ARC

Review: Guardians of the Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones

~ megs14malloy

Guardians of Dawn: ZharaGuardians of Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara is the start of a new YA Fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, author of the Wintersong duology.

I have been awaiting this release for a while and the wait was worth it. I really enjoyed this and read it so quickly.

In this story, we meet Jin Zhara, an apothecary’s apprentice, who spends her days trying to control and hide her magic, caring for her visually impaired younger sister and appeasing her cruel stepmother’s every whim.

Magic is forbidden in her society and magicians have been blamed for certain tragic events over the years, rightly or not. When a new plague hits the streets, transforming magicians into monsters, abominations, Zhara’s world becomes more tumultuous than ever.

A chance encounter with an attractive young man, Han, also shakes up Zhara’s life. It exposes her to a whole new hidden world, including a secret magical liberation society called the Guardians of Dawn.

What Zhara has no way of knowing though, is how big a role she will come to play within this group.

It’s believed a demon is responsible for the new round of abominations and Zhara, along with her recently-met friends, must come up with a plan to weed out the demon and destroy it. Only then can balance be restored. If they fail, their society may be left in ruin.

I read this via audiobook and really, really enjoyed it. The narration brought these characters to life. I thought it was so well performed. I was sucked in from the start.

I thought the world-creation was very well done. I enjoyed how it felt historical, yet modern at the same time. Additionally, the story had the perfect balance between light and dark elements.

I enjoyed both Zhara and Han, as well as their blossoming relationship and rapid-fire banter. I liked getting both of their perspectives and watching how they each contributed to the over-arching plot.

From the moment of their meet cute, I wanted them to grow closer. They were both so endearing, yet also a bit clumsy.

I loved that. I thought it worked well as they progressively grew closer and the secrets they had been hiding from one another were revealed.

Their personalities balanced each other out.

One thing I always enjoy about S. Jae-Jones writing is the dark imagery she brings to the page. Even though quite a bit of this story is fun and light, cute and bright, there are darker elements running throughout and when the monsters come, look out! They’re not so cute.

I also really enjoyed and appreciated the cultural richness that can be felt throughout this story. And as mentioned before, I felt those influences were both historical and modern, as I was feeling a touch of BTS in this.

Watching Zhara mature over the course of this story, as well as learning to harness her powers more, was so satisfying. I also liked learning about this secret society and think there is a lot of room for that element to continue to be built out.

I am absolutely continuing on with this series as it goes and am really looking forward to it. I would recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed stories like The Keeper of Night, Stars and Smoke and even Cinder.

Thank you to the publisher, Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was definitely worth the wait.

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Review: Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark

~ megs14malloy

Abeni's SongAbeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark

Abeni’s Song is the Middle Grade Fantasy debut of beloved and award-winning SFF-author, P. Djèlí Clark. I love reading Middle Grade and have found a lot of joy over the years within the genre.

As soon as I heard about this, I knew I had to read it. I’ve really enjoyed Clark’s writing in the past and was super interested to see what he would do in the MG-space.

In this story we follow Abeni, a young girl, who on Harvest Festival day, loses everyone in her village to raiders and a man playing a cursed flute. The villagers are marched away, lured by the song, to ghost ships set for distant lands.

Abeni isn’t sucked in by the spell though. Instead she is whisked away by the old woman who lives in the forest abutting her village, reputed to be a witch.

Although Abeni feels like the witch’s prisoner, she has in a way been saved and her unwanted magical apprenticeship begins. Still, even though she isn’t being harmed, Abeni is distraught and heartbroken over what happened to her village and her loved ones.

Over the course of the story, Abeni learns about magic, history and herself, all while focusing on her mission to rescue her people and bring them home.

Abeni’s Song is a solid story, with plenty of room to grow as the series continues.

I love and respect P. Djèlí Clark tremendously as a Fantasy writer. He’s incredibly imaginative and I love some of the dark imagery he conjures up through his stories. There’s definitely some of that beautiful, darker imagery here.

