The Astonishing Color of After

The Astonishing Color of After

By: Emily X. R. Pan
Narrated by Stephanie Hsu
Release date: 20 March 2018
Listening length: 11 hours, 52 minutes
My review: five out of 5 stars

"Emily X.R. Pan's brilliantly crafted, harrowing first novel portrays the vast spectrum of love and grief with heart-wrenching beauty and candor. This is a very special book." (John Green, best-selling author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down)

A stunning, heartbreaking debut novel about grief, love, and family, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Celeste Ng.

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

This book was so powerful for me. Most of my life, I've suffered with depression and though it isn't as severe as Leigh's mother's, suicide is something that is a concern. I loved that Leigh imagined her mother had changed into a bird. The fact that the bird was red is something that connected me to the story even more. My mom's favorite color was red and so anytime I see things in that vibrant shade, I am reminded of her. Leigh is just looking for answers. In Taiwan, she gets to meet her maternal grandparents. Due to the language gap, it is hard for her to communicate. 

I loved this story. Its beautiful imagery had me picturing even more in my head when reading. The way that all the little things tied together, just icing on the cake. 

Divine Rivals

Divine Rivals 

By: Rebecca Ross

Narrated by Alex Wingfield and Rebecca Norfolk

Listening length: 10 hours, 50 minutes 

Release date: April 4, 2023

My review: 3.5 out of 5 stars

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.
After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish―into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

While I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my review, all opinions remain my own. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian audio for the opportunity to listen to this story.

First of all, if it weren't for the non-ending, this book would have gotten 4.5 or even 5 stars but because this book HAS NO ENDING I had to lower my rating. I hate it when I have to wait for another book to find out what happens. Even in a series, each book should have a full story on its own. This one left me completely questioning the fate of every single character, save one. I did love the story, loved the characters. The idea is something new to me and with the hint of magic in it, it really is a beautiful start. I just wish that it had an ending. I feel like I only read half a book. Beyond frustrating as a reader, especially when this is so newly out, I have to wait who knows how long until the next book. Hopefully that one will have the end of the story.

The Rules of Magic

The Rules of Magic 

By Alice Hoffman

Ready by Marin Ireland 

Listening length: 11 hours, 58 minutes

My review 4.5 out of 5 stars 

Release date: October 10, 2017

Find your magic.

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people's thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Yet, the children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the memorable aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.

Alice Hoffman delivers "fairy-tale promise with real-life struggle" (The New York Times Book Review) in a story how the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is "irresistible...the kind of book you race through, then pause at the last forty pages, savoring your final moments with the characters"

As someone who has never read (or seen) Practical magic, I came into this book with a completely fresh mind. I didn't know any of the characters or the premise of this story. I had only read the synopsis on the library website and thought it sounded interesting, so I borrowed it. This story was so much more than I expected. The beauty of Hoffman's writing, you feel what her characters are feeling. The pain of loss, the comfort and joy the siblings are able to find in each other. Even the squabbles that they have are all so very real. I love the touches of magic this book has without being a "magic" book. It feels like something that could actually happen, unlike other books with witches in it. The beauty of this family trying to figure out how to break this generational curse or figure out if that's even possible. It is something, that even if we can't directly relate to, we can understand. We might not all have literal curses, but we all carry around baggage from our families, generations of it. This book shows how we can slowly let it go... I just found that to profoundly beautiful. 

One Italian Summer

One Italian Summer 

By: Rebecca Serle

Narrated by: Lauren Graham

Listening Length: 6 hours, 21 minutes 

Publication date: March 1, 2022 

My review: 4.5 out of 5 stars 

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“[A] magical trip worth taking.” —Associated Press

“Rebecca Serle is a maestro of love in all its forms.” —Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author

The New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years returns with a powerful novel about the transformational love between mothers and daughters set on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast.

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

Rebecca Serle’s next great love story is here, and this time it’s between a mother and a daughter. With her signature “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.

