Amy 
young adult, fantasy, action/suspense
In The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, Khalid, the young king, takes a new bride every night and murders her every morning. Shahrzad decides to volunteer as his next bride in order to murder the king as revenge for her best friend's death.
Amy's Review
(audiobook)
Right from the start I was annoyed that the premise of this story was not solid. Shazi simply placed herself in a dangerous situation without a reasonable plan to carry out her goal. She was fortunate to use her guile, intelligence, and superiority to get out of the situation but her initial choice was so idiotic as to be unbelievable. To me, that unrealistic start really flawed the entire story. Also, how did Shazi conveniently get some poison in her pocket when she and the Caliph went to the market? That was never explained and is another poisoned arrow in my enjoyment of this story. HOWEVER, when I was able to not think about the ridiculous premise of this story, and just accept the baseline as a given, I did really enjoy it.
Despite its flaws, the novel had an intriguing setting, terrific characters, and great writing. Therefore, despite myself, I really enjoyed it! The official description states that this novel is based on 1001 Nights of which I have little familiarity. After reading about it, I do see that this novel was, indeed, strongly based on 1001 Nights. However, while reading this novel, I kept thinking it was like a retelling of The Beauty and the Beast.
I mostly listened to the audiobook but did some actual book reading at times too. I give the narrator a B. Not great. Not terrible. She had her moments but often spoke in a slow, robotic monotone and did not have a great range of character voices.
I’ll be reading the sequel to discover the ending to Shazi’s story and am very happy that there is only one sequel.
Amy 
Lynnie
young adult, fantasy, science-fiction
Gemina is the sequel to Illuminae and is set in the Heimdall space station shortly after the events in Illuminae end. Once again, Kaufman and Kristoff present the story through a series of text messages, transcripts, and journal entries. The fates of both the innocent victims from Illuminae as well as the Heimdall residents are in the hands of teenagers. What could go wrong?
Amy's Review
This is very similar to the first novel in the series, Illuminae. In fact, the first third of Gemina was so similar—basically new characters but the same plot—that I was disappointed. The story held my interest and the characters were probably wittier and more enjoyable than the characters in the first novel. I liked it but it’s just more of the same that was started by Illuminae. So, I really don’t have much to say about it except to refer you to what I wrote about Illuminae.
Lynnie's Review
I really enjoyed this sequel to Illuminae, but once again DO NOT READ THIS ON YOUR KINDLE. It works decently enough on the Kindle App for iPad, but there is a sequence near the end of the book where, in order to symbolize the lack of gravity the characters are experiencing, the text turns on its side- in a physical book this would be fine as you turn the book. In the Kindle app you're kind of stuck turning your head oddly to read... so you've been warned.
Still, the pictures & word art come across just as beautifully as I imagine they would in the print version and just as in Illuminae this book is an event. Taking place shortly after the events in Illuminae, the story continues with brief appearances by the characters in the original story but focusing on the jump station Heimdall & some sassy new teenage characters on whom the future may depend, because once again the adults are all mostly useless or evil. The story itself is remarkably similar to the one in Illuminae but it was enjoyable none the less.
Looking forward to seeing how they wrap up this series.
Amy 
action/suspense, fantasy, young adult
In A Torch Against the Night, the story continues where the first novel, An Ember in the Ashes, left off. Laia and Elias must escape Serra if they want to live. Helene has been ordered to locate and kill them. But, if they hope to save Laia's brother from Kauf Prison, they need to work together and devise a plan. Of course, dark forces are working against them and dangerous adventures ensue.
Amy's Review
(audiobook)
I adore this series by Sabaa Tahir. It has its moments of unbelievability/conveniences, but it is so much fun and action-filled that I have no trouble pushing aside those nuisances and enjoying the story, the settings, and the characters. Smartly, the publisher used the same narrators from the first book for Laia and Elias plus they added a new one for the new voice of Helene. I continue to love these narrators—especially Elias. I’m so in love with Steve West’s voice that I’ve Liked him on Facebook!
As with the first novel, this installment was packed with action, forward motion, and suspense. The evil characters are still extremely evil. There is a lot of violence. But there is also heroics and love and loyalty and hope. The terrain is interesting and well-described. The events are well-staged. And the escapes are close. Just awesome!
The BIG PROBLEM is that I see the third book in the series isn’t scheduled to come out until 2018. By then, I will likely have well-forgotten the details of this story, making the next one inevitably less enjoyable. You know this is my biggest argument against sequels!
Amy
young adult, action/suspense, fantasy
Amy's Review
(audiobook)
In An Ember in the Ashes, Laia's brother is taken into custody by the Empire and she decides to find him and save him. She is ill-prepared for the ensuing adventure yet she uses her wits and bravery to make significant progress during the novel. Elias is a trained soldier who does not wish to be forced to kill so many people. Events bring Laia and Elias together and they must work together in order to survive.
I loved this one! Sabaa Tahir is a wonderful storyteller. I believe I added this to my To Read list after seeing it on a list of YA books that adults should read. I’m SO glad I listened to this audiobook instead of reading it myself. The two narrators—one male reading Elias’ chapters and one female reading Laia’s chapters—were wonderful. I must say that I could listen to Steve West’s voice all day! (And I’m sad that I no longer have any reason to hear it now that the audiobook is over.) I’m sure that the voice acting played a big part in my level of enjoyment of this novel.
The story itself is not without its flaws. There are some escapes and circumstances that come a little too easily to the characters (particularly for Laia who smartly takes advantage of these breaks), the reader never gets to know the mysterious emperor at all and, thus, the threat of him doesn’t seem very immediate or important, and while Laia was not raised to be a wisened spy, she certainly should not need Cook to point out some obvious things that she should have determined herself. Unfortunately, the main tyrant is a typical “bad guy” who is evil for no apparent reason other than she enjoys being evil, which is always a bit dissatisfying to me.
But, aside from those flaws, I let myself enjoy this true adventure story about underdogs fighting to make their lives better. The cruelty shown was sometimes difficult to bear but it all felt right for the story. The characters and the settings were extremely well-drawn and, mostly, believable. And I couldn’t help but get caught up in Laia’s and Elias’ worlds and cheer for them from the stands. I took every opportunity I could find to listen to more of the story and could barely make time to get real life done at the end. So, because it was so engaging and full of action and adventure (my kind of novel!), I’m giving it 4-1/2 stars.
Amy 
