One of Us is Next - Karen M. McManus

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Come on, Bayview, you know you've missed this.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts.

Until now.

This time it's not an app, though - it's a game.

Truth or dare.

Phoebe's the first target. If you choose not to play, it's a truth. And hers is dark.

Then comes Maeve, and she should know better - always choose the dare.

But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it's that they can't count on the police for help. Or protection.

Simon's gone, but someone's determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there's a whole new set of rules."

My reading experience with this book on three acts:

Act One - Let's take this slow. Read a chapter or two a day. Let the suspense build.

Act Two, maybe a day later - Ok, this book is incredible, but I'm only about halfway through. I am definitely not going to stay up late and finish this tonight.

Act Three, several hours later - Hot fuckin damn, that ending!

Bayview High is back on their bullshit, but something about this time is different. For one thing, Phoebe knows she didn't tell anyone her secret, and there's no reason the only other person who knew about it would either...so how did Simon's copycat find out? For another, why turn it into a game at all? Most of the dares are fairly tame, and isn't the whole point of a stunt like this to out people's shameful secrets? Then there's everything going on outside the game - Phoebe's sister suddenly acting out of character, Knox's boss getting repeated death threats, and a mysterious man showing up at the restaurant where they all hang out.

Maeve, who helped unravel everything that happened the year before, is sure she's onto something again when she stumbles across a web forum exactly like the one Simon used to post on before it got shut down. Is the copycat following in Simon's footsteps? Or is she just seeing what she wants to see? Only time will tell...but how much time do they have left?

WOO! Karen McManus can write a book, y'all. At one point I literally clutched my chest and gasped out loud. And there were so many times where I thought I had things all figured out, only to have another curveball lobbed at me. What a ride. If you haven't read One of Us is Lying, read it, then read this. If you have, then what are you waiting for? Read this!

Heart of Flames - Nicki Pau Preto

My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"You are a daughter of queens.

The world is balanced on the edge of a knife, and war is almost certain between the empire and the Phoenix Riders.

Like Nefyra before you, your life will be a trial by fire.

Veronyka finally got her wish to join the Riders, but while she's supposed to be in training, all she really wants to do is fly out to defend the villages of Pyra from the advancing empire. Tristan has been promoted to Master Rider, but he has very different ideas about the best way to protect their people than his father, the commander. Sev has been sent to spy on the empire, but maintaining his cover may force him to fight on the wrong side of the war. And Veronyka's sister, Val, is determined to regain the empire she lost - even if it means inciting the war herself.

Such is your inheritance. A name. A legacy. An empire in ruin.

As tensions reach a boiling point, the characters all find themselves drawn together into a fight that will shape the course of the empire - and determine the future of the Phoenix Riders. Each must decide how far they're willing to go - and what they're willing to lose in the process.

I pray you are able to pass through the flames.

This is the sequel to Crown of Feathers, which you may recall I previously reviewed here. You may also recall that the book was so long I ended up reviewing it before I had actually finished. Well...here we go again! I'm just over halfway through Heart of Flames, and once again, I'm reviewing before I'm done reading. In the former case, I was writing on a fake deadline I gave myself and didn't want to post the review late. For this one, I'm honestly not sure I'm going to finish the book.

Yes, you read that right. I'm not sure I can do it - shocking, considering my rave about the first book. I debated whether I should wait to post this review, because it doesn't seem fair to post a not-positive review without finishing a book, but honestly, if halfway through the book I'm still waiting for shit to happen...come on. With the world built and things coming to a head at the end of Heart of Flames, I expected Crown of Feathers to hit the ground running. Instead, it's been chapter after chapter of twiddling thumbs, Veronyka obsessing over her shadow bond with Tristan, Tristan second-guessing himself, and Val grumbling to herself about needing to get Veronyka back on her side. Swear to god, if I have to read one more chapter of Val talking about how a forced bond using shadow magic isn't the same as a true bond...half of her chapters so far could have been cut.

I was pumped for this sequel, and I wanted to love it, but it is so. effin. boring. Which is upsetting because I am dying to know what happens! With so many other books waiting to be read, though, including the entire Throne of Glass series that my husband just bought me for my birthday, I don't know if I can sit through another three hundred and twenty pages to find out. If I make it and the ending is so spectacular that it changes my mind about the first half of the book, I'll post an update, but man oh man...I am not holding my breath.

Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"She's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists.

Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.

The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future."

