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Review: Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Pulse for 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.

4/5 stars

Title: Rent a Boyfriend

Author: Gloria Chao

Publication Date: November 10, 2020

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Source: Digital ARC via NetGalley

Age Range & Genre: new adult, contemporary, romance

Content warnings: fatphobia, slut shaming, mentions of racism and xenophobia, homophobia, family estrangement

Synopsis: Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.

Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.

When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.

But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?

Around this time last year, I picked up my first ever YA contemporary romance featuring an Asian protagonist. It was a complete game-changer for me, and something I had no idea I had needed so badly prior reading it. Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao came to me at exactly the right time, so when I was approved for an e-ARC of Rent a Boyfriend, I freaked out.

I read American Panda, Gloria Chao’s debut novel, only recently, so it’s even more evident to me how far she’s come since then. Rent a Boyfriend is a story of both Chloe’s and Gloria Chao’s growth, as they explore the nuances in the Chinese diaspora experience and the different ways people express their love – and how the most well-intentioned actions can still cause harm.

The Characters: Chloe Jing-Jing Wang and (An)Drew (Insert Last Name Here)

As much as I love Gloria Chao and what her books personally mean to me, I do have to admit to not always loving her characters. Luckily, this was not the case for Rent a Boyfriend.

Chloe Wang, known to her family as Jing-Jing, has spent her whole life trying to please her parents and not disappoint them by losing face in their exceptionally prestigious, cutthroat community. She gets some reprieve when she’s away at school in Chicago, but coming home to California has become something to dread, especially with her parents pressuring her to accept the sleazy Hongbo’s proposal. At home, Jing-Jing is meek and obedient, and keeps her thoughts to herself in order to keep the peace, but inside, Chloe is dying to express how she really feels and make her parents understand just how deeply their words impact her. But due to a lifelong communication barrier, Chloe is driven to drastic measures in order to convince her parents that Hongbo is not the guy for her.

That’s where Drew comes in. Chloe hires Drew to be Andrew, the perfect Taiwanese boyfriend ideally meant to get Hongbo out of the picture. Andrew is whatever parents want him to be, and has the closet full of college paraphernalia to match. As Chloe’s fake boyfriend, he’s a promising medical student at UChicago, but in reality, Drew is a thoughtful, empathetic artist who was disowned by his parents for following his dreams. He works for Rent for Your ‘Rents to pay the bills, sure, but he also knows firsthand what kinds of fraught familial relationships can drive someone to hiring a significant other in the first place, and he wants to do whatever he can to help, which makes his fake persona, Andrew, even more perfect. With Chloe, though, he doesn’t want to just be Andrew, her fake boyfriend – he wants to be Drew, her hopefully very real boyfriend.

I really enjoyed the progression of Chloe and Drew’s relationship. They (naturally) get off to a pretty rocky start, but once they start to get to know each other outside of the operation, they’re sweet and supportive of each other’s personal journeys. I especially loved the fact that while they definitely help each other, they both realize their self-worth independently.

Making the best decision for you isn’t something you ever have to apologize for.

The Plot: On the first day of Christmas, my fake love gave to me…

Rent a Boyfriend is broken up into Chloe’s trips home: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and spring break. With every visit, it becomes more and more obvious to Chloe that she can’t continue to be Jing-Jing for her parents and Chloe for everyone else. The problem is, she has no idea how to go about remedying that.

Even though she hires Drew to solve her Hongbo problem, he ends up helping her far more outside of his capacity as a Rent for Your ‘Rents operative. They’ve had vastly different experiences growing up in Asian communities: Drew grew up in a supportive community that banded together because the rest of the world excluded them, and Chloe is used to a hyper-competitive environment born out of the fear that “there can only be one.” Because of this, Drew has a much healthier relationship with Chinese culture than Chloe, while still understanding how difficult it is for her to be so immersed in toxic ideologies.

