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★★★★★ I received this ARC from Delacorte Press via BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. I better be getting a sequel or I will personally strangle Rory Power. The Tox didn't just happen to us. It happened to everything. Obligatory Summary It's been 18 months since an insidious and horrific disease known as the Tox took over Raxter Island, and the girls trapped there are beginning to unravel. The Tox takes something from each of them, humans and animals alike—some their eyes, some their sanity—and gives them something else in return. Hettie and her two best friends, Byatt and Reese, have managed to maintain a friendship throughout all this turmoil. But things are changing, and when one of them disappears, Hettie will do whatever it takes to find her. Part psychological thriller, part psychological hor...

★★☆☆ I received this ARC from Viking via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. June 4th. 2019 update: I've decided to up my rating from 2 to 3 stars, the reason being that I've just been thinking about this book a lot, and (while I still don't know what that one chapter said), this book really stuck with me, especially after I read the Hobbit, and realized what that weird dream about food was all about.  update over (original review written January 8th, 2019) This book was a bit of a trip. I feel like I spent 99 nights just trying to read it. "During the whole length of the battle, I was scared of hiding and becoming caught. Of running and being hit. Of shooting and becoming a killer. And all my fears warred inside of me, until they massacred one another, so that it wasn't courage that let me fi...

★★★★☆ I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. It was honestly more of a 3.5 but the first half was great, so I'm rounding up. Love and friendship. Shame and heartache. Endings and beginnings. Obligatory Summary Isaura is on a boat, going back home to her father's house after a failed marriage, but the sea has been behaving most strangely, and when her ship capsizes in a brutal storm, killing everyone except for her, she thinks she'll die far from anyone who loves her. Leonel, the last of the mermen, illegitimate son of the sea goddess Ran, is the Guardian of the Fathoms. He's been investigating these storms for a while, trying to figure out what dark magic is causing them, but his royal family and kingly stepfather disregard every report. When he finds Isaura, adrift and alon...

★★★★☆ I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. Gustaf the brave had fought and bled, Then found himself cold and dead. He pleaded with the Goddess Hel, That if She would only make him well, He would kill ten men that night, And send them to Her without a fight. She agreed and took him back, To his body bent and black. When his spirit stepped inside, The pain and rot forced his cries. He begged Her again to set him free, Which She did most generously. Death cannot be fooled or bought. Best be gone than left to rot. Obligatory Summary Carina is an outsider wherever she goes: in her homeland, where she escaped Death, and in her new home, where she doles it out as a Daughter of Hel. But when her rival betrays her, she's forced to befriend her kidnappers, a motley crew of t...

★★★☆☆ I received this ARC from Crooked Lane via BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. When the time came for them to sleep through the night, something would be given: the gift of rejuvenating sleep, essential to life. But like every bargain, something would also be taken: it would be another of those inevitable steps away from her and into themselves. Let it go on, she thought, this beautiful torture, the time of sleepless nights. For as long as it will. Obligatory Summary Lauren Tranter is certain that a strange woman wants to steal her newborn twins and replace them with her own, but no one else believes her; not her husband, not her friends, and certainly not the police. Detective Harper, however, thinks there's more to the situation. After Lauren's twins get briefly abducted, things seem to be coming together, but nothin...

★★★☆☆ I received this eARC from Delacorte Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. You have always been lonely and you have never admitted it. Obligatory Summary Tiger Tolliver's mother just died and her whole life has been turned upside down. Traded from foster home to foster home, from strangers to family and back again, she mourns her mother. There is no guide on how to cope with this kind of loss, and she's sinking under the sadness. My Thoughts I am honestly so conflicted about this book. I wanted to like it, I really did, and sometimes I did actually like it, but the writing and execution for me were the biggest issues. It was funny sometimes, but also just so strange. I can't really say what I didn't like about it, I just didn't like it. I had a very hard time connecting with...

★★★☆☆ I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. This would be my freedom: not the flight of a blossom nor even the slow decay of a leaf, but the inexorable plunge of a stone cast into the depths. No more would the webs of Unai constrain me. Obligatory Summary Set to be wed to the son of a lord since birth, a girl struggles to accept her role in life, especially when another lord comes to her home to see her fabled beauty and the two fall madly in love. Destiny has other plans, and the three fall victim to a devastating fate. Based on a Japanese legend. My Thoughts I just couldn't get into this. The writing was fine, though it relied too heavily on metaphors and similes, which became pretty repetitive fairly quickly. I liked each chapter being headed by a different season, and I a...

