Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour, but a slump has stopped me from starting it. Since I wont be able to finish this book, I decided to create a fun book tag based on the gods/goddesses and magic. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators and to enter the giveaway.
Thank you to Dana Swift and Delacorte Press for providing me with an ARC for this review
Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for A Crown of Echoes by Brindi Quinn. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour and couldn’t wait to start. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators and to enter the giveaway.
Thank you to Brindi Quinn for providing me with a copy for this review
Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for Glimpsed by GF Miller. This was a book I was especially looking forward to once I found out about it. Be sure to scroll down to enter the giveaway and to see the tour schedule for other content creators.
Thank you to GF Miller and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC for this review
Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour and couldn’t wait to start. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators.
Meet Kristy Dallas Alley
Kristy Dallas Alley is a high school librarian in Memphis, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, four kids, three cats, and an indeterminate number of fish. She studied creative writing at Rhodes College in another lifetime and holds a Master of Science in Instruction and Curriculum Leadership from the University of Memphis. In an ideal world, she would do nothing but sit on a beach and read every single day of her life, but in reality she’s pretty happy reading on her front porch, neglecting the gardens she enthusiastically plants each spring, and cooking huge meals regardless of the number of people around to eat them. The Ballad of Ami Miles is her debut novel.
About The Ballad of Ami Miles
Title: The Ballad of Ami Miles Author: Kristy Dallas Alley Publisher: Swoon Reads Publishing Date: December 1, 2020 Page Length: 272 Genre: Dystopian Age Range: YA Rating: 4 ⭐ Synopisis: Raised in isolation at Heavenly Shepherd, her family’s trailer-dealership-turned-survival compound, Ami Miles knows that she was lucky to be born into a place of safety after the old world ended and the chaos began. But when her grandfather arranges a marriage to a cold-eyed stranger, she realizes that her “destiny” as one of the few females capable of still bearing children isn’t something she’s ready to face.
With the help of one of her aunts, she flees the only life she’s ever known, and sets off on a quest to find her long-lost mother (and hopefully a mate of her own choosing). But as she journeys, Ami discovers many new things about the world… and about herself.
Content Warning: racism, homophobia, toxic masculinity, mention of abusive parental relationship, toxic family
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. This is Kristy’s first book, but I don’t feel that this reads like a debut. Ami is a strong character, but unaware of the world because of her upbringing. We as readers, learn about the world alongside Ami. The beginning part of the book we spend travelling and discovering, but the entire book is about discovery. We get to see Ami learn more about the world and herself – and the discovering of herself I found was difficult for her because of her upbringing, but also heartwarming as she doesn’t let that hold her back. Despite the difficult topics, there wasn’t as much drama in the book as I would have expected – everything just seems to always work out. That was the part I felt was a little unrealistic. Ami would discover something new, not agree with it, then come to terms with it in a matter of hours – not how any teenager (or adult for that matter) would deal with life changing information. I also found that time felt different when reading this book. I always found myself thinking more time had passed than had actually happened within the book because of how Ami had learned/handled things and how strongly relationships formed. I would think weeks had passed to find out that it was just the next day. Besides this one thing, I found The Ballad of Ami Miles to be an interesting read with powerful messages within it. I highly recommend if you like dystopians and if you liked The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams.
Welcome my stop, albeit late, on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West. I was so excited to read this book! Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule from other content creators.
Meet Hannah West
Hannah West is the author of young adult books including The Nissera Chronicles series and The Bitterwine Oath. She’s been writing fantasy since kindergarten, when she penned her first tale about a princess who ran away and lived at the top of a flagpole with two loaves of bread. But it wasn’t until she studied abroad in Orléans, France during college that the premise for her first novel materialized. The fairy tale castles, the snowy winter days, and a Disney princess pencil that arrived in a care package from her parents provided the inspiration that allowed her to wrangle all her untold and unfinished stories into a novel.
Hannah currently lives in the Dallas area with her husband and their two rambunctious rescue dogs.