WHEW, y'all, this book is a RIDE. There are two options for reading, the originally published version or the remix, which is the way Palahniuk wanted to publish it. The remix bounces around, having you turn to different chapters rather than reading linearly, and I loved it. Usually when I read, I get a mix of excitement and almost apprehension as I see the pages in the back of the book dwindling, because I can't wait to find out what happens, but also noooo, it's almost over! With the structure of this book, there was none of that. You're bouncing back and forth, all over the place, so there's no visual progress marker. I didn't expect that to have such an impact on my reading experience, but it did! Fascinating, the way brains work.

As far as the content of the book...man, I don't even know how to talk about it. It's so weird, and there are endless twists and turns. Every chapter has some kind of reveal, and the reader gets enough bits and pieces of backstory that they start to feel like they're figuring things out, and then BAM! Something else pops up that blows your mind. This is not my typical read, and honestly based on my previous experience with Palahniuk I did not go into it with high hopes or an open mind - I fully expected to slog through it and be like "meh, that was ok." Instead, I couldn't put it down. Such a strange, fantastic read.

Sorcery of Thorns - Margaret Rogerson

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined."

This book has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while now, but I read Rogerson's last book, An Enchantment of Ravens, and while it wasn't bad it did drag a little bit. I was sure her second novel would be just fine, but I've had so many other things I was pumped to read that it ended up on the back burner. It kept calling to me, though, because...well...

It's so pretty!

I mean, look at it. One thing Margaret Rogerson's books definitely have going for them is that their covers are to die for. Something else that this particular book has going for it? That it kicks ass.

Yeah, that's right. I was sleeping on Sorcery of Thorns! I finished the book I had been reading before bed and needed a new one, so I was like meh...I've been waiting long enough on this one, might as well give it a go and see how it is. Y'all...I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this in three nights (and that's no joke! I'm fucking serious about my bedtime, I have an alarm set and everything). This book rocked. In the words of Pam Beesley, it rocked my ass off.

For starters, there's the dedication: "For all the girls who found themselves in books." 

I have observed to my friends on countless recent occasions that the older I get (or maybe the more librariany I get? I don't know, I just know that's when it all started), the more emotional I seem to become, and this book got me good. Elisabeth is intelligent, assertive, and courageous, basically everything that sweet baby Dewey wanted to be growing up, and while I feel like I've done pretty well by sweet baby Dewey in the grand scheme of things, I grew up being told that women were meant to be meek and submissive, so it is always a privilege when I get to read about a character who is strong, driven, and tough and who fights for what she believes in the way Elisabeth does. I wish that I had more examples like her growing up, and I will never stop being thrilled at all of the examples of strong women that are around in literature and movies today. Give me more tall as hell library workers with swords, please! I'll take them all.

As far as my worry that this book would drag the way Ravens did, I had no need to fear. It doesn't take long for things to get going, and once they do, the pace does not slow. And the characters, you guys. As mentioned, Elisabeth is fierce as fuck, which won me over immediately, but then we also get Nathaniel, who just...I mean...you couldn't ask for a more tragic, reluctantly heroic love interest (possible spoiler, I guess? But come on. You know as soon as he's introduced). And then there's Silas, arguably the best character in the book. (Don't argue with me, though. It's fine if you disagree, we're allowed to have different favorite characters.) The nuance he brings to the table and the way his narrative forces us to question  the black-and-white evil versus good worldview Elisabeth grew up with is a thing of beauty. I fell in love with him immediately, and even with his repeated reminders that however he might seem, he shouldn't be trusted, I couldn't help it. I also adored Elisabeth's roommate, Katrien, and if I had one wish for this book, it would be that she was in it more. But come on, if my one complaint is that the characters were so good that I wanted more of them, well...that's not so bad, is it?

Alright, I've talked a lot about this book without saying anything about the plot. I know that's weird, and honestly, I want to talk plot. So badly. But I'm a little afraid that if I do I'll spoil something without meaning to, and given the number of times I gasped out loud or had to stop and text my husband that my mind had just been blown, I really don't want to do that. So...I'm not going to. I'm just going to say that this book is magical and strongly recommend that if you are a fan of fantasy, strong female characters, and magic, you pick up a copy. You won't regret it!

Mirror, Mirror - Jen Calonita

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"'What if the Evil Queen poisoned the prince?'

Following her beloved mother's death, the kingdom falls into the hands of Snow White's stepmother, commonly referred to as "the Evil Queen" by those she rules. Snow keeps her head down at the castle, hoping to make the best of her situation.

