Tag: Young Adult

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

This was a wonderful mix of historical fiction and fantasy. I loved seeing women in a scientific role in this story. This was filled with intrigue, mystery, and a search for the ever-elusive Philosopher’s Stone.

Thea is an assistant for her alchemist mother in France just before the revolution. On the verge of a breakthrough to create the Philosopher’s Stone, her mother goes quite mad and sends Thea to England to live with her father, someone she has never met. Distraught at this turn of events in her life, Thea decides to try to create the Philosopher’s Stone herself and cure her mother of her madness. As Thea gets closer to the cure, will she be able to avoid following in the footsteps of her mother?

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Undeveloped by K Leigh

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Author K Leigh has such a wonderful way with words. Her stories continue to get better and better, and I am always on the lookout for her next book! Undeveloped was an absolutely beautifully written story with characters you fall in love with, wonderful revelations, and heartbreaking moments. It is well worth the read, and I hope everyone picks it up!

This is a dual-timeline story with Lia, our present-day teenager stumbling across her Aunt Natalie’s journals from her own youth. As Lia secretly reads more and more of Natalie’s entries, she becomes entranced by what looks like a love-lost in Natalie’s history.

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The Stories Stars Tell by C.L. Walters

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Every time I read a book by C.L. Walters, I am transported into the story, and I stay there until the end. This book was another amazing story by her, and it’s my favorite by her so far! I love that she is always able to touch on subjects that are hard-hitting, and real-feeling. They bring situations to life that people are struggling with and provide a perspective to consider and relate to.

Emma and Tanner are two teenagers, coming ever closer to their adult selves. They are both searching for who they are. This is a story of sexuality, but it also has religion mixed in, which gives it this interesting perspective that I haven’t read in a story before.

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Majesty by Katharine McGee

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

I love books about royalty. I read American Royals and fell in love with the characters and the re-imagining of American history. When I got the chance to grab the second book, Majesty, I was SO excited. This book did not let me down!

Majesty picks up just a little after the end of the first book in the series, American Royals. We find the royal family, and the entire country mourning the death of the King. Beatrice is now the reigning monarch, and the first Queen in United States history. Her sister is not the next in line for the throne, which was a position Sam had never expected to be in, and Nina is happy to be out of the spotlight that comes with being friends with the royal family.

I loved that this book again provided different POVs from the characters. We have Nina, Beatrice, Sam, and Daphne all telling this story. This story still doesn’t make me like Daphne, but I really came to respect Beatrice. I loved watching her take on her new responsibilities, and work through all the problems.

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Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

Books about magicians are always calling to me. I find them to be a fun mix of fantasy and real-world, and it just draws me right in. Where Dreams Descend introduces the reader to a world where nothing is as it seems, and the dreams of one young magician have the opportunity to be the downfall of an entire town.

This book has brought out a whole lot of feelings in me. I found myself struggling to get into the book at the beginning but unable to put the book down by the end.

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Inherent Fate by Geanna Culbertson

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Crisanta Knight series continues to be so much fun! In this third book in the series, Crisanta is still on her journey to find The Author. Crisanta wants to get her story changed, and The Author is the only person that can do that.

Inherent Fate picks up right where book 2 left off. Cristana is stuck in the genie’s lamp with Daniel, and they don’t know how to get out. They do of course, or the book would have been very short! Once out, they must get to the cave to get the third item they have been searching for. I enjoyed that Daniel and Crisanta have some time alone during this book. They are separated from the rest of the group, and I liked seeing their dynamic energy together. I’m very much rooting for the two of them to get together in the end!

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Doors Of Gold And Rust by A.N. Willis

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

I LOVE a second book in a series that stands up to the first! Doors Of Gold And Rust was just as wonderful as the first book! I liked that this story still had the same characters we already know, and involved the same house, but there are a whole lot of NEW mysteries to uncover. It was exciting, and I enjoyed it!

The story picks up just four months after the resolution of the last story, and we find Evelyn has befriended Jake, and Alex is a bit estranged as he’s living with his mom out of town. Evelyn receives a letter that sparks the return of Alex and the eventual discovery of a long-hidden murder on the Byrne House grounds.

