Thumbelina In Space! | Bloemetje by Amanda McNeil

A Dutch company known as The Bedrijf commences colonizing Venus via the construction of a dome filled with plants that convert its natural air into something breathable by humans. Since all workers are granted permission to bear a child, a woman and her spouse join the crew. But the woman soon discovers she is plagued with infertility. When her spouse illegally brings home a tulip from the garden, they discover a miniature baby inside who they name Bloemetje – little bloom. As the baby grows in mere days into a teenager, pushing her boundaries, she illuminates the true horrors of colonization and leads them all on a journey to decolonize.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

It’s been a while since I’ve interacted with any version of Thumbelina, but when I got an email asking if I would be interested in reading and reviewing Bloemetje, I knew I wanted to try this Thumbelina retelling out and see how it goes!

The story of Bloemetje is very interesting. We follow two unnamed humans who work and live on Venus, trying to make the planet inhabitable for humanity in the future. One day, they find a baby inside a tulip, and they raise her as their own until the day she goes out and learns of where she came from.

One of the very first things I enjoyed seeing in this book was the way these parents had to deal with their love of Bloemetje versus letting her be her own person and explore the world. Of course, Bloemetje’s parents want to be sure she is safe, but does that mean its okay to lock her up and hide her from the world? Or does her right as a person–a living, thinking being–mean more, even if she may get into trouble and have difficulties in the world around her?

Bloemetje’s adventures throughout this book were also very interesting to see. As Bloemetje travels away from her parents, she meets a group of flower fairies, like her, and learns about where she came from and why she is different from her parents. She also meets the people native to Venus and learns of how the human’s relocation to the planet is harming their way of life.

One thing I really enjoyed throughout this book was the way certain terms and phrases were integrated into the story. I am, in general, not a very big fan of books that take a second to explain words that can easily be looked up online, but with this book introducing it’s own world and life on Venus, there were a lot of words that needed a definition! Rather than taking a second to stop the story and pull readers out of the plot, however, this book includes a linked glossary at the back, which I thought was a very interesting and well-thought-out inclusion. When readers find a word they don’t understand in the ebook, they can tap on it to be taken immediately to that word’s definition at the back of the book, and then tap on a link inside the glossary to be taken right back to where they were in the story! This really helps readers learn what they need to know without taking them out of the experience of this book.

However, even with all these things I liked in the book, there were also a few things I disliked.

For one, I will admit that I am generally not a fan of novellas. I’ve felt that most of the novellas I have read are too short and could easily be full length novels if the author included more, and I feel the exact same way with Bloemetje. There are so many interesting details and concepts throughout this novella that I think confining it to such a short story makes it feel a little awkward, especially near the end as the humans find out about these cultures they have unwittingly been living with.

I also found the inclusion of religion to be weirdly placed. There are quite a few characters who talk about god and “god’s will”, but with so many different races and cultures throughout this book, I found myself a little confused by what this meant for the worldbuilding. Do all the characters follow the same religion? Even the native people of Venus? Even humans on Earth can’t decide on a god everyone should worship, but somehow, that god made it through space!

I definitely enjoyed my time with Bloemetje and seeing the way this story could be taken to a different planet, but I do wish I had gotten a little bit more out of this book.

Twisted Fairy Tales | The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

“Tell me again, Grandmère, the story of how I die.”

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book – Sortes Fortunae , the Book of Fortunes – with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother.

Years ago, when the villagers whispered their deepest desires to the book, its pages revealed how to obtain them. All was well until someone used the book for an evil purpose―to kill another person. Afterward, the branches of the Forest Grimm snatched the book away, the well water in Grimm’s Hollow turned rancid, and the crops died from disease. The villagers tried to make amends with the forest, but every time someone crossed its border, they never returned.

Now, left with no alternative, Clara and her close friend, Axel―who is fated never to be with her―have set their minds to defying fate and daring to accomplish what no one else has been able to before. But the forest―alive with dark, deadly twists on some of our most well-known fairy tales―has a mind of its own.

