First Thoughts is a feature where I give my initial impression of my current read.
Showing posts with label harlequin teen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harlequin teen. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Friday, August 24, 2018
Book Review: Toil and Trouble - 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft
Author: Various
Genre: Young Adult | Short Stories | Witches
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: August 28, 2018
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC
A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.
Are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.
History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.
Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.
A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.
From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored (goodreads).
Understandably, there are hit-or-misses in anthologies, but this one had more misses.
Friday, April 6, 2018
Book Review: Ace of Shades
Author: Amanda Foody
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy | Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: April 10, 2018
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.
Frightened and alone, her only lead is a name: Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn't have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne's offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems.
Their search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi's enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city…
And she’ll need to play (goodreads).
I can't stop thinking about Ace of Shades.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Book Review: The Ravenous
Author: Amy Lukavics
Genre: Young Adult | Horror
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: September 26, 2017
Source: ALA
Format: ARC
From the outside, the Cane family looks like they have it all. A successful military father, a loving mother and five beautiful teenage daughters. But on the inside, life isn't quite so idyllic: the Cane sisters can barely stand each other, their father is always away, and their neglectful mother struggles with addiction and depression.
When their youngest and most beloved sister, Rose, dies in a tragic accident, Mona Cane and her sisters are devastated. And when she is brought back from the dead, they are relieved. But soon they discover that Rose must eat human flesh to survive, and when their mother abandons them, the sisters will find out just how far they'll go to keep their family together (goodreads).
The Ravenous was spooky but predictable.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Book Review: Daughter of the Burning City
Author: Amanda Foody
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy | Mystery
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Publication Date: July 25, 2017
Source: ALA
Format: ARC
A darkly irresistible new fantasy set in the infamous Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery that caters to the strangest of dreams and desires.
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.
But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear (goodreads).
Daughter of the Burning City impressed me with its values and complex characters.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Book Review: The Women in the Walls
Author: Amy Lukavics
Genre: Young Adult | Horror | Mystery
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: September 27, 2016
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.
When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations (goodreads).
The Women in the Walls was a disappointing follow-up to Daughters unto Devils.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Book Review: Queen
Author: Aimee Carter
Genre: Young Adult | Dystopian
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: November 24, 2015
Format: Audio Book
Source: Purchased
PAWN...CAPTIVE...QUEEN?
Kitty Doe is a Blackcoat rebel and a former captive with a deadly connection to the most powerful and dangerous man in the country, Prime Minister Daxton Hart. Forced to masquerade as Daxton's niece, Lila Hart, Kitty has helped the Blackcoats take back the prison known as Elsewhere. But Daxton has no intention of ceding his position of privilege—or letting Kitty expose his own masquerade. Not in these United States, where each person's rank means the difference between luxury and poverty, freedom and fear...and ultimately, between life and death.
To defeat the corrupt government, Kitty must expose Daxton's secret. Securing evidence will put others in jeopardy, including the boy she's loved forever and an ally she barely trusts. For months, Kitty's survival has hinged on playing a part. Now she must discover who she truly wants to be, and whether the new world she and the rebels are striving to create has a place in it for her after all (goodreads).
Captive was such a thrilling adventure that I was afraid Queen wouldn't live up to everything it had built up to. Allow me to put your worries at ease.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Book Review: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Genre: Vampires // Dystopian // Young Adult // Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased (Amazon)
To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.
Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for… again.
Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins (goodreads).
Dark and gritty, Julie Kagawa takes an old vampire trope and makes it her own.
Friday, November 28, 2014
Book Review: Captive
Author: Aimee Carter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: November 25, 2014
Genre: Young Adult // Dystopia //
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark more than ever.
But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.
As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price (goodreads)?
If you thought Pawn was chock-full of political intrigue...then you haven't seen anything yet!
Plot: First off: WOW. Just WOW. Pawn set up this story with a nice, pretty bow. We got background and we were introduced to the political struggle and were shocked by a volley of plot twists. Captive does not take it slow, instead we were assaulted with even more twists and turns and left guessing who truly had Kitty's best interest at heart. My heart stopped while reading some scene, then it raced after reading other scenes. I haven't felt this engaged in a story in a long time. The pacing was perfect, Aimee would give us a little line, then reel us in, give us a little more line, THEN LETS EVERYTHING HITS THE FAN, the she gives us a little more line. I finished Captive (at 2 in the morning) feeling a bit breathless and exhilarated.
Characters: Kitty Doe is the same feisty Extra that we grew to love in Pawn. My one complaint is her determination to prove that she's not a pawn leads her to make stupid decisions. Then said stupid decisions get her in trouble, and she immediately looks for someone to bail her out. No Kitty, either stop doing stupid things, or learn how to get yourself out of trouble without implicating other people.
Pawn had major hints of a love triangle between Benjy and Nox, Captive had even more hints of a love triangle but it was enjoyable . I liked this love triangle because it was in the background. Kitty would hear whispers of returned emotions, but there was never more than a page dedicated to the romantic drama. For what it's worth, I'm all about Nox.
In Captive we are introduced to a new cast of characters who were either allies of Kitty or using her. Each character was painted so perfectly that I couldn't distinguish friend from foe either.
World Building: The slums of D.C and the Hart Estate were the main landscape of Pawn, we were also introduced to the horrific dead lands known as Elsewhere. A majority of Captive, takes place in Elsewhere and boy let me tell you, Pawn only gave us a snippet of what really goes in there.
Short N Sweet: Aimee Carter truly outdid herself when she penned Captive. Captive is even more exciting, has more twists, and a bigger of array of characters who will keep you guessing until the last page. I can't wait to see how Queen will wrap everything up!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)