More than anything else, I think, I had to appreciate the nuances in Chloe’s relationships with her parents the most. Her dad starts off in a pretty familiar place (for me, at least) as a stoic Asian father who keeps important information from his child for what he thinks is their best interest. It was so refreshing to see that stereotypical Asian dad realize his mistakes and own up to them, and actually start to do better by his daughter.

I completely understood Chloe’s frustrations with her parents and was rooting for her from start to finish, and that’s what made it even more important to me that there were good moments with her parents too. She’s able to crack jokes and laugh with her mom multiple times throughout the course of the book, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that Chloe is constantly being harmed by her mom’s actions and words and shows just how complicated familial relationships can be.

I choose the life I want, not the one my parents want.

Reasons to Recommend Rent a Boyfriend

Family relationships are complicated – that pretty much goes without saying. We all have our own ideas of what love should look like and feel like, and some manifestations can be extremely harmful to the people we care about the most. There’s more to language barriers between immigrant parents and their children than language itself, and it requires a lot of communication to find that middle ground between generations. And sometimes, communication isn’t enough, and a third party is necessary to help the family start to heal. I’m really glad that Gloria Chao acknowledges this through Chloe’s ideas for Rent for Your ‘Rents’ expansion, and I hope it’s a step forward more families can take together in the future.

While the humor in Rent a Boyfriend wasn’t always my cup of tea, I can see a lot of Chloe and Drew’s jokes landing with other members of Subtle Asian Traits on Facebook. Chang’e is one of my favorite figures from Chinese mythology, and I love how she’s incorporated into their relationship and Drew’s art. There are so many nods to Chinese culture throughout the book, some subtle and some not, and while my family doesn’t personally uphold many of the traditions and superstitions mentioned, they were all still so familiar that it felt like coming home.

Gloria Chao’s writing shines best when it’s straight-forward and straight from the heart, when she’s able to write about painful, fraught, and nuanced situations from firsthand experience, and I’m so glad a book like Rent a Boyfriend exists.

Links for Rent a Boyfriend

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indie Bound

Add it on Goodreads!

Will you be picking up a copy of Rent a Boyfriend?

Also, I could totally see this becoming a rom-com – who would you cast as Drew and Chloe? Or Hongbo (lmao!!)?

Let me know in the comments below!

Book Recs: Disney All Grown-Up

A dream is a wish your heart makes.

Whether this list is a dream or a nightmare…we shall see.

This book rec list has been in the works for quite some time, but it’s finally here! Lauren and I started this list at the start of Love Yo Shelf so it’s only right that I finish it at the end of our first year. This list is just a small peek into the wild conspiracy-theory-type conversations we have about books, so some of these comparisons are a bit of a stretch (okay, a HUGE leap and then some), and the book versions of these princesses are a bit more jaded than the singing-with-animals ones we’re used to. Nonetheless, our bookish protagonists feature some of my favorite elements from Disney (and DreamWorks) movies that definitely made me view them all in a different light.

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Blog Tour and Review: Spell Starter by Elsie Chapman

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 review. All quotes are from an advance copy and are subject to change in final publication.

While this review is spoiler-free for Spell Starter, it may contain spoilers for Caster.

3.5/5 stars

Title: Spell Starter

Author: Elsie Chapman

Publication Date: October 6th, 2020

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Source: Physical ARC via publisher

Age Range & Genre: YA, fantasy

Content warnings: violence, death, threats

Synopsis: Yes, Aza Wu now has magic back. But like all things in her life, it has come at a great cost. After the tournament, Aza is able to pay off her parents’ debt to Saint Willow. Unfortunately, the cost of the gathering spell she used to strip Finch of his magic has put her permanently in the employ of the gang leader. Aza has been doing little errands using real magic — collecting debts, putting the squeeze on new businesses in the district. But that had never been the plan. Saint Willow is nothing if not ambitious and having Aza as a fighter is much more lucrative than as a fixer. Especially if she can control the outcome. Aza is going to have to put it all on the line again to get out of this situation!

