keepcalmblogon's reviews
177 reviews

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you so much TBR & Beyond for my tour copy of The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew! This dystopian novel features two Black leads, and Jill describes it as being “for every Black girl who dreamed of being Tris, or Katniss, or Tally,” and I wholeheartedly agree that Liv deserves to be up there with some of our favorite FMCs for sheer badassery!

Adrian and Liv are well-written in that they both have imperfections and insecurities and similar childhood trauma. As enemies-to-lovers, their dynamic is unique because Liv loses her memories and so gets the opportunity to fall for Adrian without the factors of their different statuses getting in the way. Adrian’s underlying code of morality makes him the perfect protector, just as soon as he realizes who actually deserves his protection!

I think the world described in The Dividing Sky is an all-too-possible future in which a corporation becomes our government and our lives are based solely around being their employees. It is perfectly terrifying in its potential to become fact.

I loved that Jill imagined a future in which there is no racial divide, largely in part to all peoples eventually blending genetics so that all skin tones were in shades of brown and all hair and eye colors ran the gamut of possibility.

I think this book has a wonderful revolutionary ending that left me wondering if there could be a next book but also feeling a good amount of closure in regards to the conflict and romance. I think The Dividing Sky is perfect for any dystopian lover, but I also recommend it to anyone whose favorite plotlines were Katniss and Peeta or Tris and Four, and definitely to those Black girls and women Jill calls to in her promos! Four stars!

Onyx & Beyond by Amber McBride

emotional informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Onyx and Beyond is a novel in verse by Amber McBride and was a Macmillan Audio pick that surprised me! I didn’t actually realize this was a novel in verse until I started listening to it and realized the short chapters with metaphorical language and an abundance of imagery must be poems! 

From the synopsis: “Based on her own father's story of growing up in the 1960s and facing the same challenge with his own mother, award winner Amber McBride delivers another affecting depiction of being young and Black in America.” These poems paint a picture of what Alexandria, Maryland is like after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for a young Black boy who also experiences the loss of his grandmother while his mother suffers dementia. These poems portray the world as a place where magic is possible if only the correct magical stone is found, if space can be explored for healing properties and the bittersweet realization that maybe flight is possible, but not on physical wings. Onyx spends so much time planning to help his mother and hiding her condition, it’s not until he opens up to his extended family that he finds the wings he needed were those of his community. 

Overall, the story might have been about a young Black boy and his sick mother, but the message was for unity and community amongst Black Americans, who can lift each other and fly when united. 

The end of this book shares a dedication to Robin Gibson, of whom I had never heard before, but who the author states was a big deal in 1970 as he was a young Black man killed at a 7-Eleven in Alexandria; he was someone all the local kids are said to have looked up to, and he died at only age 19, far too soon. The author directs readers to read about him here: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/07/archives/weeks-disorders-end-in-alexandria.html

This book was absolutely five stars, and the audiobook was narrated with audible passion by André Santana.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Dementia

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Violence

The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I saw a recent QOTD that asked what was the last book that surprised me, and I now have an answer! Going into The Naming Song I expected something heavily fantasy and magic-based,  but what I got was nearly dystopian with magic that wasn’t magic—until it was! I think the best way to describe this book is literary magical realism??? The world of the Naming Song is a post-apocalyptic dystopia in which the apocalypse took away words and language and as words were rediscovered, committees rose to create order from the chaos. 

This book is so hard to describe because it has a fantasy feel despite it’s dystopian plot; I’d almost call it a cozy mystery as the MC, the unnamed courier who straddles both the world of the named (as a courier) and the borders of the nameless (having no name herself), begins to unravel a web of connections between the two worlds and find answers to who she is how the world should be vs. how those with the power of naming want it to be. 

It was so interesting to me that this world essentially used magic but in a way that made it more like science and technology—there are ghosts and monsters, but their explanations for being seem perfectly scientific and not magical at all. Later in the book there is a way to use words called spelling (and I absolutely adored the wordplay because in a world when words are being rediscovered and there is no name even for the alphabet, spelling might not mean the same thing to them as it does to us, but of course reeks of magic!) that causes reality to bend in the way the user needs it to—for instance, saying “light” but using spell illuminates an area, or spelling “sleep” will knock unconscious the people around the speller! This book straddles science and magic the same way the inhabitants of the book live in between the named and unnamed!

This book was entertaining and thought-provoking—so clearly carefully crafted—down to the very last word and was so pleasantly surprising, it was absolutely five stars!

The Naming Song was a Macmillan Audio pick!

Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi

hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Best Hex Ever was a NetGalley book I picked on a whim as I don’t usually eyeball read romance, but this looked so cozy and autumnal I had to see if it matched the cover! 

