Review: The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

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The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Published: 4th June 2020 | Publisher: Andersen Press | Source: Bought
Ciara Smyth’s Website

Two girls embark on a summer of montage-worthy dates (with a few strings attached) in this hilarious and heartfelt lesbian rom-com that’s perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han.

Seventeen-year-old cynic Saoirse Clarke isn’t looking for a relationship. But when she meets mischievous Ruby, that rule goes right out the window. Sort of.

Because Ruby has a loophole in mind: a summer of all the best cliché movie montage dates, with a definite ending come fall—no broken hearts, no messy breakup. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters have fallen in love...for real.

Ciara Smyth’s debut is a delightful, multilayered YA rom-com that will make you laugh, cry, and absolutely fall in love. From The StoryGraph.

Purchase from Bookshop.org*
The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features early-onset dementia, and flashbacks to difficult, upsetting moments.

Continue reading Review: The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Links with a circumflex (^) 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.

Blog Tour: Truth Be Told by Sue Divin

I'm really excited to have YA author Sue Divin stop by the blog today for my stop on the Truth Be Told* blog tour. Sue is here a guest post on writing YA voices and about post-peace deal Northern Ireland in YA fiction.

I’m always drawn to the wilder, edgier characters first. Their voices come much easier. In Guard Your Heart^, that was Aidan. In Truth Be Told, it was Tara. I just love the rough diamonds. Once I find their voice, they just run off onto the page and take on a life of their own. Sometimes when I’m still trying to ‘find’ a unique voice for them, I experiment with their characters in flash fiction or short stories.

Continue reading Blog Tour: Truth Be Told by Sue Divin

Review: Precious Catastrophe by Deirdre Sullivan

I received this eProof for free from Hot Key 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.

Precious Catastrophe by Deirdre Sullivan

Published: 30th September 2021 | Publisher: Hot Key Books | Source: NetGalley
Deirdre Sullivan on Twitter | Deirdre Sullivan on Instagram

Look. Madeline. You've lost your soul. You've lost your freedom. You've lost a bit of your sister. What else could go wrong?

Catlin and Madeline are extraordinary sisters, living extraordinary lives - in a place that seems entirely ordinary, but which in fact seethes with secrets, both sacred and sinister. Ballyfrann is a village where, for centuries, people who are not quite human have gathered. Catlin has already fallen foul of one such creature - a dark, vicious predator who almost killed her - and only Madeline giving up a part of her own soul was able to bring Catlin back from the brink of death.

Now, the girls are making their strange new lives: Catlin, haunted by what happened to her, is isolated and bereft; Madeline is learning ancient magics under the tutelage of local wise woman Mamó. Learning that magic isn't mindfulness and hats. It's work - hard work. And Madeline knows she has to keep watch. On her sister. On the things that happen. Notice things before they start to happen. And before long, they do... From The StoryGraph.

Purchase from Bookshop.org*
The StoryGraph | Goodreads

My other reviews of Perfectly Precentable Deaths Series:
Perfectly Precentable Deaths

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, emotional blackmail, self-harm, animal cruelty/sacrifice, mutilation of a corpse, cannibalism, brief mention of most if not all of the scandals involving the Catholic Church in Ireland, implied mention of paedophilia, elder abuse, and trauma following rape.

Continue reading Review: Precious Catastrophe by Deirdre Sullivan

Review: All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue (#Ad)

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

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue

Published:1st July 2021 | Publisher: Walker Books | Source: NetGalley
Caroline O'Donoghue's Website

I'll give up the tarot readings. I'll apologize to Lily. But Lily doesn't come to school on Monday. Or Tuesday. It's not until Wednesday that the police show up.

Maeve Chambers doesn't have much going for her. Not only does she feel like the sole idiot in a family of geniuses, she managed to drive away her best friend Lily a year ago. But when she finds a pack of dusty old tarot cards at school, and begins to give scarily accurate readings to the girls in her class, she realizes she's found her gift at last. Things are looking up – until she discovers a strange card in the deck that definitely shouldn't be there. And two days after she convinces her ex-best friend to have a reading, Lily disappears. Can Maeve, her new friend Fiona and Lily's brother Roe find her? And will their special talents be enough to bring Lily back, before she's gone for good? The StoryGraph

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features bullying, a missing person, a religious cult, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and suicide attempts.

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Blog Tour: Deirdre Sullivan Introduces Savage Her Reply + Mini Interview

Deirdre Sullivan Introduces Savage Her Reply + Mini Interview

Titles marked with a (^) are ad: affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Titles marked with an asterisk (*) were gifted to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Savage Her Reply* by Deirdre Sullivan. It's a feminist retelling of the Irish legend The Children of Lir, from the persepctive of Aífe, the story's villain. For us bloggers, this blog tour was arranged a little differently, and we got something super special. We were invited to an exclusive private Zoom meeting with Deirdre and publicist Nina, where Deirdre told us about Savage Her Reply, and we also got to ask her a few questions each, for our own exclusive element of our posts. Unfortunately, I was on holiday when the meeting took place, but it was recorded and Nina was kind enough to ask Deirdre my questions on my behalf.

