Teen Tuesday: Daughter of Lies & Ruin by Jo Spurrier

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Daughter of Lies & Ruin by Jo Spurrier. 346 p. Tales of Blackbone Witches Book 2. HarperVoyager/ HarperCollins Publishers, October, 2021. 9781460756348. (Review of finished ppb courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Tuesday! Teen Tuesday features Daughter of Lies & Ruin by Jo Spurrier. Book 2 of Tales of Blackbone Witches picks up shortly after the events in Book 1, A Curse of Ash and Embers, which I loved. 

Aleida and Elodie (Dee) are on the road from Blackburn Cottage to an abbey, where Aleida wishes to donate some of Ghyssa's treasure. Dee has been learning magic and she has a fair amount of natural ability, but she doubts herself, much to Aleida's dismay. Dee also has a true moral compass, so when they meet Kara, a young girl adept at swordplay, who is staying at the abbey for her protection after her bandit father disappeared, Dee wants to help. Aleida wants Dee to mind her own business, but there's strange magic in the woods. An entire band of robbers have disappeared, strange animals are appearing and Aleida and Dee are being following by a huge eagle.

Where A Curse of Ash & Embers took a little while to simmer before boiling over, Daughter of Lies & Ruin hits the ground running with a cast of terrific new characters and malevolent magic afoot. If you like atmospheric books seeping with evil both human and paranormal, as well as complex feisty characters, try this series. I hope there's more to come!

Teen Tuesday: A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier. Tales of the Blackbone Witches #1. HarperVoyager/ HarperCollins Publishers, January, 2021. 9781460756331. (Review of finished paperback courtesy of publisher.)

Teen Tuesday features A Curse of Ash & Embers by Jo Spurrier. This historical fantasy comes to us from Australia and was published in paperback in the U.S. in January. It is book one of a series called Blackbone Witches.

Sixteen-year-old Elodie narrates and endears the reader from the first page of this suspenseful, atmospheric story. She's waiting for a wagon ride from her stepfather's farm up into the mountains to serve at Black Oak Cottage. No one knows how Elodie got the job, an unsigned letter was delivered, but she doesn't care. She can't wait to get away from her abusive stepfather, though she will miss her mother and half-siblings very much.

Elodie is uneducated, but very observant and is a quick learner. After an eventful trip up the mountain, Elodie is dropped off on the outskirts of the village. Once the villagers learn that she's headed to Black Oak Cottage, they turn mean, thinking she's there to apprentice as a witch. Terrible things happen in the area. Monsters roam at night to tear up the land and kill livestock. Monsters that were created by the old witch, Ghyssa.

But Ghyssa is dead. Aleida killed her. She has no idea why Elodie has come to the cottage. Aleida gruffly warns Elodie to leave, to return to her family, while there's still time. Aleida needs Elodie though, because she's been gravely injured and cursed by Ghyssa and there are even more dangers lurking in the woods. Elodie would rather stay with this strange woman than return to her stepfather.

If you like suspenseful stories of magic, you will love this. The pace is a bit leisurely at first as readers are introduced to intriguing characters. Elodie is fiercely independent and a bit prickly, a trait which serves her well considering what she's about to face. The vivid setting - the cottage and grounds, with its monsters roaming, a demon tree in the orchard and an angry warlock looking to collect a debt, might make it hard to sleep at night. I was completely swept up in the intrigue. 

I can't wait for book two, Daughter of Lies & Ruin due out in July!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~13 hours, 48 minutes. Read by Avi Roque. Macmillan Audio, September, 2020. 9781250619129. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Sixteen-year-old Yadriel is a transgender boy who lives in a cemetery with his extended family of brujas and brujos. He is determined to become a brujo, even though his father does not acknowledge him as his son. He held a secret initiation ceremony with his best friend, Maritza. After his cousin is brutally murdered, the brujos set out to find his ghost in order to set him free. Yadriel hopes to find his cousin in order to prove himself to his father. Instead, he accidentally summons Julian, a bad-boy classmate who was also murdered around the same time. Julian has unfinished business and no idea who killed him. He teams up with Yadriel and Maritza to find out. 

