I read only 15 books this month and I DNF'd 2 of them so I am hoping September will be better month for me.
Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy by Kelly Jensen ***** - I wanted to be part of the Body Talk blog tour because it delves into the idea of our bodies as something more than a physical thing we inhabit. I was intrigued because it delves not only into the physical but the emotional as well as looking at sexuality and gender identity as a part of our body. It is an essay collection written by 37 different writers on a variety of topics and the first essay; Scoliosis, Spinal Fusion and Stomach Punches is written by Rachael Lippincott. Rachael discusses her journey from being diagnosed with scoliosis to wearing a painful back brace to eventual surgery. After the surgery Rachael’s learn to love her body the way it is, scar and all and realises that either way before or after surgery, she was beautiful the way she was even if she was different and it was a beautiful essay to kick off this collection.
Enchantee by Gita Trelease ***** - All I knew about Enchantee before going into it was it takes place in 1789 in the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. We are introduced to Camille Durbonne and her family, her sister, Sophie and her older brother, Alain. The family are very poor after both of their parents died from smallpox and her father had to sell his printing press before that, while Alain is a soldier he has a problem with gambling and drink, while Sophie still suffers the aftereffects of smallpox meaning it is left to Camille to provide for her family. However, Camille has the ability to work magic, there are three kinds in this novel, magic to change the appearance of an object, magic to change the appearance of a person and finally, magic that can animate objects. Camille uses the first kind of magic to change bits of metal into money in order to survive but the money doesn’t hold its shape and this is a major problem but getting real money is even harder since her brother refuses to listen to her. Her mother left her with the knowledge that sorrow fuels the transformations and Camille has plenty of that but there is also a mysterious chest left behind that Camille was warned never to open. One day while they are collecting metal Camille and Sophie witness two boys in a hot air balloon in need of help and Camille rushes to save them and in those few moments Camille feels more alive than she has done in years but that momentary relief doesn’t erase the debts her brother is building or the fact that their rent is two weeks late and she has to find so much money in only a few days or risk ending up on the streets.
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte ** - I have read The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte and it was one of my favourite books the year I read it, so I finally decided it was time to pick up her first book, Four Dead Queens but I didn’t know anything about it6 going into it. We learn that the world, Quadara, is split into four segments, each rule by a different Queen and values different things. There is Archia which value agriculture and is ruled by Iris, Eonia which values technology and is ruled by Corra, Toria values intelligence and is ruled by Marguerite and finally, Ludia value pleasure and is ruled by Stessa. As we are introduced to our protagonist, Keralie, a talented thief I became aware this book was told from multiple perspective which is a love/hate thing for me. Keralie “Kera” is the best dipper employed by Mackiel, her childhood friend and when she steals a comm case from a messenger she knows she is going to get a good payday offsetting the guilt she feels after hearing her father is dying. We know he was involved in an accident before Kera joined Mackiel and that Kera is to blame for it in some way, but we don’t get much more than that. At the auction however, things get a little dicey as the messenger has turned up presumably to buy back the comm case and deliver his message. In between these events we get a chapter from Iris, the Queen of Archia as she refuses her people’s plea for electricity but wants to change the Queenly Law she must follow to have more for herself as Queen’s aren’t permitted to love, marry, or return to their homelands but she doesn’t get the chance as she is murdered in her private garden.
Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry ***** - I know several Booktubers including Emma Books who loved Heretics Anonymous and from the synopsis I am predicting this will be a 5-star read for me. We are introduced to Michael who is an atheist as he is due to start at a Catholic school, St. Clare’s. This isn’t the first time Michael has had to move school because of his father’s job but he is determined to hate St. Clare’s for many reasons not just the plaid ties. Immediately after arriving for the first day, he knows this is going to be a struggle, not just because he has transferred a month and a half into the semester but because he doesn’t want to address the teachers as Father and Sister, the morning prayer also freaks him out. Things don’t start well for Michael as he insults a girl who tells him he made the sign of the cross wrong and he talks about summoning the devil, but in another lesson a girl speaks up against the Sister teaching the History class and Michael knows this girl is going to be his new best friend. The girl in question, Lucy, takes Michael under her wing but she turns out to be a Catholic herself just not a stupid one like everyone else and she introduces him to Avi, who is Jewish. The opening of Heretics Anonymous was wildly funny and I can’t wait to see some of the antics these kids get up to.
