The Mirror: Broken Wish (The Mirror #1), by Julie C. Dao ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Fairytale Retellings, Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: October 6th, 2020

320 Pages

Synopsis: 1865 Hanau Germany 

Sixteen-year-old Elva has a secret. She has visions and strange powers that  she will do anything to hide. She knows the warnings about what happens to witches in their small village of Hanau. She’s heard the terrible things people say about the Witch of the North Woods, and the malicious hunts that follow. But when Elva accidentally witnesses a devastating vision of the future, she decides she has to do everything she can to prevent it. Tapping into her powers for the first time, Elva discovers a magical mirror and its owner—none other than the Witch of the North Woods herself. As Elva learns more about her burgeoning magic, and the lines between hero and villain start to blur, she must find a way to right past wrongs before it’s too late.

Broken Wish is the first book in the upcoming The Mirror series which in itself is an exciting premise. Four books following a multigenerational family by some of the most popular YA authors today: Julie C. Dao, Dhonielle Clayton, J.C. Cervantes, and L.L. McKinney. I started this last night around 8:00 p.m. and finished it three hours later. It’s a highly entertaining fairytale retelling of Snow White with a little of The Red Shoes thrown in, and it perfectly captures Germany in the latter half of the 19th century. Dao is a wonderful storyteller who is known for her richly detailed world building and complex characters, and that’s very much on display here. But included in this beautifully written fantasy is the thoughtful exploration of the difficulty of being unique in a world where differences are often met with ignorance and cruelty. It’s a tale of friendship, loyalty, and the ramifications of broken promises, that all lead up to a shocking ending. I cannot recommend Broken Wishes highly enough. It’s an exciting and original YA fantasy whose storyline will enthrall you and characters will capture your heart. The series continues with Dhonielle Clayton’s Shattered Midnight (July 2021), which jumps to 1920s New Orleans, and sounds from the title to perhaps be a retelling of Cinderella. I’m going to be impatiently counting down the months.

 

Five Total Strangers, By Natalie Preston ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Mystery, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: October 6th, 2020

320 Pages

Synopsis: When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and the weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the other four passengers that she’s stuck in the car with don’t actually know each other.

Soon they’re not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.

Natalie Richards is a popular YA suspense/thriller author, but I have to admit I’ve been somewhat disappointed by most of her previous books. When I saw the cover and premise of Five Total Strangers, I decided to try her one more time and I’m glad I did, because this really sucked me in. Granted, the idea that an eighteen-year-old would willingly get into a car with a group of strangers, seems at first glance ridiculous, but given Mira’s desperation to reach her mother, it becomes more understandable. Every character is hiding something, but one of them is a dangerous predator. While I had my suspicions as to the who, almost from the beginning, Richards casts just enough doubt into the mix that I wasn’t completely sure of my deduction until right before the big reveal. The main weakness of the story is the number of coincidences the reader is expected to accept, but the suspense and mystery are so tension-filled, I wound up willingly letting go of my scepticism. There’s also a gaping plot hole regarding a superfluous character which was quite annoying, but overall this was a nail-biting read which kept me guessing right up to the end.

The Glass Queen (The Forest of Good and Evil #2), By Gena Showalter ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Fairytale Retellings, Humor, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: September 29th, 2020

552 Pages

Synopsis: Dare to enter the Forest of Good and Evil, where strength is weakness and weakness is strength. Don’t miss book two of New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter’s magical, romantic and fascinating fairy-tale series, in which the fairy tales we know and love are prophecies of the future…

Pitied.

Sickly.

Unfit to rule.

Princess Ashleigh Charmaine is known as the Glass Princess, fragile enough to shatter with the whisper of the wind. Born with a weak heart, she dreams of being treated like anyone else. Unlike her headstrong sisters, she received no magical ability at birth and lives every day expecting to die. Until an oracle announces that Ashleigh is fated to play the part of Cinderella, wed a handsome royal and save the Kingdom of Sevon from the evil king and queen who once ruled the land.

As war rages, Ashleigh begins to doubt her role in the fairy tale prophecy. Animals despise her, she can’t carry a merry tune, and she has zero social graces. Worse, the king she’s supposed to enchant is the newly crowned sovereign of the winged warriors known as the Avian…and he despises her too.

When Ashleigh develops a terrifying magical ability to commune with dragons and create fire from air—a power she cannot control—she must work with King Saxon to save their kingdoms and their lives. By the stroke of midnight she must warm his icy heart…or forever break her own. Will Ashleigh ever become the queen she’s prophesied to be…or will she lose everything she’s come to love?

