Fourth Wing & Iron Flame

By Rebecca Yarros

First 2 books in a 5 book series. 

I enjoyed the first book (Fourth Wing) more than the second. 

But by the time I was reading the second? The stakes: so high. The choices: so incomprehensible. The relationships: a little uncomfortable. 

I still finished it. I still wanted to know how the second book ended. (I was irritated with how it ended.)

Will I read the rest of the series? 🤷‍♀️

Divine Rivals

By Rebecca Ross

362 pages

Hardback

Owlcrate first edition

Oh wow. I started reading this book around 8am today - it is not quite 3pm and I just finished it. 

This book was riveting. I didn't want to put it down- although I did take a little lunch break. 

This book had a little bit of everything: sass, humor, magic, romance...

It also had warfare, and soldiers, and infirmaries. And magical typrewriters.

I even cried at one point. 

No, I won't say when. It's not the above page...

It's also just a beautiful edition! Owlcrate really stepped it up. 

Stamped edges:

With a black ribbon bookmark.

Foiled Hardcover 

The front 

the back

Beautiful end papers:

The neat inside pages:

those typewriter key letters

bound in author letter

signature page

Not tension the art inside the dust jacket (above) or to neglect the back of the dust jacket:

Totally calls for at least a second book - I'm guessing duology because the author has written a couple of those - and I'm really looking forward to the next volume! 

Iron Widow

By Xian Jay Zhao

Hardback

391 pages

YA Sci-Fi

LGTQIA+ characters 

Loaned to me by a student

This is a student’s favorite book, and they have been passionate about having me read it. I told them if they lent it to me before a break I would. They made sure to get it to me just before we left for Winter Break. 

This is what I was handed. No synopsis, no dust jacket, very little idea of what to expect. It was an interesting adventure. 

So, synopsis (relatively spoiler free):

Setting: a fantasy version of China. There is a war. Males pilot these big sort of magical mecha suits, but they have to have a female co-pilot, who is often killed by the experience. Poor families often sell their daughters to the army to be these co-pilots. It is a sexist, patriarchal society. 

Protagonist is from a poor, frontier town. Her elder sister was recently sold to the army and killed by a pilot. Protagonist plucks her unibrow, dresses nice, and also sells herself to the army with the intention of getting revenge on the pilot who killed her sister. 

But that plot actually wraps up really early, and the book evolves. 

At the start of the book, they kept talking about needles, so ick.

The first chapter, when I had no idea what to expect, was difficult for me to get into, but it really was a great story. I mostly read it yesterday. 

I thought there was going to be a cliché love triangle thing happening, but they subverted my expectations. 

The annoying thing is that the next book doesn't come out until August 2023. 

All the Light We Cannot See

By Anthony Doerr

530 pages

Historical Fiction (adult)

Paperback

We got this book last summer for the English 10 book room at my school, but I had never read it before. 

Set (mostly) during WWII, the story juxtaposes the narratives of a blind French civilian girl with a German soldier boy. 

(the first page of the story)

Once I got a feeling for telhe protagonists, I was worried that this was going to turn into an opposites attract romance type story, but it did not - for which I was grateful. 

The book is beautifully written, and sad, and hopeful, and all sorts of complicated things. 

Summer read #21 Sky in the Deep

By Adrienne Young
Hardback
335 pages
Owlcrate

What a freaking lovely book.
Amazing.
Fierce.
Yay.