Review of Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros

Iron Flame

by Rebecca Yarros
read by Rebecca Soler
with Teddy Hamilton

Recorded Books, 2023. 28 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written November 20, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Iron Flame is the second book in the Empyrean series, and yes, you absolutely should read these books in order, because we’ve got one epic adventure going on.

I will try not to give anything away. The first book ends with a big reveal and big reversal — as does this book. But the book does cover Violet Sorrengail’s second year at Basgiath War College, and her skills as a dragon rider and magic-wielder are growing. And once again, she has to escape death over and over again to get through it. In this book, she’s also trying to uncover knowledge hidden for centuries.

Violet’s romance continues — with plenty of conflict. Since, after all, they don’t want to put each other in danger with what they know. And there’s a new vice-commander at Basgiath who wants to know all of Violet’s secrets and has ruthless – horrible, in fact – ways of getting them.

There’s a content warning at the front of this book:

Iron Flame is a nonstop-thrilling adventure fantasy set in the brutal and competitive world of a military college for dragon riders, which includes elements regarding war, psychological and physical torture, imprisonment, intense violence, brutal injuries, perilous situations, blood, dismemberment, burning, murder, death, animal death, graphic language, loss of family, grief, and sexual activities that are shown on the page. Readers who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note, and prepare to join the revolution…

Yes, it has all these things. Yes, these books contain the most detailed and explicit sex scenes I’ve ever read. Not that I’ve read a lot of books with explicit sex scenes — but that’s why I feel like I should warn my readers — this is different from the books I normally rave about.

But also yes, I’m going to rave about it. Why did I even pick up the first book, with a content warning like that? Well, I heard more than one person I respect recommend it. And it has dragons! Once I started reading, I loved the main character, a young adult with what is probably Ehler-Danlos syndrome, with her bones easily going out of joint and lots of aches and pains — trying to make it at a school where the physical challenges kill a large percentage of cadets.

I have been a bit skeptical of a college where a large percentage of recruits and students die. So I thought it was interesting right when a controversy about spanking erupted on Twitter (I was spanked, and I’m against it, but we discussed how it often takes time before kids who have been spanked can even dare to think differently enough from their parents to challenge that it’s a good method.) — right after that, I got to a part in the book where Violet defends the deaths they’ve seen of their friends and classmates because it helped her face the brutality in an actual combat situation. However, several chapters later, she learns about the procedure in another country that griffons use to choose their fliers — and nobody dies. Even Violet notices the contrast and wonders if all the deaths at Basgiath are truly necessary.

It was also interesting to read about the scandal of governments letting civilians die — as the conflict in Israel and Gaza is going on. Fantasy always has commentary on real life.

Well, that’s as much as I’m going to say without giving away details of the plot. It’s fast-moving, one thing after another, and over and over again Violet and her friends face life-threatening situations. And it’s completely gripping in a way that I didn’t want to stop listening and would find myself thinking about it when I wasn’t listening.

Oh, and her dragons are awesome, too. Andarna is an adolescent in this book, and is full of attitude — plus some surprises.

I’m annoyed at the ending — because there is another reversal, and the next book isn’t written yet. I will probably do as I did with this one and monitor when the library is getting eaudiobook licenses and snag one of them right away.

This book continues an amazing adventure about characters you can’t help caring about faced with terrible odds, but triumphing in spite of them. (Well, so far)

RebeccaYarros.com
EntangledPublishing.com

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Review of The Mysteries of Thorn Manor, by Margaret Rogerson, read by Emily Ellet

The Mysteries of Thorn Manor

by Margaret Rogerson
read by Emily Ellet

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 3 hours, 52 minutes.
Review written June 15, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Mysteries of Thorn Manor is a light-hearted novella sequel to Sorcery of Thorns. After Elisabeth and Nathaniel battled evil forces to save the world in the first book and discovered they had allies in each other, Elisabeth nursed Nathaniel back to health — and is still spending the nights in his room and now in his bed. (Though they’ve only been kissing so far.)

