Books and Sensibility

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3 stars

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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.

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Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

408 pages | Contemporary | Putnam | Release Date: 4/30/2019

16-year-old Elouise doesn’t love being the dancing hot dog at the dilated amusement park Magic Castle Playland but the park is her second home and she plans to make her summer working there her best one yet. But as summer commences absolutely nothing goes as she plans.

From the cover, I assumed Hot Dog Girl was a quicky romantic comedy but it feels more like a CW-style romance drama as we watch this group of teens navigate their relationships to each other. I thought the friendship between Elouise and her best friend, Seeley felt genuine and lived in. Elouise is bisexual and Seeley is a lesbian and their identities are part of the story and friendship but not the entire story.

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Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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We Set The Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

9 hours 54 minutes| Dystopian YA  | Harper Audio | Release Date: 2/26/2019

On the island of Medio, young women are trained to take up positions as sister wives to the island’s highest ranking men. 17-year-old Daniella Vargas is paired with her bully Carmen and the two are married to Mateo Garcia–a boy being groomed to become president of their island country.

Dani’s life looks picture perfect but she has a secret. She’s an illegal immigrant and was bought over from the wrong side of Medio’s border as a child. This secret makes her vulnerable to the resistance group La Voz, who begin blackmailing her for information to help their cause. As Dani embarks on this new life full of discovery and danger she begins to understand her own privilege and that there is more to life than what she ever imagined–including her feelings for her sister wife, Carmen.

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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

358 pages | Henry Holt and Co, | Fantasy | Release Date: 06/05/2012 

Wow, reading this book was a blast from the past. Shadow and Bone was first published in 2012, which was our first full year of blogging. The then-unknown Bardugo was part of a group of debut YA/MG authors called the Apocalypsies that included several other YA fantasy powerhouses like Zoraida Córdova, Sara J. Maas, Brigid Kremmer and Marissa Meyer.

On to the book!

Shadow and Bone takse place in the Russian-inspired land of Ravka that has been divided by a dark shadowy wasteland known as The Fold. Wars have broken out at the borders leaving devastation in its wake.

Childhood friends Mal and Alina are soldiers in Ravka’s First Army, which is nothing compared to Ravaka’ Second Army—made up of Grisha,  individuals who have mastered the small science (magic) and can wield elements in mind-bending ways. When Alina discovers she maybe one of the most powerful Grisha of all time, she is thrown into the opulent Grisha world and at the arms of the Grisha’s charming leader The Darkling.

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Mini Reviews : Women To Watch Out For

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