I am also excited he’s branching out into the Middle Grade space for the first time. It’s important to have this type of representation and culturally-influenced stories for young people to discover, but overall, this one was just okay for me.

IMO, this didn’t feel like a Middle Grade Fantasy. It read more like an Adult Fantasy with a young protagonist. The chapters were quite long and more heavy-handed in the settings, descriptions and inner thoughts of our MC, than with action, witty dialogue or fantastical elements.

Because of this, I didn’t find myself enjoying this as much as I have some other Middle Grade Fantasies. It’s still a great, well-developed story, with strong character work, but just in comparison with other stories in the space, it was a little more challenging to work through.

With this being said, there is so much to love about this book. Abeni is a memorable character, who really matured over the course of the story. I know so many Readers are going to love and connect with this.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Starscape and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. Clark is such a phenomenal writer and I look forward to picking up more of his work in the future!

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Review: They Lurk by Ronald Malfi

~ megs14malloy

They LurkThey Lurk by Ronald Malfi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

This 2014-novella collection has been lovingly-repackaged and rereleased by Titan Books and Tantor Audio.

I am so pleased with how the cover pairs with Ghostwritten. I really enjoyed that collection as well and feel like these two would make quite a duo on the shelves.

The stories included are: They Lurk, Skullbelly, The Separation, The Stranger, After the Fade and Fierce.

I felt the arrangement was great, as my favorite story was the first one and my least favorite was last, but by least favorite, we’re still talking like a solid 3.5-star rounded up.

Ronald Malfi is one of my favorite authors. Truth be told, I’m a bit of a fangirl, but honestly, I feel like this collection has something for every Horror Reader to enjoy.

Each story had it’s own vibe, but the one thing they all had was a overriding creepiness as the narrative unfolded. There were times I was feeling like Bone White vibes, other times I was getting The Mist, I was hooked.

I listened to the audiobook and would definitely recommend that as a medium. Both narrators did an incredible job bringing these stories to life. Well done!

It’s rare for me to find a short-story collection that works for me so well. This was fantastic. I can’t praise Malfi enough. Every time I pick up one of his books, I’m reminded of how in love I am with the tone and delivery of his stories.

Chef’s freaking kiss!!!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tantor Audio and Titan Books, for providing me with copies to read and review. I’m working my way through Malfi’s backlist and these rereleases are certainly helpful!!

If you love Horror and have yet to read Malfi, you need to change that ASAP. 10-out-of-10 recommend!!!

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Review: Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington

~ megs14malloy

Their Vicious GamesTheir Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Applause for days. Wellington knocked this out of the park.

Let’s talk about it, shall we?

In Their Vicious Games we follow Adina Walker, a Black teen, who has just graduated from Edgewater Academy, a prestigious private high school in New England, attended by super-rich, mostly white, students.

Adina’s parents both work at Edgewater and she was able to attend via scholarships. Because of this, she’s always known she had to work twice as hard as the other students to keep herself above reproach. Her life under a microscope.

All her work seemed to be paying off when she received her acceptance letter to Yale. Unfortunately, another student with her sights on Yale wasn’t accepted and decides to take out her failure on Adina. A fight ensues, which gets blamed, of course, on Adina.

Just like that, Adina watches her future slip away. Her acceptance to Yale is revoked, along with her chance to enter any other Ivy. Adina is devastated, she’s furious, she’s shocked, she’s a lot of things, but a quitter isn’t one of them.

There’s one more chance. An extremely-mysterious competition called The Finish, hosted by the wealthiest of the Edgewater families, the Remingtons.

Twelve girls, hand-selected by the family, are brought together at the family estate to compete in three different challenges. These girls must show exceptional promise to even be picked, as the winner is granted entry into the Remington family, where all doors are opened to them.

Adina, catching the eye of the Remington’s youngest son, is granted an invitation. This is it. Her one chance to get her life back. Adina will stop at nothing to win, or at least that’s what she thinks going into the competition.

