“The Beautiful Ones” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

~ Lucy ~ 1 Comment

Thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Well I absolutely adored Gods of Jade and Shadow but was left rather underwhelmed by Mexican Gothic so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. The initial premise sounded interesting and it seemed to have a hint of The Night Circus about it so I thought I’d give it a shot.

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“The Gilded Ones” by Namina Forna

~ Lucy ~ 1 Comment 
Thanks to Usborne Publishing and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. 

I'm not really going to spend a whole lot of time talking about the plot of this book. It's a pretty generic YA fantasy story. A young girl finds out she has some mysterious powers, bad things happen, she goes on a journey of discovery in which secrets are revealed and there's a handsome boy of course.
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“Kingdom of the Wicked” by Kerri Maniscalco

~ Lucy ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I will admit my expectations for this book were pretty low. Not for any particular reason other than almost all of the YA Fantasy I’ve read recently have all been rather meh and I thought this would be much and such the same. In this instance however, I was very happy to be proven very wrong.

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“The Last Story of Mina Lee” by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

~ Lucy ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to Headline and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells the story of Mina, a South Korean immigrant to the United States and her daughter Margot. The story is told from two different viewpoints, Mina in the past and Margot in the present day. The story chronicles Mina’s life as an immigrant and Margot’s journey to find out the cause of her mother’s unexpected death.

Mina’s story is definitely the stronger of the two, but I enjoyed Margot’s too. The narrative explores the dark side of the American dream and the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants and the Korean diaspora in the United States which makes for some tough reading at some points. The novel also delves into the enduring effects of past trauma, grief and loss and was often desperately sad.

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“The Devil and the Dark Water” by Stuart Turton

~ Lucy ~ 1 Comment

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading this book based on the positive feedback I had heard regarding Sturton’s previous book. I wouldn’t say that I’m normally a huge fan of mystery/detective type books but to my pleasant surprise, this was something a little different. There are the usual twists and turns you would expect in a novel of this type but the story and characters elevated it above the norm.

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