Why Amari Peters is Even More Magical Than Percy Jackson

Image copied from Goodreads

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston is one of the best fantasy adventures I've read in a quite awhile. Reading it was the perfect way to kick off black history month. She's a heroine that I wish had been out when my kids were middle grade readers. Her story bears some resemblance to the well-known Percy Jackson series in that Amari is from a single parent home, she struggles to fit in, and she's discovers a world full of supernatural adventure while attending summer camp.

But that is where the similarities end. Unlike Percy, Amari has an older brother she's always idolized. Despite the large age gap between them, Quinton always loved his little sis and did everything he could to look out for her. He paved the way for her to attend the same exclusive private school he went to and graduated from, though Amari worked hard to make the good grades needed to be awarded the same scholarship as her brother. And even though he has been missing for six months with no trace, Quinton is still looking after her, having left her a nomination for attendance at the same summer camp he went to when he was twelve. But despite how much she looks up to him, Amari has also always felt overshadowed by Quinton and is convinced that she doesn't quite measure up to him. 

The fact that Amari is bullied at school and doesn't seem to be able to make friends with anyone at Jefferson Academy seem to just prove her right. When Quinton's disappearance gives Amari's bullies more ammunition to taunt her she finally fights back, shoving the ringleader of the mean girls picking on her, which costs Amari her scholarship. But summer vacation takes a turn for the better when a mysterious briefcase delivered to Amari from Quinton offers her a nomination to attend summer camp with The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. From there we are swept up into a magical world of magic and adventure.

I could not put this book down from the first page. Amari leaps off the page as a real and relatable character right from the start as she explains why she's in the principal's office, yet again. The pacing of the story also never lets up, with short chapters full of some new challenge or new discovery for Amari that keep you wanting to turn the page to see what will happen next. Alston builds a truly imaginative and fun, yet dangerous world for Amari to discover once she accepts the summons of the briefcase, sure that if she goes to the Bureau it will help her figure out what happened to her brother. Upon opening the case, Amari is shown wonders she never imagined with the aid of a pair of magical sunglasses. Special eye drops the instructions in the briefcase tell her to dose herself with also help her to see past glamours and reveal that supernatural beings live all around her, even in her own housing project. The nosy, mean neighbor her mother has always gotten to "keep an eye" on Amari might actually be a green complexioned witch. One who disappears in a cloud of smoke when Amari questions her about it. On the car ride to her first day at summer camp, Amari spots werewolves, and a pair of glowing eyes in a dark alley. Once they arrive at the Vanderbilt Hotel where the camp is taking place, Amari is whisked, in a talking elevator, to a labyrinthine compound below the hotel. Her roommate she ends up with is a weredragon and Amari finds herself immediately in the spotlight because her brother Quinton was part of a famous duo of investigative agents for the Bureau. This doesn't give Amari an advantage, though. It leaves her with yet more to live up to and the nomination doesn't guarantee her a spot at the camp. Amari will still have to earn it by passing a series of challenges, which will be harder for her since she is one of the few kids nominated who hasn't grown up knowing that magic exists. Of course things take an even more perplexing turn for Amari when she discovers that her "gift" that most students have supernaturally enhanced the first day of camp is actually a power that is illegal. In fact, Amari is someone that shouldn't even exist according to the Bureau. A circumstance that causes most at the Bureau and those associated with it, to be suspicious and distrustful of Amari, making it even more of a challenge to secure her place among them. 

In spite of these setbacks, Amari is determined to prove that she isn't in danger of turning into the evildoer everyone is convinced she will and fights to become a junior agent so that she can do what no one else has--find Quinton. Amari Peters is an underdog that readers can easily root for and her story is a fast-paced, imaginative adventure to rival any of popular series that have come before. It also handles topics such as not judging someone on where they come from, how they look, or for being unique in someway in ways that young readers can easily identify and empathize with. I found Amari's story to be even more magical and fun to read than Percy's and I loved the Percy Jackson series. I highly recommend this series by B.B. Alston to anyone in the middle grade reader age group who loves fantasy adventures or for anyone young at heart who enjoyed Percy Jackson or similar fantasy series. 

As for the next review for February, I'll be discussing cozy fantasy, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. Check out the book cover and blurb, copied from Goodreads, below.

The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

Sci-Fi, Romance, and Starting Over

 

Image copied from NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley, Hyperion Press, and Emily Jane for allowing me to read a free eGalley of this novel in exchange for this honest review.

Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane Is an interesting mix of genres and themes. It reads sort of like a season of Stranger Things if Nancy became a romantic suspense novelist instead of a reporter and was stuck on one of the small barrier islands along the southeastern seaboard with a sea monster while having a middle-life crisis. There is a lot going on in this novel, and it is definitely unique in all that is tries to accomplish.