The Forest Grimm gets published September 19th, 2023!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

This book was hard to put down.

We follow Clara, a teen girl who knows she’ll die if she enters the forest on the outskirts of her village, but believes she must anyway in order to save the village and the people who have been lost. Up until recently, the village used to have a book they could wish on, but when one villager wished for someone to die, the book disappeared, and the forest slowly began taking villagers, including Clara’s mom.

I was very surprised to see the different ways fairy tales were used in this book. It felt almost like a game to try and figure out which character was which tale I already knew: the main character wears a red cape, so she must be Red Riding Hood, but does that mean the girl in the tower with long hair and a creepy, spider-like ability to move around is Rapunzel? What about the girl who has a large collection of poorly taxidermized animals?

I can definitely say that I had no idea where this book was going to go, and I was really surprised by the ending! Despite having fun playing a fairy tale version of Guess Who?, the actual plot of this story is a teen girl going into a dangerous forest in order to find her mom, and while I won’t spoil the ending for you, I will say that I was devastated by everything Clara had to give up in the hopes of saving her mom.

However, I also didn’t get as into the characters of this book as I wished, and I think that negatively impacts the book’s sequel hook at the very end. While there are still mysteries to be solved and things to do in this world, this book wraps up it’s own story a bit too well. It feels perfectly fine as a standalone, and I don’t care for these characters enough to want to see more in this universe.

Hunted by Meagan Spooner | A Review

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.
So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.
Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Even without being told that Hunted is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, it’s easy to tell in the first section of this book where the story gets it’s inspiration. We follow the main story of Beauty and the Beast fairly closely: Yeva’s father, a merchant who is doing pretty well in business, suddenly finds all of his money lost when a business venture goes wrong. The family has to move into a small cottage close to the woods, where Yeva’s father goes off in search of the Beast to sell his carcass as a trophy. But when one of his hunting dogs comes back without him, Yeva decides she needs to go out to find her father, instead finding and getting kidnapped by the Beast.

But not all retellings have to follow the original story exactly, and I found myself really enjoying what Meagan Spooner was doing in her own version of this fairytale.

In Hunted, Meagan Spooner combines Beauty and the Beast and a Russian fairytale Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf to create a new version of this story readers will fall in love with. Readers don’t even have to know the story of Ivan in order to understand this book, as Meagan Spooner takes the time to explain the fairytale within her own story.

As the characters grow closer throughout the course of this book and we begin to see the more fairytale aspects of the plot, we are confronted with a lesson the characters must learn. I really enjoyed this lesson, especially within the terms of the Russian fairytale’s influence, and seeing the characters learn that it is okay to want things only if the wanting doesn’t take over their lives. To look back and be proud of everything you have accomplished rather than always searching for that next adventure and ruining yourself in the process.

I really adored this book. If I ever made a list of “required reading”, there is no doubt that this book would be on there.

To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo | A DNF Review

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.
The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

DNF at 50%

This book had a very interesting setup.

We open to a world of sirens who, ever year during the month of their birth, kill a human, steal their heart, and hide the heart in the seafloor. These sirens use the number of hearts they own as a way to count how old they are, as they do not physically age after a certain point.

However, our siren main character, Lira, accidentally finds herself saving a human life instead of taking one. She meets our other main character, a prince named Elian who would much rather be a pirate, in the same instance she saves his life from a mermaid trying to eat him.

And as punishment for saving a human, Lira’s mother, the Sea Queen, curses her to be human.

This is where the book went downhill for me. As Elian is sailing through the sea, he finds Lira’s human form drowning in the water. Since they have met once before, one would assume that Elian recognizes her.

But he doesn’t.

I also found that it doesn’t make sense for Elian not to recognize her because she’s a very infamous siren, known throughout the world for her tendency to kill princes during her birth month. Even with legs instead of fins, her face wouldn’t have changed during this transformation.

