#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers Featuring Kim Liggett

Don’t let the pink cover fool you – this is not a sweet YA story and the characters are far from likable. The world of the Grace Year is a wild one where only the strong survive. And this is a story of survival – against the odds, against each other, and against ourselves.

In this world, teenage girls are believed to have powers that are dangerous to the men around them. Their magic lives in their very skin. Their sixteenth year is known as The Grace Year. This is the year that the girls of the county are either claimed by men to become wives or unclaimed and forced to work menial labor. But before their status officially changes, they are sent as a group into the woods for a year to rid themselves of their ~unnatural powers~. Some of them return, others aren’t so lucky.

Tierney has just entered her Grace Year, She hopes to be unclaimed, as even though being sent to the labor fields is looked down upon, it’s better than being a wife. But in the end, it doesn’t even matter since surviving the Grace Year is the only thought in her mind. While the girls do have to survive against outside forces – poachers who’d cut them up to bottle the magic that lives within their skins – it’s each other that prove to be the hardest to survive against. In a society where women are not allowed to be mad at men or really express any emotions at all, the only people they can turn their anger against are each other. Tierney tries to fight against this inherent belief, but her fellow Grace Year girls aren’t so inclined to do so. They revel in their magic and are terrifying in their quest to outlast the woods.

This is a story that I will stick with you. It’s a little confusing, a lot terrifying, and of course makes you think about feminism, and how women are treated in society. The world that Tierney and the Grace Year girls live in isn’t explained much at all – is it the past, the future – it could be either. The idea that if women band together they can overcome is a good one, albeit overly idealistic. But then again, I don’t think it’s a bad message for any teen girl to hear.

Madrid, 1957. It’s been 20 years since Spain’s civil war ended, with Franco’s Nationalist Party as the victor. Facing a stagnant economy, Franco has finally allowed tourists, diplomats, and contractors (and their money) into the country. The red carpet is rolled out for foreigners, but the harsh reality of life under a dictatorship threatens to shatter the glamorous illusion.

19-year-old Daniel is in Spain with his oil tycoon father and Spanish-born mother, but he’s really only interested in taking photographs (and the pretty hotel maid Ana). Uninterested in the endless nightlife, Daniel is drawn to the dark secrets his photographs hint at. As his feelings for Ana grow, Daniel is forced to confront his own privilege and the fact that the war on Franco’s rivals never really ended.

Conri is the Slave King bent on revenge against an emperor who murdered his family, destroyed his kingdom and enslaved his people. Euthalia is the mysterious Queen of Calanthe, the last of the old royal kingdoms, and betrothed to the emperor who imprisons her with their contract. The emperor says that magic is dead, but when Conri and Euthalia finally meet it’s undeniably alive. Can they work together to fulfill an old prophecy or will they destroy one another in order to save their people?

The Orchid Throne is a fantasy romance filled with blood, magic, sex, and revenge. I don’t know if you’re into that sort of thing, but I am and I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.

Elliot hit the jackpot when he married Gemma. Sweet and beautiful, Gemma is the cherry on top of a life with a job and home Elliot loves. So, of course, Elliot would invite Gemma’s family to stay with them while they look for a place to live after moving back from abroad. Sure Gemma hasn’t had the greatest relationship with her parents, but what better way to mend fences then by helping them out for a few weeks.

Unfortunately for Elliot, weeks quickly turn into intolerable months as his perfect home becomes defiled by his ever more belligerent in-laws. Here to Stay is a tense and twisty novel that would make an excellent film. Best selling author Mark Edwards delivers again with another unsettling thriller that could happen in your neighborhood. Can Elliot get his house back and save his marriage? Are his in-laws just aggravating or are they truly dangerous?