At first, it started off really strong for me as a reader. I was excited to see how things unfolded. The novel opens with Jenni as a ten-year-old, enjoying life on Pearl Island where she lives with her single mom. Reading about her childhood at the start of her summer vacation was nostalgic for me as Jane paints a very rich and fully developed world with her depiction of Jenni's island life. It put me squarely in this setting and had me reminiscing about family vacations on similar islands to Pearl Island along the coastline of the Carolinas or Georgia. We know from the first, as well, that things will suddenly change once Jenni meets and befriends Timmy Caruso who is on Pearl Island on vacation with his family. It isn't a spoiler to say that things do take a turn for Jenni when her new best friend disappears. From there we jump ahead to Jenn, now a successful writer, facing the end of her marriage and the possible loss of custody to her children. In response to this, she decides to return to her childhood home and spend the summer there with her kids to try and reconnect with them and also to escape the dumpster fire she feels her life has become. Shortly after her arrival, a boy shows up in the ocean at night near her vacation rental. The boy claims to be Jenn's long-lost best friend Timmy Caruso. The kicker is that Timmy is still the same exact age he was when he disappeared. He's even wearing the same swim trunks, goggles, and flippers that Timmy was when he vanished.

There are many things that this novel does well. The way the author vividly paints the setting of this island at the beginning of the novel and later when Jenn returns makes it easy to visualize this place through the character's eyes. It was also fun to read some excerpts of Jenn's popular romantic suspense series throughout the story as Jenn comes to terms with so many things in her life that she's tried to avoid, such as the loss of her mother, her waning interest in the character that has made her a bestselling author, and her dissolution of her marriage and in some regards her relationship with her kids. The introduction of the strange sea life that Jenn encounters on Pearl Island as a child and later with her kids as an adult is also well portrayed. We aren't sure at first how benevolent some of these alien sea creatures are or how they are tied to the scarier sea creature that has shown up in the depths near this island. There are also some really beautiful moments where the author portrays Jenn's almost existential struggles and ties them to the reappearance of Jenn's best friend Timmy, still as a ten-year-old boy, and these sci-fi sea creatures. As with this quote here:

"...as a woman on a beach, feet in the sand, sun on her face, hair blown back by the ocean breeze while the weird squids sloshed along the shore, ....; as the future of a girl with a best friend and a pair of shovels and the dream of a hole in the sand, big enough to sit in for a picnic lunch. It didn't matter that the ocean would wash the hole away. She could find herself down there, the small pearl of her deepest small self. Smooth around the edges, like a piece of sea glass. Not new, but still bright."

As the story unfolds, Jenn's grief is inextricably tied to the disaster of the sea monster that wants to destroy the world, and Jane portrays this with some lovely and heartbreaking prose such as in this moment when Jenn discusses the loss of her mother with someone who knew her:

"Not close. But I knew Maureen. She was lovely. I'm so sorry--"

"Thanks. Me too."

"And so young. I--I guess you never know what will happen. You try your best and have hope, but sometimes, no matter what you do--"

"The unstoppable beast shows up."

All that being said, I found the midpoint of the story, once Jenn returns to the island, to drag on. She spends much of the novel from that point, continuing to avoid her problems while also obsessing over them and questioning everything she's doing. And while this was marketed in part as a romance, I didn't see much romance developing throughout most of the story until almost the very end. I feel like there were many missed opportunities for character development for both the adult Jenn and for her love interest Dax. For instance, one of the things that becomes clear is that she has buried her grief at losing her mother and has never really processed that. As a reader, I was expecting to have more of this happen with Jenn as she decides what to do with her mother's empty home. But we only really see her breakdown and acknowledge how much she misses her mom in one brief scene and then near the end of the novel. So, that thread isn't given the full development it could have been. As for Jenn's relationship with Dax, he's described by her mainly as the hot contractor that she calls on for help whenever she doesn't know who else to turn to. In most of the book he is the equivalent of eye candy who is a last resort source of aid and not much more. They sort of develop a friendship, I suppose, but it's a surface element more than an actual romantic plot point. I also think the pacing of the story would have been better if it had been a shorter novel. So, while I did enjoy the beginning and found the ending to be a satisfying conclusion, I struggled to get through most of the story in between. For that reason, I only rated this one a 3 out of 5 stars. After reading the reviews of others, I had really hoped to enjoy this more.

Still, if you like novels that have crossover elements, in this case sci-fi, light romance, and starting over, components, then you might give Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane a try.

My next review for the beginning of February will be a middle grade contemporary fantasy, Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. I'm really excited about this one as I'm hoping it will make for a good mentor text for my current work-in-progress, which is an upper middle grade urban fantasy. Check out the cover and blurb, both copied from Goodreads, below.

Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

Amari must compete against some of the nation’s wealthiest kids—who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives and are able to easily answer questions like which two Great Beasts reside in the Atlantic Ocean and how old is Merlin? Just getting around the Bureau is a lesson alone for Amari with signs like ‘Department of Hidden Places this way, or is it?’ If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magican threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

Rereading an Old Favorite

 So, before getting into my first book review of the year, I just want to say that I am planning to keep things for this year pretty much the same as last year in terms of how I handle my reviews. I am hoping to keep my reviews a mix between upcoming releases I read off NetGalley and physical books off my TBR pile that I'm continuously working through. Also, I believe that I mentioned in my last book review that I'd be discussing this book second and my NetGalley read first. But I've decided to switch my review order around as Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane doesn't come out until the end of this month and I like to keep my reviews close to when the books are going to be released as much as possible. I also plan to only review books from NetGalley this year that I really enjoyed. Last year, I reviewed all my NetGalley reads on here and while I enjoyed the majority of them, I think I could have skipped reviewing a couple. Anyhow, enough about that. Let's get into my review of A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley.

Image copied from Goodreads

I can't honestly remember how old I was the first time I read this book. But I want to say it was around my senior year of high school or my freshman year of college. Considering it had been out a few years when I discovered it at the local public library that sounds about right. What I do remember clearly is that I loved it! I also remember the ending taking me by surprise as I did not see things for Margaret, the main character, and Brother Gregory ending the way they did. Of course, at the time when I originally read this book I'm not sure if the other two books in the series had been published yet. If they had been, I probably would have known to expect the resolution for this one. All that being said, how did this book that I read so long ago end up on my current physical TBR pile? Well, a friend of mine, who I'm also friends with on Goodreads, mentioned Judith Merkle Riley on that site a few years after she passed away, relating how much she loved her books. That brought up some real nostalgia for me, because I remembered reading all of Riley's published fiction. I immediately went to my library's webpage and searched to see which books, if any, of hers they might have. To my surprise they had all of her later novels but did not have this one, which is the first in the only series Riley wrote and published before her untimely death. That prompted me to ask for the series for Christmas a year or so ago and this December I finally revisited A Vision of Light.

It was the perfect time of year to reread it, too. The story begins on the Feast of the Epiphany and ends right after New Years. But what is this book about and how did it stand up to my early memories of it? Well, let me tell you. It is a work of historical fiction set in fourteenth century England when as the blurb says, "wealthy, young, twice married" Margaret of Ashbury is spurred on by what she calls "The Voice" to hire a scribe to help her write her memoirs. For a contemporary reader that may not sound all that intriguing. But in 1355 England the idea of a woman writing a book is scandalous and verges on being heretical. This becomes very obvious when Margaret is turned down by every scribe she seeks out and laughed at, as well, by some. But Margaret is nothing if not savvy and when she encounters Brother Gregory, she finds the perfect way to entice him to work for her, through his nearly starved stomach. In this way, Riley takes a familiar turn of phrase and makes it into a sardonic and humorous plot device that sets us off on our adventure with Margaret and Brother Gregory. 

Soon after he begins to transcribe for her, we and Brother Gregory, are swept up in the unexpectedly astonishing and suspenseful events of Margaret's life. From her first arranged marriage to a cruel and much older man, to her survival of the Black Plague that leads her to a career path into midwifery, I was captivated once again by the story of this remarkable and resourceful woman. I was also struck by how humorous this novel is from the very beginning. When the Voice tells Margaret that she must write a book about her life, she argues with it, even though it is implied this is a heavenly entity talking to her. She even tries to ignore it for a time, unsuccessfully of course. It is such a human response to being ordered by a higher power to do something. Anyone familiar with the Christian Bible could relate, as it is full of similar tales where someone is told they need to do something or to carry out some task and they either try to turn it down outright or they try to avoid it by some other means, Jonah and the Whale, anyone. This response from the very first page sets up Margaret as a very relatable and three-dimensional character for me. Then her manipulation of Gregory into helping her by feeding him and offering him a warm and comfortable place to work is just so, so clever. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg though in terms of the sardonic wit and humor present throughout the story. This added to the very engaging plot of Margaret's adventures and the mystical aspects of the story, namely her miraculous vision of heavenly light that in turn gifts her with the ability to heal others, makes this book a one of a kind read that I once again thoroughly enjoyed and could read again and again. I plan to definitely continue the series as I cannot honestly say I read the last one that wraps of this trilogy. For anyone interested, the other two books in the series are In Pursuit of the Green Lion and The Water Devil.

Really all of Judith Merkle Riley's novels are very good if you enjoy historical fiction that often incorporates some aspect of mysticism into the story. Her other novels are stand alone books and cover a range of eras from 14th century England with Margaret, to the Tudor period with a different character, to 16th and 17th century France during the reigns of Catherine de Medici and the Sun King, Louis the XIV, respectively. I will say though that her Margaret of Ashbury series is the most lighthearted of her books. The others can get quite dark, though they are no less interesting. If you enjoy strong female heroines who are set in intriguing historical periods and plots that have some paranormal aspects mixed in, I highly recommend this book and Judith Merkle Riley's other novels. 

Up next on this blog in book reviews is Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane. I have not read any of her books before, and this one sounds like an interesting mix of mystery, romance, and sci-fi. Check out the book cover and blurb for it below both copied off NetGalley.

