YA Book Review: What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra

What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reposted from my review on The Kidliterati Blog.

Hayden has just turned eighteen, and she’s living on her own for the first time, when she gets a call about the will her mother left. Though her mother is technically missing, not dead.

“My mother remains elusive, in the periphery of my vision—there and not-there, dead and alive, like Schrödinger’s theoretical cat, its state altering the moment I focus on it. It’s been a decade since I last heard Mom’s voice …”

The dreams of her wearing full body armor and riding a horse while leading an army through the fog and ravaged cities, crying We’ll rise again have returned, and what’s with the white ravens that keep appearing in her dreams and real life? Hayden has a lot of questions.

It’s suggested that she keep mum about the will and not mention anything to her father, which may not be difficult considering he’s a physicist with his head buried always in his work. Even though he’d lost his tenure, due to outrageous claims about Nibelungs and multi-dimensional pathways and string theory.

Thank goodness, for her roommate, Del Chauvet, French-Senegalese Brooklynite, and her constant determination to give her a makeover or find her a date, especially since the last one left Hayden stranded. But Del has something special planned for her 18th birthday.

Memories and whispers in a foreign tongue, and Hayden’s mother watching from behind the dark trees surrounding her childhood home wearing a sad smile, as if she knows what’s coming. Hayden’s therapist, Dr. Erich reminds Hayden that those memories are long gone. But Hayden needs answers.

Hiding the will from her father, Hayden and Del leave their Brooklyn apartment to visit her childhood home in Promise, Colorado, and search for the gifts her mother left with the cryptic message:
She needs to listen with her blood. My second condition is that Hayden uses my gifts to destroy my darkest secret—my hidden treasure, my heaviest burden.

When Hayden struggles to understand, she interprets things using theoretical physics, and the author does this beautifully at the start of each chapter with musings of the metaphysical, the forces of gravity, and Murphy’s Law, and how it relates to Hayden’s life.

My kind of genre-mash-up, that twists urban fantasy and science fiction with the creepy factor that comes with a dark woodland mystery along with a gripping pace and self-sacrificing friendships. Quite unlike anything I’ve read before. I’d recommend this book for mature YA readers.



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YA Book Review: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposted from my review on Kidliterati. 

1822 in the seaside town of Sparrow Oregon, three sisters arrived with hopes of making a new home. The Swan sisters were among the first to settle this seaside town. Three of the most beautiful women ever beheld. They soon became known at temptresses, too irresistible to resist. Rumors gathered that they were witches weaving spells, and a mob of townspeople stormed their perfumery shop, tied stones to the sister’s feet, and threw them into the ocean.

The Swan sisters return every summer seeking revenge, dragging unsuspecting boys back into in the sea with them before the solstice ends.

Two hundred years later, seventeen-year-old, Penny Talbot is apprehensive with another season of finding dead boys in the ocean about to begin. Even though the town celebrates the sisters return with festivals, and tourists flock to the island to witness the spectacle. It’s what the townspeople do to prepare the inevitable.

Penny wants things to be different this year when she meets Bo. He stepped in to rescue her from another boy’s abuse at one of the parties. He’s a stranger to the town just like her father was. Penny’s father disappeared three years ago and her mother suffers, watching out across the water for his return. Bo wants answers to what happened to his brother and Penny wants to protect Bo, keep him from being lured into the ocean to certain death. What will Penny do for love? How will she right the wrongs she’s made?

A beautifully written, haunting fantasy about the power of love, recommended for more mature Young Adult readers.

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YA Review: Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a repost from my review on Kidliterati. 


In a Kingdom where “Gods forbid a woman ever express a sound belief” two sisters, 17-year-old Mia Rose and 15-year-old Angelyne, challenge this belief. Mia wants to be a Huntress, not married off to the prince and continue her mission fighting Gwyrach and their menacing magic.

The girls of the Kaer Killian wear gloves, for the fear anyone one of them could be a murderous Gwyrach, and a threat. “Women who, through their touch could manipulate the flesh, bone, breath, and blood of their victims.”

Mia Rose prepares for her escape; her father, who loved her mother, now dead, has forced her into a loveless marriage. Only “She has work to do and a sister to save.”
Her sister’s fighting a mysterious illness, since staying in the ancient citadel carved from a mountain of ice, her lady in waiting during the month-long engagement.

A demon, half-god, half-human, killed her mother and destroyed their lives. It’s Mia’s mission to find that Gwyrach once they escape. But her sister, Angelyne won’t go, and Mia can’t leave her behind. She insists the life Mia hates and wants to escape isn’t so bad.

Mia’s marriage to the prince continues as planned. Even after overhearing him call her dangerous. During the wedding dinner, Mia vows to strike fear in every living Gwyrach, once she’s princess.

Her father secretly hands Mia her mother’s journal. Her mother wanted Mia to have it when she was ready. She discovers her mother’s secrets as the blank pages reveal what she needs to know in due time. Changing all her preconceived beliefs.

Five hundred pairs of eyes await the union, marking the alliance of two great houses. The prince falls into Mia’s arms, wounded by an arrow, and they make their escape. When Mia tries to save his life, her entire world is thrown into chaos, and the adventure is just getting started.

A gorgeously written fantasy with nail-biting suspense, and twists that’ll leave your mouth gaping. A familiar world, a little too familiar, where powerful women and girls are seen as dangerous, feared, and kept bottled up, or on display. Many of the truths are painfully similar to the struggles of our time. Written with a poignant message about feminism and love.

Sometimes love is the stronger choice.


*Wish I could format the italics properly.

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