Me on Shadow Weaver

Title: Shadow Weaver
Author: MarcyKate Connolly
Release Date: January 2, 2018
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Emmeline has grown up with a gift. Since the time she was a baby she has been able to control shadows. And her only friend and companion is her own shadow, Dar. Disaster strikes when a noble family visits their home and offers to take Emmeline away and cure her of magic. Desperate not to lose her shadows, she turns to Dar who proposes a deal: Dar will change the noble's mind, if Emmeline will help her become flesh as she once was. Emmeline agrees but the next morning the man in charge is in a coma and all that the witness saw was a long shadow with no one nearby to cast it. Scared to face punishment, Emmeline and Dar run away. With the noble's guards on her trail, Emmeline's only hope of clearing her name is to escape capture and perform the ritual that will set Dar free. But Emmeline's not sure she can trust Dar anymore, and it's hard to keep secrets from someone who can never leave your side.

Shadow Weaver is a twisty tale of friendship, of truths and lies, of magic and secrets.

Emmeline is a lonely girl. Because of her shadow magic, her ability to control and shape the shadows around her, there are a lot of people who avoid her. Fear her. As she wants to be liked by them, she's told she doesn't need them by her own shadow named Dar. Dar has always been with Emmeline, she'll protect Emmeline and keep them together. They need each other. But then someone comes to Emmeline's house talking about a cure, about separating her from her magic, and Dar pushes her to leave. Then comes a journey away from home and towards possibly learning the truth about Dar, about why she's not exactly like the other shadows. About why she speaks of freeing herself from Emmeline.

It's slightly similar to the author's previous middle grade books, mysterious and magical but set in a wholly new fantasy land. This felt slightly eerier, though. A little more darker and dangerous, a little more duplicitous. There was a time or two when I found Emmeline rather naive when it came to Dar's insistence and bizarre requests, but that was on me. Looking at Emmeline, at a lonely girl who's only ever had one consistent person in her life that cared about her and played with her, when that person was Dar, why wouldn't Emmeline trust her more than other people? I would recommend this to middle grade readers who are looking for more fantasy stories.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Raincoast Books.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (290)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

Hello! One good thing about this winter is that it hasn't been as snowy or depressing as it was last year.

I keep thinking I'm missing out on a bunch of books coming out this year, so everyone comment with what you're looking forward to. I think my reading's gone down over the past few years and I'm not sure why, if it's because I've missed out on books or because there aren't as many coming out that interests me anymore.

It's middle grade week next week! Reviews going up will feature Shadow Weaver by MarcyKate Connolly (Tuesday) and Warrior Genius by Michael Dante DiMartino (Friday). :)

Bought/borrowed/received:
Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray (e-book borrowed from the library)

Me on Before I Let Go

Title: Before I Let Go
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Release Date: January 2, 2018
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Best friends Corey and Kyra were inseparable in their snow-covered town of Lost Creek, Alaska. When Corey moves away, she makes Kyra promise to stay strong during the long, dark winter, and wait for her return. Just days before Corey is to return home to visit, Kyra dies. Corey is devastated―and confused. The entire Lost community speaks in hushed tones about the town's lost daughter, saying her death was meant to be. And they push Corey away like she's a stranger. Corey knows something is wrong. With every hour, her suspicion grows. Lost is keeping secrets―chilling secrets. But piecing together the truth about what happened to her best friend may prove as difficult as lighting the sky in an Alaskan winter...

Before I Let Go is haunting and eerie. It's a complicated story about life and loss, about hidden truths in small towns, and about coming and going. Leaving and returning. What's left behind and what's lost.

After the sudden news of her best friend's death, Corey is left confused and alone. Worried. Something must have happened. She knows Kyra, she knows that Kyra would've wanted to see her when Corey returned. And so she continues her trip back to Lost Creek, Alaska, to find out what happened to Kyra and to say good-bye. But the town feels different than she remembers. Everyone's a bit more closed off than she remembers. And everyone is mourning Kyra. Nothing is what Corey expected to find and she's determined to discover the cause of Kyra's death and the town's change of heart.

There's a lot said in this book about the different ways we're seen by the people around us, those close and those not so close. To Corey, Kyra is so much. She's creative, bold, open, troubled. In need of support, looking for a way out of Lost Creek so she can get the help she needs. They're best friends. Corey will always care about Kyra, she'll want what Kyra wants. To the town, at first she's a bother. She's unhinged. They don't know how to deal with first her bipolar diagnosis and later her moods, her swings from being manic to being depressed. She isn't like everyone else, and they don't know what to do. Later on, Kyra becomes something more. Something used to serve their needs instead of her own. More of a thing than a person that needs help and support.

This is definitely a serious book told in different parts, through Corey's return to Lost, Kyra's unsent letters, and the town's own view of itself. I would recommend this to fans of mysteries and and thrillers, small towns with potentially dangerous secrets.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Sourcebooks through NetGalley.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (360)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: The Queens of Innis Lear
Author: Tessa Gratton
Release Date: March 27, 2018
Publisher: Tor Books

From Goodreads:

A kingdom at risk, a crown divided, a family drenched in blood.

The erratic decisions of a prophecy-obsessed king have drained Innis Lear of its wild magic, leaving behind a trail of barren crops and despondent subjects. Enemy nations circle the once-bountiful isle, sensing its growing vulnerability, hungry to control the ideal port for all trade routes.

The king's three daughters—battle-hungry Gaela, master manipulator Reagan, and restrained, starblessed Elia—know the realm's only chance of resurrection is to crown a new sovereign, proving a strong hand can resurrect magic and defend itself. But their father will not choose an heir until the longest night of the year, when prophecies align and a poison ritual can be enacted.

Refusing to leave their future in the hands of blind faith, the daughters of Innis Lear prepare for war—but regardless of who wins the crown, the shores of Innis will weep the blood of a house divided.

Not strictly YA but AHHHH MORE TESSA GRATTON BOOKS!!!!

Me on The Cruel Prince

Title: The Cruel Prince
Author: Holly Black
Release Date: January 2, 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

The Cruel Prince is dark and cruel, set in a dangerous world of secrets and plots, but one human girl is willing to risk everything in order to carve out a place of her own. Because even though she hates them, she wants so desperately to fit in.

Jude, once a stolen child, is now a young woman of certain strengths and angers. Anger at the teasing and humiliation she is subjected to day after day. Being a human in Faerie, she's vulnerable to their magic, the suggestive and possibly deadly effects of their food and drink. Their unearthly beauty and their manipulative charm. Growing up there made her hard, made her suspicious of their teasing and tricks and fickle natures. But even after ten years of teasing, of resenting their strengths and her human weaknesses, of their disgust of her, Jude still wants a place there. She still wants to belong there.

I do think this book says a lot about strengths and weaknesses, fragility, cunning and manipulation. About the desire for not only power but respect, and the lengths some go to in order to be king of the mountain. The skeletons hidden in the back of the closet. Looking at what Jude goes through, the discrimination and the assaults, the different ways she has to protect herself from faerie magic, the number of times she lies and gets away with it, her rise to status and power must be far different from theirs. Knowing how this book ends, I'm definitely curious as to where the next one will go, what will happen next to Jude.

(I received an e-galley of this title from Hachette Book Group Canada.)