Rating: 4/5

Genre: Upper Middle Grade/YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 12+ (death, deception, and talking animals)

I received a copy of this book for free courtesy of Austin MaCauley! Thank you so much! My opinions on this book are my own.

Karusia Hedgehog’s life is turned upside down the day she hears that her parents have died in a plane crash. As she awaits her fate at the orphanage, she begins to realise that she might still have a family–a very magical one–that she didn’t know existed. With the help of her new friends Sander the cat and the intelligent Raven, she discovers the meaning of a medallion passed to her as a family heirloom. Karusia begins to have her own secret adventures to space and to exotic foreign cities. Could she be one of the fabled ‘Three’, who have the power of white magic? If so–where are her two sisters and what kind of black magic is conspiring to keep them apart? – Amazon.com

Where was this book when I was younger?! I feel like the more I read upper middle grade reads that I realize my childhood sucked! I’m so jealous of today’s youth. Anyways, if you can’t already tell I absolutely loved this book. I immediately connected with Karusia and I loved all the little twists and turns in this book. I also loved how the plot developed and I felt that the writing was really easy to understand and comprehend. I also feel that while there could have been better character development for Karusia that it was pretty good overall.

However, while I did love this book I did feel like the book was a too fast paced for me. I really think that the author could have made this book into 3 separate books with all the little details and information that was going on in the book, but for what she did write I felt like I have a solid grasp on how the magic works in the book and where the story is going.

Verdict: While I felt this book was a bit fast for me, it might not be for you! It’s definitely a fun read that focuses on the power of sisters rather than on love interests and such, which was really refreshing to read. Definitely a book to check out if you like fantasy books or if you have a younger reader who likes fantasy books.

Rating: 4/5



Genre: YA Fantasy



Recommended Age: 14+ (mature language, underage alcohol consumption, slightly mature scenes, gore, violence, trigger warnings for suicide and cutting)



I received a free copy of this book courtesy of KidLitExchange. All opinions are my own.



Eighteen-year-old Jemmie Carmichael has grown up surrounded by magic in the quiet town of Hawthorne, New York. In her world, magic users are called "kindled," and Jemmie would count herself among them if only she could cast a simple spell without completely falling apart. It doesn't help that she was also recently snubbed by Crowe, the dangerous and enigmatic leader of the Black Devils kindled motorcycle gang and the unofficial head of their turf.

When the entire kindled community rolls into Hawthorne for an annual festival, a rumor begins spreading that someone is practicing forbidden magic. Then people start to go missing. With threats closing in from every side, no one can be trusted. Jemmie and Crowe will have to put aside their tumultuous history to find their loved ones, and the only thing that might save them is the very flaw that keeps Jemmie from fully harnessing her magic. For all her years of feeling useless, Jemmie may just be the most powerful kindled of all. - Amazon.com


Even before Harry Potter there have been numerous tales about magic and those who wield it, so it really takes a special book to make an impact in the overpopulated world of magic stories, and I think I found one that will. This book had me hooked from page 1. It takes the concept of magic and transforms it into something I’ve personally never read before (but if there is a comparison to it, let me know!). It also tells the story with a wide cast of characters I’ve never read about, gangs of biker-esque cliques and the communities they live in and protect. It also introduces a new spin on magic in that there are different types of magic which can either form protective barriers or heal people or can allow you to manipulate people at will. The characters were all very well developed, the pacing of the book was perfect, and the plot development was amazing well-done. There were many twists and turns in this book that I was on the edge of my seat the whole time while reading it. The writing was also very well done and it was very easy to understand and follow.



While I loved the book I did have some minor complaints about it. There is a very wide cast of characters in this book, some only mentioned once or twice. There is also a lot of different types of magic in this book, which might get confusing to some readers. I also thought that some of the magic needed to be explained a little more, BUT by the way the book ended it seems like there will be a sequel. I think this book really needs a sequel. Not only were there many items left unresolved by the end of this book, but the book revealed something very startling in the end and I think that needs to be explored further in another book. I’m not aware of any sequel in the works at the time of writing this review, but please let me know if there is one!



Verdict: Overall, I thought the book was amazingly well done and a fantastic read. While this book was a bit cliché in certain areas, I think it was inspirational in that the main character has very real issues that some young readers face daily, and no I’m not talking about her lack of magic. She has anger and resentment towards her father for leaving her and her mother and feels that it was her fault she left, which is a genuine reaction that a lot of children caught in the middle of a divorce feel like. It’s very inspirational to see her transform from an angry, broken person into someone who has taken control of their life and has made things better for herself.  If books about magic are for you then give this book a read! This was definitely a memorable book and this author is one you need to be watching out for in the future.

Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommend Age: 13+ (some violence)

I received a free copy of this book through KidLitExchange. All opinions are my own.

To save her sister’s life, Faris must smuggle magic into a plague-ridden neighboring kingdom in this exciting and dangerous start to a brand-new fantasy duology.

Faris grew up fighting to survive in the slums of Brindaigel while caring for her sister, Cadence. But when Cadence is caught trying to flee the kingdom and is sold into slavery, Faris reluctantly agrees to a lucrative scheme to buy her back, inadvertently binding herself to the power-hungry Princess Bryn, who wants to steal her father’s throne.

Now Faris must smuggle stolen magic into neighboring Avinea to incite its prince to alliance—magic that addicts in the war-torn country can sense in her blood and can steal with a touch. She and Bryn turn to a handsome traveling magician, North, who offers protection from Avinea’s many dangers, but he cannot save Faris from Bryn’s cruelty as she leverages Cadence’s freedom to force Faris to do anything—or kill anyone—she asks. Yet Faris is as fierce as Bryn, and even as she finds herself falling for North, she develops schemes of her own.

With the fate of kingdoms at stake, Faris, Bryn, and North maneuver through a dangerous game of magical and political machinations, where lives can be destroyed—or saved—with only a touch. - Amazon.com

Here I come again with another book about magic (see? There is more than just Harry Potter) and again I will say this book is also unqiue in the world of magic. This book is almost a mixture of fantasy and dystopian set in an earlier time, but what makes it really unqiue is that while there are similar high fantasy tropes, it gives us a female character who is very independent and who loses her love interest in the first chapter. We follow this character as she tries to rebuild from that lose and tries to fix a mistake she made months ago. I found all the characters very developed to a point of almost all of them being very complex characters. Not a character was who they seemed to be in the first few chapters of this book. The plot development was also very complex but very rewarding in the end. The pacing was perfection and the writing was phenomenal.

While the book is easily one of my favorites of this year, I do feel that this book can be a bit hard to understand if the reader is not paying expert attention to all the details of the book. There are also a lot of characters in this book and the reader might find it a bit difficult to keep up with all of them.

Verdict: Hands down one of my favorite books of this year. I felt very inspired by Faris and North and I think this book would be a good medium for someone who doesn't really enjoy high fantasy but wants to read a book that is almost high fantasy. Definitely an author that needs to be on your automatic to-buy list as well.

Rating: 3.5/5



Genre: YA Fantasy



Recommended Age: 17+ (trigger warnings for suicide, cutting, and depression. One of the main things in this book that the character struggles with and almost seems to take pride in are her self harming habits and scars. It is mentioned multiple times throughout the book that she cuts and even goes into detail about her scars and how she does the act. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you can handle that or that your children can handle that before you read or let your children read this book) (Also language, sex, and gore).


I received a free copy of this book from KidLitExchange in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are my own.



A troubled girl confronts her personal demons in this time-travel thriller alternating between present day and 19th century Japan.
No one knows how to handle Reiko. She is full of hatred; all she can think about is how to best hurt herself and those people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt at her home in Seattle, Reiko's parents send her to spend the summer with family in Japan, hoping she will learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping backward in time into the nineteenth-century life of Miyu, a young woman even more vengeful than Reiko herself. Reiko loves escaping into Miyu's life . . . until she discovers Kuramagi's dark secret and must face down Miyu's demons as well as her own. – Amazon.com



I’ve never seen or read a character with so much vengeance in their heart except for Arya. I thought she couldn’t be topped until I met Reiko, who is our main character. There are basically three stories that go on in this book: Reiko’s past, Reiko’s present, and Miyu’s story. Reiko tells the tale of her past in a series of flashbacks, but when Miyu makes an appearance the story is told through Reiko as she is experiencing it. That’s right, Reiko is able to travel back in time to experience life as this other girl who is similar to her. Vengeance is her game and she does not aim to lose, especially now that Reiko is able to help her out. I thought that the way this story was told was very unique and I felt the plot was not at all obvious from the beginning. The story continued to have twists and turns along the way, some of them being completely unique to anything I’ve read before. The character development for Reiko and Miyu was fantastic, and the pacing was very well done. I also want to point out that Reiko is bisexual, which I thought was one of the most wonderful things about this book because it seems that Reiko struggles with her sexuality along with a lot of her other issues in this book, which can be very helpful for many teens today.



