Blog Tour: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord Excerpt and Early Review

Welcome to our stop on the Tweet Cute blog tour! If you've been following, you'll know that we don't read a lot of YA romance, but I just couldn't resist this one. The cover is adorable, the blurb is adorable, and the book was adorable. Check out my review below, along with an excerpt from Tweet Cute.

Tweet Cute
Emma Lord
Release: January 21,2020
Goodreads Amazon
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming — mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account. 

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time. 

All’s fair in love and cheese — that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life — on an anonymous chat app Jack built. 

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate — people on the internet are shipping them?? — their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

Review

This book, you guys! It has all the cute! And all the food cravings! Grilled cheese and dessert mashups! But Jack and Pepper are so charming I resisted the urge to start baking in the middle of the book.

Their Upper East Side prep school has all the Gossip Girl vibes, which the characters acknowledge more than once. But they are both a lot more Rory Gilmore, surrounded by the Blairs and Serenas but somehow apart from them, which makes them more relatable for most of us. Pepper even has her own Paris Geller-like frenemy.

What was so interesting to me about Pepper and Jack's relationship was that it developed simultaneously on three different levels: in person as classmates, in a chat app as Wolf and Bluebird, and on Twitter as business rivals. There's actually an additional connection that's revealed at the end too. Watching all of those identities converge was so much fun. Like Jack was the answer to all of Pepper's questions.

Everything they go through brings them closer to friends and family as well so neither are so "separate" by the end of the book. I would love to read a companion novel following other characters from their friend group away at college.

Tweet Cute was so much fun and a refreshing break from my usual reads. Fans of Gilmore Girls are sure to love this one.

    

4  stars

Excerpt 

JACK

“Look.” I glance into the classroom, where Ethan is thoroughly distracted by Stephen and no longer keeping an eye on us. “I may have . . . overreacted.”

Pepper shakes her head. “I told you. I get it. It’s your family.”

“Yeah. But it’s also—well, to be honest, this has been kind of good for business.”

Pepper’s brow furrows, that one little crease returning. “What, the tweets?”

“Yeah.” I scratch the back of my neck, sheepish. “Actually, we had a line out the door yesterday. It was kind of intense.”

“That’s . . . that’s good, right?”

The tone of my voice is clearly not matching up with the words I’m saying, but if I’m being honest, I’m still wary of this whole overnight business boom. And if I’m being honest, I’m even more wary of Pepper. If this really is as much of a family business as she claims it is—to the point where she’s helping run the Twitter handle, when even I know enough about corporate Twitter accounts to know entire teams of experienced people get paid to do that—then she might have had more of a hand in this whole recipe theft thing than she’s letting on.

The fact of the matter is, I can’t trust her. To the point of not knowing whether I can even trust her knowing how our business is doing, or just how badly we need it.

“Yeah, um, I guess.” I try to make it sound noncommittal. My acting skills, much like my breakfast-packing skills, leave much to be desired.

“So . . .”

“So.”

Pepper presses her lips into a thin line, a question in her eyes.

“So, I guess—if your mom really wants you to keep tweeting . . .”

“Wait. Yesterday you were pissed. Two minutes ago you were pissed.”

“I am pissed. You stole from us,” I reiterate. “You stole from an eighty-five-year-old woman.”

“I didn’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, but still. You’re them, and I’m . . . her. It’s like a choose your fighter situation, and we just happen to be the ones up to bat.”

“So you’re saying—you don’t not want me to keep this up?”

“The way I see it, you don’t have to make your mom mad, and we get a few more customers in the door too.”

Pepper takes a breath like she’s going to say something, like she’s going to correct me, but after a moment, she lets it go. Her face can’t quite settle on an expression, toeing the line between dread and relief.

“You’re sure?”

I answer by opening the container she handed me. The smell that immediately wafts out of it should honestly be illegal; it stops kids I’ve never even spoken to in their tracks.

“Are you a witch?” I ask, reaching in and taking a bite of one. It’s like Monster Cake, the Sequel—freaking Christmas in my mouth. I already want more before I’ve even managed to chew. My eyes close as if I’m experiencing an actual drug high—and maybe I am, because I forget myself entirely and say, “This might even be better than our Kitchen Sink Macaroons.”

