Review: The Cup and the Prince by Day Leitao

First off, fabulous cover. Very Sorcery of Thorns, love it. Unfortunately, the story itself, and in particular its execution, just didn't really live it up to its lovely outside ...

Review: Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

So here's the thing. I read Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly a year ago and loved it. It was a solid Cinderella retelling, with some good twists, a wider cast and personifications of concepts like Fate and Chance. And perhaps I went into Poisoned with expectations that couldn't be met, but I just couldn't love it in the same way.

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Review: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

A dash of feminism, a splash of witchery and mixed with a slightly dystopian history? Oh yes, I can work with that.

Review: How it All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi

This book does that YA thing where it tries to tie together a lot of important and concerning themes - being gay, being Muslim, being Iranian, coming out, knowing your parents won't accept you, finding 'your people', being targeted by flight marshalls because of race - but doesn't quite spend enough time on any of those things to make them significant. That may be because these are some of the author's exaggerated memories, or the POV writing of a teenager. But a short novel gives an impression without giving much depth.

Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

There was so much to love about this book. It is languorous and melancholy and full of the bright highs of exploring three hundred years of western human history, and the lows of a life both too long and never long enough.

Review: Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This short novel was such a pleasure to read. It has that calm, heartfelt and emotional atmosphere that really typifies the best of this style of Japanese literature. This is a short review for a short book.

Review: American Royals: Majesty by Katharine McGee

I would describe the American Royals series as nothing but a guilty pleasure. It's not mind-blowing, it's very hetero-relationship, boy-centric. But at times it gets the heart-warming and the romance just right.