Much like its predecessor, Spell Starter took me by surprise and packed a punch – pun intended – but while Caster is very much a story about loss, Spell Starter is one of cost. Aza thought she paid the ultimate cost in getting revenge against her sister’s killer, Finch, by giving up her magic, but in this sequel, she finds that there are even more painful punishments to bear. Spell Starter takes a darker turn as Aza is suddenly forced to participate in a new tournament at Saint Willow’s bidding, and is even more relevant as it tackles environmentalism and greed.

Throughout Spell Starter, Aza struggles. She struggles with her new magic, she struggles with her grief for Shire, and she struggles with the person she’s starting to become under Saint Willow’s employment. No matter how much Aza tells herself that she is fighting in the tournament against her will and that she has no other choice, it does little to relieve any of the guilt she’s feeling. Aza is trying to be fine, both for herself and her parents, but whether she’s ready to acknowledge it or not, she’s now coping with the loss of multiple things. Aza has lost Shire, Kylin, and her magic, and she’s not sure how to start moving forward – if she even can.

From maybe 2013-2016, I was a huge Once Upon a Time fan, and a much repeated quote (some might even say it was repeated too many times) from the series is “magic always comes with a price,” and that’s essentially how I would summarize Spell Starter. Even though Aza has magic back, she quickly learns that it is nothing like her own magic and is left with painful reminders to drive that lesson home. She’s suffering from the consequences of casting physically, emotionally, and mentally, and yet she continues to fight because she has something to fight for. Everything Aza does, she does for her family, whether it’s in Shire’s memory or for the parents she’s slowly reconnecting with. Whatever the cost to herself, Aza is determined to protect the people she cares about.

Spell Starter includes all of the themes that made Caster such an impactful read for me, but while Aza is new and naive about the world she’s entering by fighting in the Guild’s tournament, she knows exactly what she’s getting into when Saint Willow forces her to compete again. The knowledge that Aza is working with in Spell Starter brings up the question of choice: under Saint Willow’s employ and the constant threats to her parents and their livelihood, does Aza have any other choice but to fight? But when fighting means losing control of magic that isn’t hers, toppling buildings, and tearing the earth apart, is there really a choice at all?

While Aza’s agency is at the heart of the story, so too is that of the earth’s. Once a world brimming with full-magic casters, the planet now reflects the damage that casters do to themselves when they use their magic. But despite the stigma against casters and the resentment they face due to their part in the earth’s destruction, other people are still willing to employ them and even bet on them for sport. The culture surrounding the tournaments is supposed to be a celebration of full magic and a recollection of days past, but Aza has already realized that it is actually one that endangers both the contestants and the earth’s for the entertainment of others.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Caster is adapted and how its environmentalist themes translate on screen, as well as watching people cast! We still don’t have much information about the movie, but check out the announcement on Tor!

About the Author

Elsie Chapman grew up in Prince George, Canada, and has a degree in English literature from the University of British Columbia. She is the author of the YA novels Dualed, Divided, Along the Indigo, and Caster as well as the middle-grade novel All the Ways Home, and the coeditor of A Thousand Beginnings and Endings and Hungry Hearts. She currently lives in Tokyo, Japan, with her family.

Website | Goodreads | Instagram

Links for Spell Starter

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Book Shop | Indie Bound

Add it on Goodreads!

Follow along with the rest of the tour via Caffeine Book’s launch post!

Have you read Caster? Are you looking forward to Spell Starter? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! If you haven’t had the chance to read Caster yet, you can check it out on Scribd using my referral link!

Blog Tour and Review: The Fallen Hero by Katie Zhao

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 The Fallen Hero, it may contain spoilers for The Dragon Warrior.

4/5 stars

Title: The Fallen Hero

Author: Katie Zhao

Publication Date: October 13th, 2020

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Source: Digital ARC via publisher

Age Range & Genre: middle grade, fantasy

Content warnings: mentions of death/afterlife torture

Synopsis: Faryn Liu thought she was the Heaven Breaker, a warrior destined to wield the all-powerful spear Fenghuang, command dragons, and defeat demons. But a conniving goddess was manipulating her all along…and her beloved younger brother, Alex, has betrayed her and taken over as the Heaven Breaker instead. Alex never forgave the people who treated him and Faryn like outcasts, and now he wants to wipe out both the demons and most of humanity.