About The Bitterwine Oath
Title: The Bitterwine Oath Author: Hannah West Publisher: Holiday House Publishing Date: December 1, 2020 Page Length: 340 Genre: Mystery Age Range: YA Rating: 3.5 ⭐ Synopsis: Every fifty years, a cult claims twelve men to murder in a small Texas town. Can one girl end the cycle of violence – and save the boy who broke her heart?
San Solano, Texas is a quaint town known for its charm, hospitality, and history of murder. Twice now, twelve men have been brutally killed, and no one knows who did it. A shadowy witch? A copy-cat killer? Or a man-hating murderess? Eighteen-year-old Natalie Colter is sure that the rumors about her great-great-grandmother’s cult of wronged women are just gossip, but that doesn’t stop the true crime writers and dark tourism bloggers from capitalizing on the town’s reputation. It’s an urban legend that’s hard to ignore, and it gets harder when Nat learns that the sisterhood is real, and magical. And they want her to join.
The more Nat learns of the Wardens’ supernatural history, the more she wonders about the real culprits behind the town’s ritualistic murders. Are the Wardens protecting San Solano from even darker forces? As the anniversary of the murders draws near, the town grows restless. Residents start getting “claimed” as this year’s planned victims, including Levi Langford, the boy whose kiss haunted Nat for a year.
Nat knows that no one is safe. Can she and the sisterhood stop the true evil from claiming their town?
This book isn’t exactly what I had thought it would be – that isn’t bad, just threw me when I first started. This isn’t a story about a cult – well not exactly anyways. And that was the biggest hurtle for me when reading this book. This is of course my fault since I didn’t fully read the synopsis (I rarely do).
Once I got over my original misconceptions about the book, I started to really enjoy the story. West’s writing is easy to get sucked into. The characters are easy to relate to. You can see why Nat may not be trusting of the Warden’s and that trust is constantly being strained when she does start to. With Nat’s lack of (consistent) trust in the Warden, I found myself suspicious of many of the parties. Then, like Nat, there would be moments where I lose all suspicions and wanting to learn more about the magic system.
The magic system itself isn’t unique – it follows the nature principles that many other magic systems have in the past – however, the unique aspect of this book/magic system is the creation of the creatures themselves. These creatures, once Nat (and the readers) finally see past the magical vail, are amazingly unique and interesting. I wish we got to examine them more.
In between chapters we got to read some excerpts from a character’s book. I wanted more! I found them so interesting and added so much to what we were learning about the town/cult/magic system. I wish we had more in between chapters – it wasn’t between each chapter – and less of other components.
The one part of this that felt out of place was the romance. I get it – the reasoning behind adding the romance – it helped connect some parts of the story. But honest, I didn’t feel the connection to this other person and the other person felt flat (void of emotions at times). They felt underdeveloped and honestly interchangeable with other characters at times.
That being said, I really did enjoy this book and do recommend the read. It would be a great fall/transitional read (despite it taking place over the summer). The spooky vibes did eventually ramp up, but not to the point where I believe our scary-cat readers couldn’t handle it.
Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for A Wolf for a Spell by Karah Sutton. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour and couldn’t wait to start. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators.
Meet Karah Sutton
Karah Sutton has loved Baba Yaga, ballet, and blini ever since she had to do a research project on her Russian heritage in the third grade. Her hunger for adventure inspired her to move from Kentucky to New Zealand, where it was rumored she would find talking trees and the occasional wood elf. Karah spent four years as a bookseller before she turned to writing her own fiction. A Wolf For a A Spell is her first novel.
About A Wolf for a Spell
Title: A Wolf for a Spell Author: Karah Sutton Publisher: Alfred A Knopf Books for Young Readers Publishing Date: December 1, 2020 Page Length: 320 Genre: Fantasy Age Range: Middle Grade Rating: 4 ⭐ Synopisis: The Girl Who Drank the Moon meets Pax in this fantastical tale of a wolf who forms an unlikely alliance with Baba Yaga to save the forest from a wicked tsar.
