Review of Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales

by Heather Fawcett
read by Ell Potter and Michael Dodds

Books on Tape, 2025. 11 hours 44 minutes.
Review written April 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Oh, I love the Emily Wilde books more with each volume! You’re going to want to read these in order, especially to watch Emily’s relationship with Wendell develop, but it was okay not to remember every detail of the previous books. I love these books so much, I decided to purchase my own copy and preordered it, but listening has been such a delightful experience, I still put the audiobook on hold.

The charm of the book is found especially in the character of Emily Wilde, the foremost dryadologist in the world – at least in this alternate world where faeries are real and studying them is a serious academic discipline. Her encyclopedic knowledge of faery lore means she has what it takes to now survive becoming a queen of faerie – or so we hope. For his stepmother is dead, and Wendell is ready to take his throne in the Faerie Kingdom of Where the Trees Have Eyes.

Except – it turns out that Wendell’s stepmother isn’t actually dead yet, and she’s found a way to poison the realm so that it is dying as she dies. Now it’s up to Emily to find the tale that applies so she can defeat the old queen’s plans. Though she does get plenty of help from characters we’ve met in the earlier books.

Something I love about these books is what a serious academic Emily is – even compelled to cite sources and include footnotes. The reader Ell Potter does an excellent Footnote Voice, so I wasn’t surprised to see that’s what’s found in the text. Wendell, on the other hand, tries to get her to lighten up and enjoy his beautiful kingdom. And it’s all completely delightful.

Even though Wendell and Emily are now king and queen of a faerie realm, they’re still traveling together, and Emily is still doing research, so I hope there will be more books to come. I’m sure Emily Wilde’s adventures – and publications – are not over.

heatherfawcettbooks.com
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Review of The Legendary Scarlett & Browne, by Jonathan Stroud

The Legendary Scarlett & Browne

by Jonathan Stroud
read by Sophie Aldred

Listening Library, 2025. 13 hours, 13 minutes.
Review written April 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Legendary Scarlett & Browne is the conclusion to the trilogy about the teen outlaws Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne, living in post-apocalyptic Britain.

We’ve got the books in the juvenile section of the library, probably because there’s no sexual innuendo whatsoever, but fair warning is that it’s more for the 10-to-14-age crowd, and there’s lots of violence, death, and enslavement.

But oh my goodness, I love these books so much! And Sophie Aldred makes the characters come alive.

I won’t give a lot of details, because of it being the conclusion of a trilogy, but Scarlett and Albert are outlaws, because they defy the evil powers that run the surviving towns after the cataclysm. I do hate that the most evil forces are the Faith Houses – they have a menu of religious options to suit everyone. But I’m afraid that feels realistic, because religion always attracts those who want to control others. Those powers support slavery and leaving “deviant” children to die – anyone with any “defect” or special powers developed after the cataclysm, like Albert’s telekinesis.

In this book, there’s a new threat, with the Faith Houses discovering powerful ancient weapons and using slaves to recover them. They will then raise up an army to find and defeat outlaws like Scarlett and Albert and the friends they’ve gathered around them in the first two books.

Both Scarlett and Albert have a further quest. Albert’s is to find out more about where he came from before he got to Stonemoor. And Scarlett’s is always to find her little brother Thomas, who was left out to be eaten by creatures, but may have been sold into slavery instead. As the end of the trilogy, both quests get some resolution.

And it’s hard to explain how good these books are. There are narrow escapes throughout the books, highlighting Scarlett’s cleverness and physical prowess, and Albert’s special powers. It’s also gratifying how they fight the forces of evil and stand up for enslaved children, outsmarting evil people along the way. But most of all, the characters’ personalities and interactions make you love spending time with them.

jonathanstroud.com

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Review of Kings of B’More, by R. Eric Thomas

Kings of B’More

by R. Eric Thomas
read by Torian Brackett

Listening Library, 2022. 9 hours, 58 minutes.
Review written January 25, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
2023 Stonewall Honor Book

Kings of B’More is a story of two friends on an adventure. Harrison and Linus are two black gay boys, who’ve just spent every day together in the summer before their junior year of high school. And then Linus tells Harrison that he and his dad are moving from Baltimore to North Carolina on the very next weekend.

