Originally posted to I Should Read That


This is a spoiler-free review.


This book was shortlisted for both the Hugo and Nebula awards this year, and it’s easy to see why. Ninefox Gambit is an incredible feat of science fiction — Lee manages to create an incredibly intricate and complicated, yet entertaining world. Ninefox Gambit has a high barrier of entry, but it’s worth it to stick with it.



To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.

Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.

The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim.*

The book is pretty complicated; it requires some time to fully get into it. The society revolves around a high calendar. Sounds simple enough, right? But when I say it revolves around a high calendar, I mean everything functions off this calendar, down to the weaponry. You have heretics trying to overthrow the governing force, the hexarchate, and implement their own calendar, then there’s calendrical rot (I’m not 100% sure what the consequences of such a phenomena are). There’s invariant ice shields, black cradles, and, well, an undead general’s consciousness grafted onto our hero’s. The world and technology that Lee creates are absolutely stunning and unique. I particularly loved the differing factions within the hexarchate and the implications that go with each one. Because Cheris is Kel, we get to know their faction best, but I hope we get a look into the other five in the following books.

The two main characters of the novel are wonderfully complex. Kel Cheris is the kind of female character that you rarely see and rarely see done well. She could easily be swapped for a male character and it literally wouldn’t make a difference. I absolutely loved this — she didn’t need to lean on her femininity to make her a compelling or sympathetic character. She’s not a female military officer, she’s just a military officer. I really liked the way she handles her rather unfortunate situation in the novel — she’s tethered to a madman and struggles with the dangerous command that she has been given.

Shuos Jedao is also a fascinating character. We know he’s a famous traitor, a brilliant general who turned on his own men. I won’t go into his character too much, as much of it is revealed throughout the course of the novel, but he only becomes more complex and interesting.

Ninefox Gambit isn’t a book I’d recommend to sci-fi newcomers. If you liked Ancillary Justice or The Three-Body Problem, you should absolutely sink your teeth into this book. I’ve seen it recommended to lovers of mathematics and I’d agree with this. Don’t let this scare you off though. I’m in no way a mathematically minded person and I enjoyed this book immensely. My only tip is to not try to understand the finer points of the society or technology. Just follow the plot and let the rest wash over you. I’ve never read anything like Ninefox Gambit before.



Rating: 4/5


*Copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That


I won a copy of this book from a Twitter competition run by Tor UK. I was not obligated to write a review for this book. This review is spoiler-free.


What originally drew me to False Hearts was the absolutely weird concept:

Orphan Black meets Inception: Two formerly conjoined sisters are ensnared in a murderous plot involving psychoactive drugs, shared dreaming, organized crime, and a sinister cult.

One night Tila stumbles home, terrified and covered in blood.

She’s arrested for murder, the first by a civilian in decades. The San Francisco police suspect involvement with Verve, a powerful drug, and offer her twin sister Taema a chilling deal. Taema must assume Tila’s identity and gather information – then if she brings down the drug syndicate, the police may let her sister live. But Taema’s investigation raises ghosts from the twins’ past.

The sisters were raised by a cult, which banned modern medicine. But as conjoined twins, they needed surgery to divide their shared heart – and escaped. Taema now finds Tila discovered links between the cult and the city’s underground. Once unable to keep secrets, the sisters will discover the true cost of lies.*



Conjoined twins! Cults! Dystopian San Francisco! Murder! I took one look and realised that this would be a unique read and just ticks so many boxes for me. I was really impressed by this book — I ended up really enjoying it and am officially a Laura Lam fan. She manages to build a creepy, dark, noir San Francisco that is both familiar and bizarre. You get such a sense of grime in a city that should be a utopia — people can make themselves effortlessly beautiful, incredible technologies change lives, and civilian crime is unusual. However, it is far from a perfect place and there’s a dark underbelly of this city — this is where we spend most of our time. Taema interacts with the worst of the worst in order to uncover the truth behind the murder her sister is accused of.

