Legendborn

By Tracy Deonn

490 pages

Hardback

YA Fantasy 

LGBTQIA+

Owlcrate 

Books by Black Authors 

This was just a fantastic book. 

There is a secret society, magic, demons, oaths - set against the backdrop of college, early college for the protagonist. 

It deals a lot in grief. 

It's not all hack/slash kill the demons. 

The summary on this page amuses me - 

I also love that Bree is not amazing at everything. She doesn't pick up the weapons in the training arena and beat everyone who has been training their whole life. 

It's obviously going to have a sequel, not sure if it's ramping up to be a duology or a trilogy. 

The characters are great and diverse- not just becuase of race & confronting racial issues, but also it's perhaps the first mainstream YA books I've read with a non-binary character in an important role; they are not the protagonist. There are also several gay relationships. I feel that all of these are treated with respect by the author. 

author info

And another special bonus for us Owlcrate subscribers: 

design in the inside of the dust jacket

I loved this book and I'm really looking forward to the next one!

Among the Beasts & Briars

By Ashley Poston

338 pages (plus a "post credits" scene) 

Hardback

YA Fantasy 

Owlcrate 

I devoured this book. It was one of those ones that I kept itching to pick up again as soon as I put it down. 

front cover

Synopsis

It was creepy (those monsters in the woods!) and not entirely predictable (most of my guesses were right, but a few surprises). 

I liked the world and the characters. I wanted more. (The post credits scene sets up a possible next book - but everything is wrapped up pretty neat and tidy.) I was both glad and sad that it wasn't the start of a series. 

Plus, what a gorgeous book! 

Look at that pretty signature page! At those gorgeous burgundy page edges! 

That map!

The secret, inside the dust jacket artwork!

Owlcrate subscribers also got a letter from the author:

and I think some of those above pretty features were also elusive for us. 

I've Read one other book by this author: Heart of Iron. I've been meaning to pick up the sequel for a long time, but haven't managed to. 

This book is great. I really enjoyed it!

Dread the Harvest Moon

By Sarah Glenn Marsh

339 pages

YA Fantasy

LGBTQIA+

Softcover 

This is a companion novel to Fear the Drowning Deep, but you don't have to have read that one in order to understand or enjoy this one. 

The setting is the same, and there are overlapping characters. The events of that book impacted this one, but the plot is distinct. 

The protagonist of this book is the sister of the protagonist of the previous book. The last book was about sea monsters; this one is about fairies. 

This one is told mostly in the structure of letters (to her sister) that feel more like diary entries. 

Sisters! Art card & bookmark.

Has a slow burn romance between the protagonist and another girl on the island, during a time when that was not acceptable. 

It's set in 1915, and effects of the war are also reaching the island. 

This is a fun, quick read, and the author is a fantastic person. She has been in to talk to my Creative Writing classes a number of times. 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

By Ocean Vuong

Fiction

242 pages

So. 

This is one of those rare books that I didn't finish. 

It sounded good. 

It had good reviews. 

It had an interesting opening.

But I stopped right here. On page 94. 

I didn't care about any of the characters. There was no plot line that I could discern, just a series of character sketches and disconnected scenes. 

So, yeah. My book club picked it, and I was curious what they thought of it, but in the end I didn't even get to go the meeting because I had a PhD conflict. 

Maybe I'll like the next pick more.