You can see all my reviews here: Books Are The New Black

I immediately wanted to read this when I saw that it was about immigrants. It’s such a hot topic in real life. It actually really hits close to home. Thank goodness, my mom got her American citizenship years ago.

This book did an amazing job shining a light on the fear and hardships for people who are hiding from ICE. All Manu wants is to fit in and stop hiding. She’s been hiding all her life and she’s tired of it. One day, things come to light and she’s on the run. She ends up finding more people like herself and joins this magical academy. As soon as, she’s finding her rhythm and feeling like she’s fitting in, she’s forced to make another choice.

I really loved Manu and her band of friends. Not only does this put a spotlight on immigration, it puts a spot light on great friendships. There’s also a love interest and I wasn’t completely sold on it. I’m not the biggest fan of insta-love. I had a hard time not judging Manu for being so naive at times. I know she’s been sheltered but there’s a lot of things that could have been avoided with some communication and not running away. I actually really enjoyed the f/f relationship more than the Manu + Tiago relationship.

I wish we would have gotten more world building. What Garber is trying to create here is so fascinating and I really was wishing for more. I had so many questions. The magic was really cool and is another place I wanted more.

One of my favorite things about this is the feminism in it. They question the boundaries and gender rules that are enforced between the brujas and Lobizon. Sonya is definitely an activist and I can’t wait to see what she does in the next book. She’s a great influence to push changes. Manu has an opportunity since she’s the first female Lobizon(a).

Overall, this was such an interesting read and really shines a light on important issues. I enjoyed my time in this world and can’t wait to come back. I hope that we get a lot more of the magical world in the next book.

Thank you, Netgalley & St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for providing me a copy to review. Also, for reaching out to join the blog tour!

You can see all my reviews here: Books Are The New Black

I have enjoyed my time in the Once Upon a Con series. I was really excited for this one because I love Beauty and the Beast.

I really loved Vance. I think that he might be my favorite leading man in the series. Is it because I have a bad guy and I can change him complex? Who knows. haha. He’s got a lot of issues to deal with and he’s not perfect at all. I think that it made the relationship a bit more complicated too.

I think Rosie might be my least favorite of the series. I absolutely loved how much she loves books. Although, that’s about as far as it goes. I really thought she was a terrible friend. They are working on this huge thing for her, which kind of didn’t make sense, and she didn’t help at all. In fact, she ignored them most of the book. I really did like her dad though.

I didn’t really love the relationship because it was so insta-love. Basically, the most time they spend together is one night. If they would have spent the whole time together in the library, it would have felt so much more real. I just didn’t buy it because it all happens so close to the end of the book. It was just hard to really be into the relationship.

This book is pop culture heavy, so beware of that. I mean there are so many references that it sometimes just took away from the story itself. There isn’t much of the con in this book either. The previous two books had so much to do with the actual Con and this one was very far from that.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. It was cute and it was sweet. I did enjoy my time with it but Geekerella is by far my favorite one! I was a tad bit disappointed in this one but it’s not a bad read. If she writes anymore in this series I will be reading it!

Thank you to Edelweiss+ and Quirk Books for a copy of this book for review! These are my own thoughts and opinions.

You can see all my reviews here: Books Are The New Black

I want to thank Harper Voyager for providing me with an e-ARC, via Netgalley. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

I saw someone talk about this as an upcoming book they couldn’t wait for. I needed to read this because DRAGONS! Also, I saw that R.F. Kuang had a story included. I requested a copy but didn’t think I would be approved because it released within a week. I did though and I’m so glad that I did!

I don’t typically read anthologies, they are harder for me to read because you have all these different writing styles. Once I got into some stories, they were over and I had to start over. I did find that my pacing was slower than normal but it was so worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were so many amazing stories that will stay with me for a long time. There are some stories that I had a harder time connecting to. I believe there were only 3 and there’s nearly 30 stories, so that’s a great ratio.

One story that really got me emotional was, A Whisper of Blue by Ken Liu. It was so interesting and so beautiful. I actually had a hard time getting back into this book after that story. I felt like I was having a book hangover from one single story!

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I absolutely loved R.F. Kuang’s story called, The Nine Curves River. It was such a beautiful but heart breaking story!

I also really, really enjoyed the story, We Don’t Talk About the Dragon by Sarah Gailey. It had me hooked from the beginning and I was so intrigued because there is so much mystery. I absolutely loved how it ended!

I think one of the stories that I liked least, was towards the end, Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It by Scott Lynch. I don’t know if it was because I was tired or what. It just was really crazy and I had a harder time with the writing style.

There is a lot of poetry mixed into this book and I actually quite enjoyed it. I think I’m starting to come around to reading more poetry.

One of the things that I loved most about this was all the different ways these stories portrayed dragons. It wasn’t just your straight forward fire breathing fantasy dragon. There’s so many different ways that authors used dragons in their stories and they were full of imagination.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology! I found I liked a lot of new to me authors. There are so many different writing styles and it was just a lot of fun. If you are looking for some great stories about dragons and some a way to try out some new authors, this is a great way to go! I really want to buy this book because I want to see the Illustrations and it just needs to be on my shelf.