Tag: 4 stars

She’s Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard

Meaghan
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She’s Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Wendy’s Twitter

The summer is winding down in San Diego. Veronica is bored, caustically charismatic, and uninspired in her photography. Nico is insatiable, subversive, and obsessed with chaotic performance art. They’re artists first, best friends second. But that was before Mick. Delicate, lonely, magnetic Mick: the perfect subject, and Veronica’s dream girl. The days are long and hot―full of adventure―and soon they are falling in love. Falling so hard, they never imagine what comes next. One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies. One suspect . . . one stalker. This is a summer they won’t survive.

DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4 STARS

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Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift

Meaghan
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Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Dana’s Twitter

Adraa is the royal heir of Belwar, a talented witch on the cusp of taking her royal ceremony test, and a girl who just wants to prove her worth to her people.

Jatin is the royal heir to Naupure, a competitive wizard who’s mastered all nine colors of magic, and a boy anxious to return home for the first time since he was a child.

Together, their arranged marriage will unite two of Wickery’s most powerful kingdoms. But after years of rivalry from afar, Adraa and Jatin only agree on one thing: their reunion will be anything but sweet.

Only, destiny has other plans and with the criminal underbelly of Belwar suddenly making a move for control, their paths cross…and neither realizes who the other is, adopting separate secret identities instead.

Between dodging deathly spells and keeping their true selves hidden, the pair must learn to put their trust in the other if either is to uncover the real threat. Now Wickery’s fate is in the hands of rivals..? Fiancées..? Partners..? Whatever they are, it’s complicated and bound for greatness or destruction.

DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

EXPECTED JANUARY 19TH, 2021

4 STARS

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Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Meaghan
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Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Julia’s Twitter

Her voice was her prison…
Now it’s her weapon.

In a world where magic is sung, a powerful mage named Cadence has been forced to torture her country’s disgraced nobility at her ruthless queen’s bidding.

But when she is reunited with her childhood friend, a noblewoman with ties to the underground rebellion, she must finally make a choice: Take a stand to free their country from oppression, or follow in the queen’s footsteps and become a monster herself.

4 STARS

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Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

Meaghan
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Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Frances’s Twitter

The gods are dead. Decades ago, they turned on one another and tore each other apart. Nobody knows why. But are they really gone forever? When 15-year-old Hark finds the still-beating heart of a terrifying deity, he risks everything to keep it out of the hands of smugglers, military scientists, and a secret fanatical cult so that he can use it to save the life of his best friend, Jelt. But with the heart, Jelt gradually and eerily transforms. How long should Hark stay loyal to his friend when he’s becoming a monster—and what is Hark willing to sacrifice to save him?

4 STARS

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A Universe of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton

Meaghan
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A Universe of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Dhonielle’s Twitter

In the fourth collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, fifteen award-winning and celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long misunderstood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.

DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

EXPECTED DECEMBER 8TH, 2020

4 STARS

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Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Meaghan
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Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Anna-Marie’s Twitter

Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.

Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.

4 STARS

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Those Who Prey by Jennifer Moffett

Meaghan
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Those Who Prey by Jennifer Moffett

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Simon & Schuster || Jennifer’s Twitter

College life isn’t what Emily expected.

She expected to spend freshman year strolling through the ivy-covered campus with new friends, finally feeling like she belonged. Instead, she walks the campus alone, still not having found her place or her people so far away from home.

But then the Kingdom finds her.

The Kingdom, an exclusive on-campus group, offers everything Emily expected of college and more: acceptance, friends, a potential boyfriend, and a chance to spend the summer in Italy on a mission trip. But the trip is not what she thought it would be. Emily and the others are stripped of their passports and money. They’re cut off from their families back home. The Kingdom’s practices become increasingly manipulative and dangerous.

And someone ends up dead.

DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

EXPECTED NOVEMBER 10TH, 2020

4 STARS

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A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Meaghan
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A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Macmillian Books || Samantha’s Twitter

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 promise of the Stone’s riches is in 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 sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review as part of the A Golden Fury blog tour hosted by Wednesday Books.

EXPECTED OCTOBER 13TH, 2020

4 STARS

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Mini Reviews || Leverage Tie-In Novels

Meaghan
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Normally, I’m wary of TV to novel projects.

I mean, who isn’t? When someone picks up an existing IP, you desperately want them to understand it better than even the creator, unless you’re willing to end up with something out of character and flat. Thankfully, the Leverage tie-in novels mostly fit the bill, hitting the right notes in believable characterization and almost unbelievable schemes. At 300 pages and $8 a pop, they’re each an evening of entertainment, and I’m glad I purchased the set!

But don’t take my word for it without the specifics, okay? Instead, check out today’s mini reviews!

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Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass

Meaghan
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Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass

Goodreads || The StoryGraph || Bookshop || Adam’s Twitter

Connor Major’s summer break is turning into a nightmare.

His SAT scores bombed, the old man he delivers meals to died, and when he came out to his religious zealot mother, she had him kidnapped and shipped off to a secluded island. His final destination: Nightlight Ministries, a conversion therapy camp that will be his new home until he “changes.”

But Connor’s troubles are only beginning. At Nightlight, everyone has something to hide from the campers to the “converted” staff and cagey camp director, and it quickly becomes clear that no one is safe. Connor plans to escape and bring the other kidnapped teens with him. But first, he’s exposing the camp’s horrible truths for what they are— and taking this place down.

DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

EXPECTED SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2020

4 STARS

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