Category: Young Adult

ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

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Book Review: I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

You all expected me to read this book, right? I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a highly anticipated book for many. I wouldn’t say I was excited as some people, but as soon as I saw it on NetGalley, I knew I had to request it. I’ve currently only read Red, White and Royal Blue, but One Last Stop is also on my TBR. I wanted to try McQuistion’s first YA book as soon as possible, and I’m glad I did. However, I didn’t love this book quite as much as I’d hoped.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler follows Chloe Green, who was shocked after being randomly kissed by the principal’s daughter, Shara Wheeler. Chloe and Shara have been academic rivals for years, but after she tries to track her down at prom, Shara promptly disappears. Now Chloe is having to follow clues alongside Shara’s boyfriend and next-door neighbour as they try to find out where she’s gone and how to bring her back. Chloe has a bone to pick, and she’s determined to prove she’s better than Shara.

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

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Book Review: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

I’m obviously a big fan of queer books, so this was always going to be a book that I was going to read. As well as that, I’ve followed A.J on Twitter for a few years, as part of my foray into writing Twitter. I might not have written for a while, but I’ve still been following him and enjoying doing so. A.J seems like a great guy, so I also knew that I wanted to support him by writing a review.

Hell Followed With Us follows Benji, a trans teen who is on the run from the cult that has destroyed a lot of the world and transformed him into a bioweapon. All he wants to be able to do is just live his life as the boy he is, but after being cornered by monsters when trying to escape, he is rescued by teens from a local LGBTQA+ group. Their leader Nick is gorgeous, autistic and deadly, and he knows exactly who Benji actually is. But he agrees to let Benji stay, provided he can control his inner monster and help them. Benji agrees, but soon he finds out that Nick might not be telling him everything.

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ARC, blog tour, books, Review, Young Adult

Blog Tour: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson

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Blog Tour: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson

I love a good YA mystery or thriller, and this was a book that sounded so good. The Agathas is a mystery very inspired by the works of Agatha Christie. I won’t pretend to be an Agatha Christie fan myself. Honestly, years of seeing the same episodes of Poirot and Miss Marple repeatedly, thanks to my Mum, derailed any interest I might have had in them. But this book sounded like so much fun, and I’m glad that I asked to be part of this tour. Thanks again to Anne at Random Things Tours for allowing me to participate!

This book follows two teens – Alice and Iris, who couldn’t live more different lives. Alice needs to stay out of trouble after disappearing a few months ago, and Iris just needs to get out of town. Iris is hired to tutor Alice, but after a girl disappears, Alice convinces Iris to help her look into the case. When the girl then turns up murdered, they realise that there may be a lot of secrets out there that they need to uncover.

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Adult, book tag, books, Young Adult

Critical Role Campaign 3 Book Tag

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Critical Role Campaign 3 Book Tag

I’m back today with another book tag! I actually quite like coming up with these, and it’s fun to see other people do them. So I thought I’d pull another one together for a break between the many reviews I’m posting!

I’ve talked about roleplay a few times before, but DnD and tabletop gaming isn’t something I’ve tried yet. But I enjoyed the podcast Spellcheck DnD enough that I’ve tried checking out some other groups playing it. Critical Role is one of the biggest of these fandoms, if not the biggest. I’d always struggled to get into their games in the past until I got to campaign 3 and Bells Hells. Something about this group and their story has grabbed me, and now I’m more than a little obsessed.

With today’s tag, I’m going to be listing all the members so far of the chaotic Hells Bells and giving you prompts relating to them!

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books2 Comments on Book Review: My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth
Book Review: My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

These days I love a good YA contemporary or romance. Especially when they’re nerdy. So My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth, aka Olivie Blake, sounded like a perfect read for me. I might not know much about robots or STEM. That’s not the type of nerd I am, but I was eager to check it out, and I’m all for supporting women in STEM.

This book follows Bel and Teo, two seniors at a prestigious high school where science is pretty cool. That’s not quite Bel’s scene, and when it comes to college applications, she’d rather than die than think about them, much to the school’s chagrin. Teo, on the other hand, has everything planned. He is going to be the best ‘soccer’ captain, win at the Robotics Nationals and get into MIT. When Bel accidentally proves she’s a mechanical genius in a class project, she is pushed to join the robotics team. At first, she was not happy about it. But as sparks begin to fly between her and Teo, she realises that within that club, she’s found two things she loves.

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Adult, book tag, books, Young Adult

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With An Adjective In The Title

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books5 Comments on Top Ten Tuesday: Books With An Adjective In The Title
Top Ten Tuesday: Books With An Adjective In The Title

We’re here with another Top Ten Tuesday! My posting schedule this week is a bit of a mess, so I thought, why not write another one of these posts? It’s a lot of fun to go through my bookshelves to find ten books that I want to list. This time I won’t go into detail about the books, as the theme for the week is just talking about book titles!

