ACOTAR COULD NEVER

A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic #1)
by Elise Kova
Silver Wing Press | November 26, 2020

      The elves come for two things: war and wives. In both cases, they come for death.

      Three-thousand years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic until the treaty was formed. Now, for centuries, the elves have taken a young woman from Luella's village to be their Human Queen.

      To be chosen is seen as a mark of death by the townsfolk. A mark nineteen-year-old Luella is grateful to have escaped as a girl. Instead, she's dedicated her life to studying herbology and becoming the town's only healer.

      That is, until the Elf King unexpectedly arrives... for her.

      Everything Luella had thought she'd known about her life, and herself, was a lie. Taken to a land filled with wild magic, Luella is forced to be the new queen to a cold yet blisteringly handsome Elf King. Once there, she learns about a dying world that only she can save.

      The magical land of Midscape pulls on one corner of her heart, her home and people tug on another... but what will truly break her is a passion she never wanted.

 Purchase via Bookshop

I NEED TO STOP READING TEEN ROMANCE FOR A WHILE

Crave (Crave #1)

by Tracy Wolff
Entangled Teen / Tantor Audio | April 7, 2020

     My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods…or monsters. I still can’t decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me.

     Then there’s Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn’t felt anything for a hundred years. But there’s something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what’s broken in me.

     Which could spell death for us all.

     Because Jaxon walled himself off for a reason. And now someone wants to wake a sleeping monster, and I’m wondering if I was brought here intentionally—as the bait.

TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE V

I doubt anybody knows this series, but I will be rereading the Gods & Monsters series by Kelly Keaton. This series is probably unknown for a reason. It's one of the many things I read on PulseIt, now called RivetedLit. I have a history of not enjoying books from this publisher, so maybe I will do a whole reread dedicated to this publisher, LOL! I am sure the reason I liked this series was because of the romance, but as I continued with the series, I realized how awful it was (the romance and the plot.) I do remember this is set in New Orleans, but it's dark and somewhat post-apocalyptic. I also remember that it has some Greek mythology. It's tragic to see stories with potential fail. 

Note: the Goodreads summaries have more spoilers than my reviews. If you are interested in this series, don't read the summaries (they're in a blockquote,) read the reviews. 

THE MOST IMPORTANT REVIEW OF 2020

The Queen of Nothing
by Holly Black
Little, Brown and Company | November 19, 2019

     He will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.
     Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to. Jude learned that lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
      Now, as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is left reeling from Cardan's betrayal. She bides her time, determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
      Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines, she becomes ensnared in the conflict's bloody politics.
     And when a terrible curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity...

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Pocket Books | February 1, 1999

     The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
     A #1 New York Times best seller for more than a year, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2000) and Best Book for Reluctant Readers (2000), and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.

CRUEL BEAUTY REREAD | WILL IT REMAIN ONE OF MY FAVORITES?

Cruel Beauty (Cruel Beauty Universe #1)

by Rosamund Hodge

Balzar & Bray | January 28, 2014

     Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
     With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
     But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.
     As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

(KIND OF) TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE

The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)
by Kresley Cole
Valkyrie Press | February 13, 2018

      In a world teetering on the edge...
When Evie received life-changing—and possibly game-changing—news, she has trouble believing it. Why doesn't she feel any different? Is it possible someone she trusts might be lying?
      With enemies at every turn...
Tensions seethe inside the castle of lost time as Evie starts to doubt her own sanity. Answers can be found outside their stronghold, but will Death help her find them—or prevent her from learning the truth about her future and Jack's possible survival?
      Darkness beckons.
A mysterious, sinister power begins to affect the Arcana in its path. Forced out into the wasteland alone, Evie must depend on unexpected allies. But as a battle with Richter looms, can her new alliance defeat the Dark Calling before hell reigns on earth?

TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE IV

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1)
by Kresley Cole
Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers | August 19, 2014

     She could save the world--or destroy it.
Sixteen-year-old Evangeline "Evie" Greene leads a charmed life--until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, killing everyone she loves, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future--and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.
     But she can't do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can't totally trust Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?
     Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it's not always clear who is on which side...

