Oathbound by Tracy Deonn (Legendborn Cycle book 3)

 

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first two books in the series, Legendborn and Bloodmarked, Stop! I don’t want to ruin one of my favorite series for you.

Check out Book Series Recaps for a refresher of the first book.

Check out Simon Teen if you need a refresher of the first book.

Check out Simon Teen if you need a recap of the second book. 

“Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster.

Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself—and those she loves—safe.

But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands—and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.

Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order’s Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them...or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.

As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her.” - taken from Goodreads.

Several new characters are introduced and some secrets are uncovered in this massive tome that I thought was the conclusion to this series. Nope, with that ending, book four is on the horizon.

Book four is to be determined.

Visit Tracy Deonn’s website

The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington

“Devon is always being left behind by her genius twin sister, Drew. At this point, it’s a fact of life. But Devon has one last plan before Drew leaves for college a whole year early—The Best Summer Ever. After committing to the bit a little too much, the twins and their chaotic circle of friends learn why you don’t ever mess with a Ouija board if you want to actually survive the Best Summer Ever, and soon find themselves being hunted down by…a demon?

But while there’s no mistaking the creeping, venomous figure is not from around here, their method doesn’t feel very demonic at all. In fact, it’s downright human—going after them in typical slasher movie kill order. And that means Devon, the blonde, is up first and her decade-long crush, Yaya, is the Final Girl who must kill or be killed to end the cycle.

Devon has never liked playing by anyone else’s rules though, not even a demon’s, and the longer this goes on, the more she feels Drew and Yaya slipping away from her even as she tries to help them all survive. Can they use their horror movie knowledge to flip the script and become the hunters instead of the hunted? Or will their best summer ever be their last?” - taken from Goodreads.

A creepy yet cheesy horror film like thriller that will shock readers by the ending. This book does start off super slow in building the plot and the action really doesn’t start until around chapter five. The best parts of this book are the friendships and Devin trying to repair the bond with her sister Dru.

Visit Joelle Wellington’s website.

Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

 

“Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.

Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay—her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone.

Amir never gets an answer to his question, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead—stabbed while he was passed out on the couch downstairs—and Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of the murder of a rich white girl? All of New Orleans agrees, the case is open and shut.

Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, it doesn’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but his half brother knows that Amir isn’t a murderer—and maybe proving Amir’s innocence will repair the rift that’s always existed between them.

To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths.” - taken from Goodreads.

Who killed Chloe Danvers? I love a good, suspenseful mystery and this book succeeds on all levels. Amir, the oldest son of Martin Trudeau, is resentful of his younger half brother Marcel. Their father left Amir’s mother for Marcel’s mother and became a famous restaurateur. Marcel throws an extravagant sixteenth birthday party that Amir has no desire to attend, that is until he receives a text from Chloe Danvers, a hot girl from their school. At the party, Amir leaves with Chloe when she asks him and stays the night at her house since she is afraid to be alone. Amir agrees. Falling asleep on her couch, he wakes up to go home before his mother comes home from work. Unfortunately Amir finds that someone has killed Chloe. Fleeing her house, Amir’s life is turned upside down when he is charged with murder. Feeling hopeless, Amir finds that the brother he doesn’t want to be around is the one person determined to prove his innocence. Can Amir and Marcel repair their relationship in order to find the real killer? 

Visit Jumata Emill’s website.

Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington

 

“You must work twice as hard to get half as much.

Adina Walker has known this the entire time she’s been on scholarship at the prestigious Edgewater Academy—a school for the rich (and mostly white) upper class of New England. It’s why she works so hard to be perfect and above reproach, no matter what she must force beneath the surface. Even one slip can cost you everything.

And it does. One fight, one moment of lost control, leaves Adina blacklisted from her top choice Ivy League college and any other. Her only chance to regain the future she’s sacrificed everything for is the Finish, a high-stakes contest sponsored by Edgewater’s founding family in which twelve young, ambitious women with exceptional promise are selected to compete in three mysterious events: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. The winner will be granted entry into the fold of the Remington family, whose wealth and power can open any door.

But when she arrives at the Finish, Adina quickly gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right with both the Remingtons and her competition, and soon it becomes clear that this larger-than-life prize can only come at an even greater cost. Because the Finish’s stakes aren’t just make or break… they’re life and death.

Adina knows the deck is stacked against her—it always has been—so maybe the only way to survive their vicious games is for her to change the rules.” - taken from Goodreads.

When a split second decision costs you everything you have worked for, to what lengths would you go to redeem yourself? That is the question that Adina Walker must answer in order to get her desired future back. She lost her composure and it cost her everything, including her acceptance to Yale. Her only hope to regain everything that she has lost is to secure an invitation to the Finish, a high stakes game sponsored by the uber wealthy Remington family. The winner gets the power and wealth of the family behind them. When she receives an invitation, Adina is ready to take back what was taken from her. But when a shocking event occurs the first night, Adina quickly realizes that she is in over her head and the outcome could be either life or death. Will Adina survive the Finish or die trying?

Visit Joelle Wellington’s website.

Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland

 

“It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts.

Laura disagrees. A talented young mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker

But six months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.

As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power—work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.” - taken from Goodreads.

Rust in the Root is another great historical fantasy by Justina Ireland. Told in an alternative history of the US Great Depression during 1937, Laura Ann Langston has dreams of sing her abilities in the mystical arts to create cakes that are works of art. Down on her luck in New York City, Laura must join the Negro Conservation Corp in order to survive. Never properly trained in her abilities, she and her mentor learn that dark and dangerous forces are behind the Great Blight that will test their abilities.