When the wards on the house set up by Nathaniel’s ancestors set a storm all around the house so they can’t even leave, they need to investigate what’s going on. They discover that the house wants Nathaniel to court Elisabeth properly as a sorcerer should — including three impossible tasks.

This story is sweet romantic fun. You should read the first book before tackling this one so you can properly appreciate it.

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Review of Sorcery of Thorns, by Margaret Rogerson

Sorcery of Thorns

by Margaret Rogerson
read by Emily Ellet

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2019. 14 hours, 21 minutes.
Review written February 10, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Last year, my Cybils panel chose Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson as our 2021 winner for the Cybils Award in Young Adult Speculative Fiction. And after reading for the 2022 Cybils awards, I finally made time to listen to an earlier book by Margaret Rogerson.

Sorcery of Thorns is fun because it features an apprentice librarian. But she doesn’t work in any ordinary library. Elisabeth Scrivener was a foundling who grew up in one of the Great Libraries of Austermeer — a library packed with grimoires, full of ancient magic.

But one terrible night, Elisabeth is the only one awake and she finds the director of the library dead, killed by a grimoire that got loose and turned into a malefict — a giant sentient monster. But with the director’s sword, Demonslayer, Elisabeth is able to defeat the malefict.

That gets Elisabeth the attention of all the wrong people. A young sorcerer, Magister Nathaniel Thorn, comes to escort Elisabeth to the chancellor for questioning at the magisterium, along with his demonic servant. Elisabeth knows not to trust sorcerers, but he’s surprisingly kind, and helps Elisabeth when they’re attacked by a horde of fiends. He’s compelled to take her into the protection of his own home.

But when the chancellor takes Elisabeth into custody, she begins to realize something is wrong. Little by little, Elisabeth — and eventually Nathaniel as well — start to unravel clues about a monstrous plot that could destroy the world.

I thoroughly enjoy Margaret Rogerson’s writing, and the romance in this book was delightful. Elisabeth is a wonderfully resourceful heroine who’s more likely to rescue the guy than be rescued, though some of both happens.

I do have a lot of quibbles with the magic. I never have patience for sentient objects feeling emotion. In this case, it was books, but if you look at those details too hard, it just doesn’t work. And the relationship between sorcerers and their demons has some problems as well, if you look too closely. But I enjoy Margaret Rogerson’s writing so much, I was able to set aside all those quibbles and thoroughly enjoy the story.

In fact, I finally got this audiobook listened to because I heard about a new volume coming out, Mysteries of Thorn Manor. I’m now disappointed that it’s only a novella, but happy to get to read a little more about Elisabeth and Nathaniel.

MargaretRogerson.com
simonandschuster.com/teen

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Review of The Do-Over, by Lynn Painter

The Do-Over

by Lynn Painter
read by Jesse Vilinsky

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2022. 8 hours, 46 minutes.
Review written from a library eaudiobook.

The Do-Over is a time loop story, and a fun teenage romance.

Emilie is someone who plans and organizes her life. And today is Valentine’s Day, and she’s got a plan for the perfect Valentine’s Day, with a cute outfit maybe a little chilly for the winter weather, a gift wrapped for her boyfriend Josh, and plans to tell him those fateful words, “I love you.”

Instead, on the way to school, she crashes into the truck of Nick, her lab partner in Chemistry, who doesn’t even recognize her. Her own car bursts into flames and she has to get a ride with him to school, and she doesn’t even get to see Josh. Then she learns that there was a mistake and she didn’t win a slot in the summer program that would go perfectly on her college applications. And then when she goes to Josh’s car to surprise him with his gift — she sees him kiss his ex-girlfriend. On top of everything, when she gets home her father tells her that he and her stepfamily are moving far away. Not the day she had planned.

But when she wakes up the next morning, everything repeats. Her phone says it’s still Valentine’s Day.

