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YA Historical Fantasy

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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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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Chainbreaker and Firestarter by Tara Sim

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When I reviewed the first book in this series last year, I enjoyed it but wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue the series. It didn’t seem like there was much more Sim could do without breaking the rules of her world. But then I got an Audible Plus trial and this was one of the few available titles that interested me.

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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 more about what it is like living in a world where zombies are the new norm. 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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Book Review: The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

 399 Pages | Knopf | AU Historical Fiction  | Release Date: 06/02/2020 

The Court of Miracles is a Les Miserables retelling that re-imagines discarded daughter Eponine “Nina” Thenadier as a thief in the underground Parisian criminal network known as The Miracle Court. When a powerful member of the Miracle Court threatens to enslave Nina’s sister Ettie (aka Cosette)  she makes moves to bring him down. All while the June Revolution is stirring. 

Am I the only one who thought this was a fantasy ? Because it isn’t and I’m trying not to let my review be clouded by what I expected to be.

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The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virture by Mackenzi Lee

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

10 hours 47 minutes | Harper Audio | Historical/Fantasy | 06/27/2017  

In The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue an all around scoundrel is about to embark on a dangerous high stakes road trip to self discovery. It’s hard out there for a YA historical to top the YA bestseller list (I mean except for Ruta Sepetys and just reading the synopsis of  her books makes me sad) and I think what helps this book stand out is it’s outstanding originality,

The book is primarily told in a semi-anarchistic self deprecating tone that emanates from our narrator, Henry “Monty” Montague. Monty is about to embark on his Grand Tour, where he plans to spend the year drinking and partying, all while trying to keep the fact that he is madly in love with his best friend a secret.

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Midnight Star by Marie Lu in Gifs (Spoiler Free)

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So I just finished Marie Lu’s Young Elite’s series and…

 


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