Andye Reads

by R.F. Kuang My rating: 3 of 5 stars (I haven't settled on a star rating yet. 2-3 stars I believe) Thank you Harper Audio for an early audiobook copy of this book. The audiobook narrators did a fantastic job and really enhanced my enjoyment of BABEL. I thought the way they handled the footnotes was quite well done, and the main narrator, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, did a phenomenal job with voices and emotion throughout. I would definitely recommend this on audio. Review: I, like every bookish person I know, was highly anticipating BABEL. When I was sent the audiobook, I dove in immediately. There were definitely things that I really loved about the book, but those things tended to be on the educational and informational side and not on the story itself. I found the world of Babel to be fascinating. The way language was used in the book is such a perfect metaphor for how important, manipulative, destructive, and motivating language can be in life. There were incredibly relevant and compl...

by Jackie BLOOD RED, SNOW WHITE by Marcus Sedgwick Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (October 25, 2016) Publication Date: October 25, 2016 Sold by: Macmillan Goodreads | Amazon Russia wakes from a long sleep and marches to St Petersburg to claim her birthright. Her awakening will mark the end for the Romanovs, and the dawn of a new era that changed the world. Arthur Ransome, a journalist and writer, was part of it all. He left his family in England and fell in love with Russia and a Russian woman. This is his story.  Oh how the mighty fall. Blood Red, Snow White seemed like something that I could fall head over heels in love with. I mean HISTORY. Russian Revolution. Like, the use of real history. All of this fantastically intertwined with allusions and metaphors out into the next world. Like, what is there NOT to love? Right? RIGHT? This is where I went wrong, because, although it seems to check all of the boxes…I just really struggled. I couldn’t get into it. I just really ...

Review by Jackie IRON CAST  by DESTINY SORIA Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (October 11, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon In 1919, Ada Navarra—the intrepid daughter of immigrants—and Corinne Wells—a spunky, devil-may-care heiress—make an unlikely pair. But at the Cast Iron nightclub in Boston, anything and everything is possible. At night, on stage together, the two best friends, whose “afflicted” blood gives them the ability to create illusions through art, weave magic under the employ of Johnny Dervish, the club’s owner and a notorious gangster. By day, Ada and Corinne use these same skills to con the city’s elite in an attempt to keep the club afloat. When a “job” goes awry and Ada is imprisoned, she realizes they’re on the precipice of danger. Only Corinne—her partner in crime—can break her out of Haversham Asylum. But once Ada is out, they face betrayal at every turn. It’s the early 1900s and hemopaths are s...

Review by Jackie STALKING JACK THE RIPPER by Kerri Maniscalco Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: jimmy patterson (September 20, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world. I adore gore. I like my Halloween (all of October, bring on the ghouls and vampires and werewolves) reads to be feisty and bloody and filled with feminist power. Stalking Jack the Ripper was a slam dunk for all of these criteria. When were addi...

Review by Jackie... A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING By Jessica Cluess Series: Kingdom on Fire #1 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Random House (September 20, 2016) Language: English Grade Range: 7 and up Age Range: 12 and up Goodreads | Amazon I am Henrietta Howel. The first female sorcerer in hundreds of years. The prophesied one. Or am I? Henrietta Howel can burst into flames. Forced to reveal her power to save a friend, she's shocked when instead of being executed, she's invited to train as one of Her Majesty's royal sorcerers. Thrust into the glamour of Victorian London, Henrietta is declared the chosen one, the girl who will defeat the Ancients, bloodthirsty demons terrorizing humanity. She also meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, handsome young men eager to test her power and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her. But Henrietta Howel is  not  the chosen one.  As she plays a dangerous game of deception, s...

Review by Krista The Gilded Cage by Lucinda Gray Age Range: 12 - 18 years Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (August 2, 2016) Goodreads | Amazon After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident. A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too? The Randolph's lost their parents after moving to Virginia from England. Relying on the frien...

Review by Krista... THE GILDED CAGE By Lucinda Gray Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. (August 2, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident.  A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too? The Randolph's lost their parents after moving to Virginia from England. Relying on the friend...

Review by Andye AND I DARKEN The Conquerors Saga #1 by Kiersten White Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press (June 28, 2016) Goodreads | Amazon No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets. Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she...

