hating murderess?
Eighteen-year-old Natalie Colter is sure that the rumors about her great-great-grandmother’s cult of wronged women are just gossip, but that doesn’t stop the true-crime writers and dark tourism bloggers from capitalizing on the town’s reputation. It’s an urban legend that’s hard to ignore, and it gets harder when Nat learns that the sisterhood is real. And magical. And they want her to join.
The more Nat learns of the Wardens’ supernatural history, the more she wonders about the real culprits behind the town’s ritualistic murders. Are the Wardens protecting San Solano from even darker forces? There are shadows in the woods, bones on the outskirts of town, and questions Nat needs answered.
But everything becomes more urgent when people start getting marked as new victims–including Levi Langford, the boy whose kiss haunted Nat for a year. With Levi in danger, doing nothing would be harder than fighting back.
Nat knows that no one is safe. Can she and the sisterhood stop the true evil from claiming their town?
My Review
I went on a bit of a paranormal kick this year, so this is a book I agreed to read while I was kind of in that mindset. I liked the idea of a sisterhood taking on a decades old curse in a small town, and I think the author really delivered on all those concepts.
Nat is a neat character– I liked that she keeps herself a little bit apart from her friends. She has some secrets, just things she isn’t ready to talk about yet. I found that really relatable. I also liked the back and forth between her and Levi. It’s not banter, but I definitely got the sense that they were locked in some kind of emotional thing. Not adversarial, but not exactly friendly either. So that hooked my curiosity right away.
Some elements of the book reminded me a bit of things I loved about THE LUMINARIES. It’s not exactly the same kind of story, but it does have some similarities: an elite team of warriors taking on monsters that the rest of humanity can’t see or know about; a small exclusive town; a complicated friendship-slash-maybe-romance. So all those things were big wins for me, too.
I think readers who enjoyed THE LUMINARIES definitely want to try this one. I am really glad I read it, and will definitely have to check out other things by Hannah West.
Content Notes for The Bitterwine Oath
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Major characters are white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Strong profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content The curse began when four girls used magic to ask for revenge against men who’d wronged them. The magic revisits the town every fifty years, claiming twelve new victims.
Nat learns that the magic still exists, and that a coven of women use it to fight back against the cursed magic.
Violent Content Situations of peril. Battle violence. In one scene, a pet is found injured. Several scenes show animal carcasses or bones. Several scenes show creatures made of bones and carcasses attacking people.
Drug Content References to teens drinking beer.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of BITTERWINE OATH in exchange for my honest review.
An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.
Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl”; even her mother is desperate to marry her off for security. But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion.
Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for a new kind of Musketeer: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a swordfight.
With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels for the first time like she has a purpose, like she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her first target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming, and breathlessly attractive—and he might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to lean on her friends, listen to her own body, and decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.
This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.
My Review
I’ve been wanting to read this book since before it came out! I wasn’t able to get a pre-release copy, but a group that I write editorial reviews for sent me a copy a while ago, so I cleared my schedule and sat down to read it!
The setting swept me away. I loved getting lost in the beautiful descriptions of places and lovely dresses and parties. Tania also spends a good deal of time practicing fencing, so I loved getting to read about some of the technical side of that. I thought those descriptions were easy to follow (and I know nothing of fencing) and well-paced.
The characters are charming, too. I loved the girls Tania joins at Madame Treville’s establishment. They each bring different talents and sensibilities to the team of Mousquetaires. Also, I loved reading about them getting to know one another and building relationships with each other. I kind of wish we had gotten to know Henri a bit more, but it makes sense that the story would focus on the four girls.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Though I can’t speak for the accuracy of the representation, I can say as a reader, Tania’s experience was very accessible. Her illness intruded into her life in some ways, but it didn’t define her. Sometimes it meant she had to work hard to compensate for her limits as best as she could, and other times it meant she leaned on people she could trust. I thought that seemed like a great balance, and it kept the story from being dominated by her symptoms and Tania centerstage.
