Muted // the darker side of the music industry

Muted

by Tami Charles

Goodreads 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!
Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.

For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.

So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean “Mercury” Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights — plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.

Until they’re not.

Denver begins to realize that she’s trapped in Merc’s world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.

Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl’s dreams can be used against her — and what it takes to fight back. 

The Gilded Ones // fiercely and furiously feminist – blog tour

The Gilded Ones

by Namina Forna

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Publishing Date: February 9th, 2020

Goodreads || Amazon ||Barnes and Noble || IndieBound || Get Underlined

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.

A Wolf for a Spell // wolves and witches and happily ever afters – blog tour

 

A Wolf for a Spell

by Karah Sutton

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy 

Published on: Dec 1st, 2020

Goodreads || Amazon || Barnes and Noble || Book Depository || Indigo

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Girl Who Drank the Moon meets Paxin this fantastical tale of a wolf who forms an unlikely alliance with Baba Yaga to save the forest from a wicked tsar. Since she was a pup, Zima has been taught to fear humans—especially witches—but when her family is threatened, she has no choice but to seek help from the witch Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga never does magic for free, but it just so happens that she needs a wolf’s keen nose for a secret plan she’s brewing… Before Zima knows what’s happening, the witch has cast a switching spell and run off into the woods, while Zima is left behind in Baba Yaga’s hut—and Baba Yaga’s body! Meanwhile, a young village girl named Nadya is also seeking the witch’s help, and when she meets Zima (in Baba Yaga’s form), they discover that they face a common enemy. With danger closing in, Zima must unite the wolves, the witches and the villagers against an evil that threatens them all.

Thorn of the Night Blossoms // wlw stans unite! – blog tour

Thorn of the Night Blossoms

by JC Kang

Cover artist: Binh Hai

Publisher: Self published

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazon || Goodreads

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book from the publisher as part of my participation in their tour.

She’s the emperor’s deadliest assassin… …who’s in love with her clan sister.

With a brewing insurrection threatening the realm, Jie must choose between love and duty.

Because when faced with a nascent rebellion, your decisions could save an empire.

Or topple it.

Trigger/Content warnings:

• Magically coerced sex (rape)
• Graphic combat with gore
• Sex work (portrayed in a positive light)

Those Who Prey // cults and murder – blog tour

Those Who Prey

by Jennifer Moffett

Publisher: Atheneum, Simon & Schuster

Publication date: November 10th, 2020

Age group: Young Adult

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book from the publisher as part of my participation in their tour.

Sadie meets The Girls in this riveting debut psychological thriller about a lonely college freshman seduced into joining a cult—and her desperate attempt to escape before it’s too late.

College life isn’t what Emily expected.

She expected to spend freshman year strolling through the ivy-covered campus with new friends, finally feeling like she belonged. Instead, she walks the campus alone, still not having found her place or her people so far away from home.

But then the Kingdom finds her.

The Kingdom, an exclusive on-campus group, offers everything Emily expected of college and more: acceptance, friends, a potential boyfriend, and a chance to spend the summer in Italy on a mission trip. But the trip is not what she thought it would be. Emily and the others are stripped of their passports and money. They’re cut off from their families back home. The Kingdom’s practices become increasingly manipulative and dangerous.

And someone ends up dead.

At times unsettling and always riveting, Those Who Prey looks at the allure of cult life, while questioning just how far we’re willing to go to find where we belong.