Category: Recommendations

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YA Review: Finale (Caraval #3)

Title: Finale (Caraval #3)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Finale

The plot twists continue in the final book of the Caraval trilogy, and both Scarlett and Tella have narrating roles throughout the story. With a new Emperor about to be crowned, the city of Valenda is in a holiday mood, but revelations about their family and their love interests lead both sisters further into danger.

It’s hard to review Finale without dropping all sorts of spoilers. Scarlett and Tella find themselves deeply involved in the struggles of the immortal and dangerous Fates while navigating the complexities of relationships they can’t control and the safety of people they care about. The story is darker than the previous books, and the stakes are higher. There is no Caraval to bring a sense of order and reward to their actions, and failure would mean consequences for the entire Empire.

It’s a complex plot, and I confess to losing track of some of the threads at times, but Scarlett and Tella’s relationships keep the pages turning. While their strong personalities drive the story, each sister learns to adapt to a rapidly changing environment – Scarlett becoming more daring and brave, and Tella drawing closer to the people around her. There’s an exciting climax and a satisfying ending, and an Encore chapter that had me grinning as I turned the final page.

The Caraval series is an exciting – and exhausting – journey through magic, danger, deception and love. I cared deeply about Scarlett and Tella, and about where they might end up, and I’m pleased I finally picked up their story. The series would be a excellent beach or holiday read, and a perfect place to escape to when you have plenty of time to relax with a book. Definitely worth stepping into Caraval and allowing yourself to be swept away.

Have you read Finale? What did you think of the final book in the series? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Legendary cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Legendary (Caraval #2)

Title: Legendary (Caraval #2)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Legendary

Scarlett and Tella Dragna are back, and this time Tella has the chance to narrate. With the more daring sister steering the story, this book ramps up the danger and brings complications and plot twists for both sisters, their family, and their love interests.

The Empress has commanded Legend to run another Caraval in honour of her seventy-fifth birthday, so the company travels to the capital, Valenda, to prepare for the game. Scarlett and Tella, having escaped from their father, travel with them. Neither intends to participate in another Caraval, but Tella owes a debt to a stranger and Scarlett is revelling in her new freedom.

This Caraval promises to be more than a game. The Fates, powerful beings imprisoned for centuries, are fighting to return – a disaster that would threaten the Empire, and turn everyone into their playthings. The players are charged with finding the magical object that will destroy the fates and safeguard the future of the Empire. Tella and Scarlett are drawn into the game, only to discover that the solution is more personal than they imagined.

Legendary is a maze of a book, with truth and deception twisting around Scarlett and Tella as they follow their paths through their second Caraval. It’s a story of fear, pain, and surprises, and the lengths Tella, as the younger, bolder sister, will go to to protect her family. The relationship between the sisters remains key to the plot, but both sisters find themselves entangled in love triangles with potentially deadly consequences.

Once again, the final chapter opens up an entirely new facet of the story, and I had no choice but to keep reading …

Have you read Legendary? What did you think of Tella’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Legendary cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Caraval (Caraval #1)

Title: Caraval (Caraval #1)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Caraval

The Caraval trilogy has been sitting on my Kindle for ages, and finally made it to the top of my eBook TBR. Why did I wait so long? The story is captivating, the characters interesting, and the setting is literally magical.

The first book of the series follows seventeen-year-old Scarlett Dragna, the older of two sisters, as she prepares for her wedding to a mystery suiter selected by her cruel father. Scarlett is the sensible sister, constantly trying to protect her younger sibling and making sacrifices to keep them both safe from their father’s obsessive controlling behaviour.

But Scarlett has a secret. Since she was eleven, she has been writing to the mysterious Legend, the magical master of Caraval – an annual immersive game where participants experience illusions and puzzles at the hands of Legend’s group of actors, and compete for valuable prizes. She knows that Donatella, her impulsive younger sister, has always wanted to experience Caraval, but Legend never responds to her letters.

Ten days before her wedding, everything changes. Legend writes back, inviting Scarlett, Tella, and Scarlett’s fiance to participate in an invitation-only Caraval on his private island. Tella is desperate to go and never come home, but Scarlett is determined to take her sister with her she gets married, and keep them both safe from their father. Her plan fails, and Scarlett finds herself heading for Caraval with Tella.

Separated from her sister, and accompanied by the sailor who brought them to the island, Scarlett must negotiate the games and illusions of Caraval. Desperate to find Tella, Scarlett has no choice but to engage with the game, and attempt to see past the magic to discover who she can trust, and who might be working for Legend. Along the way she finds love, loss and impossible choices, and experiences everything Caraval has to offer – wonderful, mysterious, and terrifying.

