AGAIN, BUT BETTER By Christine Riccio

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.

AGAIN, BUT BETTER By Christine RiccioAgain, but Better by Christine Riccio
Published by Wednesday Books on 5/7/19
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 377
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal -- but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change -- there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic - the possibilities are endless.

Short and Sweet Review

Shane is about to do a semester abroad in London. Shane is excited for a new start, back home she’s premed which makes her parents happy but here in London she’s about to pursue her passion for writing. Shane is about to do things she hasn’t before like make friends, go on adventures, and maybe find romance. But this new Shane in London is going to have to deal with everything she’s been trying to hide about what her life is really like back home. Things go awry but somehow Shane gets a second chance to try things again and make them better.

We first meet Shane in 2011 on her way to London. She basically lied to her parents about there being a premed track abroad but what’s really happening is Shane is going to take classes and get an internship at a magazine. We meet Shanes roommates and she spends the most time with Babe and Pilot. They go on a lot of trips together and are having the time of their lives. Pilot is Shanes romantic interest and we can tell that they like each other but Pilot actually has a girlfriend so that doesn’t work out. When Shanes parents find out she’s been lying she goes back to New York without the job she really wants, without the boy, and ultimately with unfinished business. We meet Shane again in 2017 and she realizes that she’s not happy and basically wants a do over. She finds Pilot and somehow they’re transported back to 2011 to try everything again. Although those two are happy Shane realizes that she’s been slacking with her internship and starts to rethink things again.

I did like the first half of the book and found myself connecting with Shane and the position she’s in because college is hard especially when you’re going for someone else’s dream instead of your own. When we meet Shane again she kind of forces Pilot to go on this endeavor with her and at first he’s pretty upset but they both realize this is a chance to see where things kind have gone. I think what annoyed me about this is when Shane realizes she’s not focusing enough on the internship she kind of ghosts Pilot. Anyway things do get better in a way, and we can see how things changed from the first time in London to the second. I will say Shanes parents were toxic and I just couldn’t stand them not understanding her position. So romance was good, adventures and roommates were also good. Shane did learn a lot about herself during this time and for that I was happy, but I do think she needed to think things out a bit better.

Overall, this book was good. I did prefer the first half to the second I do think the redeeming quality the second half had was the ending. I would recommend this book its a good representation of coming of age and truly living life for yourself and not those around you.

THE WINNER’S KISS By Marie Rutkoski

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 WINNER’S KISS By Marie RutkoskiThe Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Trilogy #3
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) on 3/29/16
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 498
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it, with the East as his ally and the empire as his enemy. He's finally managed to dismiss the memory of Kestrel, even if he can't quite forget her. Kestrel turned into someone he could no longer recognize: someone who cared more for the empire than for the lives of innocent people-and certainly more than she cared for him. At least, that's what he thinks.

But far north lies a work camp where Kestrel is a prisoner. Can she manage to escape before she loses herself? As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover unexpected roles in battle, terrible secrets, and a fragile hope. The world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and Kestrel and Arin are caught between. In a game like this, can anybody really win?

Sweet and Short Review

War has started between the Valorians and the Herrani and Arin is in the thick of it trying to strategize the best way to win. With everything that he’s dealing with he’s starting to forget Kestrel, someone he thinks he can no longer trust. Meanwhile Kestrel is taken as a prisoner and she wants to escape before she becomes like the other prisoners and forgets who she is. Kestrel and Arin are in between and at this point can anyone really win?

The time it took me to read this book after reading the second book was a good 7 years. Don’t ask me why but I’m not sure. I do think the time in-between reading book 2 and 3 may be the reason my rating for this book is lower than that of book 2. Let’s get into the review. We start off by seeing Arin as he’s one of the main people who is strategizing with the people from the east as his ally on how to go about this war. Kestrel on the other hand is taken to the prison where she is drugged everyday and there’s not much known except that she’s given drugs that have different effects and one of them is memory loss. When Arin realizes that Kestrel didn’t betray him but is alive and in prison he goes off to rescue her. Unfortunately she’s been in the prison so long that she has lost her memory and doesn’t know a lot. I will be honest I thought Arin was annoying he treated Kestrel like she was fragile and I didn’t like how he went from trying to forget her to doing a 180 and trying not to leave her side. I just have a problem when a man tries to tell a woman she can’t do something… Anyway slowly Kestrel regains her memory and understands what her father did. I thought that part of the story was the saddest because she couldn’t understand why he didn’t love her as much as he loved his job. Moving on we see the war go on and that’s about it. I feel like this book was very anti-climatic and the writing wasn’t good in the fact that it was choppy and repetitive with the war strategy and seeing Arin come and go.

Overall, I thought this book would be amazing because I loved the second one so much but I was wrong. I will say the trilogy is good and if you do plan on reading it don’t wait seven years like I did to finish it.

