Book Review: I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker

My thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends and Kylie Lee Baker for an eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

I have quite the number of books by Kylie Lee Baker but life has gotten in the way and I have not read a single one of them until now. I liked this book and I feel bad saying that because I didn't really really like it or even love it. From what I understand, this is a little more light-hearted compared to Baker's other books so I'm going to chalk this one up as a it's me, not you, and try to explain the why's of it all.

So, I'll Find You Where the Time Ends follows Mina, a descendant of a dragon god who can time travel as a result of her ancestry. She is in training to work for the Descendants, an organization that works to keep the timeline safe. There are rogue agents who apparently take it upon themselves to change things in time and the Descendants go back and try to correct things in unobtrusive ways to best preserve the timeline. They have to make sure that no one notices them or what they do in order for their work to be what it is supposed to end up as. Mina is on track to become an agent, her goal being to find a sister that no one else remembers except her. While trying to finish her last requirements, Mina meets a rogue agent who claims if she doesn't help him, the world will end sometime in the future. Mina has to figure out if she wants to help the rogue agent or focus on finding the truth about her sister, and how both missions involve the organization Mina and her family have loyally followed for so long.

Okay, first of all, one star off for the development of the world which seemed a little lacking in some parts. The whole idea of the Descendants seemed interesting but I had no idea how they really worked to keep the timeline safe. There were instances every now and then to explain why this one thing, like a bug, changed things for the worst, but it didn't seem to have much bearing on the story. Mina was tasked with finding the bug, I remember that, but I don't remember why it was important. It was just something she was tasked with doing to get points to become an agent. I wanted to see more about this organization. I feel like little reports added between chapters, something explaining a task and how changing it worked in fixing the timeline, could have helped with developing the Descendants organization. The way it's presented in the book, I know there is the big boss, there is Mina's mentor, Hyebin, and there are Mina's parents who also work for the Descendants. And that's all I can tell you about an organization tasked with keeping the timeline safe. That's why it feels lacking. There could have been mentions about a big event they keep safe, how they have to run scenarios constantly to curb tampering with the timeline on that scale. I know that Mina was tasked with getting a boy to kiss her, and somehow doing this proved she could be an agent, which made no sense because I thought they weren't supposed to be noticed when they traveled in time? Ow, I think my head is spinning after that sentence.

Next, a second star off for the way the story wrapped up. For most of the book, readers are told by Mina that as a descendant, she seemed more human than the others and how this detracted from her overall self. She was supposed to be smarter, better adept at picking up languages, things like that because of her heritage. Instead, she was struggling with Calculus so she needed tutoring, and she was messing up on her assignments in the past which resulted in her mentor having to redo the missions without her. It all could have led to some interesting development if it had been a gradual reveal that Mina's self-assessment was wrong, but the ending just turns into a whirlspin and boo, that wasn't what I expected. I don't want to veer too much into spoiler territory but I think it goes without saying that a story about a girl who doesn't think she measures up to her peers would eventually find out they are more than what they appear to be. I just wanted it to feel more organic to the story. Also, if the ending was going to be that, why didn't something give earlier? Why wasn't there a system in place to recognize signs of corruption in the Descendants? It all seems like loose ends that were tied off too quickly and it makes me feel a little disgruntled about the resolution to the story.

After all is said and done, I thought this book was a sweet story about a girl who gains the power and confidence to stand up for herself and what she wants. She gets most of what she wants and is ready to move on with her life. So, okay, good for Mina.

Rating on my scale: 5.5 Stars. I wanted to like this so much more than I did and that makes me so sad. BUT, I have so many other books by Baker, and I can see that the talent is there, so I'm going to try reading everything else I have until I find a book I love. So see? There's hope for me yet.

Book Review: Moth Dark by Kika Hatzopoulou

My thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and Kika Hatzopoulou for the eARC in exchange for a review. 

When I started reading this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. The book starts some time after a big world event and the lead came off a little weird to me. But I kept reading and slowly I was sucked in, caring about Sascia, Mooch and her darkmoths, her cousin Danny, her cohort from school, and Nugau. I loved this so much, I want to buy copies for all the readers in my family. For now, I'll settle for reading the rest of Kika Hatzopoulou's books.