YET TO BE MAJORLY DISAPPOINTED

Echo North
by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Page Street Publishing Co. | January 15, 2019

      Echo Alkaev's safe and carefully structured world falls apart when her father leaves for the city and mysteriously disappears. Believing he is lost forever, Echo is shocked to find him half-frozen in the winter forest six months later, guarded by a strange talking wolf—the same creature who attacked her as a child. The wolf presents Echo with an ultimatum: If she lives with him for one year, he will ensure her father makes it home safely. But there is more to the wolf than Echo realizes. 
      In his enchanted house beneath a mountain, each room must be sewn together to keep the home from unraveling, and something new and dark and strange lies behind every door. When centuries-old secrets unfold, Echo discovers a magical library full of books-turned-mirrors, and a young man named Hal who is trapped inside of them. As the year ticks by, the rooms begin to disappear, and Echo must solve the mystery of the wolf's enchantment before her time is up, otherwise Echo, the wolf, and Hal will be lost forever.  

TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE III

The Pledge

by Kimberly Derting

Margaret K. McElderry | November 15, 2011

     In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.
     Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE II

Whenever I reread novels like these, I set out to hate them; I'm a more mature reader, I have grown out of this genre, I have read more poignant novels, I have to hate them to prove that I've matured. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel, it felt nostalgic! A year ago, I swore off JLA books after reading The Struggle because I hated where it was going, and that I "had" to read another book: I quit cold turkey. After being JLA sober for a year, I went back to my dealer-the bookshelf-and I am allured again. 

TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE I

I distinctly remember reading Hush, Hush on PulseIt, now RivetedLit, years ago; I fell in love with the book, and I went to B&N to buy the entire series. As I continued with it, I hated it more and more: it dragged, there was petty drama, and I didn't understand the point of it. In middle school, I met some friends who also loved to read, and they liked this series... Is there something wrong with me? Am I the only outlier? 

SUMMER BIRD BLUE

Summer Bird Blue
by Akemi Dawn Bowman
Simon Pulse | September 11, 2018

     Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. What to eat, where to go, whom to love. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of—she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea.
     Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her sister, being abandoned by her mother, and the absence of music in her life. With the help of the “boys next door”—a teenage surfer named Kai, who smiles too much and doesn’t take anything seriously, and an eighty-year-old named George Watanabe, who succumbed to his own grief years ago—Rumi attempts to find her way back to her music, to write the song she and Lea never had the chance to finish.

THIS WAS SO FREAKING ADORABLE

Eliza and Her Monsters

by Francesca Zappia

Greenwillow Books | May 30, 2017

      Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.
      In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.
      Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.
      But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE CREEPY?

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson
September 21, 1962

       Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods—until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.

A BOOK REVIEW OF THE MOVIE

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
Bloomsbury | August 4, 2002 

      The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring...
      In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.
      The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
      Only it's different.
      At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
      Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

CHOSEN CHAMPION COVER REVEAL

Chosen Champion (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles Book 2)
by Elise Kova
May 1, 2019 | Silver Wing Press

     A princess on the run, with enemies on all sides...
     Vi Solaris is on the eve of getting everything she’s ever wanted—her family, her home, her throne—and to save the world she’s going to have to give it all up.
     The Empire sees her as their Crown Princess, returning at long last. But Vi only sees visions of fate guiding her to the world’s gruesome end. Across the sea is a man who holds the keys to deciphering her premonitions and thwarting the ancient evil ravaging their world. But to get to him, Vi will have to contend with enemies of the crown, romance she didn’t expect, sorcerer pirates, and a betrayal she never saw coming.
     She will learn the hard way that some evils never die... They only bide their time...

Preorder on Amazon

If you have a nook or kobo, you can purchase through Amazon, email Elise a proof of purchase, Elise.Kova.Author@gmail.com, and then she'll send a personalized "read anywhere" link!

CRUEL PRINCE CAN LIKE, GET IT

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1)
by Holly Black
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
January 2, 2018

       Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
       And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
       Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
       To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
       As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES? I DON'T

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
(Rise of the Empress #1)
by Julie C. Dao
Speak | September 11, 2018 (paperback)
Source: won from a giveaway

     An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress--and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.
     Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?
     Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins--sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.

VICTORIAN AND SUPERNATURAL?

Soulless: The Manga
by Gail Carriger

illustrated by REM
Yen Press

          The life of a spinster in Victorian London isn't an easy one on the best of days, but such a life becomes infinitely more complicated when said spinster is "soulless" - a preternatural bridging the gap between the natural and supernatural worlds. Miss Alexia Tarabotti has this unique distinction, and when she is assailed at a formal gathering by a rove vampire, an encounter that results in the death of the half-starved creature, her circumstances become exponentially more complicated indeed! Now caught up in an intrigue with life or death stakes, Alexia must rely on all her talents to outmatch the forces conspiring against her, but it may be the man who has caught her eye - Lord Conall Maccon - and their budding flirtation that truly drives her to her wit's end!