Do you like hiking? Because I do! I went hiking a few weekends ago up on a nearby mountain (it was a glorious escape from the blazing heat) and brought a hammock and book with me for some relaxing mountain reading time. Sugar Town Queens was the book I brought along, hence the photo above of me and Sugar Town Queens chilling in a hammock. Anyway, I'm here today with my review of the aforementioned book by Malla Nunn! Honestly, I don't have anything else to say (I've already used up all my words on school assignments today), so let's just dive into it! Special thanks to Penguin Teen for providing me with an eARC of Sugar Town Queens in exchange for an honest review! Synopsis and Book Information
My ReviewI didn't really know what to expect going into this book, but it turned out to be a pretty good read. The plot was compelling and I didn't want to put it down! The pacing was a little odd at times and the characters were pretty undeveloped, but overall it was enjoyable and had a nice mystery element. I loved the main character, Amandla. She was brave and strong, and she didn't let other people push her around. She was protective of the people she loved, especially her mother, and was willing to fight to discover the truth about her family. Her character arc was wonderful; you could really feel her coming into her true self. Her mom, Annalisa, was an interesting character too. Her presence was important, but she was more of a catalyst in the plot. I didn't feel much of an emotional connection to her until the end when we learned more about her past. Amandla's friends, Lil Bit and Goodness, felt a bit one-dimensional; however, I liked how they were always there to support Amandla. I'm still interested in learning more about Lil Bit, and I think another book starring her would be great! I feel like there's a lot more to her story. The romance was a minor plot point, but it was cute! I do question how old the romantic interest was supposed to be, though; the book made it seem like he was around 18 or 19 (he was seemingly done with school and working), but Amandla just turned 15 at the beginning of the book, so that would be a pretty wide age gap. In order to keep this review spoiler-free I won't mention any other characters specifically by name, but let's just say that one of them annoyed me throughout the entire book, I wanted to banish two others to the depths of Mordor, and the others were just bland. Overall, I wasn't very impressed with the characters in this book. I did enjoy the mystery in this book! The mystery vibes were subtle, but they added a lot. However, I would categorize this as more of a coming-of-age contemporary than a mystery. This book was very heartwarming, too, and I liked the focus on friends and family. The descriptions were also really vivid and made me feel like I was with the characters in Sugar Town! Thanks for reading my review of Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn! I gave this book Three Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
I hope y'all are having a great week!
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Happy weekend, bookworms! Have y'all been up to anything exciting lately? The most exciting thing that's happened to me recently was watching the Loki season finale, and I am not okay, I repeat I am not okay. That ending was just cruel...but season two! Just have to, you know, wait a year or two for it. *starts sobbing* Anyway...today I have for you my review of Curses by Lish McBride! I'm super excited to be sharing this review with y'all because I absolutely adored this book. Also, please note the fladgers (flying badgers, obviously) which I've lovingly edited into the photo above. I'm very excited about them, and I hope they bring you the same joy they bring me. Special thanks to Penguin Teen for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! Synopsis and Book Information
My ReviewOh my gosh this book was fantastic. I was expecting something a bit more dark, but I really loved the humorous, romantic vibes of this book. There were so many unique elements, too: flying badgers (or fladgers, because of course), a support group for people who've been cursed (honestly, brilliant), and a giant cat-like creature named Hob (aka my new favorite character ever). Plus so much more. The complexity of this world was fantastic! The writing style and characters were delightful. I absolutely adored Merit and Tevin; their characters just popped right off the page and came to life so vibrantly in my mind. Merit in particular was fierce and determined, courageous and plucky, and I was inspired by how she never gave up trying to get rid her curse. As for Tevin, I'm pretty sure I fell in love with him from the first page: he's so charming and handsome, and he turned out to have a winning personality, too! The slow burn romance was glorious perfection and I was there for every second of it. It inched along beautifully and I really wanted to shake them and scream at them to admit their feelings PLEASE FINALLY. The side characters were all wonderful too, and I was invested in all of them; I can tell the author put lots of effort into crafting their unique personalities. Ellery, Val, and Amaury were so spirited, amusing, and fun to read about. This book also had some great nonbinary and lesbian rep--it's great to see some LGBTQ+ representation in a retelling! Overall, I loved how, while this was most certainly a Beauty and the Beast retelling, it had so many creative twists. I did feel like some parts were a little slow (and this book is 288 pages, but it felt more like 400?? Is this just me or is the page count wrong? Seriously I'm confused), but that's honestly my only complaint. This is hands-down the best Beauty and the Beast retelling I've ever read! I can't wait for the world to be dazzled with its brilliance. That's a wrap on my review of Curses by Lish McBride! I gave this book Four Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This book releases in three days (THREE DAYS!) so make sure to grab a copy the moment it hits the shelves! And if you read this book, tell me--I want to nerd out about it with you, and maybe we can start a Hob fan club...