Harrison is devastated. It’s not a friendship he wants to lose. When his father chooses “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” for Family Movie Night, Harrison gets an idea. He’ll plan a Ferris Day for Linus! They’ll take off from their jobs and go off and have an adventure, doing things that scare them and things they’ve always wanted to do. It will be a grand gesture that will make sure Linus doesn’t forget him and cement their friendship forever.

Of course, there’s a catch. Both Harrison’s and Linus’s parents use an app that tracks their movements. So they’re going to need someone to take their phones as a decoy to the places where they’d normally spend the day. They find an app and an old ipad to use in place of phones.

Harrison makes elaborate plans and sets his heart on making Ferris Day a grand success. Of course, it turns out that his plans start going awry from the very beginning. But could it be that the adventure turns out even better than he’d planned?

This is a refreshingly lovely story of friendship. Oh, and it made me resurrect my intention of visiting the Museum of African American History in Washington, DC, which I’d put aside when the pandemic started. I did enjoy the way the book is grounded in real places, even if I only recognized the DC ones.

rericthomas.com
PenguinTeen.com

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Review of Girls Like Her, by Melanie Sumrow

Girls Like Her

by Melanie Sumrow
read by January LaVoy

Clarion Books, 2024. 9 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written April 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Odyssey Award Honor Audiobook

Wow. Odyssey Award Honorees are always worth listening to. Every time. This one had me riveted from the moment it started.

It starts off telling about a prominent citizen who’s been murdered. And that police have arrested a suspect. Then we meet the 15-year-old girl who killed him, already in juvenile hall for months, meeting with a new social worker before a hearing where the prosecution wants to have her tried as an adult.

The prosecution gets its way in that hearing, so Ruby is moved to a women’s jail. And she knows that if she doesn’t win her case, she will be in prison for life. The book uses multiple formats to tell the story – some news clippings (with a news show sound effect), some court transcripts from her trial, some notes from the social worker, some letters Ruby writes to a friend on the outside, but the bulk of the book is Ruby’s meetings with Cadence, the social worker, as she tries to get Ruby to open up and tell her story.

And it’s a hard story. Ruby was kicked out by her mother when she was 13. She fell in with someone she thought loved her (still thinking that in prison), but was sex trafficked by him. (I don’t think I’m giving too much away here. The reader/listener has the idea much sooner than Ruby does.) But we don’t find out what happened the day of the murder until the end of the book.

The production quality of this audiobook is excellent, with plenty of sound effects to give you cues about the different types of material used. The narrator’s voice adjusts to the different materials and speakers so much I thought there was more than one person reading until I looked it up at the end.

It’s a powerful story, but sad. The author has worked as a lawyer, so it all has the ring of truth, and she has listed some resources at the back. May our justice system do better for girls like her.

melaniesumrow.com

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Review of Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone, by Tae Keller

Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone

by Tae Keller
read by Shannon Tyo and Carolyn Kang

Listening Library, 2022. 7 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written January 7, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone is told from the perspective of Mallory, a middle school girl who worries about fitting in. Her best friend, Reagan, is the queen bee of the school. But when her neighbor, Jennifer Chan, goes missing, Mallory is terribly afraid it has something to do with “the Incident.”

When Jennifer moved into their neighborhood last summer, Mallory knew she was different. And Jennifer’s honesty about how she believes in aliens and is researching how to find them doesn’t help.

But then when Jennifer comes to school and seems to think she can get away without following the normal rules of popularity, Mallory doesn’t know what to think. Reagan feels she needs to be taught a lesson.

The timelines of the story go back and forth. Mallory thinks Jennifer was surely searching for aliens. Maybe if she can find some allies to follow in her footsteps, they can find Jennifer. But is that simply a way to avoid thinking about The Incident? What if that’s the real reason Jennifer left?

This book explores friendship and peer pressure and bullying and trying to figure out how to make amends. And it asks the question: Who do you want to be? Oh, and it also talks about aliens and how they might make themselves known to us.

I was especially moved by the author’s note at the back, read in the audiobook by Tae Keller, where she talks about how she was horribly bullied in middle school and her process in trying to channel that for this book. She did an amazing job of turning that awful experience into art that heals.

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Review of Most Ardently, by Gabe Cole Novoa, read by Harrison Knights

Most Ardently

A Pride and Prejudice Remix

by Gabe Cole Novoa
read by Harrison Knights

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2024. 7 hours, 30 minutes.
Review written March 1, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Stonewall Honor Book, Young Adult Literature

I have long loved Pride and Prejudice variants and everything related to Jane Austen. I even have a webpage devoted to reviews of such books – my Austenalia page.

