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Book Review: “The Antidote” by Shelley Sackier




The Antidote

Author: Shelley Sackier

Published by: HarperTEEN on February 5th, 2019

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Young Adult // Fantasy

Similar Books I’ve Read: These Rebel Waves

Disclosure: I received this book from the Publisher/Author in exchange for an impartial review. This is an unpaid/unsponsored post.

Magic is not allowed, under any circumstances — even if it could save someone’s life. Instead, there are herbal remedies and traditional techniques that have been painstakingly recorded in lieu of using the mystical arts. Fee knows this, so she keeps her magic a secret.
Except her best friend, Xavi, is deathly ill. He’s also the crown prince. Saving him is important, not only for her, but for the entire kingdom.
Fee’s desperation to save her friend means she can barely contain the magic inside her. And after the tiniest of slips, Fee is thrust into a dark and secretive world that is as alluring as it is dangerous.
If she gives in, it could mean she can save Xavi. But it also means that those who wish to snuff out magic might just snuff her out in the process.

First Thoughts  

I’ve only read a few books this year, but I already know that I’m currently obsessed with YA Romances. I don’t even know why I am, or what book did it, but I just haven’t wanted to stray towards Fantasy reads at all lately. But when I got The Antidote, it just kept coming back up in my TBR and after the lovely Publishers sent me the gorgeous ARC, I just couldn’t resist seeing if this would win over my heart’s genre dilemma (didn’t mean for that to rhyme).

My Review 

You know you’re in for one heck of a story when there’s magic, and that magic can’t be used. So, in this case, it’s totally forbidden in The Antidote. Instead of magic and all it entails, they use herbal remedies (I guess our version of behind the counter remedies and prescription things) and special ways they incorporate into their lives instead of using magic. Fee (or Ophelia, as she was born), our main character, is loyal to the system and keeps her own magic buried within since a contagion forced half the kingdom away and separated her from her betrothed love and left her, and the future king, Prince Xavi, who were infected, behind. 

Fee’s best friend Xavi is on his death bed, struggling for life because of the way they were infected,  and knowing this, Fee’s own magic is playing games within her. Xavi is the prince and due to be the future king, so the stakes are a thousand times greater that he lives. Keeping him alive is all that Fee wants, and because of this, her magic ventures out during a momentary slip. Everything she knew about magic – and the secret world it has masked – is thunderous, throwing her life into a dangerous darkness. But to fully give in to everything magic holds would be worse than anything she could think of. She could save Xavi, but at the risk of her own life by those who forbid magic, deciding whether it’s truly worth the sacrifice, Fee stands on uneven ground that’s quaking under her footsteps.

Overall, watching Fee – and this entire world, characters and plot – grow over the course of the chapters, I was enthralled by this twisted fairytale of bonds, true love, magic, a dash of sassiness and high stakes. It did take me a while to get used to Fee’s character, because she is so determined in her ways and stubborn, but in the end, it kind of just made me love her even more. Whilst there were some slow moments, it was still a super amazing read. I still have my soft spot for YA Romances, but The Antidote is definitely up there with incredible YA 2019. Four stars!


Have you read The Antidote?


You can buy it:

Amazon | Book Depository


I definitely recommend you add to your Goodreads and browse it at your local Library!


happy reading!

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Book Review: “The Fall of Butterflies” by Andrea Portes

Title: The Fall Of Butterflies

Author: Andrea Portes

Published: May 10th, 2017

Publisher: HarperTEEN

Find the Author: Goodreads 


Disclosure: I was sent this book for review purposes. As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

We Were Liars meets Looking for Alaska in a uniquely funny and heartbreaking teen novel about a passionate-yet-doomed friendship, set against a backdrop of wealth and glamour.


Willa Parker, 646th and least-popular resident of What Cheer, Iowa, is headed east to start a new life. Did she choose this life? No, because that would be too easy—and nothing in Willa’s life is easy. It’s her famous genius mother’s idea to send her to ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive Pembroke Prep, and Willa has no intention of fitting in. But when she meets peculiar, glittering Remy Taft, the richest, most mysterious girl on campus, she starts to see a foothold in this foreign world—a place where she could maybe, possibly, sort of fit in. When Willa looks at Remy, she sees a girl who has everything. But for Remy, having everything comes at a price. And as she spirals out of control, Willa can feel Remy spinning right out of her grasp.


Andrea Portes, author of Anatomy of a Misfit, spins a similarly incandescent, heartfelt story that explores the meaning of friendship, new beginnings, and the precarious joy and devastating pain of finding home in a place—a person—with wings.

