Sworn to Fly by Maria Imbalzano
(Sworn Sisters Series) Book 3 of 3
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Rating: Best Book
Reviewed by Mistflower
Risk-averse ER nurse, Alyssa Beckman, is about to lose her job because of yet another bad decision. In order to put her life back on track, she books a week at a rustic mountain resort to ponder her next steps and rejuvenate. But when she arrives, she learns she’s enrolled in boot camp, an adventure program far out of her comfort zone.
While there, she meets Gabriel Sutton, a world-travelling high-fashion photographer who is in danger of losing his clients as well as his status if he doesn’t start following the rules. While hiking, kayak racing, and participating in team challenges, sparks fly between Alyssa and Gabe as they encourage each other to take different life paths. But will those paths lead them farther apart or bring them closer together?
Book of the Month Poll Winner ~ Sworn to Fly by Maria Imbalzano
Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero
Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeLlewellyn does not like to feel afraid or sad, angry, lonely, or embarrassed. And so he comes up with a brilliant plan: he tucks each of his feelings into jars and hides them away where they won’t bother him anymore. But when he gets in trouble in class, Llewellyn finds he needs to put away excitement too. And when joy is quickly followed by disappointment, he decides to get rid of joy as well. After a while, Llewellyn walks around not feeling much of anything at all. And what happens when his emotions refuse to be bottled up any longer?
In this richly illustrated and universally relatable picture book, Llewellyn soon discovers that life is more colorful when he sets his emotions free. And only then, by facing and embracing each of his feelings, is he finally able to let them go.
All emotions are valuable.
Once again, I was blown away by Ms. Marcero’s ability to make a complex topic relatable and entertaining for small children. Emotional intelligence is a difficult but critical skill to learn. She managed to make it sound like one of the greatest adventures anyone could experience. It takes smooth writing to accomplish that, so my interest in reading more of her work has only deepened now that I’ve read two of her tales.
The only thing holding this picture book back from receiving a five-star rating from me had to do with how little time it spent explaining what to do with feelings that seem too big or overwhelming to handle. Honestly, this is something that even adults struggle with sometimes, and it can be even tougher for kids. The narrator did such a spectacular job with every other aspect of the topic. I would have happily gone with a perfect rating if they’d gone into the same amount of detail with this one.
Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that carefully wove the fantasy elements of the plot in with the author’s messages about the importance of emotions and how she thinks children should handle them. It wasn’t always easy for me to pick out where one of these themes ended and the other began. They were so well-suited for each other that I was nothing but pleased to see it written that way.
This is the sequel to In a Jar. I recommend reading this series in order because the narrator made some lovely references to previous scenes that can only be understood by readers who have already experienced them.
Out of a Jar was a wonderful starting place for talking about difficult emotions.
BFF: A Story About Bullycide by Lindsey G. P. Bell
BFF: A Story About Bullycide by Lindsey G. P. Bell
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Rated: 4 stars
Review by RoseThirteen-year-old Abby and her father have just moved from a leaky old sailboat in California to an inherited mansion in South Carolina, and Abby does not fit in. This is the story of the summer adventures she shares with new best friend, Hollis, and two boys from their class rescuing an injured heron. But when school begins, Abby is shocked to learn that Hollis is a bullied outcast…who, pushed to the limit, takes her own life—a phenomenon known as bullycide. BFF attempts to portray the loss felt by those left behind.
This book deals with suicide, which may be triggering for some readers.
This book is so touching and, unfortunately, so important and needful in this time. There is so much to love about it. The characters are wonderfully drawn, and the friendships portrayed reminded me of friendships I had when I was growing up.
While I wish we had found out more about Abby’s mom and, possibly, had a little closure there (I was left feeling incomplete with that), I am glad that Abby’s dad was there for her… all the time and in all the ways. And, it was a learning experience to find out about her grandparents. The small town south…especially during the time setting of the book… was probably pretty accurate in the descriptions of how a lot of people felt about differences. I also wish we had found out more about Hollis’ background and family. I was left with a lot of questions.
Even with that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even with the tragic ending. I was completely drawn into the story and was returned to my own childhood. I am looking forward to reading more by this author. I loved her voice.
The Country Bake-Off by Riya Aarini
The Country Bake-Off by Riya Aarini
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeMouse Country is about to hold its famous Country Bake-Off! Joyful Jazella is eager to enter the competition. But Proud Pazenna has an extravagant kitchen and fancy spices—and is sure she’ll take home the prize. Will Jazella’s cake impress the judges, or will Pazenna outbake her?