The truth is, Adina could have never imagined how high the stakes are, or how vicious the play would actually be. Look out Mean Girls, you’ve got nothing on Their Vicious Games!!

Y’all, I can’t even express to you how much I loved this. I am probably doing a terrible job at even trying to sum it up, because I’m just so excited about it.

I feel like Wellington absolutely nailed what she was trying to achieve here. I was hooked from the very first chapter, invested in Adina and her future like she was my own darned child. I loved how quickly this kicked off and I feel like it was really easy to get into it.

The whole set-up was fantastic. I loved how the girls actually got to live at the estate. They had no contact with the outside world while there. Literally, all rules, laws, and social conventions had gone right out the window.

Adina had a roommate, Saint, who ended up being one of the highlights of the story for me. I loved her character so much and the relationship that developed between Saint and Adina was hero/sidekick gold.

I also loved the actual competition elements. Wellington wasn’t pulling any punches with this one. It got brutal and I was there for every toe-curling minute of it.

I love how Wellington committed to the concept and took it all the way. She didn’t try to make the Reader comfortable. I respect that so much.

In my opinion, this was also really well-constructed just in its general story-telling quality. It was completely engaging, intense and the biting social commentary was chef’s kiss level good.

I loved it. I’m not sure what else to say.

If you enjoy brutal, cunning, manipulative characters hell bent on destroying one another via an organized competition, than this one is for you. Maybe you love Social Horror, or books that have something to say, than this one is also for you.

I had a blast with it and am so impressed with this as a debut novel. Well done, Joelle Wellington. I certainly hope this book gets all the praise it deserves!!!

Thank you so, so much to the publisher, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. I have a strong feeling this is going to find its way onto my Best Books of the Year list.

I cannot wait to read more from this author!!!

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Review: The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

~ megs14malloy

The Deep SkyThe Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

The Deep Sky is a recently-released SF-Thriller debut from Yume Kitasei. This story features a deep space mission where a lethal explosion causes the survivors to question the loyalty of their fellow crew members.

We follow Asuka, one of the crew and sole surviving witness to the explosion that killed three mission members and knocked their ship, The Phoenix, off course.

The set-up was interesting and scarily plausible. With Earth on the brink of an planet-altering environmental disaster, the countries of the world nominate individuals to compete for a spot on a humanity-saving mission.

As with any interstellar mission, space is limited. Asuka is selected as a contender to represent her mother’s native-Japan. Although not initially chosen, Asuka earns a spot as an alternate due to unforeseen circumstances.

Because of this, Asuka can’t help but feel like an outsider.

When the explosion happens, and Asuka is nearby and survives, she becomes a bit of a suspect in the eyes of some of the other crew members.

Asuka feels like she needs to get to the bottom of what caused the explosion. She can clear her name and find out what is actually going on with the rest of the crew. Thus, a mystery twist unfolds.

This was really good actually. I was a bit on the fence at first. The story wasn’t fully able to capture my attention until around the halfway mark. I was very pleased that Kitasei was eventually able to pull me in through the intensity of the storyline and completely pulled it off in the end.

The story is quite thoughtfully-written and the SF-elements provided plenty of interesting possibilities for our future. This would make a great one to discuss with friends, a book club, or other SF-readers in general.

I did feel like the idea of the mission, the way it was initiated was well-developed and thought out. I feel like when you are writing something futuristic like this, you can really go anywhere with it. Kitasei’s take was creative and frankly, believable in a frightening way.

The aspects of this that didn’t work as well for me were the story construction, especially in the beginning, and some of the character work.

The narrative jumps around from present to the past frequently and I felt like, for me, those transitions weren’t smooth enough. They were quite jarring and I kept feeling out of touch with what was happening because of it. Additionally, as far as the characters go, I had a hard time remembering anyone besides our main, Asuka.