First Thoughts
When a book is described as We Were Liars meets Looking for Alaska, you don’t think about reading it – you just do it. That’s the first thing that stood out for me, aside from the gorgeous autumnal cover and provoking blurb. I just want to take a moment to thank Harper360 and the whole team for their amazing opportunities that they give me to read these incredible books. I feel so much more than blessed to get to read these books ahead of time (even though most of my reviews are late, so sorry!) and really get to hold these characters so close to my heart. It’s one of the best feelings in the world!

Review
Willa is somewhat of a misunderstood character. She lives with her Dad, but her whole academic life has been put under close and precise orders by her famously smart Mother. She’s not popular, far from it, and she’s consumed in a cloud of never-ending depressive clouds above. Her life in Iowa is simple and consistent, but then her Mother decides that Willa will be attending a new school: a high-class, exclusive prep school that cost more than Willa can contemplate thinking of those kinds of numbers. 
Pembroke Prep is different. Willa meets Remy there, a highly popular girl with more than a few problems of her own. When Willa sees Remy, this girl who has everything she could ever want in the world, she can’t understand why she would ever need to feel this troubled. But Remy knows the true price of having everything she could ever want, and it’s not pretty. They start a twisted, borderline crazy friendship that brings Willa’s live to turmoil as she follows a crowd that she shouldn’t be in. Pembroke Prep isn’t like Iowa, and it’s more than clear that it has it’s deep, dark secrets. 
I just loved this book so much that it’s hard to think of a time when I hadn’t been consumed by these characters and this friendship. It’s not your usual kind of friendship – it’s borderline doomed, on the verge of complete failure. But Willa finally feels a part of her is home, and that changes everything. Remy is out of control most of the time and Willa can feel their connection slipping in parts, despite their unbreakable bond. Still, there’s something magnificent about this book, a feeling that makes me want to cry and smile and just fall into the pages over and over. 
Overall, The Fall of Butterflies will make your heart soar with compassion. The POV is a different kind, but it just makes it all the more unique. I was really going to give this book such high standards to live up to the books it’s compared to and although it didn’t blow them out of the water, it landed right among the greats perfectly. So much love for this book! 
Rating & Recs
I’d recommend this book to YA readers that loved Jessi Kirby, E. Lockhart and John Green.

Have you read The Fall of Butterflies?


Let me know what you thought in the comments or on twitter @LittleMemoirs!


happy reading!

Book Review: “Dreamfall” by Amy Plum

Title: Dreamfall

Author: Amy Plum

Published: May 2nd, 2017

Publisher: HarperTEEN  

Find the Author: Goodreads 


I received this book for review on my blog! As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

Cata Cordova suffers from such debilitating insomnia that she agreed to take part in an experimental new procedure. She thought things couldn’t get any worse…but she was terribly wrong.
Soon after the experiment begins, there’s a malfunction with the lab equipment, and Cata and six other teen patients are plunged into a shared dreamworld with no memory of how they got there. Even worse, they come to the chilling realization that they are trapped in a place where their worst nightmares have come to life. Hunted by creatures from their darkest imaginations and tormented by secrets they’d rather keep buried, Cata and the others will be forced to band together to face their biggest fears. And if they can’t find a way to defeat their dreams, they will never wake up.


First Thoughts

When I got this in the post, you can surely say that I was FREAKING OUT. Amy is one of my favourite authors and her Die For Me series is still one of my epic loves. If you haven’t read it, go check out my reviews for them and go get it! You won’t regret it – I swear. So upon reading a little and book stalking Dreamfall online, I really got into the sound of it. Recently, when it came to the top of my TBR, I was more than excited to start it. 


Review

Dreamfall is the first in a new duology by the amazing Amy Plum. I’ve always been significantly intrigued by dreams and nightmares and the whole lucidness of remembering them, controlling them and knowing what dreams and nightmares actually mean, so Dreamfall ultimately sounded like it was going to gel with me completely. 

Cata is our predominant narrator, a sixteen year old girl with severe insomnia and other forms of mental anxieties (but we also meet Fergus and other patients soon). She suffers greatly with nightmares and it’s noticeably distressing for her and reading about it, as I also suffer with severe insomnia and anxiety disorders, with occasional nightmares: but Cata and the other teens are very different to just your typical sleep disorders. They want out of it – and so they move to a clinic where experimental doctors confine that they have a cure. First, the teens are hooked up to these weird things that I would run from, and they begin their cure – but it goes terribly wrong, and suddenly their worst fear comes true and they are stuck in the nightmares, completely helpless. Without a way out, they have to face their deepest and darkest fears and things that have scared them for this long, to find a way to return to their reality. 