 

 

From the author of On Earth as It Is on Television...

At age ten, Jenni Farrow and her new best friend, Timmy Caruso, enjoy a glorious summer on Pearl Island filled with fireworks, beach days, and carnival rides (not to mention that strange sea creature they rescue from a tide pool). Then, one late summer day, Timmy disappears.

Thirty years later, Jenni—now Jenn Lanaro, bestselling author of the Philipia Bay action-romance series—is desperate to escape the fatigue of her career and her soon-to-be-ex-husband. With her Pokémon-obsessed kids in tow, Jenn rents a summer house on Pearl Island. But shortly after she arrives, a boy emerges from the nighttime sea. His name, he says, is Timmy Caruso. He’s ten years old. He’s on a mission to save the world, and he needs her help.

In the days that follow, as Jenn grapples with work deadlines, spirited children, and her burgeoning interest in a very sexy contractor, alarming and mysterious events unfold along the coast. And when a terror appears in the deeper waters, Jenn begins to wonder if, just maybe, Timmy is onto something.

This second book by the author of On Earth as It Is on Television continues her voice-driven, genre-bending multiverse of fiction that is just flat-out fun.

First Love Language Is an Exploration into Many Firsts

 

Image copied from NetGalley

First Love Language by Stefany Valentine is a refreshing YA contemporary romance that explores so much more than love. In fact, it explores many firsts from first love to firsts in terms of one's birth country, language and identity. The premise for the story is also very timely for the Gen Z readers it is marketed to. Love language represents many things for these young adult readers and it is a very important thing for them in terms of communicating how they care for those important to them whether they be friends, sweethearts or their family. I have often heard my children refer to someone's form of expressing themselves as their love language. I think it was very on point and clever for Valentine to develop her romance for her main character, Catie, around this concept. It also provides a vehicle in the plot for us as readers to engage with Catie's dad even though he has passed away before the story begins. He gifted Catie, before he died, with a book that he'd annotated called The Five Love Languages. It was a book he referred to both while he was dating Catie's mom and later as his daughter and stepdaughter grew up.

In addition to this romantic element the novel also gives a first-person account of what it is like to be a biracially adopted child struggling to find your identity after losing touch with your culture from your birth country. At the beginning of the story, we learn that Catie has lost her white dad from cancer and is faced with moving to Salt Lake City, Utah from San Diego the summer before her senior year with her stepmom, Andrea, and stepsister, Mavis. The upheaval brings to the fore the missed opportunities she had to question her dad before he died about why he and her Taiwanese birth mom divorced and why he brought Catie to the U.S. afterwards, causing her to lose touch with her birth mom. Not only that, but the move means living with her stepmom's very conservative Mormon sister and her family. But things begin to look up for Catie when she finds a summer job at a successful Korean spa and beauty salon. Her first day on the job, Catie lies to a customer about having a boyfriend to stop him from hitting on her, and Catie's co-worker, Toby, concocts a plan to have Catie coach him on dating if in return he'll help her re-learn Mandarin, Catie's original language. Using the book on Love Languages that her dad gave her, Catie begins putting together a series of practice dates for her and Toby to go on. From there their friendship soon starts to blossom and Catie's quest of self-discovery, on so many levels, begins.

Of the many things I loved about this novel, one is the humor involved around Catie and her practice dates with Toby. She becomes a surprisingly glib liar about her knowledge of dating and relationships. The most amusing part is that she is no more experienced on either than Toby. With each date, their friendship deepens and their connection slowly blossoms into first love. The ideas centered around expressing love through the different languages such as acts of service, gift giving, among others is very sweet, making for a quiet and tender romance. In relearning her first language, Catie also learns to open up to Toby about things she hasn't ever felt she could discuss with her adoptive family since losing her dad. Even before her dad got sick, Catie had trouble finding the courage to ask him so many of the questions about what happened between him and her birth mom, about why her birth mom agreed to give her up. We also see firsthand the racial bigotry and negative stereotyping that Catie has endured growing up in the U.S. that are sometimes intentional and sometimes not, but still annoying and painful. 

Other themes that are explored in this novel are ones about reconciling one's religious upbringing with one's own identity if you are not white or straight. In Catie's case, her dad and stepmom were both raised in the Mormon faith, but stepped back from the faith when Mavis, Catie's stepsister, identified as being pan sexual as a young teen. Being with Catie's aunt and uncle, who are both strict Mormons, is a hard adjustment for both Catie and Mavis for different reasons and the author does not shy away from portraying how hurtful and confusing it can be to be told that God only accepts those who fit a very narrow and restrictive mold for Christianity. In the midst of being forced to attend church with her stepmom's family, in return for being able to move in with them, a door opens for Catie, though, and she does find unexpected support and acceptance from a woman of the church who works in the genealogy office. There she helps Catie search for answers to what became of her birth mom and for how Catie can reconnect with her Taiwanese roots.

