by Danielle L. Jensen. In this book we follow a woman called Freya, who’s stuck in an unwanted marriage to an awful man and spends her days longing for a life as a warrior. But when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl Freya ends up in a fight for life and death. She is forced to reveal her greatest secret. She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such magic would unite the fractured region beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate. And jarl Snorri is not about to give up his chance at becoming King, so he decides Freya is now his. Leaving Freya not only forced to fight for the jarl, but also against her own rising, and very much forbidden, desire for his son. When I got this book to review, I knew very little of it and I hadn’t read much more than the title and the fact that it was a Norse-inspired fantasy. That part is perhaps important considering my reaction to the novel.  All in all, this is a really good book. It’s easy…

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…

by Hannah Whitten. When she was thirteen, Lore escaped from a cult in the catacombs. Now, she is a spy working for the women who took her in when she was found outside the catacombs. Lore can wield Mortem, a form of death magic that people gain after getting close to dying. Only, Lore was born with her ability. The church has prohibited its use, allowing only members of the Presque Mort to channel it.  But during a job, things go south and Lore gets caught channeling Mortem by the Presque Mort. Lore expects death, but instead she’d taken to the King and given two options: spy on the prince or face death.  Now, Lore finds herself thrust into the world of court intrigue and political machinations. And everyone around her seems to carry secrets just as dark as the one she is. So who can she trust, and who’s telling the truth? The Foxglove King was an unexpected hit for me. I haven’t read anything by Hannah Whitten before, but I found this book intriguing from the beginning and it held my attention to the very end.  I think the worldbuilding was just enough for my taste. The focus was…

by Susan Dennard In this book we follow Winnie on her quest to become a hunter of nightmares. Every night the forest in Hemlock Falls turns into a deadly trap. Nightmares spawn here, and the hunters of an ancient order called the Luminaries are tasked with protecting Hemlock Falls, and the rest of the world, from these terrible creatures.  All Winnie wants is to become one of them, a task easier said than done after her father was deemed a traitor and the whole family was branded as outcast because of it. But Winnie won’t give up her dream and decides to undergo the hunter trials despite what everyone else thinks of her.  So, this book has some really great parts, and some less great parts. I think the core of the story is great, and the premise and the idea here was super interesting. These nightmares in the woods and this hidden away town and the order. There were so many great things that made me interested in the story. And I think Winnie was a good character to tell this story.  The worldbuilding is good, and it’s incorporated in the story in such a way that it doesn’t…

by Kate Dylan. Christ that was…. predictable, but enjoyable.   In this book we follow a girl called Sil Sarrah that has a very high-tech supercomputer grafted to her brain. This special computer with its accompanying AI Jarvis, allows her to see and analyze the world around her in seconds. A necessary skill needed to perform her job as a Walker for the Syntex corporation, which means to rescue their field agents by entering their minds and taking control of their bodies. And Sil is the best they’ve ever seen. There’s only one problem, Walkers don’t live past 19 and Sil’s time’s running out. And when she’s framed and branded a traitor, she runs for her life, determined to prove she’s innocent. But when she uncovers a secret that threatens to destroy everything she’s ever worked for, she’s forced to decide where her allegiances lie. So, I listened to this as an audiobook, and I have to say I’m happily surprised. This book was really good and filled with tension and action, and I really enjoyed listening to it.  This story is set in a future America, and I think it was described very nicely with enough details that I could…

by Sunya Mara. I listened to this book as an audiobook, and I must say that I really enjoyed it.  We follow a character named Vesper Vale. Who I in all honesty thought was named Vespa until I read the blurb for this book just and realized the narrator of the audiobook clearly pronounced the “er” closer to “a”. Oh well, it makes little difference here.  Versper is the daughter of failed revolutionaries, and she’s hiding away with her father together with people who’s been touched by the Storm. It’s a dark and dangerous storm that turns people who touch it into cursed creatures.  When Vesper tries to save a mother and her child from the storm, she ends up caught by it, and her father is forced to use his skill in icons to save Vesper from certain death. The only problem with that is he now reveals his location and puts a target on his and Vesper’s back.  While trying to get away, Vesper’s father gets taken away by Prince Dalca and Vesper swears to do whatever it takes to get her father back alive.  It’s a wonderful premise and a really good opening of the book that…

by Alexandra Rowland.  In this book we follow Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, and his bodyguards as they investigate a break-in and tries to find the source of counterfeit money. So, this is a somewhat hard review to write because I’m honestly not sure what the book was about. It’s a book with some great elements, but also some less great ones.  Let’s start with the plot. There’s some sort of mystery at the core of this story. Counterfeit money has been found, and Kadou must find where they are from before this money spreads and his country loses its good reputation. It’s a good premise, but it’s like nothing happens. Things move at such a slow pace that we lose what’s happening and it all just becomes confusing, and every twist that happens are so obvious that it doesn’t even feel like a twist.  I kept reading and reading and it felt like I’d been doing so forever, and then I was still at just 20% or something. It was a pain to get through at times because there was nothing interesting happening.  In the end, the plot didn’t do anything for the story and it would have…

by Roshani Chokshi. This is a very interesting and well-developed book that not only has a diverse and interesting group of characters, but also a very good heist-like plotline that has you intrigued from the beginning until the end.  I really like how diverse the characters are, they have very different personalities that makes this story feel very real. It’s rare to have people who are so different working together in YA books, and it’s refreshing that many of us can find someone to relate to in this book. And every character has a lot to bring to the story, too. It’s not like they are just there to be diverse, as I’ve found in many other books. Here, everyone has a role to play, an important role at that, and the story, and the plot, wouldn’t work without each and every character and their special skills and personality. Are they perfect? No. There are times when I feel like they come across as a little forced, a little too much “look how inclusive this book is”, which also makes the characters at times feel a little like caricatures. But I think that listening to this book rather than reading…

by Adalyn Grace. In this book we follow a young woman called Signa Farrow. She’s lived a life haunted by Death. More or less her whole family died when she was just a baby. But Signa cannot die, which not only made her the sole heir to a fortune, but gave her a connection to Death and the world beyond the living. One by one of Signa’s (very unfitting) guardians is taken by Death, making Signa more and more lonely and angry with Death. But when Signa is sent to Thorn Grove to live with her last remaining relatives, the Hawthornes, she stumbles upon angered spirits, strange illnesses, and an array of eccentric people with plenty of secrets. Soon Signa realizes that the illnesses are in fact unnatural, and that the death isn’t natural. To solve the murder and bring peace back to Thorn Grove, Signa has to make an alliance with Death himself. So, this was an interesting read with some very good elements.  I find that the writing is detailed and at times poetic and a bit “old”, which fits the story since it takes place somewhere in the 1800s. I did find it a bit jarring to…

by Namina Forna. This is going to be a very quick and short review, because I can’t really express my disappointment of this sequel. I really loved the first book in the series and I gave it five stars. That was a fast paced and action-filled novel with great characters and a great plot. Here, I’m not sure what’s going on because nothing happens. It’s so slow and just goes on and on and the characters all of a sudden feels super flat and the plot never grabs hold. It was a pain to get though. It’s like it’s too slow and too fast at the same time. It’s like the characters we got to know in the first book isn’t here anymore. They are flat and boring and sound the same and there are no stakes whatsoever that matters to me as a reader. Why should I care if they succeed in their mission? Why should I care if they all die? I’m not given any reason to like the characters, to understand why they are doing what they are doing. It really breaks my heart to write this review and to say these things about a sequel to a…