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager ***** - I recently read Lock Every Door by Riley Sager and loved it, I listened to the audiobook as well as reading the physical copy and if Home Before Dark is anything like that then this is definitely going to be a 5 star read, although I was a little disappointed there is no audiobook for this on Audible yet. All I knew about this book is that Maggie and her parents Ewan and Jess move into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods and fled after a few weeks. Later Maggie’s father published a book called House of Horror that becomes a cult classic, but it is surrounded by disbelief and then Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death and returns to the place her father feared. We are introduced to Maggie Holt, who believes that her father’s book was completely made up as she can’t remember the events, he talks about in his book regarding their time at Baneberry Hall. One particular incident from “the Book” we get to read is about Maggie asking her father to check for ghosts in her room and telling him that a ghost named Mister Shadow tells her that they are going to die there. Maggie’s father has recently died and left her the royalties from the book and infamy, but he failed to mention that he still owned Baneberry Hall and it is now hers. Much like Lock Every Door this novel is told over a short period of time, less than a month and much like Lock Every Door, we jump between past and present in the form of excerpts from her father’s book coupled with Maggie’s perspective in the present. The second excerpt from her father’s book details the buying on Baneberry Hall and learn on the murder-suicide of the Carver family, the previous owners before the Holt’s and that the house probably has a more unpleasant history that people aren’t willing to talk about. So far, the atmosphere is creepy but not dark, but knowing what happened with Lock Every Door, I have a feeling it won’t be long until I am seriously creeped out.
When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes by Rayna York ***** - I didn’t know anything about this book going into it, but the synopsis sounded interesting. We are introduced to Kylie and her younger sister, Harlow as the F.B.I. turn up at their home. Their father is wanted for fraud and embezzlement and has seemingly fled that very morning; however, this isn’t good for the family as their mother doesn’t have anything more than $500 and the rest of their assets have been frozen. Kylie is your typical moody teenager, but she does manage to smuggle out her laptop which would be very unlikely in reality and constantly blames her mother for the situation even though she is trying her best. Their mother does try to contact their grandparents for help, but they refuse and with days to leave the house and only the great-grandmother’s home in Ohio to go to, they have to use a donated car which promptly breaks down in Utah. The family are helped by an elderly couple who house them for the night and Frank even offers to take the girls riding on their horses the following morning. So far, the opening to Lemons Instead of Lattes was interesting but I didn’t really like Kylie as a character, I am hoping she develops over the course of the novel, but I shall wait and see.
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager ***** - I haven’t read anything by Riley Sager in the past but the wonderful booktuber; BooksandLala is reading Home Before Dark with her book club this month and I decided to pick this one up just to get a taste for Sager’s writing before I jump into Home Before Dark. We are introduced to Jules Larsen after she is hit by a car right outside an old apartment building, the Bartholomew, she is in a very bad state but still has the mental function to beg not to be sent back there which raises a ton of questions for me. We then jump back 6 days to when she is being interviewed for a job apartment sitting in that very building. Jules doesn’t think she is going to get the job as she is poor and not the kind of person that lives in a building like the Bartholomew. Jules only applied for the position because it was vague and didn’t give an address but she is desperate as she has lost her job and found out her boyfriend was cheating on her in the same day which also meant she had to move out of Andrew’s apartment. Despite her reservations Jules gets the job which is going to pay her $4000 a month to stay there for 3 months and maybe longer depending on how long it takes the remaining family to agree on what they are going to do with the apartment now the owner has died. Chloe, Jules’ best friend has major reservations about her taking the job since so many rumours circle the Bartholomew, but she needs this chance to restart her life, but I already have so many questions we when are thrown back into the present.
Lucky by Alice Sebold ***** - Lucky is Alice Sebold’s journey through being raped and the long road to recovery she faced afterwards. Alice brings us into her life by explaining that after she was raped, she learned that a girl have been killed in the very same place it happened, so she was lucky, thus the title of the book. The first 20 pages of this novel are dedicated to the rape itself which is bloody graphic and leaves nothing out, Alice bares herself to the reader in a raw, honest manner that brings you to tears when you learn what she suffered through as a young woman. In the immediate aftermath of the rape, she doesn’t want to tell her mother who is already very fragile emotionally but has to because the evidence of the act can’t be hidden and the attack itself was brutal. Although some names have been changed for privacy reasons, Victor was someone whose reaction was interesting when he learns that Alice’s rapist was a black man like himself, he apologizes and even tries to comfort her although she is in shock at that moment. Alice also passionately believes that she is going to be fine as she has reported it to the police and followed all the official channels which isn’t going to be the case. As many of my readers will know I am a survivor myself and I have had several issues with books using rape and sexual abuse for dramatic effect and I say to all authors, if you are going to use these themes then do it honestly, like Alice when she speaks of her own experience, make it raw and gritty and bloody because that is what rape is in reality and don’t romanticise it in the slightest as it is an insult to survivors.
