Every year, prophecy leaves fall from the Yubriy Tree. And every year, the Dayborn king sends his most trusted servants to collect the leaves and return them to the capital.
Only this year, one of the leaves drifted into the forest unseen.
Three lives will be forever changed by the undetected prophecy leaf.
The strong-willed daughter of a powerful family. The mysterious and reviled half brother of the king. And a talented but unlucky musician, desperate to write the song that will bring him good fortune.
Looming in the background are reports of the first dragon to appear in Ragar Or in over sixty-five years. And, as anyone familiar with Ragar Or’s history knows, when dragons appear, royalty dies.
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**Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. Thank you Net Galley and Knock Knee Books!**
I really loved this book. The very first chapter captured my attention and the book didn’t let go until the last page. The first chapter details the process of collecting the Yubriy leaves and it follows the journey of the three leaves that get carried away. Then we jump straight into meeting our main three characters, around whom I presumed that the lost prophecies would revolve. It was a perfect introduction into the story.
So because we have these three main characters that means we have three ongoing narratives that revolve around different aspects of this world. Johanna is the daughter of a high lord whom the king is asking for assistance in squashing a rebellion. She was amazing. I loved her character, her story and her spunk. The first time we’re introduced to her was unforgettable and I loved her for every page after. Silas is a musician who desperately wants to get a patronage somewhere, but he gets caught up with an unexpected ally while running from soldiers who are trying to murder them. He was a little harder to enjoy, he’s a sullen musician after all. But eventually he warmed my heart too, and his story turned out to be incredibly important to events that happen later in the book. And Gregor, the bastard half brother of the king who acts as his counsel and his sage. Gregor’s story was probably the most compelling of the bunch. He introduces us to so many beautiful and important parts of the story.
I couldn’t get enough of this book. I dreamed about it a few times, trying to work out how it would end and what the missing prophecies were. The world was wonderfully crafted. The characters were realistic and likeable. The magic of this world was fascinating and unique. I just loved it. This is definitely a series I will be following.
A warrior struggles through an apocalyptic landscape and the world after death
Kree Toronto has been raised as a warrior in a ravaged post apocalyptic, post human world, the population decimated by wars and civilization long since collapsed. After her attempt to avenge the death of her dog, Loka, goes horribly wrong, Kree finds herself lost in a world after death and wanders into the city of the terrible mendicants.
Under the Brothers’ totalitarian rule, Kree can lead a quiet life and forget her violent past, even if needles grow in her skull and hallucinatory blood rains pour down now and then to remind her. She can make friends: a shamanic healer with a shaking tent, a mysterious stranger hatched from an egg, and a gruff Tibetan electrician in a world without electricity. And she can have her Loka, as long as she toes the Party line and does as she’s told. When she can’t—when her friends start to disappear and the Brothers turn against her—Kree sets out on a quest, searching for a new way forward.
How it’s going:
This book is very odd but I have to admit that I’m enjoying it. Before I got it I didn’t realize that this is a side novel that takes places in an established world that have had other books written in it. The author’s name is a pseudonym and is a character in one of the other novels. Which is an interesting idea. The translation also seems to replace the word “that” with “what” almost all the time. But translations can be tricky and once I realized what the intended word likely was I stopped noticing it. It’s an interesting book. It’s beautifully written, but it’s incredibly difficult to follow.
Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
Every decision he makes from here on will hurt someone .
Is his happiness even in the equation any more?
In Book 1, Pride’s PURGATORY , rising Irish megastar Andrew O’Connell embarked on a beautiful friendship with reclusive author Dr. Kary Ashe , and committed to his stunning costar Bianca Doyle ’s directorial debut film Dodgson , a Lewis Carroll biopic.
He never imagined either would shatter the impenetrable wall he built between his professional and personal lives. His future as a leading man depends on being an bankable obsession in the lives of the women he seduces, on and off screen. But a past regret makes his gorge rise when offspring are on the way and he’s suddenly responsible for their very existence.
