Review of Bonesmith, by Nicki Pau Preto, read by Molly Hanson

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bonesmith

by Nicki Pau Preto
read by Molly Hanson

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 14 hours, 43 minutes.
Review written December 5, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

Bonesmith is an epic fantasy tale in a world where smiths are born with magic and affinity for working with certain materials, and Wren is a Bonesmith, able to sense and manipulate the bones of the dead. (The living have too much flesh around their bones, protecting them.) As the book opens, she is ready for her trial in the Bonewood, and successful navigation of its obstacles will win her an official position as a valkyr, who fights the undead with weapons made of bone.

But Wren’s cockiness leads to her downfall — and a position at the outskirts of the Dominions next to the border wall. On the other side of the border are the Haunted Lands and the Breach which was caused when the ironsmiths dug too far. Before Wren was born, they orchestrated the Uprising because they didn’t like being left on the other side of the wall. Fighting in that was how Wren’s war hero uncle was killed. With his death, her father became heir to the House of Bone, but he (and Wren) can never please her grandmother like the fallen hero did.

Okay, the author does a much, much better job of explaining all this and smoothly building the world than I just did here. Let me say this: Wren ends up traveling with her supposed enemy, an Ironsmith, straight through the heart of the Haunted Territories and trying to cross the Breach itself, all while trying to fight off undead revenants and rescue a prince of the Dominions, but revealing more plots as they go.

I loved listening to every minute of this. The narrator has a British accent, and her voice is delightful to listen to. I wasn’t completely sure why Wren and her father have what I think is a Scottish accent, but maybe it was to show that even though they are nobility, they’re not as posh as the prince or even the Ironsmith.

The plotting was a little clunky in places. There was a big reveal toward the end that I saw coming a mile away, but still felt somewhat coincidental. Even worse was a climactic scene that Wren witnessed that I really had trouble believing she could have watched without getting spotted herself. And in that climactic scene, all of the big reveal was conveniently spoken for her to hear. (Kind of like the bad guy in the old Batman series always explaining how he did it when he thinks he has Batman trapped.) And then she conveniently had time to grab something that helped her escape. And I should stop, because I don’t actually want to give a spoiler.

So, I wasn’t crazy about the plotting — but I loved the characters. Wren’s a delight, and so are the two companions on her journey. The sexual/romantic tension is well-done. The whole enemies-to-lovers trope doesn’t yet come to fruition in this volume, but it’s off to a perfect start with legit misunderstandings and lack of trust between them.

And yes, that reminds me that the story is only beginning. The book stops at a good stopping point, but we definitely need to find out what happens next. I will make it clear that my reservations are only minor reservations when I say that I am going to make sure I read the next volume when it comes out next August.

nickipaupreto.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Romance, Starred Review 0

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 Puppets of Spelhorst, by Kate DiCamillo

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Puppets of Spelhorst

A Norendy Tale

by Kate DiCamillo
illustrated by Julie Morstad

Candlewick Press, 2023. 150 pages.
Review written November 8, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! Kate DiCamillo has started a series of original fairy tales!

Now, mind you, I’m a fairy tale fan, and this wasn’t my favorite ever. There’s not much magic — well, except puppets that can talk — and no fairies at all. But the feel does fit fairy tales, and I definitely would like to read this book aloud to an audience of primary grade kids. There’s a musical quality to the words and the atmospheric illustrations fit perfectly.

The story itself is about five puppets — “a king and a wolf and a girl and a boy and an owl.” An old sea captain named Spelhorst buys them because the girl reminds them of someone he loved once.

But when the sea captain dies, their adventures begin. The puppets want to be in a story. The wolf keeps going on about his sharp teeth. The king is very proud of his kingly nature. The owl is full of wise sayings. The boy has a quiver full of arrows. And the girl has beautiful eyes that want to see the world.

And the puppets do indeed find a story, complete with some danger in the middle, but ending up with adventure.