After finishing The Evil Queen, the first book in prolific author Gena Showalter’s new series The Forest of Good and Evil, I was quite excited to be approved for The Glass Queen. While the previous book was a retelling of Snow White, this sequel explores the fairytale of Cinderella. Both books have wonderful world building and absolutely fascinating and diverse characters. There’s no insta-love here and I enjoyed seeing the way Ashleigh’s and Saxon’s relationship slowly developed, although the dialogue between them was a little cheesy at times. As much as I love long stories, I do think these books would benefit from being shortened a little. This sequel at over 500 pages has a few slow moments. Overall though, The Glass Queen is another ingeniously written fractured fairytale by Showalter that’s filled with complex characters, mystery, suspense, sharp-edged humor, passionate romance and most importantly, baby dragons! I would recommend this series to adults and YAs sixteen and older though, due to some slightly steamy sexual scenes. They’re not anywhere near as graphic as the ones she writes in her adult series like Lords of the Underworld, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending them to a young teen. I’m really looking forward to seeing what fairytale gets skewered next!

 

 

They Never Learn, By Layne Fargo ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Serial Killers, Sexual Assault, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and and Gallery/Scout Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: October 13th, 2020

352 Pages

Synopsis: Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.

Every year she searches for the worst man at Gorman University, and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.

Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident—everything Carly wishes she could be—and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay…and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.

After reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I was suffering from a book hangover and needed something completely different yet still enjoyable, and I found it in They Never Learn. The chapters alternate between Scarlett and Carly, and while there’s obviously a connection between them, there’s a surprise revelation about halfway through the book that blew me away. Scarlett is an antiheroine who I found myself rooting for. As the layers of her backstory are peeled back, I could understand how she set upon the road she did. Some secondary characters are a little stereotypical, but the important ones add much to the unfolding twisted tale. While there are aspects of the story that defy believability, the characters and exciting plot make this a compulsive read. With its mix of entertainment and thoughtful look at campus sexual assaults and misogyny, They Never Learn undoubtedly will attract a wide audience. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an edgy and addictive read with a surprisingly likable and relatable antiheroine. 

Ink, By Jonathan Maberry ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Child Rape, Horror, Supernatural, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: November 17th, 2020

464 Pages

Synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, comes a standalone supernatural thriller Ink, about a memory thief who feeds on the most precious of dreams.

Tattoo artist, Patty Cakes has her dead daughter’s face tattooed on the back of her hand. Day by day it begins to fade, taking with it all of Patty’s memories of her daughter. All she’s left with is the certain knowledge she has forgotten her lost child. The awareness of that loss is tearing her apart.

Monk Addison is a private investigator whose skin is covered with the tattooed faces of murder victims. He is a predator who hunts for killers, and the ghosts of all those dead people haunt his life. Some of those faces have begun to fade too, destroying the very souls of the dead.

All through the town of Pine Deep, people are having their most precious memories stolen. The monster seems to target the lonely, the disenfranchised, the people who need memories to anchor them to this world.

Something is out there. Something cruel and evil is feeding on the memories, erasing them from the hearts and minds of people like Patty and Monk and others.

Ink is the story of a few lonely, damaged people hunting for a memory thief. When all you have are memories, there is no greater horror than forgetting.

Argh! I finished Ink three days ago and I’m still trying to sort out my feelings. This is a follow-up to Maberry’s Pine Deep trilogy which I LOVED, but it can be read as a standalone. Let’s get what I didn’t like out of the way. First, I’m not a prude, but I thought there were way too many sex scenes, and the ones with the villain masturbating while he fed on his victims’ memories were particularly unnecessary and turned my stomach. Also, too many characters and POVs. Really, the only two I wound up caring about were Monk and Patty. And finally, the pace was too drawn out and there wasn’t enough action until the final few chapters. I loved the actual storyline with this psychic vampire feeding on people’s memories through their tattoos. I also really connected with Patty and Monk and their traumatic backstories. This is a spoiler, but I feel it’s necessary, Patty’s little daughter was gang raped and killed, and while this is mainly talked about off scene, I think it could be a possible trigger for some readers. The last few chapters were everything I had hoped the rest of the book would be. So for me, Ink wasn’t bad, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Most reviewers however are loving it, so if you’re intrigued don’t let my review dissuade you from reading it. Although the events in Ink take place years after the ones that occurred in Maberry’s Pine Deep trilogy, I do recommend you read it not only because it’s one of my favorite horror series, but also because there are numerous vague references to the “Trouble,” in this book and there’s no explanation until after the halfway point, which I think could be annoying to some readers not familiar with the previous books.

Down Comes the Night, By Allison Saft ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Fantasy, Gothic Fiction, LGBTQ, Mystery, Political Intrigue, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 2nd, 2021

400 Pages

Synopsis: A gorgeously gothic, deeply romantic YA debut fantasy about two enemies trapped inside a crumbling mansion with no escape from the monsters within.