One of the best aspects of this book is the narrative style. The book is constructed as a dual narrative — Taema narrates her present situation going undercover as her sister while Tila recounts their past as members of an isolationist cult. I usually have issues with dual narratives because, to be perfectly frank, one is almost always far more interesting than the other. But this wasn’t the case in False Hearts. The noir crime story told from Taema’s perspective as she infiltrates one of the biggest and most frightening crime organizations in the city is just as fascinating as Tila’s reminicing of their childhood in and escape from Mana’s Hearth on the outskirts of the city. Both sides of the story were so fascinating and so well-paced that I didn’t end up preferring one narrative over the other.

The characterization was fantastic. Taema and Tila’s connection as formerly conjoined twins is worked beautifully into the story, particularly in a city that so values perfection. Both Taema and Tila were such strong characters — Tila is the more outwardly fierce twin while Taema discovers her inner strength. The pair’s dedication for each other is admirable and is incredibly well written. The secondary characters are strong and interesting — they compliment our heroes and help the story flow and the tension rise.

False Hearts is the first of Laura Lam’s book that I’ve read and it certainly wont be the last. It’s a faced paced, dystopian thriller unlike any other. If you’re interested in reading something a little different this summer, look no further.

If you read and loved False Hearts, you’re in luck! Lam released another standalone novel based in the same world this month.

*copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

Sometimes I feel like everyone else was handed a copy of the rules for life and mine got lost.

Grace has Asperger’s and her own way of looking at the world. She’s got a horse and a best friend who understand her, and that’s pretty much all she needs. But when Grace kisses Gabe and things start to change at home, the world doesn’t make much sense to her any more.

Suddenly everything threatens to fall apart, and it’s up to Grace to fix it on her own.
Whip-smart, hilarious and unapologetically honest, The State of Grace by Rachael Lucas is a heart-warming story of one girl trying to work out where she fits in, and whether she even wants to.*

I have stated countless times on this blog that I just don’t like contemporary YA. As a nearly 29 year old, it just doesn’t click with me. However, The State of Grace resonated so strongly with me. This book is something special, and I was absolutely charmed.

Told in first person, we get a first-hand look at Grace’s life and experiences. The book reads like any other teen girl’s narrative might – she’s constantly thinking about her best friend, boys, parties, and school. However, Grace has Asperger Syndrome, which is ‘a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others’. We see this in the way her thoughts race when she leaves the company of her friends and peers, when she struggles in class, and when she’s dealing with changes in her home. Grace is incredibly funny, charming, and loyal to her friends. She’s the type of young woman that the target demographic can and should look up to.

This book tackles a number of issues affecting modern teenagers including mental health, disabilities, divorce, bullying, and peer pressure. We come into Grace’s life at a time of instability. Her father is away for work and her mother’s life is being taken over by an old university friend. There are parties, boys, and mean girls to deal with. Her younger sister is starting to act out. As a young woman who needs stability, Grace’s world starts to come apart. The family dynamic in particular was interesting to me. You get hints as to what’s going on, but since Grace doesn’t truly know the situation, neither does the reader.

Although I cannot speak for the realism of Asperger’s in the book, I imagine Lucas is the absolute perfect person to write such a novel as she has been diagnosed with Asperger’s herself. It is great to see a heroine with autism treated in such a wonderful way. The State of Grace is an absolute treat and a perfect heartwarming summer read.


Rating: 4/5


*copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That

This is a spoiler free review. You do not need to have read The Daughter of Smoke and Bone to read this — it is completely separate.


If you’re anywhere near the Bookstagram or Twitter community, you know all about the excitement and anticipation surrounding the release of Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer. Like Caraval, this book had so much hype in the weeks leading up to its release. However, unlike Caraval, Strange the Dreamer exceeded my expectations. This is a tale as gorgeous and sumptuous as its beautiful cover.

