Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Title: Fourth Wing

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Pages: 517

Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books

Publication date: May 2, 2023

Goodreads synopsis

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Thoughts

Okay, BookTok. I'll give it to you. I bought this fully expecting it to fall short of the hype, because you can't trust everything you see on the internet, but I get it. I understand the hype. I can't remember the last time I flew through the pages of a fantasy book as fast as this one. There are so many things I really liked about this book. I loved the connection between the dragons and their riders. I loved Tairn's personality and Andarna's contrast from him. The interactions between the three of them were so fun to read. I liked the setting of the war college, I liked the relationships between the other cadets. And of course, I really liked Xaden.

I enjoyed the relationship between Violet and Xaden. I wish the enemies part of the promised enemies to lovers trope had lasted a little bit longer, just to really build some tension, but other than that, I looked forward to the Violet and Xaden scenes.

One of my only gripes with this book is that Violet is not a very interesting protagonist. The characters that she interacts with all have personalities, so I feel like it's easy to overlook that Violet doesn't have one.

Reading about how small and fragile she is does get old pretty fast. I have come to understand that she is breakable because she has a disability, however, this is not stated in the book, and if I hadn't read other's reviews of this novel, I may not have put together that she was disabled. So many protagonists are written to be small and fragile without being disabled that it would be easy to lump her in with those, which is really a shame. If it was framed differently, the disability representation would have been amazing.

The only other thing I would say may be difficult for readers is the striking similarities between this story and other fantasy material. I know completely original ideas are hard to come by these days, and I think this book was marketed as Divergent meets GoT, but I think it's important to note that it really is just Divergent with dragons and sex scenes. I am not complaining, but if you're looking for something all new and groundbreaking, this might not be the book for you.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel and BookTok did steer me right this time. I'm going to continue with this series despite my lukewarm opinion on Violet. I have hope that throughout the series she'll become someone actually interesting, but until then, there's more than enough dragons to distract me from her.

First Line Friday (25): Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo.

Alex approached Black Elm as if she were sidling up to a wild animal, cautious in her walk up the long, curving driveway, careful not to show her fear. How many times had she made this walk? But today was different.

Goodreads synopsis

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.

Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.

--

After reading Ninth House earlier this year and having a rather lukewarm opinion on it, I wasn't sure if I was going to bother picking up this sequel, but now that I'm a little under 100 pages into Hell Bent I think I'm glad that I'm continuing. I'm glad so far, anyway. You can add Hell Bent to your Goodreads TBR here!  

Pride or Die by CL Montblanc

Title: Pride or Die

Author: CL Montblanc

Pages: 336

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Expected publication date: April 15, 2025

*ARC provieded by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The LGBTQ+ club at Hillview High is in danger after a cheerleader is assaulted during a pep rally, and they're the only ones that were close enough to her to blame.

The school and the police seem happy to let the club members go down for the crime. Nobody is trying very hard to find out who is really behind the assault, so with nobody to help them clear their names, they have to take matters into their own hands if they want a shot at saving their club and their futures.

Thoughts

I don't have too much to say about this one. It's a quick and funny teenage sleuthing story and I enjoyed it. The relationships between all the club members was sweet and really gave the story some heart. I did predict who the culprit was pretty early on in the story, but predicting the assailant didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story at all. All in all a good debut, and I'll be looking forward to more from this author.

First Line Friday (24): Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Conscription Day is always the deadliest. Maybe that's why the sunrise is especially beautiful this morning--because I know it might be my last.

Goodreads synopsis

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

--

I know, I know. Everybody has already read this book. But I'm just getting to it know and I'm excited to share the first line. I'm flying through the pages, too. So I'm excited that soon I'll be able to understand what all the hype is truly about. You can add Fourth Wing to your Goodreads TBR here!

Look Up, Handsome by Jack Strange

Author: Jack Strange

Pages: 405

Publisher: One More Chapter

Publication date: September 26, 2024

Intro

Hay-On-Wye is on the verge of losing its only queer bookshop, and the owner, Quinn, has no idea what he's going to do. 

This close to Christmas, Quinn can't believe that he's being evicted by his own stepfather, and it feels like he'll need a miracle to make it through to the new year with his shop still in his possession.

