In Her Skin by Kim Savage

Publisher: FSG

Publication Date: April 17th, 2018

Rating: 3 Stars

Source: Audible

Format: Audiobook

Pages: 293

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Sixteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain is about to take on the biggest scam of her life: impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn’t been easy, and Jo is hoping to cash in on a little safety, a little security. She finds her opportunity in the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family with ties to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine. 

When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl’s miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her back with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Lovecraft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. As hidden crimes come to the surface, and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold onto an illusion of safety, or escape the danger around her before it’s too late.

Much like AFTER THE WOODS, this book was solidly just okay for me. I can't say that I feel particularly strongly about it one way or another.

Jo has not had a very good time since (or really before either) her mother was killed and she ended up on the streets of Boston, but when she finds the perfect opportunity to score herself a loving family, she thinks she's got it made. But does she, really?

I didn't particularly care for the writing style of this one. I believe it was written in present tense, which I am not really a fan of. Also, all the sections of the book where Jo is talking about her new "sister", she refers to her as "you", which is also something I don't really dig. I feel like it just sounds weird and I felt very aware of it the whole time.

I think a lot of my problems with this book stem mostly from the beginning and it got better when I got more used to the things that bothered me. Like a lot of things that I don't specifically remember about Jo's character kind of bothered me, but I don't feel like they were things that were really wrong with her, I think they were totally plausible for someone in her situation, but I guess they were things that were so far out of my own realm of understanding that I just didn't enjoy them.

I believe that Jo is bisexual, but I don't remember it ever being stated outright in the book. She leaves behind a boyfriend of sorts when she gets off the streets and then starts thirsting for her new "sister". There really isn't much in the way of romance in this book, but I think Jo has bigger things to worry about than that.

I feel like this book should have been a lot more suspenseful than it was. It felt like the beginning was a lot more well-crafted, then after the plot twist, everything seemed just kind of haphazardly thrown in and I think it would have really benefitted from more detail in several aspects. I really wanted to feel a lot more like I was on the edge of my seat. I feel like there were things that I would have liked more closure on, but I also feel like not getting it could be fitting with Jo as the narrator, but like.. I wanted it.

Overall, I think I would have to say that this book was mostly a miss for me, but it was nice to listen to while doing menial tasks at work. I think if you are someone who has never really read any thriller books, you are more likely to enjoy it, but if you know what a good suspenseful thriller is, you might not like it as much.

Have you read IN HER SKIN yet? What did you think of it? I tried out a slightly different review style today, in which I tried not to be SO descriptive of things that happen in the book. If you have an opinion one way or the other, will you let me know? I feel like I don't like it as much, but I skipped some things that I normally might have included that I think would have made me overly word-y and give more away than I would like to.

Review // Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: April 4th, 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Paperback

Pages: 388

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Classic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.

Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new arch-nemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever-it-is she’s starting to feel for Porter.

And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.

In this delightfully charming teen spin on You’ve Got Mail, the one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn’t know it yet.

I decided that I was finally going to pick up Alex, Approximately because I have recently been hit hardcore with ALL the reminders of the boy that I used to talk to online and was just SO in love with in high school.

I was going through my old email that I used to use MSN Messenger for, which is where I primarily talked to this person. I had saved conversations that I was dissecting via email with my friend who spent that school year in Texas. I sent pictures of him to my mom after she moved away and I told her just how SEXY he was. *ultimate face palm*

It also inspired me to to decipher my old, scribbled out journal entries about him, which is a whole new level of cringe. I was just so very head over heels. Oh my goodness.

Anyway, all of that finally inspired me to pick up this book about Bailey, who moves across the country to live with her dad in the beach town where Alex, the boy she has formed an online relationship with, lives. She calls herself an Artful Dodger, meaning she has turned dodging social/confrontational things that she doesn't want to deal with into an art form. So, naturally, she doesn't tell Alex that she moved to his town.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There really wasn't as much emphasis on the online relationship part of the story as I thought there would be. In the beginning, Bailey spends a lot of time scoping out the town, trying to see if she can figure out who Alex is and make sure he's not some kind of creeper. But as she starts to get to know one of her coworkers from her summer job more, she starts to look for and talk to Alex less.

I loved the relationship between Bailey and Porter. They both work in a museum for their summer job. Bailey usually works the ticket booth, Porter is security. Bailey doesn't really care for Porter at first, but he grows on her as they get to know each other more. I also really liked the friendship between Bailey and her fellow ticket booth worker, Grace. They were a fun set of friends.

The story was interesting. I liked watching Bailey and Porter's relationship grow. I liked learning about the traumatic parts of their pasts that they don't really talk about with other people. I liked the conflict with Davy. I liked the family relationships in the story. I just overall adored this story.

The only complaint I have, doesn't have anything to do with the story, but more the writing. In the first couple of chapters, the Artful Dodger thing gets SO repetitive, it started to drive me nuts. Like, the fact that Bailey is an Artful Dodger is so relatable, but like... I got it. I didn't need to hear the term 900 times in like 20 pages. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but repetitiveness in books is probably my biggest writing style pet peeve.