“Kitchen Sink Macaroons?”

Eyes open again. Yikes. Note to self: dessert is the greatest weapon in Pepper’s arsenal. I swallow my bite so I can answer her.

“It’s kind of well-known, at least in the East Village. It even got in some Hub Seed roundup once. I’d tell you to try some, but you might steal the recipe, so.”

Pepper smiles, then—actually smiles, instead of the little smirk she usually does. It’s not startling, but what it does to me in that moment kind of is.

Before I can examine the unfamiliar lurch in my stomach, the bell rings and knocks the smile right off her face. I follow just behind her, wondering why it suddenly seems too hot in here, like they cranked the air up for December instead of October. I dismiss it by the time I get to my desk—probably just all the Twitter drama and the glory of So Sorry Blondies getting to my head.

“One rule,” she says, as we sit in the last two desks in the back of the room.

I raise my eyebrows at her.

“We don’t take any of it personally.” She leans forward on her desk, leveling with me, her bangs falling into her face. “No more getting mad at each other. Cheese and state.”

“What happens on Twitter stays on Twitter,” I say with a nod of agreement. “Okay, then, second rule: no kid gloves.”

Mrs. Fairchild is giving that stern look over the room that never quite successfully quiets anyone down. Pepper frowns, waiting for me to elaborate.

“I mean—no going easy on each other. If we’re going to play at this, we’re both going to give it our A game, okay? No holding back because we’re . . .”

Friends, I almost say. No, I’m going to say. But then—

“I’d appreciate it if even one of you acknowledged the bell with your silence,” Mrs. Fairchild grumbles.

I turn to Pepper, expecting to find her snapping to attention the way she always does when an adult comes within a hundred feet of disciplining her. But her eyes are still intent on me, like she is sizing something up—like she’s looking forward to something I haven’t anticipated yet.

“All right. No taking it personally. And no holding back.”

She holds her hand out for me to shake again, under the desk so Mrs. Fairchild won’t see it. I smile and shake my head, wondering how someone can be so aggressively seventeen and seventy-five at the same time, and then I take it. Her hand is warm and small in mine, but her grip is surprisingly firm, with a pressure that almost feels like she’s still got her fingers wrapped around mine even after we let go.

I turn back to the whiteboard, a ghost of a smirk on my face. “Let the games begin.”

About the Author

Emma Lord is a digital media editor and writer living in New York City, where she spends whatever time she isn’t writing either running or belting show tunes in community theater. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a major in psychology and a minor in how to tilt your computer screen so nobody will notice you updating your fan fiction from the back row. She was raised on glitter, grilled cheese, and a whole lot of love. Her sun sign is Hufflepuff, but she is a Gryffindor rising. TWEET CUTE is her debut novel. You can find her geeking out online at @dilemmalord on Twitter.

Blog Tour Review: Sightwitch by Susan Dennard

Sightwitch
(The Witchlands #2.5)
Susan Dennard
Release: February 13, 2018
Goodreads Amazon B&N Book Depository

Before Safi and Iseult battled a Bloodwitch...
Before Merik returned from the dead…

Ryber Fortiza was a Sightwitch Sister at a secluded convent, waiting to be called by her goddess into the depths of the mountain. There she would receive the gift of foretelling. But when that call never comes, Ryber finds herself the only Sister without the Sight.

Years pass and Ryber’s misfit pain becomes a dull ache, until one day, Sisters who already possess the Sight are summoned into the mountain, never to return. Soon enough, Ryber is the only Sister left. Now, it is up to her to save her Sisters, though she does not have the Sight―and though she does not know what might await her inside the mountain.

On her journey underground, she encounters a young captain named Kullen Ikray, who has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Together, the two journey ever deeper in search of answers, their road filled with horrors, and what they find at the end of that road will alter the fate of the Witchlands forever.

