Month: Mar 2021

BOOK REVIEW: Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

Francesca Lucy14 Comments

First things first, THANK YOU to Hodder for 1) giving me an e-ARC of Spin the Dawn and 2) giving me a e-ARC of Unravel the Dusk (because it is absolutely my number 1 TBR priority now).

Spin the Dawn follows Maia, a young girl who takes her brother’s place in a competition to become the new Imperial Tailor, in an attempt to restore her family’s name and achieve a lifelong, impossible dream. After an intense competition to prove herself to the Emperor and his reluctant soon-to-be wife, Maia is tasked with making the most breathtakingly magical dresses, stitched from the sun, the moon and the stars, and she finds herself on a quest, alongside the palace’s mysterious Enchanter, to do the impossible and alter more in the palace than she ever could have imagined.

I knew before I started this book that I would love it but I had no idea just how much. It combined my loves of enchanting, magical YA, with a love of fashion and elements of Mulan, and it was absolutely one of the most engrossing books I’ve read this year. Maia was strong-willed, determined and completely selfless, so she was a really exciting character to root for as she went on her quest. Edan, similarly, was determined and wise, so with him as a guide and Maia as a heroine, they made a fascinating duo. Add their obvious chemistry to that and reading about their journey became entertaining and addictive on so many levels.

The magical elements of this book are vital to the story, and the descriptions and imagery that came with these were incredibly well done. What initially felt implausible quickly became completely believable, and the scenes with Maia working her magic were simple but yet also so captivating that I found them just as entertaining as the more action-packed scenes in the book. Imagining the breathtaking designs that the tailors put together was so easy and I somehow envy the characters who got to wear the beautiful pieces that were put together throughout.

So many things (cover included because look at it) contributed to my requesting this, and I’m so so glad I did; it was a whirlwind of a story that kept me hooked from start to end. The romance was swoon-worthy, the magic was enchanting, and the action was so constant that it made Spin the Dawn impossible to put down. I loved how it included minor elements of various fairytales without becoming at all predictable, and I’m already desperately awaiting the answers that I’m hoping for in Unravel the Dusk.

Rating: 5/5

ARC REVIEW: Love in Five Acts by Daniela Krien

Francesca Lucy4 Comments

*Thank you to MacLehose for gifting me a copy of this book*

Love in Five Acts is a five-part story that follows five loosely-connected women as they try to navigate life, love and motherhood in the aftermath of traumatic pasts and imperfect relationships. As we see the world through these women’s eyes, we experience every possible angle of their relationships, and witness the various ways in which women find love and cope with trauma.

This is not my usual genre at all so it took me completely by surprise just how quickly this book gripped me. Paula, Judith, Brida, Malika and Jorinde were all completely different characters, each with some relatable and some not-so-relatable traits, and I found myself as invested in every new section as I was in the last. Brida’s story in particular fascinated me, with the focus being on her attempt to juggle motherhood and her dream career of writing, but I found myself in support of every woman in the story as I learned of the completely believable but often upsetting things that they each went through.

Translated fiction can sometimes be fairly heavy to read, but this book was so quick and easy to get through that I found myself reading it in every spare second and finishing it within two days. It was emotional, poignant and, at some points, slightly complex, but it was so readable that it felt like it took no effort to get from start to finish at all. It also really helped that each story flowed well into the next, with the connections between the women obvious but the relationships being often quite complex. Judith, I think, appeared in the most stories, and it was fascinating to see how the different women viewed her compared to how she viewed herself.

Love in Five Acts is a fairly intense read with its occasionally upsetting subject matter and it’s definitely quite adult, but if you have any interest in reading about women’s experiences of motherhood, sisterhood, relationships and grief in the twenty-first century, I would strongly urge you to read it. It’s a current, believable story of life and love, and an entertaining insight into the minds of complex and fascinating women who need to deal with and adapt to the challenges that life throws at them.

Rating: 4/5

Love in Five Acts publishes in the UK on April 29th 2021.

ARC REVIEW: All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue

Francesca Lucy7 Comments

Before I get into this, I just want to say: look. at. that. cover!!! This book jacket is absolutely beautiful and I definitely requested, in part, because it looked so unique. I try not to judge a book based on its design but, honestly, I just loved the look of this one so much that I genuinely couldn’t help it…

That being said, it’s also a witchy YA about a tarot reader and a missing girl, so I was very excited when I got a copy. So… Thank you very much to Walker Books for the e-ARC!

When sixteen-year-old Maeve discovers a pack of old tarot cards in her school, she finds herself immediately drawn to them. She quickly discovers that she has a knack for the supernatural and finds herself doing readings for all of the girls in school that hear about her unusual talent.