Determined to prevent a war and bring Alex back to her side, Faryn and her half-dragon friend Ren join the New Order, a group of warriors based out of Manhattan’s Chinatown. She learns that one weapon can stand against Fenghuang–the Ruyi Jingu Bang. Only problem? It belongs to an infamous trickster, the Monkey King.

Faryn sets off on a daring quest to convince the Monkey King to join forces with her, one that will take her to new places–including Diyu, otherwise known as the Underworld–where she’ll run into new dangers and more than one familiar face. Can she complete her mission and save the brother she loves, no matter the cost?

If I could go back in time and gift my middle school self one series, it would have to be The Dragon Warrior series by Katie Zhao. Full of wit, humor, heart, The Fallen Hero is a love letter both to the Chinese diaspora and to the young adults who needed books like these growing up (including myself).

An outcast for the majority of her life, Faryn is a compelling protagonist whose strength comes from her love of her family and her own moral compass. Because of her multiracial background, she was never quite accepted by the Jade Society, where she grew up, nor does she fit in with the New Order – and to top it all off, Faryn has been betrayed by her younger brother and is no longer the Heaven Breaker. She struggles with feelings of abandonment and fitting in, but none of that stops her from wanting to honor the memories and legacies of her family and save her brother from making a mistake he can never take back. Faryn Liu is a courageous, Pocky-loving, dutiful granddaughter, and I have no doubt that she is going to save her world.

Despite the fact that my niece is years away from reading at all, much less reading chapter books, I’ve been keeping an ongoing mental note of books I want to gift to her when she’s ready, and The Dragon Warrior series is at the top of my list. Faryn is one of the most resilient protagonists I’ve ever had the pleasure of getting to know, and she has something to teach everyone, no matter their age. Faryn knows that blood doesn’t always make family and will never turn her back on the one she’s chosen, especially Alex, even as he continuously chooses the path that diverges from her own. And even in the face of the deepest kind of betrayal, Faryn still musters up the strength to be compassionate about what her brother is going through and the choices he makes, becoming all the more determined to save Alex from himself.

Six months after the events in The Dragon Warrior, Faryn is stronger, wiser, and still a kid who misses her family at heart. Katie Zhao manages to find the perfect balance in creating a character who fully understands the enormous weight that’s been put on her shoulders and is up to the task, and is still able to crack jokes and bicker like your typical twelve year old. Despite all that she’s lost and all of the responsibility that’s been foisted upon her, Faryn Liu is ultimately the same brave warrior that her Ye Ye raised her to be. In all honesty, reading The Fallen Hero made me feel like some kind of proud auntie – Faryn consistently finds herself faced with difficult decisions, but when her gut tells her that something is right, she commits herself to that feeling completely. She might not think that she is grounded in her identity, but Faryn has a quiet yet infallible sense of self that cannot be taught.

The Fallen Hero incorporates all of the elements that made me fall in love with The Dragon Warrior, but with higher stakes and new allies as Faryn fights to save humanity from the Jade Emperor. Faryn and her companions must fulfill several dangerous quests before they can convince the Monkey King to aid them in their battle, one of which leads them to Diyu, the Underworld in Chinese mythology. While the glossary at the end of the book is definitely helpful, Zhao does a great job in easing in new figures from Chinese mythology in a way that is humorous and memorable.

While it might seem counterintuitive to say that The Fallen Hero is a story about family, since Faryn and Alex are estranged throughout the course of the book, that is exactly what it is. Faryn’s journey to Diyu helps her realize that she’s not as alone as she thinks, that she is cared for and watched over, and that she does belong somewhere after all – everyone needs a reminder of this every once and awhile, but I think it is an especially powerful message for diaspora children struggling to reconcile different aspects of their identities.