Review:

Going in, you should know that Sightwitch is a little different from the other books in the Witchlands series. In fact, I like to think of it as an actual artifact from that world. In Windwitch, Merik visits Kullen's apartment:

Merik's attention snagged on one spine now, a familiar title he'd seen Kullen reading on the Jana only hours before his death.
The True Tale of the Twelve Palladins
Merik's breath caught. He yanked it off the table in a rasp of leather, a puff of dust. He peeled back the cover. . .
Different copy. He exhaled - hard. This addition had a torn first page; the one on the Jana had been smooth.

And when you peel back the jacket on Sightwitch:

*gasp* And the first page tells us that "Sightwitch diaries have a way of changing, depending on who reads them." So while most of the book is Ryber's journal, we also have pieces of Erydice's, a Sightwitch who lived a thousand years earlier. The magic (or perhaps the goddess if you ask a Sightwitch) tells us everything we need to know, even though it's more than Ryber intended to tell. Within those journals are maps and sketches and other bits that Ryber collected that help tell the story.

 

My only real criticism is that I wish I could tell which parts Ryber added, like with whatever the Witchlands equivalent of tape or paperclips would be at the corners to give more of a scrapbook feel. I feel like the pages are too clean, though there instances where Ryber's made notes in the margins, which I love.

As readers we learn the history of the Witchlands along with Ryber and her friend Tanzi, including the origins of their magic and the story behind the construction of the underground city in Windwitch. I found those stories just as fascinating as Ryber and Erydice's own. It's so compelling, I read it more or less in one sitting. (It was a snow day, so I did have to pause for some kid-related trips to the kitchen.)

Sightwitch is set a year before Truthwitch, so it is technically a prequel, but I agree with the decision to call it book 2.5. Learning the world's mythology is so much more meaningful when you're already invested. I also think it would be frustrating to go from this story to Truthwitch where Ryber and Kullen play such small parts in the story. And I have so many theories about where the series is headed now that I know what the endgame is. At least, I think I do. I even have a (very spoilery) idea about the title of book four.

I've just been fascinated by the entire Witchlands series. I'm happy that I read Windwitch and Sightwitch together though, because I feel like there's so much going on in all of these books. If you want to refresh your memory but don't have time for a reread, Susan Dennard has done these really fun gif recaps of both of the previous books, Truthwitch and Windwitch. Even if you don't need a refresher, I highly recommend them.

    

4.5  stars

My posts about other books in this series:
Truthwitch

About the Author

I’ve come a long way from small-town Georgia. Working in marine biology, I got to travel the world—six out of seven continents, to be exact (I’ll get to you yet, Asia!)—before I settled down as a full-time novelist and writing instructor.

I’m the author of the Something Strange and Deadly series as well as the New York Times bestselling Witchlands books, Truthwitch and Windwitch, and if I’m not writing, then I’m busy slaying darkspawn or earning bruises at the dojo.

I live in the Midwestern US with my French husband, two spoiled dogs, and two grouchy cats. Learn more about me and my cookie-addiction on the blog, newsletter, twitter, instagram, or pinterest.

Throwback Thursday Read This F@!%ing Book: Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

One of the suggestions from our recent survey was that we should do Throwback Thursday. The idea was really for social media, but I thought it would also be a good way to refresh our memories before the next book in a series comes out.

Sightwitch releases on February 13 and I'm working on a blog tour post for the following week. Next week I'll be posting my review of Windwitch. But today, let's look back at how it all started with a Read This F-ing Book post I wrote in March of 2016. (See the original post here.)

This is a feature for us to push our favorite reads that just aren't getting enough attention!

We're also opening it up to anyone who would like to guest post. Do you have a book that you just LURVED but feel like it's not getting the play it deserves? Email us to let us know and we'd be THRILLED to have you post about it here! Especially if its something we haven't reviewed yet - that's even better (but not necessary)!

If you're interested email Goldilox3weres@gmail.com



Read This F@!%ing Book:
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

I feel like I've been hearing a lot about Truthwitch, so maybe it doesn't really qualify as a book I want more people to know about. But then I realized that I'm only hearing it from YA bloggers. If you don't read YA or follow YA blogs, you might have missed it. And even if you're not a big fan of YA, you'll want to read this book.

From the very beginning I was fascinated with Truthwitch. I was reading along, just thinking, "this is so awesome!" It took me a while to figure out how to translate that into an argument for why you should read this book. Would you just trust me and read it because it's awesome? No?

