Genre: Fantasy

The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad: Review, Giveaway & Alysa’s Top Ten Addictions

Today I’m featuring THE VERDIGRIS PAWN, a timeless middle grade fantasy full of danger, betrayals and intrigue! Check out my review, along with Alysa’s list of top ten addictions and a giveaway of the book! This book is not your typical middle grade fantasy; not only does it have a timeless, almost classical feel, it also has the complexities of an epic fantasy that you’d expect from YA or even adult books. But the story […]

Posted July 6, 2021 in Author Top Ten Lists, Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 36 Comments

Rea and the Blood of the Nectar by Payal Doshi: Review and Payal’s Top Ten Addictions

Today I’m featuring REA AND THE BLOOD OF THE NECTAR by Payal Doshi, an engaging Own Voices middle grade fantasy adventure set in India (and beyond!). Read on for my review of the book, and then make sure you also check out Payal’s list of top ten addictions to find out more about the author! Rea is an exciting portal fantasy set in Darjeeling India and in a magical land that will fascinate kids of […]

Posted June 22, 2021 in Author Top Ten Lists, Reviews / 2 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of These Violent Delights, Sunkissed, Cemetery Boys, and The Startup Squad Series

Today, I have a YA fantasy, a YA contempory, a YA urban fantasy, and a MG contemp series! I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I was hoping to sneak this review in during May for AAPI month, but let’s face it, we need to lift up Asian and other diverse authors every month. So, a few days into June is still a good time to celebrate this book! […]

Posted June 3, 2021 in Reviews / 32 Comments

Aru Shah and the City of Gold: Review & Giveaway

Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD Another exciting installment in the Pandava Series! In this book, Aru and her friends are joined by Kara, who Aru discovers is the Sleeper’s other daughter. Family and friendship loyalties are stretched to their limits in this book, as the gang struggles to know who they can count on. Not only do they have to decide if Kara deserves their trust (after all, she was basically raised by the Sleeper), but they’re also dealing with […]

Posted April 21, 2021 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 4 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: A Game of Fox and Squirrels, Wishes and Wellingtons, Mulrox and the Malcognitos, Cleo Porter and the Body Electric, and Another Dreadful Fairy Book

Yes, I know I’m STILL working my way through all my Cybils reviews. I just don’t want to leave any of these books out! So, even though the awards have been doled out, I still want to feature some very quick reviews of the nominees I read since there were so many good ones. I’m calling this the Long-Titles Cybils List. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction. This book […]

Posted March 23, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 5 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Legendborn, Ana on the Edge, Furia, The Mystwick School of Musicraft, and Amal Unbound

Today I’ve got some bite-sized reviews of some of my recent reads: A YA fantasy, a YA contemp, a MG fantasy, and a MG contemp. I hope these bite-sized reviews are enough to feed your fiction addiction! This YA paranormal reimagining of King Arthur’s court is utterly addictive! The book goes deep into the world of secret societies when sixteen-year-old Bree goes to her late mother’s private school and discovers that demons are running amok—along with […]

Posted March 4, 2021 in Reviews / 13 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Dragon Assassin, The Girl Who Speaks Bear, Mulan: Before the Sword, Bones in the Wall, and The Barren Grounds

The Cybils Awards winners have been announced, and you should definitely check them out! Congrats especially to Rival Magic, which won in the MG spec fic category, which is the category I judged for round one. Even though the awards have been doled out, I still want to feature some very quick reviews of the nominees I read since there were so many good ones. It will take me quite some time to get to […]

Posted February 18, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 3 Comments

City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda: An Exciting and Enlightening Read!

One grade school memory that stands out most vividly for me is the huge project I did on Mesopotamia when I was probably in about fifth grade or so. I was entranced by all things Mesopotamian—the culture, the mythology, the political landscape, even the geography. Now, I’ll confess that I don’t remember a whole lot of it anymore, but all these (many) years later, something still thrills within me at the mere mention of the […]

Posted February 4, 2021 in Reviews / 6 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: The Sisters of Straygarden Place, Rival Magic, Quintessence, Horace Fox in the City, and The Clockwork Crow

As my regular readers know, I’m a round one judge for the Cybils Awards in the Middle Grade Speculative Fiction category. Because of that, I’ve been reading LOTS of books lately! I’m not allowed to share any details about our process for choosing the finalists, but I am allowed (and encouraged) to review the books as I read, so I figured I’d share four of them with you today. I hope these bite-sized reviews will […]

Posted December 11, 2020 in Cybils, Reviews / 7 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, The Time of Green Magic, When You Trap a Tiger, and The Lost Wonderland Diaries

Posted December 5, 2020 in Cybils, Reviews / 6 Comments