Kat C

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta

March 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

9 hours 44 min. | Viking | YA Fantasy | Release Date: 10/30/18

In this Italian inspired fantasy, we travel to the mountains of Vinalia and meet Teodora “Teo” Di Sangro, the second daughter of a high ranking family. Teo has a secret. She’s a strega who uses her magic to turn the men who have wronged her family into objects. You know…like a straight-up serial killer.

Stregas are supposed to be things of the past but when tragedy strikes her family, Teo joins up with Cielo– a mysterious orphaned strega who can change genders– to teach her how to become a boy and take over as the Di Sangro family son.

…

Read this Post

New Cover Who Dis 2020 : Illustrated Edition

January 25, 2020 Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these but we’re in the age of illustrated covers and some of our faves are getting a whole new look

…

Read this Post

Let Me Hear A Rhyme by Tiffany Jackson

January 21, 2020 Leave a Comment

Rating: ★★★★| Macmillan | Contemporary | Release Date: 05/21/2019

After Brooklyn teenager and aspiring rapper Steph is shot to death, his two best friends and sister hatch a plan to give Steph the legacy he always dreamed of. They use his recordings to turn him into Brooklyn’s hottest rapper and unexpectedly uncover secrets to solve Steph’s murder.

…

Read this Post

The Wicked King and Queen of Nothing Holly Black

December 29, 2019 Leave a Comment

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR BOTH BOOKS

…

Read this Post

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

December 20, 2019 Leave a Comment

201 pages | Saga Press | Adult Science Fiction | 7/16/2019

In recent years I’ve been picking up more adult sci-fi. I’ve seen This Is How You Lose The Time War all over the bookternet. The idea of two soldiers on opposite sides of war falling in love intrigued me and when I saw this on the shelf at my library I picked it up.

I’m going to steal the character descriptions from the book jacket because it’s kind of hard for me to describe them. Our two soldiers are Red, who belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia; and Blue who belongs to Garden, a vast consciousness embedded in all organic material.

…

Read this Post

Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien (A Noodle Shop Mystery #1)

December 18, 2019 Leave a Comment

328 pages | St. Martin’s Press | Cozy Mystery | 3/27/2018

I really don’t know how to review a cozy mystery. I picked this book up because I was in the mood for something different and I like seeing authors of color in spaces that have been traditionally very homogeneous.

Death by Dumpling felt very much like an origin story as we are introduced to Asia Village–a quaint Asian shopping center in Ohio—and Lana Lee, our 27- year-old half-English half-Tawainese protagonist. Lana is working at her family’s restaurant in Asia Village after quitting her corporate job and when she delivers the dumpling that kills the owner of Asia Village, she reluctantly joins the case to find the true murderer.

I found Chien’s breezy first-person writing enjoyable as we met the residents of Asia Village and Detective Trudeau–who I think plays a significant role in other books. The book fell a little flat for me but I’m curious to read the next book.