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Review of House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

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House of salt and sorrowsHouse of Salt and Sorrows is is supposedly a retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale “12 Dancing Princesses” with which, unfortunately, I’m not familiar. Thus, I can’t comment on their similarities one way or another. But I found this book to be an utterly gripping story.

The story opens to a funeral and is told from the point of view of Annaleigh Thaumas. We learn that Annaleigh is one out of whom where once 12 sisters but tragedy (or, according to the villagers, a curse) has hit the family pretty hard resulting in the recent deaths of four of the sisters.

Shortly after the funeral, their Stepmother convinces her father that they all should stop mourning and dress in beautiful, bright clothing, attend balls, and enjoy life once again. Shortly after the girls receive new clothing and each a pair of “fairy shoes,” they discover a secret/magical passage that takes them to different towns wherever spectacular balls are being held. So each night, the sisters slip through the magical doorway and dance the night away, enjoying new adventures around people who aren’t aware of their so-called curse.

But then, another sister goes missing, and after a series of ghostly apparitions, Annaleigh suspects that her sisters’ deaths may not have been as accidental as everyone has believed. She then takes it upon herself to unravel the mystery, and it’s at this point that the story takes quite a dark turn, especially once Annaleigh realizes that she doesn’t know who to trust. She also begins to suspect that there may be something sinister behind the magic portal that whisks her and her sisters off to elegant balls every evening.

So first off, I loved how atmospheric this novel was. The settings have such an eerie and gothic vibe to them, and I felt that the author really did an excellent job of bringing to the reader a vivid and evocative sense of place. I thought the descriptions were moody, immersive, and utterly intoxicating, and I appreciated the lush attention to detail.

The story also has plenty of twists — most of which I didn’t see coming — which kept me glued the page throughout. The world-building was terrific with well-developed characters, plot, and sense of place, resulting in an ethereal and beguiling story. The author creates here an atmosphere of constant tension and unease as you begin to suspect, along with Annaleigh, that there is something seriously wrong with her sister’s apparent “accidents.” We then learn that not everyone is as they seem, and this is where the creep factor really begins to escalate. I actually found it a lot of fun to unravel the mystery along with Annaleigh and was definitely gobsmacked when I learned the truth of it all.

All in all, I loved House of Salt and Sorrows and finished it in just two sittings. It was a gripping and super spooky story, and while reading, I felt as though I’d been enraptured by an old-time dark fairy tale that, strangely, had a modern feel to it at the same time. A great book to read on a dark and stormy night!

A huge thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of this book.

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Review of Keep This To Yourself by Tom Ryan

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Keep this to yourselfKeep This To Yourself follows 18-year-old Mac Bell who is still reeling from his best friend Conor’s murder the year prior. Conor was the fourth victim of a serial killer named The Catalog Killer that terrorized Camera Cove for a few months and then vanished, with everyone being confident that the killer was a random drifter who had moved on after the killings.

Now a year later, everyone is trying to move on with their lives, including Mac. But when he finds a cryptic note from Conor that was written on the day of his murder, Mac is once again thrust into the case, determined to find out what happened to his friend. Mac also now believes that because of the note, Mac might have been able to prevent his friend’s murder, this belief making Mac all the more determined to solve his friend’s death when the police could not. I think there was some survivor’s guilt going on here.

So this book hooked me right from the get-go, and once Mac decides to reopen the serial killer case himself, the tension and the pace never slow down as Mac becomes more and more obsessed with uncovering the truth. The tension really ramped up once Mac began to suspect that the killer never left Camera Cove at all and has been here the entire time.

I loved how chock full of twists and turns this story was and how everyone ends up being a suspect at some point during the story. I loved journeying along with Mac and he slowly uncovered clues and reopened old wounds by interviewing the survivors’ families, and along the way, we’re introduced to a multitude of rich characters which added to the realism of the setting. So through these characters, it becomes quickly evident that many in the town are keeping secrets which might have hampered the original murder investigation. I always love the trope where nobody can be believed, and that was certainly the case here.

My only niggle with the book was the romance. I just didn’t feel it, and I don’t think it was developed enough to be realistic. It felt kind of unnecessary in this story actually, and it seems like it was thrust in as an afterthought with not all that much chemistry between the two of them.

As for Mac, he’s a delightfully flawed and realistic character with many layers. Here we have a young gay man who is not only struggling with guilt from his best friend’s murder but is also trying to come to terms with his feelings for Conor — that is, feelings for his friend which may have been much more than mere friendship. Mac is quite a relatable character I thought, and I enjoyed seeing his character growth throughout the story.

All in all, I thought that this story was an absolute gem. It was a terrific thriller that kept me guessing right until the utterly shocking — and chilling — ending. It was a clever and solid whodunit, with plenty of red herrings and misinterpreted clues to throw the reader off track from guessing who the real killer is. This story had kind of a “Murder She Wrote” vibe to it except we have a busybody teen boy taking the place of Jessica Fletcher and I thought this aspect of it was a lot of fun. Mac turned out to be a delightful young gay detective. But most of all, I love the fact that I didn’t figure it out and was totally taken by surprise by the huge reveal.

