Once Upon a Retelling: Outrun the Wind by Elizabeth Tammi

Welcome to Once Upon a Retelling! I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I'm really interested in hearing about authors' own love of the original stories, and what inspired them to retell those stories. And so Once Upon a Retelling was born, a feature in which I interview authors about their versions of well-loved tales.

Today, I'm so happy to have Elizabeth Tammi stopping by the blog to talk about Outrun the Wind, her retelling of the Greek myth of Atalanta.

Can you tell us a little about Outrun the Wind? What kind of a retelling of the Greek myth of Atalanta is it?

Outrun the Wind is best described as a sapphic reimagining of the Greek myth of Atalanta. Much of her story is still as it is commonly known—she swears to marry whichever man can beat her in a footrace. She goes on the Calydonian Boar Hunt, is abandoned at birth, etc., but I imagined what might have been going on in the background. What were her true motivations? Additionally, this is a dual-perspective book, so I got to interweave an entirely original character and storyline into Atalanta’s myth.

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Review: Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean (eProof)

Published: 8th November 2018 | Publisher: Gollancz | Source: Publisher via NetGalley Emiko Jean's Website

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.

Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.

Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy. From Goodreads.

I received this eProof for free from Gollancz via NetGalley for the puposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger warning: This book features child abuse/neglect, body shaming, and slavery.

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How Do You Choose? Bought Books Vs Review Books

At the beginning of the month, Cait of Paper Fury asked Should We Blog About Backlist Titles More Often? and it really got me thinking about the books I buy.

As a book blogger, because I get sent ARCs to review, and I'm not the quickest of readers, if I stacked my review TBR in one big pile, it could probably take me to the moon - and that's not including the eProofs I have, because they're unstackable. I exaggerate, but I have a lot of review books. So many, that I do struggle to keep up with them. But I don't get sent review books of everything I want to read. Sometimes I'm denied, sometimes I don't have a contact, sometimes I don't know about a book until after it's published, sometimes the books are only published in the US and there's no way to get a review copy. I buy a huge amount of books - not counting the finished copies I buy after reading review copies.

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Why We Need to Support UKYA & MG Authors of Colour

Bear with me, this is going to be a long one. Today, I want to talk about something I feel is incredibly important; how readers of UKYA & MG should support our authors of colour. When it comes to diversity, although the US still has quite a way to go, the UK is very far behind. A lot of the diverse books published in the UK? They're books written by US authors. In 2017, CLPE launched a study, Reflecting Realities - A Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature 2017, which found that only 1% of children's books in 2017 featured a BAME character. The study looks at all children's books, not just YA & MG, and it doesn't say how many of that 1% of books were written by BAME authors, but you can bet that some of those authors, if not the majority, were white.

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Review: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (#Ad)

I received this eProof for free from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley for the puposes of providing an honest review.

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (eProof)

Published: 6th November 2018 | Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton | Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Natasha Ngan's Website

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most cruel.

But this year, there's a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it's Lei they're after--the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king's consort. But Lei isn't content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable--she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Natasha Ngan's lyrical, searing, visceral fantasy, Girls of Paper and Fire, will remind us how precious freedom is--and the price we must pay to achieve it. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features kidnap, sex trafficking, sexual assault, rape, violence, sex shaming, and animal cruelty.

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How Blogging Has Changed My Reading

Today, inspired by Laura of Boats Against the Current's post, Has Blogging Changed Your Reading Habits?, I thought I would share with you guys how becoming a book blogger has changed reading for me.

I Read More

Before blogging, most of the time, I read books belonging to my Dad, as it's through his high fantasy books that I discovered reading, and he let me borrow whatever I wanted - but he only had so many book, and I didn't like the sound of everything he has. Then I discovered urban fantasy, and would be buying books as I discovered them, and when I could afford them. But then I became a book blogger, and after a while, started getting sent ARCs pretty regularly. There was no more waiting until I had money to buy a new book, I had books to choose from whenever I finished a book.

