#deborah falaye

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's YA Fantasy & Science Fiction TBR - Part 2

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (June 6th, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Dos & Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar 

Always Isn’t Forever by J.C. Cervantes

Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See

The Broken Hearts Club by Susan Bishop Crispell

Ride or Die by Gail-Agnes Musikavanhu

Saint Juniper’s Folly by Alex Crespo

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter 

The Chaperone by M. Hendrix

When it All Syncs Up by Maya Ameyaw

Something More by Jackie Khalilieh

Pedro & Daniel by Federico Erebia

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Various

The Queens of New York by E.L. Shen

At the Speed of Lies by Cindy L. Otis

The Library of the Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Good as Gold by Candace Buford

Things I’ll Never Say by Cassandra Newbould

A Spark in the Cinders by Jenny Elder Moke

Our Vengeful Souls by Kristi McManus

Secret of the Moon Conch by David Bowles & Guadalupe Garcia McCall

The Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown

New Sequels:

Some Shall Break (None Shall Sleep #2) by Ellie Marney

War Widow (Blood Scion #2) by Deborah Falaye

Wrath of the Talon (Talon #2) by Sophie Kim

Ruling Destiny (Stolen Beauty #2) by Alyson Noel

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Happy reading!

[shxpeshifterr]

[tradingmysorrows]

"I love you, Sloane. I love you so much I'd die for you." I shouldn't listen to him. I shouldn't allow him to sacrifice himself for me. I should choose death over a life of eternal slavery. Because if I do what Theo is asking of me, I know I will always be a slave to my guilt. I know it deep in my soul. Yet, my sobs pierce the gloom of the steel chamber as I utter the words, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Deborah Falaye, Blood Scion

[valorallahan]

I’m so ready for this book, and I love this cover art from Taj Francis.

[curlyhairedbibliophile]

March Satisfiction Unboxing 📚📦

Finally had the chance to peak inside my March Satisfiction box and everything is great as usual! 😍 I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about Blood Scion so I’m really excited to have it on standby for when I finish my current stack of reads. 

I’ve been more busy than usual with work lately, but I can’t wait to try everything inside when I get the chance - especially the journal 😊

📚 FEATURED BOOK: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

ALSO INCLUDED: 🩸 Sloane Candle BY COLVON 🩸 Wild Rose Bath Truffle by Bloom Bath Co. 🩸 Love Frequency Body Oil by Self Goddess 🩸 Nourishing & Firming Sheet Masks by Maskeraide 🩸 Intention Mental Wellness Notebook by Cloth & Papier

[bookishfeylin]

just saw your anti booktok post from june 11 2023 and yeah. the way white authors write self-insert fantasies clearly for only white people. The way white audiences will eat it up because it has them as the mcs. the way fae fantasy/fairytale retellings only really focuses on white women. The awkward silence of being a woc and not being able to imagine yourself in the fantasy protagonist's shoes because how can you, they're all white. why would you step into a world where you're made to choose between a golden-haired good white boy and an abusive white bad boy with black hair. they are not even appealing to you. the way alina starkov and mal oretsev being made poc for shadow and bone was met with so much anger and imo violence from white women, cause they could no longer self-insert onto the protagonist because their fantasy of her being a white mc had been shattered. the sobbing and screaming in comments of youtube sections asking why couldn't alina starkov be white even though white people already have everything. and she's not even fae. the entitlement that comes with white privilege and therefore booktok. i'm tired

Hi anon! I assume you are referring to this post and yes, yes I wholeheartedly agree. There’s another post on here about the politics of escapism, and I feel like that really applies to booktok. Who gets to escape in fantasy? Who gets to read about characters that look like them go on adventures and fight monsters and ride dragons and practice magic? Who is included in their world? And who isn’t? Who is relegated as always to a servant, a competing love interest, a jealous ex, a side character in someone else’s story? Who can turn they brain off and ignore all the racism in fantasy and sci-fi—and who can’t because we live with that stuff day in and day out in the real world and it jumps out at us when we see it in our entertainment too?

And it’s so painfully apparent because whenever the same shallow writing is used but with a person of color as a protagonist, or even when the writing is solid and intense but a person of color is the protagonist, white people struggle to relate to them or argue they “have no personality” and couldn’t connect with the character (and even with side characters of color as well). For example, I recently read Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye and it was brutal and intense and a wonderful look into the psychology of child soldiers and how they are broken and what they will do to survive all from a fantasy perspective. But a lot of the (white) reviewers on goodreads say they can’t relate to Sloane, the mc, or that she’s nothing more than a cardboard cut-out who is ~traumatized~, or that the plot makes no sense, etc. The book is objectively well written, but it only has a 3.5 star rating on goodreads and people are much more critical of every aspect of the book than they are of, say, Sarah J Maas’s books when almost of these criticisms are even more applicable in her case. The double standard—the increased scrutiny of and disconnect with and dislike of characters of color—jumps out in booktok in particular because of how low the standards are for white-led and focused books and how much higher they are for POC-led and focused books. And for those of us who want to see ourselves in fantasy, it’s hard.

