blog tour – Whimsical Dragonette

Blog Tour and Arc Review: The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

Welcome to my stop on the Severed Thread book tour with Colored Pages Blog Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

tour schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: The Severed Thread
AUTHOR: Leslie Vedder
PUBLISHER: Razorbill
RELEASE DATE: February 7, 2023
GENRES: YA Fantasy
PAGES: 416
REPRESENTATION: Queer

Synopsis:

Fi has awakened the sleeping prince, but the battle for Andar is far from over. The Spindle Witch, the Witch Hunters, and Fi’s own Butterfly Curse all stand between them and happily ever after.

Shane has her partner’s back. But she’s in for the fight of her life against Red, the right hand of the Spindle Witch who she’s also, foolishly, hellbent on saving.

Briar Rose would do anything to restore his kingdom. But there’s a darkness creeping inside him—a sinister bond to the Spindle Witch he can’t escape.

All hopes of restoring Andar rest on deciphering a mysterious book code, finding the hidden city of the last Witches, and uncovering a secret lost for centuries—one that just might hold the key to the Spindle Witch’s defeat. If they can all survive that long…

Set in a world of twisted fairytales, The Severed Thread combines lost ruins, ride-or-die friendships, and heart-pounding romance.

Author Bio:

Leslie Vedder is a YA author who loves girl heroes and adventurers. She grew up on fantasy books, anime, fanfiction, and the Lord of the Rings movies, and met her true love in high school choir. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in creative writing, and currently lives in Colorado with her wife and two spoiled house cats.

Author Links:

My Review:

This was such an incredibly good follow-up to the Bone Spindle. I loved it!

I love love love these characters and this world. They’re all so multi-faceted and intriguing. I can’t wait for the next book. I especially love how unpredictable I find it. I’ve read so many YA fantasy novels over the years and this one never quite reveals what I expect it to with each turn of the page. As is the way of second books in trilogies, the entire story feels like a relentless headlong rush, and at the same time a carefully balanced push-and-pull of wins and losses. Not a stalemate, exactly, but never with a clear winner either.

My absolute favorite part, hands down, is when they form a small band of adventurers and treasure-hunters. First it was Fi and Shane, then they picked up Red and Briar, and now they’ve reeled in Perrin as well. And there is such warmth and camaraderie between them — and they all seem a lot happier out in the elements, fighting for their lives and searching for treasure and hatching plans. I never trusted the golden city of Everlynd, and I find I like the story much better once they leave it behind.

I’m not sure what I think of the Paper Witch either. He has his own secrets, and he holds them closer than the others do. He’s more enigmatic and I’m never sure what he’ll do. The others’ motivations are easier to read.

I love how we get a glimpse into the founding of Andar, with the history of Aurora and the Butterfly Witch and the Spindle Witch! I hope we get to discover a lot more about this later because I find it fascinating.

The ending came out of nowhere and wasn’t anything like what I predicted and at the same time I can’t imagine it going any other way. It, like the rest of the storytelling, feels right and perfectly placed and thought-out.

I care about these characters so much: Fi and Shane and Briar and Red. Perrin, too, though I don’t know him that well yet. I’m not sure I trust him yet – his motivations have been too unclear to me, but I like him quite a lot. I like all of them and I feel almost like a part of their group. Which is probably why the plot was able to take me so off-guard – I’m in the thick of it with the rest of them.

This (and the Bone Spindle) are definitely going on my favorite books of the year list.

*Thanks to Colored Pages Blog Tours, Penguin Teen, and NetGalley for providing an early copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

Fi looked disappointed. But Shane wasn’t surprised. The kind of person who crawled around in the bowels of Witch mines prying out rubies with ominous names was just asking to go missing.
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

Ivan must have mounted up after she lost track of him, fast enough on horseback to get out of the way of the mudslide. Or he’s come back from the dead to get revenge, Shane thought. She wouldn’t put it past him.
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

“Just cut it all off,” Shane insisted. She was looking a little ragged around the edges and a dark bruise stood out on her cheekbone, but she was in high spirits.

“With what, your ax?” Fi asked, arching an eyebrow. “Because I can guarantee that haircut would strike fear into the hearts of your enemeis—and your friends.”
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

“No,” Perrin said with a smile. “The magic is locked tightly inside it. It’s perfectly safe. Well, mostly safe.” He gave it a mistrustful look. “Probably safe. You know, on second thought, I’m just going to put this away.”
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

“I didn’t even know you could burn soup,” he admitted.

“Typical prince. You can burn anything—I would know,” Shane assured him. “But most of it’s edible anyway.”
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

Her fingers fumbled for something to hold on to—and then her hand found Briar’s, squeezing it tight, and something swept through him, such a big warm feeling it had to be magic.
The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

Tour Schedule:

February 1st

Fall Between the Pages – Book Review

Allmyfriendsareinbooks – Book Review

February 2nd

@the_princess_library – Book Review

February 3rd

More Books Please – Book Review

February 4th

Brittyoreads – Book Review

February 5th

Whimsical Dragonette – Review & Favorite Quotes

February 6th

Conn_reada – Book Review

Leandra the TBR Zero – Book Review & Recommendation

February 7th

Pisces: The Book Lover – Book Review

February 8th

Ofbooksandromance – Book Review

February 9th

Readwithatlas – Book Review

February 10th

Utopia.state.of.mind – Book Review

The._bookarazzi – Book Review

February 11th

My World of Wonders – Book Review & Favorite Quotes

@poatic.library – Book Review & Reel

February 12th

@Margiebythebookcase – Book Review

February 13th

_holmescollections – Book Review

February 14th

@theenchantedshelf – Book Review

Blog Tour and Arc Review: The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Welcome to my stop on the Buried and the Bound book tour with Colored Pages Blog Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

tour schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: The Buried and the Bound
AUTHOR: Rochelle Hassan
PUBLISHER: Roaring Book Press
RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2023
GENRES: YA Fantasy
PAGES: 384
REPRESENTATION: BIPOC, Queer

Synopsis:

As the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts—an uncommonly magical place—Aziza El-Amin has bargained with wood nymphs, rescued palm-sized fairies from house cats, banished flesh-eating shadows from the local park. But when a dark entity awakens in the forest outside of town, eroding the invisible boundary between the human world and fairyland, run-of-the-mill fae mischief turns into outright aggression, and the danger—to herself and others—becomes too great for her to handle alone.

Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He’s road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn’t even know his true love’s name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it’s haunting.

Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he’ll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she’ll help him break the curse.

