Book Review: Wildflower by Becky Jenkinson

I read the synopsis of this book and was hooked by the comparison to Ella Enchanted. I absolutely adored that book when I was a kid and was more than willing to try reading this book for that reason alone. But then Fliss and Will stole my heart and I wanted to defend those two to the death against every wrong and attack in this book and I fell in love with the story and the people in it. They were messy and sincere and everything to drive home a tale about a girl that finally figures out how to keep things for herself and to fight for what she wants and that she is so much more than a girl with a curse when it finally comes down to it.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I absolutely adored this book. It was just that good.

Wildflower follows Felicity "Fliss" Farrow, a young woman working as a florist who has the ability to draw out the magic in flowers, enhancing every bouquet she makes with the sentiments each flower stands for, hoping to ease heartache, offer sympathy or bring joy to the people who receive them. Fliss is also cursed to tell the truth and as a result of that, she has had to contend with various forms of distrust from the people around her,  with everyone unsure of what Fliss could probably inform the Queen about them. Fliss receives an anonymous request one day for a flower she has never heard of before and determined to prove herself as trustworthy and reliable, Fliss heads into the forest on her own to find the flower. She ends up having to ask Willoh Vane for help, a sorcerer who has been in a feud with the crown prince for the last few years. Fliss has been there as witness for many of their fiery encounters as a result of her best friend being the fiancé to the prince and tensions are running higher than normal because of rebels stealing from wagons in the north and the wedding being only weeks away. As more anonymous requests arrive and Fliss and Will continue to work together to gather these flowers, Fliss begins to wonder what the recipient would want these powerful flowers for when no one seems to know for certain what these flowers together can do. When Fliss starts to believe someone has a wicked plan that requires those flowers, she tries to stop them with Will's help, hoping to save her home, family and friends before it's too late. 

When the book starts, it felt like the familiar cozy fantasy setting, filled with magic and secrets. Within pages readers learned about the strain that Fliss dealt with on a daily basis living with her curse and how it affected her each and every interaction. The citadel is on edge because one of their soldiers died in an attack and the royal family is claiming that everyone will be kept safe within the walls of their home. Every detail fills in this isolated existence that Fliss has been forced to lead, her loneliness leading her to take risks to find her mysterious requests because she just has to do this, no one understands what it means to her to be able to fulfill these requests. At the same time, when Fliss takes those chances and goes out on her own, she's finding that her life in the citadel is confining, and as result, what she knows about the outside world has been affected because the whole truth doesn't reach the citizens of the citadel. Every point about the world helps to highlight themes that start to take shape and grow as Fliss moves on from her role as a florist into someone able to take charge and save the kingdom.

As for the characters, Fliss and Will were the absolute best couple to follow for this tale. Fliss and Will each had their own personal hardships and the fact that they were able to have fun together made me smile because a couple like this is everything fantasy readers could want. Fliss had determination and a stubborn streak a mile wide and I wanted to slap her upside the head when she risked her life but I loved this young woman so much. Will quickly became a favorite the moment he stepped onto the page, his banter with Fliss making me smirk with him because his charm was enchanting and I could see Fliss thawing towards him every time they came together. I was disappointed with other characters, particularly Card and Bash, Fliss's best friend and the prince, who kept a very narrow view of everything happening in the book. I was ready to chuck them out the window but I was confident that Jenkinson would do something brilliant with them because of the fact that I felt so against them and their actions. If I could love Fliss and Will and then want to throttle Card and Bash for their treatment of Fliss and Will, I was sure their development would get to where it needed to go.

Which brings me to the more adult characters in this book. If I wanted to wring Bash's neck, that was nothing compared to what I wanted to do to Queen Fern. The Queen had been calling Fliss in to report directly to her anything she felt she needed to know and because of Fliss's curse, the poor girl could not refuse to give the information. Fliss was forced to learn the limits of her curse, how to withhold things to keep certain facts safe and the fact that this started when she was still almost a child was appalling. There was also the lack of communication with Fliss's mother, Lilibeth, who refused to ever explain why Fliss ended up cursed in the first place. The treatment of Fliss by these adults made me want to pull my hair out because she was a child that was being taken advantage of and as the victim of the curse, she deserved some answers. These women highlighted the theme of trust, or rather the lack of it, to believe in Fliss and to treat her with respect instead of as a tool. This treatment helped Fliss in gaining agency over her life, to understand that she was worth more than the information she provided by being forced to tell the truth. She wasn't something to be discarded if she had nothing to report or even to be disregarded because they would rather doubt her words than truly face what was right in front of them. For a cozy fantasy, these instances elevated the story for me and I was ready for Fliss to take a stand and prove just exactly who she was and how important she could be, cursed or not. I was cheering for Fliss and for Will every step of the way. 