To give you an idea of the flavor, here’s a section when the puppets are in a dark trunk on the cart of a rag-and-bone man who takes things that aren’t wanted:

The puppets lay together in the chest. They could hear the rag-and-bone man’s song.

“Who are we?” said the owl.

“Well, I suppose we’re something that’s not wanted,” said the girl.

“Nonsense,” said the king. “Everyone wants a king. That’s the very definition of kingliness.”

“It’s so dark in here,” said the boy.

“Darkness means nothing when your teeth are as sharp as mine,” said the wolf.

“Into the darkness, there sometimes comes a light,” intoned the owl.

I’m definitely looking forward to more idiosyncratic fairy tales from the quirky mind of Kate DiCamillo. (Honestly! How does she think of these things?) This one left me smiling.

candlewick.com

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Review of The Grimoire of Grave Fates, created by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Grimoire of Grave Fates

created by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen
read by January LaVoy and Nicky Endres

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 27 minutes.
Review written November 11, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

I made sure to check out The Grimoire of Grave Fates because I love Margaret Owen’s writing so much. It turns out this is a compilation from many fantasy authors. The story is set in a magical school — a school with a highly diverse population. The most hated professor — a professor who despised the diverse population — has been found dead, and it’s clearly murder.

The book gives a different student’s perspective for every hour of the day his body is found, beginning at 2:00 am and finishing at 8:00 pm, when the mystery is solved. Each student’s story is told by a different author. And really, it’s kind of amazing that this method works — the clues students turn up at the beginning do affect things later, and the mystery unfolds.

It’s fun how the eighteen students featured all have different magical specialties. I’m not completely sure how that would work in one school, but it kept this book interesting. I think this is an example where I would have done better to read the book rather than listening to the audiobook, because I would have referred back to the explanation at the beginning of the different houses of the school and it would have helped me keep the characters straight. As it was, it was looking at the Table of Contents for the eaudiobook that helped me realize there was one student each hour and a different author for each student.

These are the authors who wrote the chapters: (I’ve only read a few of them before, and need to fix that.) Marieke Nijkamp, Randy Ribay, Kwame Mbalia, Darcie Little Badger, Cam Montgomery, Preeti Chhibber, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, L. L. McKinney, Hafsah Faizal, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Mason Deaver, Victoria Lee, Yamile Saied Mendez, Jessica Lewis, and Natasha Diaz. I assume that Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen were responsible for the overall story and what major plot points each author would hit.

As a mystery, this book was nothing special, but as a window into diverse magical students — it was delightful. I enjoyed each student who was featured and the look into their type of magic. These authors are people with imagination and empathy, and I’m going to look for more of their work.

penguinrandomhouse.com

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

Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

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 Daughter of the Moon Goddess, by Sue Lynn Tan

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review 0

Daughter of the Moon Goddess

by Sue Lynn Tan
read by Natalie Naudus

HarperAudio, 2022. 15 hours, 1 minute
Review written September 5, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
2023 Alex Award Winner (Outstanding books for adults that will have appeal to teen readers.)

I’m not completely sure why Daughter of the Moon Goddess is advertised for adults and not for teen readers. It’s a coming-of-age tale about the daughter of the moon goddess. The notes do say it’s the first part of a duology, so perhaps the second part has more mature themes. This part shows her growing up years, with the person she’s going to fall in love with still in question. There’s some kissing but no sex. (Just so you know what you’re in for.)

The story is lovely, and narrator Natalie Naudus does a good job immersing you in the tale. Xingyin has grown up with her mother on the moon. As a teen, she learns that her mother was exiled there for drinking the elixir of immortality that had been awarded to her husband, a great archer, who had saved the world by shooting down some extra suns that were burning the world. What the moon goddess kept hidden, though, was the reason she drank the elixir — it was because she was having trouble in childbirth and the doctors said that she and her baby were going to die. But she kept Xingyin (who is also immortal) hidden from the celestial emperor and empress so they wouldn’t punish her as well.

