HEX YOU By P.C. Cast AND Kristin Cast

February 16, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

HEX YOU By P.C. Cast AND Kristin CastHex You by Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast
Series: Sisters of Salem #3
Published by Wednesday Books on 1/31/23
Genres: Fairy Tales & Folklore, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 287
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Twin sisters, Mercy and Hunter are witches, direct descendants of the Goode family, the founders of their town. After the murder of their mother at the hands of a foul demon, they have become the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds--ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and the darkest of creatures exist.

Mercy and Khenti are trapped in the Ancient Egyptian Underworld and need Hunter’s help to escape. But while Hunter searches for a way to save them, other evil threatens Goodeville. Amphitrite is still looming–and she wants vengeance against Hunter. With the gates rapidly weakening, Amphitrite lures out a deadly creature and sets it free on the residents of Goodeville. It will take everything in Mercy and Hunter’s power to stop the goddess and seal the gates once and for all.

Short and Sweet Review

After the events of the last book Mercy and Khenti are still trapped in Egyptian hell and Hunter is trying to figure out a way to get them back home. Back home Hunter is still dealing with the aftermath of making the goddess Amphitrite angry. When Mercy and Khenti escape hell it’s all hands on deck to figure out how to get rid of Amphitrite.

As the previous books in this trilogy, Hex You was nothing special. For some reason I just can’t relate to Mercy or Hunter and don’t get me started on that weird Cat person (still makes my skin crawl). Mercy still talks with a British accent for whatever reason and in this book Hunter is finally facing the consequences for her actions in the last book. Anyway Hunter and Mercy’s friends are willing to rush their lives to help stop Amphitrite from wreaking havoc on the town, which is honorable and everything but it was so predictable and I will say losing a character in the end didn’t bother me. There’s just something about the dialogue that makes it hard for me to appreciate these books. The plot always sounds interesting but the characters and execution fall short every time. There’s no reason that these teenage girls should act like they’re in elementary school and what’s even worse was the tension between Mercy and Hunter for the first half of the book. This book was predictable I feel like the only thing people might consider a twist is what happens to one of the characters. Thinking about it now I wouldn’t have minded if we lost more than one character because in the end they really didn’t add anything to this series.

The only positive thing I can say about this was that it was the last book in this series because I don’t think I can deal with another book with fake British accent Mercy and feel bad for myself Hunter.

Filed Under: Reviews

REVELLE By Lyssa Mia Smith

February 13, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

REVELLE By Lyssa Mia SmithRevelle by Lyssa Mia Smith
Published by Balzer + Bray on 2/14/23
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 459
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

On the island of Charmant, magic flows like bootlegged champagne, and fantasies can be bought for the price of a gemstone.

Luxe Revelle, star of her family’s fantastical show, knows the splendor is just an illusion. With Prohibition threatening their livelihood, her family struggles to make a living, watering down champagne and patching holes in their sequined costumes. So when the son of Charmant’s wealthiest family makes her an offer—everything the Revelles need to stay in business, in exchange for posing as his girl and helping him become mayor—she can’t refuse.

The moment Jamison Port sets foot in Charmant, he can’t shake the feeling of familiarity. An orphan with as few memories as gemstones, he’s desperate to learn what happened to his parents. But as he delves into the island’s secrets, he risks angering the wrong person and discovering a truth that just might break his heart.

When Luxe and Jamison accidentally meet, the sparks that fly are more than her magical enchantments. But keeping secrets from powerful people is a dangerous game . . . one that could destroy them both.

Short and Sweet Review

On the island of Charmant magic is flowing. There’s different families who have different abilities and for Luxe she has the ability to charm people with the Revelle family magic. Luxe uses her power at her family’s fantastic shows convincing tourists to give her jewels and with those jewels she can make their fantasies come true for a moment. But as great as the show is the family is running out of alcohol and that’s a problem because her family is struggling financially. Luxe ends up making a deal with Dewey Chronos a resident bootlegger and he’s running for mayor. He tells Luxe he’ll give her family alcohol if she poses as his girl and helps him win his bid for Mayor. Jamison Port is in Charmant for the first time or at least he thinks so, until he feels like there’s things that he recognizes. Jamison has a few memories but not enough to have the full picture. The main reason Jamison is in Charmant is to find out what happened to his parents. Jamison and Luxe meet and sparks fly but they’re players in a dangerous game and don’t even know it.