None of them felt distinct to me like Asuka did. In spite of that though, I still appreciate what the author developed here. I think this story shows a lot of great creativity and thoughtfulness about the potential future of humanity.

Overall, I was impressed with this as a debut story. It’s complex, multifaceted and thought-provoking. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would definitely recommend the audio version. The narration fit the story very well.

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Review: The Weekend Escape by Rakie Bennett

~ megs14malloy

The Weekend EscapeThe Weekend Escape by Rakie Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

After reading the synopsis for The Weekend Escape, I knew I needed to read it. This set-up is my absolute go-to for atmospheric, thrilling reads.

A deserted island, a vicious storm, a murderer amongst friends…

The weekend was intended as a fun reunion for six friends, Val, Bobbie, Juliet, Amanda, Lyndsey and Sonia, but almost as soon as the women arrive on the deserted island, their destination for the weekend, things take a turn for the worst.

The women form a bit of an informal climbing group, they’ve been climbing things together since they were school girls. Their mountain this weekend, an old lighthouse.

A climbing incident leaves one of the women injured. Inclement weather and other extenuating circumstances make communication with the mainland impossible.

Power outages, misplaced poison, secrets, lies and a mysterious Bird Warden, add to the tension and spiraling happenings. What started as a weekend for fun and adventure has turned into a weekend of survival and a fight for their lives.

Who will make it through the weekend escape?

I had fun with this. The setting and atmosphere delivered as promised. I also enjoyed learning about the characters and all their drama, as well as their shared history.

While I’m not sure how memorable this story is overall, it made for a fun weekend read.

I will say this is very, very, very similar to She Started It, which I read not long ago. For the record, this one was published in 2021. I wish I’d have read it first. I actually enjoyed this one more than SSI.

I liked this setting more and I also didn’t find this to be predictable, as I did SSI. I couldn’t help but make comparisons throughout while reading, which I did find to be distracting. I wish I had read this one and this one only.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a deserted island story, or stories involving friends weekends gone wrong. This had some intense moments and it was fun watching it all unfold.

Thank you to the publisher, One More Chapter, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to it!

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Review: The Woods Are Waiting by Katherine Greene

~ megs14malloy

The Woods Are WaitingThe Woods Are Waiting by Katherine Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Woods Are Waiting is a solid debut. It is a fairly simplistic story, but was easy to understand and I enjoyed the overall tone of Greene’s writing.

To be honest, I’m not sure how long the story and characters will stick in my mind, but I would absolutely pick up future work from this author.

In this story we’re following two women, Cheyenne and Natalie. They were childhood best friends, but after Cheyenne moved away suddenly, they lost touch.

Both born and raised in Blue Cliff, Virginia, the women are well versed in the local town lore and superstitions.

Cheyenne, who was raised in the mountains by her single-eccentric mother, in part fled the town to be done with all that stuff. She couldn’t take it anymore.

When a child disappears in Blue Cliff though, Cheyenne receives a call that the event has put her mother in a tailspin and she needs to return home.

The missing boy is all too reminiscent of the three children who were kidnapped and murdered five years before. A man named Jasper went to jail for those killings, but was recently released on a technicality, now another boy is gone.

Nat never left Blue Cliff and she’s surprised when Cheyenne returns. Will the two women being able to repair their relationship long enough to figure out this new disappearance before it’s too late?

As mentioned above, I particularly enjoyed the feel of this. Set in a small town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, this narrative had a sort of Hillbilly Noir quality to it that I have enjoyed previously in Crime Fiction books such as The Familiar Dark and Out of the Ashes.

It was gritty and I enjoyed all the local lore that the main plot points revolved around. The characters as well were easy to follow, learn about and were mostly likable.

There’s a lot of drama in the town and I think Cheyenne is fairly quickly reminded about why she left. I also tend to love the trope of someone returning to their hometown after many years and investigating some sort of mystery, so this one checked that box as well.

I didn’t really enjoy the pace though. By the time I got to the 50%-point, I still felt like nothing happened. Not like in a slow-burn sort of way either, more in a hum-drum, there’s no action-way.

