by Roshani Chokshi
Reviewed by SA

Sometimes we all need a little magic in our lives, a captivating myth that reminds us of just how much a story can mean. The Star-touched queen is one of those stories: a novel unlike any I’ve ever read before, much more like a story passed on from generation to generation, of a powerful woman fighting for her place in the universe. It is a novel touched with magic!

Summary

Cursed with a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, sixteen-year-old Maya has only earned the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her world is upheaved when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. But when her wedding takes a fatal turn, Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Yet neither roles are what she expected. As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds friendship and warmth.

But Akaran has its own secrets – thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Beneath Akaran’s magic, Maya begins to suspect her life is in danger. When she ignores Amar’s plea for patience, her discoveries put more than new love at risk – it threatens the balance of all realms, human and Otherworldly.

Now, Maya must confront a secret that spans reincarnated lives and fight her way through the dangerous underbelly of the Otherworld if she wants to protect the people she loves.

Maya is a princess who lives in a Harem with her father’s other wives and daughters. A smart, headstrong girl, she does not want the life expected of her: she’s much rather study than marry. When her father shares with her his plans for her marriage, which involve a sacrifice on her part, she is ready to do her duty – that is until Amar shows up, and whisks her away as his wife to the mysterious land of Akaran.

Amar is insanely in love with her, and proud to call Maya his wife. He wants to win her love over gently, and so those who like romance in their novels will be all over this swoon-worthy king. However, in an unusual twist, it is Maya who has to save her husband, and not the other way around, leading her on an epic quest across realms and worlds, with a snarky demonic horse by her side (can’t leave home without one!).

The book says it is inspired by indian mythology, which is a great way of saying that it feels like an indian myth but never claims to be one. In that way, it manages to grab you into the fiction: the kind of tale that takes place in a mythical, far away land, with heroes and deities. Almost like a western myth in an Indian setting.

So imagine if you will that you’re sitting with your friends and one is telling you the most engrossing story. That’s how this novel feels. Any flaw you find, whether you find one character unrealistic, or a plot point too predictable, will be shushed away: we’re trying to enjoy the story here! And it makes it impossible to find anything to dislike in it. You are transported somewhere else entirely.

The world building in this novel is AMAZING. The depth of it! There are realms and other worlds, people and deities, an elephant that knits clouds for the sky!I was completely captivated, completely taken away.

Honestly, I could go on and on and on about this amazing novel. You NEED to read it as soon as you can! Thankfully there’s not too long to wait – it comes out April 26th 2016 by St. Martin’s Griffin.

by Robin Reul
Reviewed by SA

Hold on to yours hats, ’cause here comes a fun novel that will whisk you away! If you need a good YA in your life, one that runs deep and stays with you long after you’ve finished the last page, then you’re going to love “My Kind of Crazy”, a sweet, thoughtful, wonderful novel about fire and friendship.

Summary

Despite the best of intentions, seventeen-year old, wisecracking Hank Kirby can’t quite seem to catch a break. It’s not that he means to screw things up all the time, it just happens. A lot. Case in point: his attempt to ask out the girl he likes literally goes up in flames when he spells “Prom” in sparklers on her lawn…and nearly burns down her house.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peyton Breedlove, a brooding loner and budding pyromaniac, witnesses the whole thing. Much to Hank’s dismay, Peyton takes an interest in him—and his “work.” The two are thrust into an unusual friendship, but their boundaries are tested when Hank learns that Peyton is hiding some dark secrets, secrets that may change everything he thought he knew about Peyton.

When I first started this novel, I thought it was a comedy: as the book begins, Hank has just failed his promposal in the most epic dimensions… by lighting a garden on fire. The sparklers were a good idea when he saw them online, but now the dry grass has caught fire, and he’s been seen by Peyton, the girl across the street. So immediately, I thought this was going to be a ‘haha’ kind of book, where Hank needs to somehow make amends and keep his secret… but instead, it grew into something much more.

It is a story about growth. While it starts off funny, slowly you begin to realize how much depth these teenagers have, and how much they begin to grow up and deal with their conflicts. It’s a book about family, a book about crazy, a book about facing your issues. And it’s also a book about love, thought romantic love comes last.

Hank is crazy about comics, and has been working on one for years, but dealing with his father’s alcoholism and the loss of his mother and brother has left him thinking he has no real future. Peyton is an outsider with a love of fire, with a mother who doesn’t care for her, and a mother’s boyfriend who’s borderline abusive. Neither have good home lives. But the friendship that grows between them is beautiful.

The supporting characters are fun, but not as well defined as Hank and Peyton. Nick is Hank’s friend, and crushes hard on Peyton. You have Hank’s dad, the alcoholic, and his Dad’s girlfriend, Monica, whom I love so much for being the most badass stripper I’ve ever seen in YA. You have a joint smoking teacher, possible mafia families, and of course, Amanda Carlisle, the girl Hank set the promposal off for in the first place.

