Space opera meets mythic fantasy in Sangu Mandanna’s young adult novel A Spark of White Fire, the first book in the Mahabharata-inspired Celestial Trilogy. This riveting, expertly paced tale features gods and goddesses, prophecies and curses, a divided royal family, and a sentient warship who is not particularly fond of the destruction and bloodshed for which she was crafted. I loved every moment of reading it and have already pre-ordered the sequel, A House of Rage and Sorrow (coming September 17 […]

Mirage, Somaiya Daud’s debut novel and the first book in a young adult science fiction/fantasy trilogy, intrigued me long before it had a cover or a full description. Basically, I knew it was inspired by the author’s Moroccan background and featured the body double trope (one of my favorites!), and that was all it took for me to want to read this book. Months later, I visited a bookstore and found a display of recent releases, including Mirage. The final […]

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi’s #1 New York Times bestselling debut novel, is the first installment in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy. This West African-inspired young adult fantasy book is a heart-wrenching story with characters facing memorable struggles in both their literal and figurative journeys, and I can definitely understand why it’s been making such big waves this year. However, despite being hooked throughout the first and last 100 pages, I did find the pacing between these two sections […]

Today I’m thrilled to welcome Mary Fan to the blog! She’s the author of the Jane Colt books, a completed space opera/cyberpunk trilogy, and Starswept, YA science fiction romance featuring a violist. In addition to writing novels, she also co-edits and has written stories for the Brave New Girls series, science fiction anthologies about girls in STEM, whose sales benefit the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund. Her next novel, the young adult fantasy Flynn Nightsider and the Edge of Evil, will […]

Beneath the Haunting Sea, Joanna Ruth Meyer’s young adult fantasy debut novel, is a tale about fate, love, courage, selflessness, and determination built upon forgotten history, myths, and family secrets. It’s a lovely story—even a book I found rather difficult to put down during the second half—but there are some issues with its execution despite being enjoyable overall. Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, Talia learns that the dying Emperor is her biological father and that he intends to announce that […]

Rin Chupeco’s novel The Bone Witch, the first book in a young adult fantasy trilogy, is the story of a powerful necromancer named Tea who was told her destiny was not to save the world but to change it—for better and for worse. Tea herself is introduced through the viewpoint of a bard, who finds her in exile about five years after she first discovered her magic, and his perspective alternates with hers as she relates her tale to him. […]