Following Alosa who, as the title suggests, is the daughter of the Pirate King. After being caught by another pirate, Alosa reveals that her kidnapping was the plan all along: she was supposed to find 1/3rd of a map to get to an island said to be full of treasure (Pirate of the Caribbean vibes, anyone?).

During her imprisonment, the reader sees that Alosa is more than meets the eye (no spoilers for that lol) and we meet the dashing Riden, Alosa’s automatic enemy because said enemy is the First Mate of the Captain of the ship that Alosa is a prisoner on (unfortunately for Alosa, Riden is hot. Unfortunately for Riden, Alosa has a secret that puts him in danger…of falling for her).

Anyway, secrets are revealed, plot twists arrive and go quite quickly and of course, Alosa is a badass as usual (you can’t expect anything less from the daughter of a pirate king, now can you?) and Riden is one hell of a charmer. Another thing I really loved, despite it being in the last parts of the book is how Alosa has an incredible bond and friendship with her crewmates and I love how they’re all showcased for a bit towards the end (slight spoiler?)

Overall, this book was really great! Highly recommend

Final rating 4.5
I am pleasantly surprised tbh, this was a solid novella.
Full review to come

I remember around June 2021, I had stumbled upon the title “JADE FIRE GOLD” by June CL Tan and I was intrigued when reading the caption because the book was pitched as “What if Katara was the Dark Avatar and Zuko had to hunt her down?”.
I had grown up watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and always felt very close to Katara’s character (very much the rational mom friend over here), so the fact that this pitch existed, I got super excited.
I followed the author on Instagram and slowly became friends with her! I constantly hyped up the book and when I bought myself (on pub day) a regular copy from Indigo (I have not received my signed copy. Yet) I even managed to convince a friend to buy it as well (Shout out to Matthew who puts up with my book nerd self haha). I didn’t get the ARC (still kinda salty about THAT but it’s okay) but I was still incredibly excited about the book. June shared snippets of quotes and of course the character art! It was amazing. I really loved the queer representation and the characters were just so amazing.

This book was so, so good and I cannot stress it enough. I really loved how much Ahn cared for her grandmother because it very much reminded me of me and my grandmothers who I care for very much (despite them being very, very far away from me). I really loved Altan’s character and he reminded me very much of Zuko (kudos to the author haha). My favourite character was probably Linxi because she very much reminds me of me (again, very much mom friend vibes. I have been told I am literally the mom friend haha) and Linxi and Tang Wei were very, very adorable (including Linxi slightly over-exaggerating her and Altan’s adventures which was very much a mood). I enjoyed the characters of Lieye and Tai Shun but frankly wished their relationship was explored a bit more (to be fair, with a dual POV, it’s difficult to completely flesh out every single character which I understand but hopefully we’ll get more of these two in the future! I am looking at you June!)

I really loved the world-building as well. The plot twists were there and I did not see them coming. It might seem that this book has 0 flaws but I don’t think there is such a thing as a flawless book but, that being said, it is very evident that the author very much put her heart and soul into this book (not saying that every writer doesn’t but in some books, it is very much more obvious than others that the books mean a lot to said author) and a debut book is always very, very special. Additionally, I really loved this book and my one true criticism is that I would have liked much more of Lieye and Tai Shun. I love all the characters very much and the world that June has created is astonishing. Perhaps it will be a great movie one day (given that it’s not screwed up haha).

This was truly the first book I have ever pre-ordered. I usually take the book from the library and read it before deciding to buy it but I had become very good friends with the author and I figured I would pre-order it. I usually went to the bookstore on the day of the pub date or a few days after because I wasn’t on Instagram when I first really started getting into books and had grown into this habit. I figured that since I am older, I have the chance and money (most of the time) to pre-order once in a while, I will, to give extra support to my favourite authors! I pre-ordered a signed and personalized copy that should get to me very, very soon and it comes with the pre-order swag which I am incredibly excited about.

Rating: 5/5 stars

I hope you enjoyed this review!

Love,

Mila

Wow.

