Thursday 23 February 2017

Diversity Spotlight Thursday #3

Diversity Spotlight Thursday

Diveristy Spotlight Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Aimal of Bookshelves and Paperbacks. Every week, we are to come up with one book in each of three different categories: a diverse book we have read and enjoyed, a diverse book on your TBR, and one that has not yet been released.

A Diverse Book I Enjoyed:


This Song Is (Not) You by Laura NowlinThis Song Is (Not) You by Laura Nowlin

Bandmate, best friend or boyfriend? For Ramona, one choice could mean losing them all.

Ramona and Sam are best friends. She fell for him the moment they met, but their friendship is just too important for her to mess up. Sam loves April, but he would never expect her to feel the same way--she's too quirky and cool for someone like him. Together, they have a band, and put all of their feelings for each other into music.

Then Ramona and Sam meet Tom. He's their band's missing piece, and before Ramona knows it, she's falling for him. But she hasn't fallen out of love with Sam either.

How can she be true to her feelings without breaking up the band?
From Goodreads.

This book was so good, but also so, so important. Featuring an asexual character, and being the first book to my knowledge to show diversity in terms of relationships, this book is an absolute must read. Checl out my review.

A Diverse Book on my TBR:


The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi HeiligThe Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

The breathtaking sequel to the acclaimed The Girl from Everywhere. Nix has escaped her past, but when the person she loves most is at risk, even the daughter of a time traveler may not be able to outrun her fate—no matter where she goes. Fans of Rae Carson, Alexandra Bracken, and Outlander will fall hard for Heidi Heilig’s sweeping fantasy.

Nix has spent her whole life journeying to places both real and imagined aboard her time-traveling father’s ship. And now it’s finally time for her to take the helm. Her father has given up his obsession to save her mother—and possibly erase Nix’s existence—and Nix’s future lies bright before her. Until she learns that she is destined to lose the one she loves. But her relationship with Kash—best friend, thief, charmer extraordinaire—is only just beginning. How can she bear to lose him? How can she bear to become as adrift and alone as her father?

Desperate to change her fate, Nix takes her crew to a mythical utopia to meet another Navigator who promises to teach her how to manipulate time. But everything in this utopia is constantly changing, and nothing is what it seems—not even her relationship with Kash. Nix must grapple with whether anyone can escape her destiny, her history, her choices. Heidi Heilig weaves fantasy, history, and romance together to tackle questions of free will, fate, and what it means to love another person. But at the center of this adventure are the extraordinary, multifaceted, and multicultural characters that leap off the page, and an intricate, recognizable world that has no bounds. The sequel—and conclusion—to the indie darling The Girl from Everywhere will be devoured by fans of Rachel Hartman and Maggie Stiefvater. 
From Goodreads.

Aaah, I finally have this book thanks to Hot Key Books and NetGalley! I am SO excited for this sequel to The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig, which was one of my favourite novels of last year! It's going to be amazing!

A Diverse Book That Is Yet To Be Released:


The Flame in the Mist by Renée AhdiehThe Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh

The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has long known her place—she may be an accomplished alchemist, whose cunning rivals that of her brother Kenshin, but because she is not a boy, her future has always been out of her hands. At just seventeen years old, Mariko is promised to Minamoto Raiden, the son of the emperor's favorite consort—a political marriage that will elevate her family's standing. But en route to the imperial city of Inako, Mariko narrowly escapes a bloody ambush by a dangerous gang of bandits known as the Black Clan, who she learns has been hired to kill her before she reaches the palace.

Dressed as a peasant boy, Mariko sets out to infiltrate the ranks of the Black Clan, determined to track down the person responsible for the target on her back. But she's quickly captured and taken to the Black Clan’s secret hideout, where she meets their leader, the rebel ronin Takeda Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, his best friend Okami. Still believing her to be a boy, Ranmaru and Okami eventually warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. As Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets, of betrayal and murder, which will force her to question everything she's ever known.
From Goodreads.

So I didn't completely love the finale to the The Wrath & the Dawn duology, but I can't deny how incredible Renée Ahdieh is at writing diverse retellings! And this time she's tackling Mulan, and I am so incredibly excited! It's going to be incredible, I just know it!

So those are my picks for this week's Diversity Spotlight Thursday! Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Link me to your own Diversity Spotlight Thursday posts! I'd love to see them!

2 comments:

  1. Oooh, I want to read that first one!! The cover doesn't really catch my eye but then, asexual character?!? I really want to read more about them! I've only seen one canon asexual character in a book (Aled from Radio Silence) but he wasn't the main character. So. MORE NEEDED FOR SURE IN MY LIFE. *Dashes off to goodreads* I'm also really excited for Flame in the Mist and The Ship Beyond Time.😍 And I'm hoping to start A Quiet Kind of Thunder today which has Deaf and Selective Mutism characters!

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    1. Ooh, if you want more asexual characters, you should also check out Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate, and Quicksilver by R. J. Anderson (but only after reading Ultraviolet, because Quicksilver is a sequel). There definitely need to be more asexual characters in YA, there aren't nearly enough.

      Oooh, I really hope you enjoy A Quiet Kind of Thunder! I absolutely loved it, so I hope you do, too! :D

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