On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.
Ayanna and Olivia, two Black Midwestern teens—and twin sisters—have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? And when one of them goes missing, will the other find solace of her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?
Rating:
Review:
Based on the synopsis I wanted to love this book. It had all the makings of a book that was right up my alley. And in the first portion of the book, it seemed hopeful. I was absolutely riveted by the description of the doors and how various portions of humanity interacted with these doors.
It all came to a halt once Ayanna and Olivia went through the door. Initially it got very confusing. I read a few chapters several times in a row because I couldn’t figure out what had happened and where I missed it, I never found the missing piece. And then the plot just stopped. No more mention of the doors. The only thing that happened after that point was Ayanna navel gazing about her all consuming grief.
In the end I gave up about halfway through. Nothing was happened and I have other things to do and other books to read.
A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance. And the secret which threatens them all.
Silla Nordvig is running for her life.
The Queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.
After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively.
Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?
Why this caught my eye:
I talked about this book a few months ago as an upcoming release, and well, now it’s here! I love Viking mythology, throw in a romantasy and I am on board.
Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells “small” fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…
Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.
Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.
Why this caught my eye:
This sounds like an interesting blend of a fantasy, magic romance, and a cozy buddy mystery. I am really intrigued by this synopsis.
As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila’s childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring caveat: her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons… Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. Inspiring zoo patrons? That’s another story. Mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.
Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the grace of a basilisk and the face of a goddess, who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than a passive conservation exhibit.
With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success isn’t only a matter of keeping her job: the future of a species depends on her.
Rating:
Review:
I wanted to like this book a whole lot more than I did. For a lot of reasons this one just didn’t work for me. The premise of the book was great. I have always loved the idea of magical creatures and creating a world where zoos are trying to save those magical creatures from extinction is a fantastic idea. Throw in some romance and it should have been a great book.
While I felt like audiobook narrator did a good job, sometimes her tone didn’t match the emotions being conveyed very well. When Aila was supposed to sound determined or anxious, it came across as whiny. I can only partially blame the narrator for this though because Aila is pretty whiny in general. She spends most of this book worrying, hating things and whining about it. She is supposed to be 28 years old but she sounds like a 14 year old. We spend a lot of time hearing about Aila’s social anxiety, but it comes across less as anxiety and more like hatred. She isn’t anxious about social situations and people, she just hates them. As someone who also hates socializing I understand but I would never insist that it’s social anxiety, because it isn’t the same thing. And since the book is told from Aila’s perspective, we have to listen to her talk about really boring things for an awful long time. I got to 40% of the audiobook and she hadn’t even gotten the male phoenix yet. We’d just talked about…things. Not interesting things, just things.
Another issue I had with this book was the worldbuilding. Namely that there wasn’t any. Apart from zoos full of magical creatures I know nothing about this world. I have no idea what the locations we hear about are like, the author didn’t both to tell me. Do phoenixes like in tropical places? Deserts? Mediterranean? I know they like to nest in olive trees, but apart from that clue I was told nothing about this world. I know that DVDs exist and so do emails, so I feel like we’re stuck in the late 1990s or early 2000s. But, that’s all we know about this world. I wanted to know how magical creatures exist in this world? If magical creatures exist, does other magic exist also? If not, why not? I wanted more and I didn’t get it.
The romance was incredibly lack luster and virtually non-existent. Aila spends approximately 70% of this book hating the intended love interest and pining after someone else entirely. They don’t actually get together until the very ending of the book. So while the blurb promises a “soul restoring queer romance”, this is tepid at best.
The “villain” of the book was very boring. First, it was obvious what was going on. The only question I had was if the same person was responsible for the phoenix stealing at the first zoo, or just gotten the idea. The motive was ok but since the character was so boring it just didn’t matter. At no point did I ever feel like there was tension in the plot. Aila professes to be running for her life trying to save her phoenixes from being kidnapped, but I didn’t feel an ounce of urgency or tension.