Moth Dark follows Sascia Petrou, a young student who is in love with the Darkness that appeared in the world 6 years ago. Now 18, Sascia was supposed to be working with other students to study the dark but has taken a little more of a different route to her studies. That different route means Sascia is constantly exploring the Dark and one day Sascia sees a humanoid shape climb out of it. That turns out to be Nugau, and their mission is to kill Sascia. When Sascia finds Nugau again, Nugau doesn't know who Sascia is and things continue from there. Sascia realizes that the world inside the dark, Itkalin, is always at a different point in time from their world, and somehow Sascia is at the center of a war between humans and elves. As the two of them work to try to find a way to have their worlds be at peace together, Sascia and Nugau are drawn together again and again, caring for each other, willing to anything and everything to keep the other safe and with their worlds determined to fight, that connection might not be enough to keep them together.

So yes, when I started the book I thought Sascia was a little weird. She had a side hustle taking people "fishing" so they could capture dark insects to keep as pets. She'd had the opportunity to study at an Ivy League school but messed up with focusing enough time to study and was now taking remedial courses and retaking exams so she can get into Columbia. And she's seemingly obsessed with the Dark, apparently to the point that her expeditions leading people to fish for dark insects allow her to experience their wonder/awe/terror again and again when they first encounter Dark creatures. That's all in the opening chapter and I just thought come on kid, you know you're playing with fire. So when Nugau comes out of the manhole Sascia is working at and starts to chase her, I felt vindicated. And then thought okay, so that's how the story is going to work. Sascia is a kid who makes foolish decisions but then has to work to show why she's important, how she makes a difference, why we should root for her. To the point that not only had I started to root for her and but I wanted to shake everyone who told her that her differences were bad and that she needed to make other choices.

Nugau was a pleasant surprise and a truly wonderful character. Nugau is a genderfluid elf princet. The elves on the other side of the dark can change their gender, which is then depicted by the color of the Darkprints on their face. Nugau shows up time and time again as either gender or even intersex and it was great to see a society where this is considered the norm. It didn't matter to the character what gender they were because the essence of Nugau never changed and I loved their depiction. The strength they had as they tried to lead, as they tried to teach Sascia about the Dark, and the compassion they had in trying to save their world, it was all heartwrenching and I wanted Nugau to just be happy. I had violent feelings for their mother, and I adored their friends, Thalla and Orran.

All the characters are given their due thanks to the way the book is written. Danny, Sascia's cousin and best friend, is given the chance to shine in chapters showing their past. We get to see how they were as kids together, how they encouraged each other and partnered to explore the Dark and made discoveries that would help the world. They were exactly what they were shown to be, family, and I loved Danny's own love story with a fellow classmate. Tae, Andres, Shivani and Crow round out the rest of the cohort that are some of the best minds in the world working in a lab with Danny and Sascia to study and understand the Dark. They're each important, have unique talents and play important roles in the course of the book.

The way that the book is structured helped with highlighting the way the timeline works between Itkalin and our world. There are various chapters interspersed through the narrative, showing different past points in Sascia's life. Each highlights an important moment that has shaped Sascia into the person she is in the current timeline. I enjoyed each tidbit given and every question answered with this structure. 

The magic of this world, which I think it should be called because of the wonder it invokes, and because it's the word Sascia uses, is so interesting. I loved the idea of the Dark creatures that have entered our world and how Sascia and Danny have managed to work out how to help them flourish here and help people. I loved Mooch, a Darkmoth that has chosen Sascia as their person to help through thick and thin. I loved how Sascia's choice to protect the moths helped to prove how important she was in working to resolve the conflict between the two worlds. It's all so richly detailed and a wonder to behold, just like Sascia knew it was from the start.

In the end, I loved this book. I thought it was a beautiful story about how making a better choice is possible. I'll be reading more books from Hatzopoulou as soon as possible.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. Really, I have no complaints about this one. Read this book if you think Pacific Rim and The Time-Traveler's Wife put together sounds like a great idea. That's the best I could come up with to compare this book to and I loved both those things. I'm sure there are other things to compare this book to but I came up with those two when I was sleep deprived and now they're the only two I can come up with. Just read this book and have beautiful day. 