About the Author

Katie Zhao is a 2017 graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English and Political Science, and a 2018 Masters of Accounting at the same university. She is the author of Chinese #ownvoices middle grade fantasy THE DRAGON WARRIOR (Bloomsbury Kids, October 2019 & 2020), as well as a young adult author. She is a mentor for Author Mentor Match. She is currently open to freelance editorial services for young adult and middle grade manuscripts.

Website | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter

Links for The Fallen Hero

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Book Shop | Indie Bound

Add it on Goodreads!

Follow along with the rest of the tour via Caffeine Book’s launch post!

Have you read The Dragon Warrior? Are you looking forward to The Fallen Hero? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Blog Tour and Review: Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz

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.

4.5/5 stars

Title: Blazewrath Games

Author: Amparo Ortiz

Publication Date: October 6th, 2020

Publisher: Page Street Kids

Source: Physical ARC via publisher

Age Range & Genre: YA, fantasy, contemporary, LGBTQ+

Content warnings: violence, death, manipulation, mentioned queerphobia

Synopsis: Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner—the only player without a dragon steed—is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.

But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire—a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form—the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am the last person to possibly get invested in a sport, but Blazewrath Games had me captivated from the get-go. Reading Amparo Ortiz’s debut was exactly what I imagine some people experience when they’re at a football stadium – I was cheering, and screaming, and crying and gasping, and just rooting for Lana and her teammates so hard their victories started to feel like my own. Blazewrath Games is a book for the ages.

Blazewrath Games follows Lana as she gets the chance of a lifetime: a lifelong fan of Blazewrath, Lana is finally able to participate in the game her father taught her to love and represent the island that she loves just as much, if not more. But her experience is not what she imagined it to be. One of her teammates gives Lana a less than warm welcome and questions her right to be there as someone who hasn’t been back to Puerto Rico since she was five years old, but that’s not the worst of it. Lana quickly discovers that there are far more extreme, potentially deadlier stakes than the Blazewrath Cup, and inexplicably finds herself caught in the middle of it all.

Amparo Ortiz writes about the diaspora experience with a skilled nuance and deft hand that makes her contemporary fantasy world come to life. Even though there is video evidence that Lana has what it takes to be Puerto Rico’s Runner in the games, she finds herself questioning if she’s Puerto Rican enough to represent her island. I think what impressed me the most was how Ortiz contends with the very valid feelings of diasporic teens who struggle to figure out where they truly belong and stay connected with their heritage even as they blend in to their surroundings, while still acknowledging how, in many circumstances, American-raised children can be disconnected with what’s happening in the countries their families are from.

Lana is a character that you can’t help but root for. She wants to play for Puerto Rico more than anything, and yet she also acknowledges how her joining the team means that someone who currently lives on the island can’t. Rather than being discouraged by this realization, Lana lets this become her fuel, her motivation for winning the cup. Lana is so determined and she recognizes that as an American, she doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the team, but she wants to and commits herself to earning her place twice over — and, spoiler alert, she succeeds.

Blazewrath Games truly has something for everyone. Magical jock competitions somehow seem to be my kryptonite this year, despite my aversion to sports of any kind, but the cast of characters really made the book shine. Lana herself is indomitable and full of fire, and her teammates are no less impressive. In a world where magic is real and dragon history is a part of mainstream textbooks, Ortiz still manages to root Blazewrath Games in a contemporary world with contemporary characters. These teenage athletes train with their dragons, then scroll through Twitter and binge watch Law & Order in their free time. They all commit themselves to Blazewrath in order to represent their homes and make them proud, these very real countries who show up and cheer them on, and produce heroes, whether the characters themselves realize it or not.

Amparo Ortiz may have succeeded where many people have failed – Blazewrath Games may make a sports fan out of me yet. But only if dragons are involved. And only if an international conspiracy is not. So, basically, a sports fan I still am not, but I am definitely a fan of Blazewrath Games.