When the creature in the woods sets its sights on them, their survival depends on the aid of a mysterious young necromancer they’re not certain they can trust. But they’ll have to work together to eradicate the new threat and take back their hometown… even if it forces them to uncover deeply buried secrets and make devastating sacrifices.

Author Bio:

Rochelle Hassan grew up reading about dragons, quests, and unlikely heroes; now she writes about them, too. She is the author of the middle-grade novel The Prince of Nowhere and young adult fantasy novel, The Buried and the Bound. She lives in New York

Author Links:

goodreads

website

instagram

My Review:

This was phenomenal! It was just the right amount of dark for me – full of creeping dread and a constant level of darkness that you don’t usually find in fantasy books. Like a Sabriel level of darkness. There were plot twists upon plot twists, and always revealed at the exact right time to make an impact and change the direction of the plot. And while the groundwork was carefully laid, several of them took me by surprise.

I never felt like the plot was forced into the ‘standard’ YA formula. I was dreading a typical love triangle and am so relieved that this is not that at all. In fact I love this, the bonds between each of the characters, the secrets and the trust. I have become used to checking the percentage on my kindle as a way to gauge what will happen next – but that didn’t work here. The story shifted and changed and breathlessly barreled towards the end without ever letting up or falling into the standard back and forth I am used to. I loved it and I couldn’t tear myself away.

I LOVED the characters. Aziza is practical and competent and I loved seeing her grow as a hedgewitch. Leo was warm and caring and it hurt to see the effects of the curse on him. Tristan was desperate and in a lot of pain and I really felt for him. I loved how their lives slowly twined together as the story progressed, and how three seeming strangers became inseperable and bound together. I can’t wait to see where the next installment takes them.

I love how the story explored the boundaries and margins of things. The way Leo fought constantly against the edges of his curse. The practicalities and difficulties of Tristan being homeless. The way Aziza spent her time protecting the boundary between Blackthorn and Elfhame. The way the hag pushed up against both of those and was neither. The boundaries between love and friendship and trust and curses and lies.

The darkness was all-encompassing and weighed on everything, but there was just enough light to counter it that it never felt too oppressive or too much.

The writing was gorgeous. It was absolutely perfect for the story, and there were phrases that really stood out to me and stuck with me because of how beautiful they were. Darkly beautiful, but beautiful all the same.

I am SO glad it’s going to have a sequel(s) because I don’t want to leave this world or these characters and there is so much more to be discovered.

I would recommend this to people who enjoyed Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom books (Sabriel), Libba Bray’s Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy, Holly Black’s Cruel Prince trilogy and Darkest Part of the Forest, Margaret Rogerson’s Vespertine, Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner series, and maybe also Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series. Stories of magic and darkness and terrifying, creeping evil and traditional fae and characters who are determined and hold just enough light to counter the darkness of their worlds.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s and Colored Pages Blog Tours for providing an early copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

Even on four legs, it was taller than either of them and broader than the two of them combined: a wolf blacker than black, as dark as the space between the end of a dream and the moment of waking.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Her roots weren’t there; they were here in Blackthorn, not only because she’d been born here, not only because her parents had chosen it, but because it had chosen her.

And Aziza chose it back. That was how you made a place your home: You put work into it. You carved out a role for yourself. You made yourself belong even if you weren’t sure you did.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

If they could’ve cut him up into pieces and kept only the parts they found acceptable, they would’ve done it in a heartbeat.
No, they hadn’t loved him. They hadn’t even liked him.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Leo’s car was a bucket of rust held together with duct tape and hope. It whined, it groaned, it sputtered threateningly anytime Leo turned left — but as Leo put what must have been all his weight on the pedal and the car lurched into motion, it was a chariot of the fucking gods.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

She sounded calm, and she felt it, too, the cool practicality that came of being in a situation that was so completely fucked that your mind tricked itself into not being afraid — like cold that was so cold it burned. Fear that ran so deep it became bravery.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Overhead, the forest canopy dropped off suddenly, and the night sky gaped down like an audience, silent and breathless.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

He knew better than most people that Blackthorn was ugly and dangerous sometimes, and its magic was ugly and dangerous sometimes, but the ugly parts of Blackthorn had a right to exist too.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Dawn broke sluggishly, with a first sliver of sun like the horizon cracking open an orange eye.
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Blog Tour and Arc Review: Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

Welcome to my stop on the Spice Road book tour with TBR and Beyond Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Tour Schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: Spice Road (The Spice Road Trilogy #1)
AUTHOR: Maiya Ibrahim
PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton
RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2023
GENRES: YA Fantasy
Content Warning: politics, colonialism

Synopsis:

The first book in an epic fantasy series for fans of Sabaa Tahir, Hafsah Faizal and Elizabeth Lim, set in an Arabian-inspired land. Raised to protect her nation from the monsters lurking in the sands, seventeen-year-old Imani must fight to find her brother whose betrayal is now their greatest threat.

In the hidden desert city of Qalia, secret spice magic awakens affinities in those who drink the misra tea. With an affinity for iron, seventeen-year-old Imani wields a dagger like no other warrior, garnering her the reputation as the next greatest Shield for battling the dangerous djinn, ghouls, and other monsters that lurk in the sands beyond city limits.

Her reputation has been overshadowed, however, by her brother who tarnished the family name after he was discovered stealing their nation’s coveted spice – a tell-tale sign of magical obsession. He disappeared soon after, believed to have died beyond the Forbidden Wastes, and leaving Imani reeling with both betrayal and grief.

But when Imani uncovers evidence her brother may be alive and spreading their nation’s magic beyond the desert, she strikes a deal with the Council to find him and bring him back to Qalia before he can reveal the city’s location. Accompanied by Qayn, a roguish but handsome djinni, and Taha, a powerful beastseer whose magical talents are matched only by his arrogance, they set out on their mission.

Imani will soon discover there are many secrets that lie beyond the Forbidden Wastes – and in her own heart – but will she find her brother before his betrayals endanger the fate of all of Qalia?

In this epic and action-packed fantasy, one young heroine navigates the treacherous road between protecting the ones you love and staying loyal to the place you call home.

Author Bio:

Maiya Ibrahim is the debut author of SPICE ROAD, publishing January 24, 2023 from Delacorte Press and Hodder & Stoughton. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Technology Sydney. When she isn’t writing, reading, or spending time with her family, she enjoys video games, gardening, and expanding her collection of rare trading cards. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

She is represented by Peter Knapp of Park & Fine Literary and Media, Claire Wilson of RCW Literary, and Mary Pender-Coplan of United Talent Agency.