Yet Elian never recognizes her, and it bugged me enough to not want to continue with the story.

The Princess Will Save You (Kingdoms of Sand and Sky #1) by Sarah Henning | A DNF Review

When a princess’s commoner true love is kidnapped to coerce her into a political marriage, she doesn’t give in—she goes to rescue him.
When her warrior father, King Sendoa, mysteriously dies, Princess Amarande of Ardenia is given what would hardly be considered a choice: Marry a stranger at sixteen or lose control of her family’s crown.
But Amarande was raised to be a warrior—not a sacrifice.
In an attempt to force her choice, a neighboring kingdom kidnaps her true love, stable boy Luca. With her kingdom on the brink of civil war and no one to trust, she’ll need all her skill to save him, her future, and her kingdom.

DNF at 37%

I was very excited when I first opened this book.

If you’ve stuck around for a while, you may have picked up that I’m a fan of political fantasy. Something about reading about the politics of a make-believe world makes me happy in a way real-life politics doesn’t.

The beginning of this book had me hopeful for the drama of being a member of a royal family. The main character’s dad dies under mysterious circumstances after taking a drink. Multiple members of his most trusted advisors are suspicious. And the princess is being pushed to get married, as only males are allowed to be heir to the throne.

Of course, the main character fights back and refuses to marry. Her lover, a stable boy, gets kidnapped…

… And then we go into the desert.

It is once we get to this desert that I completely lost any enthusiasm I had for this book. Much like the desert, what happens on page is dry and empty of anything interesting.

Amarande travels across the sand.

Luca travels across the sand.

A cut back to Amarande, who is still traveling through sand.

But what is Luca doing? We turn back to his side of the story, only to find him traveling through sand.

I could not have cared less.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik | A Review

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Despite the fact that the description of this book only focuses on one main character, this book actually features multiple main characters meeting and combining forces in this battle between what they perceive to be good vs evil.

Miryem, as stated above, is a good businesswoman who has a knack for making gold.

Wanda is the daughter of an abusive father who, through the help of Miryem, decides to finally escape from under her father (and make sure he can never hurt her and her siblings ever again…)

Irina is the daughter of a nobleman and wants nothing to do with the tsar. But the tsar wants everything to do with her.

(Honestly, despite the fact that I made that last part unintentionally creepy, the tsar, Mirnatius, is my favorite character. One thing I wish this book had more of was Mirnatius. He’s a good boy.)

These three characters soon find themselves in the middle of two opposing forces, each with varying ties to those forces. Miryem gets kidnapped by the king of the Staryk, who wants her to turn his vaults of silver into gold and is the reason behind the winters in Miryem’s world growing longer and harsher with each year. Irina is married off to Mirnatius, who is being possessed by a fire demon who wants to eat the Staryk because they are cold and can apparently soothe his too-warm… entire being.

Wanda just seems to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time and is trying her best.

I really like how readers’ perceptions of what is going on and who to root for changes throughout the book as we learn more information. At no point is it clear cut who we should hope to win until the story is fully laid out (and almost over).

I also really liked how there were a lot of small details that didn’t seem important at first, only to come back later as something that changes the entire plot.

I spent quite a bit of time near the beginning of this book almost dreading reading it, making me take a long time to get through this story, but I learned to appreciate this book by the end of it and enjoy my experience.

Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel by Amanda Quain | An ARC Review