How it’s going:
Clearly I have a long way to go on this one, but I am excited to be back in Andrew and Kary’s world. So far this one has the same tone as the first, a narrative that carries you on a winding river journey, looking at all the passing scenery. It’s a fun ride and I am happy to be back on this boat.
Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.
As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.
Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.”
For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.” No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.
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“From the very start, it seemed, my childhood was destined to be a fight for survival.”
I never watched the 8 Passengers channel regularly, but because I have a young child who loves the watch family vlogging on YouTube I was familiar with it. I saw enough of it to be very concerned about Ruby Franke’s parenting. It made me feel uncomfortable with how much of her children’s private lives were being shared. Honestly, this is still a big problem I have with family YouTubers. I find inherent ethical problems with publishing content featuring minor children. Firstly because it’s putting children out there online for easy access to viewing by predators. Second because children are not mature enough to give informed consent. These kids have no idea what it will mean to have a video online of them shaving their legs for the first time, or showing them being punished for normative behavior. So, I find it unethical to start with and I question the kind of parents who are willing to exploit their children’s lives for views and ad revenue.
The first time I became closely aware of Ruby Franke and her family is when she was arrested in 2023. I knew the family was Mormon, and I was raised Mormon. Because I have social connections in the Mormon sphere I was immediately aware of the criminal case. And I followed it thoroughly. And I am so glad that Shari decided to put out her story, I hope it was a therapeutic experience for her. I listened to the audiobook which was voiced by the author. I think that was the absolute right choice. It added a different layer of emotion to the words. It’s one thing to hear the words, it’s another thing to hear her voice break a little, hear how painful the memory still is. But also to hear her voice lift and sound so joyful when she learns that her siblings are finally safe from their mother. I cried almost the whole way through this book, it was so moving and riveting.
Utimately this is a story about the Mormon church and how its culture created Ruby Franke. As Shari herself speculates, if she wasn’t raised this way then maybe Ruby would have never decided to have children, which would have prevented so many people from being harmed. In the Mormon church, Shari explains, women are taught that motherhood is divine. It is the ultimate purpose of women in life. It is the only way to fully experience and appreciate womanhood. Women who choose not to have children are thought of as selfish and lacking something in their lives, they’ll never be a complete woman. Women who are unable to have children are often soothed by other women that God will give them lots of children in heaven. For a woman like Ruby Franke, who fundamentally felt that something was missing in her life, it makes sense that she decided that missing piece was children. And so, she had 6 of them. And she hated them. She wasn’t mentally or emotionally equipped to be a mother. Who knows what kind of life Ruby would have had if she had been taught that there was any other path?
Shari also talks about the YouTube channel a lot. How it felt to be judged by random internet strangers. To be told by the viewers that she was a “suck up”, when internally she was terrified of what would happen if she didn’t do exactly as she was told. Feeling desperate to just live her life and deal with the challenges of growing up without being filmed. But Ruby wouldn’t allow it.
“Our subscribers didn’t understand what it was like to live under Ruby’s iron fist, they didn’t know the consequences of stepping out of line. I’m not sucking up, I’m surviving, I thought. There’s a difference.”
Shari is quite clear, Ruby was an abusive mother. She was verbally and emotionally abusive all the time, physically abusive on occasion. But when Ruby met Jodi it all spiraled out of control. Her father, Kevin, was demonized as a controlling abuser and the only way he could save his family was by abandoning them. Shari doesn’t give him a free pass. She recognizes that he was an enabler to her mother’s abusive and toxic behavior for years, but that the worst things didn’t start until after he left the home. Jodi demanded that he spend a year with no contact with his wife or his children, it was therapy. And in the end, it all ended with Ruby and Jodi being arrested after the two youngest children were rescued. Luckily Ruby and Jodi will spend a really long time in prison. Kevin has been reunited with his children and is trying to get them help. I hope that Shari finds peace in the end. I hope that they all find healing. It’s a heartbreaking story and I think it should make all of us take a hard look at our YouTube viewing habits.
Written Among The Stars 