Reanna's Book Realm

It’s been years since young Asha led the notorious dragon Kozu to her city. In the aftermath, almost everything was burned, including most of her body. As a way to regain her city’s trust, she has committed herself to be the most fierce dragon hunter, and her father has promised her hand in marriage to Jarek, who lost his entire family during the fire. Days before her wedding, Asha is met with a proposition by her father: hunt and kill Kozu and and her upcoming marriage will be dispersed. However, Asha brother, Dax, has his own plans for the city that Asha accidentally plays in by freeing a slave from Jarek’s hands. Now, she has to hide a slave and kill Kozu, all behind Jarek’s back. The days are counting down, and Asha is realizing more and more that there are power plays behind every move. I originally had no idea The Last Namsara even existed until one of my friends who actually knows Kristen Ciccarelli (the author) recommended it to me. This book is one of many that came out o...

  Simon’s a pretty open book. His family is super close, he has awesome friends, and overall a comfortable life as a junior in high school. There’s just one, kind of big thing: he’s gay. It’s not that he’s ashamed of being gay (he’s not), it’s just that he’s never found the right time to tell anyone. Well, not anyone. There’s Blue, an anonymous boy from his school that he emails back and forth. One day, Simon gets impatient and checks his email on a school computer and forgets to log out. His sort-of friend Martin finds the emails, and begins to blackmail him. Simon can either do Martin’s bidding or decide to come out, something he isn’t quite ready to do.   For some reason, I really did not want to read Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda. It’s been wildly popular since its release two years ago, but, like always, I was being stubborn and refused to read it. Finally, I listened to the audiobook this winter break, and it was spectacular. Arguably one of the best audiobooks ...

Adam’s dad is the head of the church in his small, conservative town, which means he’s under constant scrutiny. His brother’s on his way to become a priest, but Adam can’t even think about the future. He’s still got one last year of high school, a hard enough feat without being gay. His parents seem to know about his sexuality but ignore it, he has a boyfriend that he thinks he loves, and a boss that’s sexually harassing him at work. Everyday stretches out to a lifetime in Adam’s world, and today is no different. I have mixed feelings about Patrick Ness’s work. Overall, he always has really good concepts for his books. He wrote a trilogy about a world where everyone hears each other’s thoughts and a book about all the sidekicks of superheroes. Yet, they all fall short for me. I was still drawn to Release because of the plot, the cover, and the quote from Andrew Smith on the front. After reading it, this could’ve been one of my favorite books of the year but there was one major is...

Eliza is a mystery to everyone, including herself. At school, no one dares talk to her, and at home, where her family is obsessed with all things sports, her parents assume all of her reclusive behavior is due to a “teenage thing.” Yet, inside her room, she is the mastermind behind the worldwide famous comic series, Monstrous Sea. The very people who call her weird at school are huge fans of her work, not knowing who she is. At the beginning of her senior year, Eliza meets Wallace, who not only wants to talk to her, but is a huge fan of Monstrous Sea. As their friendship turns into something more, Wallace starts confiding in Eliza all of his secrets, but she’s still hiding the fact that she’s the author of Monstrous Sea. Deeper and deeper their relationship goes and Eliza must decide when she wants to stop hiding. Right of the bat, the premise of Eliza and Her Monsters remind me a lot of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. In both books, the main characters are behind successful webstories/...

In this history of Adam’s life, now is definitely not a high spot. Actually, it might be the lowest. His parents are divorced, he just got expelled from school, and his addiction to porn has been discovered. Combined, these three things force him to go into a outpatient rehab program, conveniently organized by the teacher he hates the most. Part of his therapy is meeting with the Knights of Vice, a group of teenagers that are battling different forms of addiction. Through the group he meets Dez, a girl who seems to have more problem than he does. Dez has set limits for Adam, the biggest one that Adam needs to beat his addiction before they can date. That part is easy said, but not easy done. The Temptation of Adam by Dave Connis has been getting a lot of good press from authors like Nic Stone ( Dear Martin ) and Adam Silvera ( History Is All You Left Me ). These are both authors that I have a lot of admiration for, so I trusted their opinion of the book. Unfortunately, it’s safe to ...

