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Tag: ya debut

  • Find Your Deadly Ever After With Brittany Johnson’s Romantasy!

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    It’s the start of a new month, and we already can’t wait for the book releases we have in store for November. Just a hint: we have a highly anticipated historical fiction sequel, multiple YA romances, and a swashbuckling adult romantasy!

    For today, we’re focusing on a sapphic YA romantasy debut. Brittany Johnson’s Deadly Ever After tells the story of two dead princesses on a journey to find true love and get their lives back. Have we won you over yet? Here are three of our favorite things about Deadly Ever After!

    Deadly Ever After by Brittany Johnson
    Image Source: Penguin Random House

    Book Overview: Deadly Ever After

    Content warnings: murder, graphic violence, death of loved ones, child abuse, verbal, emotional, and physical assault, poisoning, serious injuries, blood, weapons (Read at your discretion!)

    Summary: Amala has spent her whole life trying to be the perfect princess: delicate, quiet, obedient. But when she’s murdered on the night of her wedding, her story is cut short before it begins. 

    Kha’dasia has been told her whole life that she is too rough, too loud, too much. She’s no ordinary princess but a ruthless warrior on a quest to fulfill her late brother’s dying wish. Except she dies before reaching her destination.

    When both girls wake up in a cursed forest, the gods offer them a second chance at life—if they can find true love’s kiss. But there’s a catch, the gods warn. While the right kiss will save you, the wrong kiss will kill you.

    On their journey, the princesses must overcome challenges that force them to face the truth of their lives…and their deaths. And as Amala and Kha’dasia grow closer, they can’t help but wonder if true love has been standing right in front of them all along.

    Strength In Different Forms

    One of the main things we love about Deadly Ever After is how well our two main characters complement each other’s strengths. Amala and Kha’dasia must work together and make it through the cursed landscape of the dead if they want the chance to get their old lives back. Though they have a rough start, these princesses grow into their strengths and face their past traumas. Amala offers emotional and mental strength, while Kha’dasia brings physical strength and even teaches Amala how to fight and protect herself.

    The Romance Buildup

    Deadly Ever After will sweep you away with the romantic tension between Amala and Kha’dasia! Amala thinks that finding her way to her new husband Vincent can satisfy the condition of true love’s kiss. On the other hand, Kha’dasia hasn’t ever been in love. That is, until she grows closer to Amala. We absolutely loved reading about their growing attraction and affection, hidden in the stolen glances and injury inspections. Then when neither character could deny their feelings by the end? That’s the good stuff!

    Shattering Reality

    On a more serious note, Deadly Ever After addresses topics like child abuse on a verbal, emotional, and physical level. We see the effects of having grown up in a hostile and unloving environment in how Amala views and reacts to the world, her mistakes, and especially her father. It takes Kha’dasia and Mya, a divine being, to help Amala unlearn the things her father forced her to believe. She finally allows herself to feel the rage she rightfully deserves to feel, no longer internalizing her father’s insults and lies.

    Different forms of strength. Killer romantic tension. And a tale of female rage and empowerment. Brittany Johnson’s sapphic romantasy debut, Deadly Ever After, has us in a chokehold.

    Deadly Ever After by Brittany Johnson goes on sale November 4th, and you can order a copy of it here!

    What do you think of Brittany Johnson’s debut novel, Deadly Ever After? We want to know your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

    Want to hear some of our audiobook recommendations? Here’s the latest?

    TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BRITTANY JOHNSON:
    INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | WEBSITE

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    Julie Dam

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  • Book Review: Last Chance Live! By Helena Haywoode Henry

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    It has been far too long since we’ve read a speculative novel as powerful and political as Helena Haywoode Henry’s debut novel, Last Chance Live! This book centers around a reality TV show of the same name starring ten death row inmates between the ages of 18 to 21. The winner gains clemency, and the losers receive the death penalty within a week of exiting the show.