Macario’s Scepter by M.J. McGriff DNF - I recently joined BookSirens, a review platform for publishers and authors and this was the first book that jumped out at me, so I decided to give it a go. I learnt that this book is told in multiple perspectives and the first one we get is from our protagonist, Samara Davalos. Samara has been abandoned by her ex-lover, Captain Baz Blackwater and is trying to get back to where she belongs but she is caught stealing money. We switch the Baz’s perspective where he is trying to claim his father’s place on the Pirate Council by finding Macario’s Scepter, the greatest treasure known to all pirates but it means passing through Majestic Isle but he needs the last piece of the map and I believe that Samara is in possession of it. We then switch perspective again to that of Seraphina, Samara’s twin sister. Seraphina is a member of a religious Order and tries to convince Samara to join but that is never going to happen when Baz breaks in to steal the last piece of the map when he learns he needs someone with Macario’s birthmark to claim the Scepter and the birthmark is split between Seraphina and Samara, so he decides to take Samara with him as a prisoner.
The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen ***** - I didn’t know much about The Merciful Crow, but it sounded interesting, we are introduced to Fie, who is the next chieftain of the Crow Caste which consists of undertakers and mercy-killers. This book definitely opened with a bang as the Crows including Fie and her father are taking the dead body of the Crown Prince and his body double to be burned after they have contracted the Sinner’s Plague. We learn a lot about the Crows in the opening chapters, they work as undertakers but also provide mercy killings to those that have the plague and depending on the caste they are working for determines their price, so when the Queen Rhusana tries to pay them with a stray cat, the Crows are enraged. Rhusana is still known as the Swan Queen, a courtesan caste, even though she has married a Phoenix, the royal caste. Fie demands the price of the teeth of the Phoenix caste which hold power witches like Fie can use but they know they might be ambushed on their way out of the city. When they reach a location to burn the bodies, it turns out both are still alive and have faked their deaths, the boys are Crown Prince Jasimir and his Hawk guard Tavin. Despite their deal being done, the Prince wants more help from the Crows, and he explains that Rhusana wants to use the Hawks and the Oleander guard to get rid of the Crows once and for all. While the Crows have to take a lot of abuse the Oleander left scars on most of them, they are responsible for Fie’s father having to mercy-kill her mother and left bigger scars on other Crows. Fie agrees to help Jasimir as long as he swear a Covenant Oath, a magically binding agreement, to protect the Crows when he is King as Jasimir agrees, meaning the Crows have to see Jasimir and Tavin to their destination and help them in preventing Rhusana taking the throne from Jasimir’s father. It seems that since Rhusana gave birth to a son of her own, she has been trying to get rid of Jasimir and Tavin and they fled but they seem to have a plan. I liked both Jasimir and Tavin upon first meeting them and Fie is wildly entertaining.
The Invisible by Seb Doubinsky ***** - I didn’t know there were multiple books in the City-States Cycle but from my understanding they are stand alone novels in a shared universe, so I should be ok. I didn’t know anything about this book before getting into it but from what I understood of the synopsis, it seems to be a noir crime novel with dystopian and sci-fi elements. I didn’t know what to expect from The Invisible, but the opening was interesting as we are introduced to the newly appointed City Commissioner Georg Ratner, who is taking over from a dead man. This world of New Babylon seems to be very politically driven as almost all the characters we have been introduced to are involved in politics and also seem very corrupt. Ratner even weighs people by how corrupt they are and the people he seems to trust are the least corrupt but even he himself can’t say he isn’t corrupt as he has done small favours for friends although nothing serious or criminal, yet. An interesting thing to note is up until a new law is brought in right at the beginning of the book, politically driven assassinations have been legal, which puts politicians in an extremely dangerous profession. Ratner is visited very quickly by his old partner from the police force, Captain Jesse Valentino asking for a search warrant he was refused, he is investigated a coffee company he believes are importing drugs. Jesse produces email between the CEO and Helena Gonzalez who is known in the underworld and the head of his department is a politician named Thomsen who Ratner knows is extremely corrupt and agrees to give him the warrant as long as he is discreet and keeps him in the loop. Ratner has an interest in this as it is linked to the upcoming election as some of the parties involved are close to Ted Rust, the presidential candidate running against Maggie Delgado.