While the magic and mystery of Caraval is gorgeously described and entirely captivating, the heart of this book is its characters. Even with their contrasting personalities, Scarlett and Tella are entirely believable as sisters, used to protecting each other from an abusive father. Scarlett is sensible, careful, and afraid of letting Tella down. Tella is impulsive, confident, and always on the look-out for thrills and danger. Much of this story centres around Tella, but telling it from Scarlett’s point of view invites the reader to care about the younger sister, and fear for her safety as Scarlett does. It’s a clever twist, and it kept the pages turning as I needed to find out what would happen to both sisters at the end of the book.

The short epilogue kick-starts another stage of the story, and I couldn’t help reading on into Legendary, book two of the series.

Have you read Caraval? What did you think of Scarlett’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Caraval cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: We Are All Constellations

Title: We Are All Constellations
Author: Amy Beashel
Edition: Paperback (Paper Orange Book Box)
Rating: 5/5

YA Review: We Are All Constellations

The Paper Orange UKYA Book Box continues to deliver excellent YA fiction! I can see why this book came bundled in the book box with a tissue and a restorative eyemask – it’s definitely a tear-jerker.

Iris’s mother died when she was ten, and she’s spent the years since being strong, independent, and fearless. She explores abandoned buildings as a hobby, and thinks nothing of heading into the woods alone in the dark or climbing on rooftops to find a new place to explore.

Life with her dad, stepmum and stepbrother is calm and peaceful, and nothing like the excitement she used to experience with her mother. She remembers joyful dancing in the kitchen, driving out in the middle of the night to watch a meteor shower, and a surprise meal when her mother decorated the living room and pretended they were in France. But there are darker memories, too, and Iris tries not to remember the times when her mother’s behaviour was frightening rather than fun.

When Iris discovers the truth about her mother, she doesn’t know where to turn. Her best friend Tala is distracted by a poetry event, her boyfriend wants to come with her on the very definitely solo gap year she has planned, and the mysterious Orla might hold the key to the secrets of Iris’s past.

It’s a story about grief, friendship, and showing up for each other. What truths we tell, whether our actions match our words, and how we protect the people we love. Iris is a brilliant protagonist – she’s brave, resourceful, and independent, but also romantic, hurt, angry, and not as reliable as she claims to be. There’s a constant feeling that she might make the wrong decision at any moment, and a nagging uncertainty over whether she will push her bravery and independence too far.

I read We Are All Constellations in a weekend. Iris’s story is addictive, and the reader is drawn further into her world as the book progresses. I didn’t want to put it down, and I desperately wanted to find out how her plans, reactions and relationships would resolve in the end. Highly recommended.

Have you read We Are All Constellations? What did you think of Iris’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: We Are All Constellations cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: The Haunting of Tyrese Walker

Title: The Haunting of Tyrese Walker
Author: JP Rose
Edition: Paperback (Paper Orange Book Box)
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: The Haunting of Tyrese Walker

Another excellent book from the Paper Orange UKYA Book Box! I’m not usually a horror fan, but this book drew me in – great characters, great setting, and just the right level of creepy.

Fourteen-year-old Tyrese has just lost his father, and his death is still too painful to think about. His mother takes him to Jamaica for the summer to stay with his paternal grandmother and his fourteen-year-old cousin, Marvin. Sleep deprived, grieving, hot, and homesick, Tyrese struggles to adapt. When his grandmother asks him to scatter rice around her house to keep away evil spirits, he can’t see the point. But when inexplicable things start to happen around him, he begins to doubt everything he believes in. Are the spirits real, or is he losing his mind?

With Ellie, a visiting American teenager, Tyrese and Marvin explore the mountains and forests around their grandmother’s house. What begins as an idyllic summer holiday quickly takes a dark turn, as Tyrese’s unsettling experiences start to affect the people around him. There is a growing sense of danger as the story progresses, and Tyrese is never sure whether the things he is seeing are real. Ellie and Marvin confirm some of his experiences, but the reader is left wondering whether his fear is justified, or whether he really is losing his grip on sanity.

The reveal and the finale are excellent, and the mounting dread pays off in the final scenes. My complaint with a lot of horror is that the fear is either an overreaction, or that the Big Bad is too big and too bad for the story. This ending is just right.

This is a book about fear of the unexplained, and the folly of meddling with forces beyond the characters’ understanding. It is also a story about friendship, family, and coming to terms with overwhelming grief. It’s a clever use of the setting and the plot, and the result is a gripping page-turner of a novel. An excellent read.