Author Links:

My Review:

This book started slowly and I wasn’t convinced by Imani at first because she was naiive and self-important,and frankly a bit annoying, but wow did she grow emotionally over the course of the story. Also what started out looking like a typical love triangle turned into… something else. I’m honestly not sure what it is yet and I have no idea where it will end up, with all the twists and turns it went through in this book. The plot was also very twisty. I saw some of the twists coming, but a bunch of them surprised me. There’s also a bunch of things only beginning to be hinted at that have me very excited for the next installment.

Each of the characters is slowly revealed to have hidden depths and motivations and desires as the story progresses and it makes it very hard to know who to trust and who to let yourself get attached to. I honestly still don’t know. As this is book 1 of a trilogy, it will probably be a while before I find out. But that’s ok — I’m here for the journey.

The setting is very intriguing, with Imani’s kingdom hidden from the outside world for centuries — and the outside world hidden from it. The magic is also very cool. I like that it’s tea-based and has to be replenished daily. All the hints about the desert “monsters” also add up to what will hopefully be a very promising twist later on.

I love the emphasis on family bonds and also the emphasis on how important it is to help those in need even if they aren’t of your family or clan or even kingdom.

The plot barrels along once it gets started — I was completely hooked by about 20-25% — and is constantly throwing new things at you and pulling the sand from beneath your feet. I approve. It was a lot of fun, I was very engrossed, and I know this trilogy is going to be a favorite.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children’s: Delacorte Press, and TBR and Beyond Tours for proividing an early copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

We will fight, but first we will have tea.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

It avalanches upon me, this abhorrent realization that I must venture into cursed lands with someone who plainly dislikes me, and I must rely on him for survival. What a laughable concept. I’d fare better relying on an empty pistachio shell.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

Night arrives like a thief, with a slow creep, stealing the day piece by piece.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

I am unsure how to feel, but I feel it all at once.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

I am searching for our differences yet finding only similarities in the ways we look, speak, dress, live.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

I have finally learned something substantial about who Taha is — the maxim he lives by: find a way or make one.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

– But that is the problem. It is not enough to mean well, not anymore — I must also do well.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

“Then why do you not want to win anymore? If you forfeit now, you will assuredly lose. But if you press on while you can, you may find yourself a victor. The future is not final until we reach it.”

….

“There is one lesson that comes above the rest, Imani, and it is this: if you decide to play, play until the end.”
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

The right decision. This entire journey from Qalia to here has been a cascade of decisions, one knocking into another, nudging me along a path, the end of which I cannot know. Who is to say what is right if wrong has not yet had its day?
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

“What can I tell you, Slayer? Not all who are bad are bad the whole way through.”
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

Blog Blitz and Arc Review: A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett (The Secret Scientists of London #3)

Welcome to my stop on the A Love by Design Blog Blitz with Berkley Publishing. (This is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

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Publication Date: January 17, 2023

Synopsis:

You couldn’t design a better hero than the very eligible and extremely charming Earl Grantham. Unless, of course, you are Margaret Gault, who wants nothing to do with the man who broke her youthful heart.

Widowed and determined, Margaret Gault has returned to Athena’s Retreat and the welcoming arms of her fellow secret scientists with an ambitious plan in mind: to establish England’s first woman-owned engineering firm. But from the moment she sets foot in London her plans are threatened by greedy investors and–at literally every turn–the irritatingly attractive Earl Grantham, a man she can never forgive.

George Willis, the Earl Grantham, is thrilled that the woman he has loved since childhood has returned to London. Not as thrilling, however, is her decision to undertake an engineering commission from his political archnemesis. When Margaret’s future and Grantham’s parliamentary reforms come into conflict, Grantham must use every ounce of charm he possesses–along with his stunning good looks and flawless physique, of course–to win Margaret over to his cause.

Facing obstacles seemingly too large to dismantle, will Grantham and Margaret remain forever disconnected or can they find a way to bridge their differences, rekindle the passion of their youth, and construct a love built to last?

About the Author:

Elizabeth Everett lives in upstate New York with her family. She likes going for long walks or (very) short runs to nearby sites that figure prominently in the history of civil rights and women’s suffrage. Her series is inspired by her admiration for rule breakers and belief in the power of love to change the world.

My Review:

I loved many things about this novel. First would have to be the characters. It was fun to revisit the characters of Athena’s Retreat, and I loved seeing George and Arthur “fighting” (in other words: expressing best-friendship) about George’s increasingly ridiculous gifts for Violet & Arthur’s baby. I loved George as a character in general – he was so sweet and funny and had an absolute heart of gold. He cared and was trying to do good with the title he’d never wanted. I loved Margaret as well, though she was a bit pricklier and also incredibly stubborn. If she’d let people in and asked for help earlier in the novel I wouldn’t have been so frustrated at her decisions… though it also would have meant there would be less story. She is strong and bold and determined and yes, stubborn. I also loved the bit we get of Sam, who I remember loving in the previous book.

This novel really drove home the ‘rich and powerful men want to control and dominate women and will do anything to undermine them and keep them from succeeding and keep the status quo’ point from previous books — a point which really hits close to home after watching the events of the past few years unfolding. Much like the real-world events, the events of the novel were infuriating and had me rooting for Maragaret and her friends to prove themselves.

The romance was sweet and one of my favorite kinds — a second-chance romance between childhood friends / crushes. It was easy to get behind it because George was so very gone on Margaret. He was so in awe of her engineering brain and determined spirit and it was so refreshing, with all the terrible men in the story. They all wanted to crush her beneath their boots for the audacity of being a woman with ideas, and he just wanted to worship her for it. It was clear that Margaret loved him as well — she just had to get past her stubborn self-reliant independence.

The one thing I could have done without was the sex scenes. There weren’t too many — three, I think? — but they were very… detailed. Luckily they weren’t vital and I could skim them (slowing down to read the dialogue in case it advanced the plot, which it occasionally did). And for me, three sex scenes is three too many. I know I’m in the minority here, and in fact I saw some reviewers lamenting that there weren’t enough sex scenes — which, how? — so I’m going to chalk it up to just the average romance reader apparently liking to read about sex a lot more than I do and not let it impact my rating.

Margaret also dragged the stubborn independence thing on a liiiiiiittle bit too long, in my opinion, and it bogged down the middle 40% of the book. I think some tightening of the plot there would go a long way toward making this flow better and feel more consistent.

