Book Reviews

Tristan Strong Destroys the World (Tristan Strong #2)

Tristan Strong Destroys the World (Tristan Strong #2)

By:

Kwame Mbalia

Blurb:

Tristan Strong, just back from a victorious but exhausting adventure in Alke, the land of African American folk heroes and African gods, is suffering from PTSD. But there’s no rest for the weary when his grandmother is abducted by a mysterious villain out for revenge. Tristan must return to Alke–and reunite with his loud-mouthed sidekick, Gum Baby–in order to rescue Nana and stop the culprit from creating further devastation. Anansi, now a “web developer” in Tristan’s phone, is close at hand to offer advice, and several new folk heroes will aid Tristan in his quest, but he will only succeed if he can figure out a way to sew broken souls back together.

Review:

I’m happy I listened to my librarian when she recommended the Tristan Strong series. It’s been a great source of entertainment and a nice light story to escape into. Plus, I’ve always loved mythology, and this is something I’m not super familiar with.

Tristan Strong Destroys the World picks up about a month after the last book. Tristan is doing a little better with his grief but has started having nightly nightmares. He ends up being drawn back to Alke when his grandmother is kidnapped. You end up learning more about her and the start of an explanation of why Tristan has his abilities.

The story ends not quite on a cliffhanger, but it does set up the following book’s story. This is supposed to be a trilogy, so we should reach a conclusion at that time. I kind of hope it isn’t, though. I’d love to read more in this world with these characters.

4/5

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

By:

Rebecca Roanhorse

Blurb:

The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic.

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Review:

Reading over the blurb for Black Sun, I’m not sure why I added it to my to-read list. It’s a good blurb, but not what I usually read. It’s got a great cover, and it was on a ton of must-read lists, so maybe that was why.

I liked the characters that were followed in Black Sun. There were four, and they were each unique and complex, but they were good. I like books where I don’t hate the main characters. They were flawed and trying to work in a system that was fighting against them, but they kept on fighting.

The world created was also interesting. It was new and different. I’m still unclear on many things, but I’m hoping it’s answered in the following books.

The only thing I found frustrating was the ending. It was a major cliffhanger. I wish that I’d known that going in because the next book doesn’t come out until 2022, and that’s a long time to wait after such an ending. It would have been nice to wait until the second book was finished before starting the series.

Oh well. I enjoyed Black Sun, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, whenever that comes out.

4/5

How to Fail at Flirting

How to Fail at Flirting

By:

Denise Williams

Blurb :

One daring to-do list and a crash course in flirtation turn a Type A overachiever’s world upside down.

When her flailing department lands on the university’s chopping block, Professor Naya Turner’s friends convince her to shed her frumpy cardigan for an evening on the town. For one night her focus will stray from her demanding job and she’ll tackle a new kind of to-do list. When she meets a charming stranger in town on business, he presents the perfect opportunity to check off the items on her list. Let the guy buy her a drink. Check. Try something new. Check. A no-strings-attached hookup. Check…almost.

Jake makes her laugh and challenges Naya to rebuild her confidence, which was left toppled by her abusive ex-boyfriend. Soon she’s flirting with the chance at a more serious romantic relationship—except nothing can be that easy. The complicated strings around her dating Jake might destroy her career.

Naya has two options. She can protect her professional reputation and return to her old life or she can flirt with the unknown and stay with the person who makes her feel like she’s finally living again.

Review:

***Trigger Warning for Sexual Assault***

I thought this would be about Naya trying to separate herself from work, but it was mostly about her learning to live after being in an abusive relationship. There are vague mentions about what was done to her throughout the book until the end, when her abuser confronts her and shows you what he was like. It wasn’t as graphic as it could have been, this is, after all, a romance, but it was detailed enough I could see it making people uncomfortable.

Naya was a victim of abuse, and she read like it. She hadn’t pursued therapy, but she had spoken to some friends. I’m not sure how much she shared, though. In the aftermath of her bad relationship, she obviously changed and shut down, burying herself in her work. Her friends issue a challenge, they don’t expect her to follow, but after a few gins at a bar, she does. I’m really glad nothing happened with Jake at that time because they were both inhibited, though it never brought up that fact.

Jake was sweet. He was a dork and loveable. The humor between the two was amusing, with lots of puns. I like puns, so I enjoyed it. He had a job that required a lot of travel. They were a long-distance relationship. I’m never a fan of those. The couple ends up spending all of their time doing it whenever they’re together. Which is understandable, and Williams skipped over stuff after a couple of scenes, but it made their relationship a bit boring at times.

How to Fail at Flirting was an okay book, but I feel that someone needs a warning before reading it because of the content.

3/5

The Once and Future Witches

The Once and Future Witches

By:

Alix E. Harrow

Blurb:

In 1893, there’s no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters–James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna–join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women’s movement into the witch’s movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There’s no such thing as witches. But there will be.

Review:

The Once and Future Witches was on all the lists last year. It was nominated for a Goodreads choice award and probably other ones too. The author’s website is pretty lacking, so I’m not sure about that. Her previous book got nominated for everything, though. A lot of the time, when I read books like this, I’m disappointed. I like lighter fare, something not grounded in realism. That isn’t always the case, of course, and I’m happy to say it wasn’t with The Once and Future Witches.

The story follows three sisters. They grew up with an abusive father and are all struggling with what was done to them in their own ways. Set in the late 1800s, they live in a world that treats women as property. They don’t have the vote and have been stripped of any magical power they had through years of witch trials. The only things they have are the stories and words their grandmother taught them.

The magic in this world was fascinating. I enjoyed how fairy tales were included and the power they gave. The spells were all interesting and feel so accessible. What if I can say these words and clean my house? Ugh, if only. Honestly, it made me want to believe.

Anyway! There was a diverse cast of characters, strong women that weren’t cookie cutters, and just enough magic to make the realism less draining. The ending was good, but not too happy, which is what you expect from these types of books. I liked it. I’m going to look into Harrow’s previous book now.

4/5

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (Tristan Strong #1)

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (Tristan Strong #1)

By:

Kwame Mbalia

Blurb:

Seventh-grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he’s going to spend on his grandparents’ farm in Alabama, where he’s being sent to heal from the tragedy. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie’s journal. Tristan chases after it — is that a doll? — and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature’s hands, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world. Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American gods John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price. Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?

Review:

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky is presented by Rick Riordan. Now, I’ve read the Percy Jackson books, and I enjoyed them, but they came out after I graduated high school, so they don’t have the nostalgia attached to them that Harry Potter does. They’re good books, but honestly, I forget about them.

Anyway, Tristan Strong has a lot of the stuff I remember from the Percy Jackson books. You’ve got an everyday kid thrust into an impossible situation rising to the occasion. Honestly, I loved Tristan more than Percy. He was going through a lot and struggling, and several times I cried for him. Reading as Tristan became surer of himself was beautiful. He read like a seventh-grader, and I thought Mbalia did a great job writing him.

The non-god characters in this book weren’t as fleshed out, but that was really only two characters, so I didn’t have a problem with it. I loved the mythology in this story. I’ve heard a couple of these stories before, but there were so many I hadn’t. It made me want to research them. It was awesome.

I’ve got a stack of library books I need to read, of course, but as soon as I finished Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, I went to the library and picked up the sequel. I’m hoping that one day my kids will actually enjoy me reading books like this to them, and I can do that too.

4.5/5