Honor your oath, destroy your country.

Wren Southerland is the most talented healer in the Queen’s Guard, but her reckless actions have repeatedly put her on thin ice with her superiors. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate to cure his servant from a mysterious disease, she seizes the chance to prove herself.

When she arrives at Colwick Hall, Wren realizes that nothing is what it seems. Particularly when she discovers her patient is actually Hal Cavendish, the sworn enemy of her kingdom.

As the snowy mountains make it impossible to leave the estate, Wren and Hal grow closer as they discover a sinister plot that could destroy everything they hold dear. But choosing love could doom both their kingdoms.

Allison Saft’s Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched, gothic, romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the pages long into the night.

Down Comes the Night is a lovely gothic tale that reminded me of Daphne du Maurier and Guillermo del Toro. I have to admit it took me a little while to warm up to Wren, but once the setting moved to the castle and she connected with Hal, I found her much more relatable. The world building is very well done and I especially found the political strife interesting. Add in an intriguing murder mystery with a lovely romance and I was pretty much hooked by the end of the first chapter. Allison Saft’s writing style is also beautifully descriptive which further pulled me into the story. As far as I can tell, Down Comes the Night is a standalone, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel as I was left wanting more. Overall I unhesitatingly recommend this to anyone looking for dark gothic fantasy that’s filled with political intrigue, self-discovery, mystery, and romance.

 

A Golden Fury, By Samantha Cohoe ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Historical Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: October 13th, 2020

352 Pages

Synopsis: Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary  Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the Stone’s promise of riches is within their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and loose her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

Gorgeous cover + the Philosopher’s Stone + rogue alchemists = a MUST READ for me! As soon as my eyes spied A Golden Fury on NetGalley, I requested it and was so excited to be approved. After reading it over the last three days I’m happy to say that for the most part it lived up to its promise. It starts out a bit slow, but it doesn’t take long for the pace to pick up. I loved the settings, the storyline, the world building, but was left with mixed feelings toward the characters, particularly Thea. I thought she was a very strong female protagonist except when it came to her one blind spot, (which in order to avoid spoilers I’m not going to name). Let me just say that I don’t think it fit with the rest of her actions. I’m also a bit torn over the last few chapters, which took a decidedly dark turn. I love action-packed climaxes and deviating away from the typical happily-ever-after, but this was a little melodramatic and I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. Overall though, I enjoyed A Golden Fury even with its imperfections and I unhesitatingly recommend it to fans of historical fantasy that has darker themes. It’s a solid debut by Cohoe and I’m looking forward to seeing what she dreams up next.

The Night Swim, by Megan Goldin ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

"Rape Culture", Adult Fiction, Mystery, Rape, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

352 Pages

Release Date: August 4th, 2020

Synopsis: After the first season of her true crime podcast became an overnighting sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall is now a household name—and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.

The small town of Neapolis is being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. The town’s golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping a high school student, the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season Three a success, Rachel throws herself into interviewing and investigating—but the mysterious letters keep showing up in unexpected places. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody seems to want to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?

I thorough enjoyed Megan Goldin’s previous book The Escape Room, and I’m thrilled to be part of this blog tour for The Night Swim, especially as I found it one of the most exciting and suspenseful mysteries I’ve read this year. Two rapes, twenty-five years apart, yet connected in what turns out to be a shocking twist. There are scenes in the book that are difficult to read and I actually had to take a few breaks from some of the dark emotional scenes. The characters are believable and relatable and the storyline is something that could have been pulled from the headlines. Without giving away any spoilers, let me just say that Goldin has struck a perfect balance between a thrilling and intriguing mystery, and a thoughtful examination of how rape victims are treated by society and the court system. The Night Swim is the type of book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished. It’s already out so I highly recommend you either buy it from your favorite retailer or borrow it at your library. 

Megan Goldin worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets, where she covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia. She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is the foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs. The Escape Room was her debut novel.

Author Links:

Website ~ https://www.megangoldin.com

Twitter: ~ https://twitter.com/megangoldin/

Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/megangoldinauthor/

Instagram ~ https://www.instagram.com/megangoldinauthor/

Goodreads ~ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16718134.Megan_Goldin

Buy Links:

Macmillan ~ https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250219701

Barnes and Noble ~ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-night-swimmer-megan-goldin/113327/;jsessionid=02BCD25359FECED4C1EA5775FB8E2645.prodny_store02-atgap10?ean=9781250219688

Amazon ~ https://www.amazon.com/dp/125021968X/ref=nodl_?tag=macmillan-20

Shadows in Death, (In Death #51), By J.D. Robb ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: September 8th, 2020

368 Pages

Synopsis: As it often did since he’d married a cop, murder interrupted more pleasant activities. Then again, Roarke supposed, the woman lying in a pool of her own blood a few steps inside the arch of Washington Square Park had a heftier complaint.