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.*


Lazlo Strange lives in a world fit for a fairy tale. This is the kind of tale you’d imagine a character in a fantasy novel would tell. Taylor does an incredible job building a world that dazzles, frightens, and inspires the reader. She doesn’t just create a place for her characters to interact, she creates cultures, histories, and mythologies that suit the story so beautifully. It feels organic, as though they are plucked from an existing and exotic place.

There are a number of wonderful and sympathetic characters in the book. No one is exactly as they seem, no one fit the mould they are cast in. I can understand the motivation of every single character main and secondary character we meet – no easy feat. I don’t want to say too much because you should go into this book not knowing much, but I will say that Lazlo Strange himself is lovely, but bland in comparison to everyone else, and he’s a wonderful character. Sarai is one of my absolute favorite characters in recent fiction, and I’ll leave it at that. I truly loved every character in this book – from good to bad – because everyone was complex and had a level of grey area to them.

Overall, Strange the Dreamer is a stunning novel. It does exactly what good fantasy should – it sweeps you away into another world filled with gods and monsters where the most ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I turned each page in wide-eyed wonder as the hours flew past. No book has made me feel quite like this in a long time.



Rating: 4.5/5


*Copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That

This is a spoiler-free review.

I saw this book and fell in love with its gorgeous cover. As someone looking to fill the diversity gap in her fantasy reading, The Wrath and the Dawn was the perfect departure from the ordinary.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad’s dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph’s reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she’d imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It’s an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid’s life as retribution for the many lives he’s stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.*



Ahdeih builds a lush, gorgeous world for her character that is much like our own, but with a touch of fantasy. The setting is like a breath of fresh air in a genre that is dominated by medieval European settings. At its core, The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of the famous One Thousand and One Nights, in which Sharazad (sound familiar?) volunteers to marry the sultan Sharyaer, who marries a new woman each day and has her executed the following morning. Sharazad enchants her husband with a piece of a story each evening – his intrigue in her tale keeps her alive. That’s the main plot of The Wrath and the Dawn as well, but Ahdeih spins it into much more than that. She goes deep into the flawed and complex characters who bring the story to life.

The characters, particularly Sharhzad and Khalid, were well-written. Sharhzad is a great example of how to do a stubborn and angry female character well. Often I find that these types of characters rub me the wrong way because they shriek and scream until they get their way and will not listen to the advice of anyone else. Sharhzad is a young woman who knows her own mind, but cares deeply for the ones she loves. Her entire motivation in the novel is to avenge her best friend’s death and the deaths of Khalid’s previous wives – she’s taking a huge risk to do so. She’s smart and sympathetic and admirable. However, what I’m most impressed with is her handling of Khalid’s character. I wasn’t sure how she would make the leap from ‘murderer of the best friend and numerous other women’ to romantic hero, but she made it work. He is a good counterbalance to Sharhzad’s firey personality and stubbornness. I will say that now that I’m a few weeks away from finishing this book, he is a little more forgettable of a character and definitely lives in Sharhzad’s shadow.

There’s a blend of realism and fantasy that is done is such a way that it feels like The Wrath and the Dawn could have taken place long ago in our own world. The book reads like one of Sharhzad’s stories – it is rich, colourful, and full of wonder. I cannot wait to get my hands on the second book!

Rating: 4/5

*Copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a spoiler-free review.

Scottish romances were once my ultimate guilty pleasure. It has been years since I picked one up. I spotted The Lady and the Highlander on NetGalley and snatched it up. A retelling of Snow White in the Scottish Highlands, I knew I couldn’t resist it.

Laire MacLeod’s father has married a mysterious widow who is a vain beauty that deals with potions and spells. Laire does not drink them with the rest of her family and is the only one who could see through her stepmother’s games. When Laire flees to find help from her Uncle the Lady’s huntsman follows her with orders to kill. Laire must survive in a dangerous new city and find the antidote to a poisonous potion before it is too late.

