Read in August

Hoohoo, guys.

It’s time for the monthly wrap up! I’ve found a new favourite this month and I went bacl to Holly Black’s world of fairies. I also read about wonderful LGBT+ characters. I had a pretty good reading month. What about you? What did you read? And which was your favourite?

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Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | Published: 4th June 2019 | Pages: 456 | Genre: YA fantasy | Rep: bi, aro ace | TW: blood, death, grief, trauma

What is it about?

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined. (goodreads)

What did I think?

I loved this book! I LOVED THIS BOOK! It’s one of my new favourite and like summoning a demon, you could probably put this in a pentagram, whisper my name and I’d appear. It’s amazing! Tall girls swinging swords, bisexual idiot sorcerers, aro ace geniuses and a demon who miiiight be evil but could also be the character I want to wrap in a blanket and care for. I don’t even know what to say, I loved everything about this book and you can read my review here.

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Kingdoms of Smoke – Die Verschwörung von Brigant by Sally Green

Original title: The Smoke Thieves | Publisher: dtv | Publishing Date: 20th September 2019 | Pages: 544 | YA Fantasy | Rep: Gay | TW: death, abuse

What is it about?

Prinzessin Catherine bereitet sich in Brigant auf ihre Hochzeit mit einem Mann vor, den sie nie getroffen hat.
Ambrose, dem Leibgardisten, der heimlich in die Prinzessin verliebt ist, droht unterdessen das Henkersschwert.
In Calidor ist der Diener March auf Rache an dem Mann aus, der für den Untergang seines Volkes verantwortlich ist.
Edyon wird in Pitoria von seiner unbekannten Vergangenheit eingeholt.
Und auf dem Nördlichen Plateau macht die junge Dämonenjägerin Tash eine mysteriöse Entdeckung.
Die Leben dieser fünf jungen Menschen werden untrennbar miteinander verknüpft. Ihren Ländern droht Schlimmeres als der nahende Krieg und in ihren Händen ruht das Schicksal ihrer Welt… (goodreads)

What did I think?

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Fierce like a Firestorm by Lana Popović

Series: Hibiscus Daughter #2 | Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books | Published: 21st August 2018 | Pages: 310 | Genre: YA Fantasy, mythology | Rep: lesbian | TW: death of loved one

What is it about?

Twin sisters Iris and Malina thought they knew how to reverse the ancient curse that haunts their line, the spell that destines them to use their gleams—unique forms of beauty-manipulating magic—to entice and enchant none other than Death himself.
But both sisters thought wrong.
Instead of ending the wicked bargain with the power of her infinite bloom, Iris is taken to an exquisite, uncanny realm in between this world and the next—a world Death created for her alone. Only, unlike all of Death’s companions before, Iris’s body goes on the one-way journey along with her soul, arriving in a kingdom never meant to sustain a living girl.
Left behind with Niko, her girlfriend, and Luka, the boy her sister loves, Lina searches for a way to save Iris. But as Lina unearths the dark secrets that bind her family to parallel fates of loss and immortality and Iris tries to outwit Death on his own terrain, a power resurfaces that even Mara, the original witch mother, fears. Now both sisters must learn to fully embrace their gleams—or else they’ll truly lose each other forever. (goodreads)

What did I think?

What I loved most was the writing, it’s so beautiful and detailed, it is somehow tranquil and calming and fits the mountains of Montenegro perfectly. I also liked the two sisters, they both developed so well, each in their own way. The whole family is really special in the most amazing way, magical and strong and so full of love. I also enjoyed the romance parts because none of it seemed forced. Their actions were all understandable and reasonable. But it all went a bit fast for me. There’s this huge build up and suddenly it all happens so fast and then it’s over. The ending left me very unsatisfied.

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Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron

Publisher: Macmillan | Published: 22nd March 2018 | Pages: 281 | Genre: Contemporary paranormal YA | Rep: lesbian, bi, Sri-Lankan-Scottish | TW: blood, death, loss of loved one

What is it about?

When angels start falling from the sky, it seems like the world is ending. Smashing down to earth at extraordinary speeds, wings bent, faces contorted, not a single one has survived.
As the world goes wild for angels, Jaya’s father uproots the family to Edinburgh intent on catching one alive. But Jaya can’t stand this obsession and, still reeling from her mother’s recent death and the sudden disappearance of her ex-girlfriend, she’s determined to stay out of it.
Then something incredible happens: an angel lands right at Jaya’s feet – and it’s alive … (goodreads)

What did I think?

This book is really interesting in that it gives you a story that gives you many questions and only a few answers and half of them are only superficial. This is not a bad thing, not at all. It makes the whole thing better and makes you think. It tells the story of falling beingsthat look like angels. Are they angels? Are they something totally different? Why are they falling?
While no human knows the answers to these questions, humans certainly know one thing: how to make money. They don’t know shit about these beings but of course they exploit them in one way or the other: for fanatic religious purposes, apocalypse theories or just to get rich. Out of the blue definitely doesn’t show humanity from its best part, but it does show the good in humans, the compassion and love and the sense of doing what’s right.
The characters are great. Even though the book doesn’t even have 300 pages, the characters get a certain depth through their actions and motivations that are described in just all the right details. You can imagine this half-apocalyptic atmosphere, the tension of waiting and the hunger for news and sensation and the people who live for these events and the people who just want to belong and grief and love. And while this book feels somewhat unfinished, it gives you the more ideas of morals and humanity to think about.

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I wish you all the best by Mason Deaver

Publisher: Push | Published: 14th May 2019 | Pages: 329 | Genre: contemporary YA | Rep: non-binary, black, muslim, bisexual, anxiety, depression | TW: queermisia, queerphobia, anxiety, depression, broken family

What is it about?

When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they’re thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents’ rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school.
But Ben’s attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan’s friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life. (goodreads)

What did I think?

I really did enjoy this book, it made me feel all warm, as well as angry and sad. Warm because Ben is a wonderful protagonist, they’re just… I don’t know, someone I want to put in a blanket and keep safe and warm and happy and be a friend for. Warm because Ben’s friends are amazing, their banter and sarcasm, their love for each other. Warm because of the romance and how it was described. Warm because estranged family finds back to each other. Angry and sad because of what Ben has to endure through their parents and because many real young LGBT+ folx have to go through this.
This book is so real and has such a great main character in Ben with all the facettes and hopes and dreams and disappointments a life can have. Ben’s feelings are so well portrayed.
I just wish the side characters would have had more of a backstory. It wouldn’t be essential to the plot, but I nevertheless would have loved them.

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Tithe by Holly Black

Series: The Modern Fairietales #1 | Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | Published: 4th June 2019 | Genre: YA Urban Fantasy | TW: blood, death

What is it about?

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms – a struggle that could very well mean her death. (goodreads)

What did I think?

While this book wasn’t particularly good, I still enjoyed it. There’s just something about Holly Black’s books that I like, they’re dark and gritty with unlikable protagonists and supernatural, cunning fairies. This was well written, but still a bit unsatisfying. I missed soemthing, though I can’t say what it was exactly. I’m a bit torn between liking this and missing things.

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Valiant by Holly Black

Series: The Modern Fairietales #2 | Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | Published: 4th June 2019 | Genre: YA Urban Fantasy | TW: drug abuse, blood, cheating

What is it about?

When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she’s trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city’s labyrinthine subway system.
But there’s something eerily beguiling about Val’s new friends. And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming. (goodreads)

What did I think?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t too much of a fan of this book. I didn’t really like Valerie. Or any of the other characters, for that matter. And the romance went wayyyy to fast for my liking and then all the drama happened and I… I don’t know. This book just wasn’t for me.