books. diversity. really bad puns.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Title: Legendborn
Author: Tracy Deonn
Publication Date: September 15th, 2020
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley
Age Range & Genre: YA, fantasy, contemporary, retelling, LGBTQ+
Content warnings: death, racism, manipulation, memory erasure, violence, anxiety attacks
Special thank you to Shealea and Caffeine Book Tours for organizing this blog tour and providing me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All quotes are from an advance copy and are subject to change in final publication.
While this review is spoiler-free for Iron Heart, it may contain spoilers for Crier’s War.
(So if you haven’t read Crier’s War yet….what are you waiting for?
Title: Iron Heart
Author: Nina Varela
Publication Date: September 8th, 2020
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: eARC via publisher
Age Range & Genre: YA, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, LGBTQ+
Content warnings: violence, panic attack, torture, body horror (for more details, visit Nina Varela’s website)
Synopsis: An unstoppable love between two girls—one human, one Made—both set on destroying the Iron Heart.
For too long the cruel, beautiful Automae have lorded over the kingdom of Rabu, oppressing the humans who live there. But the human revolution is on the rise, and at its heart is Ayla. Once handmaiden, now fugitive, Ayla escaped the palace of Lady Crier, the girl Ayla had planned to kill . . . but instead fell in love with. Now Ayla has pledged her allegiance to Queen Junn, whom she believes can accomplish the ultimate goal of the human rebellion: destroy the Iron Heart. Without it, the Automae will be weakened to the point of extinction.
But playing at Ayla’s memory are the powerful feelings she developed for Crier. And unbeknownst to her, Crier has also fled the palace, taking up among travelling rebels, determined to find and protect Ayla.
As their paths collide, neither are prepared for the dark secret underlying the Iron Heart.
I have been reduced to a pile of goo. I am so soft. These disaster, idiot gays have made me so soft because they are so stinking soft.
Nina Varela’s never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around and desert you. Nina Varela has done it once again and left me utterly and completely wrecked by her writing. Iron Heart is the perfect conclusion to the Crier’s War duology, gripping and satisfying and so, so tender.
I apologize in advance if my thoughts are still incoherent because, as I mentioned, I have been reduced to a puddle of goo. Crier’s War absolutely blew me away when I read it last year, and Iron Heart was easily one of my most anticipated releases of 2020. And I have to say – it did not disappoint.
Iron Heart takes place approximately two weeks after the conclusion of Crier’s War, with Ayla on the run after her failed assassination attempt and Crier’s wedding to Scyre Kinok approaching. Faster paced than its predecessor, Iron Heart follows Ayla and Crier as they separately journey to the kingdom of Varn in the hopes that the Mad Queen Junn can help bring Kinok down before he succeeds in destroying the Heart. In the thrilling conclusion of their story, the stakes are infinitely higher and the feelings that Crier and Ayla both tried to repress in the first book are made even stronger with distance.
Along with Crier and Ayla exuding gay panic and yearning on every other page, Iron Heart is a story that is ultimately about humanity and what some are willing to sacrifice for the sake of “progress.” Crier’s father is a Traditionalist who considers humans as animals that can be observed, whose history the superior Automae can learn from, and Crier’s former fiancé Kinok sees them as little more than scum. But Crier has always been a little different from the rest of her Kind, especially as she discovers that she wants to know Ayla, as humans know each other, and wants to be known in return. Free from restrictions for the first time in her life, Crier finally has the chance to implement the changes she’s dreamed about – and she’s determined to make it count.
Folks, we stan normalized queerness in books. Aside from a sapphic main couple, Nina Varela effortlessly integrates queerness into her writing in a way that I’ve rarely seen – there are numerous characters with established queer identities, yes, but what really captivated me were the stories and fairy tales we get a glimpse of, mostly through our lovable romantic Crier as she takes up the mantle of storyteller. In the short fairy tales that Varela shares in Iron Heart, gender roles are subverted and queer relationships are standard. They also provide another glimpse into Nina Varela’s lyrical and whimsical writing style, imbued with rich lessons and so much heart. Much like Crier, I couldn’t help loving these old stories.
As Ayla and Crier embark on separate journeys (don’t worry, they’re not separated for long) they strengthen bonds with old friends and meet new allies. I loved the new characters Varela introduces in Iron Heart and I was so thrilled that we got to learn more about Queen Junn on a deeper level. Most of all, I loved the fact that both Ayla and Crier are able to form bonds with other humans, something they miss out on in Crier’s War due to different circumstances. Iron Heart is about the side of revolution that remains in the shadows rather than the immediate spotlight, full of sleuthing, alliances, politics and philosophy, but it is no less action-packed for it. Crier and Ayla are very well aware that they cannot take down Kinok by themselves, and luckily, they don’t have to. Their revolution is very much a team effort, made up of people from different kingdoms and backgrounds, with their own beliefs and perspectives – and seeing them come together for a common goal to build a better world gave me some much needed hope.
