So June was a hit and miss month for me, the first half was rubbish I didn't read a thing and then the second half was amazing I read 14 books in as many days which was amazing but I am hoping July is better - if you haven't seen it already I am running my own readathon too.
1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins DNF - I am so excited for this book for many reasons, one it is the first book written in the Hunger Games in almost a decade, two is focuses on President Coriolanus Snow and finally it takes place at the 10th Hunger Games a full 64 years before the amazing novel where we met Miss Katniss Everdeen. The opening to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was amazing as we introduced to Coriolanus Snow, whose family is bordering poverty since the end of the rebellion, known as the Dark Days in the original trilogy. He is relying on his position as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games to get enough money to go to university and provide for his family and restore their name to its former glory. One revelation that comes earlier on is that Snow and Tigris, the designer, are cousins and live with their grandmother since both their parents are dead.
2. Prodigal by Samantha Sanchez ***** - So I couldn’t categorize Prodigal into a single genre as it is basically the book version of a TV show like Big Brother but there’s a lot of personal reflection and drama mixed in. Lyric, although that’s not her real name decides to audition for a reality TV show called The Breakfast Club and in return she gets her education paid for as well as a huge amount of money for each episode. After moving into the house we are introduced to the others; Lyric is obviously “The Preacher’s Kid” given her religious family and background although she is trying to distance herself from this, we also have Athena, “The Free Spirit”, the only other female in the house, DeVon, “The Clown”, Anthony, “The Wanna Be”, Monroe, “The Chameleon,” and finally Christopher, “The Musician”. They are all in a similar age range and get on rather well, almost immediately Athena and DeVon pair up, Christopher and Monroe are music bros which leaves Lyric and Anthony as the outsiders but after getting dumped by her boyfriend who is in the Navy, Lyric decides to go out and get wasted with her friends to forget about him. Lyric ends up sleeping with Anthony not once or twice but 6 times which results in her getting pregnant, Anthony then takes a strange personality twist as he has made it clear he doesn’t want to be in a relationship with Lyric at all even if she is pregnant with his child but as soon as Trey “Freakboy” appears on the scene willing to take care of Lyric and her baby he gets all possessive telling her she can’t see anyone else. I like Trey despite his thug nature and looming jail sentence but he genuinely cares for Lyric and she would have been with him before if he hadn’t have gone to jail but she is keeping her baby and is happy to know she has support from those around her.
3. The Mixtape to my Life by Jake Martinez ***** - From the synopsis alone, I knew I had to read The Mixtape To My Life, it reminded me of They Both Die At The End, minus the death part, with a ton of 80’s music culture throw in. I’m down for this. Mixtape starts in August 1994, where we meet our protagonist; Justin Ortega, who struggles with his Mexican family as a gay man. While he doesn’t seem openly gay his best friend, Benny knows and accepts him but it seems a lot of other people know making Justin wary of other people his own age. However, he is bullied at school because of his racial identity often being called Coconut, brown on the outside but white on the inside but being in the band helps Justin cope with these troubles until he learns he has to audition for the role of Captain which was rightfully his because some people didn’t feel that the process was fair enough. Justin also has a major obsession with 80’s music which he listens to on his Walkman.
4. Dark Reflections by Kelsey Ketch ***** - I haven’t read much new adult dark fantasy so when I was offered the chance to review Dark Reflections I jumped at it because it sounded very interesting. The opening to Dark Reflection was definitely dark as we are introduced to our protagonist Alana Jones, who is a vampire as she awakes to find she has killed her latest donor, Xander and has to get rid of his body while she lives with another vampire, Charissa. Alana has been a vampire for over a year but tries desperately to deny her nature but it has led to the many deaths of the men and boys Charissa kidnaps. Charissa is apparently an ancient vampire trapped inside a mirror by a witch doctor and went Alana bought the cursed mirror, Charissa bit her meaning she is now able to possess Alana’s body at night. Alana works as an artist to support herself and Charissa even though she doesn’t want to as well as selling some artifacts but on a trip to the mainland she runs into a boy who happens to become Charissa’s next donor. Cole believes it is a prank but we can see that Alana only has some snippets of memories from the night before when Charissa was in control and Cole only knows her as Charissa, but he isn’t happy when she refuses to release him.
