Have a trip on the horizon? If you’re like me, you don’t want to read anything too heavy. Here are three quick reviews of the books I got through on my trip this month.
Read MoreBook Review | Cruise Reading | Romance
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Book Review | "Blood Heir" | Amélie Wen Zhao
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Affinities hold powerful magic, but instead of being honored, they’re locked away and sold into indentured servitude. Essentially shunned from society, thought of as less than human. Ana, the princess of the Cyrillian Empire, doesn’t know any different until she discovers that she too is an Affinity. Locked away, she barely escapes when she’s accused of her father’s murder. She fights to prove her innocence, finally discovering how the world really runs and the corrupt veins that run straight to her empire. Ana frees a con man, a man she hopes will help her find the real person that murder her father so she can clear her name. They make a Trade, but the con man has other ideas, wanting instead to reestablish his place in Cyrillian’s under belly crime ring.
Read MoreBook Review | Estranged Series | Ethan M. Aldridge
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After being swapped at birth with a human child, Edmund has grown up in the world above, struggling to fit in, and hiding his true identity from his human parents. All the while questioning how his real parents could have traded him for a human boy. The boy has grown up in the world below as the Childe. Never given a real name or a place to belong either. But one day, the Childe is forced to flee the world below when an evil relative takes the throne. He only knows of one place to run to, his real home, the home the changeling now occupies. To keep their secrets and hopefully save the world below, they team up, finding what the true meaning of family is.
Read MoreBook Review | "Wayward Children Series" | Seanan McGuire
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The Wayward Children series is about children searching to find where they fit in. And when that isn’t available in their world, secret doors open up for them, taking them exactly where they’re meant to be. Some children stay forever, perfectly happy behind the doors, but others find their way back to their original worlds forever changed, fighting to return even if it could mean death. They might have missed their families. They might have missed the comforts of home. Yet still they try to find their doors back. Out of her own door, knowing the struggles of the returning children, Eleanor opens a home for these children, hoping to make each stay as logical or illogical as she can for them. Together, the children can commiserate and grow and hopefully find their door again. These books are about their travels, their pasts, and sometimes their futures.
Read MoreBook Review | "The How & The Why" | Cynthia Hand
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Cass was given a second chance on a family when she was adopted at six weeks old. Eighteen years later and thoughts about her birth mother have started to creep into her head. Who was the woman that gave her up? Where does she ultimately come from? People have always said she looks just like her adopted mother, confusing her as their real child, but she didn’t come from them. She came from someone else. When Cass’s adoptive mother needs a new heart and the doctors don’t think she’ll make it much longer, she tells Cass about letters her birth mother wrote to her before she was born. Letters that could finally answer all the questions. In the search though, Cass worries that she’s not seeing the family right in front of her eyes.
Read MoreBook Review | "Alien: Echo" | Mira Grant
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Having your parents researching alien life doesn’t mean that you’re prepared for everything. Olivia and her sister Viola show up at their next parent’s assignment just trying to fit in - Olivia counting down the days until she turns 18 and can take her sick twin sister back to Earth. When their dad gets an extra assignment to scan a decommissioned ship, he takes it, saying they need the extra money for upgrades. But on that deadly mission, he finds a lot more than expected and somehow that lot more makes its way down to the planet’s surface. Using all the knowledge that her parents taught her, Olivia fights to keep her sister alive as the alien life forms adapt to their new home, quickly becoming the apex predator.
Read MoreBook Review | "The Vine Witch" | Luanne G. Smith
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Elena holds onto herself, fighting to remember the life she knew. One day, the curse she’s under wears off and she returns home to find that seven years have passed and her beloved vineyard sold to a man that only believes in science, not the Vine Witches that have been servicings the land for years. And it shows in his poor wine. His competition has taken advantage, weaving hexes over the vineyard. Elena offers to help, hiding her true work from the new owner while also plotting her revenge on the person that hexed her. But when cats start being drained of their blood, Elena begins to worry about her own safety and the reasons behind why she was cursed.
Read MoreBook Review | "The Girl the Sea Gave Back" | Adrienne Young
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Found washed on the shore as a small child, Tova was taken in by the Svell even though she has been viewed as a curse, a forsaken child from her clan. The tattoos inked on her skin claim that she is something else, a gift. Over time she becomes an asset to the tribe, seen as something that can be used in the eyes of the tribe’s Tala, and casts her ruins for the chief. One day her ruins change the fate of the Svell, claiming their ultimate end. The Svell rush to change this prediction and cross the borders into their neighboring enemy’s territory, the newly formed Nadhir Tribe and Halvard’s home. Halvard has watched his family and friends morph into this new peaceful clan, finding ways to live together. But after ten years of it, the Svell threaten to completely wipe them off the map. Tova and Halvard’s paths crash together, making Tova question her own hand in the fate of the Nadhir and the purpose fate had in washing her up on that beach.
Read MoreBook Review | "Sorcery of Thorns" | Margaret Rogerson
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Elisabeth has only known one thing her whole life - books. Growing up in one of the great libraries has taught her to care for, coax, and talk to the great grimoires that line the shelves. She hopes to be a warden one day, protecting the books from evil and magic, so when she’s asked to lock up the libraries newest addition, she’s excited. It’s her chance. Locked away in iron chains, the grimoire manages to break free killing the people Elisabeth cares about and making her the prime suspect. A sorcerer comes to claim her for questioning even though she’s been taught to hate all of them and their evil ways. But as she’s in custody, library after library is still attacked, forcing Elisabeth to turn for help from the sorcerer that has collected her.