Really Cool Magic

The first thing that really struck me is the magic system. Safiya is a Truthwitch. It's a very rare magic, and one that was thought to be extinct. She keeps her skills hidden to protect herself from those who would use her or kill her to keep others from doing so. What I thought was interesting about her skill, and a little bit different from other versions of it that I've read, is that she not only senses when people are lying, but she also senses illusions and abominations.

Iseult is a Threadwitch. Hers is the magic that kind of blew my mind. I haven't seen anything like it before. It's similar to the way some authors use auras - she sees colors that reflect people's emotions. But it's also much more complex. She sees threads, connections between people. Iseult and Safiya, for example, are Threadsisters - we would probably call them BFFs - and a Threadwitch can see their bond and use it to find them. This reminded me of Nalini Singh's Psy-net, except that Iseult sees it all the time and it has more applications.

Prince Merik is an Airwitch and he can fly! He also uses air magic to control his ship, but that's not as much fun. Those are just the three main characters. They're not the only ones with interesting magic, but I wouldn't want to spoil anyone.

 
Girl Power 

In addition to Iseult and Safiya, who demonstrate some serious fighting skills right from the beginning of the book, Truthwitch is full of powerful women. At first glance their country seems to be run by men, but the women are strong subversive forces.

Once they're out in the world, they find female leaders everywhere. There's a monk with healing powers and ties to both Merik and Iseult. There's Iseult's mother, also a Threadwitch, and her apprentice who are stronger than they seem and full of surprizes. There's a queen with another kind of really cool magic. Again, it would probably be spoilery to list them all. 

As much as love the girl power statement, the point is not that Safiya and Iseult must overthrow the tyranny of men, but that there are heroes of both genders in this world. There are also villains of both genders, and some characters in between. (I have some thoughts about race in Truthwitch as well - Iseult is vilified for being too pale - but I haven't dug into it much. I'd like to see more of the world and find other examples first.)*

I think that YA is the place to look for diversity right now. I'm seeing lots of young authors with fresh perspectives on the traditionally white male-dominated fantasy genre. I'm sure that eventually it will spill over into adult fantasy as well. (Those YA readers have to grow up, right?) But for now if you're looking for a new take on the old tropes, look to YA. And start with Trutchwitch. Trust me. It's awesome.

*Update: Susan Dennard recently posted about the race issue in Truthwitch, saying it was unintentional. She has an explanation in mind for why Iseult's people are hated, it just hasn't appeared in the books yet. She also has an explanation for their pale skin, which they haven't always had. See the full details in her Instagram story highlights.

Have you read this book?
 Did we persuade you to add it to your TBR mountain?
 Let us know in the comments below!

Goldilox and the Three Scares Classic Horror Week Review: Wake the Hollow by Gabi Triana

We're doing something a little different for Halloween this year. This time of year always brings out the monsters. And some of our favorites are the ones from literature. We're looking at retellings and reimaginings of horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a story that always reminds me of Halloween. Today I'm reviewing an update of that classic tale.

Wake the Hollow
Gaby Triana
Release: August 2, 2016
Goodreads Amazon
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Forget the dead, Mica. It’s real, live people you should fear.

Tragedy has brought Micaela Burgos back to her hometown of Sleepy Hollow. It’s been six years since she chose to live with her father in Miami instead of her eccentric mother. And now her mother is dead.

This town will suck you in and not let go.

Sleepy Hollow may be famous for its fabled headless horseman, but the town is real. So are its prejudices and hatred, targeting Mica’s family as outsiders. But ghostly voices carry on the wind, whispering that her mother’s death was based on hate…not an accident at all. With the help of two very different guys—who pull at her heart in very different ways—Micaela must awaken the hidden secret of Sleepy Hollow…before she meets her mother’s fate.

Find the answers. 

Unless, of course, the answers find you first.

Review:
Wake the Hollow wound up being a perfect Halloween week read because it's set in October with leaves changing, cold weather setting in, and the town preparing for a Halloween festival. It's also perfect for our Classic Horror Week theme because in addition to Washington Irving, Mary Shelley comes up in Mica's research. I'm kind of glad I didn't read it in the summer when I first got it - I really enjoyed reading it in the same time it's set.