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Review of Where I End & You Begin by Preston Norton

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Where you end I beginSo first off, I’ll mention that I love the body swapping trope and some of my favorite films include Freaky Friday, Big, 18 Again, Vice Versa, 17 Again and the like. Now I’ve read a few body swapping books, and my experience has been that this trope doesn’t translate all that well to the written form. Body swapping novels often end up being frustrating and confusing, so though I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, I was also a bit hesitant. But I needn’t have been because the author managed to pull it off here.

This story follows a somewhat shy, young man named Ezra Slevin who is obsessed with a girl named Imogen and is working up his courage to ask her to the prom. The only problem is Imogen’s overly protective best friend Wynona, a loud and annoying girl who has made Ezra’s life miserable for as long as he can remember and seems to derive enjoyment from tormenting Ezra whenever possible.

But on the night of the total solar eclipse, something weird happens to Ezra and Wynona — they wake up in each other’s bodies. But what’s especially strange is that they begin randomly swapping back and forth every day. To make things even more interesting, Ezra learns that Wynona has a crush on his best friend, Holden.

So the two enemies are forced to come together to form an alliance as they need to pretend to be the person whose body they’re inhabiting. They also agree to help each other with their crush — Ezra will help Wynona with Holden and Wynona will help Ezra with Imogen, with the body swapping adding in all sorts of additional hilarious complications.

There’s also the problem of the play all four of them are in, a rendition of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in which a bit of gender swapping itself is part of the story. But also what’s comical here is the whole issue of learning your lines and being expected to perform while in the wrong body.

The entire novel is told through Ezra’s perspective, which helps to keep track of the body swapping. Also helpful, is that when Wynona is in Ezra’s body, he refers to her as Wynezra, which is super useful in keeping everyone straight.

I was never confused or overwhelmed by the swapping and was delighted when the author turned up the tension a couple of notches by throwing in themes of gender fluidity and homosexuality into the works. This additional complexity worked well in this story, especially as various characters developed feelings for each other, and I thought that this added to the richness and depth of an already gripping plot.

What especially worked for me with his book was the hilarity that would ensue if you found yourself not only in the body of the opposite gender but of someone whose personality is night and day different from yours — and all this taking place while in high school. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in this book, and I thought it was so much fun to go on this journey with Ezra and Wynona as they struggled to figure out how to live in each other’s bodies, and navigate the challenges associated with the other’s sex and personality.

I thought it was interesting how the story follows Ezra but is still able to give a more in-depth inside look into Wynona’s life through Ezra swapping bodies with her. Likewise, it gave Wynona a deeper peek into Ezra’s life with each of them developing empathy and understanding for the other person’s issues and baggage in the process. That being said, this is also a story about how both people manage to find new wisdom by being in the other’s shoes.

I like how this story teaches empathy and understanding. By using a body swap as a tool, the author gets to show the world through the other person’s eyes resulting in a comedic contemporary with a heartfelt emotional relationship between two people who couldn’t be more different. It also succeeded in illustrating how we cannot judge or make assumptions about others based solely on outward appearances and Norton provides a means of exploring one’s own preconceived notions about others without being preachy.

I also loved how the author dealt with sexuality in such a unique and interesting way, a way that I haven’t come across before in a novel. This book is a new twist on body swaps and with it come themes of sexual preference, gender fluidity, and figuring out who you really want to be.

There are also themes of family, friendship, forgiveness, grief, and self-acceptance that also rendered this quite a serious novel as well. What worked nicely for me was how Wynona and Ezra learned to be their authentic and best self at the end of the day.

I liked how real and authentic these characters felt to me. The author gives us real teenagers with real problems and in so doing, provides us with a cast of flawed, lonely, impulsive, and quirky individuals that are totally relatable.

Where I End and You Begin is as inventive as it is moving and ended up being a beautifully rendered story of love, attraction, sexuality, family, and friendship. It’s a clever, engaging, and wildly entertaining read, and I felt that the author did an excellent job of bringing his characters to life, allowing all of them to thrive in their complexity. All in all, a lovely, subtle thought-provoking blow-me-away kind of book that I’m still mulling over. Needless to say, I loved it.

A big thank you to Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book.

This title will be released on June 4th, 2019 but it is available for pre-order now. Link is below.

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Review of The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

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Calculating starsThis is an alternative history story that follows Dr. Elma York, a pilot, physicist and mathematician who works at the International Aerospace Coalition. One night in 1952, a meteorite falls to the earth, wiping out most of the east coast of the United States, including the capital. Elma soon figures out that the meteorite collision will result in a climate cataclysm, causing such high temperatures that the oceans will boil and the earth will be inhospitable for humans.

This threat accelerates the space program and the need to colonize space sooner rather than later if the human race is to survive. This also creates a need for many more astronauts. Soon, Elma begins to wonder, with so many skilled female pilots, scientists, and mathematicians why women cannot become astronauts and go into space.