Read MoreBook Review | "The Farm" | Joanne Ramos
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What if there was a chance to change your life? All you have to do is carry someone else's baby for nine months. The idea is very appealing to Jane who has hit a series of rough patches and just wants to do right for her infant daughter. From divorce to her sick cousin, she can’t seem to catch a break. So when the idea falls into her lap, she knows it’s the only way out of poverty. Leaving her daughter with family, Jane enters her nine month stint. Things don’t go as planned and she becomes worried the longer she’s away from her daughter. She tries to play the perfect host until she’s left with no other options.
Read MoreBook Review | "Tunnel of Bones" | Victoria Scwab
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If Edinburgh had been a ghostly nightmare, France feels like a walk in the park for Cassidy Blake. That is until she goes to the first recording location with her parents - the catacombs. It’s not the bodies that are haunting the place, pulling Cassidy to the veil, but the poor soul’s that have gotten lost in the twisting, turning tunnels five stories underground. Cassidy promises to stay on the side of the living. An accidental slip send her through the veil anyway. All she can see is a red light. A red light that is attached to something scarier than Cassidy has ever faced before.
Read MoreBook Review | "The Hunting Party" | By Lucy Foley
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Life may be busy, but every Christmas break a circle of old college friends come together to celebrate the new year. This year, the newest member of the group has planned a trip to the Scottish Highlands at a remote lodge run by just two staff members. Everything starts out fine - champagne around the fireplace, a few drugs - but each others dirty little secrets start to reveal themselves as the snow begins to fall. Soon there’s no way out and no way to get help when one of them goes missing.
Read MoreBook Review | "Scythe" | Neal Shusterman
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The world is no longer a scary place - war, starvation, disease, and death have been eradicated. A person can now live forever… at least hypothetically. The population keeps growing, forcing the Scythes to be created. In a random fashion, they choose their victim and end that person’s life. There’s no reanimation chamber for these people. They are truly dead, all to meet a Scythe’s quota. Rowan and Citra never expected to be summoned as a Scythe’s apprentice after they encounter their friendly, neighborhood Scythe on one of his killings. What starts as a normal year of learning to kill, quickly spirals as the very Scythemdom itself is rocked from the inside, forcing Rowan and Citra to fight for their lives.
Read MoreBook Review | "Red, White & Royal Blue" | Casey McQuiston
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Alex’s life is the perfect blend of dreams come true and chaos - his mother is the first female President. With his life now on a stage and his mother up for re-election, nothing can go seriously wrong. Like an altercation with a Prince across the pond. After a horrifying tabloid scandal, Alex and Henry are forced to play nice and convince the world that they’re friends. But the more time they spend together, the more they learn that there’s something behind all the angst. The two set down a dangerous path that could ruin their lives and Alex’s mother’s re-election.
Read MoreBook Review | "Sea Witch Rising" | Sarah Henning
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This is not your childhood’s little mermaid story, because in this story, two girls make it to land. One for true love. The other to save her sister. After seeing her sister on land, one look spells it all out for Runa and she knows that her sister Alia won’t be able to kill the prince to stay alive. Runa asks for help from the evil Sea Witch. Still locked in her cove by the sea king, Evie agrees to help but not without a price. Evie doesn’t realize that by helping Runa she will also have to pay her own price to the sea king. As his daughters go to land, he loses more of his magical power. He weaves lies and deceit around their disappearances making Evie the only person who can stop him and make the balance of magic even again.
Read MoreBook Review | "Queenie" | Candice Carty-Williams
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One thing after another and Queenie’s life hits a dead spin. It all started at her doctor’s office - she ‘was’ pregnant. As her longtime boyfriend asks for a break, Queenie can’t make herself tell him that she had a miscarriage. That maybe a break up isn’t the best thing right now. Things go from bad to even worse as she makes one wrong decision after another. She lets guys use her, friends walk all over her, and barely scrapes by at work. Eventually she hits rock bottom at the same time that her Jamaican community begins to disappear before her eyes.
Read MoreBook Review | "Where the Crawdads Sing" | Delia Owens
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Kya is just a little girl when one by one her family leaves her. Even her father, the last person left, disappears one day. Forgotten in the swamps of North Carolina, Kya is raised by her own wits, nature, and a kind black man. She becomes a legend in the local town and draws in dared boys who think her old shack is haunted. Nasty rumors follow her anytime she’s forced to go into town for basic supplies. Years drift until 1969 when the town’s star boy is found dead. As Kya’s past unfolds, her upbringing and respect for nature plays out in stark contrast to the girl they think she is.
Read MoreBook Review | "Aurora Rising" | Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
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Tyler missed the draft but it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Maybe trying to protect a 200 year old human with a glowing eye and the strength to stop your spaceship takes the cake. After rescuing said human from the fringe, Tyler heads with his ragtag team to provide supplies to an alien refuge, discovering along the way that the same human rescued has stowed away on his ship. The human attracts the presence of the GIA, forcing the team to run for their lives. Becoming fugitives, they must believe in the human that has brought them this trouble and hope her gifts can really save the galaxy.
Read MoreBook Review | "If We Were Villains" | M. L. Rio
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Ten long years and, finally, Oliver can walk as a free man. Detective Colbourne just has one last favor. Since he’s going into the private sector, could Olvier tell him what really happened that night on the dock? But it doesn’t come down to one single moment. There are seven characters in this play and Oliver takes Colbourne to the start where their lives changed forever. When the life of the stage bled into reality.
Read MoreBook Review | "Destroy All Monsters" | Sam J. Miller
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Ash and Solomon are best friends who live in different worlds. Ash’s is in the real world where she’s forced to watch Solomon spiral deeper into his delusions. Solomon lives in the Darkside where being different is persecuted. As things become dire in Ash’s world, Solomon’s magic begins to blend with reality and Ash wonders what really changed their lives when they were twelve. Together they learn about real monster as Ash prays that she can get her best friend back.
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