I think maybe the construction of the story was just slightly too simplistic, so it didn’t really have a chance to build any good suspense, in my opinion. Because of this, I also don’t feel this story is particularly memorable.

With this being said, this is a debut and I do think it is a great effort. I will definitely pick up whatever this author chooses to write next. I think there is a lot of potential here for growth and I am happy to go along for the ride.

Thank you to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to seeing where Greene’s work goes from here.

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Review: The Camp by Nancy Bush

~ megs14malloy

The CampThe Camp by Nancy Bush
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Toot toot! Hot-Mess-Express rolling into the station…

Well, this wasn’t quite what I expected and by quite, I mean, not at all. I felt way too disgruntled upon finishing it to write a review and now it’s been days.

I remember practically nothing, apparently sucked out of my brain by the ‘didn’t enjoy it’-gods.

All I can say is, if you tell me you are giving me Summer Camp Horror, you better deliver me Summer Camp Horror.

The synopsis of The Camp had me frothing at the mouth. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver any of the vibes, nor enticing plot, that I was expecting.

I’m an atmopshere-girlie first and foremost. I’ve mentioned that numerous times. One of my favorite settings is Summer Horror, particularly Summer Camp Horror. I feel like that is what I was promised here, but it’s not what I got.

There is nothing chilling about this, nor Friday the 13th about this and these are just things mentioned in the synopsis. I’m not inventing these comparisons on my own.

If I hadn’t had that in my mind, there’s a very slight chance I would have enjoyed it more, but honestly, I doubt it.

One of my biggest issues with this story was that it didn’t seem to know what type of story it was trying to be. It couldn’t figure out its own identity, so how the heck was I expected to?

There were way too many perspectives for my tastes, they just didn’t seem necessary, as well as a whole host of ridiculous subplots that I couldn’t have cared less about.

For example, you’re following camp counselors from the past, camp counselors from the present, people from a commune located near the camp, there’s a wacky surrogate subplot, a grown woman being accused of sleeping with a 15-year old boy and a cat that lives in a asylum that is giving total Doctor Sleep vibes…

I’m not sure what else to say. It’s rare I’m at a loss for words, but this is one of those occasions. It was just so hard to track and even harder to care. There were so many characters involved; too many.

It did get a little easier once they were all in one spot, the camp, but I feel like that happened way too late in the narrative. By then, I had given up. I probably should have DNFed, but I kept wanting to figure it out; like, what’s the point?

Honestly, it was pretty bad and not in a fun-Sharknado-bad sort of way…

As I always say though, and I do want to stress this, just because this book didn’t work for me, does not mean it won’t work for you. We all have different tastes and enjoy different things.

I’m not quite sure who I would recommend this to, but I would say probably not to huge Summer Camp, or Slasher Horror fans; like if Friday the 13th is your jam, this is not it.

Thank you to the publisher, Zebra Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Even when books don’t knock me out of the park, I still appreciate the opportunity to read and them and provide my opinion.

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Review: The Night It Ended by Katie Garner

~ megs14malloy

The Night It EndedThe Night It Ended by Katie Garner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

When a private investigator reaches out to Dr. Madeline Pine, a criminal psychologist specializing in female violence, to ask for her help with a case, she is hesitant to assist.

The case involves traveling to a remote private school, for girls with behavioral challenges, to investigate a recent death of one of the students.

Madeline doesn’t know if she is capable of handling this right now. That difficult case last year almost ruined her.

When she hears about the dead girl though, found barefoot and in her pajamas at the bottom of an icy ravine, she can’t resist. The deceased, Charley’s, Mom is the one who hired the P.I. after the police ruled the death an accident.

Madeline has her own daughter, Izzy, about the same age. She can’t imagine being in Charley’s Mom’s position. She would do anything to find out what happened to her own daughter, thus she feels like she has to help.

