Reviews written by Angela Blount, Staff Reviewer

An enthralling, beautifully crafted YA fantasy—laced with Indian lore and memorable characterization. Gauri is a betrayed and deposed princess, determined to reclaim her kingdom from the clutches of her corrupt brother. Vikram is the adopted son of an eccentric king, determined to prove...

Aiming on the younger end of the Middle Grade spectrum, Wonder is the story of a disfigured 5th grader named August, and his transition from homeschooling into the public school system. On the surface, it may seem like just another learning-to-accept-differences theme. But the...

A trust and friendship-centric second installment in this middle-grade sci-fi series, The Oceans Between Stars is fast-paced follow-up to The Last Day On Mars. Once again, the book opens with an exposition meant to explain alien things and ideas with manageable human analogies—using a touch of matter-of-fact...

Picking up right where book #2’s cliffhangery ending left off, Garth Nix brings us the satisfying conclusion to his Abhorsen series. As we learned in the last book, Lireal is now the newly minted Abhorsen in waiting. She is also Sam’s aunt, as it turns out. (Take...

An exceptional middle-fantasy debut, keyed to a New Adult audience. Kelsea is an unremarkable orphaned girl, long kept hidden in nearly complete isolation. And she is about to ascend to a throne she never asked for. The kingdom her mother left her is in shambles. Her...

Middle grade mystery with an amnesic twist—a friendship-centric tale of lost-and-found. Readers are introduced to a cruel boy who sustains brain trauma and loses his memory; a bitter girl who’s missing her twin brother after he was run out of town; and a sassy old veteran...

A colorful collection of short-stories offering a variety of DC LEGO characters and their mini-adventures. Featuring prominent pictures, large font, and roughly a single paragraph on every page, the stories within this sturdy hardback are ideal for early readers. The estimated 5-minute length also caters well...

At turns captivating, intense, amazing, and terrible. Told in first-person present-tense from the perspective of young Darrow, a subterranean-dwelling slave who thinks he’s toiling away to make the surface of Mars livable for future generations of his people. Darrow might very well have settled...

A brave and elaborately imagined tale—laden with unforgettable imagery. One thing I can say for certain about Luminous… I’ve never encountered anything quite like it. Metcalf fuses an eloquent knack for description with a unique blend of urban-fantasy, cultural mysticism, and horror. The basic premise alone is...

Ideal for beginning readers and avid young fans of the LEGO Ninjago Movie. Lord Gamadon is about as lousy of a father as you might expect. It comes as a shock to him when—at the end of a fight with the Ninjago—the green ninja reveals himself...

The fourth book, and conclusion to The Raven Cycle series. The cycle is ending. Glendower is nearly found, and the evil awoken in book #3 is on the move. Not everyone is making it through this alive. What I Liked: The...

A fresh new story the Ender’s Game universe—this smart military-esque sci-fi is appealing to longtime fans, without alienating new explorers. With the Formic Wars behind them and exploration/colonization now at the forefront of humanity’s drive, Battle School has been converted into Fleet School—a softer, less competitive version...

A solid sci-fi/urban fantasy adventure premise, ideally targeting the mid-to-upper Middle Grade demographic. It’s a quick read—overall fun and fast-paced. While Gaiman’s name is on it, I tend to agree with those who are asserting it doesn’t feel like a Gaiman book. It lacks a certain air...

An adventurous, accessible YA fantasy—with likely appeal for fans of An Ember In The Ashes. Based loosely on an Arabic folktale called The False Prince, this stand-alone book centers on the kingdom of Akram—with interwoven references to the kingdoms and characters from The Shadow Queen and The...

A candid, comprehensive, and thoroughly researched look at the long fight for women’s rights—spanning nearly a century of history while following select figureheads of the Suffrage movement through their varied efforts, missteps, divisions, and triumphs. To be up-front honest, let me just say that this was...