BAD LIKE US By Gabriella Lepore

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.

BAD LIKE US By Gabriella LeporeBad Like Us by Gabriella Lepore
Published by Inkyard Press on 3/5/24
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 281
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Partying with popular classmates they barely know is not what Eva and her BFFs had in mind for their spring break. But things have been off ever since Miles' academic career took a turn for the worse (they don't talk about it), so a trip to a private beach lodge might be exactly what they need. And Eva won’t admit it, but the chance to reconnect with Colton is worth putting up with Piper’s constant livestreams to her thousands of “besties.”

At first, it’s all sand and waves, but tensions run high when an anonymous letter shakes up an already-flailing love triangle.

When someone turns up dead, Eva can’t even trust her closest friends—but she thinks she can trust Colton. As they get closer to the truth, they uncover secrets that upend everything they thought they knew about their fellow spring breakers.

Short and Sweet Review

Eva and some of her close friends head down to a beach lodge for spring break, the only thing is, Eva doesn’t really know everyone that well its just when you’re friends with someone their friends become your acquaintances. Anyway things go well for the first few days, until tensions between a love triangle start to rise and then someone ends up dead. Eva doesn’t know who to trust but she knows she needs to figure out what happened even if it puts herself in harms way.

Eva is one of main characters and we get to read from her POV as well as Colton and Piper. There’s also six other characters in this book who are basically filler characters and in the background. There is a lot of tension within this group and you can tell not everyone is friends. Eva brought her friend Miles along and he’s currently dealing with some academic trouble that he really doesn’t want to talk about. Colton is kind of a bad boy but Eva likes him and is hoping that this time at the lodge will help them get closer together. Colton also likes Eva but after someone is found dead on the beach his main priority is looking out for his brother Danny. There really isn’t much time for romance between Eva and Colton, we see them talk and flirt but once the murder happens they focus most of their attention on that. Piper is an influencer and she livestreams any chance she gets even if she is invading everyone else’s privacy she doesn’t care. Piper used to date Danny but now she’s in a relationship with Javi, and it’s interesting because they should not all be on vacation together, even if they’re saying there’s no hard feelings. When one of our characters ends up dead we see everyone start to turn on each other and try to come up with motives. Eva and Colton are the only ones who actually try to do some investigating. This group of teens had a lot of secrets and uncovering each one was satisfying it also gave the reader a chance to see if a character actually had motive. I enjoyed reading the police interviews and seeing how each character had a different story or if they were trying to cover for someone else. The end was okay the motive for what happened was weak, but believable, honestly people will commit murder for any reason.

Overall, this book was okay, it’s not Lepore’s strongest book but I still enjoyed it. I will say I liked the short chapters and the characters and the further I got in the book the more hooked I was. Even though I said it wasn’t the best of Lepore’s books its still worth the read!

WE GOT THE BEAT By Jenna Miller

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.

WE GOT THE BEAT By Jenna MillerWe Got the Beat by Jenna Miller
Published by Quill Tree Books on 2/20/24
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 347
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Jordan Elliott is a fat, nerdy lesbian and the first junior to be named editor in chief of the school newspaper. Okay, that last part hasn’t happened yet, but it will. It’s positive thinking that has gotten Jordan this far. Ever since Mackenzie West, her friend-turned-enemy, humiliated her at the start of freshman year, Jordan has thrown herself into journalism and kept her eyes trained on the future.

So it’s a total blow when Jordan discovers that she not only didn’t get the editor in chief spot, but she’s been assigned the volleyball beat instead. And who is the star and newly crowned captain of the volleyball team? Mackenzie West. But words are Jordan’s weapon, and she has some ideas about how to exact a long-awaited revenge on her nemesis. Then things get murky when forced time together has Mack and Jordan falling back into their friendship and into something more. And when Mack confesses the real reason she turned on Jordan freshman year, it has Jordan questioning everything—past, present, and future.

If Jordan lets her guard down and Mack in, will she get everything she wants, or will she be humiliated all over again?

Short and Sweet Review

It’s Jordan’s junior year and she wants to be the editor in chief of the school newspaper, but instead she gets the job of writing about the schools volleyball team. It would be a doable job if Jordan’s former friend Mackenzie wasn’t the captain of the team. Jordan and Mackenzie used to be friends until Mackenzie humiliated Jordan Freshman year for reasons she still doesn’t understand. When Jordan starts spending time with Mackenzie it feels like old times, and she eventually learns why Mackenzie did what she did which changes everything. The only thing is, Jordan doesn’t know if she can let Mackenzie back in.

