popthebutterfly's reviews
2491 reviews

 

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own. 

 

Book: Prince of Thorns and Nightmares 

 

Author: Linsey Miller 

 

Book Series: Princes book 2 

 

Rating: 3/5 

 

Recommended For...: young adult readers, retellings, Sleeping Beauty, fantasy, Disney 

 

Publication Date: October 3, 2023 

 

Genre: YA Fantasy Retelling 

 

Age Relevance: 12+ (violence, slight gore, small romance) 

 

Explanation of Above: There is some violence with sword weapons and very slight mentions of blood gore. There is also a small bit of romance, but the majority of it starts off as friends. 

 

Publisher: Disney Press 

 

Pages: 426 

 

Synopsis: Prince Phillip tells his side of Disney's Sleeping Beauty where once upon a dream was just the beginning... Prince Phillip’s known from a young age that his destiny has already been decided for him by his father, King Hubert. His job is to smile and wave for the crowd and ride off into the sunset with his predetermined fiancé, Princess Aurora, after her curse is lifted on her sixteenth birthday. But just days before Aurora’s birthday party, Phillip experiences a strange burst of magic, and three fairies tell him that he is part of a prophecy set to defeat Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil. Suddenly Phillip feels as if he has a choice—maybe magic can be the freedom he has been looking for. Although, having magic and working with fairies to retrieve powerful ancient artifacts would be much more enjoyable if he didn’t have to deal with her every night, a girl named Briar Rose who appears in his dreams on the other side of a mystical thorn maze. Phillip doesn’t know how he can be so annoyed by a person he can’t even see but having to hear the mysterious maiden’s laughs and jabs at him every time he goes to sleep is worse than any nightmare. But Phillip is starting to realize that Briar Rose isn’t so different from himself, and maybe they can change both of their fates one dream at a time. 

 

Review: This was a pretty good book. I liked the concept of it and I loved seeing more of the Prince’s backstories. If there is one thing that Disney is sorely lacking in, it’s giving suitable backstories to the male main character of a Disney Princess movie. I felt like this was a great addition to the Disney Princess lore and it made me like Phillip more. I also felt like, for it being a YA book, that it was really suitable for younger teens, so like 11/12 and up. This would be a good segue books from middle grade reads to YA. And the voice of the book felt very strong as is the worldbuilding. 

 

However, I did feel like some of the book did slow down plot and speed wise. I felt like maybe it needed to be shortened some to do away with those slower moments or reworked a bit. 

 

Verdict: It was good! This is a series I’ll be investing in. 

 

Disclaimer: I received this book from the library. Support your local libraries! All opinions are my own. 

 

Book: Hula 

 

Author: Jasmin Iolani Hakes 

 

Book Series: Standalone 

 

Rating: 2/5 

 

Diversity: Hawaiian MCs and characters 

 

Recommended For...: adult readers, historical fiction 

 

Publication Date: May 2, 2023 

 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

 

Age Relevance: 18+ (racism, language, pregnancy, death, blood gore, miscarriage, homelessness, cancer) 

 

Explanation of Above: There is some racism mentioned and shown in the book. There is some strong language. Pregnancy and miscarriage are mentioned. Death and blood gore are shown. There are discussions and showings of homelessness and cancer as well. There might be more as I did DNF the read. 

 

Publisher: HarperVia 

 

Pages: 400 

 

Synopsis: "There's no running away on an island. Soon enough, you end up where you started." Hi'i is the youngest of the legendary Naupaka dynasty, only daughter of Laka, once the pride of Hilo; granddaughter of Hulali, Hula matriarch on the Big Island. But the Naupka legacy is in jeopardy, buckling under the weight of loaded silences and unexplained absences, most notably the sudden disappearance of Laka when Hi'i was a child. Hi'i dreams of healing the rifts within her family by becoming the next Miss Aloha Hula--and prove herself worthy of carrying on the family dynasty. She demonstrates her devotion to her culture through hula--the beating heart of her people expressed through the movement of her hips and feet. Yet she has always felt separate from her community, and the harder she tries to prove she belongs--dancing in the halau until her bones ache--the wider the distance seems to grow. Soon, fault lines begin to form, and secrets threaten to erupt. Everyone wants to know, Hi'i most of all: what really happened when her mother disappeared, and why haven't she and her grandmother spoken since? When a devastating revelation involving Hi'i surfaces, the entire community is faced with a momentous decision that will affect everyone--and determine the course of Hi'i's future. Part incantation, part rallying cry, Hula is a love letter to a stolen paradise and its people. Told in part by the tribal We, it connects Hawaii's tortured history to its fractured present through the story of the Naupaka family. The evolution of the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement is reflected in the journeys of these defiant women and their community, in whose struggle we sense the long-term repercussions of blood quantum laws and colonization, the relationship between tribe and belonging, and the universal question: what makes a family? 

