Gem’s life completely changed last year when they learned that they’re actually a reincarnated god. And after using the Ouroboros knife to kill a different god at the end of the year, now everything is out of balance. Because in addition to their original powers, Gem now has the power of the god of air.

Now it is up to Gem, Rory, and Enzo to put things back in balance. The tricky part will be figuring out how to do that without any of them sacrificing their lives–or their humanity. As new dangers start popping up, they have to decide if their godly powers are worth it. 
 

Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Merciless Saviors by HE Edgmon to review! I was hooked by the first book in the duology, Godly Heathens, last year, so I was excited to read the sequel. And it did not disappoint! If you enjoyed the characters and the driving plot from the first book, you will be just as hooked in the second.

Where Edgmon excels in this book is the character work. Gem, Rory, and Enzo are complex, interesting characters, and their relationships reflect that. There’s an underlying theme of found family all throughout this book, which is absolutely one of my favorite tropes. And such an important theme for queer characters as well, whose own families might reject them for who they are.

Plot wise, the beginning of the book is stronger than the second half of the book. The plot loses itself a little towards the end, but Edgmon is still able to bring everything full circle by the time the book is finished. And it is an overall satisfying ending for these characters that you’ve come to love.

I wish more series were just duologies because I think they work so much better than longer series (for the most part). Edgmon is excelling at creating dark fantasy worlds, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. 

I'm on a marathon of novels in verse on audio, and I'm totally okay with that. Though not necessarily an easy read, this book was an in-depth look at the way some adult men prey on teenage girls. Looking at this situation from Samira's point of view, who has been constantly rejected by her community and is just looking for acceptance, the betrayal at the end is especially heartbreaking.

The way the Persephone myth is woven throughout this text works so well to drive that point home, that these men prey on teen girls because they're vulnerable and they find them to be easy targets. Elhillo's verse is also beautiful, and as always, I recommend listening to novels in verse, especially when they are read by the author. This is a quick read, but one that really packs a punch.

Loved the audiobook for this. It had sound effects, and Keith is an excellent narrator. He incorporates pauses and emotion, and I would honestly say that audiobook would be the way to go for this one. The story focuses on Keith's senior year and first year of college in 1999, trying to figure out how to come to terms with his identity.

A lot of the emotions that Keith goes through are still relatable today. Especially teens that might also be struggling with their identity. Definitely a memoir that should be on your radar!

This is a quick read, but that doesn't take away from the powerful nature of the poems in this YA poetry collection based on Renée Watson's own life. I listened to the audiobook through LibroFM, but I would be interested in seeing a final copy because there is also artwork included! I'll have to try to find it at the library when it officially comes out next week.

Watson reads the audiobook, and I always prefer hearing the author read their own poetry as to just reading the physical copy. I think it adds to the experience (at least for me) to hear how they incoporate pauses and other things in the words themselves.

Overall, an absolutely wonderful experience. If you like poetry, definitely pick up this book!

I thought this was just a thriller, but it turns out it takes a turn more into the horror genre. Which isn't a bad thing! But by the end of the book, things get...interesting. I'll read horror, but most of the time I'm not a huge fan of it. And this one gets a bit graphic in parts as the horror amps up by the end of the book.

However, I did appreciate the critiques on the K-Pop/entertainment industry and the expectations that are thrown on teen girls in particular. Sunny struggles with the expectations, especially coming from her mom. It's definitely something that negatively affects her mental health as well. Using the horror genre to explore those sorts of topics definitely works in this case.

If you like darker horror/thriller books, this might definitely be for you! It does wrap up at the end, but there's space left for a sequel (which I guess is happening eventually). We'll see if I read the next one!

Oh my god, this was adorable. Not only was the artwork absolutely stunning (and a little bit manga influenced), but the characters were great, the writing was well done, and everything just worked so well together. PG and Momo's friends turned relationship story is adorable from beginning to end.

Also, they go to a cat cafe as one of their kind of dates towards the beginning. What isn't to like about a graphic novel that includes going to a cat cafe??

If you want something that has Heartstopper vibes but is sapphic instead, definitely pick this one up.

This was an absolutely adorable graphic novel. There's a lot of great representation in this: disability, chronic pain, queer rep (bisexul and nonbinary). Plus, it's a YA that has younger teen characters (14 & 15) which seems to be pretty rare as of late. So yay for that!

This graphic novel is chuck full of fandom references, all slightly tweaked to reflect different fandoms in our own world. Those felt really clever to me! It is a bit insta-love, but that's partly to be expected when they're teenagers. It felt real and authentic to me, even if it's not my favorite thing in a story.

