Today’s theme is strong leading ladies in YA, and I come to you with three different selections to enjoy.

I like all sorts of protagonists, but think I’ll always be particularly partial to strong leading ladies. There’s just something about them that I can admire and really get behind and appreciate. You know the type of women. The ones that don’t need to rely on a man. Who can be pirates if they so choose. Who will stab anyone who gets in their way without remorse. Okay, maybe I don’t highly recommend that last one, but the point is that strong doesn’t always have to look the same.

I present to you these three strong ladies, but also their compatriots of pirates, goblins, and … wolves? Let’s get to the books!

The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara

Title: The Unbinding of Mary Reade
Author: Miriam McNamara
Publication Date: June 19, 2018
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Format: NetGalley eARC

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Goodreads ★★☆☆☆ YA Historical

Pirates Romance LGBTQ Gore

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Many thanks to NetGalley and Sky Pony Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

❧ I thought this book was going to be about pirates, and it was … kind of? But mostly, it was a romance.

Had I known that this plot largely focused on the romance and less on the piratey goodness, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. Honestly, this is likely why my rating is so low. I don’t enjoy romance books, for the most part. That’s why I tend to avoid them, unless they come highly recommended by people with similar reading tastes.

I couldn’t even get behind this romance, because it felt very much like one party was simply using the other, and it seemed like the book was trying to say that this was just … okay.

It didn’t feel particularly romantic to me, and I just kept on screaming at the character to ruuuuun. Run away. Find someone who is worthy of you. But she didn’t listen. Characters rarely listen to me. *sigh*

❧ Mary’s character arc was lovely, where she has to go from being what’s expected of her to finding herself.

It was sort of like a coming of age, except not quite. For her entire life, everything has depended on her pretending to be something she’s not and can never be, and wow has that left some scars. You know, as it does. Little by little, though, she rediscovers the person she actually wants to be, and lets go of the expectations others have placed on her. The transformation was lovely to watch, and she was very easy to root for in that regard.

❧ For a book about pirates, there’s surprisingly little pirate action … but what little there was, I enjoyed.

There’s a little swashbuckling swordplay afoot, which was enjoyable. Mostly, the focus was on the politics of pirates, and that was actually pretty fascinating to watch. It’s quite the struggle. Most of the book, though, I felt like it really dragged, because the focus was on these two women struggling with societal issues, and they weren’t all that interesting to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good social commentary, and it can fit in with other things, but this felt more social commentary than pirate novel, and I thought I was signing up to watch two badass female pirates fall in love. Not listen to a diatribe against the patriarchy.

❧ I could sympathize with these characters, but none of them really grabbed me.

The situations a lot of them end up in suck, and I feel really bad for them. I want better for them just because … well, I’m human, I suppose, and it’s nice for people not to have really crappy lives and to be able to catch a break? But I didn’t feel particularly attached to any of these characters. Mostly, they just frustrated me more than anything because of their choices and whatnot.

White Stag by Kara Barbieri

Title: White Stag
Author: Kara Barbieri
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Format: NetGalley eARC

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Goodreads ★★★☆☆ YA Fantasy

Romance Goblins Gore Rape

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Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

❧ This world of goblins is dark and brutal, and I am so here for that.

Goblin society is both like and unlike humanity, and it was a brilliant distinction. Sure, they do some really dark, questionable things, but … so do humans? There was a really interesting comparison between Soren’s world of goblins and Janneke’s world of humans.

This book has aaaall the stabbiness and gore and probably needs a trigger warning for at least violence and a really nasty rape scene.

I normally don’t read books with a lot of gore, so I didn’t love that aspect, but it did really highlight the brutality of the world. Goblins are all about strength. If you aren’t strong, you don’t have a place. Showing weakness is tantamount to death. This is the reality that Janneke, as a human, has lived in, and it’s obviously changed her into a complete badass that’s determined to survive no matter what.

More than that, though, the world is just gorgeous, despite being brutal. It’s this neat balance of both. Goblins appear as beautiful creatures with glamour, but underneath, they’re hideous. And that pretty much sums up their world. I just loved exploring it with Janneke, though, and that goes for both the world and the culture of the goblins. I’m going to have to go on a limb and say this is one world that, for a change, I wouldn’t visit, because I’d be destroyed before I could see anything of note. But I still loved it!

❧ Janneke is a fabulous character: clearly changed from the human she once was, but still determined to survive and not lose herself along the way.

A wilting flower, she is not. She’s embraced the goblin way of life, of kill or be killed, but … not fully. She’s still obviously got some sort of conscience, which distinguishes her from some of the goblins, and she refuses to fully give up her humanity, because she doesn’t want to become a monster.

Her arc is really powerful, partly because she’s trying to find herself, after so long, but also trying to find her place in a world she doesn’t belong in. Or … does she? There’s so much contradiction in this that it makes the drama wonderfully fun. She’s caught between two worlds and is trying to make the best of a bad situation without completely losing herself, and if that’s not a relatable struggle, I don’t know what is.

