Category Archives: Reviews

Read This!: BLACKHEARTS by Nicole Castroman

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BlackheartsBlackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Summary: Edward “Teach” Drummond, son of one of Bristol’s richest merchants, has just returned from a year-long journey on the high seas to find his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high society he was born into, Teach dreams only of returning to the vast ocean he’d begun to call home. There’s just one problem: convincing his father to let him leave and never come back. Following her parents’ deaths, Anne Barrett is left penniless and soon to be homeless. Though she’s barely worked a day in her life, Anne is forced to take a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks, and Anne longs for escape. How will she ever realize her dream of sailing to Curaçao—where her mother was born—when she’s stuck in England? From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn to each other, they’re trapped by society and their own circumstances. Faced with an impossible choice, they must decide to chase their dreams and go, or follow their hearts and stay.

Before he was known as Blackbeard, the pirate who could strike fear into hearts of men without striking a physical blow, he was Edward, nicknamed Teach, a boy who wanted nothing more than freedom. Before there was Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, there was Anne, the girl who became the queen of his heart. This is the story of their unlikely yet inevitable romance. Prepare to be swept away.

BLACKHEARTS is out now.

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Read This!: FENWAY AND HATTIE by Victoria J. Coe

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Fenway and HattieFenway and Hattie by Victoria J. Coe

Summary: Fenway is an excitable and endlessly energetic Jack Russell terrier. He lives in the city with Food Lady, Fetch Man, and—of course—his beloved short human and best-friend-in-the-world, Hattie.  But when his family moves to the suburbs, Fenway faces a world of changes. He’s pretty pleased with the huge Dog Park behind his new home, but he’s not so happy about the Evil Squirrels that taunt him from the trees, the super-slippery Wicked Floor in the Eating Room, and the changes that have come over Hattie lately. Rather than playing with Fenway, she seems more interested in her new short human friend, Angel, and learning to play baseball. His friends in the Dog Park next door say Hattie is outgrowing him, but that can’t be right. And he’s going to prove it!

This book could not be more adorable or engaging. We get to see the world through the eyes of Fenway, the super excitable Jack Russell Terrier, and he focuses on the important things: avoiding the Wicked Floor that is too slippery for him to walk on, making sure Food Lady and Fetch Man know he’s got everything under control, and, most of all, keeping Hattie, his beloved short human, safe from marauding squirrels. Readers will be so ready to join Fenway for another adventure as soon as possible.

Fenway and Hattie is available now.

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Read This!: ASSASSIN’S HEART by Sarah Ahiers

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Assassin's Heart (Assassin's Heart, #1)Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers

Summary: In the kingdom of Lovero, nine rival Families of assassins lawfully kill people for a price. As a highly skilled member of one of these powerful clans, seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana has always trusted in the strength of her Family. Until she awakens to find them murdered and her home in flames. The Da Vias, the Saldanas’ biggest enemy, must be responsible—and Lea should have seen it coming. But her secret relationship with the Da Vias’ son, Val, has clouded her otherwise killer instinct—and given the Da Vias more reason than ever to take her Family down.  Racked with guilt and shattered over Val’s probable betrayal, Lea sets out to even the score, with her heart set on retaliation and only one thought clear in her mind: make the Da Vias pay.

The worldbuilding in this story was wonderful. Ahiers creates an expansive world of holy assassins and complicated family – and Family – politics, and a heroine at the heart of the story who must fight her way through betrayal and revenge and find something more. Lea and Les are a wonderful pair, point and counterpoint – it says a lot that I was rooting for them both, when both were unapologetic murderers. I found the way that Ahiers entwined murder-as-worship into every part of this story to be completely fascinating and utterly plausible.

Assassin’s Heart is out now.

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Read This!: THE LOVE THAT SPLIT THE WORLD by Emily Henry

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The Love That Split the WorldThe Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Summary: Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start… until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right. That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Natalie Cleary is a normal high school girl – except for the fact that she can see ghosts, or possibly people from other dimensions. When Grandmother – the name she gives to the cryptic old woman who has been visiting her in the night since childhood – issues a warning that Natalie only has three months to save someone close to her, she knows she has to figure out what her connection is to that other world. Then one of the beings who flickers at the edge of her consciousness reveals himself to be all too real – a handsome, brooding boy named Beau – and burgeoning romance complicates her quest. Henry’s writing is lucid and lyrical, exploring Natalie’s fractured sense of self, both as a child of Native American descent adopted by white parents, and as a traveler between worlds. The story’s twisty plotline remains firmly grounded in Natalie’s emotions, in her quest to find the place where and when she belongs, and in her determination to save the people she loves.

THE LOVE THAT SPLIT THE WORLD is out now.

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Read This!: THE YEAR WE FELL APART by Emily Martin

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The Year We Fell ApartThe Year We Fell Apart by Emily Martin

Summary: Few things come as naturally to Harper as epic mistakes. In the past year she was kicked off the swim team, earned a reputation as Carson High’s easiest hook-up, and officially became the black sheep of her family. But her worst mistake was destroying her relationship with her best friend, Declan. Now, after two semesters of silence, Declan is home from boarding school for the summer. Everything about him is different—he’s taller, stronger…more handsome. Harper has changed, too, especially in the wake of her mom’s cancer diagnosis. While Declan wants nothing to do with Harper, he’s still Declan, her Declan, and the only person she wants to talk to about what’s really going on. But he’s also the one person she’s lost the right to seek comfort from. As their mutual friends and shared histories draw them together again, Harper and Declan must decide which parts of their past are still salvageable, and which parts they’ll have to let go of once and for all.

Holy wow, did I love this book. It sucked me in and didn’t let go. I finished it two days ago and I am still thinking about it. And I will never ever be able to listen to “Out of the Woods” by Taylor Swift again without thinking about Harper and Declan. (Not because the song is referenced in any way – it’s just perfect for them!)

Harper is such a realistically drawn character – a girl who is lovable and sometimes hate-able, conflicted and yearning for connection, and sometimes selfish and self-destructive. The what-was and what-could-have-been and what-could-be between her and Declan is palpable, and I couldn’t stop reading. As powerful as the romance is, though, this book succeeds because it is about more than just a girl trying to get her ex-boyfriend back. Harper has to navigate so many pitfalls of growing up in a society that does little service to strong girls, and in Martin’s capable hands, the story wraps itself around the reader’s mind and heart.

I’d love to see Emily Martin on a panel someday beside Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (author of FIRSTS) and Shannon M. Parker (author of THE GIRL WHO FELL) for a frank discussion of writing about young women finding their way through the minefield of modern girlhood.

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