Review: Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland

Rust in the Root
by Justina Ireland
Publication Date: September 20th 2022
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Find This Book: Rust in the Root
Rating: 3.5/5

**An early finalized copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

It’s 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided: between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology (otherwise known as Mechomancy) not the traditional mystical arts.

Laura is a talented mystical arts mage from Pennsylvania who hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license, allowing her to use her talents publicly. But six months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.

As they’re sent off on their first mission together, they’ll discover dangerous work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and they’ll need to work together to have a chance at survival.

Rust in the Root is a fleshed out historical fantasy read, which is quite an accomplishment for a standalone. This is a solid alternate reality focused on a government agency investigating a dark mystery in Ohio. Laura will need to develop both her powers and her friendships if she wants to make it out alive and save the country she lives in.

What was special about this novel was the culmination of different story telling elements. Traditional prose is paired with the Skylark’s official mission report, as well as Laura’s photographs of the people and places she meets along the way (real photographs, sourced from an archive!). The plot, betrayals, and character development were all fantastic. I read this is less than 24 hours! Why didn’t this get 5 stars? For me, parts of the arc development and prose felt a bit too rushed, which I didn’t expect from an author with so many publications under her belt.

ARC Review: The Darkening by Sunya Mara

The Darkening
by Sunya Mara
Publication Date: July 5th 2022
Publisher: Clarion Books
Find This Book: The Darkening
Rating: 3.5/5

**An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Vesper Vale is the daughter of failed revolutionaries. In a world where a magical storm surrounds the city, cursing and killing everyone it touches, there are few defenses for the outer circles of the city. Knowledge is quite literally power when magic is controlled through an ikon alphabet, enforcing social and class structures. When Vesper's father is identified and kidnapped by the royal family to pay for his previous crimes, Vesper has no choice but to infiltrate this power structure to find him and help him escape. Unfortunately for Vesper, there are larger issues still at stake. How will she learn this complex magic system? What is causing this storm to menace her city? Can she place her hopes and dreams for a better future for her people upon the shoulders of the prince?

This book has a really special magical world-building which I really enjoyed. Seeing the contrast between the inner circles hoarding books and the outer circles paying exorbitant amounts for one symbol that may or may not work... It was powerful to see their socio-economic and academic structures held so rigidly and blatantly. The concept of the reign being passed down by a powerful ikon merged with the reigning leader's body was such a fascinating display of power's corruption as well. All around, I really enjoyed exploring the world set up by Mara.

My one gripe is with the novel's character building and evolution. Prince Dalca, and his compatriots Cas and Izamal, bond with Vesper in strange ways. Dalca and Cas's relationships with Vesper just did not feel organic to me, from either side. I couldn't quite grasp what they see in Vesper to want to trust and befriend her, and I couldn't see how Vesper went from using them to actually caring about these people who ruined her life and are endangering her father. I personally like a bit more character-driven aspects in the books I read, with more developed inter-character relationships which is why this book is knocked down 1.5 stars for me. That being said, I definitely see why folks are loving this book — it has a fast, advnturous plot which is perfect for a magical fantasy read.

ARC Review: Open Fire by Amber Lough

Open Fire

by Amber Lough

Publication Date: March 3^rd 2020

Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab

Find This Book: Open Fire 

Rating: 3.5/5

I was given an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for honest review.

I don’t know much about early female military groups, or even much about the Russian front in basically any wars because of how the US school system always frames history, so I jumped at the chance to read a YA book starring the first female Russian battalion. I loved getting to learn about Katya and her complex relationships, her family history gets teased out chapter by chapter as we learn about her mother, father, brother, and best friend Masha. Her disagreements and ultimate understanding with her brother was beautiful as they both navigate the consequences of war and current political upheaval. Weaving through Katya’s story is a beautiful bedtime story about Saint Olga, told to Katya by her father years before all of the events that take place. Characterizing her father and visualizing her attachment to this saint in particular was a great way to add layers and emotions to both Katya and her absentee father who is, during the events of the book, stationed indefinitely on Russia’s warfront. The writing was captivating and seemingly well researched. I certainly learned a lot, and was sitting on the edge of my seat when the battalion ends up on the front lines!