We Got the Beat is a cute book. I did enjoy following Jordan’s character. She had a good support system and I liked her best friends Audrey and Isaac, I will say even though Audrey was looking out for Jordan she did overstep at times. The main reason I wanted to read this book was because I wanted to know what caused the falling out between Jordan and Mackenzie. The reveal was pretty good and made sense and I feel like Mackenzie didn’t handle it the best way but she did what she thought was best at the time. I did enjoy the little snippets of Jordan’s articles that would eventually be in the paper. I think the build up to Jordan and Mackenzies new found friendship had a lot of obstacles in the way like Jordan not completely trusting Mackenzie because of what happened in the past and Jordan choosing to believe everyone except for Mackenzie. I’m trying to avoid spoiling what happened between these two because it really makes everything come full circle in the end. The writing was good and had me looking forward to what would happen next. Honestly my only issue was Audrey, who I know had good intentions, but she should really run things past the people who are involved before just making the decisions for people.

Overall, this was a cute book and I loved Jordan and Mackenzie try to figure out how to move forward and get over what happened in the past. It’s a quick and easy read and it has two characters who may be meant to be more than just friends.

THE SOMEDAY DAUGHTER By Ellen O’Clover

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.

THE SOMEDAY DAUGHTER By Ellen O’CloverThe Someday Daughter by Ellen O'Clover
Published by HarperTeen on 2/20/24
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 335
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Audrey St. Vrain has grown up in the shadow of someone who doesn’t actually exist. Before she was born, her mother, Camilla St. Vrain, wrote the bestselling book Letters to My Someday Daughter, a guide to self-love that advises treating yourself like you would your own hypothetical future daughter. The book made Audrey’s mother a household name, and she built an empire around it.

While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family. Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world.

But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives—not as the someday daughter and someday mother but as themselves, just as they are. What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff—including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas—will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life.

Short and Sweet Review

Audrey St. Vrain wasn’t even born when her mother Camilla wrote the novel “Letters to My Someday Daughter” a self-help book for women. That book shot Camilla to fame and she ended up building an empire. Everyone thinks Audrey is lucky to have Camilla as a mother but Audrey has an almost nonexistent relationship with her mother. When the anniversary of the book rolls around Camilla asks Audrey to join her on tour but Audrey declines because she has plans to attend a premed program for the summer. What Audrey doesn’t know is that her mom wasn’t really asking she was telling Audrey that she was going on tour, now Audrey is on tour with a mom she doesn’t know how to communicate with and a tour staff that has her questioning things she thought were set in stone.

Audrey knows what she wants for her future and she has a plan to get there, but her plans get disrupted when she’s forced to go on her mother’s book tour. Audrey and Camilla have a complicated relationship, when Audrey was eleven she was sent to boarding school, so she feels like she doesn’t have this relationship that people who have read Letters to My Someday Daughter would think she would have with her mother, instead Audrey feels like she’s being used. It was interesting to see how their relationship got the way it is and also how during this tour Audrey reveals more about her anxiety and how Camilla dealt with everything. We see Camilla try to understand Audrey and where she’s coming from. I do like how O’Clover is able to write authentic mother daughter relationships. I think my favorite thing about this book was the talk Audrey had with her dad, which shed a light on some of the things in her mom’s past which shaped how she is today. I will say the mother daughter relationship is the biggest focus of this book but the subplot is more romance focused. Audrey has a boyfriend who she was supposed to do the premed program with, but things start to change between them when Audrey doesn’t get accepted for an internship program. Audrey also meets Silas, one of the interns who she ends up having feelings for. I will say Silas is a sweet guy and he cares about Audrey but I feel like their relationship progressed a little too fast. The book is good we follow the team as they travel around the U.S and we see Audrey learn to be more free as she spends more time with the interns. I do think the plot twist could have been handled better but not by the author but by the characters when the twist happened I felt so bad for Audrey.

Overall, I loved this book! This is the second book I’ve read by O’Clover and she just knocks it out of the park. I love her characters and her plots, I will say that this book seemed a little more heartfelt on the mother daughter relationship aspect than Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, but still a solid book that everyone should read!