Book Review: Pocket Bear by Katherine Applegate

My thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Katherine Applegate for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

This is my first time trying a book by Katherine Applegate but it won't be the last. I'll be buying a copy of this book and reading it to my kids. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect when I decided to try this book. Truth be told, I saw the artwork for the cover, read that the synopsis had a cat as a character and made my decision then and there to try reading this. At the time, my own cat was having health problems and I thought reading a sweet book about a cat would help. It gave me great comfort to read this and I hope my kids love it one day soon.

Pocket Bear is about a a small stuffed toy bear, named you guessed it, Pocket Bear, who has an interesting history. Pocket Bear was hand-made during World War I, designed in a way so that he could fit in a soldier's pocket and seem like he was gazing up into his soldier's face. These bears were meant to provide luck and love for their owners. Nowadays, Pocket Bear runs a home for giving other lost and thrown away stuffed animals a second chance at finding a new child to love them. He runs the place with his cat best friend, Zephyrina, who goes out at night to scavenge for food and lost toys to take home. When Zephyrina finds a teddy bear in a restaurant trash can and decides to bring it back home, it sets in motion a story about finding comfort, love and family where you least expect it.

This was a sweet story, told from Zephyrina's point of view, and I have to say Applegate nails the cat attitude perfectly. I loved the sass, the reasonings behind what Zephyrina chose to do or the moves to make. I could see the calculations that went into showing how a cat really fits into a family and how Zephyrina's choices proved that cats are intelligent and loving creatures. I believed the friendship between Zephyrina and Pocket from page 1 and I loved every moment of their sweet story together.

I thought Pocket was tragic but I understood the hope he stood for, the love that went into the making of him. I'm not a fan of stuffed bears but I recently made an amigurumi stuffed bear for a family member for their new baby. I worked hard on putting everything together into a whole toy that I hope will bring comfort to the baby when they are old enough to keep it with them when they sleep. With that in my head, each interaction with Pocket and Dasha, the child who runs the Second Chance home for toys with her mother, Elizaveta, tugged at the heartstrings just a little bit more. I also learned a lot about the history of stuffed bears that I had never heard of before. That history lends this book a feeling of maturity that I can respect as this allows for the reader to learn and grow and think with every new situation that comes up in this adventure. I love when a book treats its reader like they are smart without talking down to them. This is the kind of book I want my kids to read and enjoy but will also allow them to ask me questions about the wars mentioned and the effects they have on families. It's a great book with ideas that can make kids think and consider things in different ways than they had before and that makes it a very respectable read.

I should also add that I too have several shelves where my childhood stuffed toys are kept safe so that also endeared me to this story. And my cat that I mentioned earlier had his own tiny stuffed toy, a snowman, that he loved to bits and took with him everywhere until it was misplaced. All this to say that if you had anything like a stuffed toy when you were a kid, this story will make you remember them again and think about who they might have been once upon a time. It also makes me think about the stuffed friends I'm giving to my kids and how I hope they feel love and comfort and magic when they have their toys with them. My kid calls all of his stuffed animals his friends and after reading this book, I can believe in that just a little bit more. It's a magical tale filled with hope, which makes it the best kind of kids book, in my opinion.

Rating on my scale: I'm giving this 10 stars and pulling out my stuffed puppy I've had for almost 30 years and giving him a hug. My puppy has been sitting on my baby recliner for the last 3 years but after reading this book, it's high time he takes his place by my pillow again. You're never too old to appreciate the effects of a well-loved stuffed animal, after all.

Book Review: All of Us Murderers by K.J. Charles

My thanks to Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press and K.J. Charles for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

I'll start by saying this is the first book by K.J. Charles that I have tried to read. I will also be honest that the comparisons to Crimson Peak and Knives Out both had me hooked on trying this book out. I'm happy to report that I LOVED this book. Zebedee Wyckham is wonderful and along with his partner, Gideon Grey, they were sweetness personified and the mystery was intriguing and I'm so glad I saw this cover and thought WAIT, what is this beauty?

