Namesake by Adrienne Young

Posted on by lynndellwatson

Namesake opens with Fable kidnapped and trapped on Zola’s ship, the Luna. Fable is unsure of why she was captured until Zola tells her it’s because he knows who her parents are. She’s forced to harvest gemstones with other dredgers so Zola can use them for payment for something. She soon finds out what the payment is for, to Zola’s detriment. Fable discovers more than she ever could have imagined about her family and her relationship with West worries her. She goes in search of the elusive gemstone, midnight, that her mother supposedly found before her death. This sequel to Fable is exciting, action-packed, dangerous and full of great character development. The series is so good that I want to read it again, 5 stars!

All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace

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All the Tides of Fate is the sequel to All the Stars and Teeth. Amora is ruling the kingdom after her father’s death. She’s dealing with advisers and others that are trying to show their lack of confidence in her through insubordination and rude remarks, but Amora handles it well. Bastian arrives at the meeting and announces himself an adviser. At the end of the meeting, Amora is asked to prove her magic is working and is told that she needs to be engaged to give the kingdom something to look forward to and as a distraction. Amora manages to trick the advisers into believing her magic is intact with the help of a few others. She travels with her crew to pretend to find a fiancé and search for the artifact needed to restore her magic and make her soul complete. Full of action and loyalty and deception and tough decisions, All the Tides of Fate is a perfect ending to this duology, 5 stars!

Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Shaeffer

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Nita finds Fabricio at INHUP and vows to kill him. She misses Kovit and emails back and forth with him. She also emails her mother and they plan to meet in Toronto. Nita is heartbroken after hearing about her father’s murder. Kovit and Nita team up and take down some people that are hunting them. The two of them go on a roller coaster ride of a relationship and they both learn and grow because of it. Nita comes to terms with her mother and her actions but doesn’t learn any more about her father’s death. Great sequel, 4 stars!

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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Shanghai ports and a terrible monster in the prologue piqued my curiosity. A retelling of Romeo and Juliet with rival gangsters in Shanghai and a mysterious string of strange deaths. Roma and Juliettte are two nineteen-year-old gangster heirs that love each other but are meant to hate each other. Shanghai is being terrorized by a strange monster that causes madness and death. The two heirs are desperately trying to save their gangs and territories from the madness, communism and other foreigners threatening to take control of Shanghai. They don’t want to cross paths, but Roma and Juliette realize they need each other’s information to solve their problems. Two strong main characters that are conflicted bring angst and empathy to this retelling, 4 stars!

The Deck of Omens by Christine Lynn Herman

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The teens of the founding families are each struggling with their responsibilities, relationships, and more. Together they fight for the corruption cure only to discover the truth behind everything they’ve been led to believe in their whole lives. They’ve been deceived about their entire purpose of protecting the community. The responsibility to end the corruption falls completely on the teenagers and they work past their grudges and become a strong team. The cause of the corruption isn’t what they think and they are shocked when they find out who is truly the cause of everything bad. 4 stars for a supernatural read!

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

Posted on by lynndellwatson

The introduction is perfectly written with its foreboding and ominous tale that happens to be true.
Soraya and Sorush are twins. Soraya is hidden away because her touch is fatal. Sorush is the heir next in line to rule the kingdom.
On the day of Sorush and Laleh’s wedding announcement, Soraya meets Azad. He’s been awarded by Sorush for his bravery and for saving his life. Azad is immediately taken with Soraya even after he finds out about her fatal touch. The two of them sneak through secret passages to get into the dungeon so they can ask the prisoner div for help in breaking Soraya’s curse. A div is what gave her mother the curse years ago. The div tells her not to believe her mother’s story. As Soraya discovers the truth about her curse, her family becomes endangered and she has to do some clever thinking to save them. Soraya searches for allies and truths throughout the story as everything changes for her. Beautifully written and based on Persian mythology to give us this unique fantasy, 4 stars!

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

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Two of Bitterblue’s advisers have perished in a shipwreck. They managed to send a message for Bitterblue before they perished. The message tells her to look into zilfium, a fuel used in the Torlan continent but illegal to use in Winterkeep. She discovers that she’s been swindled out of money when selling materials from her kingdom’s mountains, unknowingly selling traces of zilfiium that are found next to those materials. She’s angered and decides to visit Winterkeep, taking Giddon and Hava with her. She’s swept overboard and her crew thinks she perished. Instead, she’s being kept hidden away from her crew and most of Winterkeep. We meet her kidnappers and see the conditions she’s kept in. An array of characters fills the pages and intrigue turns the story. This latest addition to the Graceling realm adds another interesting culture to this vast world. Spies, loyalty and grief spin a complex riddle, 4 stars!

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

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Twenty-six-year-old Olivia keeps her history private and most people at a distance. It’s been twenty years since she was swept away by a rainstorm and was missing for three days. She has no recollection of what happened in those three days. She’s also changed her name from Arden to Olivia and moved to a new town to avoid anyone knowing about her history. Reporters bothered her for years and she wants to keep to herself. She hasn’t been sleepwalking for years, until her neighbor Rick finds her outside one night. The next time she sleepwalks, she trips over a dead body and gets blood all over her hands. She runs to Rick’s house, without thinking, because that’s where she feels safe. The more I read, the more the story twisted! The suspense builds and questions continue to pop up so Olivia doesn’t know who to trust or what to believe. An interesting mystery with just the right amount of creepy suspense, 5 stars!

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Shaeffer

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Nita listens to her Disney playlist while she dissects dead unnatural beings. She lives with her mother and helps her with the collecting and dissecting that she does for a living. Nita’s mother sells body parts on the black market on the dark web. The first chapter shows her cruelty when she brings home a creature that looks like he’s an eighteen-year-old human. She locks him in a newly purchased cage and handcuffs him. She wants to keep him alive as long as possible while she removes and sells pieces of his body. Nita can’t stand to see him suffer so she helps him escape. Her mother is furious but calm. Soon after, Nita is kidnapped and imprisoned. After witnessing torture and seeing some black market buyers, Nita manages to escape and takes her neighboring cellmate along. Through suspenseful danger and action, Nita discovers more information about her kidnapping. Twists and intrigue, 4 stars!