Thanks for reading, y'all! I'll see you around. Isn't summer just made for relaxing inside in the cool AC, curled up with a good book, all the free time in the world just gravitating around you? Well...maybe, but apparently not for me. Yours truly, in a moment of regrettable academic aspiration, signed up for summer courses to get some extra credits out of the way. Genius in theory, right? In reality, I've been plopped in front of my computer trying to make sense of sociological imagination and the scientific method and a whole bunch of other stuff that's turning my brain to mind mush and sucking away my reading timing. Me of Two Months Ago, why did you ever think summer courses were a good idea?? Anyway, that's my explanation for why I've been very inactive in the book community lately. Sorry, everyone--blame school, not me! However, I'm finally stopping by again with my review of When All the Girls Are Sleeping by Emily Arsenault! This book releases tomorrow, so I'm wishing it an early happy book birthday. Now let's get into this review! Huge thank you to the author, Emily Arsenault, for providing me with an eARC and finished copy in exchange for an honest review! Synopsis and Book Information
My ReviewI honestly wasn't too sure what to expect going into this book, but I ended up absolutely loving it! It's one of the best mysteries I've read in a while, and the paranormal aspect of it added to the mysterious vibes. It was packed full of detective investigating, interviews, written excerpts, and all the wholesome detective-y stuff I love in a mystery novel. Also: boarding school! It's a boarding school mystery, and y'all know how obsessed I am with those. Haley was an interesting main character. Despite this being primarily a mystery novel, we got tons of character development and history about her throughout the book. She herself was a bit of a mystery from the start, so I enjoyed learning more about her along with the larger mystery. Plus there was also tons to learn about her dead ex-best friend, Taylor. Even though Taylor was technically dead for the entire book, she felt very alive to me since I got to read about Haley's memories of her. I also found all the side characters captivating to read about because they were so packed full of character. The author did a great job of giving all the characters unique and vibrant personalities, not just the main characters. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but I didn't have too many issues remembering who was who. The mystery itself couldn't have been better. It kept me guessing through the entire book, and I was totally shocked by the answer at the end. Never saw it coming! But I actually loved the answer, too; it was perfect and fit so well with this book. My only complaint is that some scenes did feel a bit drawn out and dull. Some of the research Haley did in the school archives, while important to the investigation, was just a little boring to read about. However, most of it was very compelling and I didn't want to put the book down! Overall, I really loved When All the Girls Are Sleeping and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, especially to mystery fans! I gave it 4.5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨.
What are some of your favorite boarding school mysteries? Let me know in the comments! Happy weekend, y'all! I hope you're soaking up these glorious weekend vibes just the same as I am. It's actually been a bit rainy where I am these past couple days, and everyone knows that rainy weather is made for reading. I'm hoping it'll start pouring today so I can snuggle up with some tea and a good book. Fingers crossed! On this day, Saturday the 3rd, I hereby present to you my review of The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass! I'm so sad because I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. There was a lot of stuff that didn't sit well with me. There's nothing quite like the despair of a book not living up to your expectations 😭. Anyway, read on, I'll hash it all out in my review! Thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me with an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review! Synopsis and Book Information
My ReviewI really wanted to like The Taking of Jake Livingston, but it just wasn't for me. I do think it's awesome that it's a horror novel featuring a queer, black protagonist. It has a ton of great representation. Unfortunately, horror novels just aren't my cup of tea, and there were some really disturbing scenes that bothered me. Overall, it was very dark, and I wish I'd been aware of the heavy content present in this book before requesting an ARC of it. There is a lot of potentially triggering stuff in there, so please check out the content warnings before picking up this book! I was also quite confused about a lot of what happened and why things were happening; I would have loved to know why, exactly, Jake can see ghosts, or what even is the ectomist? I felt like many elements of this book were half-baked, just there without any explanation as to why, seemingly just to heighten the creepy vibes. I'm also not sold on including Sawyer's diary entries, told in his own POV, being a good choice; they were deeply disturbing and made me very uncomfortable, and they also had the potential to make readers sympathetic toward him--which, I know he went through a lot of terrible stuff, but he also did many truly horrific things, and the author left me in a place where I was unsure of whether to sympathize with him as a victim or despise him as a villain. I honestly felt like Sawyer was a more dimensional character than Jake, though, which was rather disappointing. Jake honestly didn't have much character at all; he was mainly described as being black, queer, and capable of seeing ghosts, with no other characteristics really being described. His relationship with his family was also rather strange, and there was an awkward explanation for his family's tension tossed in at the end, which just felt forced and sudden. Additionally, the romance felt oddly paced and pretty unnecessary to the plot. So overall, I feel a bit let down by The Taking of Jake Livingston. I'd been really hoping to love it, but there were a lot of elements that I just didn't enjoy or found very uncomfortable or disturbing to read about. However, I do think it's exciting that there's a horror novel with such diverse representation out in the world, and I hope other people will enjoy this book more than I did! That's all for my review of The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass! As I unfortunately did not like this book, I only gave it 1 Star ⭐️. I hope that, if you decide to read this book, you'll enjoy it more than I did...although, once again, please check out the content warnings before reading!
Do you like horror novels? What are some of your favorites? Let me know in the comments! Have a fabulous day, y'all! See you around! |
Hey there, bookworms!My name is Rose (she/her) and I'm the creator of Books of Magic and Mystery. I love reading YA books, especially fantasy and mystery. When I'm not reading, you can find me baking, studying, or cuddling with my super-furry pets. Visit me on Instagram @booksofmagicandmystery! Archives
November 2021
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