 

Review: I DNFed this book within 2 hours of starting it (so about 100 pages in). This book was beautiful, but kinda meh for me. The book had a very slow start and the book went through a bunch of family history. There was a lot of back and forth timelines and multiple POVs which made it hard to figure out who was talking when. The book was written in beautiful verse though and I can tell the book is very impactful, but I’m just not the target audience for it unfortunately. 

 

Verdict: It was beautiful and sweet, but not for me. Maybe it’ll be for you though! 

 

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own. 

 

Book: Their Vicious Games 

 

Author: Joelle Wellington 

 

Book Series: Standalone 

 

Rating: 5/5 

 

Diversity: Black MC and characters 

 

Recommended For...: young adult readers, mystery, thriller, psychological horror 

 

Publication Date: July 25, 2023 

 

Genre: YA Mystery Thriller 

 

Age Relevance: 14+ (language, racism, slight sexual lingo, alcohol consumption, death, panic attack, religion, slight blood gore) 

 

Explanation of Above: There are a few sentences with strong language used. One of the themes of the book is racism and that is shown throughout the book. There are a couple of instances where there is some slight sexual lingo such as in “who’s d--- did you suck”, but this is nothing that they shouldn’t be hearing at school. There are a couple of scenes of underage alcohol consumption shown and mentioned. Death and slight blood gore are shown in the book. There is a panic attack shown in the book. There is slight talk about Christianity in the book. 

 

Publisher: Simon and Schuster 

 

Pages: 416 

 

Synopsis: A Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren’t just high, they’re deadly, in this searing thriller that’s Ace of Spades meets Squid Game with a sprinkling of The Bachelor. You must work twice as hard to get half as much. Adina Walker has known this the entire time she’s been on scholarship at the prestigious Edgewater Academy—a school for the rich (and mostly white) upper class of New England. It’s why she works so hard to be perfect and above reproach, no matter what she must force beneath the surface. Even one slip can cost you everything. And it does. One fight, one moment of lost control, leaves Adina blacklisted from her top choice Ivy League college and any other. Her only chance to regain the future she’s sacrificed everything for is the Finish, a high-stakes contest sponsored by Edgewater’s founding family in which twelve young, ambitious women with exceptional promise are selected to compete in three mysterious events: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. The winner will be granted entry into the fold of the Remington family, whose wealth and power can open any door. But when she arrives at the Finish, Adina quickly gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right with both the Remingtons and her competition, and soon it becomes clear that this larger-than-life prize can only come at an even greater cost. Because the Finish’s stakes aren’t just make or break… they’re life and death. Adina knows the deck is stacked against her—it always has been—so maybe the only way to survive their vicious games is for her to change the rules. 

 

Review: I really liked this book overall. I thought that the book reminded me a lot of Ready or Not in terms of how kinda evil the whole family was with the exception of maybe a couple of them, but further in how cult-like some family traditions are and can be and how hard it can be for an outsider to enter into the family. This is further exuberated by the racism that persists by this family in the book, which I thought could open up a lot of discussion among teens about how to best dismantle old, racist practices not only in families but in societal structures as well. The book also had a dark evil-er The Selection feel to it in how this “competition” was to select someone to be brought into the family. In short, I think this book is a psychological horror YA masterpiece. I think the book has so many undertones that I don’t think I can even begin to fathom or properly discuss and I think the book is one of those that can be a great aide in discussion on societal issues that should be taught in school. 