This deeply nuanced and sparkling debut was such a surprise to me - suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny as well as tear-inducing! I loved this book and highly recommend it to mature teen readers. The East LA Latinx community is vividly drawn. The magic is oh-so-believable. The characters are unique and memorable. I really did not want this story to end. I was happy to learn that the author might be working on a sequel of sorts. 

I must admit that I had to get used to the narrator's staccato delivery. I thought that I inadvertently upped the speed of audiobook. I soon got used to it. There's an absolutely adorable interview/ love fest between the narrator and the author at the end of the audiobook. 

The Cemetery Boys is a first-purchase for any collection serving teen readers. 

Middle Grade Monday and Arc Review: The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner

Image: Simon & Schuster

The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner. 272 p. Aladdin/ Simon & Schuster, September, 2019. 9781534431454. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Middle Grade Monday features a debut graphic novel, The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner. Moth Hush doesn't fit in at school. Her single-mother is silent about her father or any other family. It has always been just the two of them. But when Moth suddenly comes into her magic while being bullied on Halloween, her mother reveals that she comes from a long line of witches dating back to Colonial Salem. Moth's grandmother fled into a portal to live under the protection of Hecate but Moth's mother decided to leave. She forbids Moth from practicing magic but Moss finds her diary. With the help of a talking black cat, begins training herself. What could go wrong? 

This graphic novel coming-of-age story is quite relatable even if you don't have magical powers. Inventive and engaging. The story is unique with compelling characters. The arc's art was in black and white but samples show lush coloring. 

Middle Grade Monday: Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell

Image: Hachette Book Group

Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell. The Wizards of Once series #2. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~6 hours. Read by David Tennant. Hachette Book Group, November, 2018. 9781478999461. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library. Purchased hc.)

Middle Grade Monday features Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell. Book two picks up where The Wizards of Once left off. Xar the Enchanter's son is imprisoned and Wish, daughter of the Warrior queen is locked in a cupboard in the castle. That won't stop the evil that Xar unwittingly unleashed. No one has escaped the magical prison, but Xar is determined. Someone has to save the kingdom! 

I just reread my review and saw that I promised myself to read the second installment with my eyes because I found the sound effects jarring. Oops. Well, I'm glad I read with my ears because Tennant is such a delight. I am also happy to report that there seemed to be fewer sound effects. The world building is wonderful and Cowell's characters are vibrantly alive!

As in Wizards of Once, there are lots of laughs along with lots of action. Secrets are revealed, but all is not solved. And, who is our narrator?  Readers will eagerly await book three, Knock Three Times, due out mid-October. Check this week's "Waiting on Wednesday" post for deeds.

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan

Image: Candlewick

Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan. Unabridged audiobook on one MP3-CD. Read by Kate Rudd. 6 hours, 12 minutes. Candlewick on Brilliance Audio, September, 2018. 9781978644335. (Review of purchased audiobook.)

Middle Grade Monday features Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Kiernan. Mup first sees the witches in the treetops when she and her brother are en route home with their mam after visiting her gravely ill great-aunt in hospital. The witches are deathly pale and terrifyingly serious and definitely following her as they leap from treetop to treetop. Mup is terrified to enter her own home and she should be. Turns out Mup's aunt spirited her mother away from the Witch's Borough for her own protection. Now that Aunty is dying, her protective spell weakened. The witch's have found "the heir" and intend to return her to her mother, the queen.


Vivid and creepy, this first book in the Wild Magic trilogy will hook readers on page one and not let go, leaving them panting for book two, which is due out September 3! The writing is lovely for so suspenseful a story. Mup is immediately endearing and everyone around her is unique and memorable from her baby brother, Tipper, who becomes an irrepressible talking dog in the Glittering Kingdom through Crow, a talking crow/ young boy who has trouble speaking in rhyme as required by the queen.


