Review: Abeni's Song by P. Djèlí Clark

Abeni's Song by P. Djèlí Clark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided both a print and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

Clark has quickly become one of my favorite SFF authors.  I love how he weaves culture into his stories and uses sci-fi or fantasy (or both) to deal with real world issues.  This is his middle grade debut and he really leans in to African Lore and storytelling.  If you pay attention he is really using Abeni's magical journey to tell you about the horrible things that were done historically in Africa.  It is one of the things I love about his writing style.  He tells you about big and important topics while taking you on an amazing adventure.

As for the narration, the narrator really did a wonderful job with the storytelling aspect of the audiobook.  She gave each of the characters a unique voice throughout the book.  It took me a few chapters to really appreciate her narration, as I didn't initially appreciate the cadence and pitch she gave to some of the characters.  I loved her "narrator" voice though.  As the book went on I realized she is the ultimate storyteller, and really gave life to Abeni and her companions.  I don't think everyone will appreciate her amazing voice acting, but I think younger readers will be delighted by her voice talents.  

This follows Abeni on quite the journey.  On her 12th birthday, her village is attacked and everyone she knows and loves is taken away.  Abeni alone is saved by an old woman who she comes to know as Asha, a spirit who has protected the village for many years.  Abeni wants nothing more than to find her family and loved ones, but to do so she must learn what Asha has to teach her.  Abeni has a good bit of character development as the story unfolds as she begins as any 12 year old girl, a bit stubborn and petulant, but she quickly discovers that she has to put aside her own wants and needs if she wants to find those she loves.  She is also put in many challenging situations where she has to be brave and make tough choices.  Does she always make the right choice?  No, but she is always trying to do the right thing, and the friends she makes along the way are there to help guide her and teach her.  There are quite a few lessons to be learned, and Abeni always takes them in stride.  

The worldbuilding in this book was excellent.  Clark gives us a luscious landscape and describes the characters in such detail that you can really get a sense of what they look like but he doesn't go overboard with the descriptions.  If you are a fan of folklore any mythology I highly recommend this for middle grade readers, adults, and everyone in between.  I think it is written such that any age group can enjoy it.

This is the first book in a series, but I really appreciated that this first part of Abeni's storyline ended with closure.  We see that there is more to her journey to come, but this part of the story feels complete.  I look forward to seeing what challenges Abeni and her companions faces on the next part of their quest.

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Review: Breaking Badlands by Scott Reintgen

Breaking Badlands by Scott Reintgen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved it! Loved it! If you love fairy tales you need to read this series! This entire series is a love letter to stories and the things that make readers love them. I love the references to popular series, many of which I've read myself. I also love that each element that makes up a story is either a character or an element in these books. The author was so creative in how he put this whole series together and I can't recommend it enough. This may be targeted towards middle grade readers but I recommend it to book lovers of all ages. A good story is a good story no matter how old you are!

This is the third and final installment of the Talespinners series, but I feel like each of the stories can be read as a standalone. I adored Saving Fable and Escaping Ordinary, so I highly recommend reading them, I think you could get away with starting anywhere in the series. I'm a bit of a traditionalist so I like to read things in order, but if you started with this one I think you'd be OK. The author does a great job giving you enough back story from the previous books so you don't feel confused. It has been quite some time since I've read either of them, and I was able to read on without breaking out my copies to refresh my memory.

This final installment takes Indira on a much different quest than we've seen in the past. She yet again has to save Fable and much like in the past she has her friends at her side to help her. This time she has to go into the unknown of Fester, where the antagonists live and train for parts in stories. While there Indira learns that not everything in Fable and Fester is as black and white as it has been made out to be, and with the help of an unlikely aide she learns that the key to saving Fable, her friends, and stories in general might be a little grey. I don't want to spoil anything.

