Daisy Chain Book Reviews

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine spotlighting upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.   Release Date: March 28, 201 7 Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers ADD TO GOODREADS SUMMARY   The thrilling first book in a YA fantasy trilogy for fans of Red Queen . In a world where social prestige derives from a trifecta of blood, money, and magic, one girl has the ability to break the spell that holds the social order in place. Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary. Her life mig...

Title: Vassa in the Night Author: Sarah Porter Release Date: September 20, 2016 Publisher: Tor Teen Pages: 304 Source: ARC provided by Raincoast Books Add to Goodreads | Amazon.ca | Indigo Overall: 3 STARS SUMMARY In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now―but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood. In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling out again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters―and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission. But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough...

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine spotlighting upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.   Release Date: February 7, 2017 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books ADD TO GOODREADS SUMMARY   Dark, romantic and unforgettable, this riveting debut for fans of Labyrinth and Naomi Novik tells the fantastical story of a young woman's journey towards love and acceptance. Deep in his terrifying realm underground, the cold and forbidding Goblin King casts a dark shadow over nineteen-year-old Liesl. Her grandmother had always warned her to follow the old laws, for every year on the longest night of winter the Goblin King will emerge into the waking world in search of his eternal bride. Sensible and plain, Liesl knows it's her duty to keep her beautiful sister safe from harm, but she wishes only to indulge in her wild, captivating music, composed and played in secret in the Goblin King's honor. When her beautiful sister Käthe is stolen by the ...

Title: Overdrive Author: Dawn Ius Release Date: September 13, 2016 Publisher: Simon Pulse Pages: 320 Source: ARC provided by Simon & Schuster Canada Add to Goodreads | Amazon.ca | Indigo Overall: 3.5 STARS SUMMARY Gone in Sixty Seconds meets Heist Society in this edgy novel about a crack team of teenage criminals on a mission to learn to trust, build a life, and steal a wish list of exotic cars. Jules Parish has screwed up. After three years of boosting cars, she got caught. She’s too good to get caught, but she let her (ex)-boyfriend talk her into a questionable job. And now she and her little sister, Emma, will be kicked out of their foster home, left to survive on the unforgiving streets of Las Vegas alone. Unless. Eccentric, wealthy Roger Montgomery wants to open up his mansion to Jules and Emma. The only catch? Jules must steal seven of the rarest, most valuable muscle cars in the world…in seven weeks. Even worse, she’s forced to put her trust in three complete stranger...

Title: Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1) Author: Zoraida Córdova Release Date: September 6, 2016 Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Pages: 336 Source: ARC provided by Raincoast Books Add to Goodreads | Amazon.ca | Indigo Overall: 5 STARS SUMMARY   "Enchanting and complex. Every page is filled with magic." —Danielle Paige, New York Times best-selling author of Dorothy Must Die Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives. Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation...and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can't trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin. The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland... MY THOUGHTS Alex is an encantrix, the most...

Title: The Evil Wizard Smallbone Author: Delia Sherman Release Date: September 13, 2016 Publisher: Candlewick Press Pages: 416 Source: Hardcover provided by Penguin Random House Canada Add to Goodreads | Amazon.ca | Indigo Overall: 4 S TARS SUMMARY In a hilarious tale reminiscent of T. H. White, a lost boy finds himself an unlikely apprentice to the very old, vaguely evil, mostly just grumpy Wizard Smallbone. When twelve-year-old Nick runs away from his uncle’s in the middle of a blizzard, he stumbles onto a very opinionated bookstore. He also meets its guardian, the self-proclaimed Evil Wizard Smallbone, who calls Nick his apprentice and won’t let him leave, but won’t teach him magic, either. It’s a good thing the bookstore takes Nick’s magical education in hand, because Smallbone’s nemesis—the Evil Wizard Fidelou—and his pack of shape-shifting bikers are howling at the borders. Smallbone might call himself evil, but compared to Fidelou, he’s practically a puppy. And he can’t handle...