Overall though I really loved it. I love stories with smart women and men with hearts of gold, and this delivered that beautifully.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley for providing an early copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

The work came first. She mustn’t ever forget when everyone abandoned her, the work was always there.
A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

As the sun battled to punch through the haze of coal smut hanging in the damp London air, Grantham sat in shadows, jealous of the lone shaft of light that fell through the window and landed on Margaret’s left cheek.
A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

Everything would be fine if you do the work. Do not aim too high, do not set yourself out to be noticed. If you were a woman in a man’s world, moving forward meant bending to their desires or just doing the work.
A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

Yes, and imagine what they would think if Margaret failed? If they learned she spent every day unsure of her talents and worried about exposure? Shouldn’t she feel like a role model if she was going to be one?
A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

“I have always loved her,” he said. “I breathe her and bleed her, and if you open me up, my heart is the shape of Margaret Gault. I have loved her from the moment she knocked me to the ground; a blow from which I have never tried to recover. Of course I love her.”
A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

Whether that step leads you to where you were always meant to be depends on how you define courage. Is it the tenacity to forge ahead no matter the obstacles, or the ability to ask for help when those obstacles seem insurmountable?
Or is it both?
A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

Excerpt:

Maggie had returned.

Of course, she was now known as Madame Margaret Gault.

Try as he might, Grantham could never twist his tongue around the name.

Almost his whole life, he’d called her Maggie.

His Maggie.

From upside down, he watched as she turned the corner of the carriage house, the wind unfurling the hem of her simple bronze pelisse. A brown capelet hung about her shoulders, and a matching muff hid her hands. Catching sight of him, she paused, tilting her head so he caught a glimpse of lush auburn curls peeking out from beneath her tea-colored bonnet trimmed with bright red berries. Margaret’s fair skin showed no hint of the freckles that had once plagued her every summer, and thick brown lashes shielded her hazel eyes.

She was unusually tall for a woman; nevertheless, she moved with effortless grace, and not even the blazing clash of colors adorning Violet next to her could detract from her beauty.

For she was a beauty, Margaret Gault. Once wild and graceless, she’d bloomed into a woman of elegant refinement.

A woman who was more than met the eye.

A woman who would rather feast on glass than give him the time of day.

For eleven years, the first day of summer meant Margaret would be waiting for him beneath the willow where they first met. She and Violet attended the Yorkshire Academy for the Education of Exceptional Young Women together. While Violet came home to her large, affectionate-and very loud-family, Margaret had no one waiting for her at home. Her father had died of a stroke when she was ten and her mother had little interest in Margaret’s whereabouts or well-being.

Violet and Grantham had been Margaret’s family. The three of them had been the best of friends until one hot afternoon when Margaret had smiled a certain way and the ground went out beneath his feet. A year later he was soldiering in Canada and Margaret lived in Paris and their summers together were nothing but a memory he pulled around himself like a blanket on cold lonely nights.

“Good afternoon, Grantham,” Violet greeted him, seemingly unaffected by his headfirst dive into her rosebushes. She wore a shocking yellow day dress beneath a burgundy velvet paletot and atop her head sat a garish blue bonnet topped with a life-sized stuffed parrot.

Swallowing a barrelful of curses, Grantham tried wriggling out of the bushes, every single thorn piercing his flesh a hundredfold as Margaret stared without saying a word.

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat as he managed to get to his feet despite being trapped in the center of one of the bushes. As he pulled a branch from his hair, a shower of wrinkled brown rose petals drifted down his shoulders. “You are especially . . . vibrant today, Violet. I brought this for Baby Georgie.”

He thrust the torn, dirtied rabbit at Violet, who received it with a bemused air. One of the buttons had come off and the silk was stained green and brown.

“Madame Gault,” he said, bowing to Margaret. “So lovely to see you again.”

No matter how strongly Grantham willed it, Margaret did not speak to him in return. Instead, she bent her knee a scant inch in a desultory curtsey, her lush mouth twisted like the clasp of a coin purse, no doubt to hold inside the names she was calling him in her head. He had a good idea what some of them were, considering he most likely had taught them to her.

Grantham hadn’t seen Margaret for thirteen years until their reunion-if one could call it that-a year and a half ago in the small parlor of Athena’s Retreat. He hadn’t exactly met the moment then, either-although to be fair, there’d been a hedgehog involved. The handful of times he encountered her since, she’d avoided meeting his eyes with her own, as though he were an inconsequential shadow cast by their past.

Someone to be dismissed.

Someone who had broken her heart and whom she would never forgive.

“See who is come to live in England for good.” Violet linked her arm with Margaret’s and beamed at her friend.

This was news.

When Margaret had come to stay at Athena’s Retreat a year and half ago to complete an engineering project for her father-in-law’s firm, Grantham had hoped she’d stay but she returned to Paris after three months. He’d asked Violet if Margaret might ever return, but Violet had doubted it.

“She’s one of the only women engineers in Europe with an excellent reputation. Why give up a dream hard fought to come back to England and fight all over again?” Violet had asked.

Something had changed, however, and now Margaret was home.

His heart leapt in his chest and the bitter orange flavor of hope flooded his mouth.

“Clean yourself up and come inside for tea,” Violet said to him now.

Margaret did not echo the invitation. Instead, she tightened her hold on a stylish carpet bag and accompanied Violet and Arthur into the building.

There are moments in life when the world shifts as though a door has opened somewhere out of sight. Whether a person runs toward that opened door or not depends on how fast they’re stuck in place. Grantham considered for a moment how painful it would be to get himself unstuck.

Although the tangle of branches in front of him twisted menacingly, he pulled a deep breath of resolution into his lungs alongside the scents of rosehips and crushed greenery. Gritting his teeth, he made his way through the thorns toward the open door.

Blog Tour & ARC Review: The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

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Publishing Date: October 11, 2022

Welcome to the Belle of Belgrave Square book tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This blog tour post is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Synopsis:

A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger.

Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has set his sights on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.

For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can’t spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins—she proposes to Captain Blunt.

In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride—and to read—as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around in his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes….

Author Bio:

USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews writes both historical nonfiction and award-winning proper Victorian romances. Her novels have received starred reviews in Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus, and her articles have been featured on the Victorian Web, the Journal of Victorian Culture, and in syndication at BUST Magazine. In her other life, Mimi is an attorney. She resides in California with her family, which includes a retired Andalusian dressage horse, a Sheltie, and two Siamese cats. Learn more online at mimimatthews.com.