I loved that we got to travel to Fester and see Indira play a bit of a different character in this book. We also got to see the villians in action. There were some great action scenes and some great characters in this. We also have appearances from our beloved characters from the previous books that India wouldn't have been able to be the hero she is today had it not been for them. They all play a critical part in this story and there are some pretty good twists that I didn't see coming.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crown Books for Young Readers for providing me an ARC. I'm honored I got to be a part of Indira's journey! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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Review: Saving Fable by Scott Reintgen

Saving Fable by Scott Reintgen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was amazing! I loved this so much. I'm not a huge middle grade reader but when I was provided a copy of this via Netgalley because I read and enjoyed Reintgen's other YA sci-fi works, I jumped on a chance to read this. I have a young reader at home and this looked like a good option for him. I'm going to order him a copy and suggest it to his school librarian.

This follows Indira Story, a fantastic character, who may lose her way but she always finds it again and never gives up. She is resilient and you can't help but love her and cheer for her on her journey to become a hero. Indira is a character who is waiting to become a hero in a story. When we meet her she is hoping to be chosen to go to the famous city of Fable so an Author might pick her to be a hero or a character in a book. She makes her way to Protagonist Preparatory, a magical school, where she takes classes aligned to her skills as character. She also makes some interesting friends and gets adopted by The Penningtons. I have to say Mrs. Pennington is the sweetest motherly character. She gives the best advice, is always there for Indira and her son Patch, and she is always making something delicious to eat. Everytime she was on the page it felt like she was giving you a warm hug. I just loved her character so much! Indira is determined to get a hero role in a story and works very hard on her studies, but she learns from her advisor that feedback from her instructors isn't great. Disheartened by this news, Indira loses her motivation for about 5 minutes, but in true hero fashion she seeks good advice and goes on a quest to get her mojo back.
When she returns to school determined to prove her advisor wrong, strange things begin to happen. Indira knows something funny is going on in Fable and she is determined to get to the bottom of it.

This story was so fun to read. I loved that each character or type of character was an element of a book. I also loved all of the references to other popular novels. There was so much humor and light in this book that I was smiling or laughing most of the time I was reading it. I can't wait to read more in this world and get to see what adventure we get to go on next.

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Review: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fun middle grade "scary story". It wasn't over the top scary so those who want to dip their toes into horror but don't want to be terrified, this would be a good one to start with. It still has Arden's beautiful writing while being whimsical enough to appeal to young readers. This book is perfect for Halloween/fall time when you really want to read something spooky. This is reminiscent of reading RL Stine’s Fear Street series for me as a kid, which I loved!

This follows Ollie, a 6th grade girl who has recently lost someone very close to her. She is grieving and uses books as a coping mechanism. She comes across a strange book by even stranger circumstances, but she doesn’t know that this book will save her and her friends on a very weird field trip. As the trip unfolds, Ollie teams up with two of her classmates, Brian and Coco, to figure out what is going on and try to find a way out of what seems like a nightmare. The trio is warned to stay in small spaces to stay safe. Guided by the book and prompts from Ollie’s watch, the trio faces scary situations and creatures on their way to save their class and themselves.

Overall, this was a fun little book and I’m looking forward to Dead Voices. I love Arden’s writing and I really enjoyed this.

I was provided an ARC of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book was published in September of 2018.  Dead Voices is due out at the end of August 2019.

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Review: Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really love this series. I'm picky about my middle grade reads, but this gets my seal of approval and my 11 year old devoured this in about a day and a half.  I think he gets mad that school gets in the way of his reading time.  I feel that way about work sometimes, but responsibility always wins out.

I'm using this for my OWL Reading Challenge Potions, Next Ingredient: Sequel prompt.  If you don't know what I'm talking about you can check out my TBR post here. 

This picks up where Nevermoor left off, Morrigan has discovered that she is a Wundersmith and allowed to stay in Nevermoor. She is officially part of the Wundrous Society, but she isn't really sure what either of those things means. Her patron, Jupiter, isn't exactly open with the information on what Morrigan's future holds or what she will find inside the gates of the Society. All she knows is that she may learn what it means to be a Wundersmith and that she may finally have the family she has always wanted within her unit at the Society.