But when Xingyin accidentally accesses her magic, it brings the attention of the empress to the moon. Xingyin must leave her home and go out into the world, never revealing who she is.

Xingyin ends up in the celestial kingdom as a servant. She is determined to somehow, some way work to save her mother and set her free from the eternal imprisonment.

Then she meets a young man who turns out to be the crown prince. He is holding a competition to find a study companion. But what can there be in common between two people whose families are in enmity?

That’s only the beginning. Xingyin ends up having many adventures, no damsel in distress, but one who has inherited the amazing abilities of her archer father.

The whole tale is told with a mythical feel. Although I had a strong feeling where the plot was going, there were some surprises along the way. And though this book had a satisfying resolution, there were enough threads left hanging to make me glad to read it’s the start of a duology.

This is a gentle romantic fantasy tale with a heroine you’ll be happy to cheer for.

suelynntan.com

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Review of Sorcery of Thorns, by Margaret Rogerson

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

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 Bloodmarked, by Tracy Deonn

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 2

Bloodmarked

Book Two of the Legendborn Cycle

by Tracy Deonn
read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2022. 22 hours, 20 minutes.
Review written March 10, 2023, from a library book

First, let me say that I love the premise of this fantasy series: A bunch of white guys have passed down ancestral magic from Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. But that magic has been completely disrupted because generations ago one of those white guys raped a woman he’d enslaved. And now the Scion of Arthur is a Black girl.

At the start of the book, I thought she was going to go through the rite, completely as expected, to officially become the ruling King. But I should have known that the regents currently in power would not let a Black girl reign over them. So things take a distinct turn from that point.

But while Bree is trying to figure out the power she inherited from Arthur, she’s also trying to learn to use her Root Magic, which she inherited from her mother and her mother’s mothers. And she learns about others who work with ether magic and demons who make bargains. All while staying away from those who want to capture her and negate her power.

Meanwhile, Nick, the Scion of Lancelot, is still kidnapped. But Bree learns she can visit him when she’s in Arthur’s memories. Also meanwhile, what’s going on between her and the King’s mage? I almost rolled my eyes when another powerful person they encounter seems to be attracted to Bree, too. But I did figure out that Bree cares deeply for her friends, and her friends will do much to save her.

I do have a complaint about how long the book is, but I’ve gotten spoiled by reading lots of children’s books. I’m not even sure I could summarize what happened. (And I wouldn’t anyway, because I don’t want to give anything away.) But it’s not like the action ever lagged. Some of it was hard to understand, especially what took place in dreamscapes or figuring out how bargains actually worked.

Another peeve was that the narrator consistently pronounced “Arthur” as “Author,” and it made me a little crazy. I could chalk it up to the accent, but every single character pronounced it that way regardless of their background. I suppose it’s possible that pronunciation is closer to the original old Welsh, but every time I heard it, I’d say “Arthur!” out loud, just to get it out of my system. (It didn’t help that the audiobook I’d listened to before this one had a British character named Arthur, pronounced with the ‘r’ as I think it should be pronounced.) But I was too engaged in the story to stop listening.

I’m honestly not quite sure where things stand at the end of the book. But I’m quite sure that Bree will learn more about using her power, and that Tracy Deonn will take the reader along for the ride. And that I will want to be in on the action.

tracydeonn.com

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Review of Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Fourth Wing

by Rebecca Yarros
read by Rebecca Soler
with Teddy Hamilton

Recorded Books, 2023. 20 hours, 43 minutes.
Review written August 13, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Wow. Fourth Wing is a grittier, tougher, sexier adult version of a young person attending a school for wizards — or in this case, dragonriders. With all the danger (students constantly dying) and action, the book pulls you in and doesn’t stop. I found myself thinking about the book when I wasn’t listening to it.

It begins with Violet’s older sister Mira protesting to their mother that Violet’s going to die. Violet always planned to go into the scribe quadrant like their father when she got to be twenty and it was her turn to make a choice.

