Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of the Scythe (Arc of the Scythe book 3.5)

 

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first three books in the series, Stop! This collection of short stories may not make sense.

“There are still countless tales of the Scythedom to tell. Centuries passed between the Thunderhead cradling humanity and Scythe Goddard trying to turn it upside down. For years humans lived in a world without hunger, disease, or death with Scythes as the living instruments of population control.

Neal Shusterman—along with collaborators David Yoon, Jarrod Shusterman, Sofía Lapuente, Michael H. Payne, Michelle Knowlden, and Joelle Shusterman—returns to the world throughout the timeline of the Arc of a Scythe series. Discover secrets and histories of characters you’ve followed for three volumes and meet new heroes, new foes, and some figures in between.” - taken from Goodreads.

First swing / Joelle Shusterman -- Formidable -- Never work with animals / co-authored with Michael H. Payne -- Death of many colors -- Unsavory row -- Martian minute -- The Mortal canvas / co-authored with David Yoon -- Cirri -- Anastasia's shadow -- Persistence of memory / co-authored with Jarrod Shusterman and Sofía Lapuente -- Meet Cute and Die -- Perchance to Glean / co-authored with Michelle Knowlden -- A Dark Curtain Rises.

Martian Minute was by far my favorite story of this collection. Underscythe Xenocrates made a spectacular appearance. The ending was a true bomb drop and spectacular in its delivery. Anastasia’s shadow takes place between the second and third books and deals with Citra’s brother Ben. Meet Cute and Die was hilarious and an enjoyable read.                                     

A great return to the Scythe world for fans of the series. 

Visit Neal Shusterman’s website.

Begin Again by Emma Lord

 

“As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.” - taken from Goodreads.

When Andie Rose arrives at Blue Ridge State as a mid-year transfer, she has a plan for how her semester will go. Her best laid plans start to go up in flames when she finds that her boyfriend Conner transferred back to community college to be with her, her roommate Shay is major less, and her RA Milo lives off of caffeine and doesn't believe in love. Soon her plans begin to change as she begins to follow her in her mother’s footsteps but struggles to find her own way. As the semester goes on, will Andie be able to blaze her own trail without being weighed down by her past? A great read about finding one’s own way.

Visit Emma Lord’s website.

When You Wish Upon a Lantern by Gloria Chao

 

“Liya and Kai had been best friends since they were little kids, but all that changed when a humiliating incident sparked The Biggest Misunderstanding Of All Time—and they haven’t spoken since.

Then Liya discovers her family's wishing lantern store is struggling, and she decides to resume a tradition she had with her beloved late grandmother: secretly fulfilling the wishes people write on the lanterns they send into the sky. It may boost sales and save the store, but she can't do it alone . . . and Kai is the only one who cares enough to help.

While working on their covert missions, Liya and Kai rekindle their friendship—and maybe more. But when their feuding families and their changing futures threaten to tear them apart again, can they find a way to make their own wishes come true?” - taken from Goodreads.

A touching romantic story between two neighbors who are caught in the middle of their feuding fathers. Liya and Kai are childhood friends but things have been weird since she snorted a boba from her tea into her nose, causing her to vomit in front of Kai. Embarrassed, she has kept her distance from him since. Kai has just finally gotten the nerve to ask Liya out on a date when she throws up on the table they share. Devastated, he wants to stay friends even if Liya doesn’t return his feelings. 

When Liya discovers that her family’s shop is in debt, she comes up with a plan to earn some extra money. Kai is more than willing to help her. As the two once again grow closer, will Lyia be able to save her family’s store? What happens when Liya learns Kia asked her out and she didn’t hear him?

Visit Gloria Chao’s website.

Revelle by Lyssa Mia Smith

 

“On the island of Charmant, magic flows like bootlegged champagne, and fantasies can be bought for the price of a gemstone.

Luxe Revelle, star of her family’s fantastical show, knows the splendor is just an illusion. With Prohibition threatening their livelihood, her family struggles to make a living, watering down champagne and patching holes in their sequined costumes. So when the son of Charmant’s wealthiest family makes her an offer—everything the Revelles need to stay in business, in exchange for posing as his girl and helping him become mayor—she can’t refuse.

The moment Jamison Port sets foot in Charmant, he can’t shake the feeling of familiarity. An orphan with as few memories as gemstones, he’s desperate to learn what happened to his parents. But as he delves into the island’s secrets, he risks angering the wrong person and discovering a truth that just might break his heart.

When Luxe and Jamison accidentally meet, the sparks that fly are more than her magical enchantments. But keeping secrets from powerful people is a dangerous game . . . one that could destroy them both.”  - taken from Goodreads.

Welcome to Charmant where magic is the norm. Luxe Revelle and her family are struggling with the effects of Prohibition. Without booze, the tourists will stop coming to spend their jewels at her family’s show under the big top. When her uncle hatches a plan for Luxe to make the island’s young bootlegger, Dewey Chronos, fall under her spell to procure cheap liquor, she agrees.