Some other reviews have mentioned that the book falls a bit flat, which I can understand from the perspective of a ‘climax’ but a believe that is essential, if not inherent, to a World War I novel. Yes, Katya trained extensively and didn’t accomplish much while on the battlefield; but that is what trench warfare was. It was a grueling, thankless, task of taking the opponent’s trenches that inevitably was lost again. It was an endless stalemate, and it’s hard to make trench warfare interesting. That all being said, I didn’t find this ending to necessarily be about the setting, and more about how Katya started off the book trying to figure out who she was and if she would be brave or a coward when facing down death, and she found her answer. I found the climax to be this sudden understanding of the self, and it was quite beautiful.

I couldn’t rate this a full 4 or 5 stars because it felt like too much was being squished into the story by adding Sergei as a character. I understand that historically a lot was going on with the start of the Bolshevik revolution during this time period, but I think this lost a bit of my focus. I’m  not sure if I would have enjoyed it more if the Bolsheviks had been cut, or if their presence had been more fully developed. 

Review: Quests and Quandaries by Alda Yuan

Quests and Quandaries 
By Alda Yuan 
Publication Date: December 16^th 2018 
Publisher: N/A 
Find This Book: Quests and Quandaries
Rating: 3.5/5 




I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. 

In this case, definitely don't judge a book by its cover! Alda Yuan's self published book Quests and Quandaries holds a treasure trove of fantasy tropes just waiting to be poked fun at, which a nice philosophical thought process about how much control the characters (and perhaps the readers themselves) have over their own lives. 

I really like the sort of self aware, satirical angle this book took. It was refreshing to see a character acknowledging how things turn out a specific way, because that's how quests and epics always go in the stories! The characters and different lands were lots of fun as well. I particularly enjoyed when Rahni watched how her world came to be (a beetle created her land, and the world is suspended by wires). Cementing a mythological story as "truth" was very cool.

The only thing I didn't enjoy was all the footnotes. There were 324 footnotes and they're very hard to open and read on a kindle device. I was curious to what they contained, so I read them all. Unfortunately, only about 10% actually answered a question a reader might have in the relevant scene. Most of the footnotes did not add anything to the story, and some of them even confused me more by mentioning characters not in the book! Furthermore, it would have been nice if the 4 rules *were* footnoted whenever they were mentioned, but they were not important enough to get footnotes I guess. The rules are read once towards the beginning, and rule #4 isn't brought up again until the end. I had no clue what the rule was by then!

That being said, the footnotes only brought this book down by one star. It's still a hilarious fantasy book that I would recommend to those who don't take their tropes and cliches too seriously.

ARC Review: The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves
by Roshani Chokshi
Publication Date: January 15^th 2019
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Find This Book: The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1)
Rating: 3.5/5

I was given an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 For context, I have previously read Chokshi’s hilarious mythological book, Aru Shah and the End of Time, so I had a lot of expectations going into reading this!

If you’re looking for a historical heist, this is the novel for you! Séverin Montagnet-Alarie has been exiled from a powerful order and spends his time taking back what’s his: the items of his inheritance that were taken form him upon exile. A job gone south forces him to take a commissioned job: stealing a Forged (magical) item from The Order he was kicked out of! Séverin and his talented crew get into higher stakes than ever before as relationships form and break under the pressure.

 Set in 1889 Paris, the environment of the book and the outfits of the characters are absolutely fabulous- I’m sure so much research went into this book! The best part for me was that we were given a group of 6 characters, and they were equally given screen-time and were all well developed with personal histories and motivations. That’s hard to do in one initial book and I was blown away. I didn’t realize how attached I was to the character’s plots until I started rooting for [certain things] to occur. Our exiled hotel owner, a biracial friend from the past (a current Order-member), a biracial bisexual historian, an Indian dancer with a powerful touch, a genius engineer with a debt to pay, and our exile’s brother with the ability to Forge flowers.