Since she was a pup, Zima has been taught to fear humans—especially witches—but when her family is threatened, she has no choice but to seek help from the witch Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga never does magic for free, but it just so happens that she needs a wolf’s keen nose for a secret plan she’s brewing… Before Zima knows what’s happening, the witch has cast a switching spell and run off into the woods, while Zima is left behind in Baba Yaga’s hut—and Baba Yaga’s body!
Meanwhile, a young village girl named Nadya is also seeking the witch’s help, and when she meets Zima (in Baba Yaga’s form), they discover that they face a common enemy. With danger closing in, Zima must unite the wolves, the witches and the villagers against an evil that threatens them all.
“Karah Sutton has crafted a vivid and rollicking adventure that proves a wolf doesn’t have to be big or bad to win the day!” —Rosanne Parry, New York Times bestselling author of A Wolf Called Wander
This truly felt like an old style fairytale. You can see that the Russian fairytale that the author talks about in her notes really inspired her in this story.
This story follows 3 main characters POVs: Zima, the grey wolf, Baba Yaga, and Nadya,the orphan child. I loved Zima and her willingness to do anything for her pack! She was beyond adorable for me, so curious and full of heart. Baba Yaga was my second favourite character. I haven’t read any story with Baba Yaga in it before, but I loved this interpretation of this well known fairytale character.
At first. I really wasn’t sure how the third storyline connected with the other two. It was obvious from the beginning that Zima and Baba storyline were connected and would cross, but I never could see how Nadya was involved. The people around her, yes, but not Nadya herself – not until the halfway point when their stories did cross.
I loved that in each POV we got to see that the character’s perceptions were turned on their heads as they learned more and were exposed to their thoughts/beliefs/misunderstanding. The common theme of being alone/wanting to belong was strong throughout this story, but I loved hoe the author managed to take that theme and tell in it such different ways.
I highly recommend this if you enjoy fairytales or tales inspired by fairytales; if you love books written from an animal’s POV; or if you love books with Baba Yaga in it!
Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars by Shivaun Plozza. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour and couldn’t wait to start. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators.
Meet Shivaun Plozza
Shivaun Plozza is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Her debut novel, Frankie, was a CBCA Notable Book and won a number of awards, including the Davitt Awards and a commendation from the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her second novel, Tin Heart, sold in three foreign territories, received two starred reviews, and was nominated to ALA’S Best Fiction for Young Adults list. Her debut middle-grade novel, The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars, is forthcoming in 2020 from HMH Books for Young Readers and Penguin Random House Australia. She is a frequent contributor to anthologies, and when she is not writing she works as an editor and manuscript assessor.
About The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars
Title: The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars Author: Shivaun Plozza Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers Publishing Date: November 17, 2020 Page Length: 338 Genre: Fantasy Age Range: Middle Grade CAWPILE: 7.14/10 Synopisis: A boy and his pet fox go on a quest to find a wolf who has eaten all the stars in the sky before the Shadow Witch destroys the stars and removes good magic from the world forever.
Long ago, the land of Ulv was filled with magic. But that was before a wolf ate all the Stars in the night sky, ridding the world of magic and allowing Shadow Creatures, beasts made of shadow and evil, to flourish. Twelve-year-old Bo knows the stories but thinks the Stars and the wolf who ate them are nothing more than myths—until the day Bo’s guardian, Mads, is attacked by a giant wolf straight from the legends. With his dying breath, Mads tells Bo that Ulv is in danger and the only way to prevent the Shadow Creatures from taking over is to return the Stars to the sky.
And so Bo—accompanied by his best friend, a fox called Nix, a girl named Selene who’s magic is tied to the return of the Stars, and Tam, a bird-woman who has vowed to protect Bo at all costs—sets off on a quest to find the three magical keys that will release the Stars. But Bo isn’t the only one who wants the Stars, and the friends soon find themselves fleeing angry villagers, greedy merchants, and a vengeful wolf. And all the while, an evil witch lurks in the shadows and time is running out.