For those of you who don’t remember your English classes from school, an adjective is a describing word. These come in many forms, and they can definitely add colour to a book title. Or make them something people make fun of. Both work.

The Top Ten Tuesday tag was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now held over on The Artsy Reader Girl. It’s a weekly tag where everyone is given a bookish prompt for bloggers to curate a top ten list on. You can then share your blog post over on The Artsy Reader Girl’s post for that week. Just make sure you check out and comment on other people’s blog posts too!

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books3 Comments on Book Review: A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
Book Review: A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

You may remember that back in December, I wrote two posts containing my most anticipated books for early in 2022. One of the books on the fantasy list was A Magic Steeped in Poison. It’s a book with a stunning cover, and the US release of the sequel is released in August. So there won’t be a very long wait. Back then, I also said I didn’t know if this book would have a UK release date, and I can now confirm it has. It’ll be released in paperback in the UK in September! So that means that more of you will be able to enjoy this book this year.

I was lucky enough to receive an e-arc of this through NetGalley. I’m so glad that I’ve had the chance to read this because now I can wax lyrical about this story in the hopes you’ll go out and buy the book! Okay, maybe not all that lyrical, but this was a book that I am very excited about.

A Magic Steeped in Poison follows Ning. Ever since her mother died and her sister got sick due to a poison in the tea that Ning served them, she’s hated her hands. Yet her hands are the very thing that could save her sister. When they receive a letter inviting their mother’s apprentice to enter a competition to become the court Shennong-shi — a magic practitioner whose spells are enacted through tea — Ning knows she has to enter and win in the hope of winning a wish from the princess. With that wish, she could get the medical help that her sister needs. Within the walls of the court, Ning winds up tangled up within magic and intrigue both, and her attraction to a boy she meets at the market may cause her more trouble than she’d have ever expected.

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Book Review: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
Book Review: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

I do love getting the Harper360 blogger newsletter. I love receiving some of the books I asked for from it even more. I know I’m lucky when I do, and from the last newsletter, I requested Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye. This is a dark YA fantasy novel inspired by Yoruba-Nigeran mythology. Aspects of it feel like this could be a sci-fi fantasy novel (a fantasy novel set in a distant future), and I loved that.

Sloane has powers that allow her to incinerate any enemy at will, but it’s a power that she’s had to hide. When she’s conscripted into the Lucis army as a child soldier, she has to learn about her powers as she rises through the ranks. Her goal is to find out what happened to her dead mother and eventually get revenge.

Before I start this review, I need to give some content warnings. This book is incredibly dark and features sensitive content including attempted rape, child soldiers, self-harm, ritual cutting, torture and other things associated with war.

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books, Review, Young Adult

Series Review: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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Series Review: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

In February I finally sat down to read Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. I’d had the e-book for a while, but I just wasn’t in the mood for something like it the last time I picked it up. Since then, I’d also picked myself up a physical copy of the second book, yet I wasn’t any closer to reading them. So when trying to decide on an audiobook to read, I found this one on Scribd – yes, I know I’m supposed to be reading more audiobooks I don’t own on there, but the third one counts for that – I knew that it was about time that I finally got to this one.

This review is only going to cover the first three books. If you’ve heard anything about this series, it’s probably that you should read the main three books one after the other. The Box in the Woods and the new one coming out this year, do follow Stevie and her friends again. But each of those is a standalone mystery in different locations. I plan on reading The Box in the Woods this month, and I’m very excited to do so.

Truly Devious follows Stevie Bell, a teenage girl who wants to one day be a top detective. With some luck, she managed to get into Ellingham Academy, a prestigious academy where only the best students attend and there’s no obvious application. Back in the 1930s, the wife of the school’s founder and their young daughter disappeared after the founder received a mysterious letter. Stevie has been fascinated with this case for years and she plans to solve it.

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ARC, books, Review, Young Adult

Book Review: The Kindred by Alechia Dow

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Book Review: The Kindred by Alechia Dow
Book Review: The Kindred by Alechia Dow

Usually, I would try to post an ARC review before the publication date, but due to some bad luck, Harper360 did not manage to get me a copy until after it was out! Due to that, I did put it off until I had a few other proofs to read. I’m actually kind of glad I did, as I already have a copy of The Sound of Stars to read after this. I didn’t realise that they’re set in the same world until I checked the reviews, so heck yeah!

The Kindred follows Felix, a duke who would love to be a musician. And Joy, his kindred, who is poor and is stuck within the constraints of her culture. When the royal family is killed, Felix and Joy are both blamed. They have to run away until they can find out what is really going on. They get stranded on earth, and the chaos begins.

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