Category Archives: Reviews

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

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Six of Crows was a brilliant heist-adventure set in an original world with compelling, 3 dimensional characters. Gilded Wolves is… not. I was excited when I picked up Gilded Wolves, it sounded interesting and unique and as an added bonus it has a gorgeous cover and an intriguing title! I was, sadly, disappointed. Gilded Wolves turned out to be a total rip off of Leigh Bardugo’s book, that, to make matters worse lacks the character and plot depth that sets Six of Crows apart.
While the world was interesting, the author didn’t take the time to develop it enough to give the reader an understanding of its culture and more importantly, although multiple main characters have magic, she neglects to tell us how it works or even the limits of what they can do. The characters too were somewhat lacking. Chokshi’s strategy seemed to be to simply dump their backstory in at some point without making it an organic thing or showing how it shapes the characters in the present and influences their actions. Lastly, the plot structure was unfortunately predictable: the group would be in danger, they’re about to die, the same two characters (who later develop a forced and rushed love interest) solve the problem using math and some random fact that one of them somehow knows.
Perhaps I am being overly harsh, but it is my opinion that if a book is that similar to another book (especially if it is marketed to the same demographic) then it has to be at least as good as the one it is ripping off. Gilded Wolves may be a good fit for younger readers who aren’t quite ready for Six of Crows, but I would not recommend it to people who have already read the aforementioned book, since as a fan of Leigh Bardugo’s book I found myself spending the entire time reading Gilded Wolves measuring it up to Six of Crows and finding it lacking.

Just Wreck it All by N. Griffin

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In Just Wreck it All, by N. Griffin, a teenage girl named Bett struggles with her past. She lives in a small town where everyone knows your name, and she loved it. She used to be amazing! A healthy, athletic, fun person. But the accident came and went, and she turned into a self-conscious over-eater, and focused on dividing her life into ‘pluses’ and ‘minuses’. She defined a ‘plus’ as doing something she liked, like running, for example. And she had to counteract the pluses with minuses, so nothing positive came without a price.
When a bad incident occurs at school, just after the school year begins, Bett’s life takes another turn. She needs to decide if her actions are going to be plus or minus, and how it impacts the people around her.
Just Wreck it All is an important high-school-identity story, and teaches many lessons. N. Griffin writes with passion and beauty, creating masterpieces and letting them show through the characters.

Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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Our Year of Maybe, by Rachel Lynn Solomon, is not just a love story. This is a story with such deep, raw emotion, and real, human characters. It is about Sophie and her neighbor Peter. They have been best friends since they were babies. But Sophie’s crush on Peter makes things all too real. Her secret crush, that is.
Peter has a deadly kidney disease and miraculously, Sophie is a match. She donates one of her kidneys to her neighbor, her love, her Peter. She wants them to become closer; to be physically bonded by matching kidneys. Her love for him is overwhelming and she needs an answer from his part of the relationship. The transplant has complicated everything, and Sophie is not sure if it’s good or bad.
Rachel Lynn Solomon is such a talented writer. She tells an unheard of story with fierceness and truth, breaking ground on an example of a not-so-perfect romantic tale. This is one of the best YA romance books ever, because of its intriguing language and elements of stone-cold truth. A must-read for any romance novel lovers!

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti

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When something bad happens to you, how do you cope with it? Do you dwell in the bad, or take charge to try to help and make a change? A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti is about a teenage girl, Annabelle, recovers from a trauma by running 2,700 miles across the country. She is torn between extreme sadness, anxiety, and depression throughout the book as she also tries to fight for what she thinks is right. When Annabelle starts running, she is just trying to get away from everything, but when she finishes, she is moved and inspired to continue fighting for what she believes is important. She won’t let herself think about what happened, but it slowly forces her to relive the memories and come to terms with her pain. When Annabelle tells her mother and brother what she plans to do, her mother doesn’t want her to go, she wants her to finish school. From the start, her brother, Malcom, takes charge to fund raise money for Annabelle. He even gets her friends to contribute to campaigning for her. Her grandfather meets her at a hotel and follows her in his RV while she runs across the country. As Annabelle is remembering what happened, her grandfather is always there to comfort her and cheer her up. This is an amazing story full of love, understanding, and family.
I recommend this book to people who have experienced traumatic events, especially girls. It doesn’t matter who you are, you shouldn’t have to go through hard times alone. You need a good support crew to help you get through. This book can help you understand that, even though you are going through hard times, you have face your pain and accept it, in order to move on and continue living your life.

