June 2021 – wings and fables

Reviews

Review: The Princess Will Save You by Sarah Henning

June 21, 2021June 21, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables3 Comments

she was the daughter of the warrior king and the runaway queen, and she had made her choice.
sarah henning

Series: Kingdoms of Sand and Sky #1

Release Date: July 7th 2020

Publisher: Tor Teen

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy | Retelling | Romance

Page Count: 368

Source: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in collaboration with Terminal Tours. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: The Princess Will Save You is a YA fantasy adventure inspired by The Princess Bride, in which a princess must rescue her stable boy true love, from the acclaimed author of Sea Witch, Sarah Henning.

When a princess’s commoner true love is kidnapped to coerce her into a political marriage, she doesn’t give in—she goes to rescue him.

When her warrior father, King Sendoa, mysteriously dies, Princess Amarande of Ardenia is given what would hardly be considered a choice: Marry a stranger at sixteen or lose control of her family’s crown. But Amarande was raised to be a warrior—not a sacrifice. In an attempt to force her choice, a neighboring kingdom kidnaps her true love, stable boy Luca. With her kingdom on the brink of civil war and no one to trust, she’ll need all her skill to save him, her future, and her kingdom.

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Reviews

Review: We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

June 16, 2021by wren @ wingsandfablesLeave a Comment

more than ever, i’m worried we’re resurrecting a friendship that was never as grand as i made it out to be.
rachel lynn solomon

Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 8th 2021

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count: 336

Source: I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author of Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response.

Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.

Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher. Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.

Rating:

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Discussions, Let's Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish: The “I’m Not Like Other Girls” Trope

June 11, 2021June 10, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables3 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion. This week’s topic was suggested by Dani and is “I’m Not Like Other Girls” Trope.

How do you feel about the “I’m Not Like Other Girls” trope in general?

I had to think about this for longer than I anticipated but overall I don’t mind the “I’m Not Like Other Girls” trope as long as the attitude and portrayal of it is done in a certain way. By that I mean that I dislike when the character it’s being applied to has a haughty attitude or thinks they’re above other girls, but if it’s portrayed moreso that they didn’t ask for it and don’t have a negative attitude towards other women, I don’t mind it. The best example I can think of for this is that I despised Alessandra from The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller. Her attitude is so poor and she even had that Other-Women-Just-Don’t-Like-Me mentality which generally equals to you’re rude or mean to them but somehow don’t realize that or don’t have a problem with it. She genuinely believes she is so far above other people in the book that she’s shocked when she actually makes connections with two of the other women who are vying for the king’s affections. I have a full review of the book here if you want to know more of my thoughts on it but, spoiler alert, I gave it a single star. One of the best examples I can think of that is on the opposite side of the trope is Alina from the Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Alina never has a poor attitude or thinks she’s above other people even though she’s born with a one-of-a-kind ability that can truly change the world. She’s uncomfortable with the attention and wishes for things to go back to normal before her ability was discovered. Overall, I don’t mind the trope if the character is on the humbler side. Attitude is everything for me.

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New Releases, Reviews

ARC Review: The Existence of Bea Pearl by Candice Marley Conner

June 9, 2021May 10, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables3 Comments

“no, she faded away; it took all summer for her to disappear. she stopped talking because no one would talk to her. she faded ’til she didn’t exist anymore.”
candice marley conner

Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 15th 2021

Publisher: Owl Hollow Press

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Mystery | Thriller | Romance

Page Count: 237

Source: I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Sixteen-year-old Bea Pearl knows her brother isn’t dead. Even if her parents don’t agree. Even if the entire town doesn’t believe her. She knows it’s true. When orders came to evacuate Lake George due to rising floodwaters, Bea Pearl saw Jim head toward the river. She followed him. Only she returned.

When her parents have Jim declared legally dead, Bea Pearl decides it’s up to her to figure out where her brother could be if he is alive, and so begins to unravel the mystery of his disappearance. But it seems like someone else wants to know what he was hiding when his bedroom is ransacked. More clues come together: a scrap of paper, mysterious numbers that may lead to swamp monkeys, Jim’s shoes turning up in unexpected places. Bea Pearl can’t figure out what connects them all until she’s stolen from her bed in the dead of night.

Bea Pearl’s insistence that Jim’s alive and her quest to figure out why he went down to a flooding river in the first place takes a toll on her shattering family. But she must unearth the truth surrounding her presumed dead brother. Otherwise, the rumors are true and she has killed him. Because if Jim can stop existing, could she too?

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Lists, Top 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Tuesday: Books I Want to Re-Read

June 8, 2021June 4, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables13 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Bionic Book Worm and is now hosted by Meeghan Reads. This week’s topic is Top 5 Books I Want to Re-Read.

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Even though ACOTAR is one of my favorite series, I’ve actually never reread any of them. I’ve started to reread A Court of Thorns and Roses a few times but I’ve only ever gotten about a chapter in before I decided to move to a new book I haven’t read before. The first book is high up on my priority reread list because I’m really curious to see if I will like it more than the first time I read it when I gave it only 3 stars and a kind of brutal review on Goodreads.

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Reviews, Tours

Book Tour & Review: Gold Spun by Brandie June (+ my favorite quotes!)

June 7, 2021May 27, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables1 Comment

“all magic has a cost.”
brandie june

Series: Gold Spun #1

Release Date: June 8th 2021

Publisher: CamCat Books

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy | Retellings | Romance

Page Count: 320

Source: I received an advance reader’s copy of this book for free from the publisher via Edelweiss in collaboration with TBR and Beyond Tours. Thank you!

Summary: If Nor can’t spin gold, she can always spin lies.

When seventeen-year-old Nor rescues a captured faerie in the woods, he gifts her with a magical golden thread she can use to summon him for a favor. Instead, Nor uses it for a con—to convince villagers to buy straw that can be transformed into gold. Her trick works a little too well, attracting the suspicion of Prince Casper, who hates nobody more than a liar. Intent on punishing Nor, he demands that she spin a room of straw into gold and as her reward, he will marry her. Should she refuse or fail, the consequences will be dire.

Content Warnings: One mild scene of cutting for blood magic.

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Discussions, Let's Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish: Lying About Reading Books

June 4, 2021May 30, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables11 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion. This week’s topic was suggested by Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly and is Why Do People Lie About Reading Books?

Some people will say they have read books when they really haven’t; why do you think that is?

To be honest, I think it’s more likely for people to lie about not reading a book than to lie about reading one. By this I mean that I think some readers feel the need to hide what they read such as darker genres or “problematic” authors. The book community is a great place most of the time but many won’t hesitate to shun readers who like to read authors or genres they think are problematic or choose not to personally support, a consequence of “cancel culture.” Regardless, I think that those who do lie about reading a book that they actually haven’t is probably born out of insecurity. They want to fit in, they want to appear well-read or intelligent, they want to join a new fandom but haven’t caught up to stan level yet. Maybe they’re someone who has seen the film and therefore think that compares to reading the book so they say they have. Maybe they’re afraid of cancel culture coming for them so they say they’ve read something just to avoid conflict. I’ve definitely seen some NetGalley reviews that sound as if the person didn’t even read the book which I think can be chalked up to people wanting to either maintain their ratio on the site or want to maintain their auto-approval status with a publisher. I think there could be many reasons for someone to lie about reading a book.

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