Iain Lindsay is cursed. He is bound for seven years to be the hunter of a Lady who uses him to bring back birds to use in her potions. When Laire MacLeod escapes the Lady’s nets, Iain tracks her to Edinburgh, where she’s found shelter with an unusual band of thieves, but he cannot bring himself to harm her. Instead, he finds himself falling in love with the MacLeod beauty.

But a Highlander’s oath is his bond, and the price for helping her is death, both his own, and of those he loves.*

I was sadly really disappointed by this book. There were issues with the plot and pacing as well as the characters. It felt like a first draft of a novel with potential, but needed serious work. The basic plot was decent: I liked the idea of the evil Queen/stepmother Bibana enchanting and destroying the MacLeod family. But the finer parts of the plot just didn’t appeal to me. There’s the chase from Laire’s home to Inverness, then Edinburgh, which is fine and suits the story, but then there’s this whole cast of child thieves thrown in midway through. They don’t seem to add much – they feel like a cheap way to add a bit of conflict, show the hero isn’t a terrible and broken man, and not much else. It felt like such an odd choice, almost like two plots of two different books were thrown together — and surely there was a better way of creating and resolving conflict without the children.

The beginning is very slow to start. Their first interaction in the book is on the night of her father’s wedding to Bibana. Laire does not drink alcohol, therefore she does not consume to poisoned wine that enchants her family and clansmen, and she is free to observe the scene. Her eyes fall on Iain, the witch’s sealgair, and they gaze at each other. A lot. There is a lot of gazing.

Follow this up with various descriptions of each other’s bodies, and you have the first 20% of the book. The pair have so little chemistry, which does the book no favors. They don’t even kiss until 68% of the way through, which I think goes against all the rules of romance.

The characterization of the couple themselves was problematic as well. I actually liked Iain, the fallen laird who is bound to the witch after he makes a terrible and tragic mistake. He’s dark and threatening when he’s playing the part of the sealgair, or huntsman, but undergoes an instantaneous transformation when he decides to help Laire instead of hunt her. He becomes a completely different man in what feels like a matter of paragraphs — like a switch in his head has been flicked on. Although there was some build up to this transformation, I felt the execution was slightly off and it just wasn’t believable.

My main problem is with Laire. She’s part of a fierce family of fighters and strong women. Sometimes she displays these traits, but more often than not she’s crying, fretting, or frozen in terror. In the beginning, she goes from gazing at Iain and being frozen in terror to kicking, screaming, cursing, and wielding a knife with some serious finesse. A strong heroine can do and feel these things, but again the execution was off. It’s almost like a major edit was done on her character, but some parts were overlooked. She was two different characters in one and I honestly couldn’t see the strong and fearsome woman that Iain saw. She doesn’t quite strike the believable balance of strength and softness.

Iain gets more of a fleshed out back story, which is tragic and helps explain his actions and motivations. Laire gets a build up to her back story, but when the reveal comes it just feels so anticlimactic. Similarly, there are a fair few throwaway lines that don’t really make much sense or act as unnecessary deux ex machina. When considered with the lack of chemistry, poor characterization, slow pacing, questionable geography, and a shaky plot, The Lady and the Highlander is a book I wouldn’t recommend. It showed potential, but needed some serious work before that potential could be achieved.

Rating: 1.5/5


*copy courtesy of Goodreads

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

Elle is a huge fan of Starfield, the sci-fi show she and her father used to obsessively watch together before he died. Stuck with Catherine, her stepmother, and Chloe and Calliope, her evil twin stepsisters, Elle truly lives like a modern-day Cinderella. The only solace she has are late-night reruns of Starfieldand her Starfield-themed blog Rebelgunner. A Starfieldreboot is announced and Elle is thrilled until she hears about the casting of Darien Freeman, the teen heartthrob star of the OC-style show Seaside Cove. Furious that her favorite show is not only about to be ruined by an actor who has probably never even seen Starfield, Freeman will be filling the shoes of her hero Prince Carmindor. Soon Elle discovers that a cosplay contest at ExcelsiCon is the ticket to all her problems, but only if her family doesn’t ruin her chances.

