In most trades, you can read them without having in depth knowledge of the rest of the story. For this specific arc, I wouldn't recommend it. A lot of what happens here follows events that took place either in the previous issues or even in much earlier times.

King, Seeley, and Janin are freaking fantastic and Dick Grayson is fabulous as he really comes into his own as a spy. Dick has been tasked with trying to infiltrate and take down Spyral from the inside, which is not resolved until the next arc. Overall solid but definitely read in the context of the rest of the story.

Dick is getting closer to unraveling Spyral, just as they're getting closer to eliminating Dick. This book has some of the most hilarious lines and moments so you won't want to miss it. Dick is so versatile that he does great solo and in a team, seen here with Tiger.

Issue 16 is definitely the best, with the whole play on Bond. I'd totally be down for Dick as Bond; he plays the part well.

Every day, some things end...and others begin. The Robins are all over the place, splintered after the Robin War, and this issue is a glimpse into how everyone is fairing after disbanding. Duke, Izzy, Riko (shout out to those of you who remember her from Gotham Academy; hopefully we see her back some day!), Dax, and Dre feel like failures while trying to return to teenage "normalcy". Of course, just because the Robins aren’t actively being pursued by the GCPD doesn’t mean they get a break. Instead, Affluenza-affected, makeup-wearing Joker-fanboy villain, Smiley, is wreaking havoc on Gotham. Will the Robins be able to turn that frown upside down and put a stop to Smiley and his band of clowns (literal clowns) or will Gotham be once again warned to stay indoors after dark?

"You can identify with someone and still have to crush them."

Batman has basically been the worst dad ever and as much as Damien is trying to hold in his hurt about his awful parentage, this volume really shows how impacted he is.

Damien truly has created his own little family in Goliath, Titus, Pennyworth, Maya, and Batcow (yes, Batcow is back). He really wants his nuclear family to be a thing but it's clear in the book that it's just not possible. The last story is kind of heartbreaking, really.

"You know the kind of person who rolls his or her eyes at a TV show or a book and goes, “That would never happen”? I’m the opposite: I walk around all day waiting for a reason to suspend my disbelief."

Fangirl meets Sarah Dessen...I'm pretty sure if I wrote fan fiction, I'd totally be Scarlett. She's smart and down to earth. She messes up, pretty badly at times. But her journey is real. Love the inset of the fan fiction...it's great to experience it for ourselves and see how it plays out through the rest of the story. Totally worth your 3 hours.

See my event recap from one of Wendy's recent events over at the Hicklebee's TAB Blog.

Everland is your new favorite fantasy/scifi/retelling thanks to rich characters, an engaging world, and familiar story that keeps you curious throughout!

It’s easy to see how Spinale took the premise of Peter Pan and placed it into the steampunk world.

* Why would kids be orphaned? There’s a deadly virus that kills adults first.

* Why would a deadly virus get out? Because war.

* Why would a war be happening in England? The (evil) Queen of Germany wanted to take over Napoleon style.

* Why would Hook be pirating in England? He wants to please his mom, the Queen.

* Why would Tinkerbell have wings and fairy dust? She’s infected by the virus, which causes her feet to blister. Also, it’s not fairy dust but gold dust used to leave glinting trails to follow.

* Why is Hook looking for the kids? One of them is rumored to be immune and have the cure.

There’s no doubt that Everland is dark. Gwen is tasked with taking care of her siblings, Joanna and Mikey, after her parents have gone missing. She must forage for food while also keeping them safe from being captured by roaming marauders. The kids fashion armor out of kitchen utensils and the like, which add to the steampunk elements. All that remains of London (now dubbed Everland) after an invasion are never-ending fires and sorrow. Along the way, Joanna is captured and Gwen must go on a mission to save her. It’s during this time that she meets Pete, the original Lost Boy who later introduces her to his vast city of other Lost Boys. All the while the kids are on a race against time with the deadly virus killing more and more people every day. Many twists and turns ensue where we find out the Jolly Roger is a Zeppelin and Tick and Tock still exist along with other alligators living in the city sewers. In fact, nearly all of the characters from Peter Pan make an appearance of some sort in Everland.

Gwen shows considerable courage throughout the story and shines like any heroine should. Pete and his Lost Boys only add value to her story. Hook is as deplorable as you’d expect but there is hope for him in the future (his eye and hand are non-negotiable, though!). Do we really have to wait another year for the next book to comes out? We can’t wait to hear Pete’s Lost Boy story.

The book itself is aesthetically pleasing, with the foil cover and the raised imagine. To add character, the pages are deckle edged (they’re natural and uneven). It will look great on your bookshelf so be sure to check it out!

Join us at Tales of the Ravenous Reader for 5 Days of Boldly Bookish, which includes a review of Break Me Like a Promise, an event recap of the Boldly Bookish Tour, and giveaways!

Inspired by the fairytale, The Frog Prince, Break Me Like a Promise is sure to shoot to the top of your favorite list in 2016. Within the first 5% of the book, I was utterly and completely sucked in and just could not put it down. I went to a music festival…Didn’t matter, I was reading. It’s THAT good.

Break Me is the second in the Once Upon a Crime Family series but it is not your typical sequel. While the world is the same as Hold Me Like a Breath, we see new and returning characters set after the events of the first book. You do not need to have read Hold Me to understand what’s happening in Break Me. In fact, Schmidt does an excellent job of outlining the important elements without feeling tedious. Indeed, this is a sequel that keeps fans and new readers engaged till the end.

We open the book to find Maggie, a strong girl who’s gone through the tragedy of losing the love of her life, Carter, in a space where she needs to process her loss. She’s definitely not over it and her grief is very real. The way she describes their relationship will make you feel all of the things she does, the good, bad, and ugly. Without being pun-y, this book will break you.

