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Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore

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Rating: Unrated | 320 pages | Harper Teen | Contemporary/Magican Realism | 09/22/2020 |

I’ve been wanting to specifically read A-M forever. From what I’ve heard their novels are a blend of fantasy and contemporary which is a genre mash-up that has always been right up my alley, so when I had a chance to review the audio for Miss Meteor, jointly written by Tehlor Kay Mejia, I jumped at the chance.

In Miss Metoer a small-town beauty pageant brings together estranged best friends, Chicky a loner and outcast who doesn’t quite fit in with her three larger-than-life big sisters; and Lita, en eccentric girl born from the stardust of the meteor that gave their small New Mexico town its name. Yes, there is a magical realism element to this story that the authors quietly weave in that I think adds a layer of actual alien to the alienation the girls already feel being brown girls in a town that often rewards blonde-haired white girls.

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Book Review: The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

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Unrated | 358 pages |  Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)| YA Fantasy | Release Date: 03/03/20 

Years ago I read Marie Rutkoski’s much-buzzed-about The Winner’s Curse. I mean this book was the ARC to have in 2013. When the book debuted in 2014 I actually purchased a copy from Books-A-Million because of all the buzz … and it just didn’t live up to the hype for me. 

However, I 100% believe that just because one book in the authors’ backlist doesn’t work for me, that doesn’t automatically cross the author off my list. I mean I didn’t love the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo but I enjoyed Six of Crows and while Holly Black’s Cruel Prince was a no for me I’ve always been a fan of her Curse Workers series.

How did Midnight Lie hold up ?

Well, I liked it better The Winner’s Curse. I think I enjoyed it more after I had a few days to sit with it.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

354 pages | Balzer + Bray | Contemporary | Release Date: 5/5/2020

Felix’s last name is Love but he’s never been in it. And he desperately wants to be. Even though society makes him feel unworthy of love because he is queer, trans and Black.

When a transphobic art gallery targeting Felix goes up at his prestigious NYC art school he thinks he knows exactly who did it—his best friend’s ex, Declan Keane. Taking revenge into his own hands, Felix initiates a catfishing scheme and…nothing goes as planned. 

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Audiobook Review: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

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320 pages | Titan Books | Historical Fantasy | 11 Hours 56 mins

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

What if instead of The South rising…the dead did? More than a decade after the zombies or “shamblers” began to roam, Black slaves and Native Americans have been forced from the fields and into battle schools to become protectors or Attendants for whites.

Justina Ireland’s re-imagined history is a unique concept that combines historical fiction with action, adventure and light horror as her battle-tested heroine Jane stops fighting to save white people and starts fighting to save herself. At first, I  had a hard time with this book because I went in expecting this to be a book about an alternate-universe antebellum zombie apocalypse, but really this is just the setting as the shamblers are the “new normal”. Once I was able to adjust my expectations and our main character is taken from the world she knows and dropped into the untamed wild west, I found this to be a solid read. …

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Audiobook Review: The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

12 hours 12 minutes | Macmillian Audio | Fantasy | Release Date: 3/17/2020

I heard about this book on an episode of RomBkPod last year and ever since then I have seen it EVERYWHERE. Klune is prolific in the m/m indie romance space; his traditional publishing debut tells the story of Linus Baker, a middle-aged social worker for magical children who is given a special assignment at an unusual orphanage where he eventually falls for the orphanage’s master. This book has one of the highest Goodreads ratings I’ve ever seen and charmed both fantasy and romance readers alike. It’s ultimately a warm tale about acceptance, found family and finding home but…it didn’t work for me.

Harrow The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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512 pages | Tor | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Release Date: 08/04/2020

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Harrow The Ninth dives back into the dark futuristic world of Gideon The Ninth as Harrow begins her journey to Lyctorhood. Not all is what it seems and Harrow learns some secrets refuse to die. Muir brings her signature blend of cerebral horror, fantasy, and gore with a side of (purposefully) obnoxious humor that will keep dedicated readers wondering …what’s going on? How? Who is that? Wait…what?

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