 The bisexual representation in particular was done quite tastefully, showing the character’s interest in multiple people and their past struggles with religion and family. As someone who identifies as bisexual, I was shocked and pleased to see this realistic experience in this novel, especially since the novel has only been marked as Historical Fiction and Fantasy so far. It’s nice to see an LGBT+ character in a book that doesn’t revolve around their sexuality. Going further, this character’s commitment to a person was just that, choosing a person to be with and not ‘choosing a gender’. Unfortunately, the latter happens too often, so I am over the moon about this character!!

 Of course, this book ends with prophesized action ahead, and a big twist- I can’t wait for Séverin and the crew’s next adventure!

ARC Review: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass

by S.A. Chakraborty

Publication Date: November 14^th 2017

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Find This Book: The City of Brass

Rating: 3.5/5

An eARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The hype for this book was so real that I somehow managed to get through this even though I can’t normally focus on ebooks. I loved how much cultural information was packed into this book and all of the political details between the daeva tribes and their magic system. I didn’t find much of the ending predictable in the slightest which was really refreshing but honestly most of it is hard to talk about and discuss unless you’ve already read it!

I must say I only vaguely new about Djinn, Ifriti, Marid etc. from my Bartimaeus days (I love those books and I love Jonathan Stroud) and that being said it really felt like I was getting thrown in the deep end with the MC Nahri who was also being introduced to everything around her. A paperback/ hard copy is definitely the way to go with this book because there are a lot of mythological/cultural terms that were a pain in the ass to flip back to the glossary of the ebook every time, but I did feel like I learned a bit which is always something I enjoy when reading. There where plenty of terms I didn’t know and just went along with not really knowing and getting context clues to work things out which was weird, but something I can appreciate. So many books are written by white women about white women for white women and I think this book had an all non-white cast with a minor side plot of lgbt diversity. A breath of fresh air, honestly.

What could have added to the experience for me might have been doing something similar to the beginning of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns where the author gives readers the pronunciations of the character’s names. I do understand this is a bit of a double edged sword though. On one hand, it’s ridiculous that names like Julia and Margot aren’t expected to have pronunciations accompanied with them while names like Darayavahoush are, but at the same time as a reader I want to completely respect the character’s name and the culture behind the story by not butchering their name. It’s certainly an interesting debate to say the least and I would love to hear other opinions on the subject, but I suppose this is a bit of a tangent in regards to my purpose being to review the book!

Another quick side note, there's a bit more swearing (the f word) and a bit more sexual content than I was expecting from a YA book. Not anything explicit, just more than expected i.e. insinuating sexual rumors, calling character whores etc. though that again could be a result of a more conservative culture being the background of the novel. 

Like I said, the last 100-200 pages (again this was on ebook I read on my phone screen so real page numbers are a mystery) were a wild ride with a lot happening at once and a lot of the stuff happening at once was really unexpected. Everything felt like it was really wrapping up into a stand alone book and I was wondering where the story was going to go since I had heard this was to be a trilogy. It only made me realize that what I thought was the big picture wasn’t actually the big picture! I will definitely be reading the next book but the hype won’t be as intense for me as I don’t think my favorite character will be receiving a lot of screen time especially considering how book twos are primarily just less interesting set-ups for the end of a trilogy. However, I seem to be in for an amazing book three and I anxiously await a conclusion (and my fav character better be stellar in it or I will fight someone)!

Review: Merrett's Gift by Ian Mitchell-Gill

Merrett’s Gift

by Ian Mitchell-Gill

Publication Date: June 3^rd 2016

Publisher: FriesenPress

Find This Book: Merrett’s Gift

Rating: 3.5/5

I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. 