The journey of love and self-discovery and acceptance that Catie, Toby and even secondary characters Mavis and cousin Rayleigh go on is rich and includes a few unexpected twists and turns along the way. However, the way the story ends is both realistic and satisfying. Catie not only learns to importance of accepting herself, she also learns the importance of facing up to the truth when her false claims about being a love expert are exposed. But as this is a romance at it's heart, nothing stands in the way of true love in the end. Nevertheless, I think that the many themes explored in this book make it so much richer than that. I think many YA readers who might have similar things they are coming to terms with will find themselves represented here, whether it be searching for answers as an adopted child, dealing with cultural bias as an Asian American, or facing bigotry and intolerance for identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. In her author's note at the end, Valentine admits that this book was loosely based on her own experiences as a biracial adoptee and that her hope is that anyone reading this book will feel seen in some way in it. If you love contemporary YA romance and can appreciate one that is quiet and sweet while also complex and heartfelt in terms of other things it explores, I highly recommend First Love Language which comes out for publication in mid-January of 2025.

I cannot believe that this is the last book review post for 2024. I hope you have found this a good source of reading material throughout the year. I plan to continue posting more reviews in 2025 and invite you to continue exploring new works coming out in the new year with me along with some older published gems. For January, I will be reviewing an adult romance, Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane from NetGalley and I will be reviewing an old favorite that is a work of historical fiction from Judith Merkle Riley, A Vision of Light. Below are book covers and blurbs of both copied from NetGalley and Goodreads, respectively.

A romance author takes a trip to her childhood beach home, but her summer is upended by the startling return of a deceased childhood friend, newfound love, and . . . sea monsters?

At age ten, Jenni Farrow and her new best friend, Timmy Caruso, enjoy a glorious summer on Pearl Island filled with fireworks, beach days, and carnival rides (not to mention that strange sea creature they rescue from a tide pool). Then, one late summer day, Timmy disappears.

Thirty years later, Jenni—now Jenn Lanaro, bestselling author of the Philipia Bay action-romance series—is desperate to escape the fatigue of her career and her soon-to-be-ex-husband. With her Pokémon-obsessed kids in tow, Jenn rents a summer house on Pearl Island. But shortly after she arrives, a boy emerges from the nighttime sea. His name, he says, is Timmy Caruso. He’s ten years old. He’s on a mission to save the world, and he needs her help.

In the days that follow, as Jenn grapples with work deadlines, spirited children, and her burgeoning interest in a very sexy contractor, alarming and mysterious events unfold along the coast. And when a terror appears in the deeper waters, Jenn begins to wonder if, just maybe, Timmy is onto something.

This second book by the author of On Earth as It Is on Television continues her voice-driven, genre-bending multiverse of fiction that is just flat-out fun.

Set in England during the fourteenth century, A Vision of Light introduces Margaret of Ashbury, an unforgettable heroine who resembles a contemporary woman in spirit and thoughts. Young, wealthy, twice married, Margaret has a modest enough ambition: she wishes to write a book. But this is 1355, and the notion of a woman wanting to record her experiences and thoughts is not just arrogant, it's possibly heretical.

Three clerics contemptuously decline to be Margaret's scribe, and it is only starvation that persuades Brother Gregory, a renegade Carthusian friar with a mysterious past, to take on the unseemly task of chronicling her life. As she narrates her life story to Brother Gregory, we discover a woman of unusual resourcefulness who has survived the Black Plague, invented the forceps, and been accused—but acquitted—of witchcraft. But most astonishing, Margaret has experienced a Mystic Union—a vision of light that illuminates her soul and endows her with a miraculous gift of healing. To every person she encounters in her life, she becomes special—to her traditional parents, to the band of traveling players who adopt her, to the bishop's court that tries her for heresy, and ultimately to the rich merchant who saves her and whom she marries.

With exceptional narrative power, Judith Merkle Riley has recreated in full and rich detail a period that has fascinated her since her adolescence. Although her professional career has taken her into other byways, it has never lessened her long and intense interest in the fourteenth century. At the world-renowned Huntington Library in California, where she did much of her research for the book, Judith Merkle Riley uncovered remarkable primary-source documents. When she felt she knew the fourteenth century as well as a twentieth-century woman could, she set her pen to paper. The result is a remarkable novel that challenges all of our notions about women's roles in the medieval era. Anything but ordinary, Margaret of Ashbury is a heroine for all time.

YA Fantasy, Dark and Grimm

 

Image copied from Goodreads

So, before starting off with the book review can I just say that this cover gives teen romance fantasy vibes that remind me of the old 80s romance book covers. The artwork and colors are gorgeous though and I think the artist captured the romantic lead, Axel, very well based on his description in the story. Just saying. 

Anyhow, on to the review! 

What did I think of The Forest Grimm? Well, I really enjoyed it! From the first line I was drawn into the story. Who wouldn't be intrigued when the book begins with:

Tell me again, Grandmére, the story of how I die.