First of all, YES, those comparisons definitely work to describe this book. This book reminded me of several other works, movies and books, but I worry about spoiling too much of what comes about in this story, so I won't mention any other titles just yet. I think it's safe to say that if you are a fan of the mystery genre and gothic romances, this is the perfect book to try. It fits right in and yet stands apart thanks to the sweetest, most earnest lead I've had the pleasure to meet in recent memory.

All of Us Murderers follows Zeb Wyckham, a young man recently let go from his job, who has finally decided to accept his cousin's invitation to come to Lackaday House for a visit. Zeb usually avoids his family but after his cousin insisted on Zeb coming to stay for a couple of weeks, Zeb thought it would be okay to go. When he does arrive, Zeb is horrified to find his estranged brother, sister-in-law, a couple of cousins and his ex-boyfriend are all in attendance. Turns out Cousin Wynn has invited everyone to the house for a reason: Wynn has decided to change the terms of who is set to be his heir. He wants to leave his fortune to whoever marries his ward, Jessamine, who is staying in Lackaday House. They all try their best to get her to agree to marrying them, except for Zeb, who wants nothing to do with the Wyckham family money. But as time passes, strange things start happening in Lackaday House. There are phantom footsteps in the halls, strange messages left on the walls, and what appears to be the ghosts of an old monastery scaring the staff and the guests. Zeb has to find a way to avoid the scheming machinations of his family and figure out how to resolve the issues that led to his break-up with a man he still cares for, all while trying to find a way to leave the property. Because the Wyckham family has a lot of skeletons in their closets and with all of them together in one house, tensions between family members is the least of Zeb's worries.

Zeb, my dear sweet Zeb, how I loved you. Honestly, Zeb is an absolute sweetheart, a young man living with ADHD in a time where it was not understood, who has been cast aside by his family and sneered at for so long, the fact that he's being forced to be in their proximity for so long made me want threaten all of them with bodily harm. I also wanted to take Gideon by the ear and give him a good shake because really, how could he believe that Zeb wanted anything to do with the fortune after repeatedly stating that he would have nothing to do with the marriage scheme? Come on, give Zeb some credit, the man is goodness and honesty and genuine compassion all mixed together. All the details given about the way his mind worked, the methods he used to keep himself focused, were all so detailed, that Zeb felt like people I know and I wanted him to get out of that house and go back home and be happy. And fine, after Gideon finally got his head on straight, I could see why Zeb cared for him and their scenes together were so sweet they nearly made my teeth ache. I sighed wistfully and smiled so much with their scenes, it was probably a ridiculous thing to witness.

As for the rest of the family, oh good grief, they were horrible. I wanted to bash brother Bram in the head, I wanted to hit cousin Hawley with a crow bar, and I wasn't sure what cousin Dash's deal was, but the fact that he was in the house too made me wary of what could be hiding behind his reasonable, affable front. Elise was the typical scheming wife, able to control her husband and be cruel at the drop of a hat. Don't get me started on Jessamine and Wynn, who were just questionable enough to keep me guessing about what side they were really on. The writing made the house feel like a separate character, filled with horrible paintings and owned by despicable people, that I felt the tension of being in that space keeping my shoulders hunched as I tried to figure out who the villains were and waited for those deserving to get what was coming to them. If I had to make one quibble, it would be that I feel like one character out of the ensemble seemed to get away with what they wanted and I really hoped that the epilogue would have turned around and given them a grisly end. I also feel like there are still a few loose threads with the character, like were they truly who they claimed they were or just someone roped in to the plot that decided to take advantage of the situation? If it was in the book, I must have missed it because I'm still trying to figure it out. Guess I'll just have to read this all over again and take some notes so I can see everything I might have missed the first time I raced through this book.