Overall, I really liked this book. I would recommend it if you're looking for a cute, fun, summer-y romance. It doesn't have as much of a focus on the online relationship as I was expecting, which was what I was looking for going in, but it was still so much fun.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review // Well Met by Jen DeLuca

Well Met by Jen DeLuca

Publisher: Berkley

Publication Date: September 3rd, 2019

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Paperback

Pages: 336

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Summary (from Goodreads):

All's faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author, Jen DeLuca.

Emily knew there would be strings attached when she relocated to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident, but who could anticipate getting roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece? Or that the irritating and inscrutable schoolteacher in charge of the volunteers would be so annoying that she finds it impossible to stop thinking about him?

The faire is Simon's family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn't have time for Emily's lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she's in her revealing wench's costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they're portraying?

This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can't seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon, or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek.

That's it, that's the review.

But if you wanted a little bit more than that, I loved this book. I loved the Ren Faire setting. I loved the characters. I loved the enemies-to-lovers romance. I loved that I actually read a book where I can swoon over Simon Graham aka Captain Ian Blackthorne and I'm not cradle robber. I want to read this book for the first time all over again.

This book follows Emily, who I thoroughly enjoyed as a main character. Her life is pretty much in complete upheaval after her breakup with her long time, rising attorney boyfriend and losing her apartment. So the timing is perfect, however unfortunate it might be, when she has to move in to her sister's guest room and take care of things for her while she heals from her nasty car accident. Running errands and carting her niece around gives her a purpose while she figures out what she wants to do with her life now.

On top of that, she has to volunteer for the school's Renaissance Faire as her niece's chaperone so that she can participate. And that's how she meets Simon, who she gets off on the wrong foot with almost immediately. The Ren Faire is his life and he doesn't care for Emily's lighthearted and less serious approach to it.

Simon, as a love interest, I adored. He took over the organization of the Ren Faire after the death of his brother, who started it. He is a stickler for the rules and making sure everything is perfectly the way his brother had it. But when the actual Ren Faire rolls around, in character, he is a lot more fun, flirty, care-free, etc. And then you get to see another side of him when him and Emily finally get to know and LIKE each other. I don't know what to say, Simon was just...

I liked the enemies-to-lovers romance. Real life Simon is not Emily's favorite person, but when she meets Captain Ian Blackthorne, she can't believe they're the same person and it makes her start to get more curious about the man behind the persona. And I loved it.

Besides the romance, Emily is also forming lots of other relationships in this new, small town. Her sister is 12 years older than her so they've never really been close. As Emily puts it, by the time she was starting to get 'interesting', her sister was off to college. So in this arrangement they have going on, she's finally getting to have a relationship with her sister. And by being her chauffeur, she is able to get closer to her niece who is only around ten years younger than she is.

Besides familial relationships, she is also forming friendships with the rest of the Ren Faire volunteers, particularly her fellow tavern wench, Stacey, and the attractive coach-in-a-kilt, Mitch.

Before long, she starts to consider that after she's done helping her sister, maybe she could stay and make a life in Willow Creek.

If I was going to complain about anything, it would be how quickly Emily just jumps to the worst possible conclusions about things without talking to people first. There is one big thing in particular that I'm thinking of where she jumps to the worst conclusion about something that is going on when she has literally not a single, solitary shred of evidence or real reason to believe that worst thing. It was a little bit annoying. But that just can't damper my enchantment with this novel.

Overall, this book was so so so good. Everything about it was just *chef's kiss*. I would highly recommend this book if anything I've said sounds like it could remotely be up your alley. I'm not entirely sure what exactly stood out to me so much to make me feel so strongly about it, but I am here for this book.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review // The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

The Devouring Gray #1

Publisher: Titan Books

Publication Date: April 2nd, 2019

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 368

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Summary (from Goodreads):

On the edge of town a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…

Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.

When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?

Four Paths is a small town in a woodsy part of New York that was founded by four families in the 1800's and who's descendants are now responsible for keeping the rest of the town safe from the Beast with different powers that are passed down through each founder family.

Recently, the town has been experiencing an influx of deaths caused by the Beast and the town is starting to become disenchanted with the founders and question what exactly they're doing to keep everyone safe because it certainly doesn't seem to be working. 

This book mainly follows four characters, one from each family.

Violet Saunders has just moved to Four Paths, her mother's hometown, after the death of her sister, Rosie. She is thrown into this whole founder family thing and has to figure it out without the help of her mother, who seems to have no idea what's going on. I liked Violet, but I felt like she just accepted literally everything anyone told her at face value. 

Justin Hawthorne is basically the town's golden boy. He is popular, athletic, the son of the town's sheriff. He basically spends the whole book trying to help everyone and make up for his past wrongdoings. He is also SUPER "woe-is-me" throughout the book about everything.

