#series starter

[dargeereads]

Samael by NJ Walters

5 stars

Phew, let me calm down from the roller coaster ride that was that ending! So many emotions about this story, this couple is in a no-win situation, and only one of them knows it. That doesn’t stop their attraction, the bond between them growing, even as they try to step back. That doesn’t stop their actions, reactions, and stumbling into a relationship that makes no sense, but they are helpless to avoid. These two put each other through the wringer, and they brought along with them. The happiness and joy, the contentment and love that came out of it all, it sure made everything worth it for them <3

[wordingg]

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites

I finished Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra last night. I devoured this book. I now feel silly for putting off reading it for so long now, because it is so up my alley that it's stupid.

True Love Bites is the first book in the Hunger Pangs series. It is set in a magical twist on Victorian England. It follows three protagonists: a disabled werewolf captain, a roguish vampire viscount with a bad reputation and a mysterious woman with powerful magic. This book focuses mainly on the relationship between the first two, the werewolf Captain Nathan Northland and the vampire Viscount Vlad Blutstein. Nathan returns from war badly injured and barely recovered, but life in his ancestral home isn't the reprieve he was hoping for. No one seems able to cope with his lingering injuries, including himself. When a family friend suggests applying for the open position of Captain of the Guard on the island of Eyrie, Nathan is eager for any chance to get away from his family and re-enter the wider world. The only problem is that the island of Eyrie is full of vampires.

So, what initially intrigued me about this book was hearing someone describe it as a sort of deconstruction of romance tropes that grew legs and kept going. And, after reading it, I can confirm that it is indeed that! And also that all the subversions are super satisfying! There were so many beats where I could feel my brain saying, "Ah, yes. The classic (whatever). Now, this character will do this and- Oh. Oho! Nevermind! What the fuck! Go off! Yes!" I don't want to list off the examples, because they felt like really satisfying twists to me and I hope they feel the same to others. So I don't want to spoil them ahead of time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in romance, but a little tired of all the normal formulas. It was really sweet and heartwarming, and I'm honestly champing at the bit to read the next one.

Content warnings are available on the author's website (also linked in the title at the top of this post) if anyone needs it.

[2021ya]

FERRYMAN

Ferryman #1

by Claire McFall

(Walker Books, 10/12/21)

9781536218459

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After a deadly train crash, the afterlife is waiting for Dylan. But that's only if she and her intriguing Ferryman can make it across the demon-infested wasteland--and if she can bear to let him go. When Dylan wakes up after her train has crashed, she thinks she has survived unscathed. But she couldn't be more mistaken: the bleak landscape around her isn't Scotland, it's a wasteland--a terrain somehow shaped by her own feelings and fears, a border to whatever awaits her in the afterlife. And the stranger sitting by the train track isn't an ordinary teenage boy. Tristan is a Ferryman, tasked with guiding Dylan's soul safely across the treacherous landscape, a journey he has made a thousand times before. Only this time, something's different. The crossing, as ever, is perilous, with ravenous wraiths hounding the two at each day's end, hungry for Dylan's soul. But as Dylan focuses her strength on survival, with Tristan as protector, challenger, and confidant, she begins to wonder where she is truly meant to be--and what she must risk to get there. An international bestseller with a phenomenal following, the award-winning Ferryman (with its sequels Trespassers and Outcasts) is in development to be a major motion picture.

[2020ya]

SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ALI GREENLEAF

by Hayley Krischer

Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf #1

(Razorbill, 10/6/20)

9780593114117

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Perfect for fans of Rory Power and Laurie Halse Anderson, this sharp, emotional debut follows two girls as they navigate tumultuous relationships, the effects of trauma, and what empowerment means to them. Ali Greenleaf and Blythe Jensen couldn't be more different. Ali is sweet, bitingly funny, and just a little naive. Blythe is beautiful, terrifying, and the most popular girl in school. They've never even talked to each other, until a party when Ali decides she'll finally make her move on Sean Nessel, her longtime crush, and the soccer team's superstar. But Sean pushes Ali farther than she wants to go. When she resists--he rapes her. Blythe sees Ali when she runs from the party, everyone sees her. And Blythe knows something happened with Sean, she knows how he treats girls. Even so, she's his best friend, his confidant. When he begs her to help him, she can't resist. So Blythe befriends Ali in her attempt to make things right with Sean, bringing Ali into a circle of ruthless popular girls, and sharing her own dark secrets. Despite the betrayal at the heart of their relationship, they see each other, in a way no one ever has before. In her searing, empowering debut novel, Hayley Krischer tells the story of what happened that night, and how it shaped Ali and Blythe forever. Both girls are survivors in their own ways, and while their experiences are different, and their friendship might not be built to last, it's one that helps each of them find a way forward on their own terms.

[2021ya]

THE UPPER WORLD

The Upper World #1

by Femi Fadugba

(HarperTeen, 12/7/21)

9780063078598

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Today During arguably the worst week of Esso's life, an accident knocks him into an incredible world--a place beyond space or time, where he can see glimpses of the past and future. But if what he sees there is true, he might not have much longer to live, unless he can use his new gift to change the course of history. Tomorrow Rhia's past is filled with questions, none of which she expects a new physics tutor to answer. But Dr. Esso's not here to help Rhia. He's here because he needs her help--to unravel a tragedy that happened fifteen years ago. One that holds the key not only to Rhia's past, but to a future worth fighting for.

[2021ya]

IRON WIDOW

Iron Widow #1

​by Xiran Jay Zhao

(Penguin Teen, 9/21/21)

9780735269934

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The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​ To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed

[2021ya]

ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART

Once Upon a Broken Heart #1

by Stephanie Garber

(Flatiron, 9/28/21)

9781250268396

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Evangeline Fox was raised in her beloved father’s curiosity shop, where she grew up on legends about immortals, like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his powers are mythic, his kiss is worth dying for, and that bargains with him rarely end well. But when Evangeline learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she becomes desperate enough to offer the Prince of Hearts whatever he wants in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. The prince only asks for three kisses. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’s pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy…

[2021ya]

THIS IS NOT THE JESS SHOW

by Anna Carey

(Quirk, 2/2/21 11/17/20 8/4/20)

9781683691976

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A timely YA thriller about a teenage girl whose reality may not be what it seems, blending 90s nostalgia with a speculative hook that dissects our modern reality TV and influencer-obsessed culture. Like many teens, sometimes it feels as though everything in Jess Flynn’s life has been engineered for maximum drama–from her performance at the school talent show, to the reappearance of her childhood best friend and perennial crush Jeremy, to her friends trying to set her up with one of the hottest guys in school. It’s almost as if everything might finally be going her way…until one day a tiny black phone with an apple logo on its screen falls out of her best friend’s backpack and lands at Jess’s feet. The problem is, it’s 1998, and the first iPhone isn’t due out for another nine years. Jess’s friends refuse to acknowledge the strange device. Her sister Sara, on hospice care with a terminal blood disease, for once can’t tell Jess what she should do. It’s almost as if everyone is hiding something from her. Even her beloved dog Fuller seems different…like, literally different, because he definitely didn’t have that same pattern of spots on his stomach last week… Nothing in Jess Flynn’s world is as it seems, and as the cracks begin to show, Jess will discover her entire life is nothing more than someone else’s entertainment. Except in this reality, the outside world is no place anyone would want to escape to.