GLASS SWORD By Victoria Aveyard

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.

GLASS SWORD By Victoria AveyardGlass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #2
Published by HarperTeen on 2/9/16
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 459
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Mare Barrow's blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Short and Sweet Review

After barely escaping the arena with her life, Mare is now traveling with the scarlet guard. Mare has a list of names of other people with red blood who have silver abilities and her goal is to find every one of them and start an army to go against Maven. Throughout this journey Mare finds herself having more similarities with Maven and his vindictive ways than she ever thought she would.

This sequel was okay and by saying okay I’m being generous. I think my three star rating on Goodreads for this book was generous. Glass Sword was boring. In the paragraph above I basically told you what went on in the whole book. We follow Mare on her mission to try to find other people with abilities like her so she can form an army to against Maven. Mare’s character development was horrible in this book I feel like she regressed and she began to turn into the monster she wanted to stop. Maven and Mare are playing a game of cat and mouse and also it’s a bit of a race. Maven is trying to catch Mare, but he also knows who she’s looking for and if he gets there first that person is done for, so Mare has to be on top of her game to get what she’s looking for before he has the chance to kill them. The romance between Mare and Cal was lacking. They say they don’t want to be together but they obviously do. Even worse is that she treats Cal horribly and mainly because he tries to be the voice of reason and try to stop her from being reckless. Cal was the only person in this book that seemed to think with their head and not jump before thinking about the consequences. I feel like everyone just followed Mare’s lead which inflated her already big head into thinking she’s more special and better than everyone around her. Most of the book was boring and repetitive but the ending is where all of the action took place.

Overall, this sequel was disappointing. I wish there was more happening and that Mare wasn’t an insufferable main character. I’ve already read 2 out of the 4 books in this series so I feel like I have to be committed but I’m not sure when I’ll get around to book three.

A TEMPEST OF TEA By Hafsah Faizal

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.

A TEMPEST OF TEA By Hafsah FaizalA Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
Series: Blood and Tea #1
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) on 2/20/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 338
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—she can’t do the job alone.

Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.

Short and Sweet Review

Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and by day she runs a tea shop but by night it becomes an illegal blood house. When the tea house is threatened Arthie comes up with a plan, a heist if you will to save everything she’s worked for. To pull off this heist Arthie asks some of the city’s most skilled outcast to join her crew. During the duration of the heist Arthie unravels secret after secret and eventually realizes that she’s in the middle of a conspiracy that could change everything.

I’m really not sure where to start with this review. The premise for this book sounds amazing and there’s a lot happening in this book some good and some bad and mainly bad because the idea just missed the target. A stranger approaches Arthie with the idea to steal a ledger that will end up taking down the king and Arthie accepts and starts to get her crew together. The crew consists of Jin which is Arthies right hand, Flick a nobles daughter who is trying her hand at criminal mischief, and Matteo a vampire who just showed up one day. This world is full of vampires and that was interesting, what was also interesting was that our main character Arthie is one but even those closest to her don’t know it. Arthie is a strong female lead and she didn’t have it easy growing up so anything she can do to make sure the teahouse which she built from the bottom up will be safe she’ll do it. We do get the POVs of Arthie, Jin, and Flick, I wouldn’t say I preferred one over the other. I feel like we got to see more of the planning of the heist than the actual heist taking place and at that point the story slowed down for me. There were plot twists but even that couldn’t save the book from the downward trajectory. I feel like this book is trying to be like Six of Crows but in that aspect it just fails. I do think the ending was interesting and from what happened in those last 15-20 pages I may be interested in seeing where this story will go.

Overall, the premise for this book sounded amazing, the delivery didn’t quite reach the mark. This wasn’t a bad book but it wasn’t the greatest either, it lands somewhere in the middle for me.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD By Liz Braswell

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.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD By Liz BraswellA Whole New World by Liz Braswell
Series: A Twisted Tale #1
Published by Disney Press on 9/1/15
Genres: Fairy Tales & Folklore, Fantasy & Magic, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 313
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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What if Aladdin had never found the lamp? This first book in the A Twisted Tale line will explore a dark and daring version of Disney's Aladdin. When Jafar steals the Genie's lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish.To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war. What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

Short and Sweet Review

A Whole New World, is a retelling of Aladdin, instead of Aladdin getting the lamp and three wishes Jafar gets them. Jafar uses his first two wishes on becoming the sultan and one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. Agrabah used to be a decent city but now the people live in fear and are even more worried about what Jafar’s final wish will be. Now Aladdin and Jasmine have to band together and lead the people of Agrabah into a rebellion.