Naturally, she tries to fix the day. But she still gets in an accident. And Josh still kisses his ex.

But she gets lots more tries! And gradually, she gets to know Nick better, little by little.

One problem though — when Emilie thinks she’s achieved the perfect Valentine’s Day — when she wakes up, everything resets and no one else remembers it. So she thinks, why worry about what anyone else thinks? They won’t remember anyway! And she sets out on a Day of No Consequences. But one way or another, Nick ends up coming with her.

Overall, the book is good frothy fun. I like the way someone who’s spent her life pleasing others, following the rules, and not making waves learns about herself when she starts thinking about what she wants. Also, the romance is sweet. I was worried that he would forget too much of their time together, but the author worked that part out pretty well. A sweet book that left me smiling.

lynnpainter.com

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Review of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, by Sonora Reyes

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School

by Sonora Reyes

Balzer + Bray, 2022. 385 pages.
Review written February 21, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Walter Awards Honor Book, Young Adult
2023 Pura Belpé Author Honor Book, Young Adult
2023 Morris Award Finalist

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School is a debut novel that introduces an author with lots of promise. Our protagonist is Yamilet, who’s just been told she and her brother Cesar are going to Catholic school. Yamilet’s job is to look after her younger brother, in her same grade because he’s so smart, who keeps getting into fights at the public school. Their mother is hoping a new environment will keep him out of trouble.

What their mother doesn’t know is that Yami is happy to go to Catholic school herself because her once-best friend outed her at public school after Yami told her she was in love with her. It turned out Bianca did not share her affection and was horrified that Yami is gay. So Yami is determined to not make the same mistake at Catholic school and does everything she can to appear straight.

But then there’s one person who’s lesbian and out at her new school — and Yami finds herself falling for her. She can’t let that happen!

And that’s not all that’s going on. Cesar keeps getting detention (at least he’s not fighting!) and spins a story for their mother that he’s on the football team. Yami’s trying to make some money, in case their mother finds out she’s gay and kicks her out, and much more. Their father was deported years ago back to Mexico, but Yami thinks he might understand what she’s going through, since he was never as sincere about the Catholic faith.

It’s all put together in a story that keeps you reading and makes you care about Yami and all she’s trying to navigate. We’re rooting for her to be able to be herself and find love as herself. I liked the way people in the story surprised her, without it feeling unrealistic.

sonorareyes.com
EpicReads.com

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Review of A Very Large Expanse of Sea, by Taherah Mafi

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

by Taherah Mafi
read by Priya Ayyar

HarperAudio, 2018. 6 hours and 43 minutes.
National Book Award Longlist.
Review written August 17, 2020, from a library eaudiobook

A Very Large Expanse of Sea is a book I didn’t get around to in 2018 mainly because it was obviously geared more for young adults than for children. This book is set in 2002 about Shirin, a Muslim girl who wears a headscarf, at yet another new high school for her Sophomore year. Her parents move the family often, always moving up to a better neighborhood. But it means that Shirin and her older brother have trouble making connections in high school. Or at least Shirin does.

Shirin is disgusted with humanity and the way she gets treated because of her scarf. She wants nothing more than to be invisible. She doesn’t look people in the eye. She listens to music under her scarf and gets away with it.

Then in her Biology class, she’s given a lab partner whose name is Ocean. Romantic sparks start up between them. But Shirin doesn’t think he realizes what he’s getting into, and it turns out she’s right. What she doesn’t realize is that he’s the school basketball star and the whole school is interested in whom he dates.

This is a romance about teens who face some formidable obstacles, and it includes characters who feel realistically flawed, but who will find their way into your heart.

taherehbooks.com

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Review of The Garden of Small Beginnings, by Abbi Waxman

The Garden of Small Beginnings

by Abbi Waxman
read by Emily Rankin

Penguin Audio, 2017. 9 hours, 51 minutes.
Review written June 15, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I read this book after reading The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, by the same author, because all of Abbi Waxman’s books had been recommended in my Silent Book Club Facebook group as feel-good reading. They were right! This is a nice happy story about a young widow named Lilian, the mother of two girls, who gets signed up for a gardening class by her boss – and the class is led by a handsome instructor from Europe with a marvelous accent (especially appreciated in the audiobook version) who is also attracted to Lilian.