Have you read The Haunting of Tyrese Walker? What did you think of Tyrese’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: The Haunting of Tyrese Walker cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Finding Folkshore

Title: Finding Folkshore
Author: Rachel Faturoti
Edition: Paperback (Paper Orange Book Box)
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Finding Folkshore

I do love a ‘secret London’ story (Neverwhere, Rivers of London), so it was great to find a YA take on the hidden city idea.

Fola is an A-grade scholarship student, studying subjects that will get her into medical school and please her Nigerian family. But Fola has a secret – she’d much rather study photography and film. Her GCSE Media Studies teacher invites her to enter a short film competition, but she knows her parents wouldn’t understand.

On her way home on the tube, Fola finds herself travelling beyond the end of the line. The Victoria Line train continues past Brixton, and she finds herself in Folkshore – a hidden part of London filled with fairytale characters, talking animals, and magic. But as an outsider, she’s not allowed in Folkshore, and she can’t access the train again to take her home. The police are looking for her, and she must rely on the kindness of strangers to survive.

Something is wrong in Folkshore. Residents are disappearing, shops and buildings are being mysteriously remodelled, and the magic is fading. Fola finds herself working with her new friends to find out what is happening to their home, and looking for a way to return to hers. Can her unique skills help save Folkshore? And can Fola return to her family?

Finding Folkshore is a fun read. There’s a large cast of colourful characters, from Fola’s exuberant Nigerian family to the magical residents of Folkshore. Following Fola into the hidden city means that we discover the existence of Folkshore as she does, and uncover the corruption alongside her and her new friends. She brings a sense of wonder to the story, and a need to understand where she is, and what is happening to the magic. Her adventure also gives her the chance to reassess what is important to her, what she really needs to worry about, and what she wants to do – if she can ever return home.

The book is a blend of ‘finding yourself’ YA, magical realism, and the excitement of the hidden city. I was cheering at the end!

Have you read Finding Folkshore? What did you think of the story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Finding Folkshore cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: The Cats We Meet Along the Way

Title: The Cats We Meet Along the Way
Author: Nadia Mikail
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: The Cats We Meet Along the Way

What a lovely, gentle, moving book!

The world is ending. An asteroid will wipe out everyone and everything in a few months, but people are still living their lives. What else is there to do? In Malaysia, Aisha was planning a life – studying medicine in Edinburgh, getting married and settling down with her boyfriend Walter, having children and naming them for her late father and uncle. But her world is smaller now, and she has to accept that these things will never happen.

But there are unresolved pieces to her family’s story, and Aisha wants to understand what made her mother abandon their home when Aisha’s father died, and what happened to her older sister, June. Aisha’s mother hasn’t dealt with the grief of losing her husband, choosing instead to run away and start again without him. June left home three years ago, and no one has heard from her since.

In the days they have left, Aisha, her mother, Walter and his parents, and a stray cat named Fleabag head out on a road trip to come to terms with the past, and look for June.

Aisha and Walter are a lovely couple, and it is heartbreaking to realise – along with Aisha – that there will never be an ending to their story. They won’t get to live the life they imagined, and whatever hopes they had will end with the asteroid.

But this isn’t a depressing story. Instead of focusing on the tragedy, the author connects with the tiny details of her characters’ lives, showing us the grief that shaped Aisha and her family, as well as the simple pleasures of living one day at a time. Despite the apocalyptic setting, this manages to be a story about connection, breaking down barriers, and understanding what really matters. With all the grief, unspoken anger, and coming to terms with the end of the world, this ends up being a story about hope – the kind of book that you close at the end and with a happy sigh.

The Cats We Meet Along the Way won the 2023 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and it deserves the recognition.

Have you read The Cats We Meet Along the Way? What did you think of the story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: The Cats We Meet Along the Way cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: What If It’s Us?

Title: What If It’s Us?
Author: Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 3.5/5

YA Review: What If It's Us?

This is a sweet YA LGBTQ+ romance with possibly the best meet-cute I’ve ever read! Arthur and Ben meet in a post office in New York. Ben is posting a box of belongings back to his ex-boyfriend, and Arthur can’t resist saying hi. Ben lives in New York, and Arthur is only in the city for the summer, as an intern at his mother’s high-powered law firm. When the meet-cute ends (spectacularly!) without an exchange of contact details, Arthur decides to track Ben down. In a city the size of New York, how is he going to make contact?

What follows is a wonderfully realistic story. Disastrous dates, romantic plans gone wrong, and touchingly clumsy attempts at intimacy as Ben tries to move on from heartbreak, and Arthur navigates a relationship with his first boyfriend. Both boys have best friends who involve themselves in their romantic planning, and bring relationship dramas of their own to the story.