★★☆☆☆ I received this digital copy from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. Obligatory Summary Three cousins live in the same isolated town of Running Water, but their perspectives on life couldn't be more different. Auris, the headwoman-in-training, has a strict view of how the world should and shouldn't be, and Saig seems intent on going against all of it. But both Saig and her cousin Trei have never felt like they entirely belonged to Running Water. Their parents have mysterious origins, and when outsiders and goblins attack their town, the status quo is shattered. The Writing and Worldbuilding I honestly thought I was going to like this. I hadn't known what to expect going in to things, but the first few chapters really won me over, and I felt invested in and intrigued by the world. But around 48% through, things went swiftly downhill and never managed to really get...

★★★★☆ I received this ARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH This was actually really good, like wow Obligatory Summary Aurelia is a witch, and she is hated for it. All her life, she's been threatened because of her power, feared for her ability, and one day, just as she's to leave for her arranged marriage with her kingdom's enemy's heir, an assassination attempt almost kills her. Forced to flee her home, she is betrayed by her friends and has to make her way to Achleva, where an impostor has taken her place. There she meets new friends and confronts the new threat facing the kingdom: a wicked mage is destroying the magical wall that protects Achleva, one murder at a time. The strongest magic requires the greatest sacrifice...

★★☆☆☆ I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. Obligatory Summary Rufus is an ex-thief whose beloved wife is dying of a mysterious and seemingly incurable disease. Nothing he does stays the symptoms as she deteriorates away before his eyes. And when a high-class doctor arrives with news that a cure exists, Rufus is willing to do anything to save his love. But the doctor requires him to do one more heist, against his dying wife's wedding request - that he give up thievery forever. Nothing is what it seems, though. Greater elements are at play, and a war between the races of the world hinges on the mysterious stones he is required to take. The Writing I have to be honest here - I hated the writing. Its diction and syntax are needlessly pretentious and often downright incorrect. The author was clearly going for a Shakespearean, Middle English merged with Latin sty...

★★☆☆☆ I received this eARC from Bleeding Ink Publishing on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. You know those books that are so generic that it's clear the author just wanted to have a book written but didn't care what it was about as long as it sold? Well, this is the opposite. It's an author who really wanted to tell a story but had no idea how to actually write a book. Obligatory Summary Genesis and her band of faceless masses all live in a world with unpredictable weather, left there by some unseen entity to fight for their survival. Our world runs in cycles that change like a person shaking one of the snow globes we found in the storage room in the bunker when we were kids. Two days of Spring, a week of Summer, four days of Fall, followed by a month of Winter. Most days, I wouldn't mind if our world fell off whatever shelf it is sitting on, smashing the cycle. She and ...

★★★★★ I received this eARC from Orca Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Around here anything can happen, and it very often does. Obligatory Summary Jolene is struggling with the sudden absence of her brother while trying to go to school, eat, walk her dog, hang out with friends, and deal with her absent parents. The only thing that gets her through is her music. But when does a coping mechanism become a crutch, and when does the problem become too much to ignore? How will long until she can't stay in her hometown? How long until she joins Matt? This is a story about sadness and loss and avoidance through action and inaction. It's a mystery and a coming-of-age and a drama. It's about the grieving process, and how it takes time to be okay, and how you'll never be the same again, but you can learn to love what you have and what you've lost too. I don’t know if I believe in time. I mean, I don’t believe it works for m...

★★☆☆☆ I received this eARC from Orca Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Obligatory Summary This is a difficult book to summarize because, honestly, I don't really know what happened. Basically, take that one movie about a girl who loves surfing but gets bitten by a shark and losses an arm but learns to surf again, and merge it with a fever dream version of Aqua Marine, and you'll still not have what happened. This book makes no sense. I'll give you what I did understand, though. So, Ash saves Clayton from dying in the prologue and in the first chapter they're suddenly casually declaring their love. Ash is a hardcore swimmer who breaks a world record and gets swept up in her mother's dream of stardom. Then she suffers a devastating accident that changes her life forever. Clayton...draws, I guess? He has a sassy chain-smoking Finnish grandma and that's about all I can really say. The Writing (and Worldbuilding?)...

★★★☆☆ I received this eARC from Charlesbridge Teen on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. Obligatory Summary Naya Garth is a Talmiran, and like all good Talmirans, she despises the undead—walking corpses and wraiths—who live freely in neighboring Ceramor. Years ago the Mad King tried to use an army of undead to win a deadly war, and ever since he was taken down, the Powers have controlled Ceramor with the Treaty of Lith Lor. When Naya goes to Ceramor with her merchant father and mysteriously dies, the last thing she expected was to become a wraith and a spy for Talmir. Posing as a necromancer's servant, Naya must learn to navigate the world of politics and aether while her loyalties are tested by the helpful and kind wraith Corten who represents everything she's been trained to hate but makes her feel alive after death. The Writing and Worldbuilding This book suffered from an ex...