The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

Amy  

fantasy

As a young wife, Orquídea’s move to a very small town brings suspicion and resentment from the townspeople. She is thought to be a witch. Fifty-five years later, as death approaches, Orquídea sends letters to her descendants and requests they come to receive their inheritance. The novel then follows some of the key family members’ lives as they navigate their new situations.

Each of the main characters in Zoraida Córdova's The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina gets introduced in a chapter near the beginning and then we follow them from the time they receive Orquídea’s invitation. Interspersed among their current lives we get flashbacks into Orquídea’s history and gradually get a more complete picture of her life. Orquídea’s magic kept me interested enough to keep reading to find out more about her family. The fantasy elements were creative and played up Orquídea’s Ecuadorian culture. But the pacing was often too slow for me and the resolutions and revelations left me feeling dissatisfied in the end. Too many people were left behind and the reasons didn’t seem worth it.  This novel was classified as magical realism but, to me, it’s too far fetched for “realism” and is definitely a fantasy novel. I enjoyed several aspects of the novel very much but wasn’t in love with the novel as a whole.

The audiobook was narrated by Frankie Corzo.  She did a nice job with the voice acting. But her vocal repertoire wasn’t very large, especially for a large cast. I’ll give her a B+.

   

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Amy  

historical fiction

It’s the early 20^th century in New Zealand and the Cleary family is so poor that even the nuns at Meggie’s school ridicule the siblings because of their lowly status.  There are nine children and Meggie is the only daughter. The mother is practical and unemotional while the father is hardworking and happy for what he has. But the family is really struggling when they move to Australia to live and work on Mr. Cleary’s sister’s property. The story follows these characters through a couple generations.

The settings are vivid, even set half a world and a century away.  This classic novel is a favorite of many. I felt The Thorn Birds was a well done drama about a family attempting to persevere.  Life for women was especially difficult in their place and time. I often stayed up reading too late because I wanted to find out how things would turn out for Meggie.

However, most of the characters were perplexing to me. None felt real or relatable except for a few of the secondary characters. The rest all seemed exaggerated, unlikely, bizarre, and/or flat. Their personalities and choices were difficult for me to understand. Even Meggie behaved oddly once she returned home as a young mother. I assume the forbidden (scandalous!) love story was the reason for the novel’s popularity when it was written in the 1970s. But reading it for the first time in 2022 and at this point in my life, I didn’t find it anything special.  This is usually how I feel about classic, widely beloved novels so I hope my friends who adore this novel aren’t upset with me. But I’m happy I read it and I did enjoy Colleen McCullough's novel overall.

 

   

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby

Amy  

action/suspense

In Razorblade Tears, a gay couple is murdered and then their headstones are desecrated. Ike and Buddy Lee, who have both previously served time in jail, decide to team up and investigate the murders of their sons. Neither had been in contact with their son in recent years, but they were both driven to solve the mystery of the murders by their guilt over the way their father/son relationships had deteriorated.

I liked the beginning and the way Ike and Buddy Lee partnered in an effort to do something for their sons, despite waiting too long and losing the opportunity to accept their sons’ choices while they were alive.  Better late than never to realize their mistakes and try to do something to make sense of the murders. But the fact that their criminal behaviors were so easily re-employed, drawing them back into the world of violence, turned me off. Sure, they had regrets about their law-breaking, but that didn’t stop them.  They felt they could handle whatever came their way, yet they didn’t seem to care about the danger in which they were placing others. They were irresponsible and reckless. This story was a cliché macho romp through violent fantasies.

Here's the thing. I admire the fact that S. A. Cosby set out to help cisgender straight men (who are obviously the target audience for this novel) learn to accept people who are not like them. And, sure, it’s great that these grown men were finally able to face their homophobia and that Buddy Lee came to realize that he did not admire his own past racist tendencies.  They were tough guys becoming enlightened. Cool. They improved their attitudes and opened their hearts. Awesome. But they were still stupid about taking on the situation themselves.  I was rolling my eyes quite a bit in the second half.

The audiobook narrator, Adam Lazarre-White, was a good voice actor and appropriate for this sort of genre but I did not enjoy the way he voiced Buddy Lee. I think he should have gone for a more careless country accent than the effeminate southern drawl that was used. I never grew used to it. Therefore, I’ll give this production a B+.

 

   

Legendborn and Bloodmarked (Legendborn #1, #2) by Tracy Deonn

Legendborn

Amy  
Lynnie

young adult, fantasy

Bree’s mother died shortly before Bree left home to attend the University of North Carolina’s Early College program with her best friend. On her first night there, she sees unexplainable things and there is an attempt to wipe away her memory. However, she later remembers. Then, after seeing more unbelievable things, her new friend, Nick, has some surprising answers for her. When she realizes that her mother’s death has suspicious similarities to the magic she’s recently witnessed, she attempts to find out the truth behind her mother’s death and an apparent secret society on campus.