Isaac Sullivan was probably my favorite character. He's kind of like the destructive, bad boy one in the group. He's probably the one with the most interesting (read: sad) past and the one that I am the most curious about in the future of this series. I want all the good things for Isaac Sullivan.

Harper Carlisle is the outcast of the group, having been shunned after failing her ritual and losing her arm. She is angry, and rightfully so, but it didn't feel like there was all that much to her beyond her anger and her basically hating that she still wants Justin Hawthorne after everything he put her through.

Overall, I liked the characters, I just wish that there was more to some of them. But I liked seeing how they all came to be friends or at least tolerate each other after Violet came to town.

I would have liked to know more about the Beast and where it came from. You don't even really get to know what the Beast even IS in this book and I feel like it raises some questions about who is really the bad guy in the grand scheme of things in this town. So, interesting, would like to know more.

There really wasn't a lot of romance in this book. There are no pairings by the end of the book. But there are some feelings brewing and I liked one of the pairs more than the other, but for a book with so many characters that are bisexual, there don't seem to be any main m/m or f/f pairings in the works, which is a little bit disappointing.

I have not seen Stranger Things, but I feel like the Raven Cycle series is an adequate comparison, it has a similar vibe, but maybe doesn't feel QUITE as atmospheric or eerie.

I enjoyed this book for the most part but, I felt like some of the writing wasn't my favorite. Some of the pacing was a bit off for me. Like for example, one minute, Violet was leaving her house with her aunt sitting on the porch with her cat, Orpheus, and then it felt like the next minute, Violet was in the woods and Orpheus was already there.

And the other thing for me was each character being explicitly described by their skin color. Besides the fact that this felt unnecessary because I only remember one small character being black, there are only so many points of view I needed to know that one character was white from. I am pretty sure there were at least two points of view that we first saw Violet from and they both said something along the lines of "there was a white girl standing there". I'm not saying trying to say that this is a bad thing, it's definitely not. I'm just saying that there are probably more ways you can describe a person besides JUST black and white. Which, later in the book this did get slightly better, but it was really prevalent in the beginning.

And I just want to know how a cat that seems to be fairly active can spend the entire book with a piece of red yarn tied around his ear? Like, it's adorable, but it just kinda... sounds fake.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was interesting and I am pretty sure that I would die for Isaac Sullivan. If you liked the Raven Cycle series, this is definitely worth a try. I am excited to see where this series goes.

Have you read this book yet? What did you think of it?

Review // House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Publisher: Delacorte

Publication Date: August 6th, 2019

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 416

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Summary (from Goodreads):

In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.

House of Salt and Sorrows is apparently a retelling of Twelve Dancing Princesses. I immediately wanted to say a darker retelling, but I've never heard the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, so really, how would I know?

Anyway, this story follows Annaleigh after the death of her sister Eulalie, who is the fourth of the 12 sisters to end up dead. But Annaleigh thinks there is something fishy going on and starts trying to figure out if her family is actually cursed or if there is someone out there murdering her family one by one.

With a new stepmother who wants her child to be the heir to the family's seaside manor and an attractive new guy on one of the islands who knows things that he shouldn't, Annaleigh has her hands full trying to figure out what's going on.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There is a large cast of characters, seeing as there are eight living sisters who are all obviously important to the story plus the other characters important to the household and a love interest... There's just a lot of people to keep track of. I personally didn't have too much trouble keeping track of the people that needed to be kept track of.

Like all of the sisters are important characters, but not all of them are so important to the point that you need to be able to distinguish all of them super well. Maybe just what group they're in. Like there's the dead sisters, Camille (the newest heir), Annaleigh, the triplets, and the Graces (which are just the youngest three).

I liked Annaleigh. She is the only one who seems to believe that, rather than her family being cursed, something sinister is afoot. She especially starts to think something is up when she starts to see her dead sisters around. I don't really know what else to say about her, I read this book all in one sitting so maybe some things aren't as clear as they could be.

I liked the romance in this book. I almost thought there was gonna be a love triangle going on here, but there really wasn't. I feel like the romance doesn't really start until kind of late in the book, but that could be because the beginning of the book is really rather slow. Annaleigh and her love interest are so cute together, I absolutely adored it. However, I did feel like it was definitely a bit insta-lovey. But I loved it.

I loved the story and how things went. I thought at several different points that I definitely knew what was going on, but when it was revealed I didn't really know what to think. I feel like, looking back, there were probably enough hints and I probably knew in the back of my mind that this is what was going on, but I was still a bit surprised.

Obviously this book will hit you in the feels at least a little bit. At the start of the book, the Thaumas family is holding their fifth funeral, which is the four sisters and also the mother. And if you think the death stops there, well... you had better think again. This book hurt my feelings.

I really enjoyed this book. If I was going to complain about anything, it would just be that the beginning is slow and it feels like it takes a looong time for things to pick up. It was a perfect book to start my spooky-ish, atmospheric reading list. I think I have seen this book described as a horror fantasy, but it wasn't particularly scary or really fantastical. I think that kind of like a paranormal mystery/thriller would be more accurate.

