Ana E. Way

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this arc!  It's a first volume, obviously . The story follows two main characters: Toba, who is a young woman who has a disability that prevents her from running or yelling, and Naftaly, a young man who dreams of a world where people have squared pupils. It takes place in Spain in 1492, when the Jewish were exiled or forced to convert. All the characters are Jewish and we see a lot of their culture and traditions, which is so interesting. Very early on, Toba crosses a gate and finds herself in the mirror realm where the Mazik live and oh , they have squared pupils! Her grandmother enrolls Naftaly (and an old woman who wants to protect Naftaly from the grandmother) to save Toba. The beginning was very slow until something happens and "oh no! there's two of them!" The Mazik Naftaly dreams of really surprised me. There are some revelations in this book that were so baffling and promised a lot of captivating intrigues. My only hope i...

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the arc! D.L. Soria stands for Destiny Soria when she writes for adults, and this is her first adult novel. She is one of my favourite authors so I just HAD to read this. As usual, it's a stand alone and the concept was so intriguing! What if all we know about Cinderella is wrong and what happens after the happy ever after? Ash is an amazing character. She was manipulative but always tried to be nice and felt guilty about being fake. Her backstory was very interesting and I wished we had another novel about the world to know more about the political state of the countries. The theme of colonisation was very strong but left me wanting more. This book made me realise that I, in fact, do love heists. What a revelation! The magic system was pretty fun and scary, and I very much liked the secondary characters who felt very real in all their complexity. There was a scene between Ash and Everett that made me very uncomfortable as it felt so wrong and ...