    Last Chance Live! has all the makings of any popular reality show: drama, sabotage, secrets, and betrayals. Viewers root for and decide which contestant deserves a second chance at freedom. It sparks conversations among the general public and readers of which capital crimes can be forgiven, especially when the perpetrators are so young.

    We sped through Last Chance Live! within a day, and we have a feeling it’ll stick with us for years to come. Its social commentary and themes of justice, mercy, and agency are too compelling to ignore. Here are three things that stood out to us about Helena Haywoode Henry’s Last Chance Live!

    Last Chance Live by Helena Haywoode Henry
    Image Source: Penguin Random House

    Book Overview: Last Chance Live!

    Content warnings: death, murder, death penalty, suicide, suicidal thoughts, bodies/corpses, prison, graphic violence, gore, torture, rape, sexual abuse, cutting, bullying, fatphobia, slurs, guns, car accident, attempted arson, swearing (Please read at your discretion!)

    Summary: Last Chance Live! is the most popular reality show in America—and eighteen-year-old death row inmate Eternity Price’s last chance to live. Getting cast on the show could win her clemency preventing her execution… if she can convince the viewing audience she deserves a second chance. The catch? If America doesn’t vote for her, she loses the chance to appeal her sentence, and she’ll be executed within a week of being eliminated from the show. And since Eternity’s been unpopular her whole life, she’s terrified America won’t pick her. But any chance of getting out of prison and back to her little brother Sincere, no matter how slim, is better than rotting away in her cell.

    Eternity never expected to find her first real friends in a reality TV house full of people battling for survival after being convicted of capital crimes, but that’s exactly what happens. So when she gets the opportunity to sabotage them and secure her own victory, she has a choice to make: protect the friendships and acceptance she’s always longed for at the cost of her own life, or sacrifice her newfound community. Eternity must ultimately decide what forgiveness, family, and freedom mean to her, and how far she’ll go to win a game where the stakes are literally life or death.

    The Show’s Contestants

    Last Chance Live! gives us a diverse group of young convicted criminals with a wide range of crimes. When we watch any reality show (or in this case, read about it), it’s easy to root for more than one contestant to win. But when the show’s sole winner gets freedom for a new life and the rest inevitably gets the death penalty, we learned not to get too attached to the characters. Even so, we had so many conflicted feelings toward each person, especially after the reveal of their crime. Like Eternity, the more the show went on, the more we wanted multiple contestants to survive and make it out.

    Eternity’s Strategies

    When the cast of Last Chance Live! are all death row inmates, it’s safe to say there are a lot of morally gray areas to consider. Eternity and the other contestants are fighting for their literal lives. They need to curry favor with the public, making sure their image on the show gives them the most votes. They also need to be ruthless no matter what. Eternity learns this the hard way after trying to set up an alliance with all the Black contestants. She twists and sabotages her way through each vote, somehow making it farther than she expected. But things come to a head when she starts to see how much her actions affect others, and she doesn’t only want herself to win anymore.

    The Narration In Verse

    Another thing that stood out to us in Last Chance Live! is the use of verse in Eternity’s narration. These poems allow us to slow our reading and really take in each word. We aren’t quite sure if there are any clear patterns behind each section of verse. And we never know when they’ll happen. They’re abrupt, cutting in to the prose and then reverting right back almost as if they didn’t happen. This unabridged access to Eternity’s thoughts puts us directly into her shoes, feeling her anxiety and terror as a result of her environment. Now we’re the ones in survival mode—in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode.

    It didn’t take much for us to be hooked on Helene Haywoode Henry’s chilling speculative novel, Last Chance Live! From its themes of justice and agency to its masterful characterization and narration, we already want to reread it and uncover even more layers.

    Last Chance Live! by Helena Haywoode Henry comes out October 7th, and you can order a copy of it here!

    What do you think of the concept behind Last Chance Live! by Helena Haywoode Henry? Did you connect with her debut novel as much as we did? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

    Want to hear some of our audiobook recommendations? Here’s the latest!

    Interested in more book reviews? We got you!

    TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HELENA HAYWOODE HENRY:
    INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE

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    Julie Dam

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