Off With Their Heads

Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana Mikuta

The characters from Wonderland inhabit a fantasy world in a prequel to Alice and Wonderland. The idea has potential, but the execution is needlessly vulgar and complicated. 

A Place Called Ugly

A Place Called Ugly by Avi

A boy comes to a coastal vacation spot with his family every year. One year, they learn that their vacation home is set to be demolished to make way for a hotel. He does not take that well and wants to preserve it. He hangs out there and tries to convince the owner not to destroy it. He discovers the town doesn't like this idea when he gets beat up by some boys. He lives in the house in very spartan surroundings and seems to start a relationship with a local girl. As a final act of defiance, he paints the house with some unique paint scheme. Then right before it is to be bulldozed, he blows up the house (by filling it with natural gas and lighting it on fire.) The book is a short tale of teenage defiance and singular attachment to things. It seems to get lost on the way to its conclusion. Luckily, it doesn't take too long to get there.

The Other Merlin

The Other Merlin by Robyn Schneider

This is a telling of the King Arthur story with modern sensibilities. Emry Merlin is the daughter of Merlin and has a twin brother. Her brother is supposed to go to the castle to be an apprentice wizard. However, he botches things up in an attempt to avoid a gambling debt. Emry goes there temporarily in his place. In the kingdom, things get interesting. Arthur and Lancelot are goofballs, with Arthur being a semi-illegitimate successor to the king. But then Arthur pulls the sword from the stone and later gets Excalibur. He now has the bonafides to be the ruler. Emry and Arthur also start to fall for each other (really confusing Arthur, who thinks Emry is a boy.) Eventually, he discovers the truth and they have a twist, only for Arthur's father to soon announce Arthur's engagement to another girl. Things get bad, and then get worse as a dark wizard attacks Emry. Arthur helps come to the rescue, and things get better, with Arthur standing up to his father and asking Emry to be the court wizard. The mix of modern sensibilities with historical settings does almost work, but requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. (If a gay knight and woman wizard are such a challenge to that society, it is not likely they would be so easily overcome.) 

The Twisted Window

The Twisted Window by Lois Duncan

A mysterious boy from New Mexico shows up at a Texas high school and hits on a girl. This set off a stream of events that leads to a kidnapping and an understanding of the boys mental illness.

The boy had loved his half sister. He did not get along with the step father. His parents had separated. However, the step father came to his half-sister's birthday party and gave her a stuffed animal. This really upset the boy (who had given the half-sister her favorite stuffed animal.) He drove off in a huff and accidentally ran over his half sister. The boy only has one friend, a girl named Jaimie (We don't learn this backstory until the end of the book.) The boy had somehow convinced himself that his stepfather had stolen the half-sister and taken her to Texas. 

The boy had enlisted the help of a girl in Texas who looked like his friend Jamie. She was to spy on her step-father and see if he had the girl. They end up finding the signs of a toddler in the father's relative. The boy is convinced this is his half sister. The girl babysits for the family and they use that opportunity to take the girl to bring her back to New Mexico. On the way, the girl becomes suspicious and tries to call the boy's family and learns some of the backstory and has someone come to help them. At the time, the boy got suspicious and went to his house in the cabin. They end up meeting out there and after some conflict, it seems to have a happy resolution, the details of which are never mentioned.

The book has believable characters and is carried out in a suspenseful way. It does seem to have some minor updates which are a bit distracting. (The boy has a cell phone, yet they still plan on watching movies on a VCR.) 

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara (Guardians of Dawn, 1) by S. Jae-Jones

Zhara is a bright, light fantasy book. There is a character that loves to read romance books. The book becomes involved in some plot twists. This society had some big war and one side is power and strives to hide books to keep from unifying others. Books hold some special secrets. Gender can be a bit confusing. He and she are used together with "they", but it may change for a character as they become gendered. There was an introductory note about it. In spoken Chinese he and she are pronounced the same. Is Korean something like that. Did some googling, and it seems that Korean doesn't often use the gendered pronouns, so that does make sense. The book felt fairly good as far as fantasy goes, but I did get a bit lost as it kept going on. It would be great if fantasy writers could write short. This one seemed to have potential.

They Bloom at Night

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

Life among the poor in Louisiana is hard enough. After a hurricane some deadly algae makes it even worse. The book us dark and forgettable.

Red in Tooth and Claw

Red in Tooth and Claw by Lish McBride

I got lost with this book. It had vibes of a western with a bit of fantasy thrown in. Some kid is off on his own. He gets a companion. They run across a dead body. There is some work to join a settlement and be part of the community, but also conflicts. Eventually things come to an end. I just didn't care much for any of it.

The New Camelot: Emry Merlin, Book 3

The New Camelot: Emry Merlin, Book 3 by Robyn Schneider

The legend of King Arthur is told with in a historical setting with modern sensibilities. It is not without merit, but it drags on for too long. There is merlin and a kingdom to save, but young adult relationships are also important. 

The Familiars

The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Lincoln Hoppe

Animals once controlled the fantasy world, not humans. This is a fantasy epic about them.