The Places I’ve Cried in Public by Holly Bourne DNF - I have read a couple of Holly Bourne books when I first started blogging as they were quite popular but since then I have figured out contemporary books, especially YA contemporary books aren’t my thing as most of my readers will know. I do read them occasionally, but they are usually hit or miss for me but the premise of The Places I’ve Cried in Public was intriguing for me. We are introduced to Amelie who is broken-hearted after breaking up with Reese and in her confusion trying to sort out her emotions she returns to a location where he made her cry, a bench by the railway bridge. While Amelie is at the bench, we get a flashback to when she moved home and had to start at a new college, leaving behind her friends and the boy she was in love with, although she never told him. The first time Amelie cried in public actually has nothing to do with Reese, it is because she left behind her boyfriend Alfie in Yorkshire when she moved to Sheffield and wants nothing more than to be back with him but she has to wait two years when they are both heading to Manchester University. The second time was in the college refectory, during the college talent show and it is here she meets Reese for the first time as she is putting her guitar away waiting for her slot. Reese goes on with his band before her and she can feel the magnetic aura around him but when he helps her down from the stage after claiming first place and he compliments her; she is overwhelmed especially since she hasn’t heard from Alfie in a week. In the present, we get snippets of Amelie’s current life where Reese is with someone else and she is extremely jealous of this new girl and mulls over the lies that Reese told her. She also misses the red flag from Hannah, who tells her that Reese isn’t a nice person.
This Train is Being Held by Ismee Williams ** - As many of my readers will know I don’t read that much contemporary especially when its romance based but I have heard a lot of good things about This Train is Being Held and I managed to get a copy from the publisher. We are introduced to one of our two protagonists; Isabelle “Isa” Warren who is a ballet dancer from a well off family as she rushes to an audition for a dance school and on the train she meets Alex Rosario, a baseball player, although she doesn’t know his name. On the train, he not only holds the door for her but shields her from a perverted man trying to film her. Isa remembers this and we can see she makes a big impact on Alex and he remembers her, but he comes from a different world to her and we do learn early on that he is playing baseball because of his father even though it isn’t what he wants to do. This book is told over a long time period so we move quickly in October, we Alex and Isa meet on the train going to separate Halloween parties but Chrissy, Isa’s best friend, dares her to kiss a guy on the train and as she remembers Alex she kisses him. The opening to This Train is Being Held was great as both Alex and Isa have difficult homelives, although we have seen more of Isa’s right now as her mother doesn’t want her to dance and she has to hide that part of her life but her mother also has a prejudice against Latino men and even verbally attacks a young boy in a store after he bumps into her, she even goes as far as telling him to teach his grandmother English because they spoke Spanish to each other. Immediately, I don’t like Isa’s mother and Alex’s father also feels a little off for me, but I am hoping for some development in those characters, but I love both Isa and Alex.
Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller **** - I have read Daughter of the Pirate King from this author and loved it although I have yet to pick up Daughter of the Siren Queen. We are introduced to Rasmira, who is the daughter of the village leader and is preparing for the trial that all people must take at 18 to prove they are strong enough to handle their chosen profession, in the case of Rasmira and her best friend Torrin, they are warriors and failure isn’t acceptable especially for Rasmira. However, she already has a lifelong enemy in the form of Harvard, and I have the feeling he is planning something for the trial, but we don’t know anything concrete when Torrin and Rasmira sneak out to witness with Payment. In this world, it seems that gods live among mortals and one of these, Peruxolo, demands payment from her village as well as others, each village provides a specific thing and Rasmira’s village provides meat for the god, others provide gems or even young girls or risk being slaughtered by the god. However, on their way back they are caught by Rasmira’s father after running into Harvard. The boys are punished for being out when they shouldn’t but Rasmira is taken home, it turns out that Rasmira’s mother didn’t want children and hoped to have one son and no others but she ended up giving birth to 6 daughters and can’t have any more after Rasmira. Her mother craves her father’s attention but Rasmira gets most of it as she is the only daughter that declared she wanted to be a warrior and is the one therefore that will take her father’s place as village leader after passing her trial. On the day of the trial, they are to enter a maze filled with ziken, creatures that eat humans, and in order to pass they have to kill at least one ziken and avoid being bitten by them. Anyone who fails will be banished from the village and given a mattugr, or challenge that always ends in death. However, Harvard is making comments like he knows something is going to happen to Rasmira during the trial, but we don’t have time to dwell on that as the trial begins.
We Used To Be Friends by Amy Spalding *** - All I knew about We Used to be Friends going into it was that it is told in dual timelines, one moving forward and one moving backwards, and it follows the friendship of Kat and James, a girl with a boy’s name. The story opens in the August after graduation and we are introduced to James as she briefly explains the breakdown of the friendship between her and her best friend, Kat. James is heartbroken but her life is moving forward as she is leaving for college, but she does make the effort to text Kat and ask her if they can keep their Christmas tradition. We then jump back to the September of their senior year and we are introduced to Kat. Kat is having the worst time as she learns her boyfriend Matty cheated on her which is made worse but James and Logan’s seemingly amazing relationship. Kat and James both have absent mothers in their lives, but while James’ parents got divorced, Kat’s mother died and her father is considering dating after two years and this doesn’t sit well with Kat, which leads to her meeting Quinn, a girl from school who is instantly strikes up a friendship with.
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