Book Review: The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1) by Olivie Blake

Title: The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1)
Author: Olivie Blake
Publication Date: January 30, 2020
Genres: Adult, Science Fiction, LGBTQ+, Fantasy, Dark Academia, Mystery
Read: October 25, 2022 – November 8, 2022
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★

The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world’s six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation – and here are the chosen few…

– Libby Rhodes and Nicolás Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
– Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
– Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
– Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
– Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society’s archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them.

Book Review: Love & Other Cursed Things

Title: Love & Other Cursed Things
Author: Krista & Becca Ritchie
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
Genres: Romance, Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ, F/F
Read: February 5, 2022 – February 12, 2022
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★.5

Never fall in love in a cursed town.

Tourists flock to Mistpoint Harbor to snap photos of the famous lighthouse, browse the Museum of Curses & Curiosities, and claim their “I survived the Most Cursed Town in America!” pin. But for me, growing up in Mistpoint Harbor wasn’t a vacation. Not when locals have a deep-seated loathing for my family.

They hate my dad.
They hate my older brothers.

And they hate me–Zoey Durand, the girl who shrunk in high school at the taunts and jeers. Like a sad, wilted flower. If it wasn’t for October Brambilla, life would’ve been a real living hell.

But the moment I could leave my family’s disgraced legacy and this cursed town behind, I did.

And I vowed to never return.

Until the phone call. My brother is in trouble, and I’d risk just about anything for my family. Even a curse. Even running into October Brambilla, the daughter of the wealthiest, most revered family in all of Mistpoint Harbor.

She is town royalty.
I’m town scum.
She’s a goddess and ice queen.
I just want in-and-out.

But she’s my total weakness. And she’s already been cursed. She wants me gone before I meet the same misfortune. The more she pushes, the more my heart is willing to go up against a stupid old town legend. But my head is telling me to run.

No one returns to Mistpoint Harbor once they leave, and the longer I stay, the more I realize why.

Book Review: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Seven Seas Edition) Vol. 1

Title: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Author: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Publication Date: December 14, 2021
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ, Mystery
Read: January 11, 2022 – January 22, 2022
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★

Wei Wuxian was once one of the most powerful men of his generation, a talented and clever young cultivator who harnessed martial arts and spirituality into powerful abilities. But when the horrors of war led him to seek more power through demonic cultivation, the world’s respect for his abilities turned to fear, and his death was celebrated throughout the land.

Years later, he awakens in the body of an aggrieved young man who sacrifices his soul so that Wei Wuxian can exact revenge on his behalf. Though granted a second life, Wei Wuxian is not free from his first, nor the mysteries that appear before him now. Yet this time, he’ll face it all with the righteous and esteemed Lan Wangji at his side, another powerful cultivator whose unwavering dedication and shared memories of their past will help shine a light on the dark truths that surround them.

Book Review: The Unexpected Fall by Anna Salcedo

Title: The Unexpected Fall
Author: Anna Salcedo
Publication Date: November 30, 2021
Genres: Romance, Adult, Contemporary
Read: November 15, 2021 – November 16, 2021
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★.5

Genesis Gonzalez has spent the last two years trying to prove herself at Siren Music Records. Despite her dreams of creating music, she’s been stuck as an assistant who spends most of her day answering emails, taking notes in painfully long meetings, and avoiding Will Kobayashi, the six-two bane of her existence.

She was just about to throw in the towel when her job announced an opportunity that could change everything—a work contest that would allow two employees the opportunity to have their song on the label’s highly anticipated collaborative album, which features music from all their hottest artists. Getting her name on that album would almost be a guarantee that she’d finally get to say good-bye to being an assistant and hello to producing music. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she finds out that she gets paired with Will, who she is humanly incapable of getting along with.

They have three months to create a song that will impress the record label enough to make both of their dreams come true. But the one thing Genesis could’ve never seen coming is that the only thing harder than getting along is not falling in love …

Book Review: Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

Title: Girl, Serpent, Thorn
Author: Melissa Bashardoust
Publication Date: July 7, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Retellings, F/F
Read: July 27, 2021 – August 4, 2021.
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★.5

A captivating and utterly original fairy tale about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch, and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse…

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story.

As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.

Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming…human or demon. Princess or monster.

Book Review: Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh

Title: Every Body Looking
Author: Candice Iloh
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Poetry, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ+
Read: October 15, 2020 – October 21, 2020
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★

“Ada” means first daughter, means oldest girl, means pressure. “Ada” means you are expected to do a lot of things because the honor of this family rests on your back.

When Ada leaves home for her freshman year at a Historically Black College, it’s the first time she’s ever been so far from her family—and the first time that she’s been able to make her own choices and to seek her place in this new world. As she stumbles deeper into the world of dance and explores her sexuality, she also begins to wrestle with her past—her mother’s struggle with addiction, her Nigerian father’s attempts to make a home for her. Ultimately, Ada discovers she needs to brush off the destiny others have chosen for her and claim full ownership of her body and her future.

Book Review: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Title: The Vanishing Half
Author: Brit Bennett
Publication Date: June 2, 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Read: September 26, 2020 – September 30, 2020
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★★

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Book Review: The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie, #1) by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie, #1)
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction, LGBTQ+, Romance
Read: March 27, 2020 – April 4, 2020
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★

Where Nirrim lives, crime abounds, a harsh tribunal rules, and society’s pleasures are reserved for the High Kith. Life in the Ward is grim and punishing. People of her low status are forbidden from sampling sweets or wearing colors. You either follow the rules, or pay a tithe and suffer the consequences.

Nirrim keeps her head down and a dangerous secret close to her chest.

But then she encounters Sid, a rakish traveler from far away who whispers rumors that the High Caste possesses magic. Sid tempts Nirrim to seek that magic for herself. But to do that, Nirrim must surrender her old life. She must place her trust in this sly stranger who asks, above all, not to be trusted.

Most Anticipated 2020 Releases

I never been one to do my best with keeping up with book releases because they are just too many to keep track of and it’s never something I can (or sometimes want) to remember, but I wanted to do a blog post that wasn’t a review….So, here I am with the books I’m excited for and most likely will end up pre-ordering if I haven’t already.

I’m pretty sure more books will be added to list once I figure out what books are coming out in 2020 and they pique my curiosity and interest, but for now here’s what I’m excited for.

Book Review: The Rise of Kyoshi (The Kyoshi Novels, #1) by F.C. Yee

Title: The Rise of Kyoshi (The Kyoshi Novels, #1)
Author: F.C. Yee
Publication Date: July 16, 2019
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction, LGBTQ+
Read: December 19, 2019 – December 24, 2019
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★★

F. C. Yee’s The Rise of Kyoshi delves into the story of Kyoshi, the Earth Kingdom–born Avatar. The longest-living Avatar in this beloved world’s history, Kyoshi established the brave and respected Kyoshi Warriors, but also founded the secretive Dai Li, which led to the corruption, decline, and fall of her own nation. The first of two novels based on Kyoshi, The Rise of Kyoshi maps her journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar.