After a lifetime of being the younger sister–of letting Sophie fight her battles, of following her on countless Experiences and through a fireplace into a magical land–it’s finally Claire Martinson’s turn to lead. And she’ll do anything to keep her big sister safe: resist the wraiths’ cold shadows, experiment with new and dangerous magic, become a thief in disguise.
When Claire discovers that “only a queen can defeat a queen,” she knows she must steal and reforge the ancient Crown of Arden to stand a chance against the darkness that threatens the world and her family. Because Queen Estelle d’Astora, desperate to reclaim her power, will stop at nothing to gain the support of the four guilds–even if it means killing the last unicorn. Claire will need every friend she’s made to help her as the fate of Arden hangs in the balance . . . But the secrets of the unicorns are deeper than anyone could have ever imagined. Does Claire have what it takes to ignite the long-buried magic of this world and wake the fire in the stars? Or will the true salvation of Arden rest on one final and heartbreaking sacrifice?
My Review
What a finale! I love sister books, so this series has been lots of fun to read. I love that it’s the little sister who’s the star of the books, too. I really enjoyed watching Claire find her gifts and her confidence and her place in the world.
FIRE IN THE STAR brings together a lot of characters from the earlier books, but it’s pretty easy to keep track of everyone as the story kind of refreshes you on who’s who as you read.
I also really loved that in the story, Claire and her allies all need each other, need to work together to save Arden. It meant learning to value one another, trust each other, put aside past grievances, and find a way to work together. Definitely a feel-good story in that sense.
This has been one of my favorite middle grade series, and I really can’t wait to see what Kamilla Benko writes next. She’s an author I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to any middle or late elementary school-aged readers.
If you like books by Jessica Day George, you really need to check out The Unicorn Quest series.
Here is my review of the first book in the series, THE UNICORN QUEST.
Profanity/Crude Language Content No profanity. The characters sometimes use made up curses like “slug soot”.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing between a boy and girl and references to a crush between them.
Spiritual Content A unicorn healed Sophie and saved her life with its magic in the first book in this series, and that moment is referenced in this one, too. Other characters have magical abilities as well. Claire learns to make gems glow with her magic. Other characters can manipulate plants or metals. Deep shadows called wraiths chase the girls and their allies, trying to stop them. Sensitive readers may be frightened by descriptions of the wraiths… they’re a little bit like the Dementors in Harry Potter maybe? Not quite as scary as that.
Violent Content Some brief descriptions of battle violence and situations of peril.
Drug Content None.
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 FIRE IN THE STAR in exchange for my honest review.
A must-read for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, transforming The Hunchback of Notre Dame into a powerful tundra-inspired epic.
Before the massacre at Nariin, Enebish was one of the greatest warriors in the Sky King’s Imperial Army: a rare and dangerous Night Spinner, blessed with the ability to control the threads of darkness. Now, she is known as Enebish the Destroyer―a monster and murderer, banished to a monastery for losing control of her power and annihilating a merchant caravan.
Guilt stricken and scarred, Enebish tries to be grateful for her sanctuary, until her adoptive sister, Imperial Army commander Ghoa, returns from the war front with a tantalizing offer. If Enebish can capture the notorious criminal, Temujin, whose band of rebels has been seizing army supply wagons, not only will her crimes be pardoned, she will be reinstated as a warrior.
Enebish eagerly accepts. But as she hunts Temujin across the tundra, she discovers the tides of war have shifted, and the supplies he’s stealing are the only thing keeping thousands of shepherds from starving. Torn between duty and conscience, Enebish must decide whether to put her trust in the charismatic rebel or her beloved sister. No matter who she chooses, an even greater enemy is advancing, ready to bring the empire to its knees.
My Review
I love that authors are re-imagining classic stories in really cool ways like this. I haven’t read the original story (I’ve seen a couple movie versions), but THE NIGHT SPINNER definitely made me want to. The gender-flipped characters made me view the story in a new way, too.
The only thing that seemed a little weird to me was the fact that Enebish’s physical deformity isn’t something she was born with but something that happened to punish her. It’s a pretty big departure from the original story, but so is the fantasy landscape and all the magical elements, too.
I liked Enebish as a character and her struggle to come to grips with her past as well as her relationship with Serik. I’m super excited to see where the second book goes and whether we get to see any of the story from Serik’s point-of-view?? Because that seems like it would be lots of fun!
Representation The Sky King has expanded his empire to include ethnic groups, which he wants to assimilate into a homogeneous people by outlawing their traditions, beliefs and rituals. Enebish (and some other central characters) view this as wrong and condemn it.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content Some romantic tension between characters.
Spiritual Content Polytheistic. Worshiping the old gods – the Lady of the Sky and the Father – have been forbidden. Now everyone is commanded to worship the king. Enebish and a few others remain secretly loyal to the old ways. She prays and communicates with the goddess through a sort of journal. It’s a very faith-positive story.
Violent Content Graphic descriptions of battle and the results of torture.
Drug Content None.
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 NIGHT SPINNER in exchange for my honest review.
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.
If she wants a future with him, she’ll have to make peace with her past.
Jenna’s never let her cerebral palsy get her down. But when she discovers that her condition was actually caused by an injury at birth, she’s furious with her parents, who withheld the truth. And as they push her to get yet another difficult procedure, Jenna feels her control over her life starting to slip.
Enter Julian, Jenna’s childhood crush. He’s just moved back to town, and he’s struggling in school, so Jenna reaches out to him—anonymously— to help. Soon, their conversations are about so much more than class. She’s falling for him all over again, hard and fast. But would Julian still be interested in her if he knew who she really was? And can she find a way to take back her own narrative before she pushes away everyone she loves?