Quinn had no idea that help would come in the form of Noah, a handsome and famous novelist who just so happens to be visiting his hometown for the holidays. Quinn will take all the help that Noah is willing to give, and he wouldn't complain if he happened to fall in love along the way.

Thoughts

I really thought that I would love this cozy, Hallmark feeling, read. The story had potential, but too many things missed the mark for me. Most notably, I didn't feel any chemistry between Noah and Quinn. Obviously for a romance centered story, this is bad news. I feel like they had a few awkward and dry conversations, and started to call that falling in love. I didn't even really buy that they would have had chemistry as friends. I was constantly waiting to feel a connection growing between the two of them in a way that would be at all noteworthy, but I finished the book without feeling any kind of spark that would have made me actually care about the relationship.

Another thing that was tough for me was that the plot felt very repetitive at times. Quinn would panic about losing his shop, plan an event to raise community awareness, and then wait for Noah to show up, either at the event or at Quinn's apartment after. 

I feel like a lot of the repetitiveness was hard to get through because the author tended to do a lot of telling instead of showing. This also felt like it diluted the chance of a good Hermione/ghostwriting subplot, which I would have loved to go deeper into.

Overall, this one missed the mark for me because I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. It had good potential, but ultimately fell short of execution.  

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Title: The Dinner

Author: Herman Koch

Pages: 306

Publisher: Hogarth

Publication date: January 1 2009

Intro

Two couples dine together at a restaurant. Each aware that their children have done something awful together. Over the courses, the events of the night they all know they must talk about are revealed, and tensions between the diners reach a boiling point

My thoughts

I really don't have much to say about this novel. It's the first novel that BookTok has ever influenced me to buy, and I really thought I was going to like it more than I did. It did deliver a tense atmosphere that I loved, but I found that none of the characters were at all likeable. I can forgive a cast of unlikeable characters pretty easily if they're at least a little bit interesting, but I also found that none of the characters were fully developed or fleshed out enough for me to forgive their unlikeable personalities for the sake of the plot. It was hard to care about what happened/what will happen to the characters after the story ends because of this.

Overall, I have a very lukewarm opinion on this one. It's just okay. It was fine for something quick but it's unlikely that this will ever be a story I revisit.  

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander

Title: Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead

Author: Jenny Hollander

Pages: 292

Publication date: February 6, 2024

Intro

Nine years after an event dubbed "Scarlet Christmas" occurred, Charlie Colbert has completely rebuilt her life. Engaged and holding a high position at a magazine, Charlie knows that a movie being made about Scarlet Christmas could tear apart everything that she's worked so hard for.

Charlie doesn't remember everything about that night, and she doesn't know exactly what the movie could reveal. In order to prevent the movie from being made, she has to confront the memories hidden within herself, and she's not so sure she's going to like what she finds.

My thoughts

I am sad to say that this is one of the novels that I liked the idea of more than I enjoyed the actual story.

There are definitely things that I enjoyed about this book. I will always love a murky memory story. An "I don't know what happened bit it wasn't good and I think I had something to do with it" story. I also really liked the dual timeline. THEN, as Charlie pieces together the awful night nine years ago, and NOW  as she does everything she can to avoid the prevent the movie from being made and potentially destroying her life.

The premise was there. The foundation was strong. I really thought this would be at least a four star read for me, and it was shaping up to be one, for awhile at least. I was really enjoying Charlie's descent into paranoia. But soon, the plot became slow and repetitive, and around the 50% mark, I found myself losing interest. I continued reading because I was waiting for the reveal at the end, but I found even the climax to be lackluster. 

This story isn't what I hoped it would be, but I would give the author another look because there were aspects of the writing that I did enjoy. This story just fell a little short for me overall.

Mini Review: You May Now Kill The Bride by Kate Weston

Title: You May Now Kill The Bride

Author: Kate Weston

Publisher: Random House Trade

Pages: 352 pages

Publication date: May 14, 2024

Intro (Goodreads synopsis)

The bride-to-be drops dead at her bachelorette weekend, with all of her bridesmaids as suspects for her murder, in this wry thriller full of deadly twists and characters you'll love to hate.
Who will be left standing when the bouquet is thrown?

