Welcome To Artemis

~Artemis~
By Andy Weir
Amazon ~ Powell's

Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.


Having not read Weir's previous book, The Martian, I didn't know what to expect. Would it be too science-y to get into? Would I get lost in too much detail? I heard it was about "a heist on the moon" but would it be enough to keep me engaged? Well...yes.

I Think My Feelings Are Warranted

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books in the Shatter Me series, or don't mind knowing major spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

~Reveal Me~
Shatter Me
Book 5.5
By Tahereh Mafi
Amazon ~ Powell's

This fourth companion novella to Tahereh Mafi’s New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series is narrated by fan favorite character Kenji Kishimoto!

The explosive revelations in Defy Me have left readers reeling and desperate for answers. This fourth and final novella in the series will bring readers back to the world of the Shatter Me before the final novel installment hits shelves in winter 2020.

Another fun(?) romp with Kenji. While the events of these novellas could easily encompass a chapter or two in the main stories, I've loved getting to know Kenji more intimately. Picking up exactly where we left off, Kenji is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. We knew he did that to some extent, but it's different when we're directly in his head. I legitimately felt bad for him during his anxiety attacks.

His super weird romance with Nazeera was also super sweet. Even if they're going through kind of a rough patch in this story. You don't really think about how someone's upbringing could shape them until it's thrown in your face, and then it's all you can think about. I really do love how the author shows kids being kids, drama and all, even in the middle of a war. It's one of the reasons I vastly prefer Shatter Me to The Hunger Games.

I'll definitely be reading this again in my lead-up to the final(?) book of the series coming next year. I just hope we finally stop with the heart-wrenching, mind-bending cliffhangers!

Out of the Underworld and Back to Life

~Heir to the Underworld~
By E.D. Walker
Amazon

Feisty Frederica Fitzgerald is just one day shy of her sweet sixteen when she’s nearly run over by a tall, dark dreamboat on a big black horse. Freddy can deal with the running over part—no harm done. The problem is the rider, Mr. Sex Bomb himself: Polydegmon, son of Hades and heir to the Greek Underworld.

Freddy’s hooked on Polydegmon from the start (although dude, togas went out of style several thousand years ago), being near him is enough to make her tingle down to her toes. He’s got secrets he isn’t sharing, though, and trouble follows him closer than his own shadow: rabid dogs running around the suburbs, insane crows stalking Freddy and, worst of all, the feral fairies of the Wild Hunt trolling her hometown for their next bit of human game.

The closer Freddy gets to Deg, the weirder her life becomes, until Freddy discovers something about her own past that changes everything she ever thought she knew about herself. And her world…

This wasn't the book for me.

One Who Bears the Mark

~Mark of the Dragon Queen~
By Katie W. Stewart
Amazon

Kira has led a sheltered life, brought up by her widowed father, whom she adores. When he is arrested and imprisoned for a murder he allegedly committed 18 years before, she is devastated. So when she overhears an ex-student of her father's planning to visit the prison, Kira decides to go, too. However, the student - Arun - is not who she thinks he is, and she soon learns that her father has not always been the man of integrity she has known for fifteen years.

Caught in a rebellion against the Lord High Councillor who would return the country to Wizard Rule, Kira finds that there is one more lesson she has to learn - about herself. Success depends on her, but is she willing to make the sacrifice it will require?


I don't know if it's the time this book was written, but I found it hearkening back to books I read in middle school, both in tone and in character. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's a far cry from what typical YA is like these days.

A Never-Ending Cycle of Reunion, Romance, and Tragedy

~Spellbound~
Book 1
By Cara Lynn Shultz
Amazon ~ Powell's

What's a girl to do when meeting The One means she's cursed to die a horrible death?

Life hasn't been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she's irresistibly drawn to—Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.

But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can't stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma's been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives—visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else.


This book found me under the worst circumstances possible. Having just finished Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer, I was desperate for something as magical as that. This was not the book I needed.