Homemade cake is one of the simple pleasures in life, especially when it’s shared with everyone.
Baking can be tricky business at times. I giggled as I read the scenes that described how both characters gathered up their ingredients and decided which ones to use. This was even more true for the ingredients that might not have been perfect at first glance. How someone responds to something like that can certainly share a lot of information about their personality!
The message felt too heavy-handed to me even after taking consideration for the age group for which it was written. Everything from the character’s names to the ways in which they were described left no room for interpretation or shades of gray. Characters were described as either completely good or bad. I definitely wouldn’t expect a picture book to be as nuanced as something written for adults, but it sure would have been nice to have characters who had a mixture of positive and negative traits.
I did enjoy the scene that showed how the judges reacted to the cakes that Joyful Jazella and Proud Pazenna submitted to the contest. It was entertaining to watch Proud Pazenna carry her large and impressive cake up to them, especially given how many layers the cake had and how carefully she had to move to get it to them in one piece. Joyful Jazella’s modest little cake also piqued my interest, and I couldn’t wait to see what the judges thought of it as well.
The Country Bake-Off was a lighthearted read.
Becoming a Randal by Lauri Robinson
Becoming a Randal by Lauri Robinson
Publisher: Fire and Ice/Melange Publishing
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeWhen fourteen-year-old Samantha West and her younger brother, Tommy, are placed in a foster home, Sam feels as if she’s been thrown into a Hallmark movie, full of perfect looking people—actors. The only person not acting, is Spencer Randal, her sixteen-year-old foster brother who hates her. By way of a broken leg, getting hauled home by the cops, and a haunted house, Sam and Spencer each learn what it truly means to be a Randal—Do your best, don’t give up, set goals and work towards them, be a good person, and make things right whenever you can. However, just when Sam’s life has become as perfect as a Hallmark movie, she and Tommy are returned to their mother, where nothing has changed. As the cycle of living on the streets returns, Sam decides it’s time to make things right.
Life is like a roller coaster ride when you’re a foster kid.
The character development in this novel was fantastic. Not only could I describe the personalities of every major character in vivid detail, they grew and changed over the course of the plot in realistic and spectacular ways. They felt real to me. As much ground as was already covered here, there was still plenty of room for future growth if she decides to do that. I can’t stop hoping that Ms. Robinson will write a sequel so that I can spend more time with all of the wonderfully nuanced individuals in this universe.
I do wish more time had been spent on describing the process that Samantha and Tommy’s mother needed to go through if she wanted to regain custody of her children. Foster care is a complex system, and I think it would have made sense for the social worker to be a bit more forthcoming about how the case was going and what the next step would be. This was the only thing holding me back from giving a five-star review.
Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that showed Samantha’s adjustment to living in a quiet, happy foster home where everyone always had clean clothing and enough food to eat. The descriptions of the neglect and abuse she suffered when she lived with her biological mom were appropriate for this age group, but they were also incredibly sad at times. I totally understood why she was mystified by how nice her foster parents were or suspicious about their motives. The poor girl had been through so much. It made total sense that she’d react this way to simple acts of kindness, and I was glad the author gave this character the space she needed to accept her newfound, if temporary, stability.
Speaking of that topic, I adored the kindness that was woven into the plot beginning with the very first scene when the Randals warmly welcomed Samantha and Tommy into their home. There were countless examples of other good deeds later on in the storyline that always felt natural for the characters who were performing them. Reading this was like drinking a cup of hot cocoa. It made me feel all warm and cozy inside, and I eagerly kept going while I hoped that everyone would get the happy ending they so richly deserved.
Becoming a Randal was a heartwarming read.
Geo by Topher Allen
Geo by Topher Allen
Publisher: Outside Voice Publishing
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeGolem’s Hollow, the crystal city. For a rock like Geo, the beautifully familiar spires are the perfect place to be. They’re the only place to be. But what lies beyond the underground metropolis?
Geo always had questions, and ready or not, this is his chance for answers. Things didn’t go quite as planned, now he and his friends are stranded in a distant wilderness. It’s the adventure he always wanted. But survival is not guaranteed. Bizarre creatures roam these endless wilds dotted with odd, abandoned structures. What else is going on out here? Why does no one else dare to ask?
Unknown worlds are rarely safe and never predictable.
Adventures can be found anywhere.
