Review: The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder (#Ad)

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I received this eProof for free from Hodder Children's Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder

Published: 3rd February 2022 | Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | Source: Publisher
Leslie Vedder’s Website

Filore, a treasure hunter with a knack for riddles, is busy running from her own deadly curse, when she pricks her finger on a spindle. Bound to the sleeping prince Briar Rose with the spindle’s magic – and chosen as the only person who can wake him – Fi is stuck with the prince’s ghost until she can break his ancient curse and save his kingdom.

She’s going to need a partner. A warrior huntswoman with an axe to grind (literally), Shane couldn’t care less about curses and ancient texts. But instead of riches, the two girls find trouble.

Dark magic, witch hunters, nightmarish beasts – and of course, curses – all stand in their way as Fi and Shane undertake the dangerous journey into a forgotten kingdom where the sleeping prince’s body waits. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, gambling, arson, almost drowning, emotional abuse, and violence against women.

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They're Here, They're Queer, & They're Unequivocally Valid

As regular readers will know, I'm passionate about queer YA. There are a few things I've seen online recently surrounding problematic attitudes to queer books and authors, and a few other things I've been thinking about myself. There's discourse that needs commenting on, and areas where I've found I'm somewhat at fault myself.

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Review: Scorpica by G. R. MacAllister (#Ad)

I was sent this proof for free by Titan Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Scorpica by G. R. MacAllister

Published: 22nd February 2022 | Publisher: Titan Books | Source: Publisher
Author’s Website

In an ancient matriarchal world of magic, gods and warriors, the last girl – unbeknownst to the five queendoms – has just been born. As time marches on, the scribes of Bastian find no answers in their history books. The farmers of Sestia sacrifice their crops to the gods. Paxim, the empire of trade and dealings, has nothing to barter but boys and more boys. Arcan magic has no spells to remedy the Drought of Girls. And finally, Scorpica, where every woman is a fighter, their commander, their queen, has no more warriors to train. The lines of these once-great empires soon to die.

After centuries of peace, the ensuing struggle for dominance – and heirs – will bring the five queendoms to the eve of all-out war.

But the mysterious curse is linked to one of the last-born children, an orphaned all-magic girl, who is unaware she has a claim to the Arcan throne... From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood; death and grief; an on-page sex scene (semi-vague); birth; discussion of miscarriage; animal cruelty/death; alcoholism; visceral, gorey descriptions of violence; human sacrifice; infanticide; and execution (magical).

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Review: Extasia by Claire Legrand (#Ad)

I was sent this proof for free by Harper360YA for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Extasia by Claire Legrand

Published: 3rd March 2022 | Publisher: Harper360 | Source: Publisher
Claire Legrand’s Website

A must-read for fans of Victoria Schwab and Elana K. Arnold, this terrifying YA standalone from New York Times bestselling author Claire Legrand follows a girl who joins a coven to protect her village from a powerful religious cult.

Her name is unimportant.

All you must know is that today she will become one of the four saints of Haven. The elders will mark her and place the red hood on her head. With her sisters, she will stand against the evil power that lives beneath the black mountain—an evil that has already killed nine of her village’s men.

She will tell no one of the white-eyed beasts that follow her. Or the faceless gray women tall as houses. Or the girls she saw kissing in the elm grove.

Today she will be a saint of Haven. She will rid her family of her mother’s shame at last and save her people from destruction. She is not afraid. Are you?

Claire Legrand, author of Sawkill Girls, returns with an emotionally searing and lyrically written novel that beckons readers to follow its fierce heroine into a world filled with secrets and blood—where the truth is buried in lies and a devastating power waits, seething, for someone brave enough to use it. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features body horror; visceral, gorey descriptions of violence; violence against women; domestic violence; forced imprisonment; attempted rape; torture; cannibalism; and someone being burnt alive.

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Review: A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee (#Ad)

I was received this eProof for free from Titan Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

Published: 22nd February 2022 | Publisher: Titan Books | Source: NetGalley
Victoria Lee’s Website

If We Were Villains meets The Craft in this page-turning LGBT dark academia thriller.

Felicity Morrow is back at the Dalloway School to finish her senior year after the tragic death of her girlfriend. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students―girls some say were witches.

Felicity was once drawn to the dark legacy of witchcraft. She's determined to leave that behind her now; but it's hard when Dalloway's occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won’t let her forget it.

It's Ellis Haley's first year at Dalloway. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can't shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks Felicity for help researching the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can't say no. And when history begins to repeat itself, Felicity will have to face the darkness in Dalloway―and in herself.

And when history begins to repeat itself, Felicity will have to face the darkness in Dalloway–and in herself. From Goodreads.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomit, blood, an on-page sex scene (vague), animal cruelty and death, substance abuse, reference to bullying, reference to suicide (no actual suicide), references to racist history at a predominantly white institution, grief, panic attacks and disassociation (I believe), anorexia, alcoholism, psychotic depression, reference to a stay in a mental health facility, child neglect (past/off page), manipulation and emotional abuse, violence, death, and a mutilated corpse.

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Review: Gilded by Marissa Meyer (#Ad)

I was received this eProof for free from Faber & Faber via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Gilded by Marissa Meyer

Published: 2nd November 2021 | Publisher: Faber & Faber | Source: NetGalley
Marissa Meyer’s Website

The look he was giving her. Serilda had never been looked at like that before... the intensity. The heat. The raw astonishment. He was going to kiss her.

Cursed by the god of lies, a miller’s daughter has developed a talent for storytelling - but are all her tales as false as they appear?

When one of Serilda’s stories draws the attention of the devastating Erlking, she finds herself swept away into a world of enchantment, where ghouls prowl the earth, and ravens track her every move. The king locks Serilda in a castle dungeon and orders her to spin straw into gold, or be killed for lying.

In despair, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious young man to her aid. And he agrees to help her, for a prince.

But love wasn’t meant to be part of the bargain. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomit, blood, gorey descriptions of violence, animal cruelty, infanticide, corpses, multilation of corpses, and mutilation of people as they are killed.

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Hardbacks with Special Cases

I don't often buy hardbacks for several reasons. 1. Here in the UK, the majority of YA goes straight to paperback (though fantasy does seem to be published in hardback first more often than not). 2. I generally prefer reading paperbacks; they're kinder to my wrists, and not so heavy when in a bag. 3. For those that are published in hardback first, I can't afford to buy every book I want to read in that format, so I have to wait. But I do still occasionally buy hardbacks, when it's a book I can't wait for - and they tend to be US titles not published in the UK.

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Review: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (#Ad)

I was sent this proof for free by HarperVoyager for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Links with an asterisk (*) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Published: 20th January 2022 | Publisher: HarperVoyager | Source: Publisher
Sue Lynn Tan’s Website

A young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm, setting her on a dangerous path where those she loves are not the only ones at risk...

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when her magic flares and her existence is discovered, Xingyin is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to train in the Crown Prince’s service, learning to master archery and magic, despite the passion which flames between her and the emperor’s son.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies, across the earth and skies.

But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream — striking a dangerous bargain, where she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, bullying, and attempted sexual assault.

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