*Lord of Shadows is the sequel to Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare It’s been only weeks since Emma killed Malcolm Fade, the high warlock of Los Angeles. While that should’ve been the end of Malcolm's game, it doesn’t look like it is. His body is still somewhere in the ocean, and it’s woken up sea demons throughout the coast. To try to combat this problem, the Ceturions arrive to the Los Angeles Institute, a highly skilled group of Shadowhunters. However, it seems that the Centurions have a different motive for being there, and that’s not the only thing that going on at the institute. Kit, who just discovered he was a Shadowhunter, is not settling in well is dragging Ty down with him. At the same time, Julian is trying to deal with the complications of his parabitai bond with Emma and Mark’s faerie past is catching up with him. The problems are adding up, and soon the structure of the Los Angeles Institute is going to collapse. Lord of Shadows is a seriously daunting book. I...

Justyce is not allowed to be a care-free, regular teenage boy. He’s not allowed to be these things because he is a person of color, and in present day America, that puts a target on his back. And on the night he’s arrested, it doesn’t matter that he’s on his way to Yale or that he is a loving person, all that matters is he’s a black boy seen with a drunk, white-passing girl at two a.m. He hasn’t done anything wrong, but he’s arrested and held for hours, only to not have any charges filed against him. In the months following his arrest, Justyce is forced to examine his relations with American culture while being in an environment that denies his struggles. The minute I heard the premise of Dear Martin I knew I wanted to read it. In the past years, the collection of published YA books has broadened in diversity, not to say that there isn’t always room for improvement. Originally, this book reminded me of The Hate U Give , one of my favorites this year. Now that I’ve read both books...

Clary’s life is ordinary in every sense. She’s shares her life with three people: her mom, her mom’s best friend, Luke, and her best friend Simon. The summer days consist of debating names for Simon’s band, drawing, and going to parties. Except, at the end of the summer, things become out of the ordinary. At a night at the Pandemonium Club, she starts seeing things. Things like three teenagers murdering a fourth in the back of the club. It’s no mistake that she can see them, but a mistake that she hasn’t been able to see them her whole life. These teenagers, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle, are Shadowhunters, sworn to protect humanity from the evils of the world. In the course of a night, it’s discovered that Clary’s mom is a Shadowhunter as well and that she’s wrapped her and Clary up in a deadly problem. It’s all new to her, but Clary must trust Jace, Alec, and Isabelle if she wants to survive in this new world. I originally read City of Bones over five years ago and have read it three...

Sisters Scarlett and Tella live in constant fear of their father, who is the governor of the island they live on. From emotional trauma to physical abuse, Scarlett and Tella has lived it all. Now, Scarlett thinks she finally has the solution to get herself and Tella off the island: by marrying the secretive duke that’s been sending her love letters. However, a week before her wedding, she gets the most mysterious letter and it’s not from her fiance. It’s from Legend, the leader of Caraval, a moving city that is accessible by invitation only. For years, Scarlett and Tella have been asking for an invitation and now they have one. Caraval has always been rumored for its magical qualities, but to what extent, no one knows. When Scarlett and Tella enter Caraval, the unknowingly become part of a tricky game and the must win because the consequence could be deadly.   Ever since its release in January, Caraval by Stephanie Garber has been everywhere in the book community. Recently, I’...

After a year of staying at the neighbor’s house, Eleanor is finally being allowed to come back to her house. Except, her house isn’t what it use to be. Now, it seems like all of her siblings worship her abusive step-dad and her family is even poorer than what they use to be. Across the neighborhood lives Park, a teenage boy who’s always had a stable family and loves all things punk. Eleanor and Park are total opposites so when they end up sitting next to each other on the bus they have nothing but displeasure for each other. But on the next bus ride, things change. Things change again on the bus ride after that and the bus ride after that. Soon they’re sharing comic books and then speaking to each other and even better, holding hands. Set in the backdrop of the late 1980s, Eleanor and Park’s relationship seems to come straight out of a movie. Unfortunately, it’s real life and it’s crashing down on them. Eleanor & Park is a really good concept for a book. What I mean is, it gli...

Carver’s life was going great. The Sauce Crew was all he needed- the crew that he was in with his three best friends Eli, Mars, and Blake. Now his life sucks, Eli, Mars, and Blake are dead and it’s his fault. Well, not really, but there’s still plenty of blame on him. He sent the text that Mars read at the driver’s seat of the car that Eli and Blake were in. The text that Mars was reading when he swerved the car, killing everyone in it. The only people who don’t blame him are his family, Blake’s grandma, and Eli’s girlfriend Jesmyn. To help the healing process, Blake’s grandma asks him to hold a goodbye day for Blake with her. A day to do all of Blake’s favorite things before saying one last goodbye to him. Soon, the other families are asking for goodbye days and the question rises: who really was responsible for their deaths?   I first became a fan of Jeff Zentner when I read his debut, The Serpent King . I loved how straightforward the book was on really intense issues and ded...