5. Bleed Like Me by Azzurra Nox * - I have been getting into poetry more lately especially after reading Dear Wallflower by Sara Secora so I decide to request this book from NetGalley. Part 1 is entitled Love & Madness, which is definitely portrayed in the poetry, however, there doesn’t seem to be any links between the poems. What I mean by this is in Dear Wallflower by Sara Secora, there are overarching themes that link all the poems together and in Amanda Lovelace’s poems it seems to follow a single person, the author herself, Bleed like me has neither of these so it feels quite disjointed. Despite this I really loved the poem Geisha, as it encapsulated the essence of what a geisha is and what they do blended with western culture and ideals.
6. Blue Rabbit’s Crystal by Marko Markovic ** - When I saw Vizilsan: Blue Rabbit’s Crystal for request on NetGalley, I instantly got Alice in Wonderland vibes form it and the synopsis was interesting so I decided it give it a go purely because I can read graphic novels really quickly. Only a few pages in, I knew this going to be for me but I pushed through as the story seemed interesting. However, it didn’t get much better and by the end I was left really enjoyed and I can honestly say I don’t know what I just read which is extremely rare for me.
7. Heir of Illaria by Dyan Chick ***** - I have heard about this series for a while but never picked it up, after reading the intriguing synopsis and I decided now was the time. The opening to Heir of Illaria was amazing and definitely opens the novel with a bang. We are introduced to our protagonist Wilona, who lives with her grandmother believing that her parents are dead and all she has left is an Ouroboros necklace which she is instructed to keep hidden at all times. One night she is out picking berries when she is cornered by two guards who serve the necromancer King, but nothing comes of this until she returns home. She informs her grandmother about the guards and she is going to tell Wilona something when they are attacked by royal guards but a woman appears and fights off the guards. She introduces herself as Saffron and she wears a bracelet identical to Wilona’s necklace and is going to get her to safety and I have a feeling she is from the White Ravens, the organisation the guard mentioned.
8. Oracle of Illaria by Dyan Chick ***** - After the dramatic ending of Heir of Illaria I couldn’t wait to get into the second book in the series. Unlike the first book which was told entirely for Etta’s perspective Oracle of Illaria opens with Max’s perspective. This opening wasn’t as explosive as the first but it was interesting as we learn Max has been in a relationship with the daughter of the necromancer King, Nora and that she is now pregnant with his child. Due to this Max is going to join the King in order to learn his weakness and deal with his sister in the meantime and they seem to have a plan for that. They plan to use Max’s shadows to get to Etta through Ashton. Despite all this deception Max doesn’t want to be like Nora’s father he wants to be a good King, and as historically all the rulers of Illaria has been men he should have the upper hand but his fire alignment goes against him as all the ruling monarchs have had a water alignment like Etta.
9. Battle of Illaria by Dyan Chick ***** - After the dramatic ending of Oracle of Illaria I had to jump into the finale straight away. Battle of Illaria opens once again with Max’s perspective as he takes part in the destruction of Greenville. It seems he is finding it harder and harder to keep the Darkness out and that he is becoming more of a servant to the King and his original goal of becoming the King is disappearing despite his upcoming wedding to Nora. We then jump to Etta’s perspective where she is training with Master Flanders to keep the Darkness out and to control it but she is struggling much like her brother. However, this training is interrupted with the arrival of Sir Henry brining news about the destruction of Greenville and a team is assembled to go into the town to retrieve survivors which might include Calder’s family. However, there is a debate about whether or not Etta should go but she needs to be seen by the people to show them that she isn’t afraid and that she is standing up to the King. Upon arriving the group see the devasting aftermath of the King’s attack which has left Calder’s whole family dead but his best friend Holden and his wife Anna have survived as well as some other which are rescued by the Ravens. However, there are still sorcerers in the town and they might have a battle on their hands.
10. Moonrise by Sarah Crossan ***** - I haven’t read much from Sarah Crossan but I have read One which made me cry, so when I got the opportunity to get my hands on Moonrise I was so excited to read it. Like One, Moonrise is written in verse and bounced back and forth between the past and present as it follows the relationship between two brother, Joe, and Ed while Ed is on Death Row. The opening introduces us to Joe who is seven years old when he finds out his brother, Ed is in prison and is being charged with murder despite his protests to his brother that he didn’t do I Ten years on, Joe is the only person still standing by Ed, even the rest of his family have turned on him and he has moved closer to the prison to spend the last weeks of his brother’s life with him as his execution date has been set. A year after the first phone call the family learn Ed was convicted and at that point their aunt moved in because their mother couldn’t cope and eventually left and never came back. Despite moving to Texas, Joe hasn’t seen Ed yet as he is too scared to go to the prison alone but their aunt won’t help them and his sister, Angela can’t get the money for another month so Joe is forced to look for work or they won’t be able to say their rent.