Oh my gosh, that was a ride and a fricking HALF! I need the second book ASAP!
Full review to come once I have coherent thoughts and it's not 11 pm lol

First off: I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS BOOK FOR FOREVER!!!!!!!!!Phew okay, I’m done yelling.

Daughter of the Deep takes Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and throws it into the modern world.

Sort of.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I am a huge fan of Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson & The Olympians literally formed my entire personality and I have been following his releases ever since (I almost own all the Riordanverse books lol. So close!)

This is literally why I was super-duper excited about this book. While I have only read Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea was always a story I loved hearing about. I did start it but never finished it and will probably end up reading it in the original language: French (yes, this is 100% a flex, I spent 8+ years learning the language, lemme show off).

Here is a brief synopsis of the newest (not Percy Jackson related) Rick Riordan book:

Ana Dakkar is a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world. Ana's parents died while on a scientific expedition two years ago, and the only family's she's got left is her older brother, Dev, also a student at HP. Ana's freshman year culminates with the class's weekend trial at sea, the details of which have been kept secret. She only hopes she has what it'll take to succeed. All her worries are blown out of the water when, on the bus ride to the ship, Ana and her schoolmates witness a terrible tragedy that will change the trajectory of their lives.But wait, there's more. The professor accompanying them informs Ana that their rival school, Land Institute, and Harding-Pencroft have been fighting a cold war for a hundred and fifty years. Now that cold war has been turned up to a full broil, and the freshman are in danger of becoming fish food. In a race against deadly enemies, Ana will make amazing friends and astounding discoveries about her heritage as she puts her leadership skills to the test for the first time.

First off: Ana. She’s Bundeli-Indian American!!!! Because Nemo a.k.a Prince Dakkar was also Indian!!! Thank you for that rep! There is other rep but I honestly don’t remember all of it right now. I do know that one of Ana’s best friends has autism and the friendship between them is incredibly sweet. I love the growing relationship Ana and Gemini have, being enemies at the beginning (well not full on but there is a mutual dislike that they put aside for the sake of the situation) and then a friendship that starts to grow.

The setup of the academy is incredibly interesting. The school is called HP for short (readers were told off about the Harry Potter jokes in the first few chapters lol) and it has four houses, each one pertaining to an important job that the students are trained in. Ana, for example, is a Dolphin (one of my favourite animals!) and her House (she’s a Prefect) specializes in communications and stuff like code-breaking. They chose Irish as the main communication language between themselves (should they need privacy amongst other people) and that was super cool. There are also a few instances where Ana and her classmates use sign language such as with Socrates the Dolphin and another creature which I will not spoil lol but I think it comes in just in time, especially with the growing attention the new Marvel movie The Eternals has received for having a deaf character and incorporating sign language into the movie. I just thought it was super cool.

Being someone who wanted to be a marine biologist growing up (but then discovering I needed science and math which were…not my strongest points), I was definitely geeking out about all the descriptions. I have a soft spot for dolphins and Socrates the Dolphin definitely stole my heart in the first few pages. After the big twist at the beginning, I really admired ana for her intuitiveness and her willingness to lead her classmates despite the situation that literally no freshman (14-15 year old?) should be in (despite the fact that they were going to their trials that every freshman has to go through, things do not go exactly the way they were supposed to for the freshman class that Ana Dakkar is part of. )

I really loved how Riordan managed to weave the story of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and Nemo’s inventions into the modern world. While there was no from-scratch world-building, there is still a build-up for every chapter and Riordan delivers.

Given the fact that I read this book in 2 days, you can tell that I really liked it. Like a lot.

I highly recommend it for those who want to go into Rick Riordan’s writing but do not want to commit to his series’ (which he has 5 of all based on different mythologies) because, as far as we know, Daughter of the Deep is a stand-alone.

I loved this book!

I'm counting this as a #1-5 review on my blog but will add them separately on GR because I'm desperate to reach my goal lmao
Plus it counts, right?
Anyways, solid start, this was fun. I'm not a huge comics fan but it's cool

WARREN
RTC

I read this with the girl I tutor, does it count