On the whole, I loved it. I would definitely read more by Lillie Lainoff, so I’m excited to see what she writes next. I think readers who enjoy historical fiction like THE RING AND THE CROWN by Melissa de la Cruz will love this one.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Tania is disabled and has POTS.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Brief profanity in French used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. References to girls’ reputations and the harm that rumors about them being taken advantage of or being caught in a romantic position could do. References to an assault that happened before the story began.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Tania and her sisters in arms take lessons in fencing. Some situations of peril occur. Some brief battle violence, no graphic injuries.
Drug Content References to social drinking at parties and dinners.
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 this book in exchange for my honest review.
Les Misérables meets Six of Crows in this page-turning adventure as a young thief finds herself going head to head with leaders of Paris’s criminal underground in the wake of the French Revolution.
In the violent urban jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, the French Revolution has failed and the city is divided between merciless royalty and nine underworld criminal guilds, known as the Court of Miracles. Eponine (Nina) Thénardier is a talented cat burglar and member of the Thieves Guild. Nina’s life is midnight robberies, avoiding her father’s fists, and watching over her naïve adopted sister, Cosette (Ettie). When Ettie attracts the eye of the Tiger–the ruthless lord of the Guild of Flesh–Nina is caught in a desperate race to keep the younger girl safe. Her vow takes her from the city’s dark underbelly to the glittering court of Louis XVII. And it also forces Nina to make a terrible choice–protect Ettie and set off a brutal war between the guilds, or forever lose her sister to the Tiger.
My Review
I feel like retelling LES MISÉRABLES is a pretty tall undertaking. I’ll admit that I felt skeptical going into COURT OF MIRACLES. Telling the story– or reframing the story– from Eponine’s (in the story she’s known as Nina) point-of-view was a really cool choice. She’s such a compelling character in the musical (I haven’t read the book, so I’m flying a bit blind there.). I loved the idea of sticking with her throughout the story.
COURT OF MIRACLES captures that streetwise, vulnerable but clever and smart girl from the original story. I liked that the story centers around sisterhood, too, first with Nina’s biological sister and then her adopted sister, Cosette.
Also– I love that we have a female Javert! I thought that was super clever and gives a lot of interesting twists to her motives and a need to prove herself as a women in a job that’s dominated by men. I’m curious where that goes.
One of the biggest things that felt missing to me in the book, though, are the echoes of the morality that seems to fill the original story. There’s no one honorable– even Jean Valjean only helps Nina because he owes her a debt. Everyone is out for themselves. And given that most of the characters are thieves, that’s not shocking. I just felt like there was a core of the original story that didn’t carry over.
I think it’s there a little bit in the way Nina remains loyal to her sisters, despite the costs or what’s convenient. She values them and can’t turn her back on them even when it might save her.
On the whole, COURT OF MIRACLES delivers a gritty cast of characters inspired by LES MIS and reminding readers of the power of sisterhood, loyalty, and courage.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation Nina and her sister have olive-toned skin which they inherited from their mother.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content References to torture and cannibalism. Members of each guild receive some kind of brand or scar that marks them as a guild member. One guild master enslaves girls for prostitution, keeping them drugged and addicted to drugs to control them.
Battles and situations of peril with some graphic descriptions.
Drug Content References to drinking wine socially. Scenes show girls addicted to and high on opiates.
Note: I received a free copy of THE COURT OF MIRACLES in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
I love my sisters. I have two of them who live much too far away, and recently, when I watched the new movie Little Women, I ugly cried through scene after scene missing them both like crazy.
So, in honor of these two amazing, fierce, strong women, here’s a list of books in which the relationship between sisters is a driving force in the story. They may not always be on the same page or the same side, but ultimately, each wants to protect her sister. Each sees amazing things in her sister and shares a bond that no one outside it understands.
Note: Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This post contains affiliate links which don’t cost you anything to use but generate a small amount of support for this blog.