Somehow, though, her exciting new reputation crumbles rapidly into one that her classmates fear when, following a reading for her former best friend, Lily, Lily goes missing. Maeve enlists the help of popular girl, Fiona, and Lily’s sibling, Roe, and it doesn’t take long for them to realise that they may need to confront the supernatural in order to get Lily back.

I’m so used to reading older YA that I was slightly taken aback by how young Maeve’s behaviour seemed initially but, when I remembered that she’s only supposed to be sixteen, her personality seemed fitting. She’s an inquisitive, perhaps slightly naïve, young girl who is thrust into an unknown world of chaos and magic, and it was fascinating to read about her thought processes and how she responded to all of the crazy things that were happening to her.

The LGBTQ+ representation in this book is a really key part of the story, and it was great to see gender and sexuality explored so openly. Roe’s gender identity is ambiguous in a way that portrays well how they’re struggling to understand themselves, and Maeve’s sister’s sapphic relationship creates an opening to explore the challenges that LGBTQ+ teens and young adults face in a mature and, unfortunately, realistic way. Maeve had almost no prior knowledge about the social issues surrounding gender and sexuality so it did feel at times like a number of the conversations were trying to teach the reader about LGBTQ+ issues, but I adored the representation of these characters overall and felt that it was an important theme for young readers that was explored well.

All Our Hidden Gifts definitely reads like a book for a younger YA audience, but it was a really quick, unique and exciting read, with a few twists and an interesting depiction of magic. It definitely contains a few clichés, but it’s generally a quick, fun read, and I’d absolutely recommend it to witchy-YA readers looking for an easy read, and younger readers with an interest in magic.

Rating: 4/5

Books That Got Me Into Reading

Francesca Lucy10 Comments

HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY! I’m super excited about today because it always makes me nostalgic for when I was younger, and the amazing £1 book selections that, honestly, I still buy at age twenty-two… As a book-addict for as long as I can remember, World Book Day holds a special place in my heart and, to honour that, I wanted to take a trip down bookish memory lane.

So, to do that, I thought I’d share a very small selection of some of the books that got me into reading!

Rainbow Magic by Daisy Meadows – this was one of the first series’ I ever read. I only recently found out that Daisy Meadows was a pseudonym for multiple authors, which slightly broke my heart, but that doesn’t take away from how much I adored these. I have at least seventy in a box at my parents’ house (including a World Book Day special!) and I don’t think I’ll ever clear them out.

Totally Lucy by Kelly McKain- I was obsessed with the Totally Lucy book series. I read the second book first, got completely hooked, and then read the entire rest of the series in a couple of weeks. My name is never on anything, but my middle name is Lucy, so I was super excited about the fact that a character almost shared my name, and her love of fashion really resonated with my (clearly very stylish) ten-year old self. I started reading a lot after that, but none of my younger reads stuck with me quite as much as this one.

The Shapeshifter series by Ali Sparkes – This is another series I got completely obsessed with, but this time it wasn’t a series of quick reads, but a really intense, slightly-shorter, action-packed series. It’s middle-grade, but it definitely acted as my bridge into YA, and I loved everything about it. The fantasy elements, the twists and the characters were all incredible and, honestly, I think I would still love this series to this day.

Divergent by Veronica Roth- The beginning of my YA obsession! This is the first YA series I read and, after finishing Allegiant, I never really stopped. I went from this, to The Hunger Games, to The Mortal Instruments and fairly quickly through all of those big YA series from the early 2010s. I got completely hooked on this in 2014, bought merchandise, started buying multiple copies and made my first ever (slightly embarrassing) Instagram fanpage…

Wings by Aprilynne Pike – So you can probably tell from Rainbow Magic that fairies were kind of my thing growing up. I was obsessed with all things fae (and it definitely carried over into my YA love of The Folk of the Air and Wicked Lovely) but Wings is the fairy series that I think I hold dearest. Also, Aprilynne Pike is the first author who ever tweeted me back (in 2014!!) so that holds a special place in my heart too.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare – This one may be slightly cheating since I was very much into reading by the time I read The Mortal Instruments, but this is another series that made me realise just how deeply obsessed my teenage self could get with books. I wore a rune necklace all through college (and actually made a lot of reader friends because of it) and got hooked on all things fantasy. I never got round to continuing with the Shadowhunter books after The Infernal Devices, but this series will always hold a special place in my heart.

I could go on forever about books that I obsessed over when I was younger, but I think I should probably stop here. I hope you’re having (or had) a wonderful World Book Day, and would love to hear about the books that got you into reading too!