However, there were some issues with this book in my opinion. I really wanted to DNF this book until I was about 50 pages in. The book is wrote in a weird manner and the flashbacks make for a little bit of a confusing read until the reader gets used to the book’s format. The book also doesn’t development any of the minor characters outside of a handful of the many included in the book. The book also mentions suicide and goes into detail about Reiko’s attempted suicide A LOT during the book. While I did not mind and I thought that it made the character growth that much more unique, I do understand that this type of book can really hurt some people. Unfortunately because the book is set in Japan and uses a lot of Japanese terms, history, and because it discusses how Reiko is a Japanese-American who can’t speak Japanese and is basically an outcast in Japan, I feel that I cannot talk about these topics in this review because I am uneducated in those matters. If this is an important quality for you in a book, please find someone who can talk about this issue better. It would be very interesting to see a review from a Japanese-American or a native Japanese person’s perspective on this book and if you or someone you know has reviewed it and does have knowledge in these areas I’d really appreciate a link to their blog or whatever platform they reviewed on.



Verdict: While I believe this book was a good read, I did have some major issues with the book and some potential issues that might arise as this book obtains more reviews. I also felt a little uncomfortable with how much the author depended on Reiko’s cutting habits in order to make Reiko grow as a character. While I think this book is a good read and would be an excellent Halloween book, I want to implore you to really be careful if you want to read this book.

Rating: 5/5

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 15+ (racism, sexual content, language, violence. Trigger warnings for those who may have been victims of extreme racism or prejudice)

I received this book for free from KidLitExchange in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.

Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack. – Amazon.com

I knew racism still existed. I’m from the South and while I grew up around it I still knew it was bad and I chose to study it extensively in college. So to hear people say that racism doesn’t exist anymore really makes me angry. That being said I immediately fell in love with this book from the moment I picked it up. The book was a very blunt story on racism in America, specifically regarding young African-American men. The reader sees the world through Justyce’s eyes and I think I’m better for reading this book. I loved how complex all the characters were in the book and that there were different types of racism or prejudice shown in the book by almost all of the characters. I loved how the plot developed and that heartwrecking twist! The pacing was also very well done and the writing was simply amazing! I probably could have read 600 more pages of Nic Stone’s writing and that would have been fine by me.

I absolutely love this book, but I do feel that this book can be polarizing for some readers. Some readers might not see the world as Justyce and the author. This book talks about a very hot-button topic as well as including scenes with recent-events that can be upsetting to some readers.

Verdict: I think this is a very important read in today’s world. Racism is only going to get worse and the divisive attitude some people have in this country needs to be dealt with. The only way we’re going to start moving away from racism for the final time is if we start putting each other in our own shoes, especially those who do not know what it’s like to be African-American in America. I also thought that even though Justyce makes a lot of mistakes in the book, he is an inspirational character and his journey is just as inspiring. Definitely recommended reading for everyone in America. I’m ready for change. Are you? 

Rating: 3/5

Genre: YA Memoir

Recommended Age: 16+ (language, abuse in many forms, sexual assault, drugs, running away, trigger warnings for rape and abuse)

I received a free copy of this book courtesy of KidLitExchange. All opinions are my own.

I never was a badass. Or a slut, a junkie, a stoner, like they told me I was. I was just a kid looking for something good, something that felt like love. I was a wannabe in a Levi's jean jacket. Anybody could see that. Except my mother. And the professionals at Straight.
From the outside, Straight Inc. was a drug rehab. But on the inside it was...well, it was something else.
All Cyndy wanted was to be loved and accepted. By age fourteen, she had escaped from her violent home, only to be reported as a runaway and sent to a "drug rehabilitation" facility that changed her world.
To the public, Straight Inc. was a place of recovery. But behind closed doors, the program used bizarre and intimidating methods to "treat" its patients. In her raw and fearless memoir, Cyndy Etler recounts her sixteen months in the living nightmare that Straight Inc. considered "healing." – Amazon.com


This was probably the hardest book I’ve had to read this year. This book follows the author as a young girl who does some stupid things to make up for her horrible home life. She’s sent to a rehabilitation center where things only go worse for her. I felt that while the story is told from the author’s POV that she did a very decent job with character descriptions and making the characters in this novel come alive (even though they all are/were, it helps to have a great description about them). The author also didn’t seem to spend a lot of time concentrating on non-important events and the plot was very clear in the novel.