Lauren, Saskia, Dominica, Farah and Tansy have been best friends since grade school. They wonder if that was the last time they all actually liked each other. As adults, their lives have splintered. Farah is engaged and is fast becoming a complete bridezilla. Dominica's a successful divorce attorney with no time for anything but work. Tansy runs a vegan cafe and is preparing for a shotgun marriage to awful Ivan. Lauren has had a total “failure to launch” in her career and love life, consumed by a man who has spent years stringing her along. Saskia has married into wealth and a different circle of friends in a fancy part of London. Some days it seems that the only thing holding the group together is an event that happened in their youth twenty years ago—an incident they’ve all sworn secrecy about to protect each other.

When the group is reunited at Tansy’s bachelorette-cum-wellness-retreat weekend, it doesn’t take long for old grudges to surface. Then the bride-to-be chokes to death on a poisoned drink, and all of the bridesmaids are suspects.

Kate Weston explores the complexities of female friendship in this searingly funny, page-turning thriller. One of these bridesmaids may be a killer, and the group had better watch their sash-covered backs, because your oldest friends aren’t always your closest…

My thoughts

I think you'll like this book if you're trying to find a quick story that you're not going to take super seriously. I really wouldn't say that any of the characters were particularly likeable, but I was just interested enough in the shenanigans that the women got up to that I kept reading through until the end, and overall I had a good time. If you are a fan of Young Rich Widows (review here) or other humorous women's fiction, you'll probably enjoy this read.

Her Pretty Lies by Angela Henry

Title: Her Pretty Lies

Author: Angela Henry

Pages: 288

Publisher: Storm Publishing

Publication date: May 3 2024

Intro (Goodreads synopsis)

The paramedics tell me I’m in shock as they load the body bag into the ambulance.

Only days ago, I had everything. A man I wanted to marry. A prestigious fellowship for graduate school. A perfect new apartment. I’m a psychology student. I should have known she was hiding something from the start…Now I’m shivering under a foil blanket wondering how my life became a nightmare.

And when the paramedics check me over, it’s not concern I see on their faces. It’s fear.

They think I did this. They think I killed her…

My thoughts

This book disappointed me a little. I love a fast paced thriller, so I was excited when I got my hands on this one, but at times the plot became so out there and ridiculous that I feel like it read more like a YA fanfiction rather than a thriller meant for an adult audience. It feels like certain mature themes like that of sex and explicit language were inserted for adult marketing, but otherwise the overall plot is very YA which I was not what I was hoping for.

If you're looking for a serious thriller to cozy up with soon, this isn't one that I would recommend, but if you're looking for a fast paced thriller you could probably get through in a day or so, this would be an okay one to try. 

Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen

Title: Sacrificial Animals

Author: Kailee Pedersen

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 320

Publication date: August 20, 2024

*ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Intro (Goodreads synopsis)

Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology.

The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever.

But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia’s interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations.

Punctuated by scenes from Nick’s adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake.

My thoughts

I had such high hopes for this book. I love atmospheric horror. I adore when the atmosphere itself feels like a character. Like a presence. And I really enjoyed finding these devices in this story. 

What didn't work for me in this story was mostly the writing style. I feel as though the prose really bogged the story down at times and the plot felt very sluggish. I found myself getting bored waiting for something to actually happen. It is well over the halfway mark that the plot actually starts to really get moving, and in my opinion, even what was meant to be the climax of the story wasn't enough for me to justify reading through so many slow points. 

The author also chooses not to use quotation marks to identify dialogue which I respect as a stylistic choice, but their were instances where it was difficult to differentiate between what was dialogue and what wasn't. 

Overall this book wasn't totally my cup of tea, but it did have aspects that I enjoyed, so I would say that if you enjoy atmospheric horror and are okay with a slower story, I would give this a shot.

First Line Friday (23): The Dinner by Herman Koch

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is The Dinner by Herman Koch.

We were going out to dinner. I won't say which restaurant, because next time it might be full of people who've come to see whether we're there.