But when new information about her parents resurfaces and a plot to kill her goes haywire, everything changes for Snow. With the help of a group of wary dwarfs, a kind prince she thought she'd never see again, and a mysterious stranger from her past, Snow embarks on a quest to stop the Evil Queen and take back her kingdom. But can she stop an enemy who knows her every move and will stop at nothing to retain her power... including going after the ones Snow loves?"

I have to tell you, I've been on the fence about how to rate this one. On the one hand, I did enjoy reading it. It's well-written, and it's a fun nostalgia read. On the other, if you've seen Snow White you've basically read this book. 

Perhaps if I hadn't read this so soon after Conceal, Don't Feel, my reaction would have been different, since that story wasn't hugely different from the original either. Or maybe if I enjoyed Snow White more, I would have been more into this. I don't know. I'm just looking back at the Twisted Tale series, and comparing these two to those that came before, these don't measure up for me. Take a look at the earlier titles:

• A Whole New World: Jafar summons the Genie first, throwing everything else about the story off.
• Once Upon a Dream: Sleeping Beauty never woke up. Everything about the story is different.
• As Old As Time: Belle's mother cursed the Beast. So much about the story is different.
• Reflection: Li Shang dies, and Mulan has to journey to the Underworld to try to save him. Uh...needless to say, EVERYTHING is different.
• Part of Your World: Ursula won the battle and rules Eric's kingdom. Different, different, different.

The first five books in this series are all substantially different from the story they were retelling. Then you hit Mirror, Mirror and Conceal, Don't Feel, and it's like...hey, what if this tiny thing was different? Well...in this case, I guess that means that the princess saves the prince instead of the other way around, but what else does it change? Not a whole heck of a lot! Like I said, it's well-written, and it isn't a slog to get through, so if you're looking for some Disney feels, give it a read. But if you're looking for a real head-spinning twisted tale, this isn't it. 

Four Dead Queens - Astrid Scholte

The inaugural #FirstPageFriday of the year! Can it be inaugural if I've already been doing #FirstPageFridays for a while? Who knows...who cares? Hopefully none of you. I've been waiting to read Four Dead Queens for a while, so I am pumped about this review. Also, I'm changing up the way I post and just posting my reviews on Friday, so y'all don't have to remember to check back. Woo! So, first things first, take in this gorgeous cover.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"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."

AHHH! I give this book an extremely enthusiastic five stars. It's off to the races from page one (seriously, my first note is "I mean, I know it's called Four Dead Queens, but it got so real so fast!), and it does not let up. The character development, the plot twists, the world-building...

Chef's kiss!

Mackiel creeps me out from the jump, I might be a little in love with Varin, and I for sure have a tiny lady crush on Keralie. I stayed up way past my bedtime trying to figure out what was happening, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. This book was so unputdownable, I read it on the way to the grocery store with my husband, and when there was a line at the butcher I seriously contemplated pulling it out to read more while we waited. IT'S. SO. GOOD. I wish I could gush more without including spoilers, because all I want to do now that I've finished it is talk about this book, but no way am I ruining the mystery for other readers. Go read it. Experience it. Message me along the way and let me know what you think. Drop a comment with your thoughts. The messaging and commenting is optional - reading the book is not!

Burn for Burn trilogy - Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's ring in 2020 with a review from a terrible trilogy, shall we? I promised a review of the full trilogy, and you'll get it, but before we dive in, content warning: This book centers pretty heavily around suicide and also touches on sexual assault, both in a way that is ludicrously casual and blase. I gave the first two books three stars, but honestly, if Goodreads allowed half stars it would have been lower. Overall, I'd rate the entire trilogy at about a 2.3. There are some good elements and there were opportunities to open a dialogue about some difficult topics that young people face, but instead.......it all kinda went off the rails.

Now...the administrative stuff. My rating for each book and the descriptions. Be warned: Spoilers ahead. Also be warned: This review is very stream-of-consciousness. I'm tired, and I'm tired of these books.

Burn for Burn:
⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

Postcard-perfect Jar Island is home to charming tourist shops, pristine beaches, amazing oceanfront homes—and three girls secretly plotting revenge.

KAT is sick and tired of being bullied by her former best friend.

LILLIA has always looked out for her little sister, so when she discovers that one of her guy friends has been secretly hooking up with her, she’s going to put a stop to it.

MARY is perpetually haunted by a traumatic event from years past, and the boy who’s responsible has yet to get what’s coming to him.

None of the girls can act on their revenge fantasies alone without being suspected. But together…anything is possible.