Iron Heart is incredibly romantic and powerful, but it’s humorous, too. When I wasn’t sending snippets to my friends to show them how unbelievably soft Ayla and Crier are with each other, I was snorting at Crier’s deadpan sense of humor and gay panic, and Ayla’s inability to process positive emotions because, well, same. Even though our two narrators are a literal robot and a would-be assassin, they are just so relatable and real that I couldn’t help seeing myself represented in each of them at different moments throughout the book.
The conclusion to Crier’s War is the perfect mix of tenderness, yearning, and action, and was everything I could have wanted (and didn’t know I needed) to wrap up Crier and Ayla’s story. A million kudos and thanks to Nina, always.
Nina Varela is a nationally awarded writer of screenplays, short fiction, poetry, and novels. In May 2017, she graduated magna cum laude from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a BFA in Writing for Screen & Television. Crier’s War was her debut, and this is the sequel. She is originally from Durham, North Carolina, where she grew up on a hippie commune in the middle of the woods. She now lives in Los Angeles.
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Links for Iron Heart
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First off, I just want to thank everyone who nominated and voted for Love Yo Shelf in the best new blog category for Marie and May’s Book Blogger Awards!! Orianna and I are completely and absolutely overwhelmed by the love and support we’ve gotten since starting our baby blog in October, and we’ve loved having the chance to get to know other members of the community. I had absolutely no idea what to expect when we first started, and it’s honestly been a steep learning curve, which brings me to this post!
When we launched Love Yo Shelf in 2019, I felt like I was a little late to the game and in way over my head. I spent a couple months prior to publishing my first Love Yo Shelf post observing and learning, but for a self-proclaimed bookworm, I did very little reading. As much as I tried to prepare myself by polishing the Love Yo Shelf site and stockpiling reviews, I couldn’t prepare for what I simply didn’t know. I found a few posts with tips for new bloggers, and I’m sure there are plenty more out there, but the ones I read tended to be a little more generic and strictly about running a blog, with little mention about having a social media presence or the specific obstacles and issues that bloggers of color face.
It wasn’t until I actually started talking to other bloggers of color that my own hesitantly negative feelings about some of the things I was seeing around Twitter were affirmed and validated. I do think that book blogs are more accessible and thus more equitable than other bookish platforms in terms of who can start a blog and succeed. However, it’s an entirely different ball game for bloggers of color and white bloggers, with layers of privilege factoring in as well. There are a lot of facets to being a blogger of color that I’m unequipped to discuss because of my own privilege, but for the time being, here are some bits of advice for new bloggers of color that I discovered through trial and error.
Read moreSpecial thank you to Kate @ Your Tita Kate and the publisher for organizing this blog tour and providing me a physical ARC of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All quotes are from an advance copy and are subject to change in final publication.
Title: The Bone Shard Daughter
Author: Andrea Stewart
Publication Date: September 8th, 2020
Publisher: Orbit
Source: Physical ARC via publisher
Age Range & Genre: Adult, fantasy, LGBTQ+
Content warnings: violence, death, blood, human/animal experimentation
Synopsis: The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.
Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.
Yeah, so, this series may or may not be my new obsession because good Lord am I invested. I’d heard from friends that The Bone Shard Daughter wouldn’t be quite how it seemed, but even then, I still had no idea what I was getting myself into – and it was all even more intriguing than I could have ever expected.
And I would show him that even broken daughters could wield power.
Andrea Stewart, The Bone Shard Daughter
While The Bone Shard Daughter is indeed Lin’s story, it is also the story of Jovis, Phalue, Ranami, and Sand. All five of these characters provide their own perspectives throughout the book, with Lin and Jovis’s chapters being told in first person, and Phalue, Ranami, and Sand’s being told in third. The shift between first person narration and third can initially be jarring, but Andrea Stewart executes the transition in a way that seems seamless. Although it took me a good 10+ chapters or so to acclimate and familiarize myself with their names and voices, the differing perspectives were masterfully handled in order to craft a phenomenal mystery full of layered twists and turns.
Lin is possibly one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever read about. She is simultaneously dealing with severe memory loss and competing with her father’s foster son to see who can unlock all of the keys to secret rooms in the palace and master bone shard magic first. Due to her memory loss and the fact that her father has clear expectations of who she should be, rather than who she is, Lin struggles to develop a sense of self. As she slowly discovers more about the palace and the secrets it holds, she learns more about herself, her father, and their fraught history.
