This is an adult romantic fantasy, but surprisingly, the romance is still ongoing it seems. 

Our main character is Fallon, a halfling with a fae mother and human father. She lives in a kingdom where halflings are seen beneath the fae, but is in love with the fae prince, Dante, from her childhood. She doesn't have any magic like other fae and halflings, but is known as the beast charmer due to her affinity to animals. Fallon ends up embarking on a quest to help crown Dante and make herself Queen.

This book does start off slow, as many other reviewers have said. The quest doesn't start off until the 50% ish mark and not a ton happens in the meantime. I did really like the world building, and the whole Crow magic and storyline was really unique and interesting! The main city she lives in is based off Venice, flowing with canals and people traveling via gondola. 

Fallon herself isn't the most interesting character, she is very much naive for being 22 years old and her modern vernacular definitely takes you out of the story. The plot is probably the most intriguing part to me, and that's what will spur me to pick up the next one! 

House of Marianne is a YA fantasy that takes place in the modern world, reminiscent of Harry Potter. It combines the traditional debutante rituals and balls with magic into a dark academia setting.

Our main character, Quell, has been on the run for her whole life due to a dark power she has. Assassins named draguns have been hunting her and her mother because of the dark magic  she has to keep hidden. After being separated from her mother, she runs to the only other place she knows, her grandmother's estate. Upon getting there, she learns that there is a magical society called the Order and her grandmother is the Headmistress of her own House. Quell realizes she can bind away her dark power if she joins the Order and completes the three rites. She is mentored by a dragun, Jordan, who she grows close to while hiding her secret. The premise is very interesting and the magic system is quite unique!

The pacing is relatively good, not too fast or slow. Because it is an urban fantasy, there is not a whole ton of worldbuilding except for the magic system which is explained very well. The overall plot and different rites proved interesting, all leading up to one very large plot twist at the end that I definitely did not guess. 

Overall, the writing style wasn't for me. The descriptions seemed a bit lacking and repetitive and the characters as a whole seemed almost too YA or younger audience to me. Because of that, I struggled with the romance and chemistry there between Quell and Jordan. Quell's internal monologue wasn't my favorite to read and I found her interactions with Abby (her roommate) to sometimes be a bit cringey. 

I also believe the setting was just not for me, I'm typically not a big fan of urban fantasies and I hadn't realized it was one based on the book description. 

This was an enjoyable read, but relatively average. If you like the idea of a magical boarding school, with mysterious and dark academia vibes, this might be for you!

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! 

The premise drew me in, but this book surprised me in many ways! It's a novel with the background of a heist, but truly focuses on identity and the self-discovery of what it means to be Chinese American for the main characters as well as art and the cultural impact of colonialism. 

We have five people in this heist and the book spends an equal amount of time in all of their perspectives. Will is the leader of the crew and a current student at Harvard studying art history, Irene is his younger sister studying public policy (con-artist), Daniel is the son of an art thief investigator and best friend of Will planning to enter medical school (thief), Alex is working a job at Silicon Valley after leaving MIT (hacker), and Lily is Irene's roommate studying engineering with a penchant for street racing (getaway driver). After Will witnesses a heist at the museum he is working at, he is reached out to by a hidden company that will pay him and his crew $50 million if they are able to steal five zodiac heads that were looted by Western countries two centuries ago. 

The underlying theme of this story is identity, and the effects of colonialism and how the West has stolen from China. These characters feel personally motivated to steal the art back because it truly does not belong to Western countries. All of these characters are Chinese American but truly struggle with where they feel they truly belong. Each character's family immigrated to the United States, but many things were different culturally. Lily does not speak Mandarin and her parents fully emigrated to America without teaching her about her cultural roots for example. 

There is a heist, but you do have to suspend your belief a little here. They are all college students with no previous experience or knowledge of how to steal from art museums. If anything, I wish the heists went more into depth. I did end up loving the plot twist though and I truly do think this is a book not to be missed. I am excited to see what they'll end up doing at Netflix since this is in development! 

Oh my gosh, I love this book. It's been a couple years since I read the first Deathcast book, They Both Die at the End, so I wasn't sure if Silvera's writing was as good as I remember. If anything, I love this book even more than the first one. 