WITH A LITTLE LUCK By Marissa Meyer

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.

WITH A LITTLE LUCK By Marissa MeyerWith a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer
Series: Fortuna Beach #2
Published by Feiwel & Friends on 2/13/24
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 363
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw comics, host D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck.

Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His art is being published. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he wins a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he can use to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school.

But how long can Jude’s good fortune last? And why does he find himself thinking about Ari, his best friend since forever? If Jude has been dreaming of the wrong girl this whole time, does that mean he's doomed to be unlucky in love forever?

Short and Sweet Review

Jude is okay with staying low-key, he wants to play dungeon and dragons with his friends and draw comics when he has the time, and work at his parents record shop. One day Jude finds a 20 sided dice and he finds himself with a lot of luck. Almost everything Jude has wanted is now in reach and he uses his new found luck to the best of his ability but he doesn’t think about what will happen when his luck runs out.

With a Little Luck is a companion novel to Instant Karma. I didn’t read Instant Karma before reading this book and I don’t think you have to for this one to make sense, but I did realize characters from that book are in this one. Jude is our main character and I feel like he likes to keep a low profile one of those people who’s super nice but likes to stay within his friend group. Judes best friend is Ari and she’s a musician and they spend a lot of time together. When Jude begins to get lucky he decides to ask out Maya a girl he’s had a crush on for a while and it was okay but from the start you could tell that these two were better off as friends. I do think that Jude went for Maya instead of going with his gut and asking out Ari. Anyway we see Jude use his luck to get his artwork published, win concert tickets, and get Ari into a songwriting competition. There’s a lot of things I liked about this book, like seeing Ari’s song lyrics, the D&D game nights, and also seeing Judes artwork.

With a Little Luck, was a cute book and I enjoyed it. I did like Jude as a character and seeing him with all the luck, he didn’t always use it for himself he did think of others. I also liked seeing the romance between Jude and Ari even if it took a while for both of them to realize that they were meant for each other. Overall, this was a fun contemporary romance and I would recommend it!

THE HEDGEWITCH OF FOXHALL By Anna Bright

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 HEDGEWITCH OF FOXHALL By Anna BrightThe Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
Published by HarperTeen on 3/12/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Magic is fading from Wales—choked off by King Offa’s Dyke, the enemy earthworks that spans the entire border. Even the dragons have disappeared. And now an attack is imminent.

Prince Taliesin would love to watch magic die. Prince Dafydd fears it, and the throne. But when their father promises the crown to whichever son can destroy the dyke and restore magic to Wales, the brothers are forced into an uneasy rivalry.

Ffion works hedgewitch magic for poor folk, not princes. Unlike the power-hungry Foxhall coven, she uses only what nature can spare. But when the coven’s greed costs Ffion everything, she will need power beyond her wildest dreams to get back what she’s lost.

So when Prince Taliesin arrives, begrudgingly seeking a witch’s aid, Ffion agrees to help him—even if it means walking from one end of Wales to the other with the most use-less peacock she’s ever clapped eyes on. Even if it means striking a bargain with Dafydd behind Tal’s back. The fate of Wales depends on their quest . . . and so might the fate of Ffion’s heart.

Short and Sweet Review

In Wales magic is fading and that’s because of King Offa’s dyke which spans the whole border. Ffion is the last hedgewitch and she only uses what nature can spare to conduct her magic, unlike other witches who will sacrifice the whole forest if they have to. Prince Tal doesn’t care if magic is gone forever he doesn’t like it, his brother Dafydd fears magic but tolerates it. When the king orders the princes to destroy the dyke in exchange for the throne the princes set off. Tal ends up seeking a witch in order to complete the quest and he ends up finding Ffion. Ffion agrees because she knows the fate of Wales depends on if they can accomplish this quest.

This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed Ffion as a main character and that she was always willing to help people and do magic as long as it wouldn’t damage the land around her. Tal wants to be the king so he’s determined to complete the quest but also he doesn’t mind that the magic is dying especially because of what he saw the havoc magic caused in his life as a child. Dafydd doesn’t want to be king but he doesn’t have a choice but to go on this quest. We get to read from all three characters POVs, my problem with this was that they didn’t have a distinct voice so sometimes I thought I was reading from one character when it was really another, other times I would have to go back and check which character was narrating. I liked seeing that Ffion had a connection with Dafydd that she didn’t know about but I guess it could be weird because this connection did not come with consent. I do thin the love triangle between Ffion, Tal, and Dafydd was unnecessary because she’s with Tal most of the book so they obviously have a better connection. Anyway the ending was okay, the reveal was lackluster.

Overall, I liked the premise of this book and where I thought it was going. There were moments where I wanted to finish the book in one go and others where the story was dragging and I just wanted to be done. The plot was good but I just wish it was a bit more fleshed out and maybe it would have helped if the chapters for each character was longer. I do think this book is different from other books Bright has written, this book wasn’t my favorite but I would still recommend it!