Visit Justina Ireland’s website.

Slay by Brittany Morris

“By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?”

I picked up the audio version of this book on a whim completely unprepared for what the story entailed. Kiera Johnson is one of the few Black students at her high school, along with her sister Stephanie and her boyfriend Malcolm. Outside of school, Kiera has created an online gaming universe where Blacks from around the world can play without facing discrimination that is sometimes found in other role-playing games. No one knows about Keira's role in the creation of SLAY.

When a teenager is murdered in his own home over SLAY, the world begins to take notice of the game. Faced with the fact that her identity may be revealed and possible repercussions for the murder, Kiera has no one to turn to, especially when a new player to SLAY is determined to destroy the game.

This book hit me with all the feels and the identity of Dred Scott blew me away. An excellent read!

Visit Brittany Morris’ website.

 

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

 

“Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything--including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he's only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?” - taken from Goodreads.com

This book started out super slow for me in that I wasn’t quite sure why Evie is given the power and tremendous responsibility of seeing the lifespan of the relationships of couples she sees kissing. Once she and X really hit it off and things around her house become clearer, the story really took off only to break my heart into a million pieces at the end.

Visit Nicola Yoon’s website.

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

 

“The story that I thought

was my life

didn’t start on the day

I was born

Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.

The story that I think

will be my life

starts today

Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?” - taken from Goodreads.com

A powerful story in verse about Amal, an African American teenager, who finds himself wrongfully imprisoned for assaulting a white teenager.  

Visit Ibi Zoboi’s website.

Visit Yusef Salaam & the Innocence Project.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (Legendborn book 1)

 

“After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.” - taken from Goodreads.com

This book was everything that I wanted in a fantasy read and more. Reeling from the sudden death of her mother after an argument, Brianna Matthews heads off to the early college program at UNC Chapel Hill with her best friend, Alice Chen. On their first night there at an off campus party, Bree discovers a hidden world and gets into trouble. When the dean assigns her a student mentor, Nick Davis, Bree discovers that her mother hid some pretty important things from her. With Nick's help, Bree is on a mission to uncover her mother's secrets.

This was a unique twist on the Arthurian legend. Bree is African-American and finds herself thrust into a genteel white society where she must hide her newfound abilities and learn who she can trust. The storyline explodes at the end with shocking reveals and a cliffhanger.

Book two is expected in 2022.

Visit Tracy Deonn’s website.

Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron

 

“Follow a black teen as she finds her place among a family of women gifted with magical abilities.

In the Jim Crow South, white supremacy reigns and tensions are high. But Evalene Deschamps has other things to worry about. She has two little sisters to look after, an overworked single mother, and a longtime crush who is finally making a move.

On top of all that, Evvie’s magic abilities are growing stronger by the day. Her family calls it jubilation—a gift passed down from generations of black women since the time of slavery. And as Evvie’s talents waken, something dark comes loose and threatens to resurface…

And when the demons of Evvie’s past finally shake free, she must embrace her mighty lineage, and summon the power that lies within her.” - taken from Goodreads.com

I had high hopes for this book but was only slightly disappointed by the fantasy aspects. This story leaned more towards the historical uncurrent of being an African American living in South Carolina in 1962, the height of the Jim Crow era. I plowed through the book to see how Evalene would master her abilities at jubilation(magic). Unfortunately, the ending broke my heart.

Visit Kara Lee Corthron’s website.

This is My Brain in Love by I. W. Gregorio

 

“Jocelyn Wu has just three wishes for her junior year: To make it through without dying of boredom, to direct a short film with her BFF Priya Venkatram, and to get at least two months into the year without being compared to or confused with Peggy Chang, the only other Chinese girl in her grade.

Will Domenici has two goals: to find a paying summer internship, and to prove he has what it takes to become an editor on his school paper.

Then Jocelyn's father tells her their family restaurant may be going under, and all wishes are off. Because her dad has the marketing skills of a dumpling, it's up to Jocelyn and her unlikely new employee, Will, to bring A-Plus Chinese Garden into the 21st century (or, at least, to Facebook).What starts off as a rocky partnership soon grows into something more. But family prejudices and the uncertain future of A-Plus threaten to keep Will and Jocelyn apart. It will take everything they have and more, to save the family restaurant and their budding romance.” - taken from Goodreads.com

This was a cute boy meets girl romance until Jocelyn's father stepped in and attempts to put the brakes on her blooming relationship with Will. With the Wu family struggling to keep their family restaurant, A Plus Chinese Garden afloat, Will soon realizes just how much he and Jos have in common, their mental health issues. Written from a #OwnVoices standpoint, Will and Jos's issues aren't glossed over but provide others with Insight on how to get help for themselves. 

Visit I. W. Gregorio’s website.

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

“Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.” - taken from Goodreads.com

I enjoyed Angie Thomas’ sophomore novel so much better than her first and more than I initially expected. As Bri’s story unfolded, I help my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. A couple of times the incident from The Hate U Give is mentioned but reading that book first isn’t necessary. Once again, I listened to the audio version and Bahni Turpin is a phenomenal voice to the author’s words. I can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next. 

Visit Angie Thomas’ website.

Crossover by Kwame Alexander

"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood.

Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Visit Kwame Alexander’s website.