A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Think 1920s Prohibition, except alcohol is not what is illegal. Magic is. Enough damage was done by past magic users that any and all evidence of magic is shunned and banned. But not all traces of magic are gone. With anything that is prohibited, the lure is just all that more enticing. Shine rooms attract customers who gladly pay to experience the intoxicating effects in the form of magic-infused water.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been struggling ever since to find the words to express just how UTTERLY FANTASTIC it is.

 
Title: Deserving Good: Getting to Know Your Real Self and Live a More Fulfilling Life

Author: Leora Zairi

Genre: Self-Help

This short self-help work by Leora Zairi provides gentle guidance towards self-awareness and transforming one’s life for the good. Focused primarily on knowing one’s self—one’s desires, needs, and emotional wants and making choices based on loving oneself—the author speaks from her own experience in an insightful way without being pedantic or overly technical.

The one who needs rescuing isn’t always the one in the tower…

Rapunzel can throw a knife better than any man. She paints beautiful flowering vines on the walls of her plaster houses. She sings so sweetly she can coax even a beast to sleep. But there are two things she is afraid her mother might never allow her to do: learn to read and marry.

Name – Half Lost.
Author – Sally Green.
Publisher – Viking Books for Young Readers.
Publication date – 29th March 2016.
Series status – Final book in the Half Bad trilogy.

This review may contain spoilers for books 1 and 2.

Title: Holding Court
Release date:  March 1st, 2016
Author: K.C. Held

About the book:

Sixteen-year-old Jules Verity knows exactly what’s in store at her new job at castle-turned-dinner-theater Tudor Times. Some extra cash, wearing a fancy-pants dress, and plenty of time to secretly drool over the ever-so-tasty–and completely unavailable–Grayson Chandler. Except that it’s not quite what she imagined.

This Side of Home by Renée Watson

This Side of Home is the story of Maya Younger and her community. New shops have been opening up on their street and people that have been living in homes for years are suddenly having to move because of rising costs.

While Nikki, Maya’s twin sister, embraces the new neighbors and cool shops, Maya isn’t so open to the changes. And with a new principal mouthing on and on about “diversity,” Maya’s having trouble understanding how to handle all the new things in her life. Including new love.

Broken Girl by Gretchen de la O

My name is ROSE NEWTON, and I sell my body on the streets of San Francisco. I’m what you call society’s dirty little secret. On the outside, I’m in control, the woman who makes her own rules and gives nothing away for free. Inside, I’m broken and numb. Torn and shattered by my past, my life is nothing more than the lost fragments of what’s left of me.

SHANE WEST represents everything that’s foreign to me. He’s brave, kind, funny, gorgeous and persistent. When fate brings us face to face, an undeniable attraction blazes between us. He becomes the constant I’ve never had and the only man I’ll ever trust.

There is nothing simple about falling in love when you’re keeping a secret like mine.