If you have been on the fence about picking this one up, I would personally recommend it if anything I've said sounds like it could be up your alley.

Also, sorry if my review is atrocious, I still feel SO rusty getting back into writing reviews. I have been going into these reviews with the intention of trying to say a lot with few words, but I am WINDY, my friends.

Have you read this book yet? What did you think of it?

Review // Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication Date: July 9th, 2019

Rating: 2 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 353

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Summary (from Goodreads):

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

Okay, so picking up Wilder Girls, for me, was a choice made due to the cover and the hype, both of which let me down terribly. I have heard so much good stuff about this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

Wilder Girls primarily follows a girl named Hetty while she navigates life at Raxter, formerly her all girls' boarding school, now the place where she and the rest of the girls infected with the Tox are quarantined, waiting for a cure.

The Tox affects each girl differently. It fused the eyelids on one of Hetty's eyes shut, it gave her friend Reese a silver, scaled hand, and it gave her friend Byatt a second spine. I don't think this book ever really explains how the Tox came to be on the island where their school is. 

What can I say about the characters? I didn't really like any of them. I didn't really care about any of them. I didn't really understand why Hetty and Byatt were friends with Reese, I never really got the feeling that they liked her that much.

This book is pitched as a sapphic horror novel. The only relationships in this book are f/f. Romance isn't a big part of this book at all. I didn't really care about the romance in this book. Up until the point that they kissed, I had absolutely no idea which of the girls Hetty was going to end up with. It was a bit of a surprise to me.

I think my biggest problem with this book was the writing style. I don't know how to describe it, maybe it felt kind of distant and eerie? Whatever it was, I just could NOT get into it. In the beginning it felt really jarring to me. I feel like I noticed an abundance of commas being used throughout the book. I feel like if it hadn't been for the writing style, I might have liked this book at least a bit because I could have possibly gotten into the story.

Since I kept seeing this book being described as horror, I thought that it was going to be maybe somewhat scary. I mean, in a way, yeah it kind of is. But I was expecting for the book itself to be scary, not the part where you're thinking about how this book could relate to real life.

I think that this book is kind of a look at a possibility of what could happen in real life due to global warming? I remember reading an article a few years ago about how ancient illnesses could start popping up because of so many layers of permafrost melting and releasing bacteria and parasites that have been frozen for ages. And I think at the end of the book, it's mentioned that the illness the girls are experiencing could have been caused by a parasite that had likely been frozen and relatively recently thawed out.

And it feels like this book just kind of ends. Like, I have no idea what the characters are supposed to do from the point that this book ends. I feel like the ending is mildly hopeful for the characters, but also could be bleak. I literally don't know.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. I literally didn't care about anything in it the whole time I was reading. I kept reading, just hoping that it would hook me, but it never happened. I think I am in the minority on this one, it seems to have mostly good reviews. So, if you're curious you should give it a shot. I don't think that I would personally recommend it though.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Review // The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: September 24th, 2019

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: TheNovl

Format: Physical ARC

Pages: 352

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn ("Ryn") only cares about two things: her family, and her family's graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don't always stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as "bone houses," and legend says that they're the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it about Ellis that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

The Bone Houses follows Ryn, a gravedigger from the small village of Colbren, through a forest in medieval Wales as she tries to end a curse that brings back the dead every night. Along with her new friend, Ellis, who is a mapmaker, and a dead goat, she makes her way to the abandoned fortress of the Otherking to find and destroy the cauldron of rebirth, which is supposed to give life.

So.. I loved this book. I don't know what it is with me and books about reanimated corpses, but I love them so much.

I loved our main character, Ryn. Since her father disappeared, she has taken over his position digging graves for the villagers to earn money for her family. In fact, she seems to be entirely motivated by her family in one way or another. She will do whatever she has to do for her brother and sister. Her main reasons for helping Ellis with creating his map of the mountains are to get coin for her family and to see if she can find her father.

She is also one of the only people who believes in the bone houses, who generally stay within the confines of the forest. Until something changes and they start to venture out further and even begin to attack her village. She has taken to spending nights outside of the village to keep an eye on the bone houses and taking care of any that get too adventurous with the axe that she carries around with her.

I really liked Ellis as well. He is so dedicated to his mapmaking. His motivation with his maps seems to be to make sure that people don't get lost in their travels and villages and their people don't get forgotten about because nobody can find them. He has chronic pain from an injury he received as a child. I can't speak to whether it's good rep for chronic pain or not, though. His history is super interesting.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book. It's super slow burn. Ryn and Ellis get along so well in this book, that was something that I really appreciated about them. And it never feels like either of them were really chasing the other. It just kind of felt like they accidentally fell for each other on their journey. So more of this book felt like it was about what the characters were trying to accomplish rather than building a romance.