About the Author

Amparo Ortiz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and currently lives on the island’s northeastern coast. Her short story comic, “What Remains in The Dark,” appears in the Eisner Award-winning anthology Puerto Rico Strong (Lion Forge, 2018), and SAVING CHUPIE, her middle grade graphic novel, comes out with HarperCollins in Winter 2022. She holds an M.A. in English and a B.A. in Psychology from the UPR’s Río Piedras campus. When she’s not teaching ESL to her college students, she’s teaching herself Korean, devouring as much young adult fiction as she can, and writing about Latinx characters in worlds both contemporary and fantastical.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter

Links for Blazewrath Games

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Book Shop | Indie Bound

Add it on Goodreads!

Follow along with the rest of the tour via Caffeine Book’s launch post!

Book Recs: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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

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Blog Tour & Review – The Ikessar Falcon by K.S. Villoso: Dragons, Hypocrisy, and the Queen’s Double-Edged Sword

While this post may not contain spoilers for The Ikessar Falcon, there may be some for The Wolf of Oren-Yaro.

5/5 stars

Title: The Ikessar Falcon

Author: K.S. Villoso

Publication Date: September 24, 2020

Publisher: Orbit Books

Genre: Fantasy

Age Range: Adult

The story so far:The Bitch Queen returns in The Ikessar Falcon, the action-packed sequel to K. S. Villoso’s acclaimed fantasy debut, The Wolf of Oren-Yaro.

Abandoned by her people, Queen Talyien’s quest takes a turn for the worse as she stumbles upon a plot deeper and more sinister than she could have ever imagined, one that will displace her king and see her son dead. The road home beckons, strewn with a tangled web of deceit and unimaginable horrors – creatures from the dark, mad dragons and men with hearts hungry for power.

To save her land, Talyien must confront the myth others have built around her: Warlord Yeshin’s daughter, symbol of peace, warrior and queen and everything she could never be.

The price for failure is steep. Her friends are few. And a nation carved by a murderer can only be destined for war.

Many thanks to Shealea and Caffeine Book Tours for organizing this book tour. I received an ARC from Orbit Books and Caffeine Book Tours for participating in this tour. All opinions expressed are my own.

If you could hear the way I screamed and yelled at the pages of this book, you would think it was killing me (to be quite honest, I’m still not 100% sure it didn’t). Yes, that’s how good it was. Mind you, I was still reeling from the first book when I started this, and I’m happy to say that Kay has just hacked at the pieces that were left. When we left off, Tali was worlds away from her son and her people, facing truly outrageous proposals that left her questioning everything she had come to know. And when we see her again in The Ikessar Falcon, some disturbing truths come to light.

K.S. Villoso’s writing is a sword that never dulls. I mean, honestly. Kay Talyien stabs, slices, and hacks her way through my heart and soul and still has enough to keep going. The transition from the first to the second novel is seamless, and yet still leaves you wanting for the finale. The writing itself loaded otherwise simple interactions with tension and hidden meaning, hardly allowing for a moment of relief.

The thing about Tali is that she is haunted, I’d say in some of the worst ways possible. Not only is she still hearing her father’s voice over her shoulder, chastising her every move since she became Queen, but the more she learns, the more she questions him, and in turn, she’s haunted by the certainty that she’ll never get. Every memory, everything Yeshin ever told her, every single belief that she was raised on is questioned, all of which make a stubborn, hell-bent woman all the more so. Tali, with some painful reminders from her traveling companions, chips away at all the worst parts of herself, and has to force herself past them because they’re simply luxuries that politics doesn’t allow. The collision of Tali’s world with Queen Talyien’s makes for a deeply intricate tale that sent my heart racing at every turn. One is having the rug ripped out from under her and just wants a minute to sort through her thoughts, and the other is a wolf of Oren-yaro, through and through. You do the math.