What if the Little Mermaid from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale had a twin sister determined to undo the deal she’d made with the sea witch? That’s pretty much the starting point of SEA WITCH RISING, and I really enjoyed that twist on the familiar story.
Henning creates characters that are somehow both hero and villain. They make dangerous promises, take huge risks, but always out of a desperate love for others. It adds a lot of layering and drama to the story. I think SEA WITCH is my favorite of the duology, but I enjoyed both.
I remember reading this book really fast and feeling like it was like being on a roller coaster as it pulls you up to the top of the highest point, and all the adrenaline and anticipation is building and building as you go higher and higher. It’s one of those books that takes you to the brink and then you unravel what will happen, and I loved it.
Watching Nell try to navigate through the change in her sister’s behavior is so heartbreaking and real. I loved that she wouldn’t give up on the relationship she had with her sister.
I can’t imagine the heartbreak of losing a sister, especially losing one in your teens. For Zara, it’s clearly left a giant hole in her heart, and she will not rest until she learns what happened to her sister.
Originally, Laila’s death is ruled an overdose, but Zara uncovers too many weird and suspicious things to accept that story at face value. But as she looks deeper, she stumbles onto a closed group of powerful and dangerous people, and soon she’s caught in a game where she doesn’t know the rules.
It’s a twisty, tingly crazy ride through this story, but Zara’s goal never wavers. She needs to know what happened to her sister, no matter what. I like to think I would feel the same. That if something strange happened to one of my sisters, I wouldn’t be able to rest until I knew what happened.
You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Twin sisters, total opposites in lots of ways, but one thing binds them together: the shared agony of watching their mother’s battle with Huntington’s disease. When both sisters are tested, the results only strain their relationship further. One girl tests positive, the other negative.
I found the sisters’ divergent ways of dealing with stress and anxiety really believable, and kept rooting for the bond of their sister relationship to be an anchor they could each come back to, no matter what.
You knew I was going to include this one, right? 🙂 Lia Mara has a tricky relationship with her family, particularly her sister, who has been chosen to rule after their mother. Actually, their relationship reminded me a lot of GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson, which should be on this list as well.
Since the story has other viewpoints and other goals, you might think Lia Mara and her sister don’t factor in very heavily, but there are some critical moments when the dynamics between Lia Mara and her sister drive the story forward or become the hinge that changes its direction.
Sisters and secret, always a volatile combination, and never moreso than when two sister goddesses are involved. In THE NEVER TILTING WORLD, Haidee and Odessa must deal with the fallout of choices made by their mothers, two sisters, who split the world in two and stopped it from spinning on its axis. (If you’re already bothered by the science of what that would mean, all I can say is willing suspension of disbelief.)
I liked that the sisters were kind of the origin of the story and that basically everything hinged on choices they made.
The sisters in VANISHING GIRLS have a complex relationship. While Nick cares a lot about her sister, she also has some guilt and feelings of resentment toward her that she’s having a really hard time working through. There’s lots to unpack in terms of emotional and psychological elements.
While it wasn’t my favorite book, I enjoyed the dynamics between the sisters and watching Nick struggle to make sense of her feelings and Dara’s behavior. It’s definitely one of those books where you get to the end and have to think back through what’s happened before and factor in new information. I tend to love those types of stories, but I think the pieces never quite clicked into place for me with this one. I wonder if it would be different if I read it again knowing what to expect? Not sure.
Empress of Flames by Mimi Yu (which inspired this list)
In EMPRESS OF FLAMES, sisters Lu and Min, will face off, an army between them, each determined to rule the Empire of the First Flame. The sisters are really different from each other and want the throne for slightly different reasons. What’s going to be interesting will be the clash of their desire to rule versus their love for each other.
Note: I included this book in an earlier Top Ten list, which inspired me to create my sister books list.
Scarlett and Tella, Tella and Scarlett. Though this story is ultimately Scarlett’s tale, the thing that drives her forward is the search for her missing sister. Her whole life plan is to do whatever it takes to make sure Tella is safe and protected.
