Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts

Saturday, 29 January 2022

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Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

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.

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid


Published: 8th June 2021 | Publisher: HarperVoyager | Source: Bought
Ava Reid’s Website

A dark, evocative and unforgettable fantasy debut steeped in Hungarian history and Jewish mythology, perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden.

Stories don't have to be true to be real...

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king's blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he's no ordinary Woodsman - he's the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it's like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they're on, and what they're willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.
From The StoryGraph.

Purchase from Bookshop.org*
The StoryGraph | Goodreads


Continue reading Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Monday, 8 July 2019

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Review: The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan (#Ad)

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

I was sent this proof as a giveaway prize by the author for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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

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.
Continue reading Review: The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan (#Ad)

Monday, 1 July 2019

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Review: Internment by Samira Ahmed (#Ad)

Internment by Samira Ahmed

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

Internment by Samira Ahmed

Published: 19th March 2019 | Publisher: Atom | Cover Designer:  | Source: NetGalley
Samira Ahmed's Website

Rebellions are built on hope.

Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp's Director and his guards.

Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
From Goodreads

Trigger Warnings: This book features racism, Islamophobia, imprisonment, violence, violence against women, death, discussion of torture, discussion of internment camps - specifically Manzanar internment camp and Nazi concentration camps, and discussion of the Holocaust.

Review edited on 5th July 2019. My original review was harmful, due to discussing inconsistencies that had me questioning why there wasn't more pain for the Muslim charcters of colour. You can read my acknowledgement of my mistake and apology here. For transparency, you can find a screen cap of the original wording here.
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Monday, 24 June 2019

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Review: This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik (#Ad)

This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik

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

This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik

Published: 13th June 2019 | Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre | Cover Designer: Nick StearnSource: Publisher
Ayisha Malik's Website

Accountant Bilal Hasham and his journalist wife, Mariam, plod along contentedly in the sleepy, chocolate box village they've lived in for eight years.

Then Bilal is summoned to his dying mother's bedside in Birmingham. Sakeena Hasham is not long for this world but refuses to leave it until she ensures that her son remembers who he is: a Muslim, however much he tries to ignore it. She has a final request. Instead of whispering her prayers in her dying moments, she instructs Bilal to go home to his village, Babbel's End, and build a mosque.

Mariam is horrified. The villagers are outraged. How can a grieving Bilal choose between honouring his beloved mum's last wish and preserving everything held dear in the village he calls home?

But it turns out home means different things to different people.

Battle lines are drawn and this traditional little community becomes the colourful canvas on which the most current and fundamental questions of identity, friendship, family and togetherness are played out.

What makes us who we are, who do we want to be, and how far would we go to fight for it?
From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features death, grief, discussion of drug use, racism and Islamophobia.
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Monday, 22 October 2018

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Review: Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Undead Girl Gang by Lily AndersonUndead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson (Bought) - Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There's not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley's favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.
From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book contains discussion of suicide, unintentional offensive language surrounding suicide, faith-based discrimination, and body shaming.
Continue reading Review: Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Monday, 8 October 2018

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Review: A Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma

A Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren SumaA Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma (proof) - Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina’s cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother—a bond Bina thought was unbreakable.

Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina’s lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she’s come to Catherine House and what it will take for her to leave...
From Goodreads.

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

Trigger Warning: Seeming suicide attempts.

Warning: This review features mild spoilers. Do not read any further if you do not want this book spoiled for you.
Continue reading Review: A Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma

Monday, 30 July 2018

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher

All the Ways the World Can End by Abby SherAll the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher (Review Copy) - Lenny is preparing for the apocalypse. Every night, she researches vacuum decay, designer pathogens, that inexplicable sleeping sickness knocking people out in Kazakhstan. Not many sixteen-year-olds are this consumed with the end of the world. But Lenny needs to have some sense of control. Her dad is dying of cancer. Her best friend Julian is graduating early and moving three states away. She's having to rehearse for a toe-curling interpretive dance show at school, and deal with her mum's indefatigable jolliness and smoothie-making in the face of the disaster they are confronting. The one thing keeping her hopeful is Dr Rad Ganesh - her father's oncologist. Surely Lenny can win him round to her charms - and he can save her father? From Goodreads.

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

Trigger Warning: This book features self-harm, homophobic language (overheard on a train), and the protagonist using ableist language.
Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher

Sunday, 29 July 2018

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

The Art of Starving by Sam J. MillerThe Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller (Bought) - Matt hasn’t eaten in days.