The Name Drop

The Name Drop by Susan Lee

A Korean-American girl is looking forward to an internship with a big Korean company in New York. She thinks this will allow her to get a good recommendation to get scholarships to go to college. Her family cannot afford the school, but are not poor enough for financial aid. She has a challenge of over-sharing when under stress. When she goes to check in for her flight she goes in on details, which end up with her showing her id with her korean name. In the airport she also notices a dapper Korean guy.

The dapper Korean guy is the teenage son of the CEO of the company. He is going to HQ for a special internship for children of executives. However, his Korean name is the same as the Korean name of the girl. When he checks in, he gets the seat in the back that she was supposed to have, while she gets the first class seat. She ends up being picked up by the chauffeur and taken to the townhome, while he ends up joining the intern group in the cramped apartment and the minimum wage internship.

They eventually meet to discuss the situation and realize that both of them like it. The girl works to achieve with her responsibilities. He likes to be a regular guy.

The interns put together a hackathon for the company. It is a success, perhaps too much. The CEO shows up. He acts nice to the girl and offers her a scholarship, but also fires his father. The boy is in the bad grace of his father but still gets strings pulled to go to UCLA. In the epilogue, they meet again. Will the romance go somewhere.

The book is a light, superificial story of teenageers going through challenging situation. It showcases the masculine, patriarchal culture in Korean business. Is it still this bad? The boy and girl have a "trading places" vibe. It seems the company has a lot of talented people that are not listened to while those in authority are underqualified. 

A Cage of Crystal: Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae, Book 2

A Cage of Crystal: Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae, Book 2 by Tessonja Odette

This is the middle book in the series. It was a bit better than standard romantasy. It felt like there was more plot development in this book, but I got lost with the details. 

A Fate of Flame: Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae, Book 3

A Fate of Flame: Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae, Book 3 by Tessonja Odette

This book wraps the series up. There is romance, a child birth, a dragon bond and near death. A spoiled girl realizes that she can make a difference and that some of the things she did before were not great. It goes on very long, but does wrap things up pretty well. I got confused with the battle between worlds, alliances and portals. 

A Throne of Shadows: Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae, Book 1

A Throne of Shadows: Prophecy of the Forgotten Fae, Book 1 by Tessonja Odette

A princess doesn't like her suitors. She has a "competition" where she demands unicorn parts as part of a quest. Unicorns are supposedly extinct, but later some characters see some. Various groups are at odds with each other. There is some competition and some romance. It ends in a big battle with conflicting relationships. The universe seems similar to other romantasy books. Is there any originality in this genre?

The Dagger and the Flame

The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle

A typical romatasy that goes one ear and our the other. There were some assassins here, I think.

Ghostsmith: House of the Dead Duology

Ghostsmith: House of the Dead Duology by Nicki Pau Preto

There are revenants. They are bad. People are fighting bad guys while falling in love with others. This book goes on for a while. I could not focus on it.

The Beasts We Bury

The Beasts We Bury by D. L. Taylor

The heroine of this fantasy has a special ability with animals, but the power is related to killing the animals. There is a boy involved. The leaders of kingdom are bad. There is a duel where somebody is killed. The heroes have values that respect life and don't like what the leaders do. They work to overcome the badness. It is all the typical young adult fantasy romance. The animal part is a little bit different. There is a funny part where the girl asks the boy if she can kill him. She doesn't want to really do that, but wants to come close to see if he can be summoned. In the end, there is a big battle where a guy splits into a bunch of parts to complete the battle. It sitll doesn't help.

Bonesmith: House of the Dead Duology

Bonesmith: House of the Dead Duology by Nicki Pau Preto

These young adult fantasy books are all the same. A girl tries to come on her own, which means breaking with some tradition. There is a boy she falls in love, but there are great problems with it. Most of the time she is contemplating what she should do and how she should be change the course of history while being true to herself. But then the boys get in the way and some to muddle things up before being part of the solution. A bit of magic of some sort is sprinkled in. In this book there are undead. They must be disposed of so they don't come back and get in the way. The hero has to learn to get along with the boy so they can defeat the dark ones. The book goes on for way too long.

The Forest King's Daughter

The Forest King's Daughter by Elly Blake

All I remember is that this was a typical young adult fantasy romance. A ring has powers, so there must be some Tolkien influence as well. A girl has this ring. She is bound with it and has power. There is family drama. It goes on for a long time.

The Deathly Grimm

The Deathly Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

The second book in the series has the story continue on quests. The authorities in the land feel that they must have done something wrong because they were able to escape. They end up going back into the forest and fighting more battles. I got a bit lost with this one. There was some interesting Rumplestiltskin family. Or maybe that was the previous book. It blurs a bit.

The Forest Grimm

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

The protagonist wants to win a lottery to be able to go into the forest to find her mother. However, somebody else wins. She uses her map to help him. As they travel, they find various people from their town that have lost their mind and live like fairy tale characters. For instance, somebody is Rapunzel and tries to trap them with hair. There is a ghost boy they go along with and same scary encounters with others such as Hansel and Gretel. They eventually find mother in fairy tale form and do actions to save themselves. It has all the typical modern young adult fantasy values and tropes, but is a bit better than typical books in the genre.