#Pacific Islander book

[scentedsstuff]

Dragonfruit

By Markiia Lucier

Rating: 4/5⭐️

I fell in love with this cover at first sight because well…look at it! It was only afterwards that I realised this was a cover for a Pacific Islander based fantasy book! As a Pacific Islander who has long loved reading fantasy books I have dreamed of there being pasifika inspired fantasy books to get lost in. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting to explore other settings based on different parts of the world but to finally have a pasifika based fantasy book is just so exciting!

Quick Summary:

A dragons egg is a powerful thing. According to legend, a dragons egg has the power to grant a wish, any wish your heart so desires but beware, every wish has a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the only daughter of one of the once-respectable families of old. The once respectable family name was tarnished when Hanalei's father had stolen a dragon egg intended for the island's ailing princess. Having lived these last 10 years in exile, one chance encounter with a dragon offers Hanalei a chance to undo the wrongs of the past and to finally return home.

However, where dragons are, dragon hunters are sure to follow, and where there are such treasures, you can trust that Hanalei is not the only one aware and in need of what a dragon egg can offer.

Thoughts:

I was in a reading slump before this and had tried one other book to get me back into reading but that didn’t work. Then I picked this up and here we are.

The pacing of the book was much quicker than I had anticipated but that definitely worked in its favor. When reading, new characters and settings are introduced, given ample time for the reader to become acquainted with and then moved on from, there was no lingering more than necessary and no rushing through things either. The details you needed were given and nothing else was unnecessarily focused on.

The main characters felt fleshed out in this stand alone. Their motives and reasoning behind actions taken was understandable. Not to mention the setting felt so immersive and lush, the general description of the area reminded me of home (minus the huge latti stone structures).

As for the fantasy element of it all, I loved the fantastical myths/legends, creatures and powers shown and introduced. I've always loved tattoos and the significance of such in pasifika culture, so to see that given more precedence in the book and have that be part of a cool new magic system was very satisfying to read.

When it came to the romance, I was very pleased to find that I ended up adoring the couple and being so invested in whatever interactions they had. I'll admit, the whole childhood friends to lovers arc is not something I've ever found myself enjoying in the past, but these two got me.

But if I enjoyed the book so much, why 4 stars and not 5? Well, the ending was what ultimately decided that fate. The book is fast-paced and that was true till the end. Towards the end of the book I felt we could have gone into detail about certain things and characters, closing off their stories a bit more. Everything felt so up in the air that it genuinely had me believing that this was the first book in either a duology or series. Either way, whilst the ending was fine it left a lot to be desired and thus I had to give only 4 stars.

Overall, I'd definitely still recommend this book to those whose interest(s) lies within anything I've mentioned over the course of this review or if you're simply curious and want to read it. It's made me more excited at the prospect of more pasifika inspired books and specifically more pasifika inspired fantasy books!

[pastlivesandpurplepuppets]

[mobydyke]

do u ever hear about an adaptation so far removed from the original that you're like just write your own book. what's the point

[read-alert]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Full titles under the cut!

The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War #2) by RF Kuang

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

A Witch's Guide to Magical Inkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong

Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

[black-is-beautiful18]

Just wanted to say that it is alright to be fans of books like LegendBorn, Children of Blood and Bone, and Raybearer but if you are not Black you are not the targeted audience. They deserve your support but the author is not writing with a nonblack audience in mind. The same goes for other nonwhite authors no matter where they come from. Usually these authors are writing for themselves and ppl who look like them. Seeing ourselves is much more important than whether or not white readers like it.

[gisellelivesunderabook]

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month!! Here are some AAPI book 📚 recs!! :3

[talesofwhimsy]

I'm 100 pages into Moby Dick and they just got on the goddamn boat

This book actually kinda fucks hard it's great?

[comic-covers]

(1955)

[arcadialedger]

Wanted to highlight two Pacific Islander properties coming up for PI part of AAPI Heritage Month!

The first is ‘Hailey’s On It!”, a new Disney Channel show starring the voice of Moana, Auli’i Cravalho.

The second is middle grade book ‘Lei and the Fire Goddess’ by own voices author Malia Maunkea.

Both come out soon and you should absolutely support them!

[littlemoondance]

Have you read Dragonfruit yet? If not please do 🦇 here’s a mood board I made for it.

[smashpages]

‘Spirit World,’ ‘The Vigil’ and ‘City Boy’ spin out of Lazarus Planet in May

DC will launch three new series featuring Asian heroes and creators during Asian American Pacific Islander Month.

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Photo courtesy of the lovely @EssaHansen of The Graven trilogy (which you should check out). Tis a blessing to be featured for AAPI month on this shelf with such brilliant and wonderful authors.

If you haven't checked out Jade City, The Broken Binding is doing special editions of the whole Green Bone Saga now! For those asking if The Doors of Midnight will have a special edition, yes. I've gotten the question a bunch now and will happily clarify any time. :) I'm excited too!

[insertdragonpun]

Y'ALL

So I started Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb and-

HOLY SHIT

I was raised on Ranger's Apprentice, and there was a good chunk of me that thought this was just gonna be similar but NO

I was expecting Burrich to fill the grumpy mentor turned father figure

You know, like Halt

(spoiler warning below)

But this dude. In the SECOND CHAPTER kills Fitz's dog, a dog mind you that I was excited to see become an animal companion who could SHARE MINDS with Fitz, because apparently sharing minds with animals turns the human into a beast!

I call bullshit! I say that it's just an older form of magic that's been misconstrued as time went on!

Killing his dog is gonna do irreparable damage to Fitz! Nosy was part of him! What the fuck Burrich!

I'm in love with this book so far if it isn't obvious lmao

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

What are we celebrating in May? Check out the new displays in our Children’s Room!

Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Jewish American Heritage Month

[read-alert]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Here's some of my favorite reads by Asian authors from the past year!

Full titles under the cut!

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

Djinn City by Saad Z Hossain

Femme in Public by Alok Vaid-Menon

The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom and Kai Yun Ching

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

[aitiuilghrain]

Mu