by Vanessa Len. This review will contain spoilers for book one in this series, Only a Monster. This is the sequel to one of my favorite books from last year, and I’m always a little hesitant going into sequels because I often find them disappointing compared to the first book. Vanessa Len, however, have managed to get the sequel very intriguing with just the right amount of recaps from book one for this to be really good. In this book we follow Joan after the events of Only a Monster where she successfully changed the timeline to save her family, but her success has come with a great cost. Her friend doesn’t remember her anymore, and no one but her remembers the old timeline. It was quite a long time since I read the first book in the series, and I realized when I started reading that I didn’t quite remember what had happened. But I think that also worked out for the better since no one but Joan remembers the events of the last book either. That means that we get to remember at the same rate as everyone else. And I feel like this would have been a…
by Nicki Pau Preto. In this book we meet Wren, a bonesmith and the daughter of House of Bone’s leader. Born out of wedlock after her father’s quick fling with a woman during the war, Wren has a hard time earning the respect she deserves from her family. Her only chance is to become a valkyr—a ghost-fighting warrior. But things get out of hand when Wren is sabotaged, causing her to fail the qualifying trial. Banished from her home, Wren is lost for hope. But when a prince from the House of Gold gets kidnapped, she sees her chance for redemption. Her quest to save the prince, however, turns out to reveal secrets that may change everything Wren has ever thought to know. This book was a nice surprise. I didn’t know much about it going in, but I found the reading experience enjoyable. It’s a fast paced and action-filled story with an interesting world that I loved getting immersed in. The plot keeps a steady pace forward, making it fun to keep reading. There were rarely any dull moments. The characters are okay, a bit flat perhaps, sort of cardboard-cutout, standard YA characters. They were rather predictable, but I found…