What Lies Around The Bend...

 "Bone Criers have a sacred duty: to ferry the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. But the gods demand a sacrifice from them to prove their dedication. Ailesse has prepared since birth to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers, but first, she must complete her rite of passage by finding - and killing - the boy she is destined to love. Bastien has been seeking revenge for his father’s death at the hands of a Bone Crier. When he finds Ailesse on the night of her ritual, their fates become entwined in life and in death. Sabine has never had the stomach for the Bone Criers’ work, but when her best friend, Ailesse, is taken captive, Sabine will do whatever it takes to break the bond between Ailesse and Bastien. Before they all die.” Review: This was such a fun little read! Honestly, I was hooked from the moment Ailesse attacked that tiger shark. The pacing for this was like NASCAR. We were flying through so much action and plot and I was here for it. There were times I will say that...

 WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE ALEX STERN SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. CHECK OUT NINTH HOUSE FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1! "Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory - even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness ...

“They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king of Rime. Cast out of the nobility, Kate now works for the royal courier service. Only the most skilled ride for the Relay, and only the fastest survive, for when night falls, the nightdrakes - deadly flightless dragons - come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with forbidden magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by drakes in broad daylight - The only survivor Corwin Tormane, the son of the king. Her first love, the boy she swore to forget after he condemned her father to death. With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin must put the past behind them to face this new threat and ann even darker menace stirring in the kingdom.” Review: This was an overall decent book. It had all the necessary pieces for a good fantasy: a cool FMC, the privile...

“In Cambridge, four children have been murdered. Wrongly accused of the crimes, a small community of Jews threatened by Catholic mobs is given sanctuary by Henry II. To assist in proving their innocence, he summons an expert in the science of deduction and the art of death. She is Adelia, a prodigy from the Medical School of Salerno, and an anomaly in a medieval world, who is forced to conceal her identity and her purpose from England’s grave superstitions and condemnation. One man willing to work with her is Sir Rowley Picot. His personal steak in the investigation makes him an invaluable ally - and in Adelia’s eyes, a suspect as well. From navigating Cambridge’s perilous river paths to penetrating the dark shadows of the Church, Adelia’s investigation will not only reveal the secrets of the dead, but in time, the far more dangerous ones buried in the living.” Review: Okay, let me start by being honest. I honestly thought this was going to be a lighthearted kind of whodunnit murder my...

“ Can I kiss you?”   It was two months before the world premiere of  Juno , and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.  With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare.  As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful peopl...