I liked Micaela and watching her comes to terms with her psychic gift and her family legacy. I loved the local lore and urban legends that infuse Sleepy Hollow and I wonder how much of it is real. I found the actual "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" hard to read with its antiquated flowery prose but I'm tempted to read more about its author after the fascinating mysteries in this book.

But something about the love interests in the story rubbed me the wrong way. With both of them (and with some other characters too) Mica goes back and forth on whether she should trust them and she doesn't always seem to have a reason for changing her mind. I wasn't convinced her feelings were genuine and had a few, "Wait! What?" kind of moments. And the guys were inconsistent in their behavior toward her as well. There were also some elements that could have been explained more clearly when the mystery wrapped up.

Still I loved the atmosphere Gaby Triana created here. I liked the fact that there was a second layer of mystery involving Mica's parents, though again some of that could have been explained better. I think the book would make a great TV show - it has a very Riverdale vibe. Plus, you know, ghosts. Some of which might be headless. If anybody at the CW is reading my reviews, you need to adapt Wake the Hollow.

Recommended for fans of: Riverdale

   

 3 Stars

Goldilox and the Three Scares Classic Horror Week Kick Off Post

We're doing something a little different for Halloween this year. This time of year always brings out the monsters. And some of our favorites are the ones from literature. We're looking at retellings and reimaginings of horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. And we're starting off with some that we've already reviewed. Watch for more reviews of books inspired by Classic Horror this week, along with some Halloween book recs.

It wouldn't be an event without a giveaway, so we've got a couple of those for you. The first one's right here at the bottom of the page. Check out our Instagram for another classic horror-themed prize.

Hunting Prince Dracula by Keri Maniscalco

Probably the most popular of the Classic Horror novels is Bram Stoker's Dracula. We loved Kerri Maniscalco's take on it.
Read Rose Red's review

The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

Not only does Carr include the daughter of the original Dr. Jeckyl (And she's a Steampunk CSI! How awesome is that?) but other classic characters like Dr. Frankenstein appear in the series as well.

Read Gretl's review.


Alice by Christina Henry
While they're not generally considered horror since they were written for children, I would argue that the surrealist elements in books like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland can be horrific. They come from the same Gothic roots as the horror classics and certainly lend themselves to frightening retellings. Christina's Henry's very adult take on Alice is a great example.
Read Gretl's review

Need a great Halloween read? We're giving away a copy of Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco and a pair of SJTR-inspired candles from Novelly Yours.
(U.S. only)

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Early Review: Devils and Thieves by Jennifer Rush

Devils and Thieves
(Devils and Thieves #1)
Jennifer Rush
Release: October 3, 2017
Goodreads Amazon
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Eighteen-year-old Jemmie Carmichael has grown up surrounded by magic in the quiet town of Hawthorne, New York. In her world, magic users are called "kindled," and Jemmie would count herself among them if only she could cast a simple spell without completely falling apart. It doesn't help that she was also recently snubbed by Crowe, the dangerous and enigmatic leader of the Black Devils kindled motorcycle gang and the unofficial head of their turf.

When the entire kindled community rolls into Hawthorne for an annual festival, a rumor begins spreading that someone is practicing forbidden magic. Then people start to go missing. With threats closing in from every side, no one can be trusted. Jemmie and Crowe will have to put aside their tumultuous history to find their loved ones, and the only thing that might save them is the very flaw that keeps Jemmie from fully harnessing her magic. For all her years of feeling useless, Jemmie may just be the most powerful kindled of all.

Review:

I'm a big fan of spooky small town mysteries. Devils and Thieves also has magical motorcycle clubs which is even better. And I did like the world of magical family legacies that Jennifer Rush created. Each family has a predominant power that they pass down through generations, though not everyone inherits it. And there are about a dozen possible types of magic that can manifest, like controlling animals or manipulating the body.

The MCs are made up of people from several different families, though the leadership tends to pass from father to son. Each club runs their own businesses and feuds with other clubs just like on Sons of Anarchy. The book has a very different vibe from that show, but I did feel like it was helpful to have watched it because I might not have known some of the MC vocabulary otherwise.