I found this version of Pride and Prejudice completely delightful. The big switch? The second child in the Bennet family is actually a transgender boy named Oliver.

The scenes in the novel play out as Oliver is beginning to live as himself and stop pretending to be a girl named Elizabeth. His father is understanding and affirming, but he shudders at the thought of letting his mother know. And Oliver encounters Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy both when dressed as himself and when pretending to be a woman. It turns out that Mr. Darcy fancies men, but when appearing as Elizabeth, Oliver can’t let on that he knows that.

There were a couple of odd changes – Longbourne and Netherfield were much closer to London, for starters, as was, apparently, Pemberley and Hunsford. That did help the story speed up – this version got in most of the major scenes, but it was much shorter than the original novel. We also had Oliver not being much taken with Wickham right from the start – there was much less misunderstanding and later reversal than in the original, but it was kind of fun to watch Wickham try to flirt with Oliver, and Oliver having none of it.

Now, I was a little skeptical of how well most who learned about Oliver handled the news and accepted him as himself in that day and age. The historical note at the end did help me believe it could have happened – and regardless, it did my heart good to read about a young transgender man getting love and support from his family and friends.

All in all, it’s a delightful addition to Austenalia – with a new twist I haven’t seen before. Let me ardently recommend this book.

gabecolenovoa.com

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Review of A Plate of Hope, by Erin Frankel, illustrated by Paola Escobar, read by Luis Carlos de la Lombana

A Plate of Hope

The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen

by Erin Frankel
illustrated by Paola Escobar
read by Luis Carlos de la Lombana

Dreamscape Media, 2024. 15 minutes.
Random House Studio, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written January 31, 2025, from a library book and eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Odyssey Winner, Children’s Audiobook
2024 Cybils Finalist, Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

I don’t normally listen to 15-minute audiobooks. But I do make a point of trying to listen to all the Odyssey Award Winners and Honor books. The award is given for the best children’s and young adult audiobooks, and they are always outstanding. Even knowing that, I was impressed with this short but amazing audiobook.

The original book is a picture book biography of the life of Chef José Andrés, how he grew up in Spain loving to be part of making food and feeding people, went on to work in an innovative kitchen, and was taken with the promise of America. Of course, it especially looks at how he developed World Central Kitchen to step in with good food immediately after a disaster. He gets folks in quickly after a crisis making good, local food when folks have lost so much else.

And the audiobook has music playing in the background throughout the whole book with judicious use of sound effects, such as sizzling food and chirping birds. The narrator’s Spanish accent combined with the music gives the story a lilting and joyful feeling. Of course, I recommend checking out both the audiobook and the print book so you can enjoy the pictures as well.

erinfrankel.com

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Review of Onyx Storm, by Rebecca Yarros, read by Rebecca Soler

Onyx Storm

by Rebecca Yarros
read by Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton, Justis Bolding, and Jasmin Walker

Recorded Books, 2025. 23 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written February 26, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

I’m going to sound like a bit of a curmudgeon in this review, so let me begin by saying that I don’t review books I don’t like. And I certainly don’t spend 24 hours listening to a book I don’t like. So I did enjoy this book, and I’m very engaged with this series and will be reading the next book. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first two, though.

First off, this series doesn’t waste any time catching up the reader on what went before. It’s very much a continued story, not “companion novels.” It had been a year since I listened to the previous book, and I didn’t really remember the many characters, who was a dragon rider as opposed to who was a griffin flyer, for example. (Though, funny thing, the people I remembered least were the ones most in danger of dying – they felt like the red shirts of the story.)

So I’m only going to speak in general terms about what happens. It’s the continued story of Violet Sorengale – a cadet at Bezgaeth War College who is bonded to two powerful dragons. Oh, I should say that I loved the portrayal of Andarna as an adolescent dragon. Her whiny tone was delightful! A continued strong point of this series is the characters and the bonds they’re forming with each other.

First, there’s lots and lots of sex. I did laugh when Violet and Xaden broke furniture again. Though it’s kind of their trademark. But I also laughed about two-thirds into the book when they were obviously going to have sex and they closed and locked a door (using lesser magic) – and then the author actually ended the scene! I felt like that was a progression in Violet’s experience. She no longer had to gasp at every touch.