The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix

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The Faithful Spy, by John Hendrix, is a riveting true story about the enemies of Hitler, presented in illustrated form. It tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young theologist who loved his home country of Germany, but despised the man who gained control of it. Dietrich’s only wish is to protect his beloved country and restore it back to what it used to be. For this to happen, he has to get rid of Hitler. Dietrich and his friends conspire, travel, and spy, all in the name of German safety.
John Hendrix writes with determination and interest, sharing the unknown details of many important figures in Germany’s unfathomable history. This book is riddled with knowledge about World War II and the Holocaust. It is informational, yet also a journey through one man’s sacrifices. Stunning pictures and an amazing format bring the images to life as the book takes you through the entirety of World War II and the Holocaust, all through Dietrich’s eyes.
The Faithful Spy is intense and emotional, but teaches so much lost history about these tragic events. This book is great for history buffs, or anyone interested in learning more about these events and the different sides of humanity.

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

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Beneath the Citadel, by Destiny Soria, is an impeccably crafted fantasy novel with everything planned out perfectly. There are plot twists and moments of relief, and this story makes you feel like you’re with the characters in the citadel.
Beneath the Citadel tells about four teenagers who live in a place ruled by rooks and seers; sentients and diviners. Nothing is private, and it seems as if everyone’s future is written in prophecies. But the citadel has secrets of its own: what’s beneath the citadel. Something so unimaginable. These four friends are the last of the rebels, trying to destroy the corrupt government. Will the citadel’s secret ruin or help their plan?
Destiny Soria wrote a truly amazing novel here. I recommend this to any fantasy lover, or anyone who wants to read a book impossible to put down. It is thoroughly engulfing from the first page to the last, and makes you want more. I cannot begin to describe how interesting this story is. There’s nothing else like it and it’s bound to become huge like Harry Potter or Red Queen. I hope there is a sequel!

Shiver by Maggie Steivater

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Romeo & Juliet meets Twilight in the woods of New England.
Grace was saved from a wolf attack by one of its own when she was a child. After watching each other from a distance for years, she and the wolf are reunited when a local teen is attacked. Grace’s wolf is injured and appears as a human on her doorstep. Grace’s alienation from her parents sets the stage for this romantic mystery that will have besotted readers carrying the book everywhere, hoping to sneak in just one more chapter.
Readers who enjoy a little paranormal enhancement in their narratives will love this gripping spin on doomed love as told from different characters viewpoints. The characters are complex and relatable and it seems appropriate to root for the wolves who somehow seem to normally live among us.
Shiver is still one of the first books I think of when someone asks me for a book recommendation with adventure and romance. My daughter and I raced through the series together and have since devoured the rest of Maggie Stiefvater’s offerings. Shiver is the first of its Trilogy but Stiefvater has another series, The Raven Cycle, and stand alone titles, The Scorpio Races and All the Crooked Saints. The different series and stand alones are quite distinct in subject matter from each other but I loved them all!