However, I do feel like the writing was a bit weird for my personal tastes. The book jumped around a lot and sometimes flashed between past and present so weirdly and unexpectedly that it made me really confused while reading it. I also felt that the writing was a bit weird to understand in places as well. The book is wrote as if someone is talking to you, but that type of writing does not translate so well on paper most times.

Verdict: Overall, I thought the book was a frightening tale of one woman’s true experience and it would make for a very interesting read for anyone who is interested in memoirs. Personally though, I did not enjoy the book. I work in the criminal justice field and I felt very emotional during the majority of this book. I also had to reread sections of the book in order for it to make sense to me. I think this could be a great read for college students studying a number of subjects in the humanities field and it would be a good book for someone who enjoys memoirs. However, please be careful reading this book as it is a very serious and hard book to read because of what happens in the book.

Rating: 5/5

Genre: Fantasy/Fairytale Retelling

Recommended Age: 14+

I received a free copy of this book from Kindle Scout AND the author herself! This did not influence my decision in any manner.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away… ...(actually, in Medieval France, to be exact) there lived Cinderella's stepsisters, Fredegonde the tall and Javotte the small. They wake up the morning after the legendary ball to learn that they each still have a chance to be the bride—all they have to do is make their feet fit into that tricky slipper. Alas, these two damsels under stress never quite seem to fit in anywhere. But that doesn’t stop them from wishing and hoping as they set upon a quest for grooms and grandeur of their own. – Amazon.com

I really really REALLY enjoy fairytale retellings. I’ve always wanted to see what the world looked like from another’s point of view and with retellings I can do just that! So, being a lover of retellings I feel that I am somewhat critical of them and I haven’t found one that has swept me away since first reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Well, the day I picked up this book changed that for me. This book. THIS BOOK. IT. WAS. AMAZING! I thought the book was expertly written. From the first word you’re hooked. The book was also very easy to follow along with even though the author incorporated more of the history and language patterns of the Cinderella era. The character development was phenomenal and I loved how the characters you end up rooting for are not these model-type characters readers are very commonly introduced to. The plot, even though it’s a mostly recycled one from the Cinderella story we know and love, feels new and exciting. I love what the author did with all of the elements of the Cinderella story, especially with the fairy godmother. The pacing is also expertly well done.

While the book was a perfect fit for me, it may not be for some readers. The book seemed a bit denser than other popular books are and the book does showcase Cinderella in a bad light, so it does break the heart of Cinderella lovers everywhere.

Verdict: This author is going places and you can help her out by supporting this book. It’s a wonderful read, perfect for any fairytale retelling fans anywhere. Definitely check out this book if you want to read a book you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Rating: 5/5

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 16+ (language, mature content, violence, gore, trigger warnings for mentions of rape)

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don't kill each other first.- Amazon.com



Audible has amazing sales sometimes. They’re called the $4.95 sales and they can sometimes have awesome books on there. One of those awesome books I bought in a recent $4.95 sale was Six of Crows. While I own the book in hardback, I read so many review books that I do not have time to read many of the other books on my bookshelves and I recently purchased the Six Of Crows box from Enchanted Book Box (check out their November box btw! It’s gonna be awesome!) so I felt like I had to get to know these characters that everyone raves about! The audio book was fantastic! The voice actors they casted for this audio book were perfect. The character development of this book was well done. At once point I thought that I wouldn’t know about the back story of Jesper or Wylan, but their development came and it was as equally well done. The plot development was also well done. It twisted and turned where I didn’t expect it to. The writing was superb and while it had a air of high fantasy, it was still very easy to follow along.


While I did enjoy the book immensely and I feel like I NEED the second book now, I did think that this book might not be for everyone. For starters, the pacing is a bit slow. There are multiple POVs (7 throughout the whole book) and each POV can start where another one ended or where another one began, meaning you could be hearing what each of the 6 were doing at the same time while they were all split up. The other thing is that the ending of the book became a little confusing for me. Maybe I just became confused and didn’t understand what all went on, but I had to listen to it twice to understand it.
Verdict: Leigh Bardugo is one of the most talked about author’s I see on instagram and I can now see why that is. She’s an amazing writer and this book has easily became a favorite of mine. I loved how the story took place from the perspective of the “bad” guys rather than the “good” guys, which really made the reader question who are the good and bad guys in this fight and if there are any totally good or bad guys at all. I’d totally recommend this book for any YA Fantasy lover and anyone who’s looking for an action-packed book!