What impressed me was how quickly the plot I expected quickly sank into the background: Amanda wanting to find who set off the sparklers through a not-very-accurate online quiz, Hank not wanting to come forward even though he has a witness… All this became secondary when Peyton came along.

Though some of the action seemed unrealistic – like Hank’s reaction to most of the things that Peyton does – this novel includes also some of the most down to earth moments in YA to date. The entire friendship that builds between Hank and Peyton before either of them actually realized it’s love is just fantastic, healthy, and human. It felt incredibly relatable.

My Kind Of Crazy comes out April 5th from Sourcebooks Fire. I highly recommend it, and think it might be some of the best High School YA I’ve ever read!

by Aaron Thier
Reviewed by SA

Drop everything and grab this book at once. This book is a vortex that will suck you in and grab you tight, and won’t let you go even after you’ve read the last page and put it down. This is a beautiful, epic novel that I’m seriously so excited to tell you all about.

Summary

Key West, 2016. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying. In short, everything is going to hell. It’s here that two young filmmakers find something to believe in: an old sailor who calls himself Daniel Defoe and claims to be five hundred sixty years old.

In fact, old Dan is in the prime of his life. It’s an incredible, perhaps eternal American life, which Mr. Eternity imagines over a millennium: a parade of conquistadors and plantation owners, lusty mermaids and dissatisfied princesses, picking up in the sixteenth century in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and continuing into the twenty-sixth, where, in the future Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, Dan serves as an advisor to the King of St. Louis. Some things remain constant throughout the centuries, and being on the edge of ruin may be one. In 1560, the Spaniards have destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilizations. In 2500, we’ve destroyed our own: the cities of the Atlantic coast are underwater, the union has fallen apart, and cars, plastics, and air conditioning are relegated to history. But there are other constants too: love, ingenuity, humor, and old Dan himself, always adapting and inspiring others with dreams of a better life.

There is just so much substance to this book that it’s difficult to lay it all out for you without giving away spoilers. The gist of it is this: five different people, spread from the 1500s to the 2500s, each gives us a window into their lives, surrounding their meeting of Daniel Defoe (or the ancient mariner), a man who seems constant across the centuries. He cannot die, though we don’t know why, and in every time he searches for his lost love, Anna Gloria, an obsession on his.

1560: a native Indian Pirahoa girl sold to the Spanish. She travels with Daniel de Fo and the Christian conquistadors on the search for her home town, which they call El Dorado.

1750: John Green, son of a slave and her master, is living a lie as a gentleman. When Dr. Dan joins him at the plantation, they hatch a plan to steal the landowner’s collection of Spanish coins.

2016: a college drop-out in 2016 worries about global warming, pops pills, and tries to make a documentary about the Ancient Mariner of Key West, who claims to be 560 years old, and together they hunt for treasure.

2200: The seas have risen and the world is no longer the same. Jam, a poor young orphan with barely any education, gets hired to work on a boat alongside Old Dan, who tells him stories and takes him under his wing.

2500: Jasmine Roulette is the daughter of the King of St Louis and president of the Democratic Federation of Mississippi States. Though born to a life of luxury, she is a self proclaimed ‘anachro-feminist’ obsessed with the lost American civilization. Her father buys a slave who calls himself Daniel Defoe, and who has many stories to tell about the past she yearns for.

Consider this novel as a combination of Cloud Atlas, Station Eleven, and Big Fish. When it comes to the man’s stories, telling fact from fiction is nearly impossible, and the characters themselves don’t know for certain that he is what he says he is, a centuries old man. Everyone always asks him about the past, and the stories he tells are compelling, believable, but also fantastical: does he himself believe what he is telling us, or is he having an extremely senior moment?

The novel also addresses the issue of climate change, and our involvement in global warming. However, the author does not get preachy, which is an incredible feat. Daniel Defoe has seen the Americas before the cities we cling to were even thought up, so for him they are just a blip. It reminds us of the cyclical nature of history, how we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. In fact, sometimes old Dan himself seems to state the future as the past, making us wonder just what he’s seen, if time works for him the way it works for us.Every character is dealing with a changing world, in some way or another.

I could spend hours talking about this book: I want to get all my friends to read it, so we can talk about the complexities, the little details slipped between the pages, the questions the book makes ourselves ask. What is truth? Is History true? Why are we doomed to repeat our mistakes? What is worth valuing in this world?

For fans of David Mitchell, in search for another gorgeous book to devour, Mr. Eternity is beautiful, gripping, and deeply complex. Trust me: you need to read this book as soon as it comes out, on August 9th.

Sorry folks, Kenzie and I are taking a week off! Well, took is probably the better word here, seeing as though we’re Saturday…  but we’ll be back next week with more reviews!

Sarah

by Susan Moger
Reviewed by SA

The book is unique in so many ways, and I have read nothing like it. It’s one of those books we’re so excited to have discovered, so that we can share it with you. Set in 1920s America, but not following gangsters or Gatsbies, we’re taken somewhere I never expected to go in a YA novel: a eugenics driven america. Rowan’s world is so unlike what we are used to, it makes for a wonderful read.

Summary

Teenage polio survivor Rowan Collier is caught in the crossfire of a secret war against “the unfit.” It’s 1922, and eugenics–the movement dedicated to racial purity and good breeding–has taken hold in America. State laws allow institutions to sterilize minorities, the “feeble-minded,” and the poor, while local eugenics councils set up exhibits at county fairs with “fitter family” contests and propaganda. After years of being confined to hospitals, Rowan is recruited at sixteen to play a born cripple in a county fair eugenics exhibit. But gutsy, outspoken Dorchy befriends Rowan and helps her realize her own inner strength and bravery. The two escape the fair and end up at a summer camp on a desolate island run by the New England Eugenics Council. There they discover something is happening to the children. Rowan must find a way to stop the horrors on the island if she can escape them herself.

I’m a little torn on this novel. On the one hand, it had a fantastic premise, great characters, and I had a great time reading it. On there other, there were a few odd things that made me wonder what kind of book it really was. In the end, enjoyment overruled my opinion, and so I have to say I really did like it all in all.

Focusing on such a Eugenics driven america was both a) disturbing and b) utterly fascinating. Having our young protagonist, Rowan, drive the story and tell all from her point of view, gave us a limited scope of this world. It made me wonder at times the scale of the Fitter Families movement: has it taken over the world, almost like a dystopian/alternate history, or do we just have that opinion because it IS Rowan’s world?

On that same line of thought, you have a few things that make you wonder if you’re in the same 1920’s that you’ve heard so much about, or an alternate era. At many times I wondered if there was more to that era than I thought, and it aded some really cool details to the book. The author’s note at the end about what aspects of real history inspired her to write this novel really spoke to me, and really made me enjoy the book even more.

However, I somewhat felt as if I was reading two different books here, split neatly down the middle. The same characters, the same premise, but with different pacing and plot. I couldn’t tell if the author left the beginning long in order to get us to the main story, or if it was just deliberate pacing that way. However, the second half felt like a clean cut and a very separate story. The cast of characters is different, and there are no longer any flashbacks (or, at least, there are very few of them). They feel very distinct.

The character development is fantastic: the people you meet have depth and dimension. That’s probably what made this book so enjoying to real: Rowan could come off a little annoying at times, but it was obviously deliberate, and she was still relatable. It was Dorchy’s character that blew me away, I loved her.

I really enjoyed this read, no matter how nitpicky I am. it was fun, clever, and really unique, with fantastic characters and memorable… everything.

Comes out February 1st 2016 by Aw Teen. Don’t miss it!

I can’t believe the year is coming to an end… Wow! 2015 has gone by so quickly. And we have reviewed so many books… and read a whole lot more as well. It’s so exciting to have such great books in out lives. As this year ends, let’s share the books we liked the most in this great year. Some of the books have not been reviewed on the blog (for reasons) but still mean a lot to us.

Best YA
Sarah: Dumplin’, Julie Murphy
Kenzie: The Walls Around Us, Nova Ren Suma

Best Fantasy
Sarah: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab
Kenzie: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab

Best Science Fiction
Sarah: The Martian, Andy Weir
Kenzie: Illuminae,  Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Best Romance
Sarah: Every Day, David Levithan
Kenzie: Hold Me Like a Breath, Tiffany Schmidt (It’s not just a romance, there’s so much more, but it’s the best romantic outcome outta the books I read this year)

Best Non Fiction
Sarah: Come As You Are, Emily Nagoski
Kenzie: Welcome to Night Vale, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Kramer (I refuse to believe that Night Vale isn’t real).

Best Mystery
Sarah: Grave Beginnings, R.R. Virdi

Best Graphic Novel
Sarah: Django/Zorro, Quentin Tarantino
Kenzie: Bodies, Si Spencer

Top 2015
Sarah: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab
I simply loved this book way too much. I ran the books I loved over in my head, and I kept falling back on this one. And I’m way too excited for the sequel!
Kenzie: I love every book I’ve listed above, but I think Illuminae takes the cake for me. It’s everything I adore in one book.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our giveaway over this past month! We’ve loved getting your book recommendations and just chatting with you all.

The winners have been chosen and emailed, but we’ve gotten their permission to post their names.

Bundle Winners:

Bundle 1: Alice
Bundle 2: Shelley
Bundle 3: Sydney

Reviewed Books Winners:

Hardcover: Kay

Paperback: Lara and Jamie

All winners have already been notified. I’m super excited to say that two of the book winners chose Illuminae and the other chose A Darker Shade of Magic, both being my favorites this year!

Thanks for following us, guys! We love doing giveaways and we love books, so I hope you all don’t jump ship now that this is over.

Today is Thanksgiving; Tomorrow, our first anniversary.

We’ve written a hundred reviews. We’re hosting our first every giveaway. I spent more on books this year than I have in years. Thanks to this blog, I managed to meet great people, even talk to my favorite childhood author, and discover a community of amazing people who love books as much as I do.

I am thankful for you all.

Have a very happy day!

Sarah