I was expecting something completely different when I started Dreamfall – something much more Die For Me, but I was surprised by a twist in this different tale. The characters are intricate and very well written and Cata and the other characters were written on point. While I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to, it was still a fierce horror with science fiction aspects that made this a genre I couldn’t put my finger on – something unique and almost life-like. I totally believed the genuine terror of the characters, and Amy (queen of YA Fantasy romance?) wrote a little something between Cata and Fergus that I’m hoping to see more of in the next book. 

Overall, Dreamfall is a series I’ll definitely be continuing. I was on the edge of my seat at the cliffhanger so I’m desperate to read the next instalment! If you love intrigue, steady pace and a plot to make you keep a night-light on, this is your next read. Huge love for this.


Rating


Perfect For

YA Horror fans.

Have you read Dreamfall?


Let me know what you thought in the comments or on twitter @LittleMemoirs!


happy reading!

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Book Review: “The Siren” by Kiera Cass

Title: The Siren

Author: Kiera Cass

Published: Janurary 26th, 2016

Publisher: HarperTEEN

Find the Author: Goodreads | Twitter



I bought this book myself! As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.



From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a captivating stand-alone fantasy romance.

Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human—a kind, handsome boy who’s everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger . . . but Kahlen can’t bear to stay away. Will she risk everything to follow her heart?

The Siren was previously self-published; this brand-new edition has been completely rewritten and redesigned.

Kiera Cass is always thought as one of those YA authors who always gets it right. Her books are always in every book store that I visit; the covers striking and the premise intriguing and to date for some obscene reason, I still haven’t been able to sit down and actually READ one of her books. What kind of reader can I call myself?! Anyway, when I saw The Siren in Waterstones when I was on vacation, I thought this is the one. It was a standalone novel from Kiera that had previously been self-published and was about Siren’s, a.k.a. the queens of the deep blue sea (and distant sisters of the Mermaid, obvs). So I was so excited to get started reading…

You may think this is some YA Romance with cliche written all over it, but let me tell you, you’re so wrong. This isn’t a “Love Story” or some hyped-up Disney movie, it’s elements work perfectly together to tell the story of Kahlen, the boy she tries so hard not to fall in love with, but does because he’s, well, the perfect YA boy, and the Siren’s who become her sisters, friends and greatest confidants. Oh, and the Ocean – because the Ocean is a she, and sometimes, she get’s hungry. Sometimes the only thing for that hunger is human lives. 
Kahlen was destined to die, and sometimes, she wonders what life would have been like if she had never been saved and turned into a Siren; beautifully striking, yet deadly and rottenly poison-tongued. She wonders what life would have been like if she had grown up, had a family, and eventually like the end of every life, die. But she never got the chance to do any of that when the Ocean saved her. Now, she’s the Ocean’s favourite. She does as she is told, and when called upon, sings the song that pains her to do so. The song to lure humans to their death so that the Ocean won’t go hungry. She does this with the other Siren’s, the ones who’s faces change over the years as they reach the end of their Siren commitments and are cast into human lives once more. 
Kahlen has always been more reserved, but when she meets Akinli, her world gets a little brighter. He’s charming and boyish and loves the same things as her. They have a slow-burning connection that yes, in a way does remind me of a Disney movie but not in the cliche way. Instead, in the classics kind of way. But she knows that the Siren world is to dark for him to be in. She can’t say those words to him, because she can’t say anything. She knows her tongue is tied with death. For a long time, she pushes him away and tries to keep her distance, the pain seeping through her life that she can’t be with the person that she had grown to love. But soon enough when they meet again, it’s hard to say goodbye and even harder to realise that she can’t possibly understand what will happen.
The Siren was brilliant. It was one of those books that seemed to just fly by. It’s not a huge book, so I expected to finish it quite fast but the more that I started to reach the end, I just didn’t want the story to end. I wanted adventure! More Siren stories! I wanted to know more about this crazy-scary-amazing world that Kiera had created underneath the surface of the water. Ultimately, The Siren is about more than just love. It’s about sisterhood, friendship, a strong connection with our true selves and the power of soulmates. 

 YA readers who love fantasy and mythology.


Have you read The Siren?


What did you think?


Let me know by selecting a choice below or on twitter @LittleMemoirs! I love to connect with book lovers!


happy reading!

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