This book would have been better if it was marketed as a young adult. Aila definitely reads as a young adult character, the romance would be better suited to the young adult genre. Overall I probably would have liked it better. As an adult fantasy it wasn’t very good.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
Rating:
Review:
I had very high hopes about this book. The concept of bringing me a grown up fairytale akin to the Chronicles of Narnia was highly appealing. In a lot of ways this book met those expectations. And in some ways it didn’t. So ultimately my feelings about this book are that it was good but not great.
The brightest point of this book was the relationship between Jeremy and Rafe. It was so tortured and complicated and beautiful. I found myself angry at Jeremy for lying to Rafe. I found myself angry at Rafe for rejecting Jeremy. And when the full story of their relationship was revealed, I cried like a baby. It was a slow burn of a relationship and I loved it. I was rooting for them so hard, and I ended up in a puddle of tears in the end.
I have to admit that I didn’t have a single idea what was going on for a large part of this book. That’s what brought the rating down to a three star for me honestly. I said in my progress update last week that I thought I had missed something important and went back to listen again only to discover that I hadn’t missed something, it was just very jarring. It took a long time for me to find my footing in the story. The parts I did understand were amazing. This was a pretty short audiobook at just over 10 hours long, it could have used just a little more length to smooth out some of those transitions to make the story flow better. There was also a lot of missing world building. The author just thrust us into this fantastical world but didn’t give us too many details about it, which was disappointing.
In the end, when it was great it was amazing and when it wasn’t it was okay.
An upstanding political candidate. A determined stalker. A shattering lost weekend. Now, when his worst secret comes calling, how far will one man’s elegant, all-too-devoted wife go to uncover the truth . . . or bury it?
For Jolene “Jo” Baker, the least she can do for her adoring husband, Dominic, is give unwavering support for his North Carolina gubernatorial run. He is not only the love of her life, he’s also helping her prove that she’s far more than just a pampered trophy wife. With huge crowds showing up at Dominic’s speeches and the polls consistently in his favor, she’s never been happier to stand proudly by his side . . .
Until she and Dominic start seeing the same, strangely ominous woman turning up all along the campaign trail. Until their tour starts becoming a nightmare of botched events, crucial missed information, and increasingly dangerous “accidents.” Suddenly Jo can’t get any answers from Dominic—or understand why he is acting so paranoid and terrified . . .
What Jo can do is start digging into his past—one she’s never really questioned beyond his perfect image and dazzling accomplishments. What results is an alarming series of events that leave her Good friends turn into enemies, truths are revealed to be lies, and all clues lead back to one secret, shattering weekend that changes Jo’s entire life. With her world splintering into pieces, can Jo risk trying to set things right? Or will hiding the bitter truth by any means necessary destroy her as well?
How it’s going:
So I was right about who the stalker is. And I was right about Brynn’s fate…sort of, it didn’t quite happen in the way I expected. Jo actually seems to be finding some answers and strength, which is a positive development. Still liking it pretty well.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
How it’s going:
So far it’s going just okay. I love the idea, I love the interactions between the characters. But the story moves in strange ways. I went back an hour or two because all of a sudden we were talking about unicorns and valkeries and I had no idea what I missed. But, as it turned out, I missed nothing. It really did just jump that quickly from walking through a forest to being enmeshed in a world of magic. I’ve heard that the story really picks up steam at the halfway point, so we’ll see how it goes. It’s a fairly short audiobook at a little over 10 hours.
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.
Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da’s death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.
Thoughts so far:
Whether this series will end up forever unfinished or not, I’m hopelessly invested. I am so compelled by Mac. I want to watch her on her journey. I am saddened by her journey through grief. Though there are a few things that I find confusing, I am hoping that we get some answers. But I just love it.
Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.
Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?
And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.