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Let's Talk Bookish Swag

One of the really awesome things that has come of being a book blogger for nine years and a children's bookseller for six is that I get sent swag, made to help promote and create buzz around books being published. Over the years, I have acquired quite a larges collection of bookish swag, and thought today I'd discuss the various kinds of swag, and my opinions of them!

Tote Bags


Who doesn't love a tote bag?! I have to say, tote bags are probably my favourite. They're just so handy and useful! And I have so many! Here are just a few I have, but I have loads. I have a bag full of tote bags. Most of them come to me through being a bookseller, but I get a few as a book blogger. I do love them!

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Review: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

Broken Things by Lauren Oliver (eProof) - It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

The only thing is: they didn’t do it.

On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous. From Goodreads.

I received this eProof for free from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley for the puposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warning: This book features animal cruelty, discussion of violent murder, discussion of bad experiences in foster care, implies - though doesn't outright show or say - child abuse.

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Review: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Bought) - Fall under the spell of Diana and Matthew in the stunning first volume of the No.1 internationally bestselling ALL SOULS trilogy.

A world of witches, daemons and vampires. A manuscript which holds the secrets of their past and the key to their future. Diana and Matthew - the forbidden love at the heart of it.

When historian Diana Bishop opens an alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, it's an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordered life. Though Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the violent death of her parents while she was still a child convinced her that human fear is more potent than any witchcraft. Now Diana has unwittingly exposed herself to a world she's kept at bay for years; one of powerful witches, creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires. Sensing the significance of Diana's discovery, the creatures gather in Oxford, among them the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire geneticist. Diana is inexplicably drawn to Matthew and, in a shadowy world of half-truths and old enmities, ties herself to him without fully understanding the ancient line they are crossing. As they begin to unlock the secrets of the manuscript and their feelings for each other deepen, so the fragile balance of peace unravels... From Goodreads.

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On YA Books, the Teen Audience, and Reading YA as an Adult

Trigger Warning: In this post, I mention my sexual assault.

Today I want to discuss a few things inspired by a blog post by Vicky of Vicky Who Reads, The May Ways YA Books & The Community Isolate Teens. It's a really important post that I feel anyone who reads YA as an adult, or who works in the publishing industry, or writes "for" teens* should read. For the most part, Vicky talks about how teenagers - who YA is aimed at - do not have a lot of money to spend on books, so when it comes to what books are published, based on what sells, it's the adult YA readers who have control of that, because it's adult YA readers who have the money to spend. And what sells tends to be YA with older YA characters, or characters who act like adults with a YA story. This means that Vicky, and other teens, while they enjoy these books, they don't feel they necessarily reflect teen experiences or represent teens. It also means that there are fewer books for those teen readers who are around 13, because most YA tends to feature older teens, and they're not so interesting for younger teens. Vicky herself spent about two years not reading because she didn't feel there were any YA books that about younger teens. It's a really interesting and thought-provoking post, and I really recommend reading it, especially before continuing reading this post.

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Four New-to-Me Blogs I Love

When it comes to other blogs, there aren't that many that I read regularly. I will pretty much read every single post Cait of Paper Fury posts, and have done for a number of years now, but otherwise, I don't really read that many. As I explained in my post How Do You Keep Organised as a Book Blogger?, working various different shift patterns on different days each week makes it difficult to be organised. Around my shifts, I have to find time to read (but I'm also not a fast reader), to write my posts, on top of everyday life stuff, and it's hard. I'm trying to be more organised, and it's working some, but as it is, I still struggle to reply to and return comments I receive. With having to fit all that in, it's difficult to find time to read other blogs, too.

So with that in mind, when I do find the time to read other blogs, they've got to be blogs I really enjoy. However, over the last few weeks, I've been really fortunate enough to stumble over a few blogs that are right up my street, and ones I now visit when I get the chance. Despite loving these blogs, I have to say I am a huge lurker. Though I may find the time here and there to read these blogs, I don't necessarily have the time to comment on all the posts I want to. So I thought I would share some love by spotlighting them on my own blog! So here are the new to me blogs that I'm loving.

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