Continue reading Blog Tour: Deirdre Sullivan Introduces Savage Her Reply + Mini Interview

Review: Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan (#Ad)

I was sent this review copy for free by Little Island Books / Nina Douglas PR for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan

Published: 1st October 2020 | Publisher: Little Island Books | Cover Designer and Illustrator: Karen Vaughan | Source: Review Copy
Deirdre Sullivan on Twitter

A dark, feminist retelling of the favourite Irish fairytale The Children of Lir told in Sullivan's hypnotic prose. Aife marries Lir, a king with four children by his previous wife. Jealous of his affection for his children, the witch Aife turns them into swans for 900 years. Retold through the voice of Aife, Savage Her Reply is unsettling and dark, feminist and fierce, yet nuanced in its exploration of the guilt of a complex character. Voiced in Sullivan's trademark rich, lyrical prose as developed in Tangleweed and Brine - the multiple award-winner which established Sullivan as the queen of witchy YA. Another dark & witchy feminist fairytale from the author of Tangleweed and Brine. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features children being taken from parents, death in childbirth, animal cruelty, animal death, forced marriage, rape, and what I believe to be depression.

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Review: All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Published: 1st August 2019 | Publisher: Penguin | Cover Designer: Charlotte Day | Source: Bought
Moïra Fowley-Doyle's Website

The day after the funeral all our mourning clothes hung out on the line like sleeping bats. 'This will be really embarrassing,' I kept saying to my family, 'when she shows up at the door in a week or two.'

When Deena's wild and mysterious sister Mandy disappears - presumed dead - her family are heartbroken. But Mandy has always been troubled. It's just another bad thing to happen to Deena's family. Only Deena refuses to believe it's true.

And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family's blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions - but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse's roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family's rotten past - or rip it apart forever. From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Wordery | Goodreads

Rep: Lesbian protagonist. Biracial (Black and white), bisexual secondary character. Lesbian secondary character. In the stories of ancestors, there's a bisexual character and a lesbian character, though no labels are used. Two f/f relationships, one just at the very beginning of a relationship.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features sex shaming, pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, birth, abortion, pro-life manipulation - including a traumatic video of an abortion, animal cruelty, violent bullying, homophobia, homophobic murder, paeddophilia, forced inebriation by predator, rape/incest, rape culture, a Magdalene laundry - featuring abuse, illegal adoption, sold babies, neglect of children, and infant death, suicide, and an industrial school - featuring child abuse, both violent and sexual.

Continue reading Review: All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Review: Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan (#Ad)

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

Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan

Published: 13th June 2019 | Publisher: Hot Key Books | Cover Illustrator: Elsa Klever | Source: Publisher
Deirdre Sullivan's Website

Everyone in Ballyfrann has a secret, and that is what binds them together…

Sixteen-year-old twins Madeline and Catlin move to a new life in Ballyfrann, a strange isolated town, a place where, for the last sixty years, teenage girls have gone missing in the surrounding mountains.

As distance grows between the twins - as Catlin falls in love, and Madeline begins to understand her own nascent witchcraft - Madeline discovers that Ballyfrann is a place full of predators. Not only foxes, owls and crows, but also supernatural beings who for many generations have congregated here to escape persecution. When Catlin falls into the gravest danger of all, Madeline must ask herself who she really is, and who she wants to be - or rather, who she might have to become to save her sister.

Dark and otherworldly, this is an enthralling story about the bond between sisters and the sacrifices we make for those we care about the most. For fans of Frances Hardinge and Laure Eve. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: Anxiety, animal death, purposely injuring an animal, animal sacrifice, mentions of child grooming and paedophilia , homophobia (specifically against lesbians), gory, visceral descriptions of dead bodies and mortal injuries, abusive relationship, domestic violence, and murder.

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Review: The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill

The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill (proof) - Deep beneath the sea, off the cold Irish coast, Gaia is a young mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. She longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice? What will it take for the little mermaid to find her voice? Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale is reimagined through a searing feminist lens, with the stunning, scalpel-sharp writing and world building that has won Louise her legions of devoted fans. A book with the darkest of undercurrents, full of rage and rallying cries: storytelling at its most spellbinding. From Goodreads.

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

Trigger Warning: This book features sexual assault, sexual violence, suicide, female genital mutilation, homophobia; though we don't get to see any of these things on page, they are discussed. This book also features an on-page attempted rape.

Continue reading Review: The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill

Review: Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan (#Ad)

Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan

I was sent this review copy by Little Island Books & Bounce Marketing for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Tangled tales of eath, salty tales of water.

Bewitched retellings of classic fairy tales with brave and resilient heroines. Tales of blood and intrigue, betrayal and enchantment from a leading Irish YA author - not for the faint hearted or damsels in distress. From the blurb.

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Review: Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (#Ad)

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

I was sent this proof for free by Corgi Children's Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hair clips and jewelry, but soon it's clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won't talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they're holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it's full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.

Unless it's leading them toward things that were never meant to be found... From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book talks about rape that has taken place (though the rape is not on page).

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Review: The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (#Ad)

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

I was sent this proof for free by Corgi Children's Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

It's the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom.

The accident season has been part of seventeen-year-old Cara's life for as long as she can remember. Towards the end of October, foreshadowed by the deaths of many relatives before them, Cara's family becomes inexplicably accident-prone. They banish knives to locked drawers, cover sharp table edges with padding, switch off electrical items - but injuries follow wherever they go, and the accident season becomes an ever-growing obsession and fear.

But why are they so cursed? And how can they break free? From Goodreads.

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Review: Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill (ARC) - In a world in which baby girls are no longer born naturally, women are bred in schools, trained in the arts of pleasing men until they are ready for the outside world. At graduation, the most highly rated girls become "companions", permitted to live with their husbands and breed sons until they are no longer useful.

For the girls left behind, the future – as a concubine or a teacher – is grim.

Best friends freida and isabel are sure they’ll be chosen as companions – they are among the most highly rated girls in their year.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, Isabel does the unthinkable and starts to put on weight...

And then, into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.

Freida must fight for her future – even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known... From Goodreads

Continue reading Review: Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill