Category: Young Adult

Title: Rule (Rule #1)
Author: Ellen Goodlett
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Reader
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 11, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Three girls with three deadly secrets. Only one can wear the crown.

The king is dying, his heir has just been murdered, and rebellion brews in the east. But the kingdom of Kolonya and the outer Reaches has one last option before it descends into leaderless chaos.

Or rather, three unexpected options.

Zofi has spent her entire life trekking through the outer Reaches with her band of Travelers. She would do anything to protect the band, her family. But no one can ever find out how far she’s already gone.

Akeylah was raised in the Eastern Reach, surrounded by whispers of rebellion and abused by her father. Desperate to escape, she makes a decision that threatens the whole kingdom.

Ren grew up in Kolonya, serving as a lady’s maid and scheming her way out of the servants’ chambers. But one such plot could get her hung for treason if anyone ever discovers what she’s done.

When the king summons the girls, they arrive expecting arrest or even execution. Instead they learn the truth: they are his illegitimate daughters, and one must become his new heir. But someone in Kolonya knows their secrets, and that someone will stop at nothing to keep the sisters from their destiny… to rule.

Magic, mystery, and blackmail abound in this sensational and striking fantasy debut.

Review:

Three girls with three secrets are summoned to the kingdom, Kolonya, by the King himself. Zofi has spent her life on the run with her mother. Ren has worked as a lady’s maid with her mother in the kingdom. Akeylah was raised by an abusive father who blamed her for her mother’s death. When the three girls arrive at the palace, they’re told that they’re the King’s daughters. He has summoned them because he is dying and must choose one of them as his heir. The problem is that each of these girls has a dark secret. Someone at the palace knows their secrets and will use them to drive the sisters out of the palace.

This was such an intense fantasy story! It alternated between the three sister’s points of view. I liked how quickly the story began. The first chapters were introductions to the girls in their homes, which showed how they were called to the palace. There wasn’t any time wasted in getting right into the story.

I thought I had the story all figured out, but I was wrong. There were lots of dark, twisty turns that kept the story moving at a fast paced. It ended on a cliffhanger, so I’m going to have to go get the sequel to find out what happens next!

Rule is a great suspenseful fantasy!

What to read next:

Rise by Ellen Goodlett

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Other books in the series:

• Rise

Have you read Rule? What did you think of it?

Title: Stalking Shadows
Author: Cyla Panin
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Amulet Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 14, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A gothic YA fantasy debut about a young woman striving to break her sister’s curse and stop the killing in her small French town

Seventeen-year-old Marie mixes perfumes to sell on market day in her small eighteenth-century French town. She wants to make enough to save a dowry for her sister, Ama, in hopes of Ama marrying well and Marie living in the level of freedom afforded only to spinster aunts. But her perfumes are more than sweet scents in cheap, cut-glass bottles: A certain few are laced with death. Marie laces the perfume delicately—not with poison but with a hint of honeysuckle she’s trained her sister to respond to. Marie marks her victim, and Ama attacks. But she doesn’t attack as a girl. She kills as a beast.

Marking Ama’s victims controls the damage to keep suspicion at bay. But when a young boy turns up dead one morning, Marie is forced to acknowledge she might be losing control of Ama. And if she can’t control her, she’ll have to cure her. Marie knows the only place she’ll find the cure is in the mansion where Ama was cursed in the first place, home of Lord Sebastien LeClaire. But once she gets into the mansion, she discovers dark secrets hidden away—secrets of the curse, of Lord Sebastien . . . and of herself.

Review:

Seventeen-year-old Marie makes perfume with her sister to sell at the market everyday, but there’s a secret behind the perfume. Some of it is laced with a scent that marks the wearer as a target for her sister, Ama, when she turns into a beast once a month. Marie limits the people that Ama kills to ones who won’t be missed from the village, so it doesn’t draw attention to her sister. However, when people are killed between the nights when her sister becomes the beast, Marie gets concerned that their secret will be discovered. Marie goes to the place where her sister became cursed: the home of Lord Sebastian LeClaire. While looking after Sebastian’s sickly younger brother, Marie searches for the cure to her sister’s beastly curse.

This story was an original version of the Beauty and the Beast tale. Instead of the Beauty and Beast characters being female and male, the two characters were sisters. This increased the intensity of their relationship right from the beginning, since Marie was trying to save her sister, rather than being in an enemies-to-lovers relationship like in the original tale.

Though there were some intense moments and high stakes in the story, it was a little slow paced. I would have liked to see more danger and tense moments with the “beast.” There was a lot of reflection and details, but I would have loved more dramatic action.

Stalking Shadows is a great original Beauty and the Beast story!

Thank you Amulet Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

About the author:

Cyla Panin is an MG, YA and Adult Author who prefers to look at the world through a dusting of magic.

After spending most of her childhood wanting to escape into the wonderful worlds her favourite authors created, she’s now using her own words to craft magical places. When not writing, Cyla can be found playing dinosaurs with her two young boys, watching swashbuckling and/or period TV shows with her husband, and, of course, reading.

Her YA debut, STALKING SHADOWS will be out with Amulet, Abrams Fall 2021. She is represented by Chloe Seager of the Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV, and Film Agency.

Have you read Stalking Shadows? What did you think of it?

Title: Walking in Two Worlds
Author: Wab Kinew
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 14, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

An Indigenous teen girl is caught between two worlds, both real and virtual, in the YA fantasy debut from bestselling Indigenous author Wab Kinew. Perfect for fans of Ready Player One and the Otherworld series.

Bugz is caught between two worlds. In the real world, she’s a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massively multiplayer video game universe. 
Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the Rez, after his online activity suggests he may be developing extremist sympathies. Meeting each other in real life, as well as in the virtual world, Bugz and Feng immediately relate to each other as outsiders and as avid gamers. And as their connection is strengthened through their virtual adventures, they find that they have much in common in the real world, too: both must decide what to do in the face of temptations and pitfalls, and both must grapple with the impacts of family challenges and community trauma. 
But betrayal threatens everything Bugz has built in the virtual world, as well as her relationships in the real world, and it will take all her newfound strength to restore her friendship with Feng and reconcile the parallel aspects of her life: the traditional and the mainstream, the east and the west, the real and the virtual.

Review:

Bugz is an Indigenous teen who is caught between two worlds. She’s one of the top players in a virtual world, where she can be the confident girl who commands attention. In the real world, she has to deal with racism and sexism in her community. Feng is a Chinese teenage boy who was sent to live with his aunt in Bugz’s community. He is also part of the virtual world, but he is part of the group against Bugz’s character. Bugz and Feng get to know each other in both the real and virtual world, until a betrayal threatens their new friendship.

This story was set in the future, years after 2021. Bugz’s parents mentioned the pandemic and how it changed their lives as teenagers. A lot of the world became more digital after that, including the virtual world that Bugz played on.

There were some tough subjects in this novel. Bugz and Feng had to deal with racism, in person and online. Bugz faced sexism within her own family and community. There were also instances of self harm and cancer. These were intense scenes but were also integral to telling a realistic story.

Walking in Two Worlds is a great young adult Indigenous story.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

Have you read Walking in Two Worlds? What did you think of it?

Title: Blood and Honey (Serpent and Dove #2)
Author: Shelby Mahurin
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

After narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Dames Blanches, Lou, Reid, Coco, and Ansel are on the run from coven, kingdom, and church—fugitives with nowhere to hide.

To elude the scores of witches and throngs of chasseurs at their heels, Lou and Reid need allies. Strong ones. But protection comes at a price, and the group is forced to embark on separate quests to build their forces. As Lou and Reid try to close the widening rift between them, the dastardly Morgane baits them in a lethal game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy something worth more than any coven.

The hotly anticipated sequel to the New York Times and IndieBound bestseller Serpent & Dove—packed with even steamier romance and darker magic—is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.

Review:

After escaping from Morgane and the Dames Blanches, Lou and Reid have to gain some allies to face her again. Morgane hints that she will attack again, so Lou and Reid must go beyond the witches to find some help to defeat her. However, as they gather more allies, Lou and Reid are pulled apart. They need to mend their relationship before the entire coven is destroyed.

I really enjoyed this sequel. I actually found this story easier to follow than the first one. Serpent and Dove had a complicated plot, with all of the characters having different goals. In this story, all of the characters were working together to defeat Morgane so they all had the same goal in mind.

The fantasy world of Serpent and Dove expanded in this story. There were different types of creatures, such as the werewolves. There were also different events, such as the traveling circus that they encountered. Though the witches would typically have been the enemies of many of these other groups, they all had to work together to stop Morgane. I liked seeing the world beyond the witches in this story.

Blood and Honey is a great sequel!

What to read next:

Gods and Monsters by Shelby Mahurin

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Other books in the series:

• Serpent and Dove
• Gods and Monsters

Have you read Blood and Honey? What did you think of it?