I’m not going to lie, this book had a slow start. Why? Because the author tackled the challenging prospect of 6 (quickly down to 5) main characters and Merrett who I assumed was the main character wasn’t actually introduced until like page 80. The slowness comes with the prospect of lots of information getting flung at the reader from all sides about all topics. The POV floated from character to character. It was done in a super cool way format-wise, but this means it takes a lot longer to get attached to the characters since you are not getting to know and bonding strongly with any one character. It was a unique approach which I thought was really cool. Unfortunately, it meant that it took the first 150 pages or so for me to get really into the story. However, once I was into it I was *really* into it!

Imagine some super talented angsty teens with a wholesome mentor-mentee relationship attend a high-tech spy school. That’s this book. It was even more heart-warming finding out that this book was written chapter by chapter for the author’s own students and is now something they are sharing with a larger audience (aka me). I was a bit skeptical with some of the student behavior, as it’s extremely different from how my friends and I acted in middle school and high school, but I’m sure his students know better than I and of course there may be some behavioral differences as well being from different countries.

The most interesting part of the book was the 25-years-later epilogue. As there is a book two, I was pretty shocked! I’m genuinely intrigued as to what book two could possibly be about. There’s currently not a book description on Goodreads and I haven’t read the back cover yet, but I know I’m in for a plot-twist filled adventure! I’m hoping for a bit of improvement in the writing (while the plot was action packed and awesome, this story was a bit of tell-don’t-show) and I will be sure to update you all soon about my read of Book 2: Merrett’s Choice!

*Side note. Pretty sure Lydia is ace? But also it's hard to really get backstory and details about any one character when there are five MC's. My interpretation however is that Lydia is ace and I am I prepared to fight about it.

Review: Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

Ramona Blue

by Julie Murphy

Publication Date: May 9^th 2017

Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher

Find This Book: Ramona Blue

Rating: 3.5/5

This book's review is a bit scary for me, as I feel a bit vulnerable when I compare it to my own experiences. I think it's so important that conversations like this have been allowed by the doors this book has opened, but it's sensitive to all. Be aware and be kind.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for honest review.

The first half of this book was absolutely great for me. The spaghetti-o’s were cute, Grace was cute, the summer fling was cute. Ramona’s problems with Grace’s confusion and reservations was emotional and powerful. Ramona’s mother was disheartening, but real. Even Hattie’s struggle, which is not relatable to me in the slightest, still felt relatable. It was when the self-declared lesbian kissed a guy that I became super scared about the rest of the novel. I’d heard so many good things about this book, I was really looking forward to it. How could people not warn me about a lesbian finding the guy to “turn her straight”?

As a confused sexuality-fluid female myself, I was super worried about where this twist was going. Is the author going to make this one boy invalidate all of Ramona’s past relationships with girls? I didn’t think I’d make it through a book about that. Maybe Ramona was Bi? Fortunately for me, Julie Murphy emphasized Ramona’s love for this person because of the person and everything they mean to her, not really taking gender into account. This then left me wondering if Ramona was Pansexual or Demisexual. What was super powerful for me was Ramona’s internal struggle with sexuality. Did her love for this guy mean that she liked guys? Or was it just this specific guy? And every time she kissed him, she said she felt like she was betraying her old identity. Death by a thousand cuts to the Ramona who thought she had it all figured out in high school being a lesbian in Mississippi. I can’t count how many times the same thoughts have gone through my head. I’m a cis female, dating a cis male, that is probably seen as a heterosexual relationship to everyone. If it’s not visible does it even count? Does this mean I am queer enough for LGBTQ+ clubs, safe spaces, pride marches etc.? It can feel like people feel like I’m an intruder, which of course makes everything even more confusing. This is what saved the book for me. Ramona doesn’t label her sexuality by the end of the book. She hasn’t figured herself out yet and maybe she never will, but the point is that the pressure to have a label has been removed. And maybe it will help fellow confused queers not feel pressured to label themselves as well.

