[Review] The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series: Stand Alone

Release Date: 9 October, 2019

Publisher: Macmillan Audio/Wednesday Publishing

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Dystopian Fiction/Girls & Women Fiction/Fantasy Romance/Thiller

ISBN: 9781250623225

Edition: Audiobook/Hardback (also available on Kindle)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Review Written: 12 June, 2020

Summary: A speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Power. Optioned by Universal and Elizabeth Banks to be a major motion picture! Survive the year. No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their 16th year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive. Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life - a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make their fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other. With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

See more by Kim Liggett at her Website.

[Review] Ember Queen by Laura Sebastian

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series: Ash Princess Trilogy

Release Date: 4 February, 2020

Publisher: Listening Library/Delacourte Press

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Epic Fantasy/Girls & Women Fiction/Fantasy Romance

ISBN: 9781524767143

Edition: Audiobook (also available in Kindle and Hardback)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 29 April, 2020

Summary: Princess Theodosia was a prisoner in her own country for a decade. Renamed the Ash Princess, she endured relentless abuse and ridicule from the Kaiser and his court. But though she wore a crown of ashes, there is fire in Theo's blood. As the rightful heir to the Astrean crown, it runs in her veins. And if she learned nothing else from her mother, she learned that a Queen never cowers. Now free, with a misfit army of rebels to back her, Theo must liberate her enslaved people and face a terrifying new enemy: the new Kaiserin, imbued with a magic no one understands, the Kaiserin is determined to burn down anyone and everything in her way. The Kaiserin's strange power is growing stronger, and with Prinz Søren as her hostage, there is more at stake than ever. Theo must learn to embrace her own power if she has any hope of standing against the girl she once called her heart's sister.

See more by Laura Sebastian at her Website.

[Review] Lady Smoke by Laura Sebastian

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series: Ash Princess Trilogy

Release Date: 5 February, 2019

Publisher: Delacorte Press/Listening Library

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Epic Fantasy/Girls & Women Fiction/Fantasy Romance

ISBN: 9781524767105

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

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 18 March, 2019

Summary: The Kaiser murdered Theodosia's mother, the Fire Queen, when Theo was only six. He took Theo's country and kept her prisoner, crowning her Ash Princess--a pet to toy with and humiliate for ten long years. That era has ended. The Kaiser thought his prisoner weak and defenseless. He didn't realize that a sharp mind is the deadliest weapon. Theo no longer wears a crown of ashes. She has taken back her rightful title, and a hostage--Prinz Soren. But her people remain enslaved under the Kaiser's rule, and now she is thousands of miles away from them and her throne. To get them back, she will need an army. Only, securing an army means she must trust her aunt, the dreaded pirate Dragonsbane. And according to Dragonsbane, an army can only be produced if Theo takes a husband. Something an Astrean Queen has never done. Theo knows that freedom comes at a price, but she is determined to find a way to save her country without losing herself.

See more by Laura Sebastian at her Website.