[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 Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman

Cover image from the goodreads website.

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Release Date: 10 March, 2020

Publisher: Puffin Books

Genre: Juvenile Fiction/Friendship

ISBN: 9781984837370

Edition: Paperback (Also available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 22 March, 2021
Warnings: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Domestic abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Animal death mentioned

Summary:  

Like Ruta Sepetys for middle grade, Anne Blankman pens a poignant and timeless story of friendship that twines together moments in underexplored history.

On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own?

Told in alternating perspectives among three girls--Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941--this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.

See more by Anne Blankman at her website.

[Review] Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty

Series: Willa of the Wood #1

Release Date: 10 July, 2018

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Genre: Juvenile Fiction/Middle Grade (4-6)/Fantasy/Historical Fiction/Appalachia/Action & Adventure/Mysteries

ISBN: 9781368005845

Edition: Advanced Reader Copy Ebook, Hardback

Rating: ★★★★★

Review Written: 14 July, 2018

Summary:Escape into the story of a brave and unusual girl brimming with the ancient powers of the forest. From Robert Beatty, the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Serafina books, comes a thrilling new series filled with the history, mystery, and magic of the Great Smoky Mountains. Kirkus Reviews described WILLA OF THE WOOD as "A moving, atmospheric journey of hope."

Move without a sound. Steal without a trace.

Willa, a young night-spirit, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the cabins of the day-folk under cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work--the day-folk kill whatever they don't understand--but Willa will do anything to win the approval of the padaran, the charismatic leader of the Faeran people.

When Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in the day-folk world, she calls upon the old powers of her beloved grandmother, and the unbreakable bonds of her forest allies, to escape. Only then does she begin to discover the shocking truth: that not all of her day-folk enemies are the same, and that the foundations of her own Faeran society are crumbling. What do you do when you realize that the society you were born and raised in is rife with evil? Do you raise your voice? Do you stand up against it?

As forces of unfathomable destruction encroach on her forest home, Willa must decide who she truly is, facing deadly force with warmest compassion, sinister corruption with trusted alliance, and finding a home for her longing heart.

See more by Robert Beatty at his Website.

[Review] The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites

Series: Stand-Alone

Release Date: 10 October, 2017 (English version), 18 August, 2012 (Original Spanish)

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Historical Fiction/Holocaust

ISBN: 9781627796187

Edition: Audiobook and Hardcover

Rating: ★★★★★

Review Written: 16 June, 2018

Summary: Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz.

Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.

See more by Antonio Iturbe at his Website (spanish).

[Review] Serafina and the Splintered Heart by Robert Beatty

Series: Serafina #3

Release Date: 04 July, 2017

Publisher: DisneyHyperion

Genre: Middle Grade/Historical Fiction (1800s)/Mystery

ISBN: 9781524779511

Edition: Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 28 October, 2017

Summary: The storms are coming… Something has happened to Serafina. She has awoken into a darkness she does not understand, scarred from a terrible battle, only to find that life at Biltmore Estate has changed in unimaginable ways. Old friends do unthinkable things and enemies seem all around.

A mysterious threat moves towards Biltmore, a force without a name, bringing with it violent storms and flooding that stands to uproot everything in its path. Serafina must uncover the truth about what has happened to her and find a way to harness her strange new powers before it’s too late.

With only days to achieve the impossible, Serafina fights to reclaim herself as the Guardian of Biltmore, friend of Braeden, daughter of her Pa, and heroine of the Blue Ridge Mountains and all the folk and creatures that call it home.

See more at Robert Beatty's Website.

[Review] Serafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty

Series: Serafina #2

Release Date: 12 July, 2016

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Genre: Middle Grade/Historical Fiction (1800s)/Mystery

ISBN:  9780451485632

Edition: Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review Written: 29 December, 2017

Summary: Serafina’s defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak has set new dangers in motion for both Braeden and Serafina. But at the same time, it’s made it impossible for Serafina to keep hiding in the basement of Biltmore Estate. Once the secret Chief Rat Catcher extraordinaire who explored in the shadows, now she’s thrust into the light-filled world of the upstairs, with its beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen and their strange customs. Lacking the social graces to fit in with the Vanderbilts and uncertain about what the discovery of her catamount mother means, Serafina finds herself caught between worlds. Where does she belong, the forest or the house?

But when a sinister arrival threatens both the animal and human residents of the estate, Serafina is the only one who can fight back. A dark, gray-bearded man in search of “the Black One” uses a pack of bloodthirsty wolfhounds to attack Serafina. Is he searching for the Black Cloak she destroyed? She only escapes with the help of a strange feral boy who seems to live in the forest.

When other animals at the estate begin lashing out, Serafina learns that a terrible power is taking hold of Biltmore and the surrounding forest. As she delves into the mystery of her past and searches for where she truly belongs, Serafina must find a way to defeat this new evil before it engulfs her beloved home.

See more at Robert Beatty's Website.

[Review] Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves

Series: Blood Rose Rebellion #1

Release Date: 28 March, 2017

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Alternative History

ISBN:  9781101935996

Edition: Ebook

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review Written: 18 September, 2017 
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary.

Her life might well be over.

In Hungary, Anna discovers that nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people around her, from her aloof cousin Noémi to the fierce and handsome Romani Gábor. Not the society she’s known all her life, for discontent with the Luminate is sweeping the land. And not her lack of magic. Isolated from the only world she cares about, Anna still can’t seem to stop herself from breaking spells.

As rebellion spreads across the region, Anna’s unique ability becomes the catalyst everyone is seeking. In the company of nobles, revolutionaries, and Romanies, Anna must choose: deny her unique power and cling to the life she’s always wanted, or embrace her ability and change that world forever. 

For more information, please check out the Penguin House Publishing's website.