What brought this book down the stars is how long it took Ramona to be her own person. The whole book is spent following her sister Hattie around, picking up the pieces and trying to keep things together. While I can respect that, every single person in her life tells her that that’s not the destiny that’s set in stone for her. The future is still up to her and she could go to college after graduation if she really worked for it. While money is obviously an issue, it saddened me to watch Ramona counter everyone supporting her, and shut down any possible future that wasn’t staying in Eulogy, working 3 jobs, and living with her sister in the trailer park. In life, you really only need one person supporting you: yourself. Ramona didn’t even have that which made the book really hard to get through for me. I could only end up reading a couple chapters at a time because of this mental block Ramona has.

I thought this book was going to disappoint me, but it ended up pulling through. The ending was comfortingly bittersweet. I can appreciate how Ramona is going to figure out her sexuality, her career, her relationships etc. as she goes along. She’s finally come to accept that the future isn’t set in stone and that she has a life to live- a super important message. Honestly, if Ramona wasn’t her own worst enemy, and if the writing didn’t originally indicate that this guy was going to ‘turn Ramona straight’ as her mother had hoped, it definitely would’ve gotten a better rating. While the payoff was worth it, the author put me through a lot to get there.

ARC Review: The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo

The Fall of Lisa Bellow

by Susan Perabo

Publication Date: March 14^th 2017

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Source: Publisher

Find This Book: The Fall of Lisa Bellow

Rating: 3.5/5

Simon & Schuster send my University professor review copies and ARC’s in exchange for honest reviews and I was given a copy of this book by said professor for my blog (he wasn’t interested in the genre and he knew I would be).

My adventure with Meredith, her mom, and the Lisa of Meredith’s imagination has come to a close and I’m still not quite sure what I think. It was very cool to read a book without any action in it. By that I mean the baseball injury happened before the events of the story and the kidnapping/robbery were told by the girl who wasn’t kidnapped. Of course there was drama in the wake of this tragedy, but the ‘action’ of being kidnapped, of being locked in the bathroom, were all the imagination of Meredith the girl who survived. It was more of a psychologically cool book with Meredith’s thoughts, her interactions with the rest of the eight grade class, Lisa’s lonely mother, and the morbid thoughts of Meredith’s mom.

One thing I wasn’t a fan of was the incessant, unnecessary slut shaming coming from all perspectives. I can maybe understand it coming from the ignorant perspective of an eighth-grader, but from her mother too? Obviously people aren’t perfect and characters should be flawed, but this was problematic to the point of being extremely uncomfortable to read. I’m already reading about a girl getting kidnapped and presumably raped, that’s the sort of uncomfortableness I signed up for with picking up this novel. The loneliness of Lisa’s mother only cranked up the uncomfortable vibes form this book. The unnecessary slut shaming from a mother who should know better was going too far for me and that alone took away a star.  

Claire (Meredith’s mother) was also incredibly morbid and pessimistic throughout the whole book. I get not being smiley and cheerful, but I really can’t understand her mental state of her children being gone and giving up on them when they are still living in her house and are clearly struggling. That’s when families support each other, like with the husband trying to help the son get back into baseball after his surgeries. Clearly the kid won’t be getting any athletic scholarships, but if he wants to try to play baseball again with his buddies, for a club, or for the high school team again, let him try and discover failure on his own if it comes down to that. She was also super judgmental about Meredith’s choice of friends which I thought was weird?

One thing I really enjoyed was how the novel ended. Meredith brought a sort of finality to it, but also one of starting over- without Lisa. I just assumed that the story was going to go through how horrible the experience was and then last minute Lisa would be found (dead or alive but I assumed alive). Instead we got this incredible realistic, sad but realistic, ending where Lisa stays missing. She disappears from the news and she will probably never be found. The book discusses how the miracles are always the ones talked about, the girls found years after everyone had given up hope. It was eye-opening to be given a story without that hope and acknowledging that grief and movement towards closer was also ok.

All in all this book had two things I found largely problematic, as delineated above, but it also gave me a new perspective and was pretty well-written. If the slut-shaming and troubling mother's behavior/thoughts don’t bother you, then I would definitely recommend this book!