Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

March 4, 2025

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Violet Sorrengail was supposed to be a scribe but after the death of her brother and father, her mother (who is also the commanding general) decrees that Violet should join the dragon riders, an elite group of warriors who protect their country from their enemy's griffon riders. But the dragon riders are highly competitive and many cadets are not chosen by one of the dragons, so they are perfectly willing to kill their fellow cadets to get ahead or for revenge.

The Hunger Games meets The Scholomance. At first, this is a typical magic college/dark academia story where students are competing for position as well as survival, and in their spare time, hooking up with each other. But at about the 1/3 mark, the dragons show up and the story really takes off (sorry, bad pun). The gauntlet obstacle course sounds like something you'd see on Wipeout. I did get tired of Violet's constant injuries and everyone trying to kill her. The sex is fairly graphic so if that bothers you, this may not be the book for you. The last paragraph of the book has a good twist. Not sure if I'm going to continue with the series but the first book was fun.

Black dragon

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

December 20, 2024

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Megan Chase lives on a pig farm in the Louisiana Bayou with her mother, stepfather and half-brother. She is an outcast but her best friend Robbie, another outcast, has always been there for her. On her 16th birthday, like a miracle, the quarterback of the football team asks her to lunch, only for Megan to become the victim of a vicious prank. Things only get worse when she arrives home to find that a changeling has taken the place of her half-brother who has been spirited off to the land of Faery. Megan is determined to go after him and bring him back, whatever the cost.

First book in the Iron Fey series. These faeries and elves aren't the Disney variety, more like the Eoin Colfer type (see the Artemis Fowl series). Many well known characters such as Puck and Oberon, and Grimalkin the faery cat is a great character. There are some fun and creative parts, like the road back to Faery through a dance club in Detroit. Many of the settings in the Iron King section have strong overtones of The Lord of the Rings. Note to fey folk: if you know that iron can kill you, maybe it's not the best idea to go into a land made of iron. Will appeal to readers of YA fantasy/romantasy.

The land of Faery

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

October 27, 2023

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Sage Winters has always known that her twin sister Rosemary died of pneumonia when they were children. But at age 16, Sage learns that her sister didn't die and is living at the Willowbrook School, a school for children with special needs. She learns that Rosemary vanished from the school a few days earlier, and Sage is determined to go to the school to find her twin.

Based on a true story. My hair stylist's oldest sister was a resident at Willowbrook in the 1970s, which was how I originally heard about it. The first third of the book is mostly about how terrible the conditions were at the school, and it takes a while for the plot to get moving. The main character is pretty dense for someone who is supposed to be street smart. I started with this novel as an audiobook, but I switched to the ebook version because I could skim over the slower parts. The story moves a lot slower than in Wiseman's earlier books. Geraldo Rivera did a prize-winning expose about living conditions at the school, which were truly horrible, with most of the residents contracting hepatitis and other diseases due to the filthy living conditions and lack of care. Definitely has a YA feel to it. Meh.

Willowbrook State School, New York

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

April 10, 2020

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Irene is a Librarian with the Invisible Library, which houses copies of all books ever created.  Her latest assignment is to secure a copy of Grimm's fairy tales that includes a previously unknown tale, from an alternate Victorian London.  She is accompanied by a new trainee, Kai, although she's not sure if he is there to assist her or watch her.  The assignment seems straight-forward at first, until the Librarian-in-Residence in the alternate world advises them that the book's owner was a vampire who was brutally murdered, and the book has vanished.  What seemed a simple "get in and get out" task becomes much more complicated by the occult residents of the alternate world, and Irene and Kai find themselves in mortal danger from unknown enemies.

I usually gravitate toward any book that has "library" in the title but it took me a while to get into this one.  I actually started it once before but put it aside.  The characters are decent but the plot is kind of hazy with too many characters and types (vampires, Fae folk, dashing detectives, clockwork animals, etc.).  There were also characters who were introduced, like the elder Miss Olga Retrograde, who seemed like they were going to add something interesting to the story but then were never referred to again.  This title is the first in a series so maybe some of these characters will recur later.  While the story was okay, it definitely had a YA feel and I'm not sure I found it engaging enough to continue with the series.

I haven't been reading as much as usual lately.  I do a lot of my reading on my commute to work, and with being at home so much, I've been doing other things.  Also, my sweet little dog Asia died in her sleep on Monday night.  I adopted her when she was 10-1/2 so I knew there was a chance she wouldn't be with me for long, but I hoped it would be more than 18 months.  Asia was just the best little girl, so peaceful and unfussy, and she left me the same way she lived. 😥

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

October 11, 2019

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

With her morbid interest in death and horror, Tuesday Mooney has always had a problem fitting in and making friends (except her home town is Salem, MA, so it's pretty hard to believe that she couldn't find a place there).  Her introverted nature makes her an excellent researcher for a philanthropic foundation.  When an extremely wealthy Bostonian named Vincent Pryce dies unexpectedly at a fundraiser, he leaves behind the clues for a treasure hunt that will reward the winner with a portion of Pryce’s vast fortune.  Another fabulously wealthy Bostonian named Archie approaches Tuesday and wants to team up to try to solve the riddle, promising her several million dollars for her help.  Tuesday isn’t sure about his true motives since he certainly doesn’t need the money, but there appears to be something that Archie wants from Pryce’s vast collections.  When her 13 year old neighbor Dorry figures out the first clue, the three of them decide to join forces.  But the clock is ticking and other teams have almost certainly figured out the clue as well, so time is of the essence.

I had a number of issues with this book – after a good beginning and plot set-up, it just sort of fizzled out.  The author became more concerned with having the main characters hook up with their love interests (which added nothing to the plot - note to authors:  unless you're writing a romance, there does not have to be a love interest for the main character(s)).  Part of the problem is that the author seemed to want to write something that was both The Westing Game and Ready Player One, and ended up with something that was neither.  The treasure hunt isn’t really a treasure hunt, since there are precious few clues and not much game playing.  Early in the game, Tuesday’s team has what could be a huge advantage, but they decide not to use it because “Vincent would have wanted us to play fair.”  Gag me.

(N.B., if you enjoy books about games, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is a fabulous book about a treasure hunt set in a future time - read that instead.)

Also, the title is incorrect.  Tuesday does not talk to ghosts – she wants to talk to one particular ghost, her best friend Amy, and may actually have succeeded once, but even Tuesday admits that Amy’s voice in her head isn’t telling her anything she doesn’t already know – it’s just responding in the snarky way Amy would have when they were teens.   A better title would have been The Pryce Inheritance or Games with Friends or Girl Seeks Ghost.  Just a suggestion.  

(Amy went missing one night when they were 16.  Amy wanted to go hang out at the local lighthouse and Tuesday stayed home because it was a cold, rainy night.  Amy vanished without a trace, and Tuesday has spent her life wondering if Amy would still be around if she had gone with her, or if she would have disappeared, too.)

The text reads like it is intended for a young adult or juvenile audience rather than for adult readers - you could give this to a 14 year old or your grandma and not worry about offending their delicate sensibilities (wait a minute - I'm old enough to be a grandma - scratch that). There are a lot of implied morals like "play fair," "help others," "work together," "follow your dreams," etc.  There are also loads of stereotypes that are easy for a YA audience to recognize:  the brilliant goth girl who is too cool for words but secretly fears no one likes her, the gay guy who wants to be a singer, the rich guy who hates his family's money and wants to live a simple life, the evil brother who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, the schoolteacher who marries a very wealthy man and can't handle being rich, the super-quirky rich man, etc.  Nothing new here.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.