Review: Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin

Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin

Published: 2nd April 2019 | Publisher: Titan Books | Cover Designer: Julia Lloyd | Source: Bought
Sarah Maria Griffin on Twitter

The house at the end of the lane burned down, and Rita Frost and her teenage ward, Bevan, were never seen again. The townspeople never learned what happened. Only Mae and her brother Rossa know the truth; they spent two summers with Rita and Bevan, two of the strangest summers of their lives...
Because nothing in that house was as it seemed: a cat who was more than a cat, and a dark power called Sweet James that lurked behind the wallpaper, enthralling Bevan with whispers of neon magic and escape.
And in the summer heat, Mae became equally as enthralled with Bevan. Desperately in the grips of first love, she'd give the other girl anything. A dangerous offer when all that Sweet James desired was a taste of new flesh... From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Wordery | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features a house fire, sexual manipulation, fantasy addiction, mentions of Magdelen laundries, mentions of death in childbirth.

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Bloggers Get Real: Beth of BooksNest

Welcome to Bloggers Get Real! Inspired by CW of The Quiet Pond's The Pond Gets Loud series, Bloggers Get Real is a YA book bloggers spotlight interview series with the aim of celebrating and supporting YA book bloggers and the work we do, while also discussing the realities of book blogging, the YA community, and the various controversies that have sprung up. I feel it's important to keep these conversations going - our voices matter, what we do matters, and we should be heard.

I'm really excited to have be spotlighting Beth of BooksNest today!

Can you tell us a little about you and your blog?

I started blogging back in 2016, reflectively it was probably a way of dealing with leaving university and needing to fill a hole in my life. I also loved reading other people’s blogs and after starting my Bookstagram account earlier that year, it felt like the right path to take. I was always interested in writing my own blog, but I would never settle on the topic, books seemed a perfect fit once I found the confidence to go for it!

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My Nominations for the Third Annual 2019 Book Blogger Awards

May over on Forever and Everly is hosting the Third Annual 2019 Book Blogger Awards, originally created by Joce of Write Through the Night. I didn't know about the awards the previous two years, but it's such a fantastic idea, and I can't not nominate my faves!

Fortunately we're allowed three nominations per category, otherwise I'd be in big trouble with some categories, trying to choose just one. There are a number of categories I've not nominated in simply because I just couldn't choose just three. There are a few who I just adore, and I can't not nominate at least a couple of times for different categories. So here are my nominations!

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The Why I am Weird Tag

This post contains affiliate links.

Thanks to Delly of Delly Bird, I've been tagged in the blog tag she herself created - the Why I am Weird tag. The aim of this tag is to get to know the bloggers behind the blog a little better.

"Why I am Weird!" Tag rules

• List ten weird things about yourself, your life or silly habits that you wouldn’t normally share.
• Tag up to ten people so you can get to know them better.
• Link back to the person who tagged you & the creator
• Comment on the posts of people you tagged!

Before I start, I just want to preface this by saying that these aren't things about myself that I think are weird, necessarily, but that other people do/might. So some you might think aren't weird at all, but I've had that reaction before, so they've been listed! And also, these are things I wouldn't normally share on my book blog, because I don't really talk much about myself - not necessarily things I wouldn't share in general. Because I think I'm pretty boring overall, and making this list was hard! Ok, onwards!

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Review: The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

Published: 29th January 2019 | Publisher: Scholastic US | Source: Won from author
Sabina Khan's Website

Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali tries her hardest to live up to her conservative Muslim parents’ expectations, but lately she’s finding that harder and harder to do. She rolls her eyes instead of screaming when they blatantly favor her brother and she dresses conservatively at home, saving her crop tops and makeup for parties her parents don’t know about. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life in Seattle and her new life at Caltech, where she can pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.

But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, all of Rukhsana’s plans fall apart. Her parents are devastated; being gay may as well be a death sentence in the Bengali community. They immediately whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh, where she is thrown headfirst into a world of arranged marriages and tradition. Only through reading her grandmother’s old diary is Rukhsana able to gain some much needed perspective.

Rukhsana realizes she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life? From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Wordery | Goodreads

I won this proof in a giveaway on Twitter hosted by the author.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features colourism, homophobia, homophobic violence, discussion of forced marriage, imprisonment, drugging, a hunger strike, excorcism, a child bride, paedophilia, incest, rape, child abuse, domestic abuse, and murder of a gay person.

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Bloggers Get Real: Aly of Of Wonderland

Welcome to Bloggers Get Real! Inspired by CW of The Quiet Pond's The Pond Gets Loud series, Bloggers Get Real is a YA book bloggers spotlight interview series with the aim of celebrating and supporting YA book bloggers and the work we do, while also discussing the realities of book blogging, the YA community, and the various controversies that have sprung up. I feel it's important to keep these conversations going - our voices matter, what we do matters, and we should be heard.

I'm so excited to be kicking off Bloggers Get Real with the very first interview, with Aly of Of Wonderland!

Can you tell us a little about you and your blog?

Hi! I’m Aly, I blog at Of Wonderland and I’ve been in the blogging "business" for five years. I prefer fantasy and sci-fi, but I have a huge soft spot for thrillers and mysteries. Some of my favourite authors range from Tana French and Gillian Flynn to Sarah J Maas, Meagan Spooner and Jay Kristoff. I always grab for high fantasy and fairytale retellings without question -- my favourite kind of bookish delights.

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An Apology to the Muslim Community and People of Colour for My Harmful Review

This post is an acknowledgement and an apology, as I have realised earlier this week, I posted a harmful review.

Yesterday, Vicky of Vicky Who Reads shared a thread on Twitter about how awful reviews of books featuring people of colour about pain that say the stories aren't painful enough. This immediately made me think of my review on Internment by Samira Ahmed, which I then re-read, and realised it's harmful.

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