Category5-stars

Review: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

R

The Gist: A lush and romantic young adult fantasy about how far a daughter will go to save her mom.

Series: The Celestial Kingdom, #1

Release Date: January 11, 2022

Synopsis
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting, romantic duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.

Ending
HFN regarding the plot but the love triangle is not resolved.
Representation
• Chinese-coded main character
• Chinese-coded supporting characters
• Chinese-coded side characters
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Death
• Knife violence
• Arrow violence
• Attempted murder
• Non-consensual mind manipulation/compulsion
• Abduction
• Imprisonment
Mature Themes
• Sexual content doesn’t surpass kissing
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5-stars

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Moving and Intimate: Age of Ava by Melanie Moreland

M

The Gist: A moving and intimate opposites-attract romance with a perfectly grumpy Hero and badass Heroine that explores family and the rewards of vulnerability.

Series: ABC Corp, #4*

Release Date: August 26, 2021

Synopsis
AVA CALLAGHAN
A woman working in a male-dominated field.
Organized, strong, and tenacious.
That’s how she has to be to succeed.

HUNTER OWENS
A loner.
He needs no one, has no ties, and his future is an unanswered question mark.
It’s all he knows.
Until the day their lives intersect.

He sees the woman she hides from the world.
She nurtures the part of him he lost long ago.
But they both agree—their connection is temporary.
They are only for now.

Can their stubborn natures allow them to bend and accept that maybe, just maybe, there is more to life than they believed?
That love can heal.
That happiness can exist.
That for now can be forever.

Ending
HEA
Representation
• Side character with a congenital amputation of one of her arms (her right arm is only partially formed)

Possible Triggers: YES
• Death of Hero’s grandparents and mother
• Parental neglect and abandonment
• Verbal abuse (described, in the past)
• Medical trauma
Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions
No cheating
No OW/OM drama
Does have the Hero (majorly) pushing the Heroine away
No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 5-stars

*Each book in the series is Standalone

Note: I received Age of Ava from Melanie Moreland’s team in exchange for an honest review.

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Heartbreaking and Moving: Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

H

The Gist: A beautifully written book that takes its time to explore how someone can learn to trust and love again after a tremendous loss; flashing back and forth between the hours before the crash and Edward’s current reality, the author explores what it means to be true to yourself and the connections that help you overcome such heartache.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: January 6, 2020

Synopsis
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.

Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery–one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

Dear Edward is at once a transcendent coming-of-age story, a multidimensional portrait of an unforgettable cast of characters, and a breathtaking illustration of all the ways a broken heart learns to love again.

Ending
HFN
Representation
• Black Gay supporting character
• Latina supporting character and side character
• Asian side character
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Frequent Harry Potter references; J.K. Rowling is transphobic
• MC dealing with the death of his whole family and being the sole survivor of a plane crash (when he’s a child)
• Discusses miscarriages
• Supporting character has cancer
Mature Themes
• PTSD
• Grief of losing family
– Also, the grief of not being able to have kids
• Non-descriptive sex
• References to abortion
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 5-stars

Trigger Warning: This book has frequent HP references. Please read the ‘Possible Triggers’ tab above for details for other triggers.

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Beautiful and Empathetic: Thin Girls by Diana Clarke

B

Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 30, 2020

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
A dark, edgy, voice-driven literary debut novel about twin sisters that explores body image and queerness as well as toxic diet culture and the power of sisterhood, love, and lifelong friendships, written by a talented protégé of Roxane Gay.

Rose and Lily Winters are twins, as close as the bond implies; they feel each other’s emotions, taste what the other is feeling. Like most young women, they’ve struggled with their bodies and food since childhood, and high school finds them turning to food—or not—to battle the waves of insecurity and the yearning for popularity. But their connection can be as destructive as it is supportive, a yin to yang. when Rose stops eating, Lily starts—consuming everything Rose won’t or can’t.

Within a few years, Rose is about to mark her one-year anniversary in a rehabilitation facility for anorexics. Lily, her sole visitor, is the only thing tethering her to a normal life.

But Lily is struggling, too. A kindergarten teacher, she dates abusive men, including a student’s married father, in search of the close yet complicated companionship she lost when she became separated from Rose.

When Lily joins a cult diet group led by a social media faux feminist, whose eating plan consists of consuming questionable non-caloric foods, Rose senses that Lily needs her help. With her sister’s life in jeopardy, Rose must find a way to rescue her—and perhaps, save herself.