Goodreads synopsis

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse - the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

--

I'm coming up to the last hundred or so pages of this novel, so my review should be out soon! You can add The Dinner to your TBR here!

The Last Girl Left by A.M. Strong and Sonya Sargent

Title: The Last Girl Left

Authors: A.M. Strong, Sonya Sargent

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Expected publication date: April 23, 2024

*ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Intro

Five years have passed since one terrifying night left Tessa the only survivor of the massacre that killed three of her friends, and Tessa hasn't gone one day without thinking about it. Her life as she knew it stopped the night Patrick Moyer killed her friends and left her for dead, but Tessa knows she can't live her life like this forever. Paranoid, jumping at shadows, and carrying a bat around her sister's house for protection. She needs to confront the past to be able to put it behind her, so she books a one month stay at the exact vacation house she was staying at with her friends the night they died.

When things start going bump in the night, Tessa would love to blame it on her paranoia, but she can't shake the feeling that something is off on Cassadaga Island, and she can't shake the feeling that someone is with her. Watching her. And she doesn't think she'll be lucky enough to be left alive a second time.

--

This book was just okay for me. It had an interesting premise and I loved the setting. I think the authors did a great job with the atmosphere. A secluded, mostly closed down island in November is a great place to start a thriller and I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

There were, however, a few areas that missed the mark for me. I didn't find Tessa to be a particularly interesting protagonist, and her inner monologue was a bit on the repetitive side. In some ways I understand, because Tessa is stuck in her fears, but the content starts to feel dry early on in the story. The story also takes a long time to really start rolling, and that felt repetitive as well. Nothing really starts happening until the last 75 pages or so, so certain parts of the novel felt like filler that the novel didn't need, and I personally didn't feel like the reveal at the end was shocking enough to warrant the drawn out portions.

Overall, this novel felt a little bit predictable and the pacing wasn't my favourite but if you're looking for a thriller to read through in a weekend, this book may be worth picking up. 

Young Rich Widows by Kimberly Belle, Lane Fargo, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie

Title: Young Rich Widows

Author: Kimberly Belle, Lane Fargo, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Expected publication date: April 2, 2024

Intro (Goodreads)

When the four partners of a prominent law firm are killed in a mysterious plane crash, their widows must come together to uncover the truth in this explosive, edge-of-your-seat novel.

It’s 1985 in Providence, Rhode Island, and the four partners of a prominent, mafia-affiliated law firm have been killed in a private jet that went down outside New York City. Four very different women have just lost the loves of their lives: Justine, a former fashion model adjusting to suburban life; Camille, a beautiful, young second wife some suspect is a gold digger; Krystle, committed to leaving the firm to her sons after her husband worked his whole life to support them all; and Meredith, a stripper at the local club who was in a secret relationship with the firm’s sole female partner. While the crash is initially ruled a tragic accident, something’s not adding up: The team wasn’t supposed to be in New York that day, and it’s soon revealed that there was a very large sum of cash that burned up with the plane. The women find themselves thrown together in search of the truth, with new danger and threats unfolding at every turn.

Could a dissatisfied client be seeking revenge? Or were the partners involved in something bigger—something dangerous and deadly? What other secrets were the partners keeping, and how far might people go to ensure they stay hidden? The widows must find the answers in order to protect their inheritance, their families, and their lives.

My thoughts

I enjoyed this novel for what it was. It was a quick, fun read that was a great palette cleanser from some of the darker thrillers that I've been reading. I was looking for something easy to read while also being compelling and this delivered for me. It had some very campy, 80s mobster flick vibes and I loved that.

I loved the switch of POVs between all of the widows and I liked seeing the friendships develop between all the women despite all of their unfortunate circumstances.

The only small gripe I had with this novel is that it does take awhile to get going and to feel like there is actually something happening, but the humor and my general fondness for all of the widows carried me through the parts that felt slow.

I think if you're looking for a quick read and fun that doesn't take itself too seriously, I would recommend this.

What Waits in the Woods by Terri Parlato

Title: What Waits in the Woods

Author: Terri Parlato

Publisher: Kensington

Publication date: December 26, 2023

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for honest review

Synopsis (Goodreads)

In this riveting thriller from a new master of suspense, a young dancer’s homecoming is marred by a grisly discovery—and the realization that nothing in her past may be quite what she believed.

