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Review: Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
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Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
Series: The Twilight Saga #5
Genre: Paranormal
Published by: Atom
Pages: 768
Release date: 04/08/2020
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.
This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger? -
Review: The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery
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The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery
Genre: Young Adult | Historical
Published by: Hot Key Books
Pages: 304
Release date: 04/04/2020
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: 1945, Hiroshima: Ichiro is a teenage boy relaxing at home with his friend Hiro. Moments later there is a blinding flash as the horrific nuclear bomb is dropped. With great bravery the two boys find Hiro’s five year-old sister Keiko in the devastated and blasted landscape. With Hiro succumbing to his wounds, Ichiro is now the only one who can take care of Keiko. But in the chaos Ichiro loses her when he sets off to find help.Seventy years later, the loss of Keiko and his broken promise to his dying friend are haunting the old man’s fading years. Mizuki, his grandaughter, is determined to help him. As the Japanese legend goes, if you have the patience to fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will find your heart’s desire; and it turns out her grandfather has only one more origami crane to fold…
Narrated in a compelling mix of straight narrative, free verse and haiku poems, this is a haunting and powerful novel of courage and survival, with full-page illustrations by Natsko Seki.
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Review: The Wolf and the Water by Josie Jaffrey
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The Wolf and the Water by Josie Jaffrey
Series: Deluge #1
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Silver Sun Books
Pages: 268
Release date: 08/10/2020
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Where to find: Goodreads
Trigger warnings: Violence, murder, death, racism, ableism, slavery, misogyny, parental abuse, miscarriage, sexual assault
Summary: Some secrets are worth killing for.The ancient city of Kepos sits in an isolated valley, cut off from the outside world by a towering wall. Behind it, the souls of the dead clamour for release. Or so the priesthood says.
Kala has never had any reason to doubt their word – until her father dies in suspicious circumstances that implicate the city’s high priest. She’s determined to investigate, but she has a more immediate problem: the laws of the city require her mother to remarry straight away.
Kala’s new stepfather is a monster, but his son Leon is something altogether more dangerous: kind.
With her family fractured and the investigation putting her life in danger, the last thing Kala needs is romance. She would rather ignore Leon entirely, however difficult he makes it. But when she learns the truth of what really clamours behind the wall at the end of the valley, she faces a choice: share what she knows and jeopardise her escape, or abandon him to his fate along with the rest of the city.
If she doesn’t move fast, then no one will make it out of the valley alive.
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Review: The Deck of Omens by Christine Lynn Herman
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The Deck of Omens by Christine Lynn Herman
Series: The Devouring Gray #2 (book 1 review)
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal
Published by: Titan Books
Pages: 405
Release date: 21/04/2020
Rating: ★★★★☆
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: The teenagers of Four Paths must save their home.Though the Beast is seemingly subdued for now, a new threat looms in Four Paths: a corruption seeping from the Gray into the forest. And with the other Founders preoccupied by their tangled alliances and fraying relationships, only May Hawthorne seems to realize the danger. But saving the town she loves means seeking aid from the person her family despises most–her and Justin’s father.
May’s father isn’t the only newcomer in town–Isaac Sullivan’s older brother has also returned, seeking forgiveness for the role he played in Isaac’s troubled past. But Isaac isn’t ready to let go of his family’s history, especially when that history might hold the key that he and Violet Saunders need to destroy the Gray and the monster within it.
Harper Carlisle isn’t ready to forgive, either. Two devastating betrayals have left her isolated from her family and uncertain who to trust. As the corruption becomes impossible to ignore, Harper must learn to control her newfound powers in order to protect Four Paths. But the only people who can help her do that are the ones who have hurt her the most.
With the veil between the Gray and the town growing ever thinner, all of the Founder descendants must put their grievances with one another aside to stop the corruption and kill the Beast once and for all.
But maybe the monster they truly need to slay has never been the Beast…
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Review: The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
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The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
Series: The Devouring Gray #1
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal
Published by: Titan Books
Pages: 400
Release date: 16/04/2019
Rating: ★★★★☆
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: Branches and stones, daggers and bones,
They locked the Beast away.After the death of her sister, seventeen-year-old Violet Saunders finds herself dragged to Four Paths, New York. Violet may be a newcomer, but she soon learns her mother isn’t: They belong to one of the revered founding families of the town, where stone bells hang above every doorway and danger lurks in the depths of the woods.