Of course, Tella herself often does everything possible to thwart those plans, but not because she doesn’t love Scarlett. More because she sees Scarlett as having a value beyond her role as caretaker and big sister, and she does what she does to challenge Scarlett to imagine a life for herself. To risk loving someone and being loved.
Which is, of course, just one of the things I love about this series.
If you haven’t read SADIE, it’s about a girl whose sister has been murdered. The driving force for Sadie is to find her sister’s killer– something the police don’t seem to be actually able to do. She’s willing to give up anything and everything in order to bring the murderer to justice.
It’s gritty and dark, but one of the things I love about it is that the author purposely excludes scenes depicting Mattie’s murder. Here’s a quote from my Q&A with Courtney Summers in which she talks about what inspired her to write the book:
“One of the things that inspired Sadie was the way we consume violence against women and girls as a form of entertainment. When we do that, we reduce its victims to objects, which suggests a level of disposability–that a girl’s pain is only valuable to us if we’re being entertained by it. What is our responsibility to us? I really wanted to explore that and the way we dismiss missing girls and what the cost of that ultimately is.”
Do you have a favorite sister book?
What books have you read that feature an unforgettable sisterhood? Share them in the comments! I would love to read more books about sisters.
For generations, the princes of Ilara have married the most beautiful maidens from the ocean village of Varenia. But though every girl longs to be chosen as the next princess, the cost of becoming royalty is higher than any of them could ever imagine…
Nor once dreamed of seeing the wondrous wealth and beauty of Ilara, the kingdom that’s ruled her village for as long as anyone can remember. But when a childhood accident left her with a permanent scar, it became clear that her identical twin sister, Zadie, would likely be chosen to marry the Crown Prince—while Nor remained behind, unable to ever set foot on land.
Then Zadie is gravely injured, and Nor is sent to Ilara in her place. To Nor’s dismay, her future husband, Prince Ceren, is as forbidding and cold as his home—a castle carved into a mountain and devoid of sunlight. And as she grows closer to Ceren’s brother, the charming Prince Talin, Nor uncovers startling truths about a failing royal bloodline, a murdered queen… and a plot to destroy the home she was once so eager to leave.
In order to save her people, Nor must learn to negotiate the treacherous protocols of a court where lies reign and obsession rules. But discovering her own formidable strength may be the one move that costs her everything: the crown, Varenia and Zadie.
My Review
I liked Nor’s character straight from the beginning. Her protectiveness toward her family and her closeness with her sister make her an admirable character. Her spirit and thirst for adventure keep her at the center of her story as a heroine rather than the trade goods her people hope to make of her.
Besides Nor, other characters are pretty straightforward. The good guys are very good. The bad guys are very bad. I kept hoping for some hidden complexities, but that wasn’t really the direction the story took. I’m not sure I understood the plot. It felt out of focus to me. I felt like Nor’s goal gets overshadowed by other events, and fizzled a little bit as the story ended.
I found the clash of the two cultures– Nor’s oceanic people and Ceren’s mountain-dwelling people– really creative and interesting. Nor’s life at sea gave her a lot of freedom and vitality. Her new life in the mountain felt oppressive, dark, and creepy, even before all of the politics and people added complications. I thought the way CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL clashed those two cultures added a lot of feeling to the story and was cleverly done.
On the whole, I felt like the story world was cleverly created and Nor is a fantastic character. I’m glad I read the book, even if I wanted more complexity in its other characters. Fans of SEA WITCH RISING will like CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL for its cross-culture story and its emphasis on the unbreakable bond of sisterhood.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Nor and her sister have bronze skin and dark curly hair. The Ilarans are pale with blond hair.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Nor’s people worship the god of the sea, Thalos, who is said to have punished those who don’t submit to his will.
Violent Content Assassins attack a small group. Nor battles a monster and faces torture. A woman jumps from a cliff. A woman hits a soldier over the head and stabs someone.
Drug Content Nor is encouraged to drink alcohol to help her sleep.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL in exchange for my honest review.