Her unit, 919 as they are dubbed, are challenged at every turn when they find out what Morrigan really is. They are tasked with keeping her secret and trusting that she won't turn evil on them. This tests the bonds of trust and friendship. In the meantime, Morrigan must learn the history of Wundersmiths in her one and only class at the Society. The history as she quickly comes to learn is very biased. As strange and bad things keep happening around Morrigan, which she is kind of used to, Morrigan is determined to find out who is causing all of the bad things to happen to her group and the people of the Society. She knows she didn't cause them but they all started when she showed up at the Society. She wants to help Jupiter uncover the truth and find the culprit. Ezra Squall also plays a part in this darker sequel, but he has motives of his own. He wants Morrigan to become a powerful Wundersmith, but he hints at something other than himself as danger to Morrigan and her friends.

This sequel was a little darker than the first book but it was still whimsical and fun. I really love the creativity that went into creating the world and the characters. I do wish the whole use of Wunder was a little more flushed out but I think this book was just setting that up. I think or at least I hope we will get more into that in the next one as Morrigan begins to study the Wretched Arts in school. This doesn't really end on a cliffhanger, but it hints at more to come but doesn't say what so it wraps up pretty neatly with the promise of more to come and another adventure for another day. I'm really excited to see what Morrigan and the kids of 919 get up to in the next installment.

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Review: Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a great debut, this was such a fun book! This book had a little bit of everything, magic, fantastical characters, curses, and great friends.

Morrigan Crow expects to die on her 11th birthday because she is supposedly cursed. Bad things happen everywhere she goes, and if she is anywhere near anything remotely unfortunate she gets blamed and her father pays the damages to save his reputation. Morrigan's luck changes when Jupiter North, a strange man from a strange place called Nevermoor, offers to take Morrigan away from her fated death to compete for a place in the Wondrous Society. Jupiter is a member of the society as he has a talent kind of see the future, that isn't exactly his talent, but it is the best way to describe it. He is convinced Morrigan can pass the trials to get into the Society even though she doesn't know what her talent is yet. He assures her that he's seen it all and he'll take care of everything. Morrigan knows that the Society is her only hope because she can't go back home. While preparing for her trials, Morrigan moves into Jupiter's hotel where she meets and befriends all sorts of people and creatures.

While this is most definitely not Harry Potter, it gives you the same vibe. It is creative, fun, action packed, has great friendships, and has those same types of elements you expect from a magical middle grade fantasy. I highly recommend it. I can't wait to read the next one.

I also recommend the audio book. I mostly read the ebook, but the audiobook was excellent as well.

I read this to fulfil my popsugar challenge prompt to read a debut novel, and I really loved it.  Can't wait for the next installment.

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Review: The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken

The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This was released today February 5, 2019. 

This is the fun and whimsical sequel to The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding, which I adored. This book was a little too whimsical and slow paced for my tastes. It is still fun and has all of the great characters from the first book. I would still highly recommend it to the middle grade crowd.

The plot picks up with Prosper and Alastor heading Downstairs to save Prosper's sister Prue from Alastor's sister Pyra. You would think they would go on some amazing adventure, and they do, it just takes a long time for for the action to develop. This is where the pacing was off for me. The boy and the fiend just kind of wander around dealing with different kinds of fiends and accomplish nothing for about half the book before anything exciting happens. I had so much fun reading the first book, but this one just didn't have the same feel. I think because this takes place in the realm of the fiends, there were many scenes that were just kind of silly that I think middle grade readers will LOVE, I'm going to recommend this series to my 10 year old for sure. This is where the book was just a bit too much on the whimsical side for me.

There is a ton of character development in this book. I was excited that Nell came along for the adventure and we get to know her more and see her develop as a witch. Prosper also develops a ton as a character as he is faced with many tough decisions on his journey to save his sister. We also get to know Alastor better both in the present and in the past as we get quite a bit of his back story when he dealt with Honor Redding and made his original bargain. There are quite a few twists when it comes to the characters in the book that I really liked.