Madeline travels to the school with the P.I., Matt, and begins interviewing the other girls on campus over the winter holiday. They’re few, but have a lot to say.

This story jumps between the current timeline, with Madeline at the school trying to figure out what happened to Charley, and audio transcripts of interviews from a case the prior year. You don’t know who the interview participants are, but it’s clear a crime has occurred and the interviewee is involved in some way.

I enjoyed this. I thought this was a solid suspense novel. I enjoyed the setting of the private school and the fact that it was winter break made it extra eerie, as there were very few people left on campus.

The remote location was great and there was even inclement weather to add to that effect.

I liked how cold and dark it felt. Additionally, I liked how mysterious our main character, Madeline, was. She was there to help solve a mystery, but she had her own mysteries as the Reader, I was trying to figure out.

I didn’t find Charley’s story super compelling, but nevertheless, it was still well done. I was more interested in the students that were still left and just getting to know them, as well as finding out their intricacies and secrets.

One of the downfalls of this for me was the narrative style. We had quite a bit of blocky-feeling, stream of consciousness narrative from Madeline and I’m never crazy about that.

Particularly towards the end, Madeline has some things going on with her where she is starting to lose her grip on reality. In those moments, it just felt too jarring to me, the way it was written. I am not a fan of SOC-narrative style in general though, so take that with a grain of salt.


Additionally, in the moments when Madeline was getting confused, I was getting confused and not in a good, suspenseful way. I feel like those moments could have been dialed in a little more to provide more clarity to the Reader.

Overall though, I did enjoy this. I liked the atmosphere and learning about the characters. I think the ending was satisfying and there was definitely a twist that I did not see coming. That made me happy!

Thank you so much to the publisher, MIRA, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

This was fun and I would definitely be interested in picking up more from Katie Garner!

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Review: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

~ megs14malloy

The Seven Year SlipThe Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Last year, after reading the synopsis, I had no idea how Ashley Poston was going to deliver on the The Dead Romantics. How was it even going to work?

Not only did she nail that, but it ended up being one of my most memorable books of 2022. I loved it so much and have been eagerly anticipating this new release ever since.

The time has finally come for the latest Adult Romantic Contemporary from Ashley Poston.

Unsurprisingly, The Seven Year Slip is stunning. I love this story with my whole heart. Poston has such a unique and magical sense of Contemporary storytelling that really vibes with my tastes.

I cried actual tears, y’all. That’s rough, but feels so good.

In this story we follow Clementine, a single-woman in NYC. She works in publishing and lives in a well-loved apartment that she recently inherited from her late-Aunt.

Six-months have passed since the toughest day in Clementine’s life and she feels like she is doing a relatively good job holding it all together. She is still working hard, focusing on that and just staying busy.

She may be fooling herself though, as she’s sort of standing in place; stuck.

That is until the apartment, which her Aunt always promised her was magical, delivers her the perfect gift she needed to potentially shake her out of her funk.

A man. The apartment delivers her a handsome, kind, sexy man with a Southern drawl and a penchant for cooking. The only problem, for him, it’s seven years in the past.

How the heck is this going to work, you may be wondering? How does this even make sense? All I can say to you is, trust the Poston.

The Seven Year Slip is an absolute delight. It’s so layered and beautiful. I loved so, so much about this story, but for me, the really special part was the relationship between Clementine and her Aunt.

As someone who is so incredibly close with my now adult niece and nephew, that aspect hit me hard. Right in the feels, like a gut punch. You could tell that Poston was writing this story from the heart. I felt it all the way to the marrow of my bones.

Poston’s writing is incredibly smooth and engaging. She quickly pulls you in and before you know it, you’re completely immersed in whatever world she has created.

Additionally, she has a smart and snarky wit that just tickles me. Her characters are fantastic and I love the exploration of the different kinds of love and relationships. Particularly the family relationships are so well done.

As you can tell, I adored this story. I walk away with a full heart. 10-out-of-10 recommend.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This will definitely be a standout for me in 2023!

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