Amy's Review

There are small homages and similarities to other wonderful young adult fantasy novels throughout Bree’s story, but Legendborn is definitely its own, unique tale. I was rivetted to find out what Bree would discover about her mother’s death and the Order. Tracy Deonn realistically depicted teenage life while also addressing serious topics of racism and handling grief. The fantasy elements were creative but became a bit over the top. Sometimes it felt like there was too much going on and too many characters. Also, the situations became crazy. But I made the decision to go with it and I enjoyed the ride. The characters were fun to get to know. I look forward to reading the sequel.

The narrator, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, was a terrific voice actor. However, her pronunciations of some words were unclear and I had to play back phrases, at times, to understand what she said.  Her accents and vocal repertoire were average. I was especially annoyed at her pronunciation of Arthur like “author” and this name was said many, many times. I’m giving her a B+.

Lynnie's Review

I’ve had Legendborn on my to-read list for a while and I don’t know why it took me so long to open it but I’m so glad that I finally did. I am positively smitten by Tracy Deonn’s characters and the fantasy world that she created. 

 

Before I go on about the stuff I loved though, let me address the one aspect that kept me from giving this book 5 stars. Bree is a 16-year old girl at the early college program at UNC. This particular aspect of the story adds no value and, in fact, frequently distracted me from the story. I attended a pre-college program at one point in my life and the reality is that the “real” college students didn’t want much to do with us so I found it completely unrealistic that this group of college kids, particularly a group in a secret society, would give her the time of day. Bree could have easily been presented as a college freshman and the story would have lost nothing. While the age difference between Bree and her romantic interests was only a year or two, I still couldn’t shake the fact that she was only 16 and they were college guys. 

 

That said, I adored Bree as a character. She was smart, strong and tough. I was impressed that Deonn chose to place Bree in a situation where she was the only black person- highlighting not only the racism directed at Bree, but the institutional racism that has existed for generations. As the only black person in the Order, Bree experienced an array of aggressions based on the intersection of her race, gender, age, and family history- people trying to touch her hair, assuming she was the hired help, leering at her body, and more- and she constantly handled it with a grace and dignity most of us couldn’t imagine. It reminded me of the words of Tressie McMillan Cottom who wrote, "I fix myself, even when it causes great pain to do so, because I know that I cannot fix the way the world sees me." Bree's experience isn’t something that is often shown in YA novels, let alone in a fantasy novel and I appreciated the deft way that Deonn portrayed it, embracing the often painful minority experience fully and head-on. 

 

But the fantasy! It’s been a while since I’ve read a fantasy novel that didn’t make me feel like I had a case of deja vu, but Legendborn felt wonderfully new while still giving a wink and nod to some classic books and tropes. I really enjoyed the incorporation of the Arthurian legend into the story and of course, who doesn’t love a competition between kids for the attention of their elders and peers? Supernatural creatures? Yes please! Cute romantic boys with snappy banter & respectful boundaries? Dreamy! I can’t say much more without getting spoilery- but I truly enjoyed every minute of this book. I wasn’t even tempted to skim ahead. 

 

I actually read the printed book AND listened to the audiobook on this one, which I rarely do- I had some time in the car and wanted to listen while I drove and after that I kept alternating between the two. While I loved Joniece Abbott-Pratt’s voice for Bree, I did not love her voices for anyone else mostly because I had a hard time differentiating them from one another- particularly the male voices. I would give her a B-, but since I read more frequently than I listened it wasn’t a huge deal. 

 

Overall though, a great novel! I will be eagerly awaiting the sequel to find out what happens to Bree, Nick, Sel, and the Order.

Bloodmarked

Amy    
Lynnie 


young adult/fantasy

Amy's Review

Bloodmarked picks up where Legendborn ended. The first half of the novel is the same kind of stuff that was happening in Legendborn. There are still demons chasing the Legendborn crew. The Order is still unprepared to face off against them and, overall, lacking in meeting their own necessary requirements.  Bree is trying to learn how to use all aspects of her magical heritage. But she soon learns that The Order is quite political, manipulative, and heartless.  She’s basically stuck in a shitshow that she’s trying to navigate and improve.

The second half of the novel was the fun part with new situations, characters, and settings. But it is still crazy overall and I had to work hard to keep accepting Bree’s world at times. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll read the next sequel but I do still appreciate the writing and creativity of the author. And, I would like to know how things turn out for Bree and the crew.