The true mystery of the book was a surprise. I enjoyed the tidbits about the original owner of the house being a writer who wrote stories about horrible villains and the heinous things they did. I was not expecting the way it all came together in the end but I will say I loved the motivations behind it. If I was in that position, I would not have taken the path that was revealed BUT I can understand the urge to do what happened in this book. In the end, this is a book about the horrible things people can do and what they decide to do about their pasts and how it affects everyone around them. I enjoyed every reveal and now I'm working out which K.J. Charles book to start next. Thankfully, there is quite a bit to choose from so I'll be a happy reader hoarding new books and adding them to my towering TBR stacks. It's a wonderful feeling to have when you finish a book you really loved, the fact that there is already more to find without waiting years for a new release.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars for Zeb and Gideon and that plot. I hope the rest of Charles's books are just as good as this one. This one is going to have a place of honor on my favorites shelf, which let's be honest, is starting to get a little cramped, but hey, who cares? Having too many favorite books is a good thing, if you want my honest opinion.

Book Review: Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez

My thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press/ Saturday Books, and Isabel Ibañez for thr eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

This is the first book by Isabel Ibañez that I've tried to read. As much as I enjoyed the world, the desciptions and writing, I'll admit, it took me too long to read this book. I wanted to love it but within the first couple of chapters, the FMC, Ravenna, just started to make me grumble.

Graceless Heart follows Ravenna, a young sculptress who helps her family run an inn. When her brother ends up imprisoned, Ravenna decides to enter a contest hosted by an immortal family. Her prize would be to have her brother released and all his charges dropped. Except, in order to win the contest, Ravenna decides to reveal her magical ability, something she has only told her family about and has kept a secret for years. Her reveal makes her a target and she is kidnapped by the Luni family, taken to their home in Florence, and told they expect her perform a miracle for them, using her ability as a sculptress and her magic.

It all sounds so good, honestly. I was hooked on the cover art, the synopsis, the info at the beginning of the book about the "Pietra Magiche." I thought, definitely, absolutely going to like this book. But then Ravenna starts making some foolish decisions. The book opens with Ravenna sneaking through her hometown, carrying a ladder, so she can try to break her brother out of his cage. There's a curfew and she's not supposed to be outside at all. She also decides to enter the contest, which is frowned upon because she's a woman. At the contest, she gets ready to blurt out to the people around her about something she saw the night before and I just thought, WAIT, you are actually going to admit in front of everyone snarling at you for your audacity of entering the contest that you were out past the curfew?

But it was early pages, no bother, right? Except this continued with Ravenna. She was impulsive in a way that made her seem childish. I double-checked the synopsis and I'm not sure I would call this an "adult" book. The more I read, the more I felt that Ravenna came off as a teenager. Maybe this would have been better marketed as a "New Adult" story but I don't think that distinction really exists in Fantasy Romance. In the end, this felt more like a young adult release, which is not meant as a slight to the book. It just doesn't seem to fit with the characterization given to the main female lead and I had certain expectations for the character that did not fit with what I thought this book was going to be.

To make matters more frustrating, once Ravenna starts to interact with Saturnino, the eldest son and heir of the Luni family, most of her thought process becomes "he's so handsome, he's a killer, he's seducing me to get what he wants, but he has to care for me, even just a little, I'm such an idiot for believing his lies," etc., ad nauseum. Which again, made me think she's just a kid. Besides that, Saturnino is given barely any characterization outside of he's a knight, he's ruthless, he's in charge of keeping Ravenna in line. It takes too long to see anything more than that facade for the character and it left me feeling unimpressed by him and his connection to Ravenna. Their "love story" felt like it needed more development, more actual interactions that didn't feel like a game of cat and mouse. For a large part of the book, I truly believed that Saturnino was just stringing Ravenna along so when everything started rolling and their love story ended up being true, I was left feeling like it didn't work for me.