If Lin is the character I found to be the most fascinating, I think Jovis would have to be my favorite. There’s something about the exhausted, reluctant hero who refuses to think of himself as a hero that I automatically love. Jovis’s chapters also had the perk of including Mephisolou (Mephi for short), an adorable talking creature that Jovis sort of accidentally rescues and subsequently bonds with. Their bond is so organic and strong, and I can’t wait to learn more about Mephi and his mysterious origins in the sequel.
Phalue and Ranami are interesting both individually and within their relationship to each other, and their dynamic has intricacies that make Stewart’s overall commentary on imperialism and classism hit even harder. I loved seeing an established sapphic relationship that is also blatantly flawed in a fantasy, where the people in the relationship obviously love each other deeply but have conflicting ideals and beliefs wrought by ignorance and privilege. All of the characters are easy to root for, but I might have been rooting for Phalue the hardest, hoping that she could unlearn her internalized biases and the lies that she wanted to believe about government.
Even though she had the fewest chapters in her perspective, Sand is absolutely crucial to the story. Stuck on an island without her memories of who she is or how she got there, Stewart lays the groundwork to help you guess at Sand’s true identity, and the reveal still knocked me off my feet.
A made thing could grow and change beyond its original purposes.
Andrea Stewart, The Bone Shard Daughter
Speaking of how Stewart lays the groundwork for guessing at plot twists – The Bone Shard Daughter is chock-full of twists that left my head spinning. Every time I thought I’d finally figured out what Stewart was hinting at, another layer was peeled back and I was completely taken by surprise all over again. The best twists are the ones that are satisfying, where you can clearly see several paths to reasonable conclusions and yet, no one but the author truly knows where the story is leading.
Stewart pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to imperialism and privilege. Two of our leading narratives are characters in positions of great power and privilege, who have to expand their perspectives beyond their own sheltered lives and recognize the hardships that nearly everyone else is facing. As a governor’s daughter, Phalue is infuriating even as you root for her to grow because yes, she is extremely ignorant, but her rhetoric is so utterly familiar. We’ve all heard people justify exploitation, injustice, inequality, by insisting that people choose that life, that they don’t have to remain stuck in their circumstances and can rise above them, that the world is fair and people have equal opportunities if only they just take advantage of them. It’s an exhausting mindset to encounter and try to undo, and I love that Stewart shows that process through Phalue and Ranami’s relationship.
I adored The Bone Shard Daughter much more than I expected, which can probably be credited to the book’s fairly slow start, but that’s also to be expected of adult fantasies. With a beautifully layered plot and the development of the main characters, I think Stewart set herself up for a truly stunning sequel that further explores the effects of imperialism and how nations are rebuilt in the aftermath – if they’re rebuilt at all. Considering what Stewart managed to do in the first book alone, I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. Her parents always emphasized science and education, so she spent her childhood immersed in Star Trek and odd-smelling library books.
When her (admittedly ambitious) dreams of becoming a dragon slayer didn’t pan out, she instead turned to writing books. She now lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes.
Links for The Bone Shard Daughter
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Alright, bear with me folks, because I dove deep into critical race theory during my undergrad and I have a Lot to say.
I’m sure that almost 100% of the time, white bloggers look to support books by marginalized authors with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, due to the undeniable, incontestable truth that they are white, they wade into unknown waters, often without equipping themselves with basic knowledge through a little research. At first glance, this might seem harmless – after all, I truly don’t expect anyone to know everything there is to know about every diverse culture in the world – but how hard is it to put in a little effort? Or, even better, when you aren’t educated about something, why not defer to someone who does know what they’re talking about and share what they have to say instead?
And yet, despite the fact that white bloggers lack the range (truly no shade intended – this is just a matter of life experience) to fairly and accurately review and promote diverse books, they are praised for doing the bare minimum in advocating for marginalized voices. This is a pervasive problem that extends far beyond the book community, in which people insist on speaking up on behalf of marginalized voices, and end up speaking over them instead. This redirects the focus of the audience to white people instead of the people of color they claim they are trying to help, and as a result, we see the platforms of white bloggers grow rapidly while the platforms of people of color remain more or less stagnant.
Read moreThank you to Swoon Reads for sending me a physical ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Read moreThank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.
Title: Where Dreams Descend
Author: Janella Angeles
Publication Date: August 25th, 2020
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: YA
Content warnings: emotional abuse, manipulation
Synopsis: In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes.
