Hello, internet land! Today I bring you an author interview with Becca Mionis! This post is a part of her book tour for her newest novel, The Last Celestials, coming out February 14th! The Last Celestials is a space romance filled with drama, tension, and lots of swoon-worthy moments!
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Lirael
Series: Abhorsen, #2
Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: April 21, 2001
Category: YA
Genre: fantasy
Pages: 487
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Goodreads page
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Four Dead Queens
Series: standalone
Author: Astrid Scholte
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published: Feb. 26, 2019
Category: YA
Genre: dystopia, fantasy
Pages: 413
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Goodreads page
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Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but in fact, she’s one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara’s most enlightened region, Eonia. Varin runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara’s queens dead.
With no other choices and on the run from Keralie’s former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation’s four dead queens.
An enthralling fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Titles: The Tea Dragon Society, The Tea Dragon Festival, The Tea Dragon Tapestry
Series: Tea Dragon, #1-3
Author & illustrator: Kay O’Neill
Publisher: Oni Press
Category: middle grade
Genre: graphic novel, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page
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From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes The Tea Dragon Society, a charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons.
After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives—and eventually her own.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Six Crimson Cranes
Series: Six Crimson Cranes, #1
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published: July 6th, 2021
Category: YA
Genre: fantasy, retelling
Pages: 464
My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5)
Goodreads page
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A princess in exile, the boy she left at the altar, six enchanted cranes, and a dragon from the deepest sea.
Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.
Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Peniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and, on her journey, uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne–a conspiracy more twisted and deceitful, more cunning and complex, than even Raikama’s betrayal. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to contain–no matter what it costs her.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“It has always seemed to me… that a coward is a person who cares more about what people say than about what is right. Bravery isn’t about what people call you, Spensa. It’s about who you know yourself to be.”
– Brandon Sanderson, Skyward
Title: Skyward
Series: Skyward, #1
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher:
Published:
Category: YA
Genre: sci-fi, fantasy
Pages:
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Goodreads page
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Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity’s only defense is to take to their ships and combat the enemy. Pilots are the heroes of what’s left of the human race.
Becoming a pilot has always been Spensa’s dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father’s–a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa’s chances of attending flight school at slim to none.
No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They’ve doubled their fleet, which will make Spensa’s world twice as deadly… but just might take her skyward.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated”
– Sabaa Tahir, A Sky Beyond the Storm
Title: A Sky Beyond the Storm
Series: An Ember in the Ashes, #4
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: Dec. 1, 2020
Category: young adult
Genre: fantasy
Pages: 516
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“You will bow before your Queen… or you will bleed before her.”
– Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Crown of Gilded Bones
Title: The Crown of Gilded Bones
Series: Blood and Ash, #3
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Blue Box Press
Published: April 20, 2021
Category: new adult
Genre: fantasy, romance
Pages: 659
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Goodreads page
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“I am of the belief that there are few things more empowering than love. Only the already weak would be further weakened by it.”
– Jennifer L. Armentrout, Grace and Glory
Title: Grace and Glory
Series: The Harbinger, #3
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: June 1, 2021
Category: young adult
Genre: fantasy, paranormal
Pages: 512
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Goodreads page
Summer is right around the corner, which means there is only a little time left to spring clean. I’m planning on moving in a couple months, so I’ve been trying to get rid of everything that I don’t absolutely need. I’ve been procrastinating cleaning out my bookshelf, but sometime this summer I *might* be putting up some of the books I unhaul for sale before donating the rest. Maybe… I haven’t given it much thought yet.
While taking a break from spring cleaning, I came across this tag on Mary and the Words! I wasn’t tagged by her, but I thought I’d give it a go anyways. (Apparently this tag was created by Jen @ Book Syrup on YouTube, but I can’t seem to find the original video….)
The Awkward Book Blogger 