The world in this book is magical, we meet different families that have different abilities. The Revelles are able to charm people, the Chronoses can time travel, the Edwardians can hear thoughts, and the Strattori can heal by transferring wounds to other people. Things are really interesting because not only does Luxe have her normal family magic but she’s able to sway people’s thoughts and this second ability is actually blood magic. When Luxe agrees to help Dewey she does it because she wants to help her family, but she doesn’t really know what she’s getting into with Dewey. Dewey starts off as your typical nice guy but deep down that guy has some serious issues. He’s very possessive and insecure and the things we find out that’s been doing are really twisted. Jamison on the other hand comes to Charmant with Roger Revelle and Trysta Chronos, they both left their families behind to see what’s outside of Charmant and I love that they’re Jamison’s best friends, they were ride or die until the end. Jamison has been searching for answers about who his parents were and what happened to him and he feels like Charmant has the answers to those questions. There’s a lot going on in this book with the mystery of people disappearing, family members trying to assassinate each other, and the craziness the time traveling can have on what happens. The characters were great, Luxe is motivated by making sure her family will be okay and Jamison is like a protector, Dewey is someone you just don’t want to like his villain origin story was crazy. I also loved the secondary characters like Millie and Collette, Luxe’s cousins that she hasn’t really hung out with but is trying to reconnect with them and Trysta and Roger. This group really came together to try to right the wrongs that were happening and look for answers.

There was a lot of action in the end and it was a little dramatic but it was still so good. I loved the plot and the characters and the magic just took this book to another level. Get ready to be swept away in the magical world that is Revelle!

Filed Under: Reviews

GOING DARK By Melissa de la Cruz

February 11, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

GOING DARK By Melissa de la CruzGoing Dark by Melissa de la Cruz
Published by Union Square & Co. on 1/31/23
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 338
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

#WhereisAmeliaAshley

The Influencer
Amelia Ashley shares everything with her followers – her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, her best fashion tips, and her European trip-of-a-lifetime with her hot boyfriend.

The Boyfriend
Josh has no choice but to return home without Amelia after she abandons him in Rome. He has no clue where she went or how her blood got in his suitcase. Why won’t anyone believe him?

The Hacker
To Harper Delgado, Amelia Ashley is just another missing white girl whipping up a media frenzy. But with each digital knot she untangles about the influencer, Harper wonders: who is Amelia Ashley?

The Other Girl
Two years ago, another girl went missing, one who never made headlines or had a trending hashtag.

The Truth
Amelia’s disappearance has captured the world’s attention. What comes next? Watch this space…

Short and Sweet Review

Amelia Ashley is a popular influencer who just recently went on a vacation in Rome with her boyfriend Josh, the problem is she didn’t return to the States with him and now she’s missing. All Josh remembers is she got mad at him and left him to go by the airport by himself. Now that Josh is back without Amelia he looks like suspect number one in this missing persons case. Harper Delgado is a hacker and she’s asked by one of Amelia’s friends to look into her disappearance, but what Harper learns about Amelia is shocking and it may help solve a case about a girl who went missing two years ago.

The book starts off with Josh on an airplane back to California without Amelia. Josh is pretty optimistic that she’ll come back even though she’s not with him. Things start to get more serious when Amelia doesn’t answer any phone calls or text and because she’s pretty popular word spreads fast that she’s missing. Josh is an okay character, we see that he’s not right and he’s holding things back when he gets interviewed by the detectives, also he’s kind of stupid because he talks way more than he should. When we meet Harper she’s digging into Amelia Ashley and anything she can find about her life and where she may currently be. There are chapters where Amelia’s blog post are shown and there are transcripts of her vlogs, I liked that this was incorporated into the story because it gave us more of an insight to Amelia’s character. Things got really interesting when we learn about the girl that went missing two years ago and how Amelia Ashley is not a real person. We learn that Josh is the target of this big plan and Harper is really good at finding things that people try to keep hidden.

The plot was great and the different POVs really worked to tell this story. This book will keep you reading until the end to figure out #WhereIsAmeliaAshley.

Filed Under: Reviews

OFF THE RECORD By Camryn Garrett

February 10, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

OFF THE RECORD By Camryn GarrettOff the Record by Camryn Garrett
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on 5/18/21
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 307
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she's equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She's got this.

Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie's world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn't know whether she's flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she's in over her head.

One woman's account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she's reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn't step up, who will?