But her father has recently died and her mother, the general in charge of the war college, says that their family were always dragon riders, and she’ll drag Violet out of the scribe quadrant if she tries to go there. But everybody, including Violet, seems convinced that she’ll die. After all, she’s got Ehler-Danlos syndrome, which naturally doesn’t have that name, but she’s got weak joints and brittle bones that often go out of joint. And never mind that the very first day, she has to cross a parapet in the rain — recruits typically fall to their deaths before they even get a chance at the dragons.

Mira warns Violet to look to her lifelong friend Dane Atos for help, a second-year squad leader. And to watch out for Xaden Rierson, the son of the man who led a rebellion six years ago. Their mother oversaw the execution of his father, but that father was responsible for the death of their beloved brother Brennan. So of course they can be expected to hate each other. At a place where students are known to kill one another. With that warning, there’s no surprise the conflict that’s going to be in Violet’s heart, but I like how the author gets us there, showing rather than telling us why attraction happens or doesn’t happen.

Once Violet crosses the parapet, there are still many ways to die. Challenges with other cadets. Difficult training maneuvers. And it all builds toward the Threshing, when candidates may or may not bond with a dragon and then learn to wield their dragon’s magic in their own particular signet.

The world-building all develops naturally along with the action, and the author gets us completely wrapped up in it. There’s a warning at the front about violence and about sexual activity portrayed on the page. And, yes, it’s awfully messed up to have an academy to train dragon riders where a large percentage of the candidates die. Also, the sexy scenes don’t happen until two-thirds of the way through the book, but when they do, well, furniture breaks. Yes, that part is long, vivid, and over-the-top. You won’t necessarily want to listen to this with anyone else in the room.

And — I won’t say what happens, but I love it when books have an ending that makes me shout out loud with a surprising and perfect twist. The only bad part about it is that I have to wait until the next book is published to find out what happens next. (But good news! I see that Book Two is coming out in November.)

This is an amazing book. I love it that a short girl with physical limitations uses her cleverness to become a dragonrider. (Hey, I’m not giving anything away. It would be a short book if she didn’t make it.) The characters are complex (even if you can see where the romance is going), the world-building is intricate, and the dragons are just plain cool.

rebeccayarros.com

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Review of An Enchantment of Ravens, by Margaret Rogerson

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

An Enchantment of Ravens

by Margaret Rogerson
read by Julia Whelan

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2017. 8 hours, 45 minutes.
Review written April 20, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I listened to this book because I have so enjoyed Margaret Rogerson’s other books. We chose Vespertine as our Cybils YA Speculative Fiction winner in 2022. This one had me riveted. It was one of those audiobooks where I had to remind myself they wouldn’t have published the book if everyone you care about dies — or would they have? Yet I couldn’t quite see how they’d get out of the situation.

Isobel is 17 years old and already a talented portrait painter. She paints portraits for the fair folk. They pay with enchantments, and she is very careful in wording her requests, because she knows the fairies will twist her words if she lets them.

The Fae are fascinated with the crafts that mortals make, including painting, because they are incapable of crafting anything and will crumble to dust if they try. The Fae also do not know human emotion. So when Isobel is painting the Autumn Prince and notices something off about him — she then realizes there’s human sorrow showing on his face.

But when he discovers that she’s painted this for all to see, he is furious and convinced she’s sabotaged him. He drags her off to the autumnlands to stand trial — and her adventures begin. No mortal has ever returned from the realm of the fair folk — at least not as a mortal. And the Wild Hunt comes after her, and she clears up some misunderstandings with the prince — and they find themselves in danger of breaking the Good Law, which decrees that mortals and fair folk may not fall in love with one another, or they must die.

This tale is beautifully told. I always like slow-burn romances. By the time they learn to trust each other and are in danger of falling in love, the reader can understand how it happened, despite the dreadful consequences.

margaretrogerson.com

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