In so doing, Elma strives to become the first Lady Astronaut even though the societal conventions of the 1950s are against her goals. Additionally, the author did an excellent job of illustrating how sexism and racism prevented leaders of the space program from taking advantage of all of the highly skilled and exceptionally talented people who could definitely be an asset to the program.

What’s interesting about this book is that it didn’t examine only the issue of sexism but also of racism, both of which were pretty much the norm in the 1950s. Elma was mostly unaware of racism issues in society, or at the very least it wasn’t something she thought about until people closer to her were affected by it. Initially, she was kind of self-centered and mostly unaware of the oppression of those around her.

In this way, the book illustrated nicely how even well-meaning, supposedly open-minded people can be utterly ignorant of other people’s struggles until those struggles are really brought to the forefront of their attention. I enjoyed the book’s exploration of discrimination across gender, race and even mental health and appreciated how these topics were the main themes of the story. The book also did an excellent job of showing how challenging life in the 1950s was for anyone who wasn’t a white male.

As for Elma, she’s a wonderfully inspiring character. She’s determined, brilliant, brave and competent. But it was also interesting to learn how she suffers from crippling social anxiety which was an important theme in this book, especially once she became thrust into the spotlight.

I thought it was especially empowering that Elma eventually comes to terms with her anxiety, understanding that it is a medical condition and does not mean she is weak. In this way, it was an extremely accurate portrayal of what anxiety looks like so an excellent representation here of anxiety disorder I thought.

My only niggle with this novel were the sex scenes with her husband, Nathaniel. Now Elma and her husband had a wonderfully sweet relationship (perhaps even a tad too sweet), and a lot of the book focused on their romance. But the sex scenes felt awkward to me and like they didn’t really belong in this story. There were a lot of sexual innuendos such as “launch is a go,” that caused me to roll my eyes a time or two. To me, the sex scenes just felt out of place and a bit forced in this story, and they may have been better left out.

But apart from that, I loved this gripping and riveting story. There are so many important subjects that this book addresses including discrimination against women, racial inequality, climate change, space travel, and mental health, to name a few. But what I especially like about the book’s treatment of these topics was that it wasn’t done in a preach or heavy-handed way but rather with sensitivity and fitness.

I can’t begin to imagine the amount of research that went into this story. The author clearly did her homework here with the result being a fully immersive and realistic novel with a diverse cast of characters. Ultimately, this book hooked me and wormed into my heart and mind

This book is part of a series but can be read as a standalone as everything was nicely wrapped up at the end. I do plan on picking up the sequel entitled “The Fated Sky” as I am looking forward to continuing on with this series.

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Review of The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Lovely and the lostThis novel follows a young woman named Kira Bennett, who was found by Cady Bennett and her search and rescue dogs out in the woods. Apparently, Kira had been living alone and wild in the woods but for how long and why, nobody knows. Kira remembers bits and pieces of her life in the forest but has no memories of before that time.

Kira is adopted by the Bennett family and learns the family business: Search-and-Rescue. Working alongside Cady, Cady’s son Jude and their neighbor Free, Kira trains search-and-rescue dogs and she hopes to perform rescues herself eventually. It’s worth mentioning that Kira has a difficult time connecting with people, does not like making eye contact or being touched and her “wild” side often overtakes her. She’s definitely more comfortable with dogs than with people.

Soon, Kira and the others kids find themselves involved in a real live search and rescue when Cady’s estranged father finds her and asks for her help in locating a little girl who disappeared in Sierra Glades National Park. Kira soon becomes obsessed with the case, having been in the same situation herself — being lost in the wild, alone.

As they search for the girl, several strange events occur leading everyone to discover that there is a lot more to this case than a straightforward child lost in the woods and danger soon mounts for those involved. Moreover, the case has triggered old memories for Kira — chilling memories — which begin to overwhelm her. Then, secrets about Kira’s true nature, the Bennett family and about what happened to her come to light causing her to confront some painful truths.

What I found especially fun about this story were the layers upon layers of mysteries that the story presented: there’s the mystery of Kira’s past and her real family; the mystery of who Jude’s real father is; the mystery of the animosity between Cady and her father; the mystery of Gabriel, the strange boy living with Cady’s father; and of course, the mystery of the lost girl. Just about everyone is hiding something. Though there’s a lot going on here, the plot is well-thought out, easy to follow and downright compelling as it’s a suspenseful story with plenty of twisty surprises.

I also loved the inclusion of the dogs in this story and how integral they were to the plot line. The strong bond between the teens and their canines was heartwarming. I enjoyed learning about rescue dogs and their training and thought that this added a rich element to the story.

But mostly, this book was a heartfelt exploration of family in all of its forms, whether it be human or canine and teaches that a family created out of love can often be just as strong as a family formed by blood.

All in all, I thought the Lovely and the Lost was wildly entertaining with relentless pacing, richly developed and empathetic characters, and a satisfying conclusion rendered this an undeniable page-turner.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Freeform for the advanced reader copy in return for an honest review!

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