[black-is-beautiful18]

Do you have an afrofuturist or african fantasy books to rec? I tried reading children of blood and bone due to the hype and movie but honestly other than interesting world building and action scenes, I found it kinda mid and the mc not likable. Have you read the gilded ones? I've also heard that is good.

I haven’t read The Gilded Ones yet, but it is on my TBR.

Here are some recs tho:

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Ring Shout by P. Djèli Clark (one of my favs)

And I have more. I’ll make an official list soon. I was just thinking about it yesterday.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Young Adult Book Releases - November 2023

🦇 Good morning, my bookish bats. I hope you're bundled up with a fur baby, hot bev, and good book as you ward off this (lovely) chilly weather. No TBR is complete without a few young adult novels, and plenty were released in November! Here are a few YA releases to consider adding to your shelves.

✨ Artifacts of An Ex by Jennifer Chen @jchenwriter ✨ The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay by Dale Walls @dalewallsauthor ✨ Emmett by Lev A.C. Rosen @levacrosen ✨ Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood @alihazelwood ✨ Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng @lychengwrites ✨ Powerless by Lauren Roberts @laurens1ibrary ✨ Swarm by Jennifer D. Lyle @jenniferdlyle ✨ Nightbane by Alex Aster @alexaster ✨ Vengeance of the Pirate Queen by Tricia Levenseller @tricialevenseller ✨ Wish of the Wicked by Danielle Paige @daniellempaige ✨ What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez @isabelwriter09 ✨ The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard @stdennard ✨ Defiant by Brandon Sanderson @brandsanderson ✨ Murtagh by Christopher Paolini @christopher_paolini ✨ Dawnbreaker by Jodi Meadows @unicornwarlord

✨ The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith @ambersmithauthor ✨ With or Without You by Eric Smith @ericsmithrocks ✨ Loveboat Forever by Abigail Hing Wen @abigailhingwen ✨ The Revenge Game by Jordyn Taylor @jordynhtaylor ✨ Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto @jesseqsutanto ✨ No One Left But You by Tash McAdam @tashmcadam ✨ To Kill a Shadow by Katherin Quinn @katherinequinnwrites ✨ Godly Heathens by H. E. Edgmon @heedgmon ✨ Wren Martin Ruins It All by Amanda DeWitt @am.dewitt ✨ Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens @quartland ✨ Betting on You by Lynn Painter @lynnpainterbooks ✨ The Crimson Fortress by Akshaya Raman @akshraman ✨ War Widow by Deborah Falaye @deborahfalaye ✨ Where He Can't Find You by Darcy Coates @darcybooks ✨ Finding My Elf by David Valdes @davidvaldeswrites

[margokesses]

[bookclub4m]

30 Fantasy fiction by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Road of the Lost by Nafiza Azad

A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair

A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai 

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

The Björkan Sagas by Harold R. Johnson

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Famished Road by Ben Okri

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

[caribeandthebooks]

March 2024 Reading Wrap Up

I read 2 books and got 2 kindle challenge achievements this month!

Now let's look at the breakdown :)

Reading Challenge Progress: I committed to reading 30 books in 2024 so currently I'm ahead by 2 books!

Top Genre read as at 2024: Young Adult

My first read for March and 7th read for the year was Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye. Rating: 2.5/5

First of all, a moment for the cover. My main reason for giving this book a shot is that the book cover artist is West Indian and I give a coin for my people! I liked the representation of Yoruba culture in this book, often times books based on African Culture can feel like the author only experienced it second hand. I think the author portrayed the culture well while still making it understandable for those who haven't experienced it.

Blood Scion earned me the New Year Kindle Challenge Achievements - National Reading Month

Book #8 was Yellowface by R. F. Kuang . Rating: 4/5

This book won Best Fiction for 2023 so that placed it on my radar. Once I acknowledged that this was a horror novel and the main character wasn't to be liked I was able to appreciate the book for what it was. I also appreciated the insight into the publishing world this book gives the reader.

Thanks to Yellowface being a kindle read, I earned the New Year Kindle Challenge Achievement: Page Sage while reading this book. That rounds out all 15 Kindle Challenge Achievements for the Q1. Love that for me.

....

And that's it!

See you next month but in the meantime, what have you been reading?

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (November 21st, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Queer Girl is Going to be Okay by Dale Walls

New Sequels:

Defiant (Skyward #4) by Brandon Sanderson

War Widow (Blood Scion #2) by Deborah Falaye

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Happy reading!

[tradingmysorrows]

"Tell me, Reaper. Is there someone out there who wants you dead? Or are you just another hand amongst many pulling the trigger?"

Deborah Falaye, Blood Scion

[valorallahan]

“It’s what weak men do—try to break a strong woman.”

Blood Scion, Deborah Falaye