❧ The slow burn romance was probably my favorite thing here, and I couldn’t help but root for Soren the entire time.

I mean, I guess Janneke is the main character here, but Soren? Soren is freaking adorable. He’s strong and fierce and unforgiving, but also super wise and caring. It’s a combination that just freaking works. I fell in love with him almost right away. He’s a big marshmallow wrapped in spikes and venom, and I just loved him.

❧ The timeline for this book just felt wonky to me. Everything coincides at just the perfect moment so that it felt way too coincidental to me.

This really frustrated me, because it just made me mad at Janneke and sort of undermined the whole romantic vibes I was getting. When the book starts, Janneke has already been in the goblin world for about a hundred years, most of that time with Soren. Yet, she still hates and distrusts him. Spurns his niceties. Even though he patiently tries again and again.

Okay, look, being a slave sucks. Obviously. It makes for a weird power dynamic. But can you seriously say you don’t trust this guy who’s treated you well, and not like a slave, for at least fifty years now, who’ve you’ve fought with and had each other’s backs? I think I would’ve been more on board if the timeline wasn’t as long, because that really colored how I saw these characters and made me frustrated with Janneke’s actions toward Soren.

Marrow Charm by Kristin Jacques

Title: Marrow Charm
Author: Kristin Jacques
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
Publisher: The Parliament House
Format: NetGalley eARC

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Goodreads ★★★★★ YA Fantasy

Dystopia Dark Fantasy Violence

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Many thanks to NetGalley and The Parliament House for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

❧ I was hesitant going in, because I had very strong City of Ember vibes and the like, where it sort of feels like if you’ve read one “everyone moved underground because of a disaster that made the surface world uninhabitable,” you’ve sort of read them all. But boy was I wrong.

This world is simultaneously charming and terrifying, and I just loved it so much. The above world isn’t so much uninhabitable as it is dangerous and unpredictable, with no guarantee of safety, let alone survival. It’s mostly just assumed that if you go above ground, you die. Heck, if you live below ground, you also often die. The odds aren’t great.

This is a world founded on magic, but rather, the idea that magic corrupts, and the world has become twisted and lost because of it.

The idea felt so unique and original that I quickly fell in love with it. Even in the Below, things are changed, and it’s a world that promises a shaky sort of safety on the one hand and then smacks you in the face with something dark like, hey, we eat our dead because protein and meat. The balance between the two was done fabulously.

❧ This world is so full of beasts and monsters and magic, and I absolutely loved exploring it.

As I said, even below, there are strange and nasty creatures and workings afoot. But above? Phew. Just like Azzy, I had no idea what to expect, and I was instantly swept away with the beauty and the danger (because of course the two go hand-in-hand, right?). It’s a cutthroat world of danger and excitement, of love and loss, of magic and destruction. It’s a world I’d both want to live in and be terrified to visit.

My favorite part of this world, by far, were to see the corruptions, the way magic has changed the living creatures.

Because magic corrupts, and nothing is immune from that. Azzy encounters from freaking harrowing creatures, and they just sort of took my breath away with their ferocity and darkness but also uniqueness. I mean, it wasn’t all bad. There were some really lovely things she comes across, too. This book was really about balance, in as much as Below is a balance of Above, and the good things balanced the bad.

❧ The bond between Azzy and her brother, Armin, is just beautiful, and I was all about these siblings who would do anything for each other.

When I say anything, I mean pretty much anything. The things these siblings give up in order to try to stay together is astounding. Their bond is unbelievable, but in a good way, and just warms my heart. The lengths Azzy, in particular, has to go through just tugged at all my emotions, and all the things she gives up as she’s determined to rescue Armin. Talk about strong leading ladies. She has to be strong for herself, just to stay alive, but mostly, she has to be strong enough to save her brother.

❧ There is obviously so much more to this world, and this book only just scratches the surface. I just can’t wait to dig into the next one.

There were so many questions I had when this book ended … but in a good way? The series obviously isn’t finished, but I felt like it wrapped up in a good enough place. But I had so many things I wanted answered that were raised in the first one, and it makes me all the more eager to read the next book.

There’s obviously a lot of secrets still left to be discovered, especially about the magic, both the cause of it and how it affects people.

There are some explanations and some things discovered or revealed little by little, and it really had me on the edge of my seat. I need to know more. Why don’t I have the next book yet?! *grabby hands*

❧ There’s a hint at a romance that feels a little … weird? But also … I ship it.

Logistically, I’m not entirely sure how it would work, and that’s about all I can say. It’s a hard-won sort of affection, for sure. Neither party fully trusted the other, but had to work together for assured survival, basically. One of my favorite tropes. I was all about the little tit-for-tat between them where they couldn’t leave because, you know, they “owed a debt” to the other … because emotions are hard, and owing someone a debt is so much easier than caring for them. I really hope this develops more in the next book.

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