Short and Sweet Review

Josie wants to be a writer, writing is basically her identity. When Josie wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine she’s nervous and excited. Josie and her sister, Alice, set off on a multi-city tour. Josie meets celebrities, but the main focus of her article is Marius Canet an up and coming actor. But her mission for one profile ends up on the back burner after learning an actress has dealt with sexual assault at the hands of a director. More actresses start telling Josie their story, Josie knows that this is important but this story could also end the writing career that is just beginning.

Josie is our main character and she was okay, I’m sure she was written to be relatable, she’s a plus size girl, all for black inclusion, and she likes speaking out about topics that are important to her. My thing about Josie is that even though she was written to be relatable I found myself annoyed with her. Josie’s romantic interest is Marius and he’s obviously smaller than her in the weight department and he likes Josie but Josie will ruin the moment talking about how she could crush him and how he couldn’t like someone like her because she’s fat. Anyway it felt like Josie was way more interested in a relationship with Marius than writing her profile about him. Josie is also approached by an actress named Penny who tells her about a director who has sexual harassed her and others. Josie tells Penny she’ll help by writing an article to expose this director. Things start to get complicated because she believes Marius doesn’t care and the director threatens to sue. I also mentioned Alice, Josie’s sister, she’s on this trip as a chaperone and I feel that she was more level headed than Josie. Josie and Alice fought a lot and that’s normal between siblings but Josie would take everything to heart.

I could see the direction that this book was going in, and how important it is to help victims but Josie made loving this book hard. This book just didn’t meet my expectations.

Filed Under: Reviews

ALLEGEDLY By Tiffany D. Jackson

February 8, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

ALLEGEDLY By Tiffany D. JacksonAllegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 1/24/17
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 394
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

Short and Sweet Review

Mary B Addison killed a baby, allegedly. No one really knows what happened that night except for Mary and her mother, Mary didn’t say much to the detectives but she did end up taking the fall for baby Alyssa’s death. Now Mary is 15 and living in a group home, she has a secret boyfriend and she’s pregnant. Because Mary is a ward of the state, when her baby is born she isn’t going to be able to keep it and Mary is determined to keep her baby even if it means finally telling the truth about what happened that night.

When we meet Mary she’s in a group home and she doesn’t really talk to anyone. The girls in that group home are crazy, Mary couldn’t really trust anyone in there especially the people running the home. We see Mary working at a nursing home and also trying to take her SAT and maybe try to go to college. When Mary finds out she’s pregnant she learns that she won’t be able to keep her baby. Mary tells one of the girls in the house what actually happened that night and they suggest Mary gets a lawyer and get her verdict reversed. Mary and her lawyer start the proceedings but things with Mary’s story start to get complicated. We also meet Mary’s mom and she isn’t all there, she’s very spacey. The more we learn about Mary and her indecision about whether she really wants to go through with this it makes us question her story.

Allegedly is such an interesting book and it keeps you reading until the very end trying to figure out what happened the night Alyssa died. There’s a lot of twist and we learn that Mary may not be the most reliable narrator. This book is crazy but I’ve learned to expect nothing less from Tiffany D. Jackson. I love her books and this one was just as good as the other books I’ve read by Jackson. This book will have you on the edge trying to figure out what happened that night and what Mary’s fate will be. Definitely recommend this book!

Filed Under: Reviews

THE GIRLS ARE NEVER GONE By Sarah Glenn Marsh

February 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE GIRLS ARE NEVER GONE By Sarah Glenn MarshThe Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Published by Razorbill on 9/7/21
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as the host of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, she knows to keep her doubts to herself if she wants to win over listeners.

Her first season’s subject is the Arrington Estate—a sprawling manor rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Atheleen Bell, who drowned in its lake almost thirty years ago. Dare’s more interested in investigating the suspicious circumstances of Atheleen’s death, which she thinks point to a decades-old murder, not something supernatural.

But Arrington is full of surprises. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the estate, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

Short and Sweet Review

Dare doesn’t believe in ghost but she keeps that to herself because the people who listen to her podcast don’t need to know she’s a skeptic. The focus of her first season of the podcast is about Atheleen Bell who drowned at the Arrington Estate 30 years ago. Dare is convinced the strange things that are happening on the estate are explainable, but the more she digs the more things are starting to look supernatural.