As interesting as all of that was, what kept me engaged was the book's compelling mystery plot. It was a really fast, hard to put down, one sitting read. Because Jemmie's trying to find her missing friend at a festival, I also got a Scooby Doo kind of vibe, though not in a bad way.

But there's something that bugs me. It's more a comment on the publisher than the book itself so I'm trying not to let it affect my review, even though I found it distracting. I keep wondering why it's being marketed as YA. The main character is eighteen and has graduated and her love interests are twenty, which I think technically makes it new adult. The only explanation I can see is that the romance never goes any farther than kissing and NAs tend to be more graphic, but there's no reason they have to be. And I felt like Crowe's motivation in particular was pretty mature. I'm an adult, though not a particularly new one, and still found it relatable.

I'm curious about how Jemmie and Crowe's relationship will change as the series goes on since Jemmie is very different at the end of the book than she was at the beginning. That makes Devils and Thieves feel like an origin story and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

Recommended for fans of: Beautiful Creatures, Sons of Anarchy, spooky small towns

    

 4 stars

Blog Tour: Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

It's that time of year when leaves start changing colors, costumes are showing up in stores and pumpkin everything is everywhere. But one of the best things about fall is the spooky stories! 

Today we're excited to be part of the blog tour for Black Bird of the Gallows by debut author Meg Kassel. Let me tell you, there's some creepy stuff in this book. Keep reading for more about Black Bird including my review and an awesome giveaway.

Black Bird of the Gallows
Meg Kassel
Release: September 5, 2017
Goodreads Amazon
B&N iBooks Kobo
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.

What's more, she knows something most don't. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.

Excerpt

His soft voice clashes with the intensity of his gaze. “You’re adorable when you’re trying to be mad at me. You needn’t work so hard at it, though. We aren’t meant to be adversaries.” 

“I, um…” My thoughts disband, leaving nothing for communication purposes. I’m adorable? Adorable has many definitions. I think my dog is adorable, for example. “That…wasn’t what I was going to ask you.”

He inclines his head. “Okay, then. Ask.”

But that “adorable” echoes through me, clinking around like a penny down a well. “What are we meant to be, then?”

His lips curls up at the corners. “That wasn’t your question, either.”

Review

Black Bird of the Gallows blends unique, and frankly bizarre, mythology into a familiar teen romance that reminds me of Twilight. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. Like Edward, Reece is much older than he appears and in a found family that moves and reinvents itself frequently. He's tortured by his nature, what he's seen and done, and fears Angie won't accept him.

Angie lives with her father in the small mountain town where Reece's family moves. She is so much better than Bella though, because she's Beca from Pitch Perfect. She DJs in a club under an assumed name and creates her own music. Again, I don't mean the comparison in a negative way - I think Angie and her alter ego Sparo are awesome. And I think the familiarity is comforting during the horrific events that happen over the course of the book. (Some of these, school shootings and natural disasters, feel ripped from the headlines and could be triggering for some readers.)

But instead of vampires, there are birds, men made of bees and mysterious straw men. They are said to be all that remains of ancient magics that were purged from the earth. That story seems quite interesting and I might have liked to see a historical version where the legends were fresh.

I just didn't love the book as much as I wanted to. I like the idea of blending elements from horror and disaster films into a teen romance. But I felt like the creepy and danger overpower any warm fuzzy feelings. And I wanted more explanation of the magic.

   

3/5  stars

Three (3) winners will receive A Black Bird of the Gallows canvas tote bag (11“x14”) which includes a custom made crow pendant and ball chain, bookmark and stickers, and a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
(INTERNATIONAL)

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Entangled Teen is also giving away t-shirts to the first 100 reviewers on Amazon. Details here.

About the Author

Meg Kassel is an author of paranormal and speculative books for young adults. A New Jersey native, Meg graduated from Parson’s School of Design and worked as a graphic designer before becoming a writer. She now lives in Maine with her husband and daughter and is busy at work on her next novel. She is the 2016 RWA Golden Heart© winner in YA.

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