My Review:

I loved this so much. I loved the first as well but I had reservations about it – not so here. Everything about this story was historical romance perfection. I had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading.

The romance was swoony, the characters beautifully written, the struggles and misunderstandings relatable, and the closed-door romance a big plus for me. I also really loved the use of the Bluebeard story – and the way the expectations arising from that were flipped. It was also really well-written – I had no problems at all with the writing like I often do with romances.

The plot felt familiar to me but I think this was a combination of having read the preview at the end of the previous book and also that it just hits every historical romance beat to perfection. This makes it somewhat predictable but isn’t that one of the main selling points of romances? I like that they’re cozy and predictable and follow a familiar pattern. I also am a huge fan of almost all of the tropes used in this book so that probably contributed as well.

The children were adorable in their wildness and reluctance to open up, and also in the sweet way they responded to Julia. Captain Blunt was broody and cold for a reason and as he opened up and showed his true self I couldn’t help but love him. I was SO happy to see Julia learn to stand up for herself and believe in herself and her worth. I also really appreciated seeing her anxiety – I really felt for her because I, too, have extreme anxiety and would generally prefer to be reading a book. Every part of this novel just made me so happy, I was reluctant to put it down and wanted the story to go on forever.

I highly recommend this.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing an e-arc for review.

Favorite Quotes:

In a novel she was safe. Her throat didn’t close up and her palms didn’t grow damp. She could experience things in a way that didn’t overwhelm her.
The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

“Laws are made by men and, therefore, fallible. Justice is something greater. Most of us—the poorest and the weakest—won’t see it on this side of the grave. But sometimes, on rare occasions, someone manages to balance the scales. It can be difficult to reconcile it with the law. That doesn’t negate the rightness of it.”
The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

Non-exclusive Excerpt:

Cossack tossed his head at something in the distance.

Julia’s gloved hands tightened reflexively on the reins. She squinted down the length of the Row at the rider coming toward them. “Easy,” she murmured to Cossack. “It’s just another horse.”

An enormous horse. Bigger and blacker than Cossack himself.

But it wasn’t the horse that made Julia tense in her sidesaddle. It was the gentleman astride him: a stern-faced, battle-scarred ex-military man.

Captain Blunt, the Hero of the Crimea.

Her mouth went dry as he approached. She was half-tempted to bolt. But there was no escaping him. She brought Cossack down to a trot and then to a walk.

She’d met the captain once before. It had been at Lady Arundell’s spring ball. Viscount Ridgeway, a mutual acquaintance of theirs, had introduced him to Julia as a worthy partner. In other circumstances, the interaction might have been the veriest commonplace-a few polite words exchanged and a turn about the polished wood dance floor.

Instead, Julia had gawped at Captain Blunt like a stricken nitwit. Her breath had stopped and her pulse had roared in her ears. Afraid she might faint, she’d fled the ballroom before the introduction had been completed, leaving Captain Blunt standing there, his granite-hewn features frozen in a mask of displeasure.

It had been one of the most mortifying experiences of Julia’s life.

And that was saying something.

For a lady prone to panicking in company, mortifications were a daily occurrence. At the advanced age of two-and-twenty, she’d nearly grown accustomed to them. But even for her, the incident at Lady Arundell’s ball had marked a new low.

No doubt Captain Blunt thought her actions had had something to do with his appearance.

He was powerfully made. Tall, strong, and impossibly broad shouldered. Already a physically intimidating gentleman, he was made even more so by the scar on his face. The deep, gruesome slash bisected his right eyebrow and ran all the way down to his mouth, notching into the flesh of his lip. It gave the impression of a permanent sneer.

Rather ironic that he was hailed as a hero. In looks, there seemed nothing heroic about him. Indeed, he appeared in every way a villain.

“Miss Wychwood.” He removed his beaver hat, inclining his head in a bow. His hair was a lustrous raven black. Cut short to his collar, it was complemented by a pair of similarly short sideburns edging the harsh lines of his jaw. “Good morning.”

She scarcely dared look him in the face. “Good morning.”

He didn’t reply. Not immediately. He was studying her. She could feel the weight of his stare. It set off a storm of butterflies in her stomach.

Ride on, she wanted to say. Please, ride on.

He didn’t ride on. He seemed intent on making her squirm.

She suspected she knew why. She’d never apologized to him for her behavior at the ball. There’d been no opportunity.

Perhaps he wanted her to suffer for embarrassing him?

If that was the case, Julia was resigned to take her medicine. Heaven knew she deserved it.

She forced herself to meet his gaze. The butterflies in her stomach threatened to revolt. Goodness. His eyes were the color of hoarfrost-a gray so cold and stark it sent an icy shiver tracing down the curve of her spine. Every feminine instinct within her rose up in warning. Run, it said. Flee.

But this wasn’t Lady Arundell’s ballroom.

This was Hyde Park. Here in the open air, mounted on Cossack, she wasn’t the same person she was at a ball or a dinner dance. For one thing, she wasn’t alone. She had a partner-and an imposing one, at that. Cossack lent her his strength and his stature. Made her feel nearly as formidable as he was. It’s why she was more confident on horseback.

At least, she’d always been so before.

“How do you do?” she asked.

“Very well.” His voice was deep and commanding, with a growl at the edge of it. A soldier’s voice. The kind that, when necessary, could be heard across a battlefield. “And yourself?”

“I’m enjoying our spell of fine weather,” she said. “It’s excellent for riding.”

He flicked a glance over her habit. Made of faded black wool, it did nothing to emphasize the contours of her figure. Rather the opposite. It obscured her shape, much as the net veil on her short-brimmed riding hat obscured her face. His black brows notched into a frown.

She suppressed a flicker of self-consciousness. Her clothing wasn’t meant to attract attention. It was meant to render her invisible. But it hadn’t-not to him.

The way he looked at her . . . Hades might have regarded Persephone thus before dragging her down to hell to be his unwilling bride.

And everyone knew Captain Blunt was looking for a wife.

If one believed the prevailing rumors, it was the sole reason he’d come to town. He was on the hunt for a vulnerable heiress he could spirit back to his isolated Yorkshire estate. An estate that was said to be haunted.

“You ride often at this time of day?” he asked.

“Whenever I can,” she said. “Cossack is glad for the exercise.”

“You handle him well.”

Some of the tightness in her chest eased at the compliment. “It’s not difficult.” She stroked Cossack’s neck. “He may look imposing, but he’s a lamb underneath. The biggest creatures often are in my experience.”