Dare is at the Arrington Estate doing an internship to remodel the estate, but she’s also there to learn information for her podcast. At the estate she meets Quinn and Holly two other girls that are also helping out. Dare learns that Quinn actually sent her a message about Arrington and wanted Dare there to learn why the supernatural things are happening. Anyway there isn’t just one ghost there’s multiple and the mystery is even deeper than any of the girls thought. I liked the book, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. Its your basic ghost story with a mystery. When I heard that Dare had a podcast, I was excited because I thought it would add more to the story but we only read what she’s putting on the podcast twice, once at the beginning of the book and one at the end. In the first half of the book we’re learning about the estate and history but in the second half is where things start to pick up with more ghost appearances and things not being where they should be. The ending was interesting and it does leave the door open for a sequel.

Overall, The Girls Are Never Gone was an intriguing story but there were some elements that just fell short of what I was expecting from a book that was pitched as The Conjuring meets Sadie.

Filed Under: Reviews

I KILLED ZOE SPANOS By Kit Frick

February 3, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I KILLED ZOE SPANOS By Kit FrickI Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 6/30/20
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 381
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

What happened to Zoe won’t stay buried…

When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year’s Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe’s life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected—and that she knows what happened to her.

Two months later, Zoe’s body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna’s confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn’t satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina’s podcast uncover the truth?

Short and Sweet Review

Anna is in the Hamptons for the summer for a nannying job. Anna wants to move on from the party girl she used to be and have a fresh new start before college. When Anna arrives in the Hamptons in the small village of Herron Mills she gets a strange reaction from the residents, mainly because she looks like Zoe Spanos, a local girl who just recently went missing. Anna believes that she and Zoe are connected somehow and starts looking into her disappearance, but two months later when Zoe’s body is found Anna is charged with manslaughter. Anna’s confession is a mess and there’s a lot of inconsistencies, the only person who believes that Anna is innocent is Martina, also a local resident of Herron Mills and she has a podcast discussing Zoe’s disappearance.

This book alternates between the past when Anna first arrives in Herron Mills and the present where we see her locked up and Martina doing the investigating. Anna for some reason feels like she knows Zoe and that was the weirdest thing for me because when we read from the present POV when she’s in jail and taking the blame for murder Zoe was already missing when she arrived in Herron Mills and Anna had no idea who she was. That was the biggest thing that threw me off because I knew that Anna didn’t do it even though she is an unreliable narrator because she has blackouts but now it was just like who in this town actually had something to do with Zoe disappearance and murder. Anyway I felt bad for Anna because she was basically coerced into giving a confession and it was just so strange because she sounded crazy. Martina on the other hand was basically rocking the boat, outsiders may have loved her podcast but people in town thought she needed to leave things alone.

This was a book that held my attention because I wanted to know where things would go especially with Anna’s weird confession and Martina’s mission to find the truth. The ending was okay, I feel like people in small town keep big secrets that are eventually going to be exposed.

Filed Under: Reviews

THE ZEPPELIN DECEPTION By Colleen Gleason

January 28, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE ZEPPELIN DECEPTION By Colleen GleasonThe Zeppelin Deception by Colleen Gleason
Series: Stoker & Holmes #5
Published by Avid Press on 8/22/19
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 360
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

It’s a cold, blustery day in January of 1890 when Mina Holmes receives an invitation to Evaline Stoker’s wedding. The two young women—partners and occasionally friends—haven’t spoken for nearly two months, since the events at the Carnelian Crow.

Shocked, Mina is still looking at the invitation when constables from Scotland Yard begin pounding on her front door. They’ve arrived to arrest her for the murder of a man she’s never even heard of.

Meanwhile, Evaline has her hands full with wedding plans (boring) and an overbearing sister who wants to manage her every move—including a dizzying array of social activities. In the midst of all this, she receives an invitation to visit Lady Isabella Cosgrove-Pitt, a most villainous woman.

With Pix in jail, Mina being hunted by Scotland Yard, and Evaline dining with the murderous Lady Isabella what more can possibly go wrong? Plenty.

And when the mysterious black zeppelin appears once again in the night sky, things are about to get even more dangerous than ever for Miss Stoker and Miss Holmes...