I’m so happy to say it absolutely did! From the opening scene I was immediately vibing with the fall aesthetic and cozy setting—a witchy coffee shop in London in October! Enter dreamy curator Scott, who is equal parts nerdy and hunky! Little do they know that something like fate has plans for them—it turns out they’re the maid of honor and best man and their best friends’ wedding! 

This book is filled with uncanny coincidences, baked goods, a feline familiar, and spice (to go with that pumpkin!)! It was the perfect balance of cozy, witchy, romance, and recovery from relationship trauma. I give it four stars and highly recommend to all of my spicy romance-loving friends and anyone looking for a spooky season read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Heir by Sabaa Tahir

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I was beyond excited to get approved for Heir! I read AEITA series with some friends last year and was heartbroken and swooning and cheering and grieving and couldn’t have done it alone! People think ASOIAF is brutal, but these YA books are gut wrenching! So of course I was excited to read Heir, because who doesn’t love light masochism??? 

I was rooting for Aiz because who doesn’t love a downtrodden underdog willing to risk it all to save her people? Quil is everything I expected Helene to raise as her nephew and heir. Sirsha is the badass FMC who’s wholly capable of going it alone, but learns how much better it is to let people in.

While I did spot a few of the major twists due to excellent foreshadowing, I enjoyed reading how each turn would play out, even though it broke my heart just a little more to see each disaster unfolding! Aiz betrayed me most of all, and I found her actions to be a little contrary—she needed a substance from the Empire for her people to take a long journey, but in order to get it, she wasted the stores of the substance her people already had? I felt like if she had enough to do what she did then she had enough to take the trip that needed to be taken? But I also recognize she was ultimately being manipulated, so maybe what she did didn’t need to make sense.

Cero was the biggest surprise for me, and I can’t wait to see what he does next! I hope the next book doesn’t take too long to come out because Quil and Sirsha deserve so much more, and I want to eat up every morsel! I am also hoping for some more Sufiyan POV chapters!

Ultimately, I am giving this five stars because I was invested and entertained the whole way through!

A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole by Marian Schembari

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole was a Macmillan Audio pick, and going in I knew this book would resonate with me, but didn’t realize just how much!

“Marian Schembari was thirty-four years old when she learned she was autistic. By then, she’d spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn’t just act like everyone else.” After a slew of therapists over the years had misdiagnosed her, Marian first self-diagnosed, and immediately found relief in the ability to recognize and begin to accommodate herself. The part that really hit me in this book was Marian’s post-”official”-diagnosis revelation that self-diagnosis is perfectly valid, especially for women and other marginalized groups, such as queer and trans people and people of color, and even more especially for those who live in the united states where not only is autism diagnosis more focused on males, but mainly children—and lets not forget our costs of healthcare!

Sidebar to my own story: I began to suspect I was on the ASD spectrum a little over two years ago and have since done research to feel confident in a self-diagnosis. When asked by my PCP, in a rather condescending tone, why I wanted to get a diagnosis as an adult, I said, “To know!” And while there was an implication that my answer wasn’t “good enough,” I did get in touch with a telehealth therapist. She subsequently “validated me to death,” which was honestly not helpful at all. I also reached out to another therapist whose first response was to negate all of my findings OF MYSELF. Finally, being an American, adult female, I found it nearly impossible to find psychologists to contact that I could also afford. I was left for a while feeling like an imposter, which Marian goes over in her book, and finally settled into a feeling of acceptance with my loved ones and my family that was a starting point for me to better communicate my needs. All of this was mirrored in Marian’s experiences throughout her book, and her final statements on self-diagnosis validated everything I had gone through and felt and honestly fought for over the last two years.

The other major revelation of Marian’s book is her discussion on how we’ve been using the term spectrum all wrong! Spectrum is not a range, people are not “more” or “less” autistic; the autism spectrum, according to the DSM5, is “an uneven profile of abilities,” therefore one person’s autism will not look the same as another’s. While I recognized the basic message in this as something I already knew about autism, redefining the word spectrum broke a barrier I didn’t realize I had placed.

Marian narrated this audiobook herself, and I truly love when nonfiction authors do that! This was five stars for me, and I’ve already recommended it to friends!

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Buried Deep and Other Stories is a collection of short stories from the worlds of Naomi Novik and I was so excited to get this on NetGalley because I had to have a peek back into the world of The Scholomance! I read that trilogy last year and really loved it, so to see one of those characters again warmed my heart.

There were two Temeraire stories that got me super interested in reading more of that alternate history series, especially the Pride and Prejudice (and dragons!) retelling! There was a Spinning Silver story, and of course I will now have to read that book because that was everything I want in a fairy story! The titular story, Buried Deep, was a Minotaur retelling, and while I don’t really enjoy Greek mythology as much as I used to, I did like the unique spin this one had.

