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by Zoraida Córdova

Emotions: Surprised but not disappointed

Brujas. Bisexuals. Mistakes. Apologies. Love. Hate. Good. Evil. Diverse. Alice in Wonderland. All those words describe Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova and yes, I recommend it.

The book follows Alejandra, aka Alex, a powerful encantrix (a bruja, latinx witch, who can essentially do everything) who doesn’t like magic. As a result, she tries to get rid of it on her Deathday (a made up quinceañera but for brujas kind of thing) but instead she ends up getting rid of something else, something more important to her than magic: her family. Frantic, Alex enlists the help of Nova, a bruja who annoys the heck out of her, and together, they venture into Los Lagos (a place in between heaven/hell). There, they discover an evil sorceress has taken the place — and Alex’s family — captive. Together, Nova and Alex have to find a way to defeat her. Oh, and Rishi, Alex’s HUMAN best friend who followed them.

Review: Wow, I… I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. At first, it started out as a badly written fanfiction but it actually, thankfully, got better. Alex was an OK character but truly, I was immersed in the world and the surrounding characters. Zoraida did an incredible job making everything easy to understand but also interesting so props to her for that! On the other hand, I disliked the love-triangle (though loved the queerness-bisexuality- of it). It felt forced and reinforced negative stereotypes about bisexuals not being able to make up their mind. However, I did appreciate the romance that was included- the LI, Love Interest, and the MC, Alex, had a super cute romance.

Conclusion: read it if you like diverse, sapphic, YA, fantasy books!

3.5 Stars

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by Becky Chambers

I’m not a fan of science-fiction — I’m not, truly! — but this book… this… it… I have no words.

Do you like to read books with complex word building, amazing writing, adult books, the found family trope, sapphic romance, frickin’ awesome creatures and species, inter-species relationships, that’s a little plot/character driven, and is science fiction and/or space opera?

If yes, to any, read (yes, that’s an order) The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

One line summary: Rosemary Harper joins the Wayfarer ship crew just in time for them to go on a big mission of creating a pathway to a neighboring planet.

Review: The world building in this book is insane — absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD (pun intended). I have never — EVER — read a book with such an interesting world. The world may seem complicated at first — trust me, I get it — but once it clicks, it clicks so, so hard. The book was written in third-person (which I love, always) and it followed the majority of the crew members aboard the ship: Rosemary, Sissix, Kizzy, Jenks, Ashby and Corbin. I was thrust into each of their lives and I can’t say I’m upset about it. The plot, again, was limited and relatively simple so if you’re a huge plot person, you may not like this book — but then again, I thought I was a plot person and yet here I am. The chapters were on the longer side, which I tend to dislike but it was still so wonderfully written and evenly paced. I cannot recommend this book enough. READ IT!
 Final rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

Jazleen

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by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

“I didn’t invent this twisted system that pits us against each other and makes us do crappy things for status—but I do know how to play it.”

Ace of Spades in 7 words (because 7 is the perfect number): Queer. Mystery. Racism. Quick-read. Young Adult. Does this interest you at all? No? What if I told you it was described as a mix between Gossip Girl and Get Out? Yeah… I wasn’t able to resist either.

Summary: Chimaka is perfect — everyone says so and everyone thinks so. Devon is a nobody musician — no one thinks so and no one says so, because it’s true. The only thing the two have in common, besides going to the same school, is their skin color. Oh, and the fact they’re both being threatened and harassed by someone — or someONES — named ‘Aces’. When ‘Aces’ starts to reveal too many of their secrets… Chimaka and Devon team up to take them (singular… or is it?) down.

Things I liked: Diversity (black and queer main characters), the writing (super easy to follow and breeze through), the romance (there is both a man-loving-man relationship and a woman-loving-woman relationship and they’re both super cute), the plot twists (while I wasn’t surprised at many of them — I’m black and I’ve watched Gossip Girl AND Get Out — the few that did surprise me made me gape at a wall).

Things I disliked: Chimaka (super, super annoying — did I mention annoying?), the “Plot twists” (again, some of them were great but I predicted the majority), and the simplicity of figuring out the Aces ordeal.

Final rating: 4 stars

Quote: “When you grow up like this, whether it’s in your nature or not, sometimes survival overpowers doing the right thing.”

Jazleen

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by Anna Birch

Do you like enemies to lovers, sapphic romance, sapphic enemies to lovers, amazing writing, and the “we love each other online and know each other in real life without knowing each other’s identities” trope?

Well, if so, I sincerely recommend I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch.

In real life, Iliana and Rhodes hate each other a lot — 2 physical altercat

ions a lot — and their hatred for each other only increases when they find out they’ll be competing for the same scholarship to an elite art school. Online, however, I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-in-Cheshire are madly in love and planning to meet up at the competition. When the worlds collide, they have to figure out whether they can like each other in person as much as they like each other online.

Review: This is SO underrated. This book had wonderful writing and a super cute romance. The enemies to lovers part was also wonderfully done and the tension — the yearning — oh my. My heart… it couldn’t handle it. If you’re not convinced by that, here is a quote guaranteed to make you want to read this book: “She closes the distance between us in a handful of long, sweeping strides — one moment she’s standing at the doorway and the next, her breath ruffles my hair. I flinch. She doesn’t hit me, though: she simply lifts my chin so I have no other choice but to look her in the eyes. Her skin against mine, even in this small way, stands my arm hair on end. Everything in her burning: her eyes, her face, her spirit.”

WOW. The tension, the writing- beautiful *chef’s kiss*. I rated this book 4 / 5 stars and I definitely recommend it!
 Make sure to check the trigger warnings!

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