Kate Rudd subtly shifts her voice for each character in this measured performance.


Fans of scary stories will gobble this one up.

Here's a link to a pretty cool book trailer that I think conveys the atmospheric vibe of the book quite nicely.

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol

The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol. Unabridged audiobook on 7 compact discs. 7 hours and 34 minutes. Read by Elizabeth Knowelden. Scholastic Audio, 2017. 9781338159721. (Review of audio borrowed from public library. Own hc.)

Middle Grade Monday features The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol. Nicol's delightful debut features Arianwyn Gribble, an insecure student witch who is haunted by a mysterious symbol and bullied relentlessly by Gimma. When she flunks her witch's final, she's not sure what the future holds until her influential grandmother pulls some strings, Arianwyn is dispatched to Lull as an apprentice witch. Lull is not as dull as one might think, especially with the dark woods just outside its borders. Woods that might hide any manner of evil being. Will Arianwyn be up to the task of being Lull's apprentice witch?

This was such a fun read made all the more enjoyable by the performance of new-to-me narrator, Elizabeth Knowelden. Her narration was perfectly paced and her vocal inflections were easy to follow. The world that Nicol created is vivd and its characters are all memorable. They are a lovable, eccentric bunch. Lonely and self-doubting Arianwyn is achingly relatable. Readers will just want to give her a hug. 

This is a great book to hand to your fans of magic and witchcraft. The ending wraps up nicely but leaves room for book two, A Witch Alone, which is on shelves now and which I cannot wait to read. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell. Unabridged audiobook on 5 compact discs. 6 hours. Read by David Tennant. HarperAudio, 2017. 9781478922735. (Review of audio borrowed from public library. Own hard cover.)

For TMS fantasy fans, Middle Grade Monday features The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell. The setting for this engaging fantasy is prehistoric the British Isles ages before the time of King Arthur and the King Arthur legend is old, old, old. There were two feuding factions, the Wizards, who were magic and the Warriors, who were not. The Warriors mean to stomp out all magic once and for all. The Warrior Queen has a stone that can suck the magic out of any wizard, sprite, giant and all magical beings are terrified of being captured and losing their magic. What happens when one of the queen's daughters, an oddball Warrior princess named Wish, crosses paths with Xar, the Wizard king's non-magical son in the deep woods? The Wizards of Once is drolly told by an un-named, perhaps unreliable narrator who promises to return with more of the story. 

I must admit I have been avoiding fantasy for a while. Not sure why. I just checked my GR list for 2018 and I posted a fantasy in mid-October. The only thing I wrote about it was, "The violence in this was stunning." And I think that might be the issue. As I perused my list and picked out the fantasies, the violence was what I thought of first before characters or worldbuilding. Is this a thing? Admittedly, these were all YA fantasies. But still. Not that fairies and sprites are peaceful, mind you. 

The Wizards of Once is decidedly middle grade and it's rather delightful. We've got the obnoxious Xar who is all bluster and blame and the pitiable Wish, who just yearns for her Queen mother's affections. We've got delightful and delicious sidekicks that include a magicked iron spoon. We've got much laughter and surprisingly, a few tears. Finally, we've got illustrations! Something I discovered when I consulted my library copy. And they are wonderful.

Of course, David Tennant's performance is filled with a variety of voices and just the right amount of ham. What I could've done without, however, were the sound effects. Ugh! They often startled and added nothing to the story. In fact, they were downright distracting. This was my car audio and one effect (I think it was wind) made me nearly pull off the road because I thought it was my car breaking down! In retrospect, I'm surprised that the Odyssey committee didn't seem bothered by the effects as they bestowed an honor on the production. 

I think I will skip the audio for the next installment, Twice Magic. I also think I will get my fantasy mojo back by hanging out in middle grade fantasyland for awhile. Though, I must admit, Holly Black's Cruel Prince is beckoning.