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Georgiana Darcy should have been expelled after The Incident with Wickham Foster last year – at least if you ask any of her Pemberley Academy classmates. She may have escaped expulsion because of her family name, but she didn’t escape the disappointment of her big brother Fitz, the scorn of the entire school, or, it turns out, Wickham’s influence.
But she’s back for her junior year, and she needs to prove to everyone—Fitz, Wickham, her former friends, and maybe even herself—that she’s more than just an embarrassment to the family name. How hard can it be to become the Perfect Darcy? All she has to do is:
– Rebuild her reputation with the marching band (even if it kills her)
– Forget about Wickham and his lies (no matter how tempting they still are), and
– Distract Fitz Darcy—helicopter-sibling extraordinaire—by getting him to fall in love with his classmate, Lizzie Bennet (this one might be difficult…)
Sure, it’s a complicated plan, but so is being a Darcy. With the help of her fellow bandmate, Avery, matchmaking ideas lifted straight from her favorite fanfics, and a whole lot of pancakes, Georgie is going to see every one of her plans through. But when the weight of being the Perfect Darcy comes crashing down, Georgie will have to find her own way before she loses everything permanently—including the one guy who sees her for who she really is.

Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel comes out July 26th, 2022.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

From the very first sentence, I was hooked on this book. It was easy to immediately tell that this story was going to be a funny and wild trip with characters you can’t help but love.

Thus started the next three hours of my life, where I couldn’t find it within myself to put this book down until I reached the very last page.

This story is extremely character-driven as we focus on Georgie learning how to better herself for all the wrong reasons. It’s not necessarily a happy story–not when everyone around Georgie is against her and likes her abuser more than they like her–but there are some lighter moments here and there so the entire book doesn’t feel too depressing.

One of my favorite things about this book is the character development and how different the characters are in the start of this book versus the end, but I also really enjoyed the support system Georgie has in between. Despite the “man versus the world” plot, there are a few characters who are there for Georgie no matter what, and their support is very heartwarming to read in Georgie’s lowest moments.

While the description of this book seems to focus a lot on the matchmaking elements and maybe a possible romance for Georgie herself, this book is a lot more about Georgie learning to make friends and interact with those around her, and I appreciate this book’s story a lot.

Reflection by Elizabeth Lim | A Review

What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld?
When Captain Shang is mortally wounded by Shan Yu in battle, Mulan must travel to the Underworld, Diyu, in order to save him from certain death. But King Yama, the ruler of Diyu, is not willing to give Shang up easily.
With the help of Shang’s great lion guardian ShiShi, Mulan must traverse Diyu to find Shang’s spirit, face harrowing obstacles, and leave by sunrise⁠—or become King Yama’s prisoner forever.
Moreover, Mulan is still disguised as the soldier called Ping, wrestling with the decision to reveal her true identity to her closest friend.
Will Mulan be able to save Shang before it’s too late? Will he ever be able to trust her again? Or will she lose him—and be lost in the Underworld⁠—forever?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I am screaming from the rooftops over this book.

I can’t even think of a way to make this review sound good and not just an outpouring of emotion. It’s just–I–Hhhhhhh.

So first of all, I was really worried Shang wasn’t going to have a hand in his own rescue. I didn’t know if Shang’s finding was going to occur near the end, with a quick exit from Diyu, or near the beginning, and have the escape from Diyu be a major part of the book.

However, I will say that Shang’s finding occurs early on. I think this is an important thing to point out, as I was hoping he’d help out, and I feel like many readers will also greatly prefer Shang’s involvement in his own escape.

With this book being mostly about the escape from Diyu, then, I will say that this is very adventurous and fast-paced. There are a lot of puzzles and enemies Mulan and Shang must face before they can leave, and I’m honestly kind of surprised you can fit that much adventure and that much detail into a book this size.

I also really loved how the tiniest details had a big impact on the story, and just how many things from the movie were incorporated in a different way into the book. One of my favorites of this is the way they called back the song Reflection. I can’t say much on it (as its an important part of the book and near the end), but I needed a break after that scene to just be in awe of what I just read.

In conclusion? I thought this book was so, so good, and I hope everyone reads it.