As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next.
The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost
The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told
The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide
Well folks, you can’t win ’em all. As much as I wanted to love Where Dreams Descend and as much as I did enjoy various elements of the book, I was inevitably left wanting more, and no one is more disappointed by this than me.
I have to say that despite not totally loving the plot or pacing in Where Dreams Descend, I really did love all of the characters. Our star Kallia is everything I love in a protagonist. I love her boldness, her confidence, her ambition. I love that she knows that she is capable of greatness and won’t let anyone or anything prevent her from being recognized as the fantastically talented and powerful magician she is. While the other magicians competing in Spectaculore struggle to put together awe-inspiring acts, Kallia has a natural flare that she can easily back up with the raw power afforded to her as a born magician. As much as other people might try to bring her down, Kallia always manages to keep her chin up and show them exactly what she can do to prove that they are wrong about her. Indomitable as she might be, though, Kallia also has moments of vulnerability and immense loneliness as she comes to terms with the trauma and abuse she escaped from, and that balance is what makes her human.
The Master, Jack, is one of the characters that I personally found the most fascinating. You can tell that Jack genuinely cares about Kallia and does what he thinks is his best by her, but he’s not past using manipulative tricks in order to keep her by his side. There’s an air of mystery surrounding Jack, which he wholeheartedly encourages and maintains however he can. I ended up with far more questions about Jack than I had answers, and I’m looking forward to learning more about just who he is and what his background is in the sequel.
From the start, there’s an unmistakable connection between Kallia and Daron Demarco, one of the judges in Spectaculore. A former stage magician himself, Demarco has more to teach Kallia than either of them initially realize. Aside from her assistant Aaros, Demarco is the first person to give Kallia a chance once she gets to Glorian, and try as they might to resist the lure they feel towards each other, Kallia and Demarco find themselves brought together by fate more than once. There’s an irresistible push and pull between them, but there’s a shared stubbornness that made me go oh my god, just make out already! every time one of them was being particularly obtuse.
Unfortunately, I did not love the plot as much as I loved the characters. Normally this isn’t much of an issue for me, as I tend to enjoy character-driven books over plot-driven ones, but the issues I had with the plot seeped into the personalities of the characters and their interactions enough that I couldn’t overlook them.
The bulk of the book centers around Spectaculore, the competition between magicians to determine who will be the next headliner of the Conquering Circus. The competition takes place in the mysterious town of Glorian, which has inspired multiple conspiracy theories and rumors throughout the years. I think I would have enjoyed Where Dreams Descend more if either of these aspects had been explored further. Much like Jack, who is undeniably our Phantom in this book, I was left without answers about Glorian and the other peculiar forces that interfere with Spectaculore.
Multiple mysteries take place simultaneously throughout the book, but none of them are fully or even halfway answered, which I think is where the problem lies. The plot picks up pretty early on in the book as Kallia embarks on her journey to Glorian, but her time there passes somewhat slowly and uneventfully, with the intrigue coming from the looming dangers rather than the competition itself. The majority of the book is spent on developing the relationships between the characters while hinting at their individual motivations and desires, which is normally something I love and actively look for in books. However, there are so many different plot points that are initially fleshed out that I felt like some of that time should have been spent on world-building instead. Reminiscent of Kallia’s acts for the competition, Where Dreams Descend is spectacular from the audience, but drains a lot of its own energy in dazzling the senses.
Much like an actual stage production, the supporting characters are just as important to the success of the show as the stars themselves. The members of the Conquering Circus are a family through and through, and they readily claim Kallia as one of their own. They show up for her time and time again and keep her grounded and motivated. Kallia’s assistant, Aaros, is also essential in helping Kallia understand that she does not have to get through the competition alone. Lighthearted on the surface, Aaros demonstrates a deep understanding of what Kallia is feeling and going through, even if the two don’t actually talk about it on page. He believes in her and defends her when no one else will, and they form an unlikely friendship that surpasses the bounds of their on-stage partnership.
And then, of course, there’s Kallia herself. There is no ignoring the blatant sexism and misogyny that Kallia faces once she gets to Glorian, and she quickly learns that hers is not an isolated case. And although Kallia has allies and friends who are willing to help fight her battles with her, Kallia refuses to back down and make herself small in order to fit these men’s standards. She fights her own battles because that’s just who she is, not because she is alone in her fight, and that’s something I absolutely loved. Kallia finds a unique sense of camaraderie with the women in the Conquering Circus because they know exactly what it is like to be a female magician in a male-dominated world, and rather than envying Kallia’s opportunity to compete in Spectaculore, these other magicians readily cheer her on and come to her side during her times of need.
