The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas is $1.99! And yes, I do mean that Sherry Thomas. This is a deviation from her usual historicals, as it's a YA fantasy novel with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. It's also the first in a trilogy. Our young heroine is supposedly the greatest mage of her generation and it's her quest to overthrow the tyrannical mage currently in power. Most readers seemed to enjoy Thomas' first foray into a different genre, though several have suggested exercising some patience while you read. Has anyone tried her YA series?
It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…
Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.
Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.
But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo
Ten by Gretch McNeil is $1.99! This YA horror mystery is about a group of teens who party it up on island, until people start dying. It definitely sounds reminiscent of Friday the 13th. It's also supposedly a retelling of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. However, there were readers who felt that the book didn't quite live up to Christie's original tale, while others found it to be a great YA rendition. It has a 3.7-star rating on GR.
It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.
But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.
Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo
The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell is $1.99 at Amazon right now. Fingers crossed that it'll be price matched because I've heard so many good and interesting things about this book. On Christmas Eve, a young woman and her sister wind up parentless, burying their mom and dad in the backyard. The two sisters try to keep their parents' death a secret until Marnie, the oldest, turns sixteen and can legally care for the both of them on her own. Though it's billed as a YA, coming-of-age story, there are some heavy themes like death, drugs, and sexual content. It has a 3.7-star rating on GR.
Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.
Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.
As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he’s not the only one who suspects something isn’t right. Soon, the sisters’ friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene’s nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls’ family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.
Thorn Jack by Katherine Harbour is $1.99! This YA, modern fantasy is a retelling of the Scottish ballad “Tam Lin,” if any of you happen to be familiar with that sort of thing. It seems to have the stirrings of a Gothic romance too. This is the first book in the Night and Nothing series. Readers warn that the book is heavy on mythology, but that also looks to be a selling point for others. Is anyone picking this up?
They call us things with teeth. These words from Lily Rose Sullivan the night of her death haunts her seventeen-year-old sister, Finn, who has moved with her widowed father to his hometown of Fair Hollow, New York. After befriending a boy named Christie Hart and his best friend, Sylvie Whitethorn, Finn is invited to a lakeside party where she encounters the alluring Jack Fata, a member of the town's mysterious Fata family. Despite Jack's air of danger and his clever words, Finn learns they have things in common.
One day, while unpacking, Finn finds her sister's journal, scrawled with descriptions of creatures that bear a sinister resemblance to Jack's family. Finn dismisses these stories as fiction, but Jack's family has a secret—the Fatas are the children of nothing and night, nomadic beings who have been preying on humanity for centuries—and Jack fears that his friendship with Finn has drawn the attention of the most dangerous members of his family—Reiko Fata and vicious Caliban, otherwise known as the white snake and the crooked dog.
Plagued with nightmares about her sister, Finn attempts to discover what happened to Lily Rose and begins to suspect that the Fatas are somehow tied to Lily Rose's untimely death. Drawn to Jack, determined to solve the mystery of her sister's suicide, Finn must navigate a dangerous world where nothing is as it seems.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo
I just finished The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas. I am really shitty at writing reviews but I enjoyed it a lot. It is straight-up fantasy set partially in Victorian times. Even though it is fantasy, I thought the worldbuilding was innovative in regards to the materials she borrowed from. There is romance, because, duh, Sherry Thomas but there is no
typical YA love triangle, no hot sexxors, and there is lots of character growth. The book is part of a trilogy but is has an actual ending, which I prefer. Oh, there are footnotes, so that is fun. I think my only quibble is that there are too many coincidences that made things easier for the characters when they were in a pinch. But it is a YA novel, so I guess I have to give her a pass. Still, a good, fun read.
The Death of Bees is showing at $9.78 on Amazon for me. That was a blink-and-you-miss-it sale! 🙂
I read Burning Sky last year—it is a testament to Sherry’s skills that when one of her books go on sale and I bought it at more than that price, all I think is—-Great! More people will buy her books and she will keep writing!
I am eagerly awaiting Perilous Sea (coming out next week!)
Does anyone remember YA author Christopher Pike? The book listed above, Ten, sounds heavily borrowed from his book Weekend. I’m curious enough to check it out…
I totally recommend The Death of Bees. It’s got that “Family of Choice” trope, which Carrie should love!
Either the sale for Burning Sky is over or it’s not available in Canada. Darnit.