That being said the 2nd half of the book picks up was fairly exciting and a lot happens. There is magic, there are some really interesting fantasy creatures who are really well described, the fiend world of Downstairs is well developed, and I think as far as the story goes it wrapped up nicely.

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Review: Little Boy Lost (The Librarian #1) by Eric Hobbs

Little Boy Lost by Eric Hobbs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.  I'm not sure how I got on Eric Hobbs' email list, but I'm glad I did.  This book has been on my Amazon wishlist for a while now.  It showed up as a recommendation for fans of the Percy Jackson books.  I jumped on the chance to review books 1 & 2.  I need to get to book 2 so I can find out what happens.  This was a quick and enjoyable read.  Eric was nice enough to send me an autographed copy as well which I'm super excited to put with my actual books.  I highly recommend this for middle grade readers.  I think my 7 and 9 year old would really love this series.  They love watching Once Upon a Time with me on TV and seeing all the fairy tale character retellings.  I would highly recommend it for young readers who like adventure stories in a fantasy setting.

I enjoyed this book, and I'm anxious to get to book 2. Hobbs blends some of our favorite children's stories into this tale but gives them a distinct twist. Our main character Wesley finds himself on a field trip to tour a local library. Also on the trip are his best friend Taylor and worst enemy Randy. Wesley is regularly bullied by Randy and his crew of goons, while Taylor is always sticking up for him and telling him to stand up for himself. Wesley and Taylor break away from the history lesson on the tour and end up learning that the historical library is more than it seems. There are some truly magical things hiding in its walls. Randy's father is also on the trip with the class, but it turns out he wants to demolish the historical library and all its magic. While trying to stay out of Randy and his father's sights, Wesley finds himself drawn to a strange painting of Neverland. He also runs into Locke, who happens to be one of Peter Pan's Lost Boy's from Neverland. Locke is looking for the mysterious Librarian.

Wesley, Locke, and Taylor can't find the Librarian, but they do discover that Locke must get back to his own story. The kids end up in Oz and learn that once a story is written, it must not be changed. Taylor won't be swayed though and she is determined to help the Tin Man find his true love. If you know the rules of time travel, they kind of apply here, you don't mess with the timeline or it will have consequences. Eventually the kids face off with Randy and his dad to get the Neverland key back so Locke can go back. The find the Librarian and face off with the Headless Horseman. Wesley who is almost irritatingly weak throughout the story, finds his inner strength and starts to stand up for himself. He gets tired of being pushed around all the time which is a good lesson for young readers especially if they are in a similar situation with a kid like Randy. Locke heads back to Neverland, but Wes, Taylor, and the Librarian are left in the real world to deal with the mess they've made. The story ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, but not a bad one. I kind of saw it coming.

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Review: Whichwood by Teherah Mafi

Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.   This is out November 14, 2017.  Thank you to Dutton Books, Penguin Publishing and Edelweiss for providing me with an advanced copy for review.

I really enjoyed this. I really love Mafi's writing style. It is very poetic, and I love the way she tells the story as if she were friends with the characters and was telling the story of their lives. I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I was so glad to see Alice and Oliver back from Furthermore. If you haven't read Furthermore, you should, but I love that Mafi has written the- story in such a way that she refers back to Alice and Oliver's previous adventures as if you haven't read them before. I LOVE that this book stands on its own two feet and there are enough references to the first book that you don't have to read it to know what's going on. Reading Furthermore certainly helps, but it isn't required.

This was pretty dark. I wouldn't want my 4th grader reading this, I think the imagery is pretty graphic and could be a little scary for younger readers, but then again each reader has their tolerances. As a parent I don't think I'd let my 10 year old read this, I'd wait a bit, maybe the 13+ crowd would be more appropriate.  I know what scares my kids, and the imagery I think would be too much for my young reader, then again I know I was reading pretty dark graphic stuff at a young age.  My parents didn't really censor what I read, only what I watched on TV. The imagery didn't bother me, but I can see how it would disturb some. Futhermore on the other hand would be fine for the 9-12 reader crowd. It was a tad dark and a bit weird, but not scary.  I would let my 4th grader read Futhermore no problem.