Captain Blunt’s own mount stamped his gigantic hooves as if in objection to her statement.

She gave the great beast an interested look. He was built like a medieval warhorse, with a broad chest, heavy fetlocks, and a thickly waving mane and tail. “What do you call him?”

“Quintus.”

“And is he-“

“A brute through and through,” Captain Blunt said. “Sometimes, Miss Wychwood, what you see is precisely what you get.”

Excerpted from The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews Copyright © 2022 by Mimi Matthews. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Blog Tour & Arc Review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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Publishing Date: September 6, 2022

Welcome to the Killers of a Certain Age book tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This blog tour post is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Synopsis:

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.

They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman–and a killer–of a certain age.

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Deanna Raybourn is a 6th-generation native Texan. She graduated with a double major in English and history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of one, Raybourn makes her home in Virginia. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards including two RT Reviewers’ Choice awards, the Agatha, two Dilys Winns, a Last Laugh, three du Mauriers, and most recently the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel. She launched a new Victorian mystery series with the 2015 release of A CURIOUS BEGINNING, featuring intrepid butterfly-hunter and amateur sleuth, Veronica Speedwell. Veronica has returned in several more adventures, most recently AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTOR, book seven, which released in early 2022. Deanna’s first contemporary novel, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, about four female assassins on the cusp of retirement publishes in September 2022.

My Review:

This book was very good. I wasn’t sure what to expect, having never read a Deanna Raybourn book, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story whizzed along at a good clip, the characters were for the most part well-developed and interesting. The pacing was breathless as they raced against time to carry out heists and murder the men who are trying to murder them.

I came to really appreciate Billie, as it was in her POV for the most part, but I did feel that the other three women blurred together a bit and weren’t as distinct as I would have liked.

I very much approve of the casual inclusion of LGBT+ characters and relationships. That always makes a book feel much more friendly, and it was done so naturally that I barely even registered it.

I also really really appreciate that the main characters were ‘women of a certain age’ and (despite being expert assassins) they felt very authentic. There were many mentions of the plans having to be adapted to their older bodies. Despite it, they still kicked ass. They were competent and capable AND dealing with things like hot flashes and muscles and stamina that weren’t what they once were. It made for such a nice contrast to the usual teenagers/twenty-something protagonists I usually read about.

I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to like it. There were a few issues I had with it:

The placement of the ‘past’ sections was sometimes jarring and I occasionally got confused about where and when they were. I did become more used to this as I went along, but it took me out of the flow of the story on more than one occasion.

The action scenes – which, to be fair, were a large chunk of the book – were just a tad too clinical. They read almost like newspaper reports. I don’t know if this is just a style common to thrillers – I haven’t read many of them. I feel like the simple language and not-flowery writing are a staple of the genre, but I’m not sure about the descriptions of fight scenes. As the book progressed this bothered me less and less, however, so it might have improved or I might have gotten used to it.

One thing that did bother me consistently through the book was that it was a tad vulgar for my tastes. I do appreciate the bluntness with which things not normally talked about are discussed among the women, but there were so many instances of descriptions of sexual harassment from their targets (which they had to put up with with a smile which definitely made the targets unsympathetic very quickly). Even more off-putting to me (and more common within the story) was the way that the (many) murders were described. Not just how they looked, but how they felt, how they sounded, how they smelled… I get that they are assassins and yes, they do kill a lot of people over the course of the book, but I just didn’t want that much familiarity with the deaths.

I did appreciate the very feminist slant to it all, and the way the men’s casual sexism was used to increase support for the women. Also the way that the four of them used the ‘old women are invisible’ idea to their advantage in order to further their schemes.  The story was very compelling and I found it difficult to put down. I would also probably read it again and will definitely be recommending it to others.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an e-arc for review.

Favorite Quotes

And every job was a chance to prove Darwin’s simple maxim. Adapt or die. We adapted; they died.
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Three old women, nodding their heads like the witches in Macbeth. I’d known them for two-thirds of my life, those impossible old bitches. And I would save them or die trying.
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Women are every bit as capable of killing as men.
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Blog Tour: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

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Publication Date: August 23, 2022

Welcome to the Love on the Brain book tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This blog tour post is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Synopsis:

LOVE ON THE BRAIN introduces readers to neuroscientist Bee Königswasser, who lives her life by a simple motto: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the leading role on a neuroengineering project—a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia—Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh! But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead alongside an engineer who also happens to be her archnemesis. Levi Ward made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school – he hated her, plain and simple. But when Bee is faced with one career dilemma after the next, it seems the tables may be turning. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally… or maybe even something more?

Author Bio:

Hazelwood draws on her own experience as a professor of neuroscience to capture the cutthroat world of higher education, both “the agony and the ecstasy” of academia. Hazelwood’s stories are also heavily influenced by pop culture as The Love Hypothesis was originally conceived as Star Wars fanfiction. Her novels are perfect for readers who geek out over rom-coms, and for fans of Emily Henry and Helen Hoang.

My Review:

What I love most about this book – as I did with the Love Hypothesis – is how faithfully Ali Hazelwood portrays academia and science; specifically, what it’s like to be a woman in STEM. It’s even more prominent in this book, and I immediately feel such a kinship with Bee and the other characters. It’s almost visceral, this sense of belonging. Having attended a predominantly male STEM school it’s all so, SO familiar.

I loved the You’ve Got Mail -esque premise, and greatly enjoyed watching it play out. It is inevitable from the beginning what will happen, but it’s the journey that’s the important part in this story. In such a story, everything hangs on the characters. Her characters feel so real, so very human and alive. And the precision with which she skewers certain types of people in STEM is astonishing. I was wholly invested for every moment of the story.

The sex scenes were decent, I think. Not the best I’ve ever read, perhaps, but then I’m not really a good judge of sex scenes, since I’d honestly prefer it if they all disappeared and tend to skim them. I have a feeling that a lot of people will really like them, and that’s what matters. They were different than a lot of the ones I’ve read before which is something.

It’s clear that Ali Hazelwood is very keen on the small woman/hulking dude dynamic which… is not my thing. But again, I’m pretty sure a lot of people will really enjoy it. I personally appreciated Levi’s sensitivity and wit and general decentness more. Contrary to Bee’s initial impression of him, he’s definitely the sort of guy I would want to get to know. Similarly, I really want to get to know Bee. And Rocio and Kaylee and Reike (even though she’s only present through phone calls). And Lily and Penny… basically everyone. They’re unique and chaotic and quirky and charming and just… the sort of people you would want to know and have in your life.