Illuminating some of the most fraught and common issues confronting women, Thin Girls is a powerful, emotionally resonant story, beautifully told, that will keep you turning the pages to the gratifying, hopeful end.

<strong>Ending</strong>
On road to healing
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Lesbian main character
• Bisexual supporting character
• Gay side character
• Lesbian side character
• f/f main romance
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Anorexia (on-page)
• Bulimia (on-page)
• Physical abuse (on-page and off-page)
• Emotional abuse (on-page and off-page)
— Lily’s boyfriend manipulates her into dieting (read starving herself)
• Bullying (on-page)
• Death as a result of an eating disorder (off-page)
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Discussion of BDSM relationships (the line between consent of S&M and abuse)
• Detailed sex scenes (including Rose walking in on Lily practicing BDSM)
• Explores toxicity of diet culture: fine line between dieting and harming yourself
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 5/5 stars

Trigger Warning: This review discusses topics that can be triggering for some. Please read the ‘Possible Triggers’ tab above for details.

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Heartfelt and Nostalgic: Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon

H

Series: Standalone

Release Date: July 14, 2020

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
The Hating Game meets Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by way of Morgan Matson in this unforgettable romantic comedy about two rival overachievers whose relationship completely transforms over the course of twenty-four hours.

Today, she hates him.

It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been bitter rivals for all of high school, clashing on test scores, student council elections, and even gym class pull-up contests. While Rowan, who secretly wants to write romance novels, is anxious about the future, she’d love to beat her infuriating nemesis one last time.

Tonight, she puts up with him.

When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. But after learning a group of seniors is out to get them, she and Neil reluctantly decide to team up until they’re the last players left—and then they’ll destroy each other.

As Rowan spends more time with Neil, she realizes he’s much more than the awkward linguistics nerd she’s sparred with for the past four years. And, perhaps, this boy she claims to despise might actually be the boy of her dreams.

Tomorrow…maybe she’s already fallen for him.

<strong>Ending</strong>
HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Latina biracial main character
• Lesbian supporting character
• Bisexual supporting character
• FF side romance
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Anti-Semitism
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
• No cheating
• No OW drama
• Does have OM drama
— The Heroine has conversations with an ex to get closure. It stirs up past regret.
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing each other away
• No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format:

Rating: 5/5 stars

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Calming and Genuine: The Secret Women by Sheila Williams

C

Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 9, 2020

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Elise Armstrong, Carmen Bradshaw, and DeeDee Davis meet in a yoga class. Though vastly different, these women discover they all have one thing in common: their mothers have recently passed away. Becoming fast friends, the trio make a pact to help each other sort through the belongings their mothers’ left behind. But when they find old letters and diaries, Elise, Carmen, and DeeDee are astonished to learn that each of their mothers hid secrets—secrets that will transform their own lives.

Meeting each month over margaritas, the trio share laughter, advice, and support. As they help each other overcome challenges and celebrate successes, Elise, Carmen, and DeeDee gain not only a better understanding of the women their mothers were, but of themselves. They also come to realize they have what their mothers needed most but did not have during difficult times—other women they could trust.

Filled with poignant life lessons, The Secret Women pays tribute to the power of friendship and family and the bonds that tie us together. Beautiful, full of spirit and heart, it is a thoughtful and ultimately uplifting story of unconditional love.

<strong>Ending:</strong>
HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Black biracial main character
• Black main and supporting characters
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Mental Illness — Bipolar disorder
• Attempted suicide and murder of children
• Death of parent
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Death of parent
• Allusions to teenagers drinking
• (Amicable) divorce
• Children (who are late 40s to early 60s) lashing out at parents who start dating after their spouse dies
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5/5 stars

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Brilliant and Indispensable: What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape by Sohaila Abdulali

B

Series: Standalone

Release Date: October 25, 2019

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Thoughtful, provocative and intelligent, this game-changing book looks at sexual assault and the global discourse on rape from the viewpoint of a survivor, writer, counsellor and activist.

Sohaila Abdulali was the first Indian rape survivor to speak out about her experience. Gang-raped as a teenager in Mumbai and indignant at the deafening silence on the issue in India, she wrote an article for a women’s magazine questioning how we perceive rape and rape victims. Thirty years later she saw the story go viral in the wake of the fatal 2012 Delhi rape and the global outcry that followed.

Drawing on three decades of grappling with the issue personally and professionally, and on her work with hundreds of other survivors, she explores what we think about rape and what we say. She also explores what we don’t say, and asks pertinent questions about who gets raped and who rapes, about consent and desire, about redemption and revenge, and about how we raise our sons. Most importantly, she asks: does rape always have to be a life-defining event, or is it possible to recover joy?