I went into this book looking forward to seeing how different things would be if Jafar got the lamp and the wishes instead of Aladdin and honestly this book was boring. I feel like the things Jafar did were predictable and its like we knew what he would do in the book because he had the same motives in the movie. Aladdin on the other hand felt like he had no personality and he just wanted to save everyone in Agrabah against Jafar’s rule. Aladdin and Jasmine work together in this book and there’s obviously a romance but I feel like it fell flat and there were no sparks, it was like they had to be together because that’s what the reader would be expecting when you hear their names together. There wasn’t a lot going on in this book that made me feel like I needed to be glued to it, quite the opposite in fact. I just think everything was too predictable that it made this book boring and it didn’t help that the characters are so flat and one note.

I love retellings and seeing where an author can take a new idea but this first book in the A Twisted Tale series was a disappoint. I usually don’t say this but I do feel like the movie tops this book 100%.

OUT OF BODY By Nia Davenport

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.

OUT OF BODY By Nia DavenportOut of Body by Nia Davenport
Published by Balzer + Bray on 2/6/24
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 271
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Seventeen-year-old Megan Allen has been jumping from friend group to friend group in her high school, trying on identities like outfits. Nothing ever seems to fit—until she meets LC, the adventurous, charismatic girl who appears at her favorite coffee shop one day like magic. Finally, Megan feels like she’s becoming the person she’s meant to be: someone like LC.

On the night of their friendiversary, what was supposed to be a bonding experience ends in a waking nightmare. Suddenly, Megan is no longer herself. Too late, she realizes that LC has secrets—dangerous ones. Betrayed by her best friend, thrust into another girl’s life, and targeted by LC’s enemies, she must claim what makes Megan Megan to get her life back . . . or die trying.

Short and Sweet Review

Megan has bounced around from friend group to friend group until she meets LC. LC is like her friend soulmate. One night Megan and LC celebrate their friend anniversary and get matching piercings and go out to a party. Things seem to be going alright until Megan wakes up the next morning and finds that she’s not in her own body but LC’s and LC is in her body. Megan has no idea what’s going on but she knows things aren’t right, and even worse LC is avoiding her and pretending like she didn’t just do something absolutely out of line and messed up. Now Megan is forced to pretend to be LC and while doing that Megan realizes that LC was running from her enemies. Megan just has to successfully pull off being LC, avoid the people coming for LC, and get back into her own body.

Let me just start off by saying that this book was amazing! We follow our main character Megan as she tries to come to terms that someone she trusted would betray her in the manner they did. We get to see why Megan has such a connection with LC and then we see how hurt she is after LC basically takes over her body and her life like nothing is wrong. Megan then has to pretend to be LC or someone named Jade and then she realizes that she never really knew LC the way she thought she did. While Megan is pretending to be Jade we see how she has to earn the trust of Jades parents and try to get a little freedom in order to be able to get back to LC in a whole different part of town. We also see the actually Jade’s friend Ryan and at first Megan has to pretend that she is Jade but eventually she’s able to confide in him about the body swapping and get his help. We also see Megan get help from someone she used to be friends with who she ended up leaving behind when she became friends with LC. I will say that Megan had a lot of character growth, during her time as Jade or LC she was able to see the way she treated people and try to reconcile. I did like that we got little snippets of what LC was doing and we could kind of see her motive of why she did what she did and we kind of end up feeling for her. There was a lot going on in this book but not so much that you can’t keep up, but in a way that you want to keep reading to see what happens next. We find out that there’s more than just Megan who is involved and I liked that even though people were looking for LC they end up finding Megan and she has to be the one to think of a way to fix everything, I also loved the teamwork that went on towards the end. I do think there’s a bit of a sci-fi element going on in this book, with the body swapping and the technology needed for that it did give me sci-fi vibes and I could see this being a movie.