The art was also great! I liked the way the characters were drawn, and all the different comic con constumes included throughout. Just an overall really lovely graphic novel!

Honestly, I gave this an extra star purely because they do research (or should I say "research," I don't feel like a lot of research actually happens) in a library with a card catalog. That made my little librarian heart happy. But Sarah J. Maas is at the point where I don't think she gets a lot of editing in her books, and it honestly shows. Not editing in the sense of the grammar, etc. Editing in the sense that there were a lot of unnecessary plot lines and characters in this book that didn't need to be there. Thus, this book could have been a lot shorter.

Anyway, the crossover between series was hyped up for this book, and less happened with that than I expected. It was a way to do a lot of world-building info dumping, and parts of the world still didn't make sense to me. If you look at the nitty-gritty, there's a lot about Bryce's world that doesn't add up, and when you add ACOTAR in the mix? I think this whole thing just needed to be overall fleshed out more. 

Maas does excel in creating interesting characters, even if there were A LOT of them in this book. They don't all need their own points of view! There was so much point of view switching that it was hard to follow, especially in the audiobook. I think this was to create/build tension, but it didn't work that way for me most of the time.

Also, I can't get over the comment about underwear being too small for Hunt. Pretty sure it doesn't work like that?? "They had no underwear big enough for me on the ship." I literally cannot. I feel like those kinds of details are things that editors would take out.

There isn't as much spice in this book as the last one (which was fine with me). Mostly because Bryce is running around with a star shining out of her chest (which I know is like a serious thing, but it's funny image for me every single time I think about it). 

There is going to be another book in this series, but I guess not for a while because she is working on the next ACOTAR book. Whether or not that will include characters from this book remains to be seen. Whether or not I will continue reading these also remains to be seen. 

SJM's prose is accessible, and her fantasy style works for those that are intimidated by more complex, denser fantasy worlds. She may not be the queen of overall fantasy, but she's definitely queen of fantasy romance. And I don't think she's going to get de-throned any time soon.

Not going to lie, I'm still kind of surprised that this won the Printz this year. Overall, it's not a bad collection of stories, and the overall themes of the stories I think will resonate with some teens. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think the majority of teens pick up short story anthologies. There have been more and more of them coming out in recent years, and sure, some teens might pick it up if they see their favorite author's name on the cover. But as a whole, I don't think teens are gravitating towards these particular books.

Anyway! There are some great stories in here, which isn't surprising since it's a pretty heavy hitting cast of authors. MT Anderson's was probably the darkest, Jason Reynolds' might have been my favorite. At the end of the day, it's still a short story collection though.

As an aromantic asexual, Sophie Chi has come to terms with never falling in love. However, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t enjoy talking about it. As a freshman at Wellesley College, she runs an Instagram account offering relationship advice to other students.

On the other hand, Jo created her advice-based Instagram account purely as a joke. But the account sparks an online feud between the two accounts. Despite their online feud, Jo and Sophie start to grow closer in real life. Bonding over the fact that they’re both aromantic and asexual, with similar interests. But what happens when they find out the truth about each other’s online presence? 
 

Thanks to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for an advanced copy of Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao to review! I love that we’re slowly getting more aromantic and asexual representation in YA lit. Also love a book that focuses on a platonic friendship rather than a romance. If you ask me, we need more of those kinds of books in the world!

The way that Jo and Sophie’s friendship develops in this book feels so realistic, especially for being set in the first year of college. They initially bond over their class, but eventually realize they have a lot more in common. Tension is created in the fact that as readers, we know they’re feuding, but they don’t know that. I think it makes the book feel less plot driven, but I absolutely didn’t mind that.

Though eventually, there is a pretty big cast of side characters, it didn’t feel like it took away from Jo and Sophie as characters. Jo and Sophie both had roommates that felt fully developed and added to the overall tension happening throughout the book. My only complaint is that sometimes, Sophie and Jo’s voices sounded too similar, and I would forget which character’s point of view I was in. They had distinct personalities, but their voices would definitely blend together at times.

However, teens will definitely be drawn to the fact that this focuses more on friendship than romance;  often, the focus is on the fact that people don’t need to be in romantic relationships to be happy. When romance and romantic relationships are such a heavy focus in our society, it is honestly a breath of fresh air.

If you’re looking for a platonic, friendship love story, definitely pick this one up when it comes out in April!