A good chunk of this book was a group of them exploring some distant islands, looking for allies and for more dragons of Andarna’s kind. That was an interesting development. But then each island served a different god and had different unusual customs and hoops that visitors had to go through – and that felt silly and unlikely after a while.

Speaking of contrived things, I recently finished another book using the trope of Everyone-Has-A-Magical-Power – and there are always ways that particular trope doesn’t work for me – you really do have to not think about it too hard. Because I’m sorry, but shadows do not have substance! The whole shadow-wielding idea – that you can make shadows hold someone up while having sex or choke someone in a battle – yeah, I have trouble believing that would work. And some of the other “signets” are problematic for me as well. But mostly, in the middle of the story, that’s not a big issue, and I’m caught up in the tale.

Now, the last big climactic battle took three hours of the audiobook. And that’s after a whole lot of fighting in the book already. So this is an audiobook where the narrator is describing lots of fighting and lots of sex – and it must have been exhausting for her! But by the time I was listening to the final battle, the narrator’s voice expressing excitement kind of flew past me. Exciting thing after exciting thing – and it stopped being exciting for me.

Now, I listen to audiobooks while I’m doing other things, so to really remember what’s going on, before the next book comes out, I should probably try rereading the entire thing in print. Trouble is, I doubt I’d want to give that much time to it – so I’ll probably be content with enjoying the story but maybe being a little confused – as I was with this one.

Speaking of confusion – the ending is kind of the opposite of a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger ending leaves you wondering what will come next. This ending left me wondering what just happened.

Without giving anything away, the big final battle took the last three hours of the book – and the final part of it was when we got to hear from three more narrators, for a nice change of pace and more perspectives on this enormous fight. At the end of the battle, Violet passed out. The story starts again twelve hours later in a different location, and Violet is told several very surprising things – but we don’t know why or how they happened. And then the book ends.

So by the time the next book comes out, I’m not sure I’ll remember what I was confused about. I’m also not at all sure where it’s going next – but I am sure that I’m going to want to go along for the ride.

rebeccayarros.com

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Review of Bitter, by Akwaeke Emezi, read by Bahni Turpin

Bitter

by Akwaeke Emezi
read by Bahni Turpin

Listening Library, 2022. 7 hours, 11 minutes.
Review written October 10, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I heard great things about the author’s National Book Award Finalist last year, Pet, but I never did get it read. Now I am going to get my hands on it. This riveting novel was unusual and powerful. Bitter is a prequel to Pet. It’s set in a time of unrest in a city named Lucille.

Bitter is a queer Black girl who got recruited out of unloving foster care to attend a school for artists called Eucalyptus. Unfortunately, Eucalyptus is right in the city center, and the sounds of protests and violence come into Bitter’s room and fill her with fear. Some of her good friends have ties with Assata, an organization behind the protests, working for justice. Lucille is a place with police brutality based on skin color and where people in power exploit the poor.

Meanwhile, Bitter has a secret skill. She can paint small creatures and make them come to life with a drop of her blood. They don’t last long, but making them helps Bitter feel grounded and less alone.

But when one of Bitter’s friends gets horribly injured at a protest, Bitter gets angry. And she paints something bigger and more terrifying than she ever has before. When this creature comes to life, things start that Bitter doesn’t know how to control.

Something I appreciated in this novel, as opposed to some fantasy novels I read last year — I appreciated that the main characters shrank back from unnecessary violence, even in service to a needed revolution, even against people who had done terrible things. Of course, not everyone felt the same way, and events set in motion aren’t always easy to stop — but I appreciated the value placed on human life — even the life of humans who had done evil things.

akwaeke.com
listeninglibrary.com

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Review of Powerless, by Lauren Roberts

Powerless

by Lauren Roberts
read by Chase Brown and Cecily Bednar Schmidt

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 17 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written February 20, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

I only review books I like. That has always been true. I don’t ever want to imply that my judgment is better than people who like the book – there are always some people. And I don’t really want authors to find a bad review of their book on my site. Lately, if I have too many reservations, I’ve decided just to pass on reviewing the book. The trouble with that is that later on I forget what my reservations were, and just remember a general negative. So – with Powerless, I decided to review it on my blog only. I won’t even link to the review on social media, so think of this as bonus content for those who subscribe to my blog.