Darien Freeman is secretly a massive geek. He has been a huge Starfieldfan ever since his lonely childhood in Los Angeles and he knows every episode and every line. He has managed to land his dream role, Prince Carmindor, however the die hard Starfieldfans are furious at his casting. Knowing that he has to prove himself to the fans, especially the outspoken author of Rebelgunner, Darien decides that he’ll judge a cosplay contest at ExcelsiCon as part of the press tour for his new film and can redeem himself to fans, face his past, and assert some independence.

I knew I had to read this book as soon as I learned about it. A geeky twist on the classic Cinderella story, Geekerella was everything I wanted it to be and more. It’s not just a fun and fluffy retelling of the fairy tale — although I did manage to read it in a single day — it investigates the things that make geek culture so wonderful and so problematic. Elle is more than a Cinderella stand-in. She’s not the most beautiful girl in the room, but she’s a smart, funny, and strong young woman. Despite the years of emotional abuse at the hands of her stepmother and her stepsisters, she is not broken. Her passion for Starfieldis something I think a lot of us can relate to in some way. She’s just a normal girl — she could be you or your friend or that quiet girl who sits at the back of the class.

Elle was great. but I really, and quite unexpectedly, loved Darien. His whole character and story line were incredibly well done. Far from the passive prince, Darien struggles with his controlling father/manager, his fame and the consequences it brings, and his identity as a public and private figure. I thought he had so much depth and his story can teach us a lot about not making assumptions and judgements based on how a person looks. He was a true, modern Prince Charming.

The elements of the Cinderella story are all present in Geekerella, but with a modern twist. The fairy godmother is a punk rock girl, the carriage is a pumpkin-shaped vegan food truck, the ball is a fan convention, and Cinderella’s iconic dress is a cosplay. Poston manages to weave the familiar elements of the classic Cinderella tale together with modern touches and creates something new and relevant to her audience.

The best part of the book for me is how she tackled the darker side of fandoms. It’s easy to write a love letter to geek culture, but much harder to acknowledge that it is problematic in a number of ways. Elle is far from a perfect character. She easily falls into the ‘you are not like me therefore there’s no way you are a fan/worthy of this thing I love’ character type. She has absolutely no confidence that Darien can play this role because of his rise to fame in a cheesy teen TV show — it actually reminded me a lot of the backlash against Heath Ledger when he was cast as The Joker. She isn’t the only one; Dairen is approached by an angry fan early in the book and the online backlash, led by Rebelgunner, is high. Poston also challenges the idea of the ‘fake geek girl’ that many women face in the geek community, particularly at cons.

Filled with the power of fandom, friendship, and self-worth, Geekerella covers the heartbreak of losing a parent, the loneliness of being an outcast, and the power of fandom and friendships. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been a part of a fandom, thrown themselves into the weird and wonderful geek culture, or has been treated unfairly by their peers because of what they love. Additionally, make sure you take a look at the acknowledgments at the end.

Look to the stars. Aim. Ignite!

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will contain a tiny spoiler, which is marked as a warning.


There’s Someone Inside Your House was one of my top priorities for YALC. I hadn’t read anything by Perkins before, but it looked like the absolute perfect nostalgia trip. Growing up in the 90’s, teen slasher flicks were everywhere. While I was too terrified to actually watch most of them until I was older, they hold a special place in my heart. I absolutely had to get my hands on a copy of this book and was prepared to be scared.

Scream meets YA in this hotly-anticipated new novel from the bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss.

One-by-one, the students of Osborne High are dying in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets among them must finally be confronted.