From there we learn the Clara and her family live in a village that has a magical book that can grant each villager one wish. The village was gifted this book by the magical forest that borders it. We also learn that Clara's grandmother is able to read someone's future with a special tarot deck and that it foretells an early death for Clara in the magical forest. Years later we discover that things have taken a turn for the worse for Grimm's Hollow. Someone used their one wish in a nefarious way and the forest retaliated by cursing the entire village and taking away the Book of Fortunes. Not only that, but since then several villagers have disappeared after venturing into the Forest Grimm to either find their magical book and break the curse, or to seek those who have gone into the forest and become one of the Lost. 

Sadly, the first to become one of the Lost after the curse was Clara's mother. Since then, she's been determined to find her. A task that has been made nearly impossible by the forest, who repels any villager who tries to enter it, sometimes in a deadly way. But clever heroine that she is, Clara figures out a way to circumvent the forest's magic. Her quest begins from there to save her mother, accompanied by her best friend, Axel. It seems Axel's fiancé Ella is also one of the Lost. She was seen entering the forest in her wedding gown and veil on the eve of their wedding day and has been missing for over a year. 

The setting of this whole novel is rich, dark and yes, magical. Once Clara and Axel enter the forest, even with their protection that Clara has devised for them, we don't know what to expect. The Forest Grimm is ancient and full of life and vegetation, something neither Axel or Clara has seen in their drought riddled village in a long time. But it is not welcoming to those under its curse and finds ways to still put Clara and her companions in peril at every turn. It also becomes obvious early on why no one can navigate their way through it and return home again. It's very hard to know where you are heading when trees and landmarks can literally change overnight. 

As promised in the book blurb they also encounter fairy tale characters. But oh, are these characters different from what you might expect. They are subversions of the original tropes, but in a way that completely fits with the original versions of any Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Let's face it, those stories were full of devious and monstrous beings who were often out to kill and murder any unwary traveler or hero that came across their path. The way that Kathryn Purdie accounts for the madness of these fairy tale beings fits in so well with the overall plot of the story as well. When the rules of gifted magic are broken, these are the consequences and as always, in order for a curse to be lifted a price must be paid. 

I found main character, Clara, very easy to empathize with and her love interest, Axel, was funny, kind and brave. I liked Clara's best friend, Henni, as well, though she seemed a little less fully developed to me. I also liked that Clara has a disability we don't often see portrayed in stories. But she perseveres in spite of it. The friends-to-lovers trope is also one I often enjoy and it was done very well in this case. 

The main reason I gave this a 4/5 stars though was that there were a few plot points throughout that I didn't quite feel were ever fully explained. For instance, how did the people who ventured into the forest and become lost not get instantly repelled like so many other villagers have who've tried to enter the forest? In one part of the story one of the characters they encounter implies that she's able to live there because she and the forest have made their peace. But it is never fully explained how this came about and why this seems to lead to the characters in question then being able to tap into and control some of the forest's magic for themselves. How is this possible and why? These were questions I didn't feel I got clear answers to. However, this did not deter me from enjoying the story overall. 

If you enjoy dark fantasy with some strong horror elements to it, you will likely enjoy The Forest Grimm. But be warned, entering the forest is definitely not for the faint of heart and you do so at your own peril.

As for what's up next, I am switching gears in a couple of weeks. After reading and reviewing two dark fantasy novels in a row, I will be switching to contemporary YA dramedy for my next review of Stefany Valentine's debut novel, First Love Language. It is a NetGalley read and is set to come out in mid-January of 2025. Check out the cover and blurb, both copied from NetGalley below.

For fans of Frankly in Love and Tokyo Ever After comes a romantic dramedy about finding love and reconnecting with your culture in the most surprising ways.

Taiwanese American Catie Carlson has never fit in with her white family. As much as she loves her stepmom and stepsister, she yearns to understand more about her culture and find her biological mother. 

So Catie is shocked when an opportunity comes knocking on her door: Her summer spa coworker, Toby, says he’ll teach her Mandarin. In exchange, she needs to teach him how to date so he can finally work up the courage to ask out his crush. The only problem is that Catie doesn’t actually have any dating experience. But she can fake it.

With her late father’s copy of The Five Love Languages and all his annotated notes, Catie becomes the perfect dating coach. Or so she thinks. As she gets dangerously close to Toby and to finding out what really happened to her biological mom, she realizes that learning the language of love might be tougher than she thought.

Stefany Valentine’s debut novel is both a fresh, fun romance as well as a profound, luminous story about grief, family, transracial adoption, and what it means to truly follow your heart.

Gothic Suspense at its Best!!

 

Image copied from NetGalley

Oh my! Where to begin with this novel? The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen is one of the best gothic suspense novels I think I’ve read in sometime. It is set in 1830s England at a time when women had no rights and were considered abnormal for living alone or not following the rigid rules set for them by society. In addition to the gothic elements and the mysteries surrounding Harriet, it also weaves in elements of magical realism for both Harriet’s garden and the house she lives in. I won’t say her home, because Sunnyside is not and has never been a home for Harriet.

