The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter

A friend of mine got me a copy of The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss and the sequel European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman because she thought that I would love them. I’ve finished the first one, and she was so right! I feel like this book was written for me. The […]

The Adventurers Guild

Disclosure: Disney-Hyperion sent me a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. The Adventurers Guild is the first book in a new series about a group of teenagers who—not necessarily by choice—end up in the guild that protects their town from the Dangers that threaten to destroy it. Walled and […]

Inside Out & Back Again

I have vague memories of going with my mom to visit the Vietnamese family her church sponsored after they fled in boats from their war-torn home. I remember a small apartment that smelled of unfamiliar food. I was very shy because I couldn’t understand what they said. They gave me and my brother striped polyester […]

Goodbye Stranger

Review written by Jonathan Lavallee My daughter Rowan, who was 10 when I started doing guest reviews and is now 15, tends to like books filled with melancholia. Those usually aren’t my thing, but because she reads them I’m trying to expand my reading habits. Goodbye Stranger is one of those books, and it’s such […]

Drink, Slay, Love

Review written by Jonathan Lavallee In Drink, Slay, Love, Pearl is a sixteen year old vampire, doing traditionally vampire things. Learning how to navigate a strict and totalitarian vampire society. How to fight, and how to hunt. She was born to be important, because her family is important, but she was never meant to be […]

Hour of the Bees

Review written by Jonathan Lavallee How do you measure time? Hour of the Bees measures time in teardrops that fall as you read the book. Carol, nee Carolina, has discovered that she is going to spend her summer at her grandfather’s ranch. He has late stage dementia and they are getting things ready so they […]

As Old as Time

As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale is the Beauty and the Beast entry in the A Twisted Tale series from Disney Press. Like A Whole New World, this retelling pretty quickly veers off from the familiar plot of both movies, reimagining characters and adding lots of new characters and plot twists. If you’re familiar […]

Minion

Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. Michael Marion Magadlene Morn Edson was found in a White Castle by St. Mary of the Woods School for Wayward boys when he was just a baby. There was no tearful goodbye on a doorstep, or anything like that for Michael. What he discovered there, as he got older, was […]

When You Reach Me

Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. “The trip is a difficult one, I will not be myself when I reach you.” In When You Reach Me, Miranda is the daughter of a single mom who got an invitation to be on the $20,000 Dollar Pyramid. She’s dealing with the strain of helping her mom train, as […]

Pennyroyal Academy

Pennyroyal Academy is a story of a young girl who joins a military academy where girls study to become princesses who can fight witches while boys study to become knights who can fight dragons. You just have to accept the terms princess and knight—they’re titles conferred upon completion of the course (But they’re not parallel […]