This is a prequel in the Deathcast world that follows Orion and Valentino. It is the very first night that Deathcast will launch and Valentino and Orion both attend the premiere party in Times Square. Orion has been suffering from a debilitating heart condition and he loves the idea that he doesn't have to worry each day that he is going to die from his condition. Valentino has just moved to New York City and is excited to finally escape his homophobic parents and pursue modeling. 

One of them gets a call that tells them they will die that day and it sets off a chain of events where Valentino and Orion spend the day with each other and fall in love. And honestly, you can feel it. I know a lot of criticism is that they cannot fall in love in a day, but these two spend their time talking about their lives and what is important to them and doing things together that they've never done before. Valentino helps Orion face his family's deaths from 9/11 and Orion helps Valentino feel loved. 

This book is just so emotional and the reason I love it so much is the themes it covers and explores. The idea of what would we do if we knew our it was our last day to live? And if we're told we're going to die, how does that change our actions and eventual cause of death? It explores grief and acceptance. With it being the first day of DeathCast, I felt the plot was stronger because they didn't know for sure if they would die. It's such a raw and beautiful book and I got extremely attached to the characters and their connection. 

I also felt the other POVs added even more to the story and how they interconnect. I felt they were written even better than the first book and their individual stories were just as heartbreaking. We finally got a bit more insight into DeathCast but we still don't know exactly how they predict the deaths. (In the bonus content of this one, Adam Silvera said we will never know because he feels it distracts from the overall purpose and content of these stories). 

Of course, the ending made me absolutely sob. These books are so sad, but the purpose is very clear about how to live life to the fullest. 

Ehh, I found this book to be pretty much in the middle. The premise wasn't very interesting to me, but I had heard the later books in the series (interconnected standalones) was good, so I figured I would start with the first book. 

This is a romance about bull-rider Rhett who gets himself some bad PR and Summer is his PR's agent daughter expected to essentially babysit him to ensure that he doesn't do any more bad stunts before the championships. 

I did like Summer, our main MC. I felt her motivations were believable and she had some good character development throughout the book. Rhett wasn't for me, and honestly I think apart of that is just that the PR issues didn't seem believable at all. Are people really that mad at someone for not liking milk?? For him it seems like we hear about how bad he is, and when we meet him he isn't at all like the bad boy persona and I wish we would've seen that. 

The romance was good, but it didn't really draw me in. I feel like this book has a lot of setup in the beginning and tends to be a bit slower at the start. It was just lacking a lot of what I normally like in romances. 

Athena's Child is a feminist retelling from Medusa and Perseus' perspectives of his adventures and the gorgon villain. It is being traditionally republished after initially being self-published! 

We follow Medusa from the beginning of her life, and how she became a priestess at the Temple of Athena. After she was preyed on by another god, she is cursed by Athena to life a life as a monster. Perseus is born to his mother Danae and Zeus. In order to save his mother from a horrible marriage to a ruthless king, he is tasked with bringing back Medusa's head. This story jumps from each POV. 

I already was familiar with this Greek myth and have read many books similar. Greek mythology traditionally treats women as part of the men's story, and this book illustrates it well. There is an inherint patriarchal society where women must protect themselves from men's intentions and if they are assaulted, it becomes their fault. Even the gods perpetrate this, as we read in the book. I found it interesting how the author also showed how the women were entrenched in this type of society and reinforce it. After hearing Medusa's story, her own mother blames her. 

I just had a huge pit in my stomach after finishing this book. Medusa is easily emphasized with in this retelling. She is forced to bear the brunt of the pain of other actions. Another part that I found unique and interesting was the relationship with her sisters/the other gorgons.

I really loved this retelling, it was very emotional and heartbreaking. This is a very quick read, less than 200 pages so I picked it up and read through it in a day. It is a short book with lots of time jumps, and I do feel it would have benefitted from being longer. In the middle of the book, I wish the characters and certain plots were more fleshed out. 

The ending was so indicative of how stories and myths have treated Medusa and other women. Don't expect a happy ending (as is typical with greek myths for women). But overall, it really touched me and I very much recommend this book.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGally for proving me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!