But Lilian isn’t ready to date, even though it’s been four years. And she doesn’t believe her kids are ready either. So the book is about Lilian working through that, and the gardening class, and the friends she makes in the class, and the family and relationships around Lilian, including her wonderfully precocious kids.

I do have a caveat: I’m an older single and have my eyes open for a match – with very little luck. I recently told off a couple of married friends who implied that I was overlooking possibilities. Trust me, that’s not a thing! And this destroys my suspension of disbelief when it comes to reading a Meet-Cute story. There is no way I can bring myself to believe that in real life the instructor would be single and available, near her age, handsome, and a good match for her. It just wouldn’t happen. And they are not even the only couple that meets in this book!

So, I’m going to have to switch over and read some murder mysteries or nice tragedies or maybe a revenge novel. I’m still glad, though, I finished this book – sometimes fairy tales are nice to read. And if you’re looking for a happy and thoughtful romance-after-loss about some delightful people you’ll be glad to hang around, I do recommend this book. If you’re turning cynical, though, you might need to set it aside. This is a feel-good book for people who are already feeling pretty happy.

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penguin.com

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Review of Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal

Unmarriageable

Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan

by Soniah Kamal

Ballantine Books, 2019. 342 pages.
Review written June 1, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

I’ve signed up for a virtual Jane Austen Summer Program happening in June, and Soniah Kamal is one of the speakers, so I wanted to read this book in advance, and I was delighted when I did so.

This is a pretty straight retelling of Pride and Prejudice, following fairly closely parallel scenes and conversations, only this time set in modern-day Pakistan. But let’s face it: Pride and Prejudice tells a wonderful story, so this version was wonderful, too.

One nice twist is that our heroine, Alysba Binat, teaches English Literature at an international school. So in the first chapter, we see her going over an assignment with a class of ninth-grade girls: to rewrite the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice. The one the author chooses to begin the book is this:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a girl can go from pauper to princess or princess to pauper in the mere seconds it takes for her to accept a proposal.

As in the original, Alysba is the second of five sisters, and her mother is very concerned with them grabbing husbands. Especially when the event of the season is coming up – a major wedding celebration. At the first event of the wedding, Alys’s sister Jena meets a rich man “Bungles” Bingla, who seems quite taken with her. Now her mother is determined she must get him to propose. Meanwhile, Bungles has a proud friend, Valentine Darsee, and Alys overhears him saying that he is particularly unimpressed by her.

This continue as we know they will – and it’s wonderful. Something I particularly liked about this retelling is that everybody’s drawn a little more sympathetically. We see that Mrs. Binat simply wants the best for her daughters. Dr. Kaleen is honestly helpful to Annie dey Bagh, and we see that Alys’s friend Sherry honestly does find happiness by marrying him. Even the awful proposal and later reversal is as realistic and believable in this story as it is in the original.

Darsee and Alys talk in this novel about literature and how Pakistan adopts literature from all over the world, as well as writing some that is uniquely Pakistani – and I liked that touch, showing deep appreciation for Jane Austen and her universal themes, while giving those themes a new setting.

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Review of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laura Viera Rigler

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

by Laura Viera Rigler
read by Kate Reading

Tantor Audio, 2009. 9 hours.
Review written May 17, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I’d already read and reviewed the companion to this book, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, where Courtney Stone from modern-day Los Angeles gets transferred to the body of Jane Mansfield, a young lady who lived in Regency England. This book gives us the flip side of that exchange, and tells us what it’s like for Jane Mansfield to wake up in modern-day Los Angeles, in Courtney’s body.