 

The only issue I had with the book is that it was a bit of a quick pace in a few places, but other than that I absolutely loved this book. 

 

Verdict: A bloody competition to win a scholarship but also to be brought into a family? I’m in. Highly recommend! 

 

Disclaimer: I received this arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own. 

 

Book: A Garden of Second Chances 

 

Author: Mona Alvarado Frazier 

 

Book Series: Standalone 

 

Rating: 5/5 

 

Diversity: Mexican Indigenous MC, Black Mexican character, Latina Bisexual character, BIPOC characters 

 

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, criminal justice, immigration 

 

Publication Date: June 6, 2023 

 

Genre: YA Contemporary 

 

Age Relevance: 15+ (language, slight gore, alcohol consumption, gang violence, violence, rape mentioned, pregnancy mentioned, racism, death, infanticide mentioned, suicide shown, domestic violence, abuse of power, Christianity) 

 

Explanation of Above: There is some language in this book. There is some slight gore, violence, gang violence, domestic violence, infanticide, and death shown and discussed. Alcohol consumption is mentioned. Rape and pregnancy are mentioned. There are scenes of racism throughout the book. Suicide is shown and mentioned in this book. There are scenes of the juvenile detention center guards abusing their power. There are mentions of the Christian religion. 

 

Publisher:  SparkPress 

 

Pages: 376 

 

Synopsis: She didn’t run because she killed him, she ran because she didn’t. But no one believes Juana, an undocumented seventeen-year-old incarcerated for her husband’s death. Amid the chaos of prison and her grief, she creates a garden in the yard. A safe space. A place where she gains strength to take on the system before she loses her child. 

Juana, a seventeen-year-old mother, is sentenced to prison for murdering her husband. She claims she’s innocent—but no one believes her, including the prison staff and a gang leader in her block who torments her. 

Juana’s troubles aren’t confined to prison, however—she’s undocumented, and her husband’s bereaved family is now threatening to take her baby from her forever. Feeling hemmed in on all sides and desperate to stay out of trouble, Juana creates her own refuge in the prison yard: a garden she created. As she digs in the soil, nurturing the plants, she remembers her courageous, long-deceased mother, who she knows would never give in or give up. Juana’s only hope for saving herself and her baby is to prove her innocence—but how? 

 

Review: This book was so amazing to me. I absolutely loved reading every word of this book and the book definitely was something right up my alley because of my background in the criminal justice field. I loved seeing a POV of someone who was in a juvenile detention center and I think that YA could use more POVs of this, not to scare kids because this book wasn’t about someone who deserved punishment but to help kids see themselves more in books, especially if they have been victims of the corrupt prison system. The book made several excellent points about the system and its failures. The book  also made several good points about finding strength and inspiration to get out of heinous situations like this one. I loved how well written the book was and how moving every word and page was. I thought that the world building was also excellent. This has truly been one of my favorite all-time reads. 

 

The only thing I’d ever deduct from the book is that the book kind of leaves you hanging on what happens after the ending. I’d love a second book to that and I’d love to see what happened with the other girls in the detention center. I also wanted to see more POVs in the story, just based on my background and having seen so many different stories come out of juvenile court, but what I got was very perfect. 

 

Verdict: I absolutely loved it and I highly recommend this book for study and personal reading. 

 

Disclaimer: I purchased this book from my local bookstore. Support your Indie Bookstores! 

 

Book: Landscape with Invisible Hand 

 

Author: M.T. Anderson 

 

Book Series: Standalone 

 

Rating: 5/5 

 

Diversity: MC with a chronic illness (mentions a name, but it didn’t look like it was an actual name when I googled it? But if I’m wrong please correct me) 

 

Recommended For...: 

 

Publication Date: September 12, 2017 

 

Genre: YA Dystopian Sci-Fi 

 

Age Relevance: suicide mentioned, slight romance, bullying, slight language 

 

Explanation of Above: There are a couple of mentions of suicide and scenes of bullying. The romance is slight and there is some slight cursing in the book. 