Thoughts so far:
I keep reading reviews that this book is a “slow burn”. But it’s only 12 hours of audio (369 pages in print). How much of a slow burn could it be? When I got about halfway through I determined that slow burn might mean that nothing actually happens. That’s how I’m feeling right now. There are too many characters. Too many POVs. I have no idea what’s going on. For context, this book is 369 pages and has 102 chapters. We change POV approximately every 3 pages. I have no idea who these people are, and none of their stories seem particularly relevant. It also doesn’t help that at least one character goes by 3 different names. I am also getting worried that all of these characters might have been lying to me so far. I don’t mind an unreliable narrator. But when ALL of them are unreliable it makes me feel like I’ve wasted my time. Hopefully it doesn’t go that way.
For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.
All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .
Rating:
Review:
I am in love with the idea of this book. It’s a book that’s about books. In this world, blood can be used as ink to create magical tomes that enact specific spells. Seemingly these spells are limitless, or at least we aren’t told much about the limits of the spells. There is even an immortality spell, so at the very least we can say that the limit is far reaching. Later, we find out that some spells even go further than just blood. They have inscribed onto skin, bound with hair and glued together with fat. Some of the darkest spells require a connection to the body of the person who wrote it. And two of our main characters have just recently lost their father to one of these books. He put his hand to it and it took his blood, all of it. That is a terrifying and amazing idea. It was that idea that interested me in this book to begin with.
This book was the very definition of “okay.” The characters weren’t interesting but there were too many of them. We spend a lot of time head hopping to the POV of different characters but there’s so many of them that I couldn’t keep track of who was who. It took me until about 30% of the book to figure out how everyone was related to the story. It would have been better to spend more consistent time with just a few characters so I could get to know them better. There was a few superb relationships in this book. The sister relationship and mother/daughter relationship were excellently written. But I had a hard time empathizing with the characters generally because we didn’t spend enough time with them. I couldn’t get to know them enough to care about them.
The story really picks up about halfway through. I really loved the adventure after that point. It was fast paced and horrifying. I loved it and got swept away in the ride. The ending was a little bit confusing, I actually went back and read the last chapter again because I thought I missed something. It ends on a cliffhanger….sort of. It is a well contained story but there’s definitely a “what happens next” vibe to the ending.
The biggest problem this book had was that the characters didn’t seem to have any agency. No one actually makes any decisions. They are set along a plot path and they just move along that pre-determined path. And they talk about making decisions. A LOT. But they don’t actually make any. At one point it felt like the main characters would be forced into making a decision. They were being left clues but were concerned about whether they could trust the person leaving the clues, or if it was a trap. They needed to decide whether to trust the clues or not. It took about 30 seconds for them to just blindly decide to trust the clue giver without any discussion or dissent. And back on the pre-determined path we went. It was frustrating. I wanted them to actually decide things. I think that might be the result of this being a debut novel. Sometimes it’s difficult to write to a planned plot without making it feel planned. That’s a very specific skill and sometimes it takes time to develop. Overall there was a lot of good things here, and I am glad that I read it. It was a solid debut novel
I had a really busy week and didn’t manage to write a single post. So, I will do an off schedule progress update post, because I have been reading some interesting books lately. Without further ado….
For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.
All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .
Thoughts so far:
So far this book is solidly….okay. I spent the first 20-30% of the audiobook being utterly confused. There’s a lot of characters. There’s a lot of things happening. And there’s not a whole lot of explanation to keep the reader in the loop of what’s going on. The ideas are interesting enough to keep me invested. I believe I may have figured out all of the different threads at this point. I hope. I am excited to get on the downslope of the book and see if things continue to make sense.
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.
Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da’s death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.
Thoughts so far:
This is such an interesting premise. I have a lot of questions though. Questions that I hope will have answers. But so far it is intriguing and I really like Mac. Unfortunately I looked at this book and it appears to be part of a series. This was published in 2013, the 2nd book was published in 2014…and nothing since. Sigh. So if I really love it, then I might end up frustrated by no further story. But I am too far into this to turn back now. A word of caution to anyone who might want to start this book though.
A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of the books that bring them together.