Rating: 3/5

Genre: YA Fantasy/Dystopian

Recommended Age: 14+ (some language, violence)

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

In a country ravaged by years of war, plague, and death, witches and wizards are blamed for the state of the world and hunted by the U.S. government. Kenadee Coria was only a young girl when her brother was taken prisoner for having magical powers.

Now sixteen years old, Kenadee discovers she too has magical powers and must face the facts: the government is watching, and they have plans for her. She’s given a deadly mission and an impossible ultimatum: the lives of a hidden group of magic refugees, or the safe return of her long-lost brother. – Amazon.com

A book about witches in a dystopian setting? Sign me up! I had actually heard about this book before I was offered a chance to review it and so I was very excited to read this book. I liked the book well enough. I thought the plot development was well done and the writing was very easy to follow. I also thought the book had a very interesting concept.

Unfortunately, I did have a lot of negatives I came across in this book. I thought the characters weren’t very well developed outside of Harlow. A lot of the characters were just there for the main character to converse with and I felt they didn’t have a lot of personality behind them. I thought the book jumped around quite a bit, which made it confusing for me to follow along. There was also one part in the book where the characters said one thing was going to happen, said another thing the next page, and then went with their original wording the page after that. I read that passage over and over again to try and figure out what might have happened, what I might have skipped, but I now think it might just be an error in the book, maybe two revisions that got spliced together accidentally? I also thought that the book could have been written better. I think the main character’s magical abilities could have made an appearance in the book earlier on. I also think more of her backstory should have been discussed in the book to give the reader a better foundation of the world we’re in. I also think that the most interesting character in this book was Harlow and I would love a spin-off book from her POV or the rest of the books from her POV. The author built Harlow to be such a complex and interesting character and I’m excited to see where Harlow goes from here.

Verdict: While I did have more negatives to say about this book then positives I still enjoyed this book and I would recommend it just because it’s very unique and because it’s a pretty good book beyond the flaws. If you’re looking for an unique book to read and you’re a fan of dystopian books, this might be the book for you. This book comes out on November 14, 2017!

Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 15+ (some mature content, discussion of sex and sexual jokes)

I was provided a free copy of this book for review and promotion by OfTomes Publishing. All opinions are my own.

Sixteen-year-old Mia's life is turned upside down when she uncovers her family secret-that she and her brother Dino are witches. Seeking refuge in an ancient castle, the siblings begin down a path that will change their lives forever. Suddenly thrust into a world where handsome warriors command the power of nature and peoples thoughts and actions can be manipulated at will, Mia and Dino struggle to navigate their own allegiances and do what they know to be right, even when everything around them seems beyond their control. – Amazon.com

Another book about witches eh? How many are you going to read this year Paige? Gosh, can’t you read any thing other than books about witches? Hey, witches are fun to read about and they’re a very versatile “creature”. They don’t have strict rules they need to follow like zombies or werewolves. They can be totally different from other witchy books, which is a reason why I loved this book. It was, again, very unique from the other witchy books you could read but it wasn’t outlandish at all. It had witches as either belonging to two different factions and at least five different power sets. You can be an Arcana or a Hunter, and you could have powers to see the future, control people’s emotions, control nature, conjure, or one which was mentioned very briefly which is Reader. I liked this division of powers and I liked the different factions of the witches presented in the text. I felt the characters were also very well developed, even the most slightly mentioned characters had a ton of personality in their short period of time in the book. I felt that the plot was amazing and it was a slow, but powerful build. The pacing was also very well done, it leaned more on the slow side but it worked well with how the plot needed to be developed. I also thought that the writing was very well done and it was very easy for many readers to understand.

The only slightly bad things I thought this book had in it were the way the characters were written and the use of multiple POVs. The writing, while extremely well done, made the characters feel younger than they should have been. For a good bit during the book I thought the main characters were 9 or 10 years old, or at least 12 years old. When it was later revealed they were 15-18 I was very taken aback because the way their dialogue was written felt much younger than they actually were. The other issue I like to point out for other readers is that this book does contain multiple POVs. Some readers don’t like this, but I didn’t mind it. I thought it was well done and the voices were distinctive enough that it didn’t take me out of the book, but just FYI multiple POV.

Verdict: Definitely one of the best witch books I’ve read in my life. I loved this book from start to finish and I definitely want to check out the rest of the series. This book is so inspirational in that it presents two characters who have issues tapping into their power and one who is given a more feminine sounding power when he is a male. In fact, that power is presented as one of the most powerful powers that can be had. I loved that the book showed that and showed characters who genuinely struggle with their powers and aren’t just naturally gifted at everything they touch. Definitely would recommend for any YA fantasy lover.