In the end, Wildflower was exactly the kind of romantic cozy fantasy I was hoping to find. Read this if you're looking for a story about a young woman who manages to push the boundaries of her world and learn that to the right people, you are enough, faults and all.

Rating on my Scale: 10 Stars. The vibes on this one, cozy and romantic and inclusive, everything made me get to that ending and made me get a little teary-eyed. When tears make an appearance, it's an automatic 10 Star read for me, no questions asked. 

My thanks to NetGalley, Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and Becky Jenkinson for the eARC of this book in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.

Book Review: Evie and Her Nightmares by Francesca Zappia

When I first read the title of the next release by Francesca Zappia, Evie and Her Nightmares, I immediately thought of the book Eliza and Her Monsters. There is something everyone needs to understand about that book, my dear Eliza. Eliza and Her Monsters is the one book I usually recommend to readers on social media. I've talked about how important the book is to me in my group chat of reader friends. I love Eliza and Her Monsters still to this day, I have favorite passages that I go back and read over again, knowing that they'll break my heart but I embrace those feelings and then everything that comes after that. So the symmetry to the title made me think it had something to do with that book and I immediately jumped at the chance to request it to review. Evie and Eliza do, in fact, exist in the same world and with that in place, I knew I was about to find a new favorite to read. I have favorite passages already that I want to read again and again in Evie and Her Nightmares. I want to tell all my friends and family to read this book. When I finished reading this story, I had to choke back a few tears because it was the small hours of the morning and the one thought in my head was ALL THE STARS IN THE WORLD to rate this book.

Evie and Her Nightmares is a beautiful, stunning, heart-wrenching read and it was perfect.

This story follows Evie Leigh, picking up at the funeral service for her best friend who suddenly passed away. Alissa committed suicide and now Evie is struggling to figure out how she should be acting at the service. Should she be outwardly sad? Should she be sitting up front with Alissa's family? Evie is autistic and she wants to be blunt and honest with the fact that she doesn't know what to do and this situation makes her want to leave. So she does. Everyone asks how she's feeling but Evie doesn't know how to answer them. While trying to avoid what is going on in her world, she receives a last birthday gift from Alissa, Alissa's set of the Children of Hypnos books. Evie tried to read them once but they didn't appeal to her but now, for the sake of her lost friend, she tries to read them again. Realizing that she loves the story, Evie decides to start playing The Children of Hypnos Online, joining a gaming community that Alissa was also a part of when she was alive. Determined to become the best, Evie devotes all the time she can to this online game, all the while leaving behind the things she used to care about. Evie is skipping track practice, talking back to teachers and letting her grades slip but none of it matters as much as the game. Except the more Evie avoids the real world, the worse it'll be when she is finally forced to face the loss of her best friend.

The world-building in this book is everything you can expect from a high school setting. Evie attends her classes with people who avoid looking at her because they know the loss that she had suffered. They know that Alissa should be with her but she isn't and because of the way she died, everyone would rather avoid the situation altogether instead of paying her any attention. The school is filled with everyone you expected to see and that you used to know in school, from the sympathetic teachers to the hateful classmates that use Alissa as a way to insult Evie. This book perfectly captured that sense of being a teenager and struggling with making choices for the future all the while knowing the struggles that will come with college and finding a job and everything else after that. Which brings in the why about what Alissa did and how different characters, including Evie, are trying to find the reason that drove Alissa to what she did. My heart hurt wandering the school halls with Evie, visiting Alissa's house, hiding in Evie's room while she played online and sitting in the room while Evie tried to start therapy. Everything felt real and because it felt real, it hurt to see Evie avoiding reality. This world felt like opening a window into someone's life and watching all the pieces falling and moving as the story developed.