Sometimes when I’m reading I find that the characters’ struggles aren’t really relevant to me, or sometimes not even plausible. Not the case here. I was with these characters every step of the way and firmly on their team through all their struggles and joys. And that is one of the things I love most about reading romance, and why this became an instant favorite.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing an e-arc for review.

Favorite Quotes:

The real villain is love: an unstable isotope, constantly undergoing spontaneous nuclear decay.
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Levi became my sworn archenemy on a Tuesday in April, in my Ph.D. advisor’s office.
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Science doesn’t give a shit. Science is reliable in its variability. Science does whatever the fuck it wants. God, I love science.
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

I take off my sandals and push my legs against the dashboard, hoping Levi won’t take offense at my bright yellow nail polish and my incredibly ugly pinkies. I call them the Quasimotoes.
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

I now know more about body decomposition and makeup palettes than I thought I ever would, but I regret nothing. This is almost nice.
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Rocio rummages in her jeans pocket and offers him an unwrapped, slightly squished red gumball.
“Thank you. This is…” He looks at the gum. “A thing that I now have.”
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Blog Tour: The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Welcome to my stop on The Drowned Woods book tour with TBR and Beyond Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Tour Schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: The Drowned Woods
AUTHOR: Emily Lloyd-Jones
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
RELEASE DATE: August 16, 2022
GENRES: Young Adult Fantasy

Synopsis:

A magical, ethereal fantasy from IndieBound bestselling author Emily Lloyd-Jones.

Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict, and eighteen-year-old Mererid “Mer” is well-acquainted with both. She is the last living water diviner and has spent years running from the prince who bound her into his service. Under the prince’s orders, she located the wells of his enemies, and he poisoned them without her knowledge, causing hundreds of deaths. After discovering what he had done, Mer went to great lengths to disappear from his reach. Then Mer’s old handler returns with a proposition: use her powers to bring down the very prince that abused them both.

The best way to do that is to destroy the magical well that keeps the prince’s lands safe. With a motley crew of allies, including a fae-cursed young man, the lady of thieves, and a corgi that may or may not be a spy, Mer may finally be able to steal precious freedom and peace for herself. After all, a person with a knife is one thing…but a person with a cause can topple kingdoms.

The Drowned Woods—set in the same world as The Bone Houses but with a whole new, unforgettable cast of characters—is part heist novel, part dark fairy tale.

Author Bio:

Emily Lloyd-Jones grew up on a vineyard in rural Oregon, where she played in evergreen forests and learned to fear sheep. She has a BA in English from Western Oregon University and a MA in publishing from Rosemont College. She currently resides in Northern California, where she enjoys wandering in redwood forests. Her young adult novels include Illusive, Deceptive, The Hearts We Sold, The Bone Houses, and the forthcoming The Drowned Woods. Her debut middle grade, Unseen Magic, will release in 2022.

Author Links:

Blog Tour and Arc Review: One For All by Lillie Lainoff

Welcome to my stop on the One For All book tour with Colored Pages Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

tour schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: One For All
AUTHOR: Lillie Lainoff
PUBLISHER: Feiwel & Friends
RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2022
PAGES: 400
GENRES: Young Adult Historical Fantasy

Synopsis:

An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.

Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl”; even her mother is desperate to marry her off for security. But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion.

Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for a new kind of Musketeer: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a swordfight.

With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels for the first time like she has a purpose, like she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her first target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming, and breathlessly attractive—and he might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to lean on her friends, listen to her own body, and decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.

This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.

Author Bio:

Lillie Lainoff received her B.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing and distinction within the major from Yale University. She currently is studying for her MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia.

Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry has been featured in The LA Review, The Washington Post Outlook, Today’s Parent, via the Disability Visibility Project, Washington City Paper, and The Yale Daily News, amongst other places. She’s received recognition from Glimmer Train and The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and is the 2019 Winner of the LA Review Literary Award for Short Fiction. She was a featured Rooted in Rights disability activist, and is the founder of Disabled Kidlit Writers (FB).

As an undergraduate, Lillie was a member of Yale’s Varsity Fencing team. As a senior, she was one of the first physically disabled athletes to individually qualify for any NCAA Championship event, and helped her team to an end-of-season 10th place ranking by the National Coaches Poll. She still fences competitively and coaches. In 2017, she was named a recipient of the inaugural Spirit of Sport award by the US Fencing Association.

Author Links:

My Review:

I loved this book. I mean, I went into it knowing I would because, genderbent Musketeers? Everything I ever wanted. And I did love it for that, but mostly for Tania. She is such a great MC, not least of which because she lives with debilitating chronic illness AND IS ALSO a great fencer and a Musketeer.

This book does an absolutely amazing job driving home the point that yes, you can be disabled AND competent — AND that competence does not make you any less disabled. This is maybe the only book I’ve read that makes such a clear point of this. Disability does not equal incompetence. Competence does not equal a lack of disability. They can both be true.

Tania’s illness is never far from her. She never takes a breath free of the dizziness, and we never lose sight of her struggles or her determination. Her illness is threaded through every scene, every moment of the story — but it does not define the story, and it does not define her. It does not truly limit her, not in any way that matters or that she and her sisters in arms cannot find a way to overcome.

Aside from that, I love the way Tania and her sisters in arms grow closer and come to trust and rely on one another. I love that they are trained and trusted to go on missions to protect the king, even if they are denied official entry into the Musketeers. I love that they use every means at their disposal to complete their missions — and are also relatable teen girls.

Another thing I absolutely love is that the four girls’ names are clearly related to the original Three Musketeers (and D’artagnan), and that they also share some of the same personality traits as their namesakes. It’s such a clever and subtle nod to the original.

I love how Tania’s father steadfastly believes in her and teaches her to fence despite her mother’s worries and despite her illness. And that his lessons give her tools to combat the dizziness she feels.

I also love the musing about others like her, reduced to begging and being disbelieved. About how there are so many words for disbelief that a girl can be having the physical symptoms she complains of. About how it’s the poor who suffer during a regime change. This book has a lot of really powerful passages that hit hard and don’t shy away from ugly truths. And yet it still manages to be fun and empowering.

Empowering is actually a great word to describe how I feel about this book. As someone with chronic illnesses myself, I really deeply felt Tania’s frustrations and rage at being disbelieved, mocked, treated like a delicate object, not seen. Her journey is uplifting and empowering and I am so glad that I read it. And even more, I’m so glad Lillie Lainoff wrote it, that it will be available to future “sick girls” who secretly yearn to be Musketeers and save themselves for a change.