This was a fast-paced book that was full of heart. I found it handled a lot of heavier topics such as grief, abandonment, and greed/power very well and did so without dumbing it down for the age range.
I absolutely loved the added excerpts from The True Histories of Ule, which I kind of want as its own book. It added a lot of interesting history to it and read like a fairytale/myth. And let me just say that map at the beginning is beautiful!
With this book handling the topic of grief, I did find it to be an emotional read, especially in the last few chapters. I am happy with how Plozza ended this topic/book – I don’t know if I could have handled her not ending it the way she did without it completely ripping and stomping on my heart. That being said, not everything ends with sunshine and rainbows, so it may be more emotionally impactful to those who have had recent deaths of family members or pets.
Overall, I thought this was a very enjoyable read and the later half really made the book for me.
Mood Board
Tour Schedule
Blog Schedule
November 16th TBR and Beyond – Welcome Post & Interview The Writer’s Alley – Review, Mood Board, Top 5 Reasons to Read The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars Casia’s Corner – Review & Top 5 Reasons to Read The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars
November 17th Readers Fox – Review & Favourite Quotes The Book Moo – Review & Top 5 Reasons to Read The Boys, the Wolf, and the Stars Marie Davies – Review & Favourite Quotes
Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for Born at Dawn by Christina Davis. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour and couldn’t wait to start. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators.
Meet Christina Davis
Christina Davis was raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains and is a California girl at heart. She spent much of her childhood in and out of hospitals and embraced reading as an escape. After being home-schooled through high school, she graduated summa cum laude from San Jose State University and attended NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute before embarking on a decade-long career in journalism. She enjoys chocolate, cosplay, coffee, and board games, but not necessarily in that order. She now lives in beautiful Monterey County with her husband and daughter.
About Born at Dawn
Title: Born at Dawn Series: Da’Valia Trilogy #1 Author: Christina Davis Publisher: Indie Publishing Date: November 15, 2020 Page Length: 304 Genre: Fantasy Age Range: YA CAWPILE: 8.21/10 Synopisis: When a heist goes terribly wrong and the binding spell holding 17-year-old Neva’s powers at bay is shattered, the half-human thief knows she’s in trouble.
Neva has always hidden her Da’Valian heritage while working risky jobs to make a name for herself and serving at her family’s tavern, but she won’t be able to hide much longer. She can either risk the safety of those she cares about or seek out her mother’s people to gain control over her emerging powers.
The Da’Valia are beautiful, brutal creatures created by the god of war, and the austere Da’Valian soldier Astiand reluctantly agrees to take Neva to his clan under his protection. She makes unexpected friends, including the handsome fighter Emiliand, and a new enemy in the clan’s ruthless leader.
Spying on her guardian, the sly heroine quickly discovers just how deep she has stumbled into a dangerous, developing clan feud.
Will she be able to embrace who she is in time to keep her loved ones safe?
Wow did this book ever deliver! I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from the description, but I am beyond happy with what I read!
Neva is a strong character that has a hidden powers/identity. She is strong willed, quick to learn, and has a tendency to be a sarcastic, smart-ass. I absolutely love her! Astiand is by far my favourite of the male characters! He is dark, brooding, and had a tendency to try to put Neva in her place! Emiliand, on the other had, understands Neva on a level that no one else seems to be able to. He is strong and seems sweet and charming, but he wasn’t my favourite. Honestly, I wanted less of Emilian and Adam (friend from home) and more time with Astiand! Neva and Astiand’s tension has a will they/wont they quality that I absolutely love and spend so much time screaming “just f*** already!!!!”