Justin Hawthorne’s bloodline has protected Four Paths for generations from the Gray—a lifeless dimension that imprisons a brutal monster. After Justin fails to inherit his family’s powers, his mother is determined to keep this humiliation a secret. But Justin can’t let go of the future he was promised and the town he swore to protect.
Ever since Harper Carlisle lost her hand to an accident that left her stranded in the Gray for days, she has vowed revenge on the person who abandoned her: Justin Hawthorne. There are ripples of dissent in Four Paths, and Harper seizes an opportunity to take down the Hawthornes and change her destiny-to what extent, even she doesn’t yet know.
The Gray is growing stronger every day, and its victims are piling up. When Violet accidentally unleashes the monster, all three must band together with the other Founders to unearth the dark truths behind their families’ abilities—before the Gray devours them all.
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Review: The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker by Lauren James
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The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker by Lauren James
Genre: Paranormal
Published by: Walker Books
Pages: 425
Release date: 03/09/2020
Rating: ★★★★☆
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: What if death is only the beginning?When Harriet Stoker dies after falling from a balcony in a long-abandoned building, she discovers a group of ghosts, each with a special power.
Felix, Kasper, Rima and Leah welcome Harriet into their world, eager to make friends with the new arrival after decades alone. Yet Harriet is more interested in unleashing her own power, even if it means destroying everyone around her. But when all of eternity is at stake, the afterlife can be a dangerous place to make an enemy.
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Review: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
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Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Hot Key Books
Pages: 476
Release date: 18/08/2020
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as the Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of Eleven. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But the Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn–but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?
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Review: Boy Queen by George Lester
Boy Queen by George Lester
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Macmillan
Pages: 400
Release date: 06/08/2020
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: Life’s a drag until you try . . .Robin Cooper’s life is falling apart.
While his friends prepare to head off to university, Robin is looking at a pile of rejection letters from drama schools up and down the country, and facing a future without the people he loves the most. Everything seems like it’s ending, and Robin is scrabbling to find his feet.
Unsure about what to do next and whether he has the talent to follow his dreams, he and his best friends go and drown their sorrows at a local drag show, where Robin realises there might be a different, more sequinned path for him . . .
With a mother who won’t stop talking, a boyfriend who won’t acknowledge him and a best friend who is dying to cover him in glitter make up, there’s only one thing for Robin to do: bring it to the runway.
Boy Queen by George Lester is a sparkling debut full of big hair, big heels and even bigger hearts.
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Review: Loveless by Alice Oseman
Loveless by Alice Oseman
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Harper Collins
Pages: 435
Release date: 09/07/2020
Rating: ★★★★☆
Where to find: Goodreads | Waterstones
Summary: It was all sinking in. I’d never had a crush on anyone. No boys, no girls, not a single person I had ever met. What did that mean?Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day.
As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia’s ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her ‘teenage dream’ is in sight.
But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her – asexual, aromantic – Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever.
Is she destined to remain loveless? Or has she been looking for the wrong thing all along?
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Blog Tour: Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron (Review)
Hey guys. Today is my stop on the blog tour for Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron and I am sharing my review with you. Enjoy!
Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
Genre: Fantasy
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 400
Release date: 06/08/2020
Rating: ★★★★★
Summary: It’s 200 years since Cinderella found her prince, but the fairytale is over.Sophia knows the story though, off by heart. Because every girl has to recite it daily, from when she’s tiny until the night she’s sent to the royal ball for choosing. And every girl knows that she has only one chance. For the lives of those not chosen by a man at the ball … are forfeit.
But Sophia doesn’t want to be chosen – she’s in love with her best friend, Erin, and hates the idea of being traded like cattle. And when Sophia’s night at the ball goes horribly wrong, she must run for her life. Alone and terrified, she finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s tomb. And there she meets someone who will show her that she has the power to remake her world …
An electrifying twist on the classic fairytale that will inspire girls to break out of limiting stereotypes and follow their dreams!