Lynnie's Review

So, I thought this was a duology, and I admit this may have colored my opinion in the end. It wasn't until I was about 80% finished that I realized that, "oh, this is not actually going to finish the story." There were simply too many loose ends hanging out there that Deonn was not going to be able to tie up. I admit I would have waited a while to read this if I had realized that, if only to decrease the time between books so I don't forget what happens. Alas...

I enjoyed this second book in the Legendborn series for the most part, and my complaints are generally the same. I still think the story would not suffer (and would actually be improved) if Brianna were college-aged rather than a 16-year old attending an early college program. However, where in the last book I thought she acted mature for her age (more like a college student than a high schooler), at least in Bloodmarked she acted every bit the temperamental, hormonal teenager making one bad decision after another. She frustrated me over and over and over again. I also continue to lose interest in the love-triangle-that-isn't. It's hard to be in a love triangle when a) one of the sides isn't even there and b) the other two don't actually acknowledge there's any sort of relationship. It's super weird and cringy so, perhaps, very much like a high school relationship except that two of the three participants are in college.

Otherwise, Deonn removes many of the characters from the last novel from the pages of Bloodmarked while introducing us to a host of new characters, most of whom I enjoyed getting to know, though I missed the old crew. I found many of the outcomes entirely predictable, but generally enjoyed the journey.

Will I read the next book in the series? Yes, absolutely. But I will be verifying if it is the finale or if there are others to come before I dive in. Overall, I think if you enjoyed Legendborn, you'll enjoy Bloodmarked as well. The only question is how long will this series be strung out and how long will we be willing to go along for the ride?

     

Gallant by V. E. Schwab

Amy  

young adult, fantasy

Twelve-year-old Olivia is nonverbal and has been raised in an orphanage. She has no knowledge of her family except for her prized possession—her mother’s journal. One day, the head matron presents a letter in which her uncle has sent for her. She arrives at Gallant, her family home, to discover that the uncle died a year earlier and the house residents had no idea she existed or would be arriving. But the house and its many mysteries call to her. Something is definitely strange about her family and Gallant.

What a fabulously atmospheric story.  The visualizations painted by V. E. Schwab with her words are perfectly imagined. There are echoes of other orphan novels but Gallant was its own story. It is also very different from the other Schwab novels I’ve read—they are all different from each other, really. I found it to be creative and compelling overall.

However, while I enjoyed the story, by the halfway point, the pacing was slower than I like. Since Olivia is nonverbal, there isn’t much dialogue and the narration sometimes lacked momentum.  It’s hard for me to define why I fell out of love with it during the second half. It’s not that the author wrote anything unimportant or draggy, it’s just that the energy sort of deflated despite the fact that Olivia was in the midst of a mysterious, beautiful, new world to discover. I liked the novel. I just didn’t like it as much as any of her other novels.

Maybe I was frustrated with the many questions for which there were very few answers until late in the novel. Maybe I was let down once we had an inkling about the designs of Gallant’s universe because it wasn’t really believable. The closer the novel came to an end the more my buy-in waned. I decided this was supposed to be metaphoric. I felt a religious undertone with the family name being Prior and the aspect of keeping the darkness and destruction at bay. There were ghouls (angels and demons?). But the characters and their activities were definitely not religious. So my conclusion was that it’s more about the battle of good vs. evil and the fact that the battle is everlasting. There were some questions I wish had been addressed. Why is the house called Gallant? (Maybe because the residents are brave?) Why does Edgar know sign language? (Is there a history of nonverbal Priors?) Alas, I will never know. I am left very appreciative of the author’s creativity and characters but can’t commit to declaring that I loved this novel even though I really wanted to.

The narrator, Julian Rhind-Tutt, was a terrific voice actor. Originally, I questioned why a man was selected to narrate a story about a girl. He did not have a particularly great female voice, let alone multiple female voices. But, by the time it was over, most characters who spoke in the novel were men so I guess that is why. I enjoyed listening to his lovely accent and acting so I’ll give him an A-.

   

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Amy    

Lynnie 

 

young adult, contemporary fiction

Eighteen-year-old Daunis has always felt separate from her Ojibwe community because her mother is white. She is beloved by many but still treated differently. She has survived a few family tragedies and is just looking forward to her future at college when another tragedy occurs. She decides to assist the undercover police with their investigation, after discovering their presence, because she wants to help her community and avenge the deaths of those close to her. 

Amy's Review

Firekeeper’s Daughter was a good teen drama and mystery with engaging characters and situations that kept me interested in Daunis’ life. She was dealing with a lot and managing fairly well, all things considered. As the story progressed, it became more intriguing. I enjoyed learning about the traditions in Daunis’ tribe and getting a flavor of life in her contemporary Native American community along the U.S./Canadian border. Angeline Boulley succeeded in highlighting issues that are unique to Native American citizens, especially women. While it seemed highly unlikely that undercover FBI agents would ask for her assistance and “deputize” her at 18 years old, I went with it. The mysteries around the meth-related deaths compelled me to find out what was going on. And then the last 20% or so of the novel was un-put-downable.