Short and Sweet Review

After the events of the Carnelian Crow, Mina and Evaline haven’t spoken in two months, so Mina is surprised when she gets an invitation to Evaline’s wedding. Mina doesn’t have long to think about how strange this is because the constables from Scotland Yard are pounding on her door waiting to arrest her for murder of a man she’s never even heard of. Evaline on the other hand is planning a wedding she doesn’t even want to have, but when she gets an invitation to go to Isabella Cosgrove-Pitt’s house she accepts, because what’s the worst that could happen?

I thought this last installment in the Stoker and Holmes series was probably one of the best, I liked it a lot more than the Carnelian Crow. I thought it was interesting to see how Mina and Evaline were without each other and the realization that they really do like to work together and care for one another. My favorite thing about this book was that it was the ending and we see these girls tackle their final case and will finally take on the Ankh for the last time. The Ankh really is one of their toughest villains and it was interesting to see how she was still pulling the strings in this final book. We also get to see some of the characters that we’ve come to love like Grayling, Pix, and Dylan.

The Zeppelin Deception was a great send off for Mina and Evaline, thought the series we’ve seen them work together and really form a bond. The plot in this book wasn’t lacking and it was fun seeing our heroines tackle one last case before moving on.

Filed Under: Reviews

WHITE RABBIT By Caleb Roehrig

January 27, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

WHITE RABBIT By Caleb RoehrigWhite Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig
Published by Feiwel & Friends on 4/24/18
Genres: LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 330
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to "talk." Things couldn’t get worse, right?

Then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. He and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox. Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth, but April has something he needs. Her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to clear his sister’s name . . . or die trying.

Short and Sweet Review

Rufus is having a pretty bad night, its the 4th of July and he’s at a party and his ex-boyfriend Sebastian decides he wants to talk, but there’s no time for that because Rufus’s half sister April calls and says she needs help. When Rufus and Sebastian find April at her boyfriend Fox’s cottage, Fox is dead and April is drenched in his blood holding the knife. April swears she didn’t do it and now Rufus has one night to prove it.

The mystery in this book was good. April was at a small gathering at her boyfriends house with four other people and one of them is the killer. Rufus is basically an outcast and he knows that the popular kids at the party won’t talk to him which is why he’s lucky that Sebastian wants to help him. Fox was killed for reasons deeper than someone just not liking him there were drugs involved too. I think my biggest problem with this book was how people treated Rufus and talked to him, including his dad and April. There were a lot of homophobic comments made and it made me uncomfortable mainly because of how far the characters took things.

The story was good but the suspects were pretty shitty people and they would make my skin crawl with how they thought their privilege allowed them to act and say whatever they wanted.

Filed Under: Reviews

SORCERY OF THORNS By Margaret Rogerson

January 26, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

SORCERY OF THORNS By Margaret RogersonSorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Series: Sorcery of Thorns #1
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 6/4/19
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 457
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Short and Sweet Review

Elisabeth has grown up in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, the libraries contain grimoires that can whisper and shake on the shelves and if they’re provoked they can turn into monsters of ink and leather. One night someone releases one of the library’s most dangerous book and Elisabeth is blamed for the crime. Unfortunately Elisabeth has no one to turn to except for a sorcerer named Nathaniel Thorn and this is hard for Elisabeth because she has grown up thinking that all sorcerers are evil. Now Elisabeth is entangled in a conspiracy that spans centuries and she has to figure out how to make things right before the world incinerates around them.

Sorcery of Thorns was an intriguing book. I loved the fact that Elisabeth worked in one of the libraries and its not a. normal library it holds magical grimoires. Elisabeth knows a lot about the grimoires and treats the books with respect because she knows what will happen if she doesn’t. When Elisabeth is implicated in the crime she is forced to go with Nathaniel who will take her to her trial. Nathaniel is the best I love his dialogue, he’s smart and quick with his replies. Obviously Nathaniel shows Elisabeth that not all sorcerers are alike. Nathaniel also has a demon named Silas who is just as great he’s basically Nathaniel’s right hand. Anyway things really start picking up in this book when Elisabeth realizes that the grimoire that was taken from her library isn’t the only one and that more of these incidents are going to happen at the other great libraries. I liked Nathaniel and Elisabeth’s teamwork and how it went from skepticism on Elisabeth’s side to learning to trust Nathaniel.

I loved the characters in this book and the world building, the magic system is pretty great too. Elisabeth’s quest to save the world she loves is endearing and I liked how she was able to expand her horizons and understand that things she might have first believed can be wrong. This book was amazing and I loved how different it was from the books I’ve recently read.

Filed Under: Reviews