Sherwood by Meagan Spooner | A Review

Robin of Locksley is dead.
Maid Marian doesn’t know how she’ll go on, but the people of Locksley town, persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, need a protector. And the dreadful Guy of Gisborne, the Sheriff’s right hand, wishes to step into Robin’s shoes as Lord of Locksley and Marian’s fiancé.
Who is there to stop them?
Marian never meant to tread in Robin’s footsteps—never intended to stand as a beacon of hope to those awaiting his triumphant return. But with a sweep of his green cloak and the flash of her sword, Marian makes the choice to become her own hero: Robin Hood.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Recommended For: Everyone. Please read this book. I loved it so much.

So I may be an idiot.

I saw the cover of this book.

I read the back, which includes key words such as “Robin of Locksley”, “Maid Marian”, “Sherriff of Nottingham”, and I had no idea what this book was going to be about. I just saw a cute girl archer on the front and knew I wanted to read it.

And then I opened this book. And oh. It’s a Robin Hood retelling.

To be fair, I haven’t seen any Robin Hood-related media since I was a toddler. I don’t know my Robin Hood lore.

Therefore, I cannot tell you if this is a good retelling. But I can tell you this is a good book.

One of the first things that really surprised me in this book is that Robin dies within the first few pages. Yes, it says so on the back. No, I’m not smart. We’ve been over this.

Instead of Robin coming up with this myth and character of Robin Hood, it is actually Marian, who is just trying to help her maid’s brother not get arrested and just so happens to be wearing her dead fiance’s cloak. Suddenly, Robin’s death is questioned, and this version of him who is helping those in need is born.

One of my favorite things about this book is Marian’s support system she gathers along the way. Of course, we have the Merry Men, the boys who are helping her help the poor with these heists. But there are also smaller, background characters who show their support for Marian and keep her identity a secret.

I also really enjoyed Gisborne and his eventual relationship with Marian. I’ve read someone else’s review saying they were a really big fan of Robin Hood and they hated this book because of Marian getting together with Gisborne, but I loved their slowburn. I was a big supporter of it early on, and I was happy to watch their relationship develop over the course of this novel.

(Even though they stressed me out near the ending with the things they did for each other.)

If there’s one thing I can say I didn’t like about this book, it’s the formatting. Occasionally, we get scenes in Robin’s point of view before he died. These pages have a gradient on them; dark grey fading into white. While it’s an easy way to see that we are getting Robin’s point of view, I have to ask whose bright idea it was to put back text on dark grey paper. Nothing says making sure readers love the book you’re publishing like making it harder to read for no reason.

In all, though, I really enjoyed this book, and I really hope more people pick it up.

Thorn by Intisar Khanani | A Review

A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own.
Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future.
When a mysterious and terrifying sorceress robs Alyrra of both her identity and her role as princess, Alyrra seizes the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.
But Alyrra soon finds that Kestrin is not what she expected. The more Alyrra learns of this new kingdom, the pain and suffering its people endure, as well as the danger facing Kestrin from the sorceress herself, the more she knows she can’t remain the goose girl forever.
With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A popular thing these days is retellings of old stories. While some books make this obvious, Thorn’s marketing doesn’t seem to reference the fact that it is a retelling at all.

I had actually never heard of The Goose Girl before I read this story. I read the wikipedia article on the original story quickly before I read this one, and from that knowledge, it was easy to see the similarities. But while this story has the basic plot of The Goose Girl, there are changes that make this story its own.

A lot of this book was frustrating simply because of the main character. Her family hates her, but she is reluctant to be away from them. She has multiple chances to save herself, but she doesn’t. In fact, the length of this book is entirely based on the main character not saving herself when she has a chance. This book could be about half its length if the main character would have just given in and accepted help.

The description of this book talks about a sorceress, making it seem like she is a large part of the book, but I really feel like she is not. While yes, she is the reason why the main character begins this journey, and yes, she is the main villain, she just didn’t seem like a terrible force to be pitted against. Her defeat was swift, and most of the plot seems more character-driven than concerned with this conflict.

While I am bashing this book in this review, I did actually enjoy it. While it was frustrating, it was also an interesting concept. From what I’ve read of the wikipedia article, I like this version better than the original. But it definitely has its issues.