Wolf of Oren-yaro. Yeshin’s daughter. Bitch Queen. Mother. Tali deals with all these titles and then some, and as a royal, she carries some pretty hefty expectations on her shoulders. The world has never been fair to her. Rayyel leaves and the entire country goes to shit? Her fault. Rai says something he shouldn’t have and then takes it back? Whoops, his bad, Tali take the risks why don’t you. This isn’t to say Tali doesn’t have her own flaws, she’s got plenty lmao. But the weight of it all is enough to crush anyone, and yet she is supposed to have an endless capacity for bullshit. Sound familiar? A wolf of Oren-yaro suffers in silence. Which is exactly what I did, taking some very teary-eyed reaction pictures for future use.

One of the things I loved most about this book is how deep we get into Tali’s mind. In The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, we watch Tali question her moves through the eyes of her father, and of course he’s still looming over her head in The Ikessar Falcon, but we also see Tali go through the grueling process of questioning him in his afterlife, as well as herself. Sure, she questions Yeshin’s daughter, but she finds it in her to question Talyien. Tali is spoiled, not just because she’s a royal, but the loyalty of her guards and subjects is something she’s never had to question before. When it seems the whole world is against her, she’s poorly equipped to handle complaints from people she never considered before that moment, and it’s fascinating to watch unfold, although it made my family question me after a bit of yelling out loud. Tali’s journey is more than what it seems, and it seems that Villoso has more in store for us.

At a glance, Talyien’s tale is one of a mother fighting her way through hell to get to her son before, you know, people try to hurt him and things, but it is so much more. Tali isn’t only haunted by her father and his bloodthirst and wars, but by her own decisions. There are so many times that people look to her for a decision, only to turn and berate her for making them. Watching her deal with such conniving officials petty warlords frustrating politicians in the way she does is indescribable; the most intense and entertaining chess match you’ll ever watch. There’s a reason the queen has all the power on the board, and why it’s not recommended you try and win without one. Just when you think Tali is trapped in a corner, even at her most exhausted, she finds the push she needed. What I absolutely love about this woman is that she has had to sharpen everything she has to fight her way out of something she didn’t choose, and deals with it all. The entire world sees her flaws and she is constantly confronted with her father’s legacy. But where does the legacy end and Talyien begin? For that alone, Villoso has created one of my favorite characters of all time.

Speaking of characters, oh my. I’m not sure I understand the amount of skill it takes to write such beautiful and frustrating characters, and give them a purpose and role to play in Tali’s life. Khine’s easy-going and naturally kind heart is Tali’s (painful) reminder that life can be beautiful, and therefore just breaks my heart over and over again. Agos and Nor, and even Rai I guess, showcase the varying sides and degrees of loyalty, pushing Tali to question her relationships with each of them. The complications between loyalty and logic and love make for one hell of a shitshow that puts Tali right at the center, making for some very late nights starting at the ceiling trying to wonder how we got here at all. There were some moments that were so intimate, that felt like Tali’s own bubble of privacy, that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stop reading so she could stay there forever, or if I could keep going to rip the band-aid off.

Between the intricacy of both the plot and the relationships, the character development that highlights their flaws, and the amount of strength I simultaneously gained and lost from reading this, there’s no surprise it’s already one of my favorite 2020 reads. Villoso held nothing back and sharpened my soft heart, leaving me ready for (almost) anything. The Ikessar Falcon takes on complex themes of love and legacy and loyalty, all while twisting it like a dagger in a wound. If we had the time and space, I could rant about this book for hours, so I’m only hoping this review does it justice, but I hope it drives you to fall in love with these people and this world as much as I did.

If you’d like, here’s a little playlist I put together for Tali to enjoy while you read (:

About the Author

K.S. Villoso was born in a dank hospital on an afternoon in Albay, Philippines, and things have generally been okay since then. After spending most of her childhood in a slum area in Taguig (where she dodged death-defying traffic, ate questionable food, and fell into open-pit sewers more often than one ought to), she and her family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where they spent the better part of two decades trying to chase the North American Dream. She is now living amidst the forest and mountains with her family, children, and dogs in Anmore, BC.

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Blog Tour and Review: Iron Heart by Nina Varela

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?

5/5 stars

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.

About the Author

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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