A great reminder to live life and write your own story!
19yo Beau rides with a group of thieves who saved his life and expects him to earn his way by stealing, even though he only wants to get away and retrieve his younger brother Matti from the orphanage. 18yo Arabella is a daughter of a Duke, living in a cursed castle with a dangerous beast that appears at midnight. When Beau and his group arrive at the castle, no one is around but the dining table is set for a feast. They eat until a beast arrives, then run, leaving Beau behind. What Beau finds, as he’s trapped in the castle, changes his life forever.
Likes/dislikes: The story contains good messages. The clever names of the court ladies were fun to figure out. The romance could have been more developed. Mature Content: PG for kissing. Language: R for 83 swears and no f-words. Violence: PG-13 for bloody fighting. Ethnicity: Beau is Spanish and Arabella is white.
Abby and her high school group of friends are on top of missing or dead persons in their small town of Doubtful. They stick together and help keep each other safe from the serial killer that lurks around their homes. The group has established rules based on a century of missing people and killings. The town residents have learned to always lock their doors and windows, to never be outside at night and to always have someone with them. When Abby’s sister Hope is pulled from her bedroom window one night, Abby and her friends must use everything they’ve learned to stay alive as they search for Hope and discover the terrifying truth.
Likes/dislikes: The book is definitely material worthy of a young adult horror movie. I liked the narrative of secondary characters. I grew to care about the two main characters and appreciated their loyalty. Language: PG-13 for 10 swears and no f-words. Mature content: G Violence: R for bloody deaths. Ethnicity: falls to white.
Tamsin,17, and her brother Cabell are Hollowers. Their guardian Nash left them behind after taking them on hunting trips for artifacts and now they have to make it on their own. The two of them have been trying to decipher Nash’s journal and break the cipher so they can solve the mystery of what happened to him and rescue him. Tamsin realizes the artifact they’re looking for is the Servant’s ring and believes that they need to travel to Avalon, King Arthur’s resting place, to find the ring and Nash. They find their way to Avalon in the company of prestigious Hollowers who have their own agendas falling headfirst into danger beyond anything they expected and into the unknown that will change everything.
In Poppy Hills, Northern California, Prudence, 16, was a Ladybird scout, hunting creatures that feed on emotions until her best friend and fellow scout Molly died during a hunt they were on together three years prior. Prudence is now assigned to train her younger cousin Avi even though PTSD has been a problem for her since the fatal hunt. Prudence dreads her assignment but learns to embrace her leadership role and the younger scouts as she takes them under her wing. Eventually she begins to also let people break through her independent wall and become true friends. Now all she has to do is teach them how to stay alive while taking down the dreaded creatures they’re supposed to hunt. Likes/dislikes: I enjoyed the humor throughout the novel. I like the message that it helps when people work together. I also enjoyed how the author brought into the novel the figurative monsters that we all deal with. Language: R for 68 swears and 38 f-bombs. Mature content: PG-13 for underage drinking, undescribed kiss, vaping, mention of “getting high”, mention of smoking weed, brief kiss. Violence: PG for fist fight with no blood, death with no blood in the description. Ethnicity: Prudence has Puerto Rican mother and a white father. Other ethnicities are white, Italian, and El Salvadoran.
Luminaries are hunters of nightmares. Winnie, sixteen, is about to start the trials that lead to becoming a hunter. She lives with her mother and brother. After her father was exposed as a spy, their family lost everything, including him. Now they struggle to make ends meet. Winnie is bullied by classmates that call her traitor because of her father. She is excited to become a hunter and draws every creature she sees with her wonderful artistic skills. On her first trial, Winnie accidentally stumbles onto a banshee that’s immediately beheaded by someone or something else. She carries the banshee head back to headquarters, completely in shock the whole time. As soon as other hunters see her holding the banshee head, they assume she hunted and killed it. Super impressed, the hunters don’t let Winnie get a word in and she’s finding it hard to speak anyway. After that, she and her family are celebrated and treated much better. Winnie is able to attend hunter school and her brother Darian is promoted. In the meantime, Winnie asks Jay to train her because she feels extremely behind since she hasn’t had access to teaching or coaching for the last four years. Jay agrees but Winnie has difficulty reading him. He’s aloof, strong, and oblivious to the attention and flirting of Winnie’s peers. Jay’s training helps Winnie with the trials but she keeps seeing the Whisperer that no other hunter has seen. As Winnie builds her skills, she discovers a coded message from her father and the book ends with the shocking deciphered note he left for her. A sequel to look forward to! Supernatural mystery, 4 stars!
Likes/dislikes: I like the following: -The quote from Grandpa Frank, “That’s why we’re called the Luminaries, Winnie, we are lanterns the forest can never snuff out”. -The mystery of the Whisperer and the discovery of another mystery that leads into a sequel. -I enjoyed the writing and that Winnie is an artist. -I like Jay and the mystery surrounding his life. Language Content: PG-13 for 16 swears, no f-bombs Mature Content: PG-13 for underage drinking, mentions marijuana; LGBT side character Violence: PG-13 for dead, ripped apart bodies, beheading
Mattie is about twenty and lives with her much older husband, William, in the mountains in solitude. William is abusive in all ways. He treats her like a possession, not a person, and keeps her hidden on the mountain in a cabin. She’s not allowed to leave the area around the cabin. Mattie is having flashbacks and bits of her past are returning to her as memories despite William lying to her for so long. A strange, unknown creature has shown up on the mountain near the cabin and it’s killing animals and sorting their bones and organs into distinct piles inside its cave. When Mattie and William discover the cave, he believes it’s the work of a demon and that he’s destined by God to get rid of it. Hikers are searching for new animals when William threatens them to leave his mountain. They see Mattie’s injured face and one of the hikers recognizes her from news reports. She’s unsure of what he’s talking about and William denies anything about the reports and restates that Mattie is his wife and the hikers need to leave or he will harm them. Mattie continues to recall bits of her past and when William leaves for town, the strangers approach the cabin to talk to her, filling her in on who she really is. The mystery and danger are suspenseful and Mattie has great strength despite her confusion. Horror adventure thriller worth 4 stars!
*Information on book content: language content: 23 swear words and 3 f-words mature content: PG-13, mentions wifely duties and drugs are found and mentioned a small amount violence: PG-13, bloody animal found dead, gore, abuse to main character with blood involved.
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