The world building was well done, especially when it came to describing how Geo’s society was wildly different from anything humans have thought of for themselves. This showed up in subtle ways like the characters saying “for peat’s sake” instead of “for Pete’s sake,” but it also demonstrated to the audience cultural differences between rocks and humans that I never would have thought about in advance. Those moments are really best left for each reader to discover for themselves due to how surprising and wonderful they were. I don’t want to spoil any surprises!
There were some pacing issues. They were especially noticeable in the first third of this book which dampened my enthusiasm to keep reading even though I was highly interested in the idea of sentient rocks when I began. Unfortunately, the storyline moved so slowly in the beginning that it was a struggle for me to continue reading. It would have been nice to have more action in these scenes.
With that being said, my interest levels did increase again once Geo and his friends began their exciting adventure in the world outside of Golem’s Hollow, the crystal city where they lived. It’s one thing to see how rocks live on their home turf, but it’s quite another to see how they react to an unfamiliar and sometimes a little frightening outside world. Their reactions to these events renewed my interest in these characters even as I continued to wish the plot itself could move along a bit faster.
Geo was a creative adventure that should be read by anyone who has ever wondered what it might be like to be a rock.
The Runaways by Brenda Barnes Clark
The Runaways by Brenda Barnes Clark
Publisher: RBC Books
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Paranormal, Action/Adventure, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Review ed by AstilbeWhat if Penny, an abused pony at a 1946 West Virginia county fair, runs away to eleven-year-old Billie Rose Tackett?
What if, through “think-speak,” Penny tells Billie that she was stolen and did not belong to the carnival or the horrible, terrible pony ride keeper? How can Billie prove the theft when no one in their right mind would believe that a horse speaks? In her quest to save Penny, Billie and Penny show amazing courage and tenacity to overcome seemingly impossible, life-threatening situations. In this fast-paced adventure story, Billie grows in confidence as she deals with prejudice, disability, bullying, family loss, compassion, and forgiveness while doing whatever it takes to save the runaway pony.
Empathy makes the world a better place.
The pacing was perfect. I ended up reading far longer than I was intending to because I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the page or wait to see what happened next. There simply wasn’t a good time to take a break. That’s the sort of writing I love to see, and it makes this first-time reader eager to see what Ms. Barnes Clark might come up with next. She couldn’t have made a better first impression with me.
Billie lost some of her hearing as a result of an infection she had as a child. The scenes describing her memories of that illness and how it affected her life as well as the lives of her mother and sister were written beautifully, and I’m saying that as someone who lives with a person who is hard of hearing. It’s rare to find characters who have partial hearing loss but who can still hear certain tones, so I was thrilled to see this topic covered here.
Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that included the mind reading between Billie and Penny. The paranormal elements of their adventures were subtle but unmistakable. That suited these characters nicely, and I enjoyed coming up with my own theories about why they could communicate telepathically. Not everything needs to be fully explained in a tale like this one, especially when there was so much else going on in their lives simultaneously.
I appreciated how descriptive this book was about everything from the physical appearances of the characters to what their homes, barns, gardens, and other settings looked like. The author did a wonderful job of fleshing out the world she was describing, and I found it easy to close my eyes and picture everything in my mind. What made this even better was how seamlessly she included all of the details in the storyline. The pacing of the plot never needed to slow down in order for her to describe all of the little but important details that created such a memorable read.
The Runaways was an exciting adventure that I’d wholeheartedly recommend to adults just as much as to the middle grade audience it was originally intended for!
Chocolate Crossing: The Mystery of the Missing Chocolate Gold by Riya Aarini
Chocolate Crossing: The Mystery of the Missing Chocolate Gold by Riya Aarini
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeSheriff Antoine and bank manager Quinn have their hands full when the chocolate gold suddenly goes missing from the Bank of Chocolate Currency. Suspicious grown-ups, including a hobbling witch and a wily magician, add mayhem to this mind-boggling mystery. Will the kids of Chocolate Crossing find the chocolate gold-and the thief who turns their town upside down?
There’s nothing sweet about stealing chocolate!
The spectacular world building made me wish I could be part of Chocolate Crossing. All of the children who spent time there had clearly come up with a clear vision of what they wanted their town to be like. I adored the little details that were included like the narrator’s descriptions of the unusual form of currency these characters used or why birthdays in this community were even more exciting than they would be in the world of teenagers and grownups.
I did find myself wishing for more character development in this novella. The setting was such a memorable one that it was a little surprising to me to see that the same attention wasn’t paid to the characters. There was a lot of space here for the audience to get to know them better, and I would have happily gone with a higher rating if that had occurred.