My lovely, brutally honest Evie, you are one of the best examples of autism I've seen in a book in recent memory. I recognized so many aspects of people I know in this character and for that, I loved her. I found her grief to be authentic and her reactions to the people around her to be incredibly realistic. I was right there with her when she talked back to a teacher and when she fought back against an incredibly rude classmate. I felt her struggle to find a way to interact with Alissa's parents all while not knowing how to stop from making things worse with anything she said or did. I found it interesting that the other character we learned more about, besides Alissa in Evie's memories, was Ash, Alissa's older brother. Ash as a character was someone who was in Evie's corner, feeling her anger and her grief at Alissa's loss and searching for answers. Literally, the moment these two characters really interacted involved the two of them bumping into each other where Alissa was found, because they each thought that it was possible they could find something that Alissa left behind, something that could give them some answers. As the story developed, I appreciated how much effort Ash put into comforting Evie when she needed help and how in turn, Evie became someone Ash could confide in as well. I also adored the fact that Ash was a Monstrous Sea fan. That automatically made me want to help him to be happy along with my dear Evie.

As for the themes of the book, the idea of loss and grief and the effects it has on people, the word that kept circling in my mind was kintsugi. Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken things, ceramic cups and bowls, with gold or sometimes some other substance, all to show that just because they were broken, it's not the end. The cracks are celebrated, showing a story about the history of the piece. The scars are something to be celebrated and admired, and if the term is applied to people, can show resilience. This word kept going around and around in my head, especially when I thought as I opened this book that I was ready to get my heart broken and put together again while reading this story which reminded me of the term. Kintsugi stayed with my thoughts along with the idea that Evie and Ash, and Ash's parents, and Evie's mom, had all gone through some kind of devastating loss, they had become broken, and they were learning, or had learned, how to fit their broken pieces back together, to make themselves whole again. Watching Evie learn to be more authentic, to be able to say what she wanted and not necessarily be the people pleaser she claimed to have been, all helped with showing how she was remaking herself. Who was Evie without the best friend she thought would always be by her side? What did Evie have to live for and what was it that made Alissa feel like she couldn't stay?

Zappia also adds in the usual adults who don't how to talk about suicide and the adults who dare to judge a girl because she didn't ask for help before she made the decision that she made. All of this highlights how difficult it is to understand the complexities of suicide, showing how many people will never know why someone killed themselves or even if there was anything they could have done that would have made a difference. At the same time, there are no answers given, and that helps with the idea that grief and loss and growing up is different for everyone. No one knows for sure what is going on in someone else's mind but these characters, my dear Evie, are learning what they need to continue on and that lesson is a good one to learn. The book ends on the note of hope of acceptance and it made me cry when I read those last words.

In the end, I truly, sincerely loved and adored this book. If you're a fan of Eliza, you'll find a new favorite with this release. Evie's struggles and her hope for the future are something to be admired and I, for one, am so grateful that this book exists.

Rating on my Scale: All the Stars in the World or 10 Glowing Stars!! Now when I talk about a book you just have to read, it will either be Eliza and Her Monsters or Evie and Her Nightmares. Here's hoping we might see something else from this world again in the future. You never know what the future might hold, after all.

My thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, Greenwillow Books and Francesca Zappia for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Book Review: A Date with Death by Kelly Creagh

As a member of a reader family, there's always a wide array of books available that someone somewhere is reading. Raised with two siblings, we each had a set of authors that we followed, book genres we favored, things that set us apart from one another so that our libraries were diverse. With my sister, we even had the odd occasion where we refused to read the same thing the other one was reading, simply because they'd found the book first. Then there would be the times where my sister and I were completely in sync. We'd each separately go to a bookstore and come home with some books that we didn't immediately tell the other about. At least until the moment that we see the other with the exact SAME BOOK we'd just bought the day before. One book that happened with?

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh.