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Fable by Adrienne Young

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

OH my goodness…Fable… I loved this book! So, this is my first book by Adrienne Young, and I’m a BIG fan now! This story was told so well! The descriptions just drew me into the story! I could see the glittering water, the coral reefs, the ships…everything! It was beautiful!

Fable is the daughter of a well-known trader, living her life on the sea. When their ship goes down, she is one of three that survive the night. Her mother does not survive, and her father, who is about the biggest jerk ever, drops her off on an island of vagrants and thieves. Fable lives the next 4 years fighting for her life, her food, and trying to make enough money to buy passage off this horrible little section of the world. When she does, she begins an adventure of a lifetime!

The plot was wonderful! I really loved how the story unfolded. There’s some history that we need to learn about Fable to understand why she’s on the island and some of her backstory. I don’t like a ton of flashbacks in stories because I find them disruptive at times. In Fable though, I enjoyed that there was need-to-know information about the past, but the author chose just the right moment to insert the flashback. It didn’t pull me out of the story, it just brought me closer!

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All Eyes on Her by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

All Eyes on Her is a young adult thriller that puts the reader in an investigative position, which I thought was fun and original! We start the story with Tabby telling us why she’s not guilty of killing her boyfriend, Mark. It then moves to other character’s perspectives of what they knew about the situation. I liked reading each character’s version of events. It gave me the opportunity to see the situation from so many different points of view.

The story is told through the multiple perspectives, but also provides chat messages, sections of diary entries, as well as newspaper articles. It really played up the social thriller genre with these entries and it was so easy to get into!

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How to Live on the Edge by Sarah Lynn Scheerger

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

How to Live on the Edge by Sarah Lynn Scheerger is such an emotional rollercoaster so buckle in before you start this one! It was a beautifully written book with such an emotional draw! 

Cayenne and Saffron lost their mother to breast cancer when they were young, leaving them to live with Aunt Tee. They know that the women in their family don’t live past 40. The BRCA gene mutation that runs in their DNA won’t let them. Cayenne spends her time flirting, very dangerously, with death. She stands in front of oncoming trains, jumping out of the way at the last second, and so many other perilous activities. When she is given video messages her mother made for her before her death, she finds that she doesn’t want them, but continues to be drawn to them.

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Dylan McFinn Book on tray with glasses and flowers

Dylan McFinn and The Sea Serpent’s Fury by Liam Jenkins

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

Who doesn’t love a story with mermaids, myths, and destiny? Dylan McFinn and The Sea Serpent’s Fury had all of that and so much more!

This story starts with Culbert McFinn, a sea captain with a concern for the environment. He invents all these things to help get rid of the mounting number of plastic in the oceans. But then he’s caught by a mermaid and taken down to Lapatia, the land of mermaids. He finds himself quite happy with all the mermaids 😂 and chooses to stay there. And so, Dylan McFinn is born, half mermaid-half human. For Dylan’s 13th birthday, they take a family trip above the water, and that trip turns out to be quite eventful! Dylan’s destiny becomes clear as sea monsters and witches try to invade.

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The Red Door by Heather Kindt

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

What I Loved:

I LOVE it when the second book in a series is just as great as the first, and The Red Door WAS just as amazing as The Green Door! I was so pleased to see that Heather Kindt’s writing was true to the first story, but still found a whole new world to delve into!

How I Felt:

The story picks up a very short amount of time from where the last book ended. I loved that we didn’t lose much time between the two stories, and it created that sense of urgency the characters felt to get back to the game.

The plot has our characters heading off to attack the challenge of whatever is behind the red door this time. And boy, it was a whole new world! I loved the magic twisted with very real-feeling situations that the characters faced. The Queen of the land they enter has this magical hold over the kingdom. People fall over themselves to throw their hearts and bodies at the Queen. Something strange is happening, and Meg needs to figure out how to resist the Queen before they are all lost to her magical pull.

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