Out of Body quickly became one of my favorite books of 2024. The book is fast paced and it definitely keeps you on your toes and wondering what’s going to happen next. I loved Megan as a character and how she was able to adapt to help her situation but ultimately get her to her final goal of getting back into her own body. I recommend this book 100%, go pick it up and be captivated by the writing and the plot!

THE LIES WE TELL By Katie Zhao

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 LIES WE TELL By Katie ZhaoThe Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao
Published by Bloomsbury YA on 11/15/22
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Romance, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Anna Xu moves out of her parent's home and into the dorms across town as she starts freshman year at the local, prestigious Brookings University. But her parents and their struggling Chinese bakery, Sweetea, aren't far from campus or from mind, either. At Brookings, Anna wants to keep up her stellar academic performance and to investigate the unsolved campus murder of her childhood babysitter. She also finds a familiar face–her middle-school rival, Chris Lu. The Lus happen to be the Xu family's business rivals since they opened Sunny's, a trendy new bakery on Sweetea's block. Chris is cute but still someone to be wary of... until a vandal hits Sunny's and Anna matches the racist tag with a clue from her investigation.

Anna grew up in this town, but more and more she feels like maybe she isn't fully at home here–or maybe it's that there are people here who think she doesn't belong. When a very specific threat is made to Anna, she seeks out help from the only person she can; Anna and Chris team up to find out who is stalking her and take on a dangerous search into the hate crimes happening around campus. Can they root out the ugly history and take on the current threat?

Short and Sweet Review

It’s Annas first year in college and she’s going to Brookings University. Anna is thinking about a lot and she’s living in the campus dorms while her parents bakery is across town and not doing so well, especially since there’s another bakery across the street. College is hard for any first year but Anna goes in with the intention continue getting good grades but also try to solve the murder of her childhood babysitter who died at Brookings. Things start to get dangerous when Anna suspects she has a stalker and there’s a hate crime committed at the other bakery. Now Anna really has to watch her back or face becoming another victim.

I was drawn to this book because I love a good mystery and the fact that Anna was going to go to the same college where her babysitter met her demise and try to solve a cold case is what got me. Anna is a typical college student trying hard to get good grades and just balancing everything in her life in general. Anna tries to make friends on campus which she finds hard but she makes a friend on an app named Jane and they connect and at first Jane seems to be someone Anna can turn to until she gets too weird. At this point Anna cuts her off and Jane is the stalker but it’s like a catfish stalker because Jane isn’t really Jane. I will say when this happened I think Anna should have been smarter and kept the texts between them as evidence. Anna also connects with Chris, whose family actually owns the bakery across from her family’s. Anna isn’t sure if she can trust him but he ends up becoming her best ally. I wasn’t really into the romance I do think these two were better off as friends. We follow Anna as she tries to get clues and avoid getting caught in the crossfire. I did like how it felt like a thriller in the way that Anna had to watch her back and just be aware of her surroundings. Zhao also did a good job representing how Asian hate is still a thing and she did it in a way that shows how it impacts communities and needs to be talked about. The ending was good and I will say satisfying. I was glad that everything was answered and wrapped up.

Overall, this book was great. I enjoyed the premise and the characters. If I had to nitpick at something it would just be Anna’s decision making she wasn’t good at being sly and staying under the radar, other than that this was a solid book.

THE INVOCATIONS By Krystal Sutherland

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.

THE INVOCATIONS By Krystal SutherlandThe Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
Published by Nancy Paulsen Books on 1/30/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Horror & Ghost Stories, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Three girls, one supernatural killer on the loose . . .

Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider—that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave—even trading in the occult.

Jude Wolf may be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul has been slowly turning necrotic. It’s a miserable existence marred by pain, sickness, and monstrous things that taunt her in the night. Now that she’s glimpsed what’s beyond the veil, Jude’s desperate to find someone to undo the damage she’s done to herself.

Enter Emer Byrne, an orphaned witch with a dark past and a deadly power, a.k.a. the solution to both Zara’s and Jude’s problems. Though Emer lives a hardscrabble life, she gives away her most valuable asset—her invocations—to women in desperate situations who are willing to sacrifice a piece of their soul in exchange for a scrap of power. Zara and Jude are willing, but they first have to find Emer.