I also had the chance to listen to the audio arc and I have to say that I wish the narrator had done more justice to this story. She spoke at a reasonable speed but left long pauses between sentences sometimes — maybe between paragraphs? — which made it difficult to pay attention no matter what speed I tried. She also didn’t really distinguish very much between character voices which made it difficult to follow different speakers. She also had a little bit of a monotone quality to her performance which meant my mind tended to wander while listening.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Recorded Books, Colored Pages Blog Tours, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an e-arc and audio arc for review.

Favorite Quotes

When was the last time we’d touched when she wasn’t providing support for my wavering legs? When was the last time she’d reached for me and it wasn’t because I needed help?

Now, whenever I had a good day, people were quick to assume I felt better. It was hard enough living with the knowledge that if I felt healthy, it didn’t mean the next day would be the same. Being reminded of that fact by others was a painfully close second.

Men wanted quiet wives, quiet wives with quiet nervous habits. Not even our bad traits, our unconscious traits, belonged to us.

If I’d known the directions, if I could’ve drawn her a map, I would have done it in an instant. I would have ripped up the precious books in my room for paper and used my tears for ink.

This Paris was nothing like the Paris of my hazy dreams.
It was loud and people-full and the smell stuck to the inside of my nose and grime was everywhere and oh, it was beautiful.

We are not the ones who are written into history. We are the ones who ensure history exists to be written.

But the party was still a crashing wave that broke at my ankles, the clash of music against voices, against laughter, against clinking glasses and the susurrus of shoes against marble.

And even though dizziness lingered at the edges of my vision, even though my toes were clenched tight within my slippers, I was gliding across the smooth surface of a stream. It was just a bout without the swords — a bout that I would win.

…all those years of doing my best to pretend nothing was wrong had stitched a permanent mark into my skin.

That’s what Musketeers did. Earned their wounds.

I wasn’t any less dizzy than before, any less sick. But my legs were stronger. They were fighting for me. All the same symptoms, but no fainting.

They may not be the Musketeers I’d imagined. But they were better, because they were mine. And I knew, as I looked at them and saw the cold steely resolve inside me mirrored in their eyes, that I was theirs.

It was just like what Papa told me. Yes, I was dizzy; yes, his body swayed before me like the rocking of a ship; yes, my legs felt as if they’d collapse at any moment. But I knew the rhythm of this bout. It was in my bones, in the throb of my wounded arm, in the beat of my heart.

Being sick meant, at any moment, the people I cared about could decide I wasn’t worth the trouble I put them through.

The entries were tedious. Descriptions of medical theory, the four humors, hypochondria, so many different words and entries for women in pain that wasn’t believed.

“The three of you made me realize that whatever this dizziness is … well, maybe it’s never been the real problem. It’s horrible and it hurts and it makes me feel fragile in a way I never wanted, but it’s not the thing that tears me apart. The problem, the real problem, is the people who decide I’m unworthy because of it.”

“Fight me!” I shouted. “I am not the fragile, breakable thing you’d have me be. I am a Musketeer.”

Blog Tour and Arc Review: Pink, Blue, and You! by Elise Gravel

Welcome to my stop on the Pink, Blue, and You! book tour with TBR and Beyond Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Tour Schedule

Book Info:

TITLE: Pink, Blue, and You!
AUTHOR: Elise Gravel
PUBLISHER: Anne Schwartz Books
RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2022
GENRES: Children’s Picture Book

Synopsis:

Simple, accessible, and direct, this picture book is perfect for kids and parents or teachers to read together, opening the door to conversations about gender stereotypes and everyone’s right to be their true selves.

Is it okay for boys to cry? Can girls be strong? Should girls and boys be given different toys to play with and different clothes to wear? Should we all feel free to love whoever we choose to love? In this incredibly kid-friendly and easy-to-grasp picture book, author-illustrator Elise Gravel and transgender collaborator Mykaell Blais raise these questions and others relating to gender roles, acceptance, and stereotyping.

With its simple language, colorful illustrations, engaging backmatter that showcases how appropriate male and female fashion has changed through history, and even a poster kids can hang on their wall, here is the ideal tool to help in conversations about a multi-layered and important topic.

Author Bio:

I was born in Montreal in 1977 and I started drawing not very long after I was born. In kindergarten I was popular because I was able to draw princesses with long spiral hair. Then, in high school, the girls would ask me to draw their ideal guy in their diary. I became very good at drawing muscles and hair, which I used later when I illustrated my book The Great Antonio . On the other hand, I am always just as bad when it comes time to use a diary correctly.

Later, I studied graphic design at Cegep and that’s when I understood that I wanted to do illustration. After my first book, the Catalog des Gaspilleurs , I wrote and illustrated about thirty others . One of my books, The Wrench , won the Governor General’s Award in the Illustration category, and since that time I have a big head and I brag all the time.

I live in Montreal with my two daughters, my husband, my cats and a few spiders. I am currently working on various projects in Quebec, English Canada and the United States. My books are translated into a dozen languages. I hope to live a long time so that I can still make lots and lots of books because I still have lots and lots of ideas.

Author Links:

My Review:

This was a really cute book that had a lot of good information in it.

I love the open-ended questions at the beginning of the book. They really get kids thinking about why things are the way they are, why we make these assumptions, and why that’s not really a good thing.

There is a simple and easy-to-understand explanation of what the terms gender identity, sex, and pronouns mean and how to distinguish between them.

There is also great messaging that highlights how unfair it is when people are told what they can and cannot do based on their sex, gender, etc.

The book is full of cute illustrations that are deceptively simple and really show emotion well to make their point. Some of the illustrations, especially the dinosaurs one, are also really funny. The colors used throughout are also very engaging and welcoming.

Kiddo enjoyed this story and was very thoughtful throughout and seemed to be really pondering the questions raised on each page. They even occasionally answered a few of the questions posed aloud.

I would definitely recommend this book as it provides a thoughtful yet easy-to-understand overview of gender, sex, pronouns, and gender stereotypes and discrimination.

*Thanks to TBR and Beyond Tours and Anne Schwartz Books for providing a copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

“When I become extinct, I want to be a toy for BOYS!”

No matter who we are, what we like, how we feel, how we dress, and what our body looks like, we ALL deserve to be loved, protected, and respected.

The good news is that the world is changing. It is easier to be who we really are, and we can find friends and allies who support us.

Can you imagine how free we would feel if things changed even more in the future?