disclaimer: I received this free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
rep: indian inspired characters, lesbian m/c's, f/f romance
contedisclaimer: I received this free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
rep: indian inspired characters, lesbian m/c's, f/f romance
content warning: violence, death, execution by burning, gender-based violence, body horror, forced drug use & addiction, homophobia.
The Jasmine Throne is a magical & epic indian inspired fantasy. It is an engrossing story of two women who are fighting for survival in a chaotic world, and who form an unlikely alliance to take back control. It's a story about the horrors of colonisation and the danger of power. It also has some really interesting magic involving plants!
disclaimer: i received this free from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
rep: british indo-guyanese lesbian m/c, lesbian lovdisclaimer: i received this free from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
rep: british indo-guyanese lesbian m/c, lesbian love interest, british indo-guyanese side characters
content warnings: death
Afterlove follows the bittersweet love story between Ash and Poppy, a journey of first love, but also a journey filled with tragedy, but also one full of hope. It's a sad story for sure, but it is also hopeful and heartwarming too.
Afterlove is also a 'paranormal' book, but in a really subtle sense, but also not in a subtle sense. It's kind of hard to describe. The first half of the novel is completely regular, it follows this beautiful and blossoming love between Ash and Poppy, but halfway through, the paranormal aspect is introduced, but it still takes a backseat to this love story. Ash becomes a grim reaper but struggles to leave her old life, and struggles to let death separate her from the girl she loves. I really loved this paranormal aspect - not really dead but not really alive, and like, grim reapers? More of this in YA, please.
It's a really subtle blend of contemporary romance with the paranormal, and Byrne does it splendidly.
Afterlove is a captivating love story filled to the brim with emotion, and an absolutely brilliant addition to the ukya market. It has a beautiful cover, and a beautiful story inside to match. ...more
The Ones We're Meant To Find is a beautiful and powerful novel about sisterhood and humanity. As usual, Joan He delivers a clever, thought-provoking, The Ones We're Meant To Find is a beautiful and powerful novel about sisterhood and humanity. As usual, Joan He delivers a clever, thought-provoking, and unpredictable novel. There is such emotional depth to the story and the characters - it's such a character driven story, but the world building and science fiction element doesn't suffer either. Amazing novel....more
disclaimer: I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
rep: biracial Muslim m/c
'I have my own voice. I have my own st
disclaimer: I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
rep: biracial Muslim m/c
'I have my own voice. I have my own story. I have my own name. It's Khayyam'.
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know follows Khayyam, who is spending the summer in Paris. Devastated by a rejection of her essay to get into Chicago School of Art Institute, Khayyam is determined to try again – to prove her theory that Alexandre Dumas was gifted a painting by Eugène Delacroix. While investigating, she meets one of Dumas’ descendants and is determined more than ever to uncover what she believes to be a piece of missing history. Soon, she comes across the mention of a woman named Leila and becomes determined to uncover her story – the story of a woman who was just a name in others lives.
I am positive that Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know will be a hit for those who enjoy reading about art and art history. It delves into the works of Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron – hence the title. I don’t know a lot about poets or artists, and obviously a lot of it was fictionalized, but it was an element I enjoyed. There are two alternative timelines happening in Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, one follows our amateur art historian Khayyam uncovering secrets and histories, and the other follows a woman named Leila – a woman who lived two hundred years ago in the Ottoman empire. I really enjoyed these interwoven stories.
Our protagonist Khayyam is great – she’s inquisitive and persistent but also reckless and romantic. She’s passionate and protective about Leila and her story. I also really loved her exploration of her identity:
“I live in between spaces. The borders between nations, the invisible hypen between words, the wide chasm between “one of us” and me alone. French American. Indian American. Muslim American. Biracial. Interfaith. Child of immigrants.
I really enjoyed the French setting – it was vivid and atmospheric, and also romantic. Her romance with Alexandre Dumas, a descendant of the Alexandre Dumas was *adorable*.
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is a book about stories and about histories. It is about how we all have stories to tell and it’s about who remembers us and about who doesn’t. It’s about how we are all connected, in the end. It looks into women and how their histories and their stories tend to be forgotten, how history, especially women’s history, is rewritten predominantly by men. It is a story about truth, having agency, and being heard.
The reason I am only giving this 3 stars is that the middle of the novel was a little slow and less enticing than the beginning and the end so it struggled to hold my attention for a little while. Ultimately, though, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to know is a fun novel about stories, history, art, and has a little treasure hunt.
disclaimer: I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
rep: black bi m/c, Japanese sapphic li, black side characters
Caradisclaimer: I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
rep: black bi m/c, Japanese sapphic li, black side characters
Cara is a traverser of worlds, a traverser of the multiverse. The only downside is that in order to visit a world, their counterpart must already be dead. In all of the 382 worlds that have been unlocked, Cara is dead in all but 8. Cara is from the Ashtown, a wasteland that was hard to survive – if it wasn’t the lack of resources that killed you, it was violence. The job of being a traverser means she can live in the safety of Wiley City. When one of the 8 remaining Cara’s dies under suspicious circumstances, Cara is thrust into a world that reveal secrets that puts the entire multiverse in danger.
The Space Between Worlds was what I was hoping for and more. It was an intriguing and compelling novel about parallel universes and doppelgängers. It takes place in a sort of dystopian world with a brilliant blend of science fiction where there is a huge class divide between Wiley City and Ashtown. Wiley City takes care of its citizens, it is a place for the rich and a place for extravagance. It views the Mad Max-esque setting of Ashtown as ‘exotic’ and treats as a sort of tourist attraction, appropriating their culture but always looking down on them.
‘Wiley City is like the sun, and Ashtown a black hole; it’s impossible to hover in between without being torn apart.’
The Space Between Worlds has some really great nuanced discussions about class, abuse, identity, race, and colonisation and also about survival. Those from Ashtown are the ideal traversers because citizens from Wiley City have a life expectancy that is too high, and those from Ashtown tend to survive purely because of luck. This meant that there was an opportunity to have those discussions about class and who is typically from those lower classes – black and brown people. The social commentary was spot on.
Cara, our protagonist is fucking glorious – she’s so complex and flawed, she was such an intriguing character to follow. She’s sarcastic, angry, and torn between her connection to Ashtown and her desperation to be useful to Wiley City. She is determined, cunning, and stubborn. She’s a survivor and a liar. I just loved her and her story so much. She has such a great character arc throughout this novel that she truly is the best part of The Space Between Worlds.
‘Why have I survived? Because I am a creature more devious than all the other mes put together… I survive the desert like a coyote survives, like all tricksters do. “Luck, I guess,” I say, because the first thing a monster learns is when to lie.’
The Space Between Worlds also has some superb relationships. I absolutely adored Cara’s relationship with her step-sister Esther – it was a powerful relationship. I also enjoyed her relationship with her loving mentor Jean, who was also a father figure to her. But my favourite relationship was with Dell, her watcher – the person who watches her when she traversers and keeps her as safe as is possible. I loved their relationship and the tension was palpable.
‘Of course, humanity couldn’t just look. We had to enter. We had to touch and taste and take. But the universe said no.’
I’ve already mentioned about how I enjoyed the world and the social commentary but I also really enjoyed the science fiction aspect, and I really enjoyed the subtle addition of the spiritual too and I loved the addition of Nyame and the questions of is she real, it she not?
The Space Between Worlds is a book about survival, identity, class, and race. It has some great social commentary, a formidable protagonist, and an intense f/f romance. It is a science fiction novel that I highly recommend.
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