The story begins slowly, but builds quickly in its suspenseful elements. When we first meet Harriet, she is alone in a house that echoes it’s so empty. Her father has disappeared and left her with a mountain of debt that she must pawn most of her household goods to pay off. We immediately sympathize with her as in moving about the dark, gloomy interior of Sunnyside, we realize that despite its name it has been anything but sunny. In fact, Harriet’s neglect and abuse at the hands of her father and his housekeeper are reminiscent of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. While in her garden, Harriet is confronted by a police inspector named Stokes, who seems to suspect that Harriet had something to do with her father’s disappearance. He implies that she is unnatural for living alone and not seeming to miss her father, making her afraid that if she cannot prove her father left of his own volition, she might find herself committed to the insane asylum. During their conversation, Harriet watches the plants in her garden, trying desperately to keep her emotions under control. It seems that once Harriet lost control, causing her garden to do something horrible as a result in its attempt to protect her. Because of this, Harriet is convinced that even if her father never returns, she cannot leave Sunnyside, or the garden could run wild and cause others harm. This encounter with Stokes and Harriet's fear of what her garden might do, becomes the the catalyst for all of Harriet’s decisions for the rest of the novel.

What follows are more and more mysteries to be unspooled as Harriet begins her own search into what happened to her father. We learn that Harriet is not considered beautiful because of a terrible scar she bears on one side of her face. In reflecting on her life up to this point, we also find out that Harriet’s mother died when she was very young  in some terrible way that Harriet blames herself for. At the same time, a man named Davies begins sending Harriet intriguing and ominous sounding missives, stating that he has crucial information about her family that he must share with her urgently. But in trying to reply to him, setting a time and a place for them to meet, Harriet encounters a handsome and earnest young man named Christian Comstock who seems to find her charming and fascinating. Comstock begins avidly pursuing her and all too soon convinces Harriet to marry him. She believes this will solve all of her problems by giving her a measure of respectability and protection from Stokes and his enquiries. However, rather than offering her the peace, freedom and companionship she was hoping for, Harriet finds in her marriage to Comstock, that she has traded one controlling abusive man in her life for another. 

In reading this, as things went from bad to worse for Harriet, I found myself unable to put this novel down. I wanted to follow each thread in the story to find out why Harriet feels her garden could be such a danger to others, what happened to her when she was younger that caused her to have that mysterious scar, who is Davies and what does he know about Harriet and her family, what happened to Harriet’s father really and finally but certainly not least, why is Comstock so cruel to Harriet and whatever made someone who only seems interested in money and status decide she was worth tricking into marriage? All of these mysteries on top of Harriet’s more and more tenuous situation with Comstock made for a fast-paced and ultimately satisfying read. In the end, not only does Harriet learn to survive, she bravely faces down her personal demons from her past that haunt her and eventually learns to appreciate herself for who she is flaws and all, allowing Harriet to finally step into her own power to save herself. While many of the themes explored in this book are very dark, such as child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and discrimination, other more positive themes are given equal weight as well. Those include themes of friendship, loyalty, female empowerment, found family and learning to stay true to yourself in the face of great adversity. I give this book five stars and would happily read it again. However, I would warn anyone who finds some of the darker themes handled in this tale triggering to keep that in mind before reading it. I am very grateful to both NetGalley and Sourcebooks for giving me the opportunity to read a free ebook ARC of this novel in exchange for this honest review. For anyone who loves well-written gothic suspense, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt will be available anywhere books are sold in early December 2024.

Stayed tuned for my upcoming reviews for December which will be a young adult fantasy, The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie and my next NetGalley read, the young adult romance First Love Language by Stefany Valentine. Book covers and blurbs below copied from Goodreads and NetGalley, respectively.

Where fairy tales come to life with dark, deadly twists...

"Tell me again, Grandmère, the story of how I die."

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book - Sortes Fortunae , the Book of Fortunes - with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother.

Years ago, when the villagers whispered their deepest desires to the book, its pages revealed how to obtain them. All was well until someone used the book for an evil purpose―to kill another person. Afterward, the branches of the Forest Grimm snatched the book away, the well water in Grimm’s Hollow turned rancid, and the crops died from disease. The villagers tried to make amends with the forest, but every time someone crossed its border, they never returned.

Now, left with no alternative, Clara and her close friend, Axel―who is fated never to be with her―have set their minds to defying fate and daring to accomplish what no one else has been able to before. But the forest―alive with dark, deadly twists on some of our most well-known fairy tales―has a mind of its own.

For fans of Frankly in Love and Tokyo Ever After comes a romantic dramedy about finding love and reconnecting with your culture in the most surprising ways.

Taiwanese American Catie Carlson has never fit in with her white family. As much as she loves her stepmom and stepsister, she yearns to understand more about her culture and find her biological mother. 