11. Chasing Odysseus by S D Gentill *** - I have read Chasing Odysseus before and only gave it one star but I felt that was quite harsh as I was reading it during a time where I wasn’t really enjoying retellings, so I decided to give it another go. The synopsis doesn’t give much away about what happens during the book and honestly I can’t remember much so I am basically going in blind which is the best thing. We are introduced to Pentheselia who is abandoning her daughter, Hero with Agelaus as she can’t fit in with the other Amazon’s her mother rules over, she has previously abandoned three other children with Agelaus including their son, Machaon. The other two boys also come from the Amazon tribe, Lycon and Cadmus but they do not tolerate men so Agelaus now has 4 children to care for but through this conversation we learn of the upcoming Trojan war as Odysseus has sought council with Agelaus and Pentheselia also mentions that the Greeks have united behind Agamemnon. Agelaus was the one who raised Paris until his father claimed him and comments that his stealing of Helen of Troy was due to his passionate heart, having an outsiders view on these events was quite nice. After a decade of living with Agelaus, the war is coming to an end so it is decided on the next trade run Hero will be allowed to go which she hasn’t before as it wasn’t safe for her to leave the safety of the Herdsmen. I really like the building of the bonds between the siblings and how Odysseus is mentioned as an almost mythical person not as the main character.
12. The House at 758 by Kathryn Berla ***** - All I knew about The House at 759 was it follows 16 year old Krista, whose mother has died and while her father is moving on she is struggling to do the same. We are introduced to Krista as she has become obsessed with House 758 after the death of her mother and she can’t cope with the fact that her father has already moved on with another woman, Marie who is now living with them and it seems like they are trying to make the best of a bad situation but Krista isn’t ready to let go just yet. Krista’s best friend Lyla is going to Maine for the summer and Krista’s father has told her she needs to do something with her summer instead of sitting around. Even though we haven’t been told we can assume Krista’s mother has been dead over a year and the day Marie moved in, Krista moved into her tent on the garage roof, so they don’t actually live in the same house as each other.
13. Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates ***** - As the title suggest, this book is all about rape, specifically gang rape, so if this is triggering to you please do not read this review as I will be going into detail. We are introduced to our protagonist, Teena Maguire, and her daughter Bethie who are attacked in the early minutes of July 5th, 1996 where Teena was gang-raped, beaten and left for dead and yet there are still people saying that she was asking for it and that it was her own fault being dressed he way she was with her 12 year old daughter after midnight, just taking a short cut home through the park. We learn that John Dromoor, former soldier now police officer was Teena’s friend after they met in a bar and when she offered for him to call he replied with he’d like to but his wife was having their first baby in a few weeks. Appreciating his candour they became friends but they wouldn’t see each other for two years until the night she was raped. We then learn more about Bethie who was at a party with her mother and shortly before midnight they decided to head home despite the offer of staying with a friend for the night.
14. Black Fall by D. J. Bodden **** - The opening to Black Fall was interesting as we are introduced to Jonas Black at his father’s funeral. Jonas immediately realises something is wrong as his father is being treated like royalty not the salesman he was in life, and this feeling is made worse when we learn that both of his parent’s suffered from a condition making it impossible for them to go in the daylight and with the supernatural tag it makes me think they are vampires or something similar but Jonas isn’t like them. As people leave the funeral his mother collects the ashes only to freak out saying that these aren’t her husband’s ashes and smashing the urn and she does make reference to knowing what human ash smells like. We then jump forward a year, and Jonas hasn’t seen much improvement in his mother’s behaviour but he does find some comfort with his girlfriend, Amelia but he is beginning to feel like someone is watching him and he is having strange dreams and decides to confront his mother about it. That night they are attacked by some men but his father’s friends come around and save the day but Marcus mentions an agency and Jonas begins putting the pieces together in his mind and when his mother says she and his father are vampires, at first he doesn’t believe her but he can’t erase the events of the past couple of days.
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