Provocative and blasphemous, this romance had some pretty damn impressive character arcs. And even better sex scenes.

This fun and cheeky read takes real historical authors and explains their fantastical tales by dragging three young Oxford men into a parallel world where magic is real. Clues to the three men's future writings poke out from every page of the book, adding a sense of mischief to the adventure. The story doesn't have a lot of depth, but there are some surprising and satisfying moments that deal with growing up that would resonate with children and teens alike.

Richard Mayhew, a man with no friends and a terrible fiancee, helps a girl from an otherworldly London and finds himself trapped there with no way home. The plot meanders aimlessly from Richard's dull life to Door(the girl he helped)'s sad one and back again, occasionally incorporating torture, crime, vaguely immortal beings, angels, and other parallel universe problems. The lack of plot is exacerbated by a lack of description of the other London that results in London Below seeming impossibly dull and grey as if it were a math textbook viewed through several sheer scarves. The characters all just plod along with no real shape or distinct personalities. If not for the occasional interjection of his trademark oddball sarcasm, I would be hard-pressed to believe this was Neil Gaiman.

Three Dark Crowns takes place entirely on the island of Fennbirn, where female triplets kill each other to become Queen at the age of sixteen. The characters are amazing, and easily the best part of the book. All of the characters have excellent motivations and feel real, and it is impossible not to at least understand even the darkest of them.

Unfortunately, that is where Blake's mastery ends. The world building is atrocious. The whole plot centers around these three sisters fighting to be Queen, but their mother (the previous Queen) is dead and gone and has been most of their lives--so how much does the Queen even matter? The ham-handed attempt at classifying the mainlanders as "other" is exasperating when it should be a source of insight into what the outside world is like, and why these mainlanders even want to be married to the Queen of this fucked up little island. I have no idea how these people farm, govern, learn to read, or anything. And the little things fall apart too -- the poisoners' refuse to eat anything that isn't poisoned but it is never explained why. Arsinoe burns a love charm that has terrible consequences for her best friend, but none of her other charms work -- so either I have to swallow this pathetic insta-love betrayal as the one magic she can manage, or I have to believe that two otherwise loyal and smart characters would do something so out of character.

Overall it was a fun read, and I enjoyed Blake's style. I wouldn't recommend it to high fantasy and world building lovers, but I would definitely recommend it to character driven readers.

Reminiscent of The 100 and Silo, Aria lives in an underground-ish pod and spends most of her time in VR until she is thrown out into the outside world and try to survive among the people who live primitively outside of the pods. The genetic mutations of the Outsiders add a fun, unexpected twist that evens up the playing field between the Dwellers and the Outsiders. I appreciated the lack of a love triangle, and Aria is a solid character as is her love interest and his friends. It wasn't unique or thrilling enough to be a must-read, but I'll definitely check out the sequels.

This evocative and outrageous Western serves to revitalize a beloved genre for a new generation. Everything from Kate's speech to the legends to the Arizona sky is delightful. But don't be fooled -- Bowman doesn't pull any punches, and the violence is true to the genre and the age. Highly recommend.

This felt like a cheap ripoff of the Night Circus, yet somehow still managed to be the most boring book I've read in years. Caraval was so suffused with magic that had no rules that there were no consequences and precious few actions, so my entire reading experience was just one eyeroll after another. The characterizations made no sense as behaviors changed from scene to scene, and the touches at attempted artistry (such as the main character's emotion-color synesthesia) felt forced. Would not recommend to anyone.