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job to provide for herself and her beloved daughter, Olivia. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her.
When the threat of war becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In her daughter’s absence, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, as well as the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and her work forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.
As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.
Why this caught my eye:
I generally enjoy historical fiction. And I enjoy stories set in England. So, taking those two things together and throw in a mom desperate to stay with her child and I am on board.
The remarkable next novel from Matt Haig, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Midnight Library, with more than nine million copies sold worldwide
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”
When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
Why this caught my eye:
The quote about magic being a part of life we don’t understand sold me on this book immediately. It’s such a promising idea, and the rest of the synopsis paints a beautiful picture too.
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
Published: September 3, 2024 by Little Brown Books
The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.
It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.
Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.
To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.
When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.
Why this caught my eye:
I can never say no to a book about secrets at a magical, secret school. They almost never turn out as amazingly as I imagine they will, but sometimes they do. Maybe this one will be the sometimes?
A saucy, searingly original debut about two sisters raised in the shadow of El Salvador’s brutal dictator, El Gran Pendejo, and their flight from genocide, which takes them from Hollywood to Paris to cannery row, each followed by a chorus of furies, the ghosts of their murdered friends, who aren’t yet done telling their stories.
El Salvador, 1923. Graciela grows up on a volcano in a community of indigenous women indentured to coffee plantations owned by the country’s wealthiest, until a messenger from the Capital comes to claim at nine years old she’s been chosen to be an oracle for a rising dictator—a sinister, violent man wedded to the occult. She’ll help foresee the future of the country.
In the Capital she meets Consuelo, the sister she’s never known, stolen away from their home before Graciela was born. The two are a small fortress within the dictator’s regime, but they’re no match for El Gran Pendejo’s cruelty. Years pass and terror rises as the economy flatlines, and Graciela comes to understand the horrific vision that she’s unwittingly helped shape just as genocide strikes the community that raised her. She and Consuelo barely escape, each believing the other to be dead. They run, crossing the globe, reinventing their lives, and ultimately reconnecting at the least likely moment.
Endlessly surprising, vividly imaginative, bursting with lush life, The Volcano Daughters charts, through the stories of these sisters and the ghosts they carry with them, a new history and mythology of El Salvador, fiercely bringing forth voices that have been calling out for generations.
Why this caught my eye: This sounds like a gripping story. Two young girls hurled into a circumstance that they should never have been in, unwittingly witness to the genocide of their own people. That sounds emotional and compelling.
From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, a novel about two men—friends since boyhood—who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian country racked by bewildering violence
Every year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to the most remote corners of the country, where they camp, hunt, and hike, leaving much from their long friendship unspoken. Although the state of Maine has convulsed all summer with secession mania—a mania that has simultaneously spread across other states—Jess and Storey figure it’s a fight reserved for legislators or, worst-case scenario, folks in the capital.
But after weeks hunting off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked by what they find: a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and bombed-out cars abandoned on the road. Trying to make sense of the sudden destruction all around them, they set their sights on finding their way home, dragging a wagon across bumpy dirt roads, scavenging from boats left in lakes, and dodging armed men—secessionists or U.S. military, they cannot tell—as they seek a path to safety. Then, a startling discovery drastically alters their path and the stakes of their escape.
Drenched in the beauty of the natural world and attuned to the specific cadences of male friendship, even here at the edge of doom, Burn is both a blistering warning about a divided country’s political strife and an ode to the salvation found in our chosen families.
Why this caught my eye: This is the perfect idea of what a dystopian book should be. It looks at a real life situation and asks, what would happen if that just blew apart 100 times over tomorrow? A chilling thought.
As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila’s childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring caveat: her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons… Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.
Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job…
She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species – and her love life – now rests on her shoulders.
Why this caught my eye: I don’t think I need to say more than a magical zoo, inhabited by magical creatures. That sounds amazing! I was rather obsessed with the idea of being a zookeeper when I was a girl, and this is appealing to all of those memories right now.
Written Among The Stars 