 

Publisher: Candlewick Press 

 

Pages: 149 

 

Synopsis: When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth - but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents' jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv's miraculous medicine, Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, have to get creative to survive. And since the vuvv crave anything they deem "classic" Earth culture (doo-wop music, still-life paintings of fruit, true love), recording 1950s-style dates for the vuvv to watch in a pay-per-minute format seems like a brilliant idea. But it's hard for Adam and Chloe to sell true love when they hate each other more with every passing episode. Soon enough, Adam must decide how far he's willing to go - and what he's willing to sacrifice - to give the vuvv what they want. 

 

Review: I think this is my new favorite dystopian read! I loved that the book wasn’t scary in like a horror sense, but when you think about it it’s absolutely terrifying. The main focal point of the book is our MC and his family as they try to get money to survive in an economy run by aliens who don’t understand Earth economics. The hellish Earth left after they’ve assumed power is startlingly worse than the current predicament we’re in and in the end the “solution” was very bleak but freeing. I didn’t really expect this to be the book I got when I started reading it because I only had seen the movie trailer prior to picking up this read, but the book I got was so much better than I thought it would have ever been and I only hope the movie does it justice. The book also took me awhile to get through, while short, because it left me with a lot of things to ponder about the world as the author clearly intended this to be commentary on modern day politics. I also loved that the MC was a chronic illness rep, as you normally don’t see that in dystopian reads. I loved this book. I would love anything set in this world. 

 

The only issue I had with the book is that the pacing is quick as the book is quite short. I would have loved to see more character development from some of the side characters, but otherwise I loved the read. 

 

Verdict: I highly recommend this one. 

 

Disclaimer: I received this book from the library. Support your local library! All opinions are my own. 

 

Book: House of Many Gods 

 

Author: Kiana Davenport 

 

Book Series: Standalone 

 

Rating: 3/5 

 

Diversity: Hawaiian MC and characters, Jewish characters 

 

Recommended For...: historical fiction readers 

 

Publication Date: June 26, 2007 

 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

 

Age Relevance: Animal violence, gun violence, drugs, language, abuse, and religion mentioned. 

 

Explanation of Above: While I had to DNF the read, for what I did read I noticed that there were some animal violence, drugs, and gun violence in the book. There is some cursing and abuse. The Christian religion and the Jewish religion are also mentioned. 

 

Publisher: Ballantine Books 

 

Pages: 352 

 

Synopsis: From Kiana Davenport, the bestselling author of Song of the Exile and Shark Dialogues, comes another mesmerizing novel about her people and her islands. Told in spellbinding and mythic prose, House of Many Gods is a deeply complex and provocative love story set against the background of Hawaii and Russia. Interwoven throughout with the indelible portrait of a native Hawaiian family struggling against poverty, drug wars, and the increasing military occupation of their sacred lands. 

 

Progressing from the 1960s to the turbulent present, the novel begins on the island of O’ahu and centers on Ana, abandoned by her mother as a child. Raised by her extended family on the “lawless” Wai’anae coast, west of Honolulu, Ana, against all odds, becomes a physician. While tending victims of Hurricane ‘Iniki on the neighboring island of Kaua’i, she meets Nikolai, a Russian filmmaker with a violent and tragic past, who can confront reality only through his unique prism of lies. Yet he is dedicated to recording the ecological horrors in his motherland and across the Pacific. 

 

As their lives slowly and inextricably intertwine, Ana and Nikolai’s story becomes an odyssey that spans decades and sweeps the reader from rural Hawaii to the forbidding Arctic wastes of Russia; from the poverty-stricken Wai’anae coast to the glittering harshness of “new Moscow” and the haunting, faded beauty of St. Petersburg. With stunning narrative inventiveness, Davenport has created a timeless epic of loss and remembrance, of the search for family and identity, and, ultimately, of the redemptive power of love. 

 

Review: I had to regrettably DNF this book at 50 pages. While the book has such beautiful writing, I was just not able to process it all. The book was a confusing for me and there were so many characters to keep up with. The book also had a back and forth timeline that made the read a bit more confusing and in the end, it was me not the book. 

 

Verdict: The book wasn’t for me, but it might be for you!