Then add to that Ravenna's driving motivations for everything she does, the salvation of her immortal soul and the love of her family. Seems reasonable enough for motivation except that nothing given in the book made me like her family. Ravenna has spent YEARS making herself indispensable to her family, doing absolutely anything and everything she can with running the inn and taking care of her siblings so that her parents will love her in spite of her magic. Which right away raised so many red flags for me. But then, on the morning of the contest, Ravenna goes to give her mother a kiss goodbye because it is highly likely she won't see her again any time soon and the woman flinches before Ravenna touches her. NO, just no, I don't see family devotion, in any way shape or form. Later in the book, Ravenna claims that she and her brother Antonio are "best friends" and I thought, since when? You have literally never spoken of him like that. There have been no reminiscences about childhood antics, about how he spent time with you, helped you with chores, encouraged your sculpting. Nothing at all and yet, when Antonio enters the story again, we're supposed to feel Ravenna's anguish at trying to reason with her brother and I thought, nah, I don't buy it. There is just not enough to convince me that this girl should be so motivated by the love she has for her family.

I also had an issue with the pacing of the book. The story felt like it had nothing happening except for the same scenes over and over again. Ravenna tries to do her task, the Luni family threatens her family back home, Saturnino watches her work, and Ravenna struggles with her attraction to him. Wash, rinse, repeat. I had to put the book down and do something else because I was getting tired of the same scenes again and again. Ravenna has a deadline to complete her task, she has multiple people demanding that she work for them OR ELSE and yet I felt no urgency to her dilemma. I didn't care about her family or where she came from, I didn't believe her growing connection to Saturnino, I didn't care for the side plots involving the villains motivations. In the end I was left feeling a bit, I guess underwhelmed, is the word I'm looking for.

I wanted more from the world building, about the magic system but because Ravenna was raised to believe her magic is a sin, readers aren't shown anything more than what we are given at the start of the book. We're told other magical creatures exist, vampires, witches, the fae, but they have no real bearing on the story. Again, I was expecting more than what was given based on the book description. The world is so wonderfully detailed, from the descriptions of the colors to the architecture but it's just background. The characters and their troubles just fell flat on their face. I wanted to like them more than I did and that is not a good feeling to end a book with when all is said and done.

Rating on my scale: 4.5 Stars. This book has so many ingredients that should have worked and for me but it just left too much of a sour taste and a feeling of just being disgruntled overall. So many people were against Ravenna and it left me feeling frustrated and in the end, I'm left analyzing everything I had issues with as opposed to remembering everything I enjoyed about the book. I'm glad Ravenna got everything she wanted, it was the least that could come about for her in the book. I might try another book by Ibañez in the future, maybe, hopefully. Fingers crossed, and all that jazz.

Book Review: The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino

My thanks to Netgalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and V.L. Bovalino for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

You know that feeling, when you are reading/watching/listening to something and the emotions are welling up inside you, just pushing and growing in every passing moment? They're growing so much that you pull your knees up and hug them because you have to do something to hold yourself together before it bursts out of you. Your hands are up over your mouth in case you let out some unseemly sound and alert other people in the room to your presence but at the same time, it is meant to hide the maniacal grin on your face because teeth lit up in a smile in the dark is an unsettling sight. You're ready to hide sniffles in your knees if it comes to it and to wipe tears from the corners of your eyes because *ahem* it's just an eyelash, leave me alone. And when it comes down to it, you lift your arms and CHEER quietly because that is all you can do when that everything becomes too much.

THAT is the overall feeling I had to wrestle with as I made my way through the journey of this book. By the time I got to the last portion of it, I had two reigning thoughts in my head. One: there are more books to come, right? I know I've seen something about it, another two books? Someone confirm this for me as soon as humanly possible. And Two: I immediately pre-ordered both of Bovalino's upcoming releases, which includes this book and a YA release set for January 2026. I also ordered hardcovers of each of the books I do not currently have from Bovalino's backlist of titles. I want to read everything I can find, Bovalino has a reader/fan for life now. This book has cemented that for me.