I enjoyed this story more. I’m sure it was partly that I’d gotten used to the premise and didn’t get bogged down on the fantasy of the mechanics and how it wouldn’t really work to switch bodies. I was used to the idea and just went with it.

And the challenges of a young lady from the past trying to deal with present-day technology are astounding! She didn’t even have the vocabulary to know what things were called. The author did make use of “cellular memory” – the body itself knew how to do things, just as Courtney was remarkably good at embroidery when she was in Jane’s body. So Jane in Courtney’s body could quickly navigate using a computer, once somebody showed her what it was. She used her concussion as a reason to need a lot of things explained to her.

It was a lot of fun seeing the modern world through a 200-year-old consciousness. When she arrives and Pride and Prejudice is playing on Courtney’s TV, Jane is astonished, wondering how the actors got into the box, and she definitely recognizes the scene, for she, too, is a Jane Austen addict – but didn’t even know the name of the author of Pride and Prejudice. She’s delighted that there are four more novels by this same author on the shelves of her modern-day apartment.

I still wasn’t exactly happy about how each woman was trying to straighten out the other’s love life. Because who is really in love with whom if it’s a different person in that body? And then the author fudged the ending a bit, so it didn’t end exactly as I expected it to. Did I misunderstand the ending of the other book? All the same, it seems everyone will live happily ever after. What more could you ask for?

This set of books is a lot of fun, and the more so the less you get bogged down in trying to figure out how it would work. Don’t try; just enjoy it. After all, it would take a little magic for someone to live and learn to thrive in a life 200 years in the future.

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Review of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, by Abbi Waxman

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

by Abbi Waxman
read by Emily Rankin

Penguin Audio, 2019. 9 hours.
Review written May 10, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

This book was recommended by members of my Silent Book Club Facebook group as a feel-good read, and I was delighted with it.

Nina Hill lives alone with her cat and likes it that way. She has plenty of activities after her work day at a bookstore, but she’s careful to schedule one night per week for reading. She was raised by a nanny, as her international photographer mother was always traveling, and her mother told her she didn’t even know who Nina’s father was.

So Nina is surprised when a lawyer informs her that her father has died and she’s mentioned in the will. It turns out that her mother had told him to never contact Nina, but he was, in fact, her father. It also turns out that she now suddenly has a great big family of siblings and nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews who also live in the Los Angeles area. (When I say “great big,” it’s not anywhere near as big as my family. But going from zero to a dozen or so is a big change. So I’m talking big for a normal person.)

At the same time, her trivia team members are urging her to get to know the handsome man on an opposing quiz team – and his team members are urging the same thing. But can Nina have a good relationship with someone who doesn’t read?

Honestly, I took it a little personally that the book implied that Nina looking for a man who reads would be unrealistic. I couldn’t actually see that they have a whole lot in common and wonder what they will talk about after they stop spending all their time together having sex. (Though admittedly, it turns out that his occupation is perfect.)

On top of that, every new family member she got to know had something in common with Nina, many being avid readers, and it was easy to see she’ll become good friends with them. Shouldn’t she also have something in common with a romantic partner? (Bear in mind that I’m unduly sensitive, since I would like to find a man who reads. I suppose if he’s good-looking, smart, and kind, like this guy, that might be enough – but I’m reserving some skepticism.)

It’s a delightful book, though. I related to book-lover Nina so very much. I did keep wishing she’d discover Library Science, though! She could get a Master’s in Library Science, become a librarian, and do all the things in a library that she was doing in the bookstore – without having to make a profit and getting a little more respect for her prodigious knowledge. She could still run book clubs and activities, but instead of needing to sell books, she could simply encourage people to read books. And her encyclopedic knowledge of trivia would come in handy at the reference desk.

But that’s the book I wanted, not the book before me. And the book before me was wonderful!

If you’re a book-lover at all, there’s an excellent chance you’ll love this particular book – the story of one of us.

abbiwaxman.com
penguinrandomhouse.com

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