For anyone who has lost their mom, this book is going to hit the heartstrings. I feel like Serle must have been through a loss like that, to have written so knowingly about it. The first chapters, of Katy describing the first days and weeks after her mother's passing felt so familiar, it was like looking at my own history. How I wish I could have had an Italian beach vacation to meet her younger self on. Unfortunately, I did not, but I did have this book to listen to and remember the times with my own mother as Katy remembered her own mom.

Katy travels to the Amalfi coast of Italy to remember her mom and hopefully find herself. What she finds is her 30 year old mother and has no idea how. It is a beautiful story of a young woman's grieving and the journey to find a way through it. I absolutely loved this book and plan on buying myself either the kindle book or a hard copy so I can highlight some of my favorite quotes and parts.

Nocturne

Nocturne

Author: Alyssa Wees

Publication Date: February 21, 2023

My review: 4 of 5 stars

In this haunting, lyrical fantasy set in 1930s Chicago, a talented ballerina finds herself torn between her dreams and her desires when she's pursued by a secretive patron who may be more than he seems.

Growing up in Chicago’s Little Sicily in the years following the Great War, Grace Dragotta has always wanted to be a ballerina, ever since she first peered through the windows of the Near North Ballet Company. So when Grace is orphaned, she chooses the ballet as her home, imagining herself forever ensconced in a transcendent world of light and beauty so different from her poor, immigrant upbringing.

Years later, with the Great Depression in full swing, Grace has become the company's new prima ballerina—though achieving her long-held dream is not the triumph she once envisioned. Time and familiarity have tarnished that shining vision, and her new position means the loss of her best friend in the world. Then she attracts the attention of the enigmatic Master La Rosa as her personal patron, and realizes the world is not as small or constricted as she had come to fear.

Who is her mysterious patron, and what does he want from her? As Grace begins to unlock the Master's secrets, she discovers that there is beauty in darkness as well as light, finds that true friendship cannot be broken by time or distance, and realizes there may be another way entirely to achieve the transcendence she has always sought.

While I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for my review, all opinions remain my own. This was a difficult read for me. It was dark and a little confusing. What I was expecting to be a historical novel, was something much more. I loved how the author weaved this tale about the Master and who he really is. How Grace finds herself in the ballet but also loses herself in it. This book is just a complex story and really you need to read it. I loved the writing and the world that Wees build for these characters.

I loved watching Grace's relationships grow with her. She learns to see people as more than what they allow her to see, more than just the surface level of friendship.

Oh, and the ending. JUST LOVE!

This book is to be published 2/21 - get yourself a copy (plus, isn't the cover just BEAUTIFUL!) you won't regret reading this one <3

When The Moon Was Ours

When the Moon was Ours

by Anna-Marie McLemore 

Published October 4, 2016

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

My overall rating: three out of five stars 

As one of the books recommended to me for my 2023 facebook challenge by my friend Crystelle, this book was a bit out of my comfort zone. 

I enjoyed it overall, but it was a bit too much into the metaphors and magical thoughts and less into the story for me. 

When it was focused on the story, it really moved so quickly for me, but then you would get stuck in the thoughts in Miel's head or something and it would just drag for me... 

Loved the idea of a magical girl just appearing from the water tower. The people who come beside to help raise her. How they end up becoming her family. The community and how they react to this strange girl. It was different and I loved that part.

The Last Dreamwalker

After her mother’s unexpected death, Layla Hurley must accept that their relationship was always distant and fraught. In the wake of her passing, Layla reconnects with the maternal side of her family—aunts she hasn’t been allowed to visit or speak to for years, and stories she’s never heard. She travels to South Carolina in search of closure, but discovers much more than she bargained for. While her mother harbored dark and disturbing secrets, there is also talk of her inheritance: a piece of land on the Gullah-Geechee island off the shore is now her own.

But Layla inherits more than land. A long-buried mysterious power, dropped through generations of her Gullah ancestors, awakens. Like many women before her, Layla is a dream-walker. She can inhabit and manipulate the dreams of others. As she dives into dark memories of her mother and the history of the island, she’s desperate to hold onto what’s real and untangle it from the looming dread that someone else, someone cloaked in malice, inhabits these dreams too.