There’s a maturity about the book that reminds me of Forever by Judy Blume. Despite the amazing meet-cute and all the attempts at a successful date, there is no sense of a pre-destined future for Arthur and Ben. Throughout the book they are aware that Arthur will leave New York at the end of the summer, and this is not presented as a tragedy or a cause for heartbreak.

This is a sex-positive story, while being refreshingly messy and rejecting the idea of a perfect relationship. It doesn’t push the idea of an ideal partner, or a forever love-match, but allows the characters to enjoy the time they have together.

And what if it is going to work longer term? At least the boys understand that romance isn’t all hearts and flowers, and relationships require effort from both sides. A refreshingly down-to-earth story, and a romance without exaggerated drama.

Have you read What If It’s Us? What did you think of Arthur and Ben? Did their story feel real to you? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: What If It’s Us? cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: The Final Rising (Tomorrow’s Ancestors #4)

Title: The Final Rising (Tomorrow’s Ancestors #4)
Author: AE Warren
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: The Final Rising

The finale of the Tomorrow’s Ancestors series is here, and it’s time to turn turn the rigid society ruled by genetically enhanced humans upside down!

In the previous books, we learned about the genetic engineering used to produce superior versions of humans, as well as bringing back extinct species, including Neanderthals. Unenhanced humans are held responsible for the historic damage to the planet and forced to make reparations, while the elite use their genetic knowledge and upgrades to hold onto power. Elise, an unenhanced Sapien, works with the Neanderthals in the Museum of Evolution, where they live in zoo-like conditions with no knowledge of the contemporary world.

Elise and several Neanderthals have escaped from the Museums, and have been living in hiding with other Sapiens who are unhappy with their controlled society. After the disastrous events of The Fourth Species, book three in the series, her companions set about finding a space place to build their own society, outside the influence of the genetically enhanced ruling classes.

The key characters from the previous books are back, working together to protect their community, but there’s a spy in their settlement and nothing they are working for is safe. Elise and her friends must decide who to trust, and what to risk for their safety and eventual freedom.

It’s another exciting instalment in the series, and (without spoiling anything!) a satisfying ending to the story.

Have you read the Tomorrow’s Ancestors series? What did you think of the final book? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: The Final Rising cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: How Far We’ve Come

Title: How Far We’ve Come
Author: Joyce Efia Harmer
Edition: Kindle ARC
Rating: 4/5

Cover of How Far We've Come by Joyce Efia Harmer

Obah is a slave on a Barbados plantation in 1834. Jacob is a descendant of a slave-owning family, determined to atone for the crimes of his ancestors. When Jacob finds a way to time travel to Obah’s plantation, he seizes his chance to give her a life of freedom in present-day Somerset. But Jacob has underestimated Obah’s experiences on the plantation and the culture shock she encounters in twenty-first century England, and Obah has discovers that the two teenagers are more closely connected than she realised.

It’s an interesting premise for a story. Obah is a perfect protagonist to take on the injustices of life on the plantation, and to recognise the problems of present-day society from her unique viewpoint. She’s intelligent and determined, but she knows how to keep herself safe and obey the rules that govern her life, both in Barbados and in the UK.

The supporting characters, and Obah’s relationships with them, give the book its page-turning pace. In Barbados she works in the kitchens, and directly for the wife of the owner. Her mother escaped from the plantation when Obah was young, and Obah has built her own family among the slaves. With them, she finds warmth and community while she navigates constant danger from the owner and his overseer, and the whims of the owner’s wife and daughter. The author doesn’t romanticise life on the plantation, and the reader is not spared the horrific experiences Obah and her found family share. There is no gratuitous detail, but the matter-of-fact reactions of the slaves to their punishments and hardships is more heartbreaking than any over-dramatised anger or confrontation. The unending injustice and cruelty is harrowing to read.

In England, Obah slowly learns to trust Jacob and his mother and sister. It takes time for her to understand that she is not expected to work or take care of them, and to understand the expectations of modern-day society on her. She sees injustices that they, as a wealthy white family, do not, and it is this that drives the twenty-first century sections of the story.

There are all sorts of issues with writing a novel like this. Avoiding the White Saviour trope, and the obvious difficulties both characters will experience as they are displaced from their homes, feels extremely important to making this story work in 2023. Both characters learn about themselves, their societies, and their prejudices, and come to see the power Obah has over her life, if she can work out how to use it. I’m not completely convinced that the author has fully avoided all the issues with the setup, but the story structure is neat and the characters engaging. It definitely gives the reader plenty to think about.

How Far We’ve Come is published in paperback today! Thank you to the publisher for the ARC copy.

Have you read How Far We’ve Come? What did you think of the story? Do you think the author handled the difficult theme well? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: How Far We’ve Come cross-posted to GoodReads.

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