His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal. But Matt won’t give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp—and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he’s going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Matt’s hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have . . . powers. The ability to see things he shouldn’t be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people’s heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space.

So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?

Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq’s life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn’t realize there are many kinds of hunger… and he isn’t in control of all of them.

A darkly funny, moving story of body image, addiction, friendship, and love, Sam J. Miller’s debut novel will resonate with any reader who’s ever craved the power that comes with self-acceptance.
From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features suicidal ideation, self-harm and homophobia.
Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

Monday, 29 January 2018

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Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (#Ad)

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky AlbertalliThe Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

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

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love-she's lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can't stomach the idea of rejection. So she's careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie's orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly's cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness-except for the part where she is.
Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny, flirtatious, and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back.

There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's an awkward Tolkien superfan, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?
From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (#Ad)

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

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Review: The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine LockeNetGalleyThe Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke (eProof) - When sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum accidentally time-travels via red balloon to 1988 East Berlin, she’s caught up in a conspiracy of history and magic. She meets members of an underground guild in East Berlin who use balloons and magic to help people escape over the Wall—but even to the balloon makers, Ellie’s time travel is a mystery. When it becomes clear that someone is using dark magic to change history, Ellie must risk everything—including her only way home—to stop the process. From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

Sunday, 24 September 2017

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Review: Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls

Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally NichollsNetGalleyThings a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls (eProof) - Through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote.

Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women's freedom.

May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who's grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place.

But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?
From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls

Thursday, 20 July 2017

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Review: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya MenonNetGalleyWhen Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon (eProof) - The arranged-marriage YA romcom you didn't know you wanted or needed...

Meet Dimple.

Her main aim in life is to escape her traditional parents, get to university and begin her plan for tech world domination.

Meet Rishi.

He's rich, good-looking and a hopeless romantic. His parents think Dimple is the perfect match for him, but she's got other plans...

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Jenny Han and Nicola Yoon, WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is a frothy, funny contemporary romance set at a coding convention in San Francisco over one exciting summer. Told from the dual perspectives of two Indian American protagonists, Dimple is fighting her family traditions while Rishi couldn't be happier to follow in the footsteps of his parents. Could sparks fly between this odd couple, or is this matchmaking attempt doomed to fail?
From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Sunday, 25 June 2017

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Review: The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik

The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha MalikThe Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik (Bought) - 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.

Sofia Khan is just married. But no-one told her life was going to be this way . . .

Her living situation is in dire straits, her husband Conall is distant, and his annoyingly attractive colleague is ringing all sorts of alarm bells.

When her mother forces them into a belated wedding ceremony (elopement: you can run, but you can't hide), Sofia wonders if it might be a chance to bring them together. But when it forces Conall to confess his darkest secret, it might just tear them apart.
From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

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Review: Out of Heart by Irfan Master

Out of Heart by Irfan MasterNetGalley ReviewerOut of Heart by Irfan Master (eProof) - Donating your heart is the most precious gift of all.

Adam is a teenage boy who lives with his mum and younger sister. His dad has left them although lives close by. His sister no longer speaks. His mum works two jobs. Adam feels the weight of the world upon his shoulders.

Then his grandfather dies and in doing so he donates a very precious gift - his heart.

William is the recipient of Adam's grandfather's heart. He has no family and feels rootless and alone. In fact, he feels no particular reason to live. And then he meets Adam's family.

William has received much, but it appears that he has much to offer Adam and his family too.

A powerful tale of love and strength in adversity.
From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: Out of Heart by Irfan Master

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

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Review: Playing With Matches by Suri Rosen

Playing With Matches by Suri RosenPlaying With Matches by Suri Rosen - When 16-year-old Raina Resnick is expelled from her Manhattan private school, she’s sent to live with her strict aunt-but Raina feels like she’s persona non grata no matter where she goes. Her sister, Leah, blames her for her broken engagement, and she’s a social pariah at her new school. In the tight-knit Jewish community, Raina finds she is good at one thing: matchmaking! As the anonymous “Match Maven,” Raina sets up hopeless singles desperate to find the One.

Can she find the perfect match for her sister and get back on her good side, or will her secret life catch up with her?

In this debut novel, Suri Rosen creates a comic and heartwarming story of one girl trying to find happiness for others, and redemption for herself.
From Goodreads.
Continue reading Review: Playing With Matches by Suri Rosen