The Second Death of Locke is about a world at war, where Mages wield magic and they have their Hands, people with a well of magic inside them that Mages tether to, working together as two pieces of a whole, side by side through thick and thin and everything in between. Grey Flynn is the dedicated Hand to her Mage, Kier, her childhood friend and her everything now as an adult. Together they have risen in the ranks of their nation's army, to the point that the pair are tasked with an impossible mission: protect a child that the army has taken from enemy forces and return that child to those who want them back. Grey and Flynn put together a small group of soldiers and set out to cross the country, hoping to complete their task and avoid all enemies along the way, all while trying to hide the truth: Grey is the lost heir of Locke, an island nation that was lost to the seas nearly two decades before. It was the source of all magic and it's loss was the catalyst that started the war in the first place. Magic has been fading since Locke was lost and Grey could possibly be able to bring magic back if she could figure out how to bring the Isle back. On the other hand, if Grey dies, all of the magic in the world dies with her.

I'd heard of this book in Bovalino's newsletter so I was already on the lookout for it to pre-order when I had the chance. When I saw it was available on Netgalley, I leapt at the chance to read it. Bovalino's writing style is engaging, showing readers everything they need with character interactions and settings, snark in the dialogue and such depth of emotions from Grey and her companions. I loved all of the characters before the book was over, even characters I didn't think I'd like when they were first introduced. Grey was a force, prickly and snarky and so devoted, my heart ached for her at each turn the story took. I loved her connection to Kier, and how entwined they were and yet so wholly independent of each other, they were pig-headed and brash and determined to save each other even if it meant sacrificing themselves and I cheered them on through every battle.

Each character is given their due, from Brit, Ola and Eron, the soldiers chosen to aid Grey and Kier on their assignment, to Sela, the child they are transporting, to even the leaders of the nations they are fighting for and against. Grey would die for her new friends and I echoed that sentiment. Each time Grey made a decision to keep her people safe, I wanted to take up a sword and fight with her. They are all so unique and pushy, and important to Grey and to us readers that I waited with bated breath as I read this story, hoping my favorites would make it through to the end.

Readers are given little asides at the end of each chapter, whether it be letters from characters that have passed before the events of this story, journal entries or even historical texts about the war and the history of the Isle of Locke. There is so much information that I can't even remember if I had any questions sitting in my head because everything readers need to know is given at the right time for the most emotional impact (I'm not kidding, my emotions feel like they've run a gauntlet, I might need time to recover by returning to page 1 and starting the whole journey over again).

The world is filled in enough to feel how it has changed since war has taken over and a map is provided at the start of the book (love me a map in my books, seriously, I sincerely love when a map is provided). Readers learn about who Grey and Kier fight for and who the enemies are and how each are with the others. We learn about how other nation's use their magic and how Mages have certain affinities that they use magic for on the battlefield. It's all so rich with detail, I wanted to stay in this world longer and I truly hope there are more books to come. I have to know if the characters I came to love in this story get everything they want in the future.

And that ending. Ugh, that ending was everything I could have wanted and yet so much more I never would have thought of and it can't end there, it just can't, there is so much more to come, I can feel it. It might hurt in the long run but I have to know how this will all come together by the last page of the last book. I will stand vigil and wait for the return of Grey and her family, new and old, and hope for the best for these characters.

Rating on my scale: 10 STARS. I loved this book. I want more from this world. I can't wait for it's release and for the sequels that just have to happen, they have to. Read this book so it can have sequels, please and thank you. 

Watching the Weather

It's been sitting in my mind since the holiday weekend started and I just have to put something here to see if I can get it out of my head.

I'm here in the heart of Texas, probably less than an hour south of where the devastating floods have hit with the Guadalupe River. My area has just had weather update changed to a Flood Watch until 7pm on Monday. I'm telling my husband in the morning that in the abundance of caution, I'd prefer that he avoid going in to the office for work this week until all the rain passes. I'm looking up what kind of life vests are the best and where I can get them for my babies. I'm working out what to pack in a flood emergency kit.

I can't control the weather but I can be prepared should the worst come. My oldest is going to be 3 this year, my youngest will be 1. I want them to be safe. I told my husband I'd die saving them if it came to that so if life vests and emergency kits and evacuation plans and knowing which roads to take will help, I'll do all the research and be ready.

Too many are gone because of something simple like rain. We've gone from droughts and water restrictions to buidlings and people being washed away. It's too much.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people who have lost someone or who are still searching. May they all be found.

Stay safe out there, people. Make good choices, think things through. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.