Stephanie Garber’s début novel, Caraval, was one of the most highly-praised young adult fantasy novels of 2017. Its richly-imagined world and lush prose took the book world by storm, and fans were elated to learn the author was planning a sequel. I didn’t fall in love with Caraval the way so many of my fellow…
Julia Fine enchants with a towering, powerful tale of womanhood, frustration, coming of age and deep love, in What Should Be Wild. We begin with birth emerging from death; Maisie Cothay, delivered breathing from the body of her dead and literally rotting mother, is afflicted with a terrible and mysterious curse – the touch of…
The world is being inundated with young adult fantasy series, and while I’ve loved quite a few of those I’ve read over the past couple of years, I can definitely understand why some people are growing weary of them. R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War is a little different in that it appears to be a…
There’s definitely been a surplus of kick-ass young women in YA fiction recently, and it’s a pretty great thing to see. Unfortunately, I’m not sure Kyra, this newest addition, will go down equal to the likes of Katniss, Hermione, and Tris. Markswoman, the first in a new series by Rati Mehrotra, pulls heavily from Indian…
There are tons of young adult romances out there featuring vampires, werewolves, and dark Fae creatures, and while I love those, I’ve recently found myself in the mood for something a little different. Enter The November Girl, a book with a unique premise, diverse principals, and a ton of weighty issues. As soon as I…
Earlier this year, I fell head over heels in love with The Queen of Blood, book one in Sarah Beth Durst’s Queens of Renthia series. When I first heard about it, I figured it would be like the many young adult fantasies out there in which a young woman with extraordinary power saves the world…
Roshani Chokshi weaves a narrative of legend and magic based on Indian folklore in her latest novel A Crown of Wishes. This rich look at an ancient culture is full of lush, vivid imagery that will pull you into a story that is truly one from a long time ago in a place far, far…
In Hunted, Megan Spooner, author of the Skylark and Starbound trilogies of books, attempts to restyle the popular tale of Beauty and the Beast as an action romp, with, unfortunately, little success. Set in ancient Russia, our heroine is Yeva, daughter of a rich merchant, who is at court as a lady in waiting to…
One Blood Ruby is the follow-up to Melissa Marr’s Seven Black Diamonds, published in early 2016. This second installment picks up shortly after book one ended, and I definitely recommend starting at the beginning of the series in order to have a full understanding of the characters, the world they inhabit, and the relationships they…
I recently found out that one of my very favorite books of this decade was unlikely to be made into a movie because “How do we mitigate the financial risk without a white, male lead?” I’ve been a reader of novels with ethnically diverse characters for years, but reading that statement reminded me how important…