International bestselling author Stephanie Perkins returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.*

I’m sad to say that I was a little disappointed by There’s Someone Inside Your House. I’m not sure if my disappointment stemmed from my expectation of what this novel would be or if it was truly ‘just okay’. I feel that the copy you see above is incredibly misleading because the book is maybe 40% slashy goodness and 60% romance.

Makani moves from Hawaii to Nebraska following a horrible, life changing event that she feels immense guilt over. She’s adjusting to a new school, new friends, and a crush on the resident weird kid when the murders begin. Makani and her friends try to figure out who is behind the killings and why before one of the group ends up dead. However, most of the book follows the development of the romance between Makani and Olly, which should be really interesting. They’re not your typical YA couple — she’s wracked with guilt over the mysterious event that caused her to be sent to live with her grandmother and he’s the school weirdo/scapegoat with pink hair. Their relationship doesn’t even really have a big conflict like you normally see with a romantic subplot, making it a little bit dull. The conflict is that he doesn’t fit in with the typical Nebraska high school crowd and no one trust’s him – with the exception of a few fleeting doubts, Makani is always solidly in his corner. The focus on the main plot — which is what I imagine most of us are reading this particular book — gets lost amongst scene after scene of making out.

There were two big parts of the actual murder plot that I felt were quite weak. First of all, Makani’s mysterious reason for moving is incredibly anticlimactic. There’s this huge build-up to this reveal, which was artfully done, but when we find out why she had to leave her home and come live with her grandmother in Nebraska it just felt…lame. I rolled my eyes on the couch over how worked up she got about it. This is a book with high school kids being murdered and mutilated — I would have thought that Perkins would push the boat out on this major revelation.

The second big issue I have, and this is where very minor spoilers come into play, is that fact that we find out who the murderer is halfway through the book! I kept waiting for there to be a twist because there was no way we’d just be told exactly who the killer is so soon. This reveal removes every last bit of tension, build-up and thrilling excitement. The killer’s motivation also makes so little sense because there’s really nothing there to explain what it is — you just have to assume and roll with it.

Overall, I was really let down by what should have been a fantastic book. There were good bits to be sure and I was indeed entertained, but it could have been so much more. The nostalgia trip I was hoping for wasn’t there at all — it is so unlike the slasher films I was expecting it to be – and the tension fell flat midway through. Perhaps this is on me — I was thinking it would be I know What You Did Last Summer in book form. Perhaps it is on the author – going from sweet romance to horror is a pretty tough leap. If you’re looking for that kind of book, if say give this one a miss. However, if you’re looking for a summer beach read that’s fun and flies by, you should consider picking this up.


I’m struggling to rate this one because it’s not bad, but it’s not great.

Rating: 2.75/5

Originally posted on I Should Read That


This is a spoiler-free review. I purchased an early copy of this book at YALC.


I had heard some buzz surrounding The Loneliest Girl in the Universe in the lead up to YALC, which had early copies for sale. I absolutely loved the cover and liked the synopsis well enough. Science fiction is one of my favourite genres, and I was looking forward to a young adult take. I made sure to pick up a copy, and it was the first book from my YALC haul that I read.


Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never met, never even spoken to – someone who is light years away?

Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity amongst the stars. Alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth – with a single passenger on board. A boy called J.

Their only communication with each other is via email – and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit across space. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.

But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean?

Sometimes, there’s something worse than being alone . . .*


Okay, so you see that copy there? Great, throw it out. That’s part of the plot, but it doesn’t really capture how deep and hard hitting this wonderful little book is. We are told Romy’s story in the first person. We get all her thoughts, actions, and emotions firsthand. She has suffered and struggled since the death of her parents onboard the Infinity, the only home she has ever known. She feels the burden of humanity’s survival weigh upon her shoulders. She operates and maintains the ageing ship on her own. Her greatest joy is Molly, the NASA-appointed therapist who sends her messages every day. However, as Roma hurdles further and further away from a home she has never seen, the delay between Molly and herself grows. But one day, Molly has some wonderful news — another ship has been launched and will meet the Infinity in one year’s time. For the first time in years, Rome will no longer be alone.