Davis’ writing was easy to read and provided a lot of atmosphere to the book. We felt everything that Neva felt and could hear/smell what she was hearing/smelling – although there is one scene that I would have loved to not have that experience lol. It was face-paced, but not overly so. At no point did I feel lost or confused. The magic system made sense and we learned along side Neva – instead of her knowing it all and us trying to catch up.
The journal entries took me a while to understand their importance and I think I may have liked them as being part of the story – reading along with Neva – instead of having them at the beginning of each chapter. There were points where I didn’t understand what they were referring to and why I would care. But once we got further into the story, more and more of the previous entries made sense.
This book was action packed and full of sexual tension (some I rooted for whole-heartedly). I highly recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy with a character with hidden history/power. Neva reminds me of a mix of characters – Nina, Mia, oh and I’m sure many other bad ass female characters that I can’t picture at the moment. I can’t wait for the next book to come out!!!!
Welcome to my stop o the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for Master of One by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom to find the Tour Schedule and check out the reviews and other creative content done by other bloggers.
Meet Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett are married co-authors (without wanting to divorce yet) who live in Brooklyn with 8 cats. Danielle is from Victoria, British Columbia, and works freelance as an independent editor, proofreader and plagiarism checker. Jaida is a native New Yorker. Their published work includes four novels from the Volstovic Cycle, in addition to their many twitter rants on intersectional feminism and the NYC subway system. COMING FALL 2020 FROM HARPERTEEN: MASTER OF ONE.
Jaida Jones
Danielle Bennett
About Master of One
Title: Master of One Author: Jaida Jones & Danie Bennett Publisher: HarperTeen Publishing Date: November 10, 2020 Page Length: 544 Genre: Fantasy Age Range: YA Synopsis: Sinister sorcery. Gallows humor. A queer romance so glorious it could be right out of fae legend itself. Master of One is a fantasy unlike any other.
Rags is a thief—an excellent one. He’s stolen into noble’’s coffers, picked soldier’s pockets, and even liberated a ring or two off the fingers of passersby. Until he’s caught by the Queensguard and forced to find an ancient fae relic for a sadistic royal sorcerer.
But Rags could never have guessed this “relic” would actually be a fae himself—a distractingly handsome, annoyingly perfect, ancient fae prince called Shining Talon. Good thing Rags can think on his toes, because things just get stranger from there…
With the heist and intrigue of Six of Crows and the dark fairy tale feel of The Cruel Prince, this young adult fantasy debut will have readers rooting for a pair of reluctant heroes as they take on a world-ending fae prophecy, a malicious royal plot, and, most dangerously of all, their feelings for each other.
Welcome to my stop on the Book Tour for The Camelot Betrayal (Camelot Rising #2) by Kiersten White, hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. This series has been on my radar, but alas I haven’t been able to squeeze The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1) onto my TBR before this tour so I wont be able to review it at this time – however, it is on my overall TBR. Be sure to scroll all the way down to see the Tour Schedule and to enter into a chance to win a finished copy of The Camelot Betrayal.
Meet Kiersten White
Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling and Bram Stoker award-winning author of the And I Darken trilogy, the Paranormalcy trilogy, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Slayer, The Guinevere Deception, and many other novels. Kiersten lives with her family in sunny San Diego, California, where she perpetually lurks in the shadows.
About The Camelot Betrayal
Title: The Camelot Betrayal Series: Camelot Rising #2 Author: Kiersten White Publisher: Delacorte Press Publishing Date: November 10, 2020 Page Length: 384 Genre: Fantasy, Retelling Age Range: YA Synopisis: The second book in a new fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White, exploring the nature of self, the inevitable cost of progress, and, of course, magic and romance and betrayal so epic Queen Guinevere remains the most famous queen who never lived.
EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom’s influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.
Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde, Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen’s knight, and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere–the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn’t belong. She never will.
When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere’s younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving–Camelot, or herself?
Giveaway
Enter for a change to win a finished copy of The Camelot Betrayal. The giveaway ends on November 16th. Sorry, but this is US only.