With an alliance in place, there will be no more “I wish I’d said…” or “If I could go back and do things differently...” These girls will show Jar Island that revenge is a dish best enjoyed together.

Fire with Fire:
⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan. Work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn’t exactly go the way they’d hoped at the Homecoming Dance.

Not even close.

For now, it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it’s not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie’s meaner than she ever was before.

And then there’s sweet little Mary…she knows there’s something seriously wrong with her. If she can’t control her anger, she’s sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it’s not just that Reeve bullied her—it’s that he made her love him.

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn. A broken heart for a broken heart. The girls are up to the task. They’ll make Reeve fall in love with Lillia and then they will crush him. It’s the only way he’ll learn.

It seems once a fire is lit, the only thing you can do is let it burn...

Ashes to Ashes:
⭐⭐

From the cover:

New Year's Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come.

After Rennie's death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn't left with Reeve... If Kat had only stayed with Rennie... Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same.

Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes?

💭      💭     💭

So...yeah. These books are a little bit of a soap opera. The "alliance" formed between the three girls is pretty flimsy, especially since it's clear pretty early on that Alex is a decent guy and for sure should not have been lumped in with Rennie, the actual worst person in existence, and Reeve, her evil twin in worstness. Which brings me to one of my issues with this trilogy: the character "development" is all over the place.

Reeve and Rennie are pretty firmly established in the first book as the worst kind of bullying garbage human, people who are horrible for no reason but to be horrible, controlling even with their friends, and basically treat everyone but each other like shit. Then you get toward the end of the second book, and there's a pretty hard pivot to try and make them, Reeve especially, sympathetic characters. I'm fully on board with there being two sides to every story, you never know what's going on in a person's life to make them who they are, etc, etc, etc...but you have to at least give GLIMPSES of the better side to someone's personality earlier on, otherwise I just don't buy it. Readers didn't see a different side to Reeve or Rennie...the authors created a whole new character and swapped them in for the old ones. Nah.

Beyond the sloppy character development, pretty much everything about this book was just...all over the place. It felt like multiple genres mashed into one, like there were so many ideas for the plot and the characters that instead of choosing a few and following them through, the authors decided to squeeze them all in. At the same time, the plot often moved at a glacial pace. The first two books were, for me, kind of like the book equivalent of the saying about passing a car wreck that's so bad, you want to look away but you can't. Things were so off the rails, that I couldn't help but want to keep reading, just to see how much nonsense could be stuffed into a book. I read the first two books out loud to my husband, and no lie, we would read together and crack up every time some bonkers thing was thrown in. This entertainment factor wasn't enough to keep my husband's interest, though, so I read the third book by myself, and oof, I'm glad it did, because it was...bad.

Remember the content warning from the beginning about suicide. Yeah, the third book is rough and does an incredibly shitty job of handling discussion about suicide. We're going to get into it now, so for real, CONTENT WARNING. Please do not read this (both my review and this ridiculous trilogy) if suicide is a trigger for you.

For starters, you find out at the end of the second book that Mary, the character who had attempted suicide, actually completed suicide and is, in fact, a ghost. A ghost, we learn, who didn't actually intend to die by suicide...she was just mad at Reeve for being a dick and wanted to make him feel bad, so she was going to *pretend* to attempt suicide, I guess? (this whole plotline gets a yike from me). Then, because Mary is still so furious at Reeve for taking her life away from her, she spends most of the third book trying to force Reeve to also die by suicide. (Let's award another few yikes for that!) And finally, we get to the last chapter, where Mary first forces Reeve to slit his wrists (YIKES) and then immediately realizes that it wasn't Reeve's fault she died, it was hers! She was the one who made the decision to attempt suicide, so she was the one who bore the guilt of ending her life (YIKES YIKES YIKES YOU GUYS!) It's all bad. It's so bad. No.

Honestly, if I hadn't used Ashes to Ashes as a #FirstPageFriday, I would never have finished it. Looking back, I should have stopped reading it and just said in the review that I couldn't finish it, but in case it took a turn for the better, I didn't want to judge it too harshly without actually knowing how it ended. I should have figured, after the first two books, shit wasn't going to suddenly improve, but you know...gotta hope for the best, I guess. Lesson learned. 10/10, don't read this trilogy. If you want something by Jenny Han, read To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Watch the movie too, while you're at it. I've never read anything else by Siobhan Vivian, but if you have and you enjoyed it, let me know. I'll give it a shot. For now, I'll be on the hunt for a palate cleanser. Too bad I already reread Fangirl, aka, the most perfect book of all time.