This story seems to be based heavily on Welsh mythology which, I thought was really interesting. I liked the questions about whether or not death changes a person. Are the bone houses just mindless zombies? Or are they just themselves, but dead? I liked the descriptions in this book. I thought the writing was lovely without being overly flowery.

Overall, I really liked this book! I didn't want to put it down while I was reading and I already have a finished copy preordered! If you're into dark standalones, Welsh mythology, ReAnImAtEd CoRpSeS(!!!), and slow-burn romance, I would recommend this book. It would be a perfect, atmospheric read for the spooky season.

Have you read this book or are you looking forward to it?

Review // Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Girls of Paper and Fire #1

Publisher: Jimmy Patterson Books

Publication: November 6th, 2018

Rating: 3.5 Stars??

Source: Audible

Format: Audiobook

Pages: 400

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most demeaning. This year, there's a ninth. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable -- she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Trigger warnings for rape, sexual assault, and animal death.

Girls of Paper and Fire follows Lei, a girl with golden eyes, who is taken from her village and forced to become one of the Demon King's Paper girls, or basically one of his teenage concubines.

Usually there are only eight Paper girls chosen, but Lei was taken from her village by a disgraced general who wanted to redeem himself with the Demon King. So she was kidnapped and made to be the ninth Paper girl, I think mostly because of her eyes and the fact that golden eyes are supposed to be lucky and the Demon King is superstitious.

Based on the synopsis, I thought that her being the ninth Paper girl was going to be more important than it felt to me. I also thought the "fire" part was going to be bigger, but this could all be me not paying close enough attention to the audiobook. Also, the golden eyes, for as much as they were talked about in the beginning of the book, didn't feel like that big of a deal.

So, in Ikhara, there are three types of people. Regular humans are known as the paper caste, they are the bottom class. Steel caste people are half demon and half human. And then the Moon caste people are full demons and they are the ruling class.

When Lei is forced into life as a Paper girl, she follows along dutifully with most everything she has to do because the general who took her said that if she didn't, her family would pay. She eventually kind of settles into life with the other Paper girls because she is hoping that she will be able to find her mother, who was taken from her village in a similar fashion seven years earlier. She makes friends with the girls and goes to her classes and does what is asked of her.

Until the first time she is called to the king's bedroom. When her name is on the paper that the king sends, she is taken to her first ye (?? I'm not sure, I listened to the audiobook) lesson, basically a sex lesson so she will have an idea of what to expect with the king.

So, overall, I do think that I liked this book, but I'm not 100% sure what I think of it. I think part of it is because I listened to the audiobook while I was doing other things. 

I don't know what I think of Lei. I don't actively dislike her, but I don't think I really actively like her either. She rebels against her role as a concubine by refusing the king because this isn't what she wants for herself. Which, I respect that. But I didn't like how she treated other girls who maybe embraced their position for whatever reason. They had no choice, maybe the actually found that they enjoyed it, they didn't want the punishments that came with refusing. Particularly the way she talked to her friend Aoki.

I liked the romance. Lei and another one of the Paper girls end up falling in love. I liked how Lei realized what her feelings were when she was at her first ye lesson and the instructor, Zelle, told her to just imagine during their lesson that she was with the person that she had feelings for instead of imagining the king. I liked how the girls relationship progressed. I feel like the only thing I didn't really like in this regard was how it felt like Lei was kind of demanding some of the other girl's secrets? I don't know. 

I feel like not a lot really happened in this book? Which, of course, so many of my problems could amount to how much attention I was able to give the audio at any given time. But it felt like she got taken, then there was a lot of stuff with the Paper girl business, then some stuff about a rebellion thrown in at the end. I don't really feel like Lei was qualified enough to be given as much of an opportunity to participate in this rebellion as she was. She had like five minutes of training at the end and then was forced into a main role.

The more I write in this review, the less I feel like I should be reviewing it at this point, honestly.

One thing I really didn't like about this book was how one girl was repeatedly described as "feline". As having "feline" features and whatever else. I could see that as being something to describe her once or twice, but after a certain point, I kept forgetting that she was a Paper girl and not a Steel or Moon caste cat form demon.

And one thing that I thought throughout this book (as someone who is absolutely not the target audience) was that it could possibly benefit from being NA or adult even. It is a book entirely about a group of girls who are chosen to be the king's concubines, who are called one by one to his bedroom, and who have sex lessons every time they are chosen by the king. Girls sneak off with lovers. For a book that is so centered around people having sex, I feel like the story would have benefitted from not having to be so fade-to-black.

But once again, I am not the target audience for this and am probably projecting the types of things I want to find out there to read.

So, when I finished this book, I was like, "Yes! This was so good!" And while, I still feel like I liked it, the more I think about it, the more the details are fuzzy (I only just finished it two days ago), and I just feel like I am confused. I will absolutely be continuing on with the series because I am curious to see what happens next. But I will definitely benefit from a physical re-read of this book. Also, the covers are goooorgeous.