When a night out at the theater is interrupted by the murder of a young woman in Washington Square Park, it seems like an ordinary case for Detective Eve Dallas and her team. But when Roarke spots a shadow from his past in the crowd, Eve realizes this case is far from business as usual.

Eve has two complex cases on her hands—the shocking murder of this wealthy young mother and tracking down the shadow before he can strike again, this time much closer to home. Eve is well used to being the hunter, but how will she cope when the tables are turned? As Eve and the team follow leads to Roarke’s hometown in Ireland, the race is on to stop the shadow from making his next move…

It’s an amazing thing when over two decades and fifty-one books, a series is still as fresh as its debut. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you know what a fan of the In Death series I am, and Shadows in Death is an excellent example of why. 

In this latest outing, the antagonist is revealed early on, but in no way does that take away from the suspense. While every case becomes personal to homicide detective Eve Dallas, this villain is from Roarke’s past, making the stakes even higher than usual. Because I have become so attached to “Team Eve” over the years, I was biting my nails the entire time I was reading this. There was actually a little less action here than in some of the previous books, but while getting more glimpses of Roarke’s nightmarish childhood, there was this menacing air hanging over everything which steadily builds until the exciting conclusion that brings together the NYPD, Interpol, and Roarke’s family in Ireland. I absolutely loved it and finished this in one sitting despite my best efforts to draw things out. If you’re new to the In Death series, you could jump in with Shadows in Death, but you’ll get so much more out of these wonderful characters and their backstories if you start with the first book, Naked in Death. I know that with 51 books now, that’s a bit of a commitment, but believe me, this series is worth it. For longtime fans, I believe you’ll find this to be an exciting and worthy addition. I’m now counting down the days until Faithless in Death comes out on February 2nd, 2021 (the day before my birthday)!

Splinters of Scarlet, By Emily Bain Murphy ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Historical Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and HMH Books for Young Readers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

352 Pages

Synopsis: For Marit Olsen, magic is all about strategy: it flows freely through her, but every use leaves behind a deadly, ice-like build-up within her veins called the Firn. Marit knows how dangerous it is to let too much Firn build up—after all, it killed her sister—and she has vowed never to use her thread magic. But when Eve, a fellow orphan, whom Marit views like a little sister, is adopted by the wealthy Helene Vestergaard, Marit will do anything to stay by Eve’s side. She decides to risk the Firn and use magic to secure a job as a seamstress in the Vestergaard household.

But Marit has a second, hidden agenda: her father died while working in the Vestergaard’s jewel mines—and it might not have been an accident. The closer Marit gets to the truth about the Vestergaard family, the more she realizes she and everyone she’s come to love are in danger. When she finds herself in the middle of a treacherous deception that goes all the way up to the king of Denmark, magic may be the only thing that can save her—if it doesn’t kill her first.

Splinters of Scarlet is set in 19th century Denmark where magic comes with a deadly cost to those who possess the gift. While abilities vary widely, the result of overuse is the same—The Firn, a fatal ice-like phenomena that builds up in their veins. Marit’s older sister dies from the condition protecting her, so she’s very much aware of the danger she puts herself whenever she uses her thread magic. She’s a strong female character who makes mistakes, but learns from them. She doesn’t hesitate to put her life on the line in the pursuit of justice and protecting those she loves. Her love interest, Jakob is equally likable and I enjoyed the way their relationship blossoms from wariness, to friendship, to love. The other characters, of which there are several, are vividly brought to life, an impressive feat given that the book is only 352 pages. In addition to the imaginative form of fantasy, Murphy spendidly brings to life, Denmark as it was in the second half of the 1800s. In this war-weary country, both the lower and the upper classes are given equal treatment. Against the historical background is the intriguing mystery of what really caused the explosion in the Vestergaard mines which took the lives of many miners including Marit’s father. The original mystery takes several surprising twists, before the ultimately shocking reveal.

Splinters of Scarlet is the second book in a row where I can honestly say my only disappointment is that I came to the end. Compounding that disappointment is that from the conclusion I’m pretty sure this is going to be a standalone, unless the author changes her mind. I finished this a couple of days ago but I find my thoughts frequently returning to Murphy’s magical world and the wonderful cast of characters she created. It’s being publicized as a mashup of Downton Abbey and Frozen and it definitely gave me those vibes. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone looking for a unique historical fantasy filled with magic, romance, glittering jewels, ballet, cameos by Hans Christian Anderson, mouth-watering food, suspenseful mystery, and characters to fall in love with. I guarantee this will sweep you away if only for a few hours. It’s available now so you can splurge immediately and purchase it or borrow it from your library!