Oh my gosh you guys, this book is just as dreamy and adorable as its cover suggests. I’m not usually fond of the trope in which the main conflict between a couple is that neither can bring themselves to admit their feelings. However, I have a soft spot for this charming story in which a young group of questers has to sort out their feelings while managing a kingdom that they didn’t think they’d be … Continue reading So This Is Ever After by F. T. Lukens →
Mary Bennet is my favorite of the sisters in Pride and Prejudice. Her great sin is that she has no sense of humility and no sense of humor, but I’ve always believed that over time she might develop those qualities and just be an awesome nerd who likes reading in the corner. Being Mary Bennet is a modern-day story in which a high school senior at a San Francisco boarding school comes to accept the … Continue reading Being Mary Bennet by J.C. Peterson →
Based on the amount of Carrie’s Personal Catnip content alone, One for All should have been a SQUEE grade book. Set during the reign of Louis XIV, it features found family, multiple kickass women, and a heroine whose chronic illness doesn’t prevent her from being an accomplished fencer. And yet, Dear Bitches, it pains me so much to say that I found the book to be, for the most part, deeply boring. Our heroine, Tania, … Continue reading One for All by Lillie Lainoff →
TW: discussion of rape, alcoholism, torture, suicidal ideation, violence, foot binding, emotional abuse, needles (mostly for acupuncture, but there are enough of them that if you are phobic you’ll want to read with care). Iron Widow has had a ton of buzz since it came out in October of 2021. My library hold finally came through and I was just gobsmacked by this book and could not believe I hadn’t read it sooner! This Own … Continue reading Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao →
CW: torture Holly’s first 30ish years as a vampire were pretty great, roaming around America with her maker/dreamy boyfriend, Elton. Then it all turned to shit when he got bored and abandoned her at a truck stop. Now, Holly’s alone, compelled to follow Elton from town to town (one of the vampire rules specific to this story), so she’s currently back in her hometown for the first time since 1987. Holly isn’t the only girl … Continue reading The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl →
Any Way the Wind Blows is the conclusion of Rainbow Rowell’s amazing Simon Snow Trilogy. The story began as part of another book, Fangirl. Fangirl was a contemporary novel in which the main character wrote fan fiction about a franchise similar to the Harry Potter franchise, with courageous students at a magical school. Carry On gave us a different version of this same fanfic that stood on its own as a lovely and moving deconstruction … Continue reading Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell →
Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil is an engaging YA fantasy romance that, while it lovingly flirts with fairy tales and myths, unfortunately gets bogged down in an uneven engagement with magical realism. That situation isn’t helped by the inclusion of a parental figure whose selfish decision making supersedes just about any wicked stepmother out there, and an unfortunate ending that manages to perpetuate harmful tropes that are the opposite of … Continue reading Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil →
Content warning: lots of stabbings, beheadings, poisonings, deaths by burning, drowning, acid, and I’ve probably forgotten some others. Basically, lots of violent death, which will happen when you are having multiple military coups and revolutions and wars in one novel. The Queen Will Betray You is the second book in the trilogy that starts with The Princess Will Save You. It’s very good, but you absolutely should not read it unless you have read the … Continue reading The Queen Will Betray You by Sarah Henning →
She’s Too Pretty to Burn is an intriguing, but uneven read. It opens like a teen romance, and ends like a thriller, but the transition between the two is jarring and disruptive to the reading experience. It’s also supposed to be inspired by The Portrait of Dorian Grey which I didn’t get at all from the text. The novel centers around three people: Mick, a high school swim star with a troubled home life; Veronica, … Continue reading She’s Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard →
Bitchery, I struggled with this book. Not with the reading of it, so much, but with trying to parse my feelings and opinions on it, which are complicated. I was very excited about this #OwnVoices book about a trans witch bound in a magical engagement with his childhood best friend, a fae prince. And the initial chapters really drew me in. I wanted to like this so badly!!! But I ultimately kind of did not. … Continue reading The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon →
From Little Tokyo, With Love is a modern day, urban, feminist Cinderella meets nure-onna. It is a YA featuring a biracial girl with a ‘kaiju temper’ who prefers monsters to princesses and I am totally here for it. Riki is the daughter of a Japanese-American woman who died in childbirth. Her father, who abandoned Riki’s mother when she found out she was pregnant, was White. Riki is being raised by her Japanese-American aunts, alongside her … Continue reading From Little Tokyo, With Love by Sarah Kuhn →