While some of Daunis’ choices were questionable, I found them believable coming from an intelligent, busy teenager. She had to squeeze in her secret detective work as her schedule allowed which made for a few suspenseful delays. Her conflicted feelings and explorations of trust all felt genuine. The way details slowly emerged from her fog after shock also rang true. I really enjoyed Daunis as a character. She was strong, smart, brave, and self-motivated.

The audiobook narrator, Isabella Star LaBlanc, did a good job at voice acting and sounded perfect as Daunis. She did not have much of a vocal repertoire, however. I’ll give her a B+.

 

Lynnie's Review

 

It’s been a while since I’ve stayed up too late to finish a book because I couldn’t bear to close my eyes without knowing how things turned out, but Firekeeper’s Daughter kept me up WAY past my bedtime as the action really intensified at the end of the book.

In her debut novel, Angeline Boulley has written a love letter to her Native American community and her family (she is a firekeeper’s daughter herself). While the tribe in the novel may be fictionalized, it’s clear from the reviews written by other Native Americans that this book holds a lot of powerful truths and I appreciated the education about the culture, language, and issues that matter to the community.

Daunis Fontaine is a wonderful protagonist- she is proud of her heritage, strong, smart, and connected to her family and community. Navigating her own loss, a budding romance, trauma (both her own and and her community’s), on top of a thriller-style mystery is a lot for anyone, including readers, and yet most of it works. Some of the more traumatic events were really hard to read but I’m glad that Boulley included them because it was necessary to show how overlooked crime against Native American women is in this country. Other parts of the story were predictable, but I still thought the book was brilliantly done.

I’m so glad Boulley shared this piece of her culture with us and I am already looking forward to whatever she writes next.
 

 

The Tea Rose (The Tea Rose #1) by Jennifer Donnelly

Amy  

historical fiction, women's fiction, romance

Fiona is a hard-working teenager in east London in 1888. She gives most of the money she makes packaging tea tins to her family but has been stocking away her meager savings in hopes of opening her own tea shop some day with her boyfriend, Joe. Joe has also been working hard and saving money. He gets a better-paying job and moves across the city. Then, due to (mostly) external forces, their lives and their plans change forever.

Overall, The Tea Rose was a fun read. I have no idea how it appeared on my To Read list. I adored the characters so much. They were all well-drawn and faced authentic difficulties. Fiona’s heartbreaks were very distressing and made her victories that much sweeter. Granted, Fiona had a lot of good luck contributing to her successes. But that success was so well-deserved after all the hard work and tragedy she endured previously that I didn’t let that bother me overmuch. There was a lot of drama—many ups and many downs. The drama was definitely drawn out too much at times. But I was swept up in the story.

The novel was long but I enjoyed the time spent with these characters and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. A few sections seemed thrown in as background noise at the beginning of Part 3, but otherwise, the story moved well. The historical settings were also clearly presented within the context of the story and I appreciated the fears of those living through the time and place of Jack the Ripper, the differences between the classes in both England and the United States, and, of course, a story about a strong and brave young woman with goals.

It was interesting that Jennifer Donnelly re-used names for some characters. There was more than one Lucy and more than one Eddie, for example. I don’t recall reading any books where the author did that before.  Obviously, it normally avoids confusion to give each character a unique name. These were not significant characters in the novel but it was noted as something unusual.

However, I have to say that about ¾ of the way through the novel, it started to grow tedious with the evil forces and assumptions always getting in the way of the payoff.  There is a line. Some otherwise great books have crossed it and left a bad taste in my mouth.  It’s entertainment until the teasing just becomes cruelty.  There was no doubt this novel would have a happy ending and by this point in the book, so I just started feeling manipulated. I love a nice, long novel if there is forward momentum.  This one stalled out because it was obvious that Donnelly was going to add at least another 100 pages to draw out this drama unnecessarily. Alas, if it had not been so drawn out it would have gotten a higher rating from me.

The narrator, Jill Tanner, was a great voice actor with good accents and she had a naturally low voice so was able to pull off male voices really well. However, the main character was a young woman and, while Tanner did voice her correctly sometimes, she was inconsistent at keeping that tone while voicing Fiona. Fiona did not always sound like Fiona.  Instead, Tanner would lapse into her natural low voice and then it was hard to distinguish characters having a dialogue.  The lapse for the main character was my only complaint but it was an unforgivable offense. I’ll give her an A-.