My Review
You know, just leave it to Stacie Ramey to create still more characters that I can’t help falling in love with. I really, really needed a solid, heartfelt contemporary book, and IT’S MY LIFE totally had me covered. I love Jenna’s awkwardness and her tendency to overthink things. I love her passion and her relationship with her mom.
Actually, I want to say more about her and her mom. Because I felt like that was a really complex relationship, since Jenna’s really pushing back against her parents’ assumptions about her medical treatment and care. She’s feeling lied to by her parents and unable to communicate to them her need to make her own medical decisions.
Though we only see Jenna’s point-of-view, I felt like it was easy to see that so much more was happening between the lines. Her mom felt like this real, complicated character with conflicting desires but a consistent commitment to her daughter. I don’t know if that makes total sense, but I just found myself having a lot of respect for Jenna’s mom because clearly she had a lot going on in her head and heart.
IT’S MY LIFE is at its core, a personal journey story. At the beginning, Jenna feels like her perfect life starring the cooler, better version of herself is completely out of reach. Jenna has two choices: she can sit back and let that life stay a fantasy, or she can pull together all her courage and figure out a way to make things happen for herself.
I love that theme in the story so much, and I think Stacie Ramey does real justice to the part of life where we must choose to become the main character in our own stories. I’m so glad I read this book, and I think it will really stay with me for a long time.
Representation Jenna has Cerebral Palsy. Jenna and her family are Jewish. Her best friend Ben is gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used fairly frequently. A couple instances of stronger profanity.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. Jenna has some daydreams about lying in bed with a boy.
Spiritual Content Some references to Jewish traditions and holidays.
Violent Content Jenna witnesses a fistfight between two boys.
Drug Content Jenna and a friend drink alcohol at a dance.
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 IT’S MY LIFE in exchange for my honest review.
Princess Sofia of Drachenheim is sick of being used for her older sister’s political gains. At twelve years old, she’s already been a hostage to invading dragons and a promised future fiancé to a wicked fairy. Her only comfort lies in writing letters to her pen pal and best friend–Jasper, a young dragon whom she’s never even met.
When Sofia’s older sister sends her on a diplomatic mission to far-off Villenne, she’s meant to play the part of a charming, smiling princess. But when an accident leads to her exile from the city, Sofia is free to wander as she pleases for the first time in her life. And when Jasper’s food-mage sister Aventurine turns him into a human boy, Sofia thinks life can’t get any better. Until… the legendary ice giants of the north attack, trying to reclaim the territory that they lost centuries ago. With the dragons and royals frozen in ice, can Sofia and Jasper save their families and kingdom?
Another enchanting and strong-hearted fantasy, set in the same world as The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart and The Girl with the Dragon Heart.
My Review
THE PRINCESS WHO FLEW WITH DRAGONS is the third book in the series that began with THE DRAGON WITH A CHOCOLATE HEART. All three have been amazing stories– packed with so many positive messages and heart that I can’t stop recommending them to others.
All three books feature strong heroines who feel isolated from others and face circumstances that force them to learn how to trust others and be a good friend. Some moments are silly and lighthearted, giving the books a sense of fun and keeping them upbeat. Each girl faces high stakes, so the story also packs a great pace and lots of adventure.
I also really like that each girl has a special talent that helps her in sometimes unexpected ways. In book one, Aventurine has a talent for making chocolate. In book two, Silke is a storyteller. Book three’s heroine loves philosophy.
Sofia’s love of philosophy at first seems to set her against her family and be an obstacle she may have to overcome, but Sofia soon realizes that her ability to break things down into philosophical questions gives her an advantage against her enemies.
I feel like I could go on and on about this series. I love these books. I love the excellent blend of fun and adventure coupled with lessons about relationships and having confidence in your talents. I highly recommend all three books.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Representation The whole story contains a lot of messages about how fear of others and isolationism cause harm and hurt to a lot of people. Over and over characters learn that we need one another, and that differences can be needed assets.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content The story contains fantasy characters (like dragons, goblins, etc.) and the use of magic.
Violent Content Some brief battle scenes using magic between ice giants and Sofia’s allies. Situations of peril, but nothing gory or graphic.
Drug Content None.
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 THE PRINCESS WHO FLEW WITH DRAGONS in exchange for my honest review.
Frozen meets Mad Max in this epic teen fantasy duology bursting with star-crossed romance, immortal heroines, and elemental magic, perfect for fans of Furyborn.
Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an unrelenting sun.
While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own secrets about her sister’s betrayal.
But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.
My Review
I started reading this book when I was tired, and that was a mistake on my part. The magic system is unusual, and I found it confusing at first. Once I understood the terminology and the way the gates worked and everything, then I felt more confident about understanding the story.
THE NEVER TILTING WORLD alternates between four different points of view: Tianlan, Odessa, Haidee, and Arjun. It’s actually pretty easy to keep them all straight since they all sound very different from one another. I liked all four characters, though Haidee was probably my favorite. I can’t help identifying with the compliant fixer girl! Ha.
I found the story world to be really imaginative and different. I like that it was unpredictable and unfamiliar, even though it took me some time to acclimate. (I might have figured it out more quickly if I hadn’t been tired when I started reading.)
Profanity/Crude Language Content Arjun swears, but I think he might be the only character who does. Strong profanity used fairly infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. Kissing between two girls and some pretty intense making out.
Spiritual Content Two goddesses rule the world. Some characters have magic. Sometimes magic comes with a price.
Violent Content Some graphic descriptions of battle and situations of peril/death.
Drug Content None.
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 THE NEVER TILTING WORLD in exchange for my honest review.