All of these stories had completely different feels; one is a sci-fi about the evils of space colonization, while another takes place in the trenches of Great War France. Some feel like traditional short stories, while others feel like completely realized dramas.

The last story, The Long Way Round, is a sneak peek at the world in which Novik’s next book takes place and that one was one of my favorites—if you like grand adventures across oceans, the love between siblings, and queer representation, I’m certain you’ll love that story too!

Overall, this entire collection of 13 stories is five stars for me!

Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Celestial Monsters was a Macmillan Audio pick and I was so excited to start it after the pretty wild cliffhanger that ends The Sunbearer Trials! Immediately we’re back to the action with Teo, Aurelio, and Niya responsible for ending the apocalypse with a little help from the gods in the form of an Odyssian collection of goods!

While a good portion of this book is spent on a journey, none of it felt extraneous or boring, it all moved the story along. Each stop along the way taught the trio more about the world they were trying to save and had them questioning if the status quo needed changing. 

I enjoyed having the second POV of Xio and being able to get into their mind after the events of book one. I especially loved their conversation with the other semidioses that had them questioning their motives and possible outcomes. It was a wonderful example of enemies earnestly communicating and actually listening and hearing each other—I wish the real world would do this more often.

The blooming romance between Teo and Aurelio built naturally and sweetly over the course of their adventure, and Niya’s surprise romance at the end had my jaw dropping! Even Xio seemed to have made a connection of their own, even if it might be just as friends, but one can hope!

In the end, this was another solid four stars for me, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes underdogs saving the world!

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I listened to a serialized version of The Sunbearer Trials on Macmillan’s YA Heard it Here First podcast & really enjoyed it! I love a magical competition, so that was a check for me! I also loved the trans & LGBTQ rep as well as the Latin American mythology—which is not a mythology I’ve read a lot! Teo was such a sympathetic character, he sees right & wrong so clearly, but he isn’t patronizing or self-righteous about it; He tries to get people to understand the world the way he sees it by communicating with them. Niya is my favorite type of side-kick best friend character—she’s punch first, ask questions later, & while she prefers the same sex, she’s always ready to point out just how hot someone is, even if they’re a jerk! She’s the perfect comic relief wrapped up in unyielding loyalty to her friends & beliefs. 

This magical trial is meant to end with the victor sacrificing the bottom-ranked semidiós, which sounds very Hunger Games, but takes place in a very peaceful world with respect & thanks heaped onto the sacrifice, so that’s an interesting twist & one of the core conflicts Teo faces. Xio is the assumed sacrifice being the youngest & least magically gifted semidiós, but Teo & Niya vow to protect him as letting him rank last place would be unfair considering the other competitors are the best in their class & have been specifically trained for the Trials. The trio form a bond of friendship & protection, & in the end many twists ensue!

All the while, Teo slowly rekindles a friendship, & maybe something more, with an old friend turned near-enemy, Aurelio. It was so sweet to watch these two boys bridge the gaps that came between them—we even get a few scenes where Aurelio, the experienced hero, helps Teo train to get through the Trial—who doesn’t love a good training scene with loads of romantic tension?!

I think it was fun to serialize an audiobook, it kept up my anticipation as I had to wait for new chapters to drop on Tuesdays & Thursdays. I also think André Santana is one of my new favorite narrators!

A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson

adventurous emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A Pair of Wings was a different pick for me because with historical fiction I usually go back to the times of kings and castles and courtly intrigue and tend to avoid American history, but something drew me to this book! Bessie Coleman was essentially a footnote in my history classes in school and was often overshadowed by Amelia Earhart, and I’m sure it’s because Amelia was white and Bessie was Black, despite Bessie being older and being granted an FAI license first. 

Reading about Bessie’s life not only taught me about her experience becoming a female pioneer in aviation, but also painted such a clear picture of Black life in America in the early 1900s as the author, in Bessie’s voice, would give historical context, often going into exposition on other Black pioneers and activists, and I really appreciated that aspect of the storytelling! The book is mostly written in first person POV with Bessie stating she was given pages to write her story while she healed from a terrible crash, so I liked that it felt like a conversation with Bessie herself. 

In her short life, Bessie worked so hard to achieve her dreams, never once accepting defeat or giving in to despair and what she accomplished was truly impressive! Her story was so inspiring, and not just for aviators, but honestly for anyone with dreams, goals, and the passion to succeed! 

The end of this five star book absolutely wrecked me because that was not something I remembered from the little I knew about her, and I appreciate that the author gave an Afterward about her own life and experiences—Hopson hadn’t even heard of Bessie Coleman until she had begun pilot school and a friend gave her a book about Coleman! Hopson founded an organization dedicated to sending one hundred Black women to flight school by the year 2035!

P.S. I really enjoyed the narrator’s ability to do various accents!