[Review] Me (Moth) by Amber McBride

 

Cover image from the TheStoryGraph Site.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 17 August, 2021

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/Romance/Magical Realism/Poetry

ISBN: 9781250780362

Edition: Hardback (also available in Audiobook, and eBook)

Rating:★★★★★

Review Written: 11 February, 2022
Content Warnings: Death, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Child death, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Racism, Abandonment

Summary:  

A debut YA novel-in-verse by Amber McBride, Me (Moth) is about a teen girl who is grieving the deaths of her family, and a teen boy who crosses her path.

Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted.

Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he'll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.

Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable.

Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.

See more by Amber McBride on her website.

[Review] The Invisible life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

 

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 6 October, 2020

Publisher: Tor books

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

ISBN: 9780765387561

Edition: Hardback (also available in audiobook and eBook)

Rating:★★★★☆

Review Written: 22 March, 2021
Warnings: Suicidal Thoughts, Death of a Parent, Grief, Toxic Relationships, Mental Illness, Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Rape, Sexual Content

Summary:  

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

See more by V.E. Schwab at her website.

[Review] The Night Country (Hazel Wood #2) and The Boy Who Didn't come Home (Hazel Wood #1.5) by Melissa Albert

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: The Hazel Wood

Release Date: 7 January, 2020

Publisher: MacMillan Audio

Genre: Fantasy/Folklore/Fairy Tale retellings/action/adventure/romance

ISBN: 9781250246240

Edition: Audiobook (available in eBook and hardback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 9 July, 2020
Warnings: Death

Summary:  

Can you ever truly escape the Hazel Wood?

In the sequel to her New York Times bestselling, literary/commercial breakout, The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert dives back into the menacing, mesmerizing world that captivated readers of the first book. Follow Alice Proserpine and Ellery Finch as they come to learn that The Hazel Wood was just the beginning of worlds beyond, “a place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth, and the world as it appears false, and where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a good book” (The New York Times).

See more by Melissa Albert at her website.

[Review] Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: The Folk of the Air #3

Release Date: 19 November, 2019

Publisher: Little, Brown Books/Hatchette Audio

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy and Science Fiction/Contemporary Fantasy/Romance/Mystery

ASIN/ISBN: B07Y3TLVZ5 / 9780316310406

Edition: Audiobook and Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition Hardback (also available in Kindle and Non-exclusive hardback edition)

Rating: ★★★★★

Review Written: 2 December, 2019
Warnings: Racism, Character Death, Magic, Manipulation

Summary:  

He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power. Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics. And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

See more by Holly Black at her Website.

[Review] The Wicked King by Holly Black

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: The Folk of the Air #2

Release Date: 8 January, 2019

Publisher: Little, Brown Books/Hatchette Audio

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy and Science Fiction/Contemporary Fantasy/Romance/Mystery

ASIN/ISBN: 1549171313 / 9781681198590

Edition: Audiobook and Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition Hardback (also available in Kindle and Paperback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 5 October, 2019
Warnings: Racism, Character Death, Magic, Manipulation

Summary:  

You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world. 

See more by Holly Black at her Website.

[Review] The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series: N/A

Release Date: 6 November, 2018

Publisher: Bloomsbury/Brilliance Audio

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Romance/Self-Esteem & Reliance/Contemporary Fantasy

ISBN: 9781681198590

Edition: Audiobook (also available in Kindle, Hardback, and Paperback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 11 February, 2019

Summary: Every winter, Wren Silke is chased through the forest in a warped version of a childhood game. The boys who haunt her are judges, powerful and frightening pursuers, who know nothing of her true identity. If they knew she was an augur, their sworn enemy, the game would turn deadly. But Wren is on the hunt, too. Sent undercover as an intern to the Harkness Foundation - enemy headquarters - her family's survival rests on finding a secret meant to stay hidden. As the enmity between two ancient magics reaches breaking point, Wren is torn between old loyalties and new lies. And trapped in the most dangerous game of her life. Part thriller, part love story, this captivating debut novel will leave readers spellbound. 

See more by Mary Watson at her Website.

[Review] The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Series: The Hazel Wood #1

Release Date: 30 January, 2018

Publisher: McMillian Audio

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Contemporary Fantasy/Psychological Thriller

ISBN: 9781427293534

Edition: Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 16 June, 2018

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

See more by Melissa Albert at her Website.

[Review] Nettle King by Katherine Harbour

Series: Night and Nothing #3

Release Date: 19 April, 2016

Publisher: HarperCollins 

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Paranormal/Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology

ISBN:  9780062286789

Edition: Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 28 October, 2017 
Summary: When her beloved Jack disappears, Finn vows to find him—even if it means a daring odyssey into the land of the dead. But saving Jack comes at a terrible price: a dangerous fissure has opened, giving the dead access to the true world.

The lines between worlds are more blurred than ever. Finn’s sister, Lily, recently returned from the Ghostlands, seems to bear no scars from her time there. But then their friend Moth returns from Sombrus, the magical house once owned by Seth Lot, bearing shocking news. Something evil—a fearsome creature bearing a striking resemblance to Jack—has escaped Sombrus and is now stalking Fair Hollow, killing everyone it encounters, transforming them into terrifying Jacks and Jills and recruiting the Unseelie.

It will not stop until it gets what it wants . . .

Finn.

See more at HarperCollins's website.

[Review] Briar Queen by Katherine Harbour

Series: Night and Nothing #2

Release Date: 02 June, 2015

Publisher: HarperCollins 

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Paranormal/Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology

ISBN:  9780062286727

Edition: Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 28 October, 2017 
Summary: Serafina Sullivan and her father left San Francisco to escape the painful memory of her older sister Lily Rose’s suicide. But soon after she arrived in bohemian Fair Hollow, New York, Finn discovered a terrifying secret connected to Lily Rose. The placid surface of this picture-perfect town concealed an eerie supernatural world—and at its center, the wealthy, beautiful, and terrifying Fata family.

Though the striking and mysterious Jack Fata tried to push Finn away to protect her, their attraction was too powerful to resist. To save him, Finn—a girl named for the angels and a brave Irish prince—banished a cabal of malevolent enemies to shadows, freeing him from their diabolical grip.

Now, the rhythm of life in Fair Hollow is beginning to feel a little closer to ordinary. But Finn knows better than to be lulled by this comfortable sense of normalcy. It’s just the calm before the storm. For soon, a chance encounter outside the magical Brambleberry Books will lead her down a rabbit hole, into a fairy world of secrets and legacies . . . straight towards the shocking truth about her sister’s death.

See more at HarperCollins's website.

[Review] Gilded Cage by Vic James

Series: Dark Gifts #1

Release Date: 14 February, 2017

Publisher: Penguin Random House 

Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction/Political fiction/Contemporary Fantasy

ISBN:  9780425284155

Edition: Ebook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 23 September, 2017 
Summary: In modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them.

This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit.

Have a quick ten years. . . .

See more at Penguin Random House's Website.