This is 100% why I tend to prefer audiobooks for rereads. I always feel like I get more from the original story, with this I just feel confused at this point. What a great starting point for hopping back into reviews! Love this for me. I feel like you can just see where things started going downhill in my head.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review // Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Publication Date: March 5th, 2019

Rating: 3 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 368

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

I read Daisy Jones & The Six for the 2019 OWLs Magical Readathon for the Charms prompt. Unfortunately, this book didn't charm me.

I think this was a case of being letdown by the hype. I have seen so many people flailing about this book and that combined with the hype for Reid's last book, I was expecting this book to be amazing.

The book is told in an interview format with the members of the bad plus a few other people that were important to the band or the creation of the music. They are telling the story of what happened around 30 years ago when their band split up. I liked the way this story was told. I don't usually like interview format stories, but I think that was the best way to get all the information from all the characters.

So, what I did like about this book was getting to see the process of the band coming together and the making of the album. That was interesting. I liked the character interactions and relationships, but I didn't particularly feel attached to any of the characters. I think I would have to say that my favorite character was probably Billy. I liked seeing his internal struggle with his addiction and trying to be the best man that he can for his family. I think he was probably the most interesting character to me.

But I didn't really feel like this book was very exciting. I did read this whole book in one day and it was interesting enough to keep me wanting to go on, but the whole time it was just okay. And I think I kept going so hard because I wanted to get to the end because I was expecting it to be so good. But when I got to the part where it explains why the band broke up, I found it to be super anticlimactic and not really anything that I hadn't seen coming.

Overall, this book was really just meh for me. It never really hooked me. I didn't actively dislike it, but I also kind of wish I could have those hours back. If you want to read a book all about sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, you ought to give this book a try.

Have you read Daisy Jones & The Six yet? What did you think of it?

Review // The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco

The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch #3

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: March 5th, 2019

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Emma @ Miss Print

Format: ARC

Pages: 449

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Summary (from Goodreads):

In the highly anticipated finale to the Bone Witch trilogy, Tea’s life—and the fate of the kingdoms—hangs in the balance.

Tea is a bone witch with the dark magic needed to raise the dead. She has used this magic to breathe life into those she has loved and lost…and those who would join her army against the deceitful royals. But Tea's quest to conjure a shadowglass—to achieve immortality for the one person she loves most in the world—threatens to consume her heart.

Tea's black heartsglass only grows darker with each new betrayal. And when she is left with new blood on her hands, Tea must answer to a power greater than the elder asha or even her conscience...

The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco was easily my most anticipated book of 2019 (which I think says a lot considering there was already an Alexandra Bracken release this year). I adore this series with my whole heart and this finale absolutely lived up to the hype I made for it.

This book is told in the dual timeline format again with the bard in the present and then Tea's story leading up to how he found her on the Sea of Skulls. In the bard's perspective, Tea has just finished up her business in Daanoris and is leading her army of daeva toward Drycht to finish what she started. She won't take him along because of the danger to him so she gives him a stack of letters to complete her story.

In her story they are learning more about the blight that is causing people to turn into daeva-like creatures and trying to figure out what secrets the elder asha are hiding regarding the Dark asha and what they can actually do.

This book was a RIDE, let me tell you. This book has everything. There's betrayal, there's an air of mystery, there is crushing heartbreak. There are wonderful friendships and wonderful romances.

I literally just want to reread this series over and over and over. I loved it so much. If The Heart Forger hadn't landed Rin Chupeco on my auto-buy author list, this book would have definitely cemented her spot.

I love all of the characters in this series. Tea and Kalen. Fox and Inessa. Likh and Khalad. Shadi and Zoya.

I love Tea and Kalen's relationship. They are kind of enemies-to-lovers. They are like... fictional couple goals, in my opinion. Like, they have their disagreements, things aren't always wonderful for them, but there isn't like a big fight or some other circumstance that separates them in the book at any point, which is something I like. I hate when couples have big misunderstandings that are blown out of proportions or are separated for huge chunks of the book. I love me a power couple that can work through their problems and still adore each other through it all.

Like I believe I mentioned in my review for The Heart Forger, there is the f/f pairing of Shadi and Zoya (who I don't recall being a huge part of this particular book, it has been a few days since I finished this book because I just needed to bask in its gloriousness).

I believe I mentioned in that last review also that there was the m/m pairing of Likh and Khalad, but that is not correct. In this book, Likh gets to finally become a full fledged asha apprentice and is frequently called Lady Likh, she always corrects people when they say that. But in this book Tea reads in Likh's heartsglass that she would like to be Lady Likh and from that point on Likh is referred to as she/Lady Likh and there are no more corrections or anything like that.

Anyway, I love Likh and Khalad, they are/were both so clueless about how the other felt about them. I don't remember at what point in the series they finally got their act together and realized how the other felt because I binged this whole series over the course of several snow days and I don't know where one book ends and the other begins at this point.

I could sit here and gush about this book and its characters for DAYS, but I think you should just go read the series for yourself and then come flail with me!