Enter Alex, the computer tech who is the perfect complement for Maggie. One caveat, he’s deathly ill and in need of a kidney transplant. Did I mention that Maggie’s family is in the black market organ trade? Oh, they are, and even that feels ok because while the implications of the Business being illegal are there, it’s hard to argue that everyone deserves access to lifesaving measures. Alex is not above blackmail to get what he wants and manages to finagle himself a kidney. Maggie’s father, who leads the Family and the Business, is not thrilled that Maggie let their secret out and wants to teach her the softer side of the Business, which she will some day take over. She ends up tasked with keeping Alex contained while they search for a donor.

While all this is going on, the Families are working on legalizing the organ trade business, which compromises Alex’s chance of getting a kidney. Maggie is not thrilled with being sidelined from this work while also being forced to spend her days with Alex while she’s trying to grieve. As with all fairytales, there are lessons learned and the inevitable HEA, though I won’t spill on what that really means. Plus there’s another book coming out so anything is possible!

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t absolutely love this book. I would have never picked it up if I wasn’t moderating the upcoming Boldly Bookish Tour and what a shame that would have been. The cover itself conveys so much about the story from the computer chip to the destroyed, bloody flower. Being in a crime Family is not all rainbows; there’s a certain risk and none of that is shielded in the book. There’s a lot of moral questioning that will have you thinking. But not too much thinking, because remember, we are on a deadline to get Alex a kidney here. I loved Maggie through all parts of her process, from the can’t-get-out-of-bed to the denial parts to the place where she eventually moves through it. The romance is believable and there are FEELS allllllll over this book. Schmidt’s writing is strong and engaging; it never misses a beat. There’s never a slow or dull moment in the book. If you look closely, you can see the elements of The Frog Prince but this is not a simple retelling; more-so that the themes and personality elements are closer to the original.

***Bloomsbury provided me a copy of Break Me to prepare for moderating the upcoming Boldly Bookish tour. My thoughts and SQUEEs are all my own and not influenced by this.

Join us at Tales of the Ravenous Reader for 5 Days of Boldly Bookish, which includes a discussion of The Leaving, an event recap of the Boldly Bookish Tour, and giveaways!

While everyone is out reading summer contemporaries, I'm devouring mysteries and thrillers like there's no tomorrow. The Leaving is a great way to kick the summer mystery-thriller off because whoa, is it a ride. Literally, because it's one of those books I highly recommend picking up in person as the physical placement of text on the page is a component of the storytelling.

We see the horror stories in the news - kids taken and (very rarely) returned years later. If they do return to their families, there are always questions about the circumstances they were held in and their escape.

In The Leaving, five kids, now teens, return with no memory of their abduction, the eleven years following, or why Max, the sixth abductee, is no where to be found. The story is told in the multiple, third person perspectives of Lucas, Scarlett, and Avery. Lucas and Scarlett are desperate to remember something, anything, and Avery is desperate to find Max, her brother. In the eleven years since their disappearance, the families and their community have tried to move on, including erecting a community monument to honor them.

The reality is people don't fully recover from something like a mass abduction. Avery could tell her family changed after Max's disappearance, even though she was very young. Lucas' father has a heart attack upon seeing his return. Scarlett's mom is convinced she was taken by aliens and later tries to force Scarlett to engage with the media. I was slightly put off with how the adults in this book happens, and I also have no idea how I would personally react if I experienced something similar. Not fully excusable but tragedy does often help us learn who a person truly is.

Imagine not knowing who you really are, not just your name but little things like the type of clothes you like. Feeling constantly like things aren't correct but not knowing why or how to fix it. Never knowing if the emotions you're experiencing are real or a component of recovering your identity. While Lucas and Scarlett are piecing together what happened and who they are, their remaining three peers are mostly trying to move on, some going through hypnotherapy and others just ignoring what took place. Each of the teens holds one unique memory, which Lucas and Scarlett use in their exploration. A comprehensive set of research material ends up being available to Lucas and Scarlett, including a book called The Leaving. The Leaving explores memory and PTSD. Hmm. Over time, we learn that each of the kids experienced a school shooting, up close and personal. This element ends up being an important catalyst in their memory recovery process and I wish Altebrando had spent a little more time exploring this.

The last 15% of the book is highly addictive and much of the answers are contained there. I thought I had the mystery figured out but I ended up being partially correct. There's complete resolution so you leave the book feeling satisfied. I personally accepted the answers, but definitely wish a little more had been explored, possibly in an epilogue.

***Bloomsbury provided me a copy of The Leaving to prepare for moderating the Boldly Bookish tour. It was already on my TBR so this did not impact my review!

I found a lot to love about this book, especially since I experienced it over audiobook. Highly recommend reading it that way. There's a full cast who nails it completely.

Sleeping Giants is told by way of files and interviews. I absolutely love books where the words on the page are just part of the story. This is a scifi book but is completely manageable for people who don't typically read scifi. Fans of Illuminae, give this a try.

Going into the story, you'll assume this is another Alien/unknown higher intelligence story but I assure you this is the story of humans right now. This is the what-if in the next version of the race to space. This is the story of our fears and our need for power.

The story ends on a huge cliffhanger and I need book 2 like right now. This is one of those books you won't want to be down. So be ready to be sucked in!

DNF @ 60%. I primarily abandoned this one because the audiobook is too hard to keep track of with three parallel stories and only one voice actor.

As tempting as it is to classify this as alt history, it is definitely scifi set in alt history. It's s fascinating concept: what if the Axis won WWII? It's a horrifying concept. I wish there had been a lot more exploring of this.

Even though this book was written 50 years ago, it doesn't feel dates, which is helpful in reading it. I wish it had been a little heavier on the drama.