Memoirs of a Geisha by Athur Golden

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There are a few books that you know are going to be great. They are going to be
everything you wanted and an utterly transformative experience.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden was one of those books. A book that when I saw
it in the book store something instantly resonated. So much so that when I finally got my hands on a used copy it took me maybe three years to finally read it. The already worn and well thumbed through novel sat on my shelf collecting dust at the very end of the book shelf, then it sat in a box when I moved out for college. Then one winter break while I was looking for something to read during a long trip across the country I stumbled upon it again at the bottom of a tub in the garage. a It had taken a few years before I could finally get around to it before I was in need of such a novel. Really glad to have waited.
If I had just devoured it the second I got all the details, I would have missed the intricacies and full beauty of this wonderful story. You know how when you love a story you try to push back the end? Either by not reading the last chapter, watching that last episode or pausing every single moment to take it in and make it last for as long as possible? That’s what I did with this book but not by not finishing it but by rereading passages. Whenever there was a particular moment or word that caught my eye it would be flagged either with a post-it or scrap of paper or pencil mark or folded page. Sometimes when there was a call back I could go back to that moment and bask in how Chiyo -the narrator- grew from then or how she excellently set up the reader for the twist or piece of irony. Totally recommended as a new way to lengthen your new reading experience!
Now, without further ado here are a few reasons why Memoirs of a Geisha is such a lovely and heartfelt book:
Aside from Chiyo the truly incredible narrator and protagonist who is one of the single greatest literary characters ever written, she is the only one who can tell her story. That is why you should read this novel, to hear this story from her. Chiyo was representing a culmination of experiences, traditions and characteristics of real Geisha life while still being her own unique person and not some caricature. Before reading this book I thought that it was simply translated

by Arthur Golden but discovered towards the end that this novel is a result of countless hours of research, admiration and respect for Geisha and Japanese culture. Chiyo is so real and sounds not only like a real Geisha but a real woman. a woman who has lived a full life. Hers was a life and a journey reflecting on human experience that is so moving and so provocative.
With just over 350 pages a whole life is shared with the reader. While Chiyo was looking back on her life there was still this sense that she was reliving these moments rather then just recounting them. This allowed for bits of dramatic irony to unfold or for more fine details to be planted early on for reveals later.
Now, historical fictions with an element of romance are a personal favorite and an unguilty pleasure, so that made this novel capture my heart even more. Chiyo begins her journey with discovering what love is and how many types of love there is!
Well, who is this novel for? Luckily a fairly large audience. Memoirs of a Geisha is a piece of historical fiction, a timeless romance, tragedy, success story, and an insight into the world of Geisha. So if you have any interest in learning about pre and post World War II in Japan, and how someone becomes a geisha, or another take on what love is, then you should read this classic.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Among modern children’s classics, few books ring as true or hit as hard as Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. In leu of Bridge of Clay’s release (his first children’s novel since The Book Thief) I thought it would be a good idea to have his first book as our Throwback Thursday review. The Book Thief is a gem in the world of historical fiction, and a timeless tale that will entrance generations to come.
When Liesel picks up a bedraggled book left by accident on her brothers grave, she has no idea what will happen. She has no idea that her mother— a communist in Nazi Germany— is taking her to live in safety with a foster family. She has no idea she will make friends with a boy with yellow hair and learn to read with her father, no idea she will steal books from a bonfire and a mayor’s library. She has no idea what she will learn and love and lose in the brief span of her fleeting childhood.

An Enchantment of Raven by Margaret Rogerson

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Have you ever read a book with such vivid imagery that when you close your eyes you can almost imagine you are inside its world? My favorite of those books is An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson. Enchantment is set in a lush world of magic and monsters that— in tandem with sweeping world building and compelling characters— makes for a brilliant book. I am not usually a fan of romance stories, but An Enchantment of Ravens drew me in and held on until the very last page.
At seventeen, Isobel is the best portrait artist in generations, and her reputation grows with every passing year. Since childhood, Isobel has painted for the Fair Folk, a powerful race that lusts after human craft.
Isobel is used to having creatures that could murder her in an instant sipping tea in her living room. But when she hears from one of her clients that the Autumn Prince— a powerful Fair One not seen in Whimsy for centuries— is coming to meet her, she’s shaken. But Rook (the Autumn Prince) is not what she expects from a Fair One, and certainly not what she’d expect from one of their princes. He’s nearly human. But just as they grows comfortable towards one another— fond, even, she makes a terrible mistake. Isobel paints human sorrow in his eyes, an unforgivable weakness among his kind. Furious, Rook spirits her off to the Autumn court to stand trial, setting off a whirlwind of adventures and a forbidden romance that will have you on the edge of your seat.