Books and Sensibility

We're an Open Book

Genres

Book Review: The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

     2 Comments

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

     4 Comments

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. 

…

Read this Post

Book Review: Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

     Leave a Comment

Unrated | 352 pages | Park Row | Contemporary | 6/16/2020

Trigger Warning: sexual assault, incest and domestic violence

Saving Ruby King examines the past and present of Southside Chicago’s Calagary Baptist congregation after the murder of Alice King. I feel like this could be a read-a-like to The Mothers by Brit Bennett because it’s the story of a specific Black community told through multiple POVs that moves through time.

Alice’s daughter Ruby is left to contend with her abusive father Lebanon–an ex-con who is holding a dark secret over Calgary’s hard-working preacher.

…

Read this Post

Audiobook Review: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

     Leave a Comment


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. …

Read this Post

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

     Leave a Comment

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

     Leave a Comment

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?

…

Read this Post