Where Dreams Descend might not be the book I was expecting, but it is undeniably beautiful and intriguing. I’m extremely curious about what will happen next, and how the subsequent acts will follow what we see in the first show. There is some truly gorgeous prose, and there’s no denying that Janella Angeles is a performer and artist in her own right. I would honestly love to see a film adaptation of Where Dreams Descend, because I really do believe it would be a sight to behold.
Links for Where Dreams Descend
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Have you read Where Dreams Descend yet? Will you be picking up a copy?
I’d love to know your thoughts!
Special thank you to Shealea and Caffeine Book Tours for organizing this blog tour and providing me an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed are my own.
Title: Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop
Author: Roselle Lim
Publication Date: August 4th, 2020
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Romance, contemporary
Age Range: Adult
Content warnings: Near death experience, (predictions of) death, gambling addiction, mentions of illness
Synopsis: Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes—or misfortunes—in tea leaves.
Ever since she can remember, Vanessa Yu has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai.
After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric aunt, Evelyn, shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to America and bonjour to Paris. While working at Evelyn’s tea stall at a Parisian antique market, Vanessa performs some matchmaking of her own, attempting to help reconnect her aunt with a lost love. As she learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, she realizes one thing to be true: knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is.
Where can I find an Aunt Evelyn to whisk me away to Paris, fund my new wardrobe, and guide me in the art of fortune-telling? Asking for a friend, obviously…
My family’s legacy is our former restaurants and continued dedication to finding/making/eating (mostly eating) really good food, so the Yu family shared trait of being foodies was something I enjoyed immensely. Roselle Lim’s writing is incredibly lush and descriptive, with a dedicated focus on taste that had my mouth watering the whole time I was reading. I definitely recommend having lots of snacks handy if you pick up Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop, because you’re going to need them!
One of my favorite things about Vanessa Yu is how connected our main character is with her family. While the book is marketed as a romance, the real love that’s explored is that between Vanessa and all of her relatives. They are knee-deep in each other’s lives, and the Yus are a constant in Vanessa’s life even as she travels from Palo Alto to Paris. As much as her meddling, matchmaking aunties might embarrass or hassle Vanessa and the rest of her cousins, you can tell that it’s from a deep sense of caring and community. If I’m being honest, I was reminded of my mom’s side of the family multiple times while reading, which only made me love the book that much more.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop is undeniably and beautifully whimsical, and was the perfect pick-me-up as I was coming off some pretty angsty books (Unravel the Dusk and These Violent Delights, I’m lookin’ at you…). The book is a great mix of lighthearted banter and teasing between family, and the emotional, mental, and even physical burdens that Vanessa faces along with her gift of predicting the future. There was no shortage of tense moments between Vanessa and her Aunt Evelyn as the two clashed on their philosophies about what their lives as clairvoyants could entail, and I loved that extra layer of complicated family dynamics, where two people can be so similar and so different simultaneously, but underneath the fraught emotions and angry words, you know there’s a steady foundation of unconditional love supporting their relationship.
When it comes to fate, it’s easy to get swept up in the idea that our destinies are not ours to shape. Even as Evelyn guides Vanessa in fortune-telling and is quick to correct Vanessa’s victimizing view of herself and her gift, Vanessa teaches Evelyn lessons in return. Gifts like theirs can be lonely, and while Evelyn has long since accepted the rules and limitations that come along with clairvoyance, Vanessa refuses to settle. I loved the fact that throughout the book, Vanessa is determined to live life on her own terms, and chases the happy ending she knows she deserves, but she’s not exempt from making mistakes and hurting those around her because of her ideals.
Despite the fact that I lack any sort of magical ability and am unfortunately not eating my way through a beautiful city like Paris, I found something so relatable in the way that Vanessa had to stop and consider why she’s able to have such strong ideals that starkly contrast those of her aunt’s, and then reconcile the ways in which her family’s sacrifices are what have given her the opportunities to develop her beliefs. Overall, Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop was a cute, wanderlust-inspiring read that had me wondering what I should eat next!
And if you’re in baking mode right now and want to make some snacks of your own to devour while you read this book, here’s the link to one of my favorite scone recipes!
Roselle Lim was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada as a child. She lived in north Scarborough in a diverse, Asian neighbourhood.
She found her love of writing by listening to her lola (paternal grandmother’s) stories about Filipino folktales. Growing up in a household where Chinese superstition mingled with Filipino Catholicism, she devoured books about mythology, which shaped the fantasies in her novels.
An artist by nature, she considers writing as “painting with words.”
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