All that said – I did enjoy the book, and I did listen to all 17.5 hours of it. Well, the second time I tried. This book is wildly popular with our library customers, and since I love YA Fantasy novels, I decided to find out what all the fuss was about. But when I started listening to it this time, it was just familiar enough for me to remember that I’d tried listening to it earlier and had given up after several chapters. This time I was feeling more tolerant of tropes and listened to the whole thing. And enjoyed it.

But let me talk about tropes. This one has All the Tropes. We start out with the noble thief, living on the streets, expert at thieving and fighting – but good at heart, forced into it because her father was murdered when she was thirteen.

Then there’s the trope of everyone has a magic power. In this case, the explanation is that there was a plague that killed off most of the population, and those that survived have magic powers. But those who do not have magic powers – Ordinaries – are considered diseased and a blight on the kingdom and must be executed.

That part – executing the outcast group – is a trope, too. But it strikes way too close to home as blaming a group of outcasts for all society’s ills is a hallmark of fascism and is way, way too relevant today.

Another trope is the evil, horrible, repressive king (the one whose idea it is to execute all the Ordinaries) – but with a son who is good despite his evil father. Well, in this case, they’re also half-heartedly going for a love triangle trope – so the king has two sons, both who end up interested in our heroine. But I say it’s half-hearted, because only the younger son is also a viewpoint character, and it’s with him that we get lots of talk about “wanting” each other.

Let me add in here that there’s no sex in this book, but oh my goodness there’s enormous sexual tension – even some sleeping together in vulnerable situations where sex doesn’t happen. Lots of touching in provocative ways. Going out on a limb, I’m pretty sure there’s eventually going to be sex between those characters or the readers will be up at arms.

But the trope I didn’t like at all was the competition where lots of the competitors kill each other. Because again, it was half-hearted. Called the “purging trials,” it was never remotely clear what the point was. We didn’t even find out who won at the end – because votes from spectators are part of the score, and they never told us how that went, even though we found out who finished the last trial first. We also didn’t get the scoring details of the earlier trials. We were told that the “future enforcer” needed to win to impress the people of the kingdom – but not clear why or what would happen if he didn’t. Or what the winner even wins. And it’s clear from the start that many die in the Purging Trials – but many don’t die. I never understood why killing other competitors was necessary or expected. With the kingdom watching, did it ever occur to anyone to demand that those who murder other contestants be held accountable? And even if there’s immunity from killing someone in the trials, why wouldn’t many of the competitors simply refuse to do that? Our protagonists make alliances with some of the other competitors, but others seem to be fair game – and part of the way they’re shown as evil is because they attack friends of our protagonists. Because that’s worse than the killing our main characters do? It just all feels like an excuse to have some killing and show how evil the king is who encourages that – but also the evil characters who attack the people we like.

And oh yes, the thing about the Future Enforcer. He’s the second son of the king. His older brother will be the next king – and he will be his brother’s Enforcer. What I never understood is why was he not already considered the Enforcer? There’s never any mention of a current Enforcer, but he’s already going around finding Ordinaries to execute and torturing people in the dungeon. Even thinks about torturing as a way to blow off steam after the trials. I don’t understand why he’s going to hold this title – only after his father dies.

And speaking of torturing and killing – Okay, his horrible father is the one who forced him to learn to be a torturer and an executioner. Yes, that’s all very awful. But it’s kind of a great big romantic red flag? It seems like no matter what your body’s telling you and no matter how attractive you find him or how sorry for him you feel – it’s going to be fairly easy not to fall in love with him. (Never mind the big thing she only remembered at the end. Really?) So forgive me if I’m not all that excited about that relationship. And that’s disregarding the fact that I despise men who call women they are barely acquainted with “Darling.”

Another trope is dearly loved people being killed or nearly killed. More than one. And the one toward the end of the book, I never understood any justification for calling the person a “criminal.” Just to show what an awful person the king is?

Yes, the book is incredibly violent. The future Enforcer isn’t the only one who kills people. But they’re Bad People because they killed people our protagonists cared about.

So, yes, I had a bunch of issues with this book. But I finished it, and I enjoyed listening. I might even listen to more books in the series – there’s a novella, a sequel, and the third book of the trilogy coming out soon. Can I set aside all my reservations to find out what happens next? I’m not sure, but now at least I can look up this review and remember what happened in the first book.

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