The main character, Laylee, is a Mordeshoor, kind of like a magical undertaker. She is responsible for washing the bodies of the dead, her magic makes this process much more reverent than it sounds. The people of Whichwood are very superstitious and don't really understand or respect Laylee or what she and her family have done for them and their loved ones who have passed. The people of the town really take advantage of 13 year old Laylee, not paying her for her work and treating her as an outcast. Laylee is overworked, lonely, tired, when our friends Alice and Oliver enter the story. Alice is tasked with helping Laylee, she doesn't know how or what to do, but she know's something is very wrong with the young Mordeshoor. Oliver is along to help Alice, even though he's not along, but as we learned in the previous book, they never really follow the rules. Laylee doesn't really warm to Alice and Oliver, and she doesn't really feel as if she needs help or as if anything is wrong in her depressing situation. We are also introduced to Laylee's neighbor and would be friend Ben. Ben has seen Laylee deteriorate over time and joins Alice and Oliver in their quest to help Laylee.  They desperately try to save Laylee from whatever is wrong, though it takes them a while to figure out how to really help her.  In the end I found their antics quite entertaining.

I really loved the way the story tackled self-worth, loneliness, decision making, among other things. I really loved the messages within the strange tale and overall really loved this story.

Review: Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very lovely and whimsical tale about a very strange girl named Alice.   I tried reading this a few months ago and decided it wasn't for me.  It must have just been the wrong book at the wrong time because I ended up loving this.  I am so glad I took a 2nd chance on this book.  I actually decided to give it a shot after hearing some great reviews on the next book, Whichwood, and that sounded right up my alley.  I picked up an ARC of Whichwood and I must say it is much darker.  I'm about halfway done with it, so look for a review of it soon.  Furthermore was so great.  Mafi's writing is just so beautiful in this even though it takes a little while to get used to the silly vibe of the world.  She does such a great job with the world building and the imagery.

Alice is from a magical land called Ferenwood, where many of the inhabitants possess some sort of magical talent. Alice has a talent, but she resents it and she is sure it can't possibly be the talent she is supposed to surrender to the elders upon turning 12. The children of Ferenwood receive a task inline with their talents, and Alice decides stubbornly I might add that her's is dancing. She quickly realizes it is not. Enter Oliver, a boy who was tasked a year earlier and has yet to complete his task and asks Alice to help him. Alice doesn't like Oliver, because he insulted her for her lack of color when they were younger. You see Furthermore isn't only magical, it is very colorful as well, and Alice is very colorless. Oliver has been tasked to find Alice's father, who has been missing for several years. Alice misses her father greatly, and after her embarrassing performance and horrible treatment by her mother since her father's disappearance she decides to help Oliver on his task. Oliver's talent of persuasion doesn't work on Alice, and he isn't often honest with her, making it very hard for her to trust him as he takes her on a journey through Furthermore to find her father. They travel through multiple villages each with their own kind of puzzle to figure out before they can pass on to the next place to get to her father. The people of Furthermore are dangerous and their journey is quite perilous. I found this middle grade read to be a bit dark while also being whimsical. I really ended up loving it and can't wait to read the next book.

Review: CLICK'D by Tamara Ireland Stone

CLICK'D by Tamara Ireland Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be available on September 5th for purchase.

I read this book in a day, that should tell you something. I really loved the messages this book conveyed about empowering young girls to code and participate in technology disciplines. As someone who studied engineering and who was one of 13 girls out of 80 in my Electrical Engineering major in college that really spoke to me. I've spent most of my professional career involved in software development so I really enjoyed seeing a young girl so inspired to do good with her code.