Which is why I've followed Kelly Creagh to every book release since that first book. Nevermore holds a special place in my heart because of that moment of a pure sister bond manifested as something concrete, a book we both randomly found that we had in common. I check every year to see if there's a new book coming from Kelly Creagh. A Date with Death turned up for request and I didn't think twice about requesting it. Did I have too many books to read on my shelf? Absolutely. Did I let a lot of books pile up that I needed to read and review before I could get to A Date with Death if I was lucky enough to be approved? Most Definitely. But I absolutely, irrefutably, NEEDED to read this book. I sat up in bed and danced when I got my approval. And what was the verdict on the book once I finished reading it?

I LOVED each and every single moment of it.

A Date with Death first follows Helena Hart, a literal ray of sunshine who works as a children's librarian. Helena is at a Halloween party, having just been ditched by her date, when she decides to take a chance and talk to the guy on the balcony, the one dressed like the Grim Reaper. Trying her best to get a conversation going, Helena is taken by surprise when the balcony ledge crumbles behind her. She's even more surprised when her companion catches hold of her hand with his skeletal one. He leaves Helena behind to wonder about what just happened with her near death experience. The book also follows Grim, the being tasked with reaping souls, not saving them. The fact that he spared Helena's life could lead to repercussions for his job and for Helena's continued existence as a member of the living. But Grim couldn't let Helena perish and he also can't leave her alone, drawn to watch and protect her from afar. Determined to find a solution that will keep Helena safe, Grim slowly lets himself get closer to Helena knowing that caring for her could spell the end for them both if they are discovered.

It was easy to sink into this book and just let it wash over me. I loved the setting, the fact that Helena worked a job she adored with kids at the library. I found the idea of the home for Grim and his adopted family, the Netherworld and the Hallowed Halls, to be so interesting. Honestly, I hope Creagh decides to continue writing in this world she created because there were so many ideas about the dimension where Grim takes the souls he reaps and where he takes the time to settle and rest that I'm am itching to know more. The details given about how Grim became the Grim Reaper and who else has managed to get to reside in the Hallowed Halls and how the portals work to the Netherworld just made me want to know everything. There is so much potential here for more books and if those are in the future for us readers, I'm camping out now just to get the chance to know more about this plane of existence.

As for the characters, I loved everyone in this book, and that took me by surprise. I loved Helena and her incredible sense of optimism. I loved how she enjoyed working with children and had done so much to enrich the lives of the kids who came to her in the library. There was storytimes filled with children, a bookmobile that was a pain and then the fun accessories she used like her earrings and her bags and altogether these details showed a woman who not only loved her job and life but also embraced the things that made her different and that brought her joy. I wanted her to find her happiness and I was ready to wring Grim's neck each time he stepped away from her. I trust Creagh's writing though, so I waited patiently for Grim to grow and his evolution over the course of the book was exactly what it needed to be for this story. There were so many things that were hinted and then came through that made me more and more invested in this couple together and in learning exactly what had made Grim. They were the perfect example of the grumpy/sunshine trope. Their scenes together were sweet and spicy and lovely and perfect. There was also Johann, Flora, Cedric and The Few in the Netherworld and I sincerely want to know more about each. The whys about how they ended up with their fates and the whys about how they ended up with their jobs in the Hallowed Halls. Creagh created a cast of characters, a beautiful found family, that I wish I could join in, if only just to listen to the things they would say. Also, if it's possible to put in an application to take Pluto the raven in as a pet, I'll put my name down now. 

As for the overall effect of the book, a lot of what elevates this is the discoveries made about the whys about everything happening in the book. Grim continuously finds himself going back to Helena, drawn to her like a moth to the flame, and as their connection grows he finds himself having to save her again and again. But why is Helena being targeted? Why did Grim become the reaper? What was keeping Grim from truly accepting that he was falling in love with Helena? These questions kept me turning pages and their answers made me sit back and just let the answers wash over me because they were unexpected and yet at the same time, such a good twist. Anything else said veers too far into spoilers but I'll finish by saying that the ending of this book made me smile. 

For me it's simple: I loved this book. I loved the world and its characters. I came to the conclusion a long time ago to read everything that Kelly Creagh writes. This book has just cemented the fact that I made the right decision.

Rating on my Scale: I give a lot of 10 Stars but I sincerely believe that this one was brilliant. I loved the romance and the world-building and the people in this story. Also, the book left me wanting to know more which is also the sign of a job well done for me.

My thanks to Netgalley, Gallery Books and Kelly Creagh for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.