When Esmé Foster left the Boston suburbs to become a professional ballerina, the future shimmered with promise. Eleven years later, her career has been derailed by an injury, and Esme knows it’s time to come back to Graybridge to help her brother care for their ailing father. But her return coincides with an unthinkable crime. Kara Cunningham, one of Esme’s high school friends, is found dead in the woods behind the Fosters’ house.

Esmé is shocked and grieving, but also uneasy. In her dreams, she still sees the man who showed up at the scene of the car accident that killed her mother—and told Esmé he was going to kill her too. Family and friends insisted the figure was a product of Esmé’s imagination, that she was concussed after the crash. But she and Kara looked alike, sharing the same petite build, the same hair color. Could Kara’s murder have been a case of mistaken identity?

Detective Rita Myers is familiar with close-knit communities like Graybridge, where, beneath the friendliness, there are whispers and secrets. The town has seen other tragedies too, including the long-ago drowning of a young girl in a pond, deep in the woods. Even within the once-close circle of friends that included Kara and Esmé, Rita discerns a ripple of mistrust.

Day by day, Esmé discovers more about the place she left behind—and the friends and family she thought she knew. Soon, shining a light into the darkness to learn what really happened the night Kara died is the only way she can bring the nightmare to an end . .

My thoughts

This was definitely more of a police procedural than a thriller, which I wasn't expecting when I started the book. Once I realized that, my expectations shifted I was ready to love the story, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. The writing style is heavy on dialogue and as much as I wanted to love the dueling POVs of Esme and Detective Rita, I found it hard to connect with them for that reason.

 I also found that the mystery was a little bogged down with family drama that I couldn't care too much about because I was already having a hard time with connecting with our protagonists at all.

As for the ending, it felt very abrupt. I feel like there was not a lot of buildup to make the reveal of the killer feel satisfying, and it was ultimately disappointing.

This is part of a series but I had no trouble reading it as a standalone, and I think I might try to get my hands on the first book in the series just to see if I connect better with characters from the authors previous work.

The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Title: The Fortune Seller

Author: Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Expected publication date: February 13, 2024

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

When Rosie returns from time abroad to realize that a new girl has made a position in her friend group, she's a little uneasy. She doesn't know anything about Annelise. And now she has to share a room with her. What's even more strange is that the girls in her friend group don't know much about her either. She's a great equestrian. She fits right in on the team. But where did she come from? How does she afford Yale tuition and the lifestyle that comes with being friends with rich girls? Who is Annelise?

In a classic tale of class and ambition, Rosie has to figure out what everybody in her friend group is after, and which of them will stop at nothing to get it.

--

I loved everything about this novel. The way that Kapelke-Dale engrosses readers in atmospheres and how well she develops relationships has never disappointed me, and it didn't let me down here. Just like in The Ballerinas and The Ingenue, I felt completely engrossed in the story unfolding in my mind.

I love the way that her writing captures complicated female relationships and I love the way the tension and pressure builds until it all boils over in a stunning climax. I loved the quiet ending. The way that through everything that happens, there is also space for moving on. How there has to be space for moving on, if you want to keep growing into the person that you are meant to be.

I think as long as Kapelke-Dale is writing anything, I'll be a fan of it. I would probably read her grocery list if it was all I could get my hands on, and as always, even though this novel isn't even published yet, I will be eagerly awaiting her next release. 

Waiting on Wednesday (22): Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Waiting on Wednesday's is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. *It appears that Breaking the Spine hasn't been active since 2016, but I still want to credit them as the creators.

For this week's Waiting on Wednesday I'm spotlighting Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC (Red Tower Books)

Publication date: May 2, 2023

Goodreads Synopsis

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

--

I know that this book is already published so I don't really have to wait to read it, but I wanted to spotlight it as my Waiting On Wednesday because everybody and their mother read this book in 2023, and I feel so out of the loop not having read it yet. So this post is my formal statement that I will get to this book this year, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it lives up to all the hype that it's been getting.