For real, I have been WAITING for the resolution to this series since I started the first book! I finally have all the answers to my questions I had since the beginning! WHO is in the grave on the Sea of Skulls and WHAT happened to them?

This series has definitely made my top three favorite series ever. If you like necromancy and squad goals, you will probably like this book too.

Have you read this series yet? What did you think of it?

Review // The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken

The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding #2

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: February 5th, 2019

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Gift from Emma

Format: ARC

Pages: 448

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Three hundred years ago, fate bound Prosper Redding and Prince Alastor of the Third Realm together. Now the human boy and fiend heir to the demon kingdom must put aside a centuries-old blood feud to save everything they love. 

Alastor will guide Prosper through the demon realm—under one huge condition: Prosper must enter into a contract with the malefactor residing in him, promising eternal servitude in the afterlife. With Prosper's sister in the clutches of the evil queen Pyra, Prosper has no choice but to agree. 

But when they arrive in Alastor's deliciously demonic home, the realm is almost as alien to Alastor as it is to Prosper—the lowest fiends have dethroned the ruling malefactors, while an unfathomable force called the Void is swiftly consuming the realm. The desperate fiends cling to the one person who says she can stop it: Pyra. 

As Prosper embarks on a perilous rescue mission to the Tower of No Return, he can't help but feel for the demons losing their home—even Alastor, who lives by a set of rules that have vanished in a new world. 

With the fates of humans and demons at odds, the battle lines are drawn. Long ago, Prosper's ancestor Honor Redding proved that humans and demons could never be friends. But is Prosper like his ancestor? And is Alastor the same demon who was betrayed by the one human he cared for?

The Last Life of Prince Alastor picks up right where The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding left off. Prosper has just created a contract with Alastor so that Alastor will help him navigate through the Third Realm to save his sister. But things in the Third Realm are very different under Alastor's sister's rule than they were when he was last there. The lowest caste of fiends have more power and there is a void swallowing up everything in sight because of an overuse of magic.

So, it has been a hot minute since I finished this book and this is just the first moment that I am feeling particularly inspired to write a review for it. So, sorry that this review might not be particularly in depth.

This middle grade series is so much fun! When Halloween time rolls around, this will be a series you want to read. A duology about a boy who is possessed by a fiend (or rather a demon) and who spends the first book living mostly in a haunted house in Salem and who's best friend is a witch? Just perfect for September/October.

This book has a slightly different format than the first one. In this book, it jumps back to Alastor's POV in the past on a few occasions to show us how this whole mess started with Alastor and Honor. I found this to be super interesting to see how the contracts they made kind of evolved from being things that Honor wanted to help his people to things that basically screwed over other people.

I loved exploring the Third Realm in this book and learning how things work down there and learning more about different Realms and how they were kind of created and what not.

I did feel like this book had some relatively dark things in it for a middle grade. I will say that I have not read extensively in middle grade so I don't really know what is and isn't stuff that you would normally see in one. However, at one point I do remember seeing Alex talk about how she had to call the demons something else to make it more kid friendly, so that is why I feel like the two things that I am thinking of are kind of dark for a middle grade.

The first thing I am thinking of deals with the changelings. You may recall that after a certain point in the first book, no one has seen Toad or Eleanor for awhile. We run into them again in the Third Realm in a marketplace being sold with a handful of other changelings for meat. So, Prosper has to take a bit of a detour from finding Prue to save the changelings. But when they finally make it to the house where the changelings are to be served, they aren't able to save them all and I believe it was implied that they were already cooked and served.

Which, like.. cooking and eating meat isn't something particularly taboo or anything, but changelings are basically like implied to be pets and the fact that some of them didn't make it feels dark to me for a middle grade.

The other instance that I am thinking of happens more shortly after they arrive in the Third Realm. Prosper gets picked up along with some vampires and they are on their way to basically an execution. When Pyra came into power, she took power away from the fiends who had always had it and gave it to the ones who didn't. And you don't see any of the types of fiends that Alastor was accustomed to seeing out and about and it seemed to me to be that they were basically exterminated because they wouldn't apologize for how they behaved before in keeping the lower fiends down.

So, like.. all in all, not bad for a book that I would normally read, but like I said, it just felt dark for a middle grade. Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess I just wasn't expecting content like that??

I also thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between Alastor and Prosper. I love Alastor's character and all of his hilarious insults. I liked Pyra, like she's bad and whatever, but I like that she gave power to the underdogs and was doing everything in her power to save her people. I also liked seeing a different side to Prosper's "evil" grandmother.

Overall, I just really liked this book. It was fun and a great sequel. I can't think of anything that I personally would complain about, but I feel like the two "dark" things I mentioned above may be things to keep in mind?

I love Alexandra Bracken's work and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next!

Have you read this series yet? What did you think of it?

Review // White Stag by Kara Barbieri

White Stag by Kara Barbieri

Permafrost #1

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication Date: January 8th, 2019

Rating: 2 Stars

Source: Netgalley

Format: eARC

Pages: 368

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Summary (from Goodreads):

The first book in a brutally stunning series where a young girl finds herself becoming more monster than human and must uncover dangerous truths about who she is and the place that has become her home.