Trying to solve the mystery of who stole the bars of chocolate gold was a great deal of fun. There were exactly the right number of clues for a middle grade audience, and they were shared just often enough to keep my interest levels high, too. I liked the fact that the narrator presented multiple options to the audience, especially since I could see good arguments for why all of them might be the right answer.
Chocolate Crossing: The Mystery of the Missing Chocolate Gold was a lighthearted read that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys candy or chocolate.
Read a Book With Me by Lawrence Schimel
Read a Book With Me by Lawrence Schimel
Publisher: Beaming Books
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeWill you read a book with me?
Antonio wants someone to read with him, but nobody seems to have any time–not his mom, not their neighbor, and not any of his friends on the street. It’s only when he looks in an unexpected place that he discovers the perfect reading partner, and a chance to make a new friend.
A celebration of the power of stories and communities, Read a Book with Me will remind audiences young and old that there’s nothing to bring people together like the power of a good book.
Why must grownups be so busy and distracted?
Antonio’s character development was wonderful. He was a lonely kid when I first met him, and I empathized with his struggle to find a grown-up who had the time and energy to read to him. What made me like him even more was how persistent he was in figuring out a solution to his problem. Yes, he was sad every time someone said no to him, but he never stopped trying to find someone who could help him. That was such a good message to send to young readers who might also wish the grownups in their lives could slow down and read to them sometimes!
I do wish this picture book had spent more time exploring Antonio’s relationship with his new friend. The storyline spent so much time building up to this moment that I was surprised by how soon it ended after they met. There was so much more the author could have done with these characters. If they had been given more time to develop, I would have happily gone with a much higher rating.
Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that quietly explored how disabled people are sometimes ignored and mistreated by society. They made their point to the audience without ever sermonizing on the topic, but they were also perfectly clear about how silly it is to discount someone because they are disabled. I was pleased with how this message was seamlessly folded into the storyline. It certainly left plenty of room for discussion for readers who want to talk about it in greater detail, and I appreciated that.
Read a Book with Me was a heartwarming tale.
Chaos Looming by H.B. Reneau
Chaos Looming by H.B. Reneau
Publisher: Vesalian Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by DicentraBuild more than you break. Heal more than you destroy.
But what if chaos can’t be tamed?
For centuries, the Legion of Pneumos has lurked behind the seat of power in Loren. To preserve order across worlds, they are charged with battling chaos in all its forms, no matter the cost.
Keira Altman, the newest Legionnaire, has spent years perfecting the art of wielding pneuma and channeling order out of chaos. Ripped from her own world and into one she barely understands, the only thing Keira knows for certain is that she has a purpose. Now, if only she knew what it was.
Yet when word arrives that the Regio lies on his deathbed, Keira’s new world begins to crumble around her. As the specter of a peasant uprising looms large, and political maneuvering threatens to unravel the fabric of society, Keira realizes that her only hope of avoiding the coming turmoil may lie in the very institutions she’s fought so hard against. But can she master the forces of chaos without losing herself to the chaos within? And what if the price of order proves too high to pay?
How do you define chaos and order? If you, like me, have no set definition for that, you’re in luck. H.B. Reneau explores those ideas and what they mean in the new series starter Chaos Looming. The first book in the Legion of Pneumos series is an action-packed whirlwind of a fantasy adventure sure to excite readers and leave them on the edge of their seats.
Great worldbuilding is a must for me to enjoy a fantasy read. Action is a must too. This book has both. In addition to the actual building of the world (setting up what a world looks like, how things work, etc.), there’s also the magic system, religions, and the dynamics of how people in the world interact. I really enjoyed the magic system for this book, and there is a lot happening on the political side of things which is exciting. The actual action does take a bit to build up, but once it does it feels like you’re on a roller coaster. Slower on the front end, but once it takes off you can’t help but sit back and enjoy the ride. Admittedly, I picked this book up and put it down multiple times but I’m glad I persevered and finished the read.
The characters were where I struggled the most in this book, and why I was unable to give the book a full five stars. I never really connected to Keira (which is an issue when she’s the main character). I was more concerned by what was happening than who was involved, if that makes sense. A lot of Keira’s backstory felt like it was missing, and after some research, I’m wondering if some of that might have been provided in the prequel to Chaos Looming, The Cantor.
For those who are curious about the audience level, I would categorize it as a young adult novel. There is some mild cursing in the book, minimal romantic content (I noted one kiss), and a lot of action (the violence and gore level is towards the higher side).
Altogether, Chaos Looming is an exciting, action-packed young adult fantasy with great world-building. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy epic fantasy tales.