No gift is without its consequences, and Layla finds herself thrust in the middle of a nightmare against an enemy that could snatch away her family and her life as she knows it.

While I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my review (via netgalley), all opinions remain my own.

Trigger warnings: slavery, racism, violence, mental health

I found this story to be quite compelling. It kept me listening long beyond when I should have turned it off. 

I wanted to know what was going to happen to Layla and her island. This story also goes back to the viewpoints of Layla's ancestors and you see how the island came to be theirs. The idea of dream-walking is something that I have always been fascinated with and this book just brought the idea to life. It is a new twist on a very old concept. One thing I also loved was the way the family related to each other. Felt like a real family dynamic. We aren't all like the classic TV family, this shows that we can still function, even if we aren't perfect.

The Simplicity of Cider

Fall in love with The Simplicity of Cider, the charming new novel about a prickly but gifted cider-maker whose quiet life is interrupted by the arrival of a handsome man and his young son at her family’s careworn orchard by the author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake and Luck, Love & Lemon Pie.
Focused and unassuming fifth generation cider-maker Sanna Lund has one desire: to live a simple, quiet life on her family’s apple orchard in Door County, Wisconsin. Although her business is struggling, Sanna remains fiercely devoted to the orchard, despite her brother’s attempts to convince their aging father to sell the land.

Single dad Isaac Banks has spent years trying to shield his son Sebastian from his troubled mother. Fleeing heartbreak at home, Isaac packed up their lives and the two headed out on an adventure, driving across the country. Chance—or fate—led them straight to Sanna’s orchard.

Isaac’s helping hands are much appreciated at the apple farm, even more when Sanna’s father is injured in an accident. As Sanna’s formerly simple life becomes increasingly complicated, she finds solace in unexpected places—friendship with young Sebastian and something more deliciously complex with Isaac—until an outside threat infiltrates the farm.

From the warm and funny Amy E. Reichert, The Simplicity of Cider is a charming love story with a touch of magic, perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen and Gayle Forman.

Although I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher, all opinions remain my own.

A good story pulls you in with characters who are real and believable. I think I fell in love with these characters as soon as I opened the book. With each page that turned, another layer of the characters showed up. There is so much more running through this book then just the story of a father and son road trip. Having it set in an apple orchard was just perfect for me, having been raised around apple trees. I love, love, loved this book.

The Adventures of Miss Petitfour

The magical adventures of an eccentric Mary Poppins-esque heroine and her flying feline charges, sure to charm readers big and small. The first book for children by an internationally acclaimed novelist and poet.

Miss Petitfour enjoys having adventures that are "just the right size - fitting into a single, magical day." She is an expert at baking and eating fancy iced cakes, and her favorite mode of travel is par avion. On windy days, she takes her sixteen cats out for an airing: Minky, Misty, Taffy, Purrsia, Pirate, Mustard, Moutarde, Hemdela, Earring, Grigorovitch, Clasby, Captain Captain, Captain Catkin, Captain Cothespin, Your Shyness and Sizzles. With the aid of her favorite tea party tablecloth as a makeshift balloon, Miss Petitfour and her charges fly over her village, having many little adventures along the way. 

Join Miss Petitfour and her equally eccentric felines on five magical outings -- a search for marmalade, to a spring jumble sale, on a quest for "birthday cheddar", the retrieval of a lost rare stamp and as they compete in the village's annual Festooning Festival. A whimsical, beautifully illustrated collection of tales that celebrates language, storytelling and small pleasures, especially the edible kind!

I received a copy of this book in return for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

My rating: four of five stars

This book was so fun to read. It has several shorter stories, kind of like a chapter book. In each story, Miss Petitfour has an adventure with her cats. She has a bunch of them. And she flies with her tablecloths. It's quite fun to read about their adventures in flying and there are also some pretty adorable pictures that go along with the story. Even though this is a book aimed at younger kids, I found myself being pulled in by the charming Miss Petitfour. This is sure to be a win in any house with cat-loving kids.

Overall, this book gets four paw prints from me.