So Catie is shocked when an opportunity comes knocking on her door: Her summer spa coworker, Toby, says he’ll teach her Mandarin. In exchange, she needs to teach him how to date so he can finally work up the courage to ask out his crush. The only problem is that Catie doesn’t actually have any dating experience. But she can fake it.

With her late father’s copy of The Five Love Languages and all his annotated notes, Catie becomes the perfect dating coach. Or so she thinks. As she gets dangerously close to Toby and to finding out what really happened to her biological mom, she realizes that learning the language of love might be tougher than she thought.

Stefany Valentine’s debut novel is both a fresh, fun romance as well as a profound, luminous story about grief, family, transracial adoption, and what it means to truly follow your heart.

Fun, Witchy, Holiday Romance

 

Image copied from Goodreads

For this month, I'm going to start off my reviews with a fun and light-hearted paranormal holiday romance with Erin Sterling's The Wedding Witch. After the whirlwind of news and politics for this election season, I figured it was time to focus on something less serious in the realm of fiction. Also, The Wedding Witch starts off just before the winter holiday season, so November is a perfect time to review it as we are headed into that time of year. This book is the final one in Sterling's Graves Glen trilogy, but it could also definitely be read as a stand alone as it doesn't take place in Graves Glen as the first two books did. 

This adventure centers on the middle Penhallow brother, Bowen. I have long looked forward to reading Bowen Penhallow's story and it was worth the wait. All throughout the series Bowen has been the reclusive brother always off in the Welsh mountains alone, doing some sort of mysterious occult research. However, we finally find out why in this book. Bowen, it seems, blames himself for a terrible accident that harmed a friend and he has been searching for a way to fix it ever since. Part of his search has involved procuring magical items or artifacts to see if any of them might hold the key to saving his friend, Colin. That is where Tamsyn Bligh enters the picture. She has been helping Bowen for sometime now in his search for magical items. But one such item ends up bringing the two of them together for the first time face-to-face. It is after this encounter that the sparks begin to fly, for even though Tamsyn knew full well who Bowen was and that he was a witch, Bowen had no idea that Tamsyn was a beautiful, clever and fully human woman. Not only that, but she's a procurer who ran amok and caused some pretty serious mayhem back in Graves Glen for one of Bowen's brothers.

When the two end up at the same wedding at a grand Welsh estate though, chasing after the same magical object, things get even more complicated. Somehow they end up getting thrown back in time to Yuletide of 1958 and must solve the mystery of why they've been sent there in order to get back to their own timelines. I loved the fact that in this one we finally truly get to know and understand Bowen. I also enjoyed the fact that Tamsyn gets a redemption arc in this story. The intrigue of why they are suddenly thrust into 1958 was another fun element to the story. It seems the magical brooch they were both chasing after is somehow related to why Tywyll House is haunted in their own time. Even more surprising, one of the couples at this past Yuletide celebration happens to be Bowen's grandparents. So, not only do they have to come up with a quick explanation as to why they are there and a good cover story on who they are, they also have to be careful not to change anything in a way that could put Bowen's future existence in peril.

It is a fun holiday romp with some really nice twists and turns in addition to the romance between Tamsyn and Bowen. Reading this book was a little bittersweet for me as this was the last one in this series. But it provided a good resolution for the trilogy. If you like romantic mysteries with fantasy elements woven into the story, I recommend this book and the others in the series. I was very pleased to get to read an early ebook ARC of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager. But if you would like to pick up a copy to read The Wedding Witch is currently available now anywhere books are sold and if you click on the title name it will take you to bookshop.org where you can order a copy online. Plus, all purchases made on bookshop.org can help you support local independent bookstores.

Stay tuned in a couple of weeks for my next book review of a gothic suspense that will be coming out in early December entitled, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen. Check out the book cover and blurb below to find out more!

Image copied from Goodreads

True magic is found among the bluebells and brambles

Harriet Hunt is completely alone. Her father disappeared months ago, leaving her to wander the halls of Sunnyside house, dwelling on a past she'd rather keep buried. She doesn't often venture beyond her front gate, instead relishing the feel of dirt under her fingernails and of soft moss beneath her feet. Consequently, she's been deemed a little too peculiar for popular Victorian society. This solitary life suits her fine, though – because, outside, magic awaits.

Harriet's garden is special. It's a wild place full of twisting ivy, vibrant plums, and a quiet power that buzzes like bees. Caring for this place, and keeping it from running rampant through the streets of her London suburb, is Harriet's purpose. 

But a woman alone in the world is vulnerable. Soon, a sinister plot involving her father's disappearance begins to take shape, with Harriet herself at its center. Everything she holds dear – from the thorny roses she tends to her very freedom itself – is at stake. To save herself, Harriet will have to unearth her past, discover the secrets of her garden, and finally embrace the wild magic inside of her.

Book blurb provided courtesy of NetGalley.