Jamison Port has come to Charment with a couple of friends looking for clues to his past. Raised in an orphanage from a young age, the only clue he has is a photo of his parents. When Dewey offers Jamison his coat to replace his ripped one and his box seat under the Nib Top, Luxe sets her sights on the wrong target. The attraction between Luxe and Jamison is  immediate, even after she realizes her mistake.

When Dewey wants to take on his political family for control of Charmant, he sees the Revelle family as a way to gain votes towards the mayoral election. Partnering with Luxe starts as a means to the end but as time passes, Luxe soon realizes that she may be in over her head.

With dangerous secrets threatening to come to light, can Luxe save her family and will Jamison discover his?

Visit Lyssa Mia Smith’s website.

Ride With Me by Lucy Keating

 

“As a driver for her local ride share app, Charlie Owens loves what the open road gives her: freedom, extra cash for an epic road trip, and a path to getting out of her sleepy town of Chester Falls, Massachusetts. She’s seen her fair share of mysterious passengers and explosive break-ups in the backseat of her car, but Charlie lives a no-strings-attached lifestyle and never gets involved.

But when a routine post-party pick-up ends with Charlie crashing into Andre, her school’s notorious party boy, she’s forced to make a deal to drive him anywhere he needs to go, anytime, until his car can be repaired. Suddenly Charlie and Andre are stuck together, and they couldn’t be more different. But Andre’s charm wins over Charlie’s passengers, and she soon finds herself at risk of breaking her most sacred rule: don’t fall in love.” - taken from Goodreads.

When Charlie hits Andre's car at a party, neither have the money to repair it. Since Charlie drives for a ride share app, Andre decides that Charlie can drive him wherever he needs to be. What turns out to be a major annoyance at first, soon blooms into friendship between the two. The more time Charlie and Andre spend together, the more they learn about one another. Soon sparks begin to fly but neither wants to be the first to act on it. Can two people with opposite goals in life be able to meet in the middle and make a relationship work?

Visit Lucy Keating’s website.

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore (Graceling Realm book 5)

 

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read any of the books in the Graceling series, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you. This book is a continuation of the story told in Winterkeep.

“In the immediate aftermath of the events of Winterkeep, Bitterblue and her entourage begin the journey back to Monsea with the only copies of the formulas for the zilphium weapon. Bitterblue must decide what she will do with her world-shaping power. But before they've even made it halfway home, storms drive their ship off course and then wrecking them in the ice far north of the Royal Continent. The survivors must make a harrowing trek across the ice in order to make it back to Monsea.” - taken from Goodreads.

This fifth installment in the Graceling Realm is told from a newcomer to the series, Hava, with a secret family connection. Told in three parts, this adventure takes place not only on land but starts at sea. As a longtime fan of this series, I was pleasantly surprised to see the return of most of the characters from the previous books in this story.

Visit Kristin Cashore’s website.

Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson (Truly Devious book 5)

 

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first four books in the series, Stop! You may not know some of the past details revealed in the previous books.

“Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.

Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.

The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.

Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.” - taken from Goodreads.

This was an interesting installment in the Truly Devious series. With David studying in London, Stevie and her friends concoct a plan to study abroad so that she can visit David. Upon arrival, they meet one of David’s friends, Izzy, who wants Stevie’s help to solve the murders of two of her aunt’s college roommates. Blindsiding her aunt Angela with Stevie’s arrival, Izzy panics when Angela disappears. Begging for Stevie’s help, it’s not long before she is on the case. Told between flashbacks to June 1995 and the present, can Stevie solve this latest mystery that she has stumbled upon before she needs to leave for Ellingham?

Visit Maureen Johnson’s website.

The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan (Buried and the Bound book 1)

“As the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts—an uncommonly magical place—Aziza El-Amin has bargained with wood nymphs, rescued palm-sized fairies from house cats, banished flesh-eating shadows from the local park. But when a dark entity awakens in the forest outside of town, eroding the invisible boundary between the human world and fairyland, run-of-the-mill fae mischief turns into outright aggression, and the danger—to herself and others—becomes too great for her to handle alone.

Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He's road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn't even know his true love's name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it's haunting. Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he’ll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she’ll help him break the curse.

But when the creature in the woods sets its sights on them, their survival depends on the aid of a mysterious young necromancer they’re not certain they can trust. But they’ll have to work together to eradicate the new threat and take back their hometown... even if it forces them to uncover deeply buried secrets and make devastating sacrifices.” - taken from Goodreads.

This is the book where fairies are definitely not friendly nor is the woods. Told in three POVs of our three main characters, Aziza, Leo, and Tristan, readers are introduced into the wicked and magical town of Blackthorn, Massachusetts. Aziza is a hedgewitch whose purpose is to protect the town. Tristan is a necromancer who traded ten years of his life to a hag in order to save someone. Leo is looking to break the curse that caused him to forget his true love on his sixteenth birthday. Working together to save not only the town but themselves, plenty of secrets are uncovered but not all are answered.

The story will be continued with a second book.

Visit Rochelle Hassan’s website.