My only real issue with the book was that a middle school teen had access to all of this personal identifiable information, which is a cyber security risk that she could do anything with or some cyber criminal could do something with but her mentor and teacher never said anything about it. I think the author did an OK job addressing that issue, but I think I because of my experience in the technology risk area I'm being a little over critical.  I just wish her mentor would have had her mask the data or said something about it since she was always in the database looking at it.  Again, probably too much for a middle grade reader, but its what I do all day and having access to all of her user's phone numbers and account information is something a 7th grader really shouldn't have access to.  Knowing their favorite color and what kind of pizza they like is fine, but the other stuff is probably is too much info in my opinion, again probably too critical and technical based on my profession.  

Overall I really enjoyed the story. I couldn't put it down. I really loved Ally. I connected with her as a girl who liked "nerdy" stuff and who played soccer. I saw so much of myself in her. The story is about Ally and the "game" she created at CodeGirls, a coding camp for girls over the summer. The purpose of her game Click'd is to find new friends based on a series of questions in a quiz you answer, much like an online dating profile. She even goes so far as to say that she studies those types of apps to create her own to make sure her data was matching people based on their likes and dislikes. She wanted people to make new friends or atleast talk to people that they otherwise would have never found before. She soon comes to find out that one of her best friends in real life is upset because her in real life friends are no longer on the top if her leaderboard and that isn't fun for her. Ally also finds a major bug in her app and tries to fix it on her own without help from her computer teacher and mentor for the Games for Good competition she's hoping to win. She finds an unlikely ally in her long time nemesis Nathan, who like Ally is also entered in the competition. Ally just wants people to find and click with people they otherwise wouldn't have ever talked to before, bringing smiles to peoples faces as they spark new friendships. Her app causes alot of turmoil and Ally isn't sure she can fix it.

I think this story has a lot of great messages about friendship and loyalty, being driven to succeed, learning from your mistakes, and how technology especially mobile technology has really changed how we interact as a society. I really liked how in the end Ally's game brought people together the way she'd hoped and that she learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. I would highly recommend this for the middle grade crowd, especially girls interested in the technology fields.

Review: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this. This is a very fun, middle grade, fantasy read that follows main character Prosperity Oceanus Redding, quite a name I know. Prosper comes from a very affluent New England family, but it turns out the Redding's family fortune is due to a demonic contract their ancestor Honor Redding made long ago with a fiend we come to know as Alastor. The Redding clan isn't sure if Prosper or his twin Prue is possessed by the fiend who has been dormant for some time, but Alastor makes his presence known and Prosper finds himself in the middle of an age old curse surrounded by witches and other nasty creatures he never knew existed.

Alastor has reawaken an is focused two things, 1. Destroying the Redding Family and 2. Escaping Prosper's body so he can regain his power and return "downstairs" to the fiend realm and take his rightful place as ruler. To do so he has to convince Prosper to make yet another contract, and allow Alastor to destroy the Redding's and all of the success they've had since Honor Redding made and broke the original contract made with Alastor. Prosper is a hard kid to convince, but with Alastor gaining control over his body and controlling him like a puppet antics ensue and poor Prosper wants nothing but to protect his family, even if they aren't very nice. Prosper has to figure out who to trust, all while Al is whispering in his ear and zapping his strength. There are quite a few plot twists and kept me guessing. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I loved the setting of the book, it is set mainly in Salem and a nearby town that is named after the Reddings. I've been to Salem and I've always been interested in the lore and history of the area. Bracken did a great job capturing the feel of the area and the tourist traps that the natives to Salem have to deal with come Halloween and probably the rest of the year.

I'll definitely be purchasing a copy for my son to read, I think he'll really love this.  As a mom of an avid reader, I've taken to screening books I think he will like because you just never know these days.  He reads well above his grade level, so I'm always trying to find stuff that is age appropriate that I think he will like. I read a lot of young Adult Books, and there have been plenty of them that should have been New Adult because of the explicit content.  I don't tend to read middle grade because, well most of it is pretty juvenile for my tastes, but this was great.  The pace was perfect, and the content was interesting and I just really like the characters.