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★★★

Kat Re-Reads Some Books!

July 1, 2021      2 Comments

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Sarah Dessen was one of my favorite YA authors as a teen but I haven’t read much outside of my old faves. This is a quasi-reread because I started this book years ago but never finished it. l picked it up again because I noticed the audiobook had been re-recorded by Rebecca Soler, one of my faves. I’m not sure why this book and Someone Like You have new audiobooks but I’m not complaining because Soler is a great narrator!

I can see why this book is a fan favorite, it’s about a straight laced teen who learns it’s okay to have a little bit of chaos in life. I think there is a certain freedom in learning that if something goes wrong it’s not the end of the world. Plus there is the attractive, artsy, reformed bad boy with a heart of gold.

 But I thought this book was a little twee and overly earnest at times, particularly the reveal of the birthday present. I mean….wouldn’t Wes have known about it? Speaking of Wes, he really wasn’t giving me much. I didn’t understand what exactly he saw in Macy.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

It’s been almost a decade (how???) since I read this and, for the most part, it holds up well to re-reading. I mean, there is definitely some phrasing around Romani people and disabilities we may not use today. Going into the book knowing how it ends was a fun experience, I noticed reveals in the text I hadn’t noticed the first time around. In the interview at the end  Taylor says she didn’t see herself as a storyteller before this book and I literally don’t see how. The way she weaves this story together is incredible. I hadn’t remembered that the Akiva/Madrigal backstory is told completely out of order but it all comes together perfectly in the end.

This time around I found myself imagining Karou looking a little like Anna Taylor Joy because of her big doe-like eyes. I also sort of saw the chimera as being like the animals in Bojack Horseman, I had such a hard time imagining them and like, how their mouths moved when I first read it.

And look, at the end of the day this book is a colonizer romance and there is a bunch of Fantastical Racism but I think Taylor meets the challenge. There isn’t a lot of both side-ism and it’s clear in the text that the seraphim are colonizers and colonizers are always in the wrong.

I think this is the perfect series to binge, I am so amped to finish this series! I can’t believe I waited 3 years for the next one….it’s also occurring to me that I haven’t listened to another Hvam audiobook since this one. I need to change that….it looks like she recorded new versions of the Vampire Academy audiobooks

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

This book has had one of the longest hype trains I’ve ever seen in modern YA. I read it 3 years after the initial hype and now, 3 years after that, it’s all over TikTok and social media thanks to the TV adaptation.

I think what draws readers to this book is Bardguo’s compelling character work. Kaz gets talked about a lot as a myth maker but all of our protagonists have had to mythmake  themselves to survive their individual trauma. Bardugo creates stakes for each character (well, except Wylan) on how the mission is their chance at breaking free from what haunts them.  

The audiobook holds up well to a re-listen, I could listen while working because I knew the contours of the character and plot. I don’t think I gave Fred Berman enough praise the first time around. When it came to voicing Kaz he understood the assignment. Kaz’s rough voice is such a predominant feature of his character and I think that’s why Freddy Carter’s Kaz felt like he was missing an edge in the television show.  Speaking of Kaz, in my original review I said he was a Draco In Leather Pants, but he’s not.  I read this before I’d read the original trilogy and the Darkling is the Draco In Leather Pants

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

May 24, 2021      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

501 pages | Margaret K. McElderry Books | Urban Fantasy | 9/15/2020

This is my first TikTok made me read it books.

Legendborn follows 16-year-old Bree Matthews, a high school student attending UNC Chapel Hill as part of an Early College program, who accidentally stumbles into the world of the Legendborn— magic-wielding descendants of The Knights of the Roundtable. As Bree works her way into the Legendborn world (and falls for their King) she learns more about her own family history.

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Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

May 23, 2021      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

  10 Hours 19 Mins | Harper Audio | Contemporary YA | 1/05/2021

16-year-old Tessa Johnson loves to write romance. When her family relocates to Long Beach she gets to attend a writing conservatory. But during her first writing class, all her story ideas vanish. She decides the best course of action to jumpstart her romance writing mojo is by falling in love IRL. 

Tessa sets her eyes on Nico, the brooding dark-haired, rich boy who looks like he walked out of one of her stories while being completely oblivious to Sam, the goofy boy next door who drives her to school everyday.

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These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

April 15, 2021      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

  14 Hours 4 Mins | Margaret K. McElderry | Historical/Sci-Fi/Horror | 1/26/2021

These Violent Delights is a Historical (sci-fi ?. .horror ?) YA set in the dangerous and dazzling city of Shanghai during the roaring 20s Shanghai. The novel is an homage (read: Not a retelling. Not even a little bit) to Romeo and Juliet and follows rival gang heirs Juliette the cutthroat fierce heir to the Scarlett Gang and Roma the stalworth Russian heir to the White Flowers, as they hunt down the source of a maddening disease sweeping the city

Going in I didn’t know much about Shanghai’s history as an international (read colonized) port. It’s the perfect setting for this dark and mysterious mystery the main characters find themselves in. I’m curious to read more book set during this time period.

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Bookish and The Beast by Ashley Poston

April 10, 2021      2 Comments

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

7 hours 21 minutes | Quirk Books | Contemporary YA | 8/4/2020

This was such a clever retelling of Beauty in the Beast.

Bookish high school senior Rosie Thorne inherited her love of the Starfield franchise from her mother. Little does she know Vance Reigns–the bad-boy star of the Starfield movie– has been banished to her backwoods North Carolina town until his 18th birthday.

When Rosie accidentally ruins a book in the library she agrees to catalog the house’s massive science fiction library. Vance brings the expected grumpy broodiness from the Beast archetype but he’s also just kind of full of regret -much like the Beast in the Disney movie. 

This is is the third book in the Once Upon A Con series but each book takes place a year apart so, while there are some cameos and references, I think it can be read as a standalone.

I did a lot of this on audio. Narrator Caitlin Kelly is one of my favorites and the main reason I picked this up. She has such a great YA voice and range of characters. This was my first time hearing Curry Whitmire–he does a great British teenager even though I think he’s American. However, I found it so odd that they pronounced Vance Reigns’ last name with a hard “G”. I have never heard of this pronunciation.

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis

March 2, 2021      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

16 hours | Macmillan Audio| Science Fiction | Release Date: 7/21/2020

I’ve been following Lindsay Ellis for a while. She creates incisive, deep-dive video essays on film theory that have been helpful for me when I get in a review rut. She’s more recently been involved in some bonkers omegaverse lawsuit drama–which I’m sure did great things for this book’s publicity. All that said I was rooting for this book to be good but it was kind of a disappointment. 

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