I will forever sing the praises of this book and Lauren James. The true genius of this book is that Romy is not Katniss. She is not Princess Leia. She is a normal, ordinary girl who has been thrown into the most difficult circumstances imaginable. She is all of us — the every day girl who dreams of adventure but does not necessarily fit the role of ‘hero’. The book is even dedicated to all the girls who never felt brave enough to star in their own adventure stories. Romy is that girl. She has a favourite TV show that she obsesses over. She writes fan fiction. She thinks about boys, romance, and what the future may hold. She is the perfect example of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things.


You may have noticed that I’ve not really said much about the book — that this review is a lot of words and not a lot of substance. That’s because I really think this is one you should discover on your own. You’ll understand, trust me. Read this book immediately, then come talk to me about it. It’s one of my contenders for the best book of the year.

Originally posted to I Should Read That


I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, however I also bought an early sale copy too. Neither of these facts affect my opinion. This is a spoiler free review.


Daughter of the Burning City is the much-hyped debut novel from Amanda Foody. I was approved to read this book a few months back but was holding off for some reason. Good reviews kept pouring in and when I saw early copies on sale at YALC, I had to have a physical copy. I’m so pleased to say that I was surprised by Daughter of the Burning City in the best way possible!

Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.

But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.

Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.*

There was just so much for me to love about this book. From the sumptuous description of the world to the characters and their abilities, everything about this book just worked. The Gomorrah Festival was such a wonderful setting. Foody’s writing makes the Festival come to life as the reader’s mind is filled with its the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells. The descriptions of the food in particular were excellent – and kept making me hungry. It is so cliché to say so, but it really did feel like the Festival was a character in the book. So much of the wonder and twisting of reality was complimented by the setting.

The Gomorrah Festival is the perfect setting for the mystery plot that takes place. When one of Sorina’s illusions is murdered, the home she has always known no longer feels safe. When she begins to investigate, she enters areas of the Festival – particularly the Downhill area – that she has never ventured into. So in a way, we are seeing it for the first time along with Sorina, which was an effective way of introducing us to her, the Festival, and the magic that fills her world.

I really loved the characters in Daughter of the Burning City. Of course we spend most of our time with Sorina, whose illusion-work is the reason a number of the characters exist. She is content with her life and her family of illusions. She’s unusual not only for her illusion-work abilities, but also for the fact that she has no eyes. Although she is still able to ‘see’, much of her identity is wrapped up in this feature and the masks she wears reflect her feelings at the moment. Sorina is a strong character, yet realistic. She’s dedicated to her family, who she treats equally despite knowing that they’re ‘not real’. When it comes time to investigate, her reality is twisted and she doesn’t know what to believe, but she still acts with her family’s best interest in mind and makes tough choices. I really respected her as a character.

The other characters in the book were just as fascinating as Sorina. From Luca, the charming and rapidly-healing gossip-worker, to Villiam, her kindly father figure and proprietor of the Festival who will teach her everything he knows, these secondary characters don’t fade into the background.

The other members of the freak show were fantastic and fascinating as well. They were more than their abilities and outward appearance – each had their own lives and personalities. Foody did such a great job making sure that they had defined personalities, and it really paid off. You feel their fear, their sense of loyalty, and their connection as a family. The illustrations peppered throughout the books not only enhance them as characters, it adds to our fear when we don’t know who will be safe and who will be fall victim to a killer.

There are so many other things I can say about this book and it’s plot, but you should really discover them on your own. Read this book – it is so refreshing in its inventiveness. The romantic subplot enhances the story rather than dominates it. The world-building is wonderful and the magic system is fabulous. You cannot trust your eyes until the very end. Daughter of the Burning City kept me guessing – I thought I had it all figured out, but I did not – and was such an entertaining read. I highly recommend it!