When Emer’s clients start turning up dead all over London, a vital clue leads Zara and Jude right to her. If a serial killer is targeting her clients, Emer wants to know why—and to stop them. She strikes a tenuous alliance with Zara and Jude to hunt a killer before they are next on his list, even if she can’t give them in return what Zara and Jude want most: a sister and a soul.

Short and Sweet Review

The Invocations, centers around three girls, Zara, Jude, and Emer. After the death of her sister Savannah, Zara feels as if she has no choice but to believe in magic because she plans on bringing her sister back from the dead. Jude is looking for a witch to undo the damage she did to herself when she unsuccessfully tried a spell to attach her soul to a demon. Emer is a witch and she’s helped plenty of women by giving them invocations, but the women she’s helped are ending up murdered. The three girls end up connecting over their need to believe in something bigger than them and also to stop a killer.

This book is jam packed with action and we have three strong female characters that are at the forefront. Jude is somehow friends with an officer that lets Jude come in and look at some of the crime scenes and consult. Zara ends up finding Jude and together they find Emer who seems to be connected to all of the women being murdered. The three try to piece everything together and end up finding that the person behind this isn’t going to stop and he has it out for witches. I liked how dark this book was tone wise. Jude is dealing with some nasty stuff and because of that she’s been isolated from her family, this is why Jude is seeking out Emer, she needs a curse writer to get ride of the chronic pain she’s in by being tethered to demons. Zara believes that everything will be better if she just has her sister back which is why she also needs Emer. Emer is a talented curse writer and because of that her clients have become targets. Each girl brings something special to the book and they have a different personality. We get to read from all three POVs. This feels like one of those books where the characters start off with rocky family situations but end up finding family with the people who are now surrounding them. It was interesting to see how magic and demons worked in this book, it was also cool that only women were able to do magic.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the dark tone of it. The demons, magic, and characters really brought everything to life.

THESE DEADLY PROPHECIES By Andrea Tang

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.

THESE DEADLY PROPHECIES By Andrea TangThese Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on 1/30/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 255
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Being an apprentice to one of the world's most famous sorcerers has its challenges; Tabatha Zeng just didn’t think they would include solving crime. But when her boss, the infamous fortuneteller Sorcerer Solomon, predicts his own brutal death—and worse, it comes true—Tabatha finds herself caught in the crosshairs.

The police have their sights set on her and Callum Solomon, her murdered boss’s youngest son. With suspicion swirling around them, the two decide to team up to find the real killer and clear their own names once and for all.

But solving a murder isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when the suspect list is mostly the rich, connected, and magical members of Sorcerer Solomon’s family. And Tabatha can’t quite escape the nagging voice in her head asking: just how much can she really trust Callum Solomon?

Short and Sweet Review

Tabitha is a sorcerers apprentice for Sorcerer Solomon one of the most famous sorcerers. For a while Sorcerer Solomon has been telling Tabitha about the prophecy of his death and it’ll be by someone he loves. When Solomon actually dies Tabitha becomes one of the suspects and she teams up with Callum, Solomon’s son, to figure out who actually killed him because they’re both the biggest suspects.

These Deadly Prophecies, is a book that really pulls you in and I think the biggest reason is Tabitha’s voice, she narrates the book to the reader like we’re friends and she’s telling you a story. It’s almost like those shows where someone breaks the 4th wall, Tabitha is amusing and a bit sarcastic, but she really knows how to tell a story. Anyway Sorcerer Solomon told her if he did die to go seek out Callum, which is what she does. They haven’t really talked much before this but now they’re spending lots of time together trying to figure out who in the family could have killed him or if it was one of his apprentices and why. The pacing was a little slow at first but once we see Tabitha and Callum start investigating things do start to pick up. The magic system here is interesting, Solomon, Tabitha, and Callum were working more with prophecies but we other characters that are able to do kinetics and illusions. The book was interesting because most of the suspects were family members like Solomons two other kids and his wife and mistresses. There’s a lot going on in this book, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how much content you like and how you have to keep up to piece everything together. The added element of magic to a mystery storyline made it even more extraordinary. I will say I wasn’t sure who the culprit was but the ending was satisfying and the mystery was wrapped up nicely.

Overall, These Deadly Prophecies was a fun ride! I definitely recommend this book for people who love mysteries and this one has the added element of magic and also if you enjoyed the movie Knives Out!