As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.

Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.

Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.

**I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review**

Trigger warning for mentions of rape.

White Stag is basically a story that follows Janneke, a human thrall to a Goblin master, as he goes on the Hunt, trying to become the next Erlking.

Janneke has lived in the Permafrost, or the chilly world of the goblins, for about 100 years. The synopsis of this book is a bit misleading, I think, because it made me think that it would moreso follow Janneke as she is taken from the human world into the Permafrost, but actually she has been a thrall in the Permafrost for almost 100 years now. This book picks up as Janneke is accompanying Soren to wait for the Erlking to die and the White Stag to run off so the goblins can chase it and find out who the next Erlking will be. It also turns out that she is adapting so well to living in the Permafrost that she is losing her humanity and becoming a Goblin herself.

I liked Janneke well enough. She has really found herself in a conundrum. She finds herself becoming a monster, but some events in this book have her questioning what her definition of a monster is and whether it is actually strictly goblin or if there's more to it than that. She is also struggling with what happened to her as she was taken from the human world. The goblin that took her in brutally raped her and mutilated one of her breasts while he was at it.

These two facts were brought up over and over and over again. And while I definitely sympathize with Janneke and understand why she hates Lydian so much and wants to Soren to be Erlking over him, I don't think these facts needed to be thrust in our faces so often. What happened to her was horrible and Lydian is definitely a bastard, and perhaps having to be around him so much with the Hunt going on is bringing back traumatic memories for her, but it was still brought up way more than was truly necessary.

Janneke is definitely strong to be able to survive what she has and to live among the Goblins for so long without dying. She is also dealing with leftover feelings of guilt about surviving the attack on her village while her entire family and everyone else was slaughtered. She is wondering what her loved ones would think of her as she's becoming less human. She really needs to catch a break.

Soren is the love interest and Janneke's 'master'. But he doesn't really treat her so much like a thrall. It has been a week or so since I finished this book and I honestly don't remember that much about Soren. I did like him while I was reading the story and he wasn't totally awful and I liked him and Janneke together, but he was not a super interesting character. There was nothing to him, he definitely needed a lot of development.

The other important character is the villain, Lydian. He is the one who, I think, led the attack on Janneke's village and originally took her in as a thrall. He would frequently ask her things like, "What happens when the serpent stops eating it's tail?" And it's clearly something important to Lydian, he thinks it's something that could disrupt their world. It's not something that really gets any attention, but at the end of the book there is a vague mention of it. I'm still confused about this part of the book?

While I did like the romance in this book, it really wasn't exciting. It didn't feel like anything special, and it was kinda forgettable.

There is next to no world building in this book. I'm confused about most aspects of this world in general.

I'm confused about the thralls. Besides Janneke, I remember one other thrall being mentioned. Goblins seem to need human thralls to perform tasks for them that they can't do for themselves. I think it is a concept similar to in An Enchantment of Ravens where the fae can't do "Craft" so instead they pay humans to do these things for them. But in this book, goblins just kidnap humans to perform these tasks for them. But I don't recall there ever being any kind of explanation as to what kind of tasks goblins can't perform and why? I feel like that is important to the overall concept of thralls? It seems like, if there are tasks that they can't perform themselves, goblins would need thralls, and therefore there should be more mentions of them? Basically the task that Janneke performs for Soren is listening/spying. Probably not something that he physically cannot do himself.

So, the overall plot of the book is that they are on the Hunt to determine the new Erlking. But if I remember correctly, at the beginning, it kind of sounded like there would be so many groups on this Hunt, trying to kill the stag. And it kind of sounded like it could be dangerous? But besides the group that she is in, they meet one other group of goblins on their overall journey. That's not really what I was expecting, I guess. They find some trouble from some creatures that I think were supposed to be dragons, but I thought they were just giant worms like that one huge worm that causes trouble in some episode of Spongebob. That's what I was picturing. There were several other creatures that throw a wrench into their plans too, but I was thinking that other goblins would be more of a problem than they were.

Another thing, for a book that is supposed to overall kind of be a journey, there really aren't much for traveling scenes. There are a few, but for the most part it felt to me like they were in one place, then oh, they were in another, then all of a sudden they were in yet another.

Lastly, the goblins in this book were described as being beautiful and that just doesn't fit with everything I think I know about goblins. It sounds like it might be some kind of glamour, but still, that doesn't feel right.

Overall, I found this book fun to read at the moment. But after the fact, I am left with a lot of questions and not a lot of recollection of what actually happened in this book. The premise of the Hunt and finding the next Erlking is super interesting, but the characters are mostly boring and the world and journey are too.

I am kind of curious to see what happens in the future of this series, but probably not curious enough to pay money to find out. This is not a book that I would personally recommend to someone.

Have you read White Stag yet? What did you think of it?