<strong>Ending:</strong> Non-Fiction

 Powerful
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Author describes herself as: “A brown bisexual middle-aged atheist Muslim survivor immigrant writer without a Shame Gene”
• Discusses the rape culture of India (as well as many other non-Western countries)
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Discussion of rape culture
• Discussion and description of Rape including,
– Gang rape
– Child rape
– Marital rape
– Casual rape (Perpetrator wants sex)
– Damage rape (Perpetrator wants to cause pain)
• Child brides
• Suicide
• Violence
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Sex work
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• BDSM
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5/5 stars

Trigger Warning: This review discusses topics that can be triggering for some. Please read the ‘Possible Triggers’ tab above for details.

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Important and Transformative: Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson et al.

I

Also by Bonnie Balliff-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli and Chad F. Emmett

Series: Standalone

Release Date: April 7, 2012

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
“Sex and World Peace” unsettles a variety of assumptions in political and security discourse, demonstrating that the security of women is a vital factor in the security of the state and its incidence of conflict and war.

The authors compare micro-level gender violence and macro-level state peacefulness in global settings, supporting their findings with detailed analyses and color maps. Harnessing an immense amount of data, they call attention to discrepancies between national laws protecting women and the enforcement of those laws, and they note the adverse effects on state security of abnormal sex ratios favoring males, the practice of polygamy, and inequitable realities in family law, among other gendered aggressions.

The authors find that the treatment of women informs human interaction at all levels of society. Their research challenges conventional definitions of security and democracy and shows that the treatment of gender, played out on the world stage, informs the true clash of civilizations. In terms of resolving these injustices, the authors examine top-down and bottom-up approaches to healing wounds of violence against women, as well as ways to rectify inequalities in family law and the lack of parity in decision-making councils. Emphasizing the importance of an R2PW, or state responsibility to protect women, they mount a solid campaign against women’s systemic insecurity, which effectively unravels the security of all.

<strong>Ending:</strong> Non-Fiction

 • Impactful
<strong>Representation</strong>
• BIPOC representation
– Including people (and cultures) from the Middle East, India, Africa as well as Asia
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Rape (including of children)
• Female genital mutilation
• Physical abuse
• Psychological abuse
• Forced marriage
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Teenage pregnancy
• Teenage marriage
• Polygamy
• Prostitution
• Pornography
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5/5 stars

Trigger Warning: This review discusses topics that can be triggering for some. Please read the ‘Possible Triggers’ tab above for details.

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Impactful and Reflective: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

I

Series: Standalone

Release Date: October 8, 2019

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

<strong>Ending</strong>
Bittersweet
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Lesbian supporting character
• LGBTQIA+ side character
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Murder
• Death
• Cannibalism
• Rape
• Sexual assault
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Allusions to sex
• Slut-shaming
• Teen pregnancy
• Girl-hating
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 5/5 stars

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The Gladiator’s Downfall by Kristen Banet

T

Series: Age of the Andinna

Release Date: December 14, 2018

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
Mave knows where she stands in life.

She’s an Andinna. A member of the winged, horned, and tailed warrior race that the Elvasi Empire defeated in the Hundred Year War and then enslaved. She’s a slave, and has been one for a thousand years, the personal property of the Empress of the Elvasi Empire, since the end of the War. She’s a gladiator, thrown onto the sands of the Colosseum to die, though it backfired on those who wanted her dead. She’s the Champion of the Colosseum, and has been for roughly nine hundred years.

All of these things have marked her as an outcast among her own people. Hated, distrusted, and despised, she knows the name of her people, but not much else.

But she knows where she stands. Keeping her head down and her blades sharp has carried her this far, and she refuses to acknowledge the deepest wishes she holds in her heart. Those will only get her killed.

Alone, she’s stood against everything they have ever thrown at her, refusing to give them what they want.

What Mave doesn’t know is that it’s all about to change.

The Gladiator’s Downfall is a 129,000+, full-length novel.
Age of the Andinna is a reverse harem epic fantasy series. The female lead will collect her lovers as the series progresses.
There is triggering content in this series including but not limited to: abuse, violence, mature language, and sexual content. It’s recommended for mature audiences.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Gay supporting characters
• Bisexual side characters
• MM side romance
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Violence
• Physical, emotional and psychological abuse
• Slavery
• Allusions to rape (In the Heroine’s past and present. But, in the present, it’s off-page.)
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
No cheating
No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
Does Not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Kindle

Rating: 5/5 stars

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