BOOK, BEAST, AND CROW By Elizabeth Byrne

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.

BOOK, BEAST, AND CROW By Elizabeth ByrneBook, Beast, and Crow by Elizabeth Byrne
Published by Quill Tree Books on 3/12/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Pages: 365
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Anna Kellogg has always felt different. Growing up in Hartwood, New Jersey—where frequent disappearances are attributed to an urban-legend-like beast that dwells in the walled-in swamp at the center of town—can have that effect on people. But for Anna, it’s more than that. Since she was a child, she’s been plagued by episodes where she sees things others can’t see. Feeling different is one thing, but actually being different is another. If it weren’t for her best friend, Olivia, Anna’s not sure where she’d fit in.

But any hopes of having a normal senior year come to a halt when Olivia is attacked in the woods, bitten, and left for dead by a whirling cyclone of claws, fur, and teeth. Though Olivia survives, a sinister entity makes it clear that the mark had been set on Anna…and the miss has set in motion a catastrophic shift that will change Anna and her friends’ lives forever.

Short and Sweet Review

Things in Hartwood, New Jersey, aren’t completely normal. The town has a wall surrounding the swamp to keep out the beast which is either an urban legend or the truth. Anna has always felt different, she could see things no one else could, the only thing that keeps Anna feeling like she fits in is her best friend Olivia. While on a field trip Olivia ends up getting attacked by the beast who was supposed to have Anna as the target. Now Anna and her friends lives are starting to change especially when they have access to a world beyond theirs.

The whole premise of this book sounds great but it’s another case of the execution failing. There was a lot going on but mainly it revolves around Olivia getting bitten and Anna, Alex, and Lou discovering there’s the otherworld and a swamp witch and other things. I wish I could tell you more but I feel like I was a bit lost while reading this and frankly not all there. I don’t think this book held my attention the way I thought it would. The book is just filled with a lot of back and forth between the regular world and the otherworld and trying to learn information about why things are the way they are, like why was there a beast and why did the town sacrifice people? The characters are very one note and not ones that I connected to. Looking back I think the story was very basic and I could see why it would be compared to The Hazel Wood or Stranger Things, but it just didn’t have the wow factor that those two things bring. Like I mentioned earlier there’s a lot going on but I think things could have been better if there was more detail or if things were fleshed out a bit more. It just felt like we were moving along because we had to but there was really no purpose for us moving along.

Overall, this book was okay and usually my okays are like 3 stars but this okay is leaning towards 2.5. I really wished this was a book I loved but unfortunately that wasn’t the case and I won’t be recommending it.

THE POISONS WE DRINK By Bethany Baptiste

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 POISONS WE DRINK By Bethany BaptisteThe Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste
Published by Sourcebooks Fire on 3/26/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 474
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.

Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus's life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.

As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.

Short and Sweet Review

Venus brews love potions illegally, but she does what she needs to keep her mom and sister afloat. In this book we see a divide between witches and humans. When Venus’s mom Clarissa dies from an iron bullet, Venus’s world is turned upside down, but when Venus is offered the chance to make a difference for witches and get revenge on her mothers killer by the grand Witcher, Venus accepts. All Venus needs to do is brew poisons that will have politicians follow the wishes of the grand Witcher. The further Venus goes on in this scheme the more she realizes that everything around her is corrupt and she doesn’t know who to trust including herself.

This was an interesting take on a book about witches. It takes place in current times but the country is divided and there’s laws that are going to be voted on soon that aren’t favorable to witches. Venus isn’t too worried about that yet, she’s more focused on making potions for customers. We see that Venus cares about her family and after the death of her mother she really feels like she has to keep her sister Janus safe. I think Clarissa’s death sets everything in motion, we see Venus start to work for the grand Witcher and stop the vote against the witches. There’s a lot going on in this book and I thought the pacing was off. There were times where things were picking up and then other times when it was so slow that it made me feel like I’ve been reading this book forever. I was thinking this book could have been a part of a series but its just a standalone and it kind of made sense why it was so long, but thinking back it could have been cut down a bit. I liked seeing the different types of magic that the witches had. Venus has a good support system behind her but we see through the book that Venus starts to lose herself and really has to dig down deep to remember who she is and what she should be fighting for. Venus had a romantic interest, Presley, but I feel like there was really no time for romance in this book. The book is good and you get some glimpses of amazing writing and story telling but there’s points in the book where it drags and you just wonder why everything has slowed down so much. The pacing is almost like a rollercoaster ride and not a fun one when it comes to keeping your attention.

Overall, I did like the story it was interesting and the world is really something different. Venus is a character that will have you rooting for her and just wanting her to be safe and get everything she wants especially with all that she’s been through. The only downfall was the length of the book and again the pacing, but besides that its a good 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%.

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.