Review by Andye THE PASSION OF DOLSSA by Julie Berry Age Range: 12 - 17 years Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers (April 12, 2016) Audible Audio Edition Listening Length: 11 hours and 42 minutes Program Type: Audiobook Version: Unabridged Publisher: Listening Library Goodreads | Amazon | Audible I must write this account, and when I have finished, I will burn it. Buried deep within the archives of a convent in medieval France is an untold story of love, loss, and wonder and the two girls at the heart of it all. Dolssa is an upper-crust city girl with a secret lover and an uncanny gift. Branded a heretic, she’s on the run from the friar who condemned her mother to death by fire, and wants Dolssa executed, too. Botille is a matchmaker and a tavern-keeper, struggling to keep herself and her sisters on the right side of the law in their seaside town of Bajas. When their lives collide by a dark riverside, Botille rescues a dyi...

By Becca... A TYRANNY OF PETTICOATS: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls Edited by: Jessica Spotswood Hardcover: 368 pages Published by: Candlewick Press (March 8, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines. Criss-cross America — on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains — from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today’s most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have ...

By Becca... THE GLITTERING COURT By Richelle Mead Series: Glittering Court #1 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Razorbill (April 5th, 2016) Language: EnglishAudible Audio Edition Listening Length: 12 hours and 53 minutes Program Type: Audiobook Version: Unabridged Publisher: Listening Library Goodreads | Amazon | Audible The Selection meets Reign in this dazzling trilogy of interwoven novels about three girls on a quest for freedom and true love from #1 internationally bestselling author Richelle Mead. For a select group of girls, the Glittering Court offers a shot at a life they’ve only ever dreamed of, one of luxury, glamour, and leisure. To high-born Adelaide, whose wealthy family is forcing her into a loveless marriage, the Glittering Court represents something else: the chance to chart her own destiny, and adventure in an unspoiled, prosperous new land across the sea. After a chance meeting with the dazzling Cedric Thorn, Adelaide poses as a servant to ...

Review by Sara.. THE GLITTERING COURT By Richelle Mead Series: Glittering Court #1 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Razorbill (April 5th, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon The Selection meets Reign in this dazzling trilogy of interwoven novels about three girls on a quest for freedom and true love from #1 internationally bestselling author Richelle Mead. For a select group of girls, the Glittering Court offers a shot at a life they’ve only ever dreamed of, one of luxury, glamour, and leisure. To high-born Adelaide, whose wealthy family is forcing her into a loveless marriage, the Glittering Court represents something else: the chance to chart her own destiny, and adventure in an unspoiled, prosperous new land across the sea. After a chance meeting with the dazzling Cedric Thorn, Adelaide poses as a servant to join the crop of impoverished girls he promises to transform into proper ladies. But her familiarity with upper class life comes with a price: she ...

Review by Krista   STONE FIELD by Christy Lenzi Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (March 29, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon A stunning debut novel that offers a new look at a classic love story about soul mates torn apart by the circumstances of their time. Catrina Dickinson is haunted by her past and feels caged in by life in small town Missouri. When she discovers a strange man in Stone Field where her family grows their sorghum crop, her life takes on new meaning. He has no memory of who he is or what brought him to Cat's farm, but they fall passionately in love. Meanwhile, the country is on the brink of the Civil War, and the conflict in Missouri demands that everyone take a side before the bloodbath reaches their doorstep. A passionate and atmospheric reimagining of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Stone Field explores how violence and vengeance perverts the human spirit...

Review by Sara.. GIRL IN THE BLUE COAT By Monica Hesse Hardcover: 320 pages Published by: Little, Brown (April 5, 2016) Language: English Grades: 9 Up Goodreads | Amazon   An unforgettable story of bravery, grief, and love in impossible times The missing girl is Jewish. I need you to find her before the Nazis do. Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person--a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room...

From Becca's Shelves...   Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish . 
This week's topic is TOP TEN HISTORICAL/FUTURISTIC BOOKS I LOVE! I decided to do a few of each, because I can ! Haha, plus I haven't read a ton of Historical YA books ( or not enough that I absolutely loved like these ). Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee - Under A Painted Sky was basically one of my top favorite books of 2015. It features a fantastic friendship of a couple of gender-bent girls set on the Oregon Trail. AND IT HAS ALL THE SHIPS ! Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - If you're just getting into the Historical YA world, you should definitely start with Elizabeth Wein. She's the Queen of Historical YA. Code Name Verity is my personal favorite (about women aircraft fighters during WWII & the sweetest, most sincere friendships I've ever read), but you can't go wrong with any of her others either! Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin - Wolf b...