Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Most Fantastic Show on Earth…
Three years ago, the Ban changed everything, outlawing certain forms of magic and bringing about the rise of powerful crime syndicates. Now, speakeasies in every city sell illegal charms and jinxes, and bootleggers traffic restricted potion ingredients across the country. But even in this changing world, the magic of the circus still acts as a wondrous escape and provides entertainment for all.​
Jake Strickland owns one such circus, inherited after an accident ended his career as a rodeo dragon rider. He also inherited the circus’ financial troubles, but since the show became his, he’s slowly managed to turn it into a profitable business once more. Or at least, that’s what he thought.
When a dangerous mobster comes to collect an old debt, Jake resorts to desperate measures to get the money before a strict deadline. With lives and livelihoods at stake, he battles the clock, his responsibilities to the circus, and a longstanding personal grudge that has festered for years. Can he pay back the mob before it’s too late?

Calico Thunder Rides Again is a beautifully magical read that packs in all the feels with great dose of action and adventure. I’m a huge fan of the historical era of the 1920’s and this story perfectly blends the feel and look of the time with the many fantastical elements. The two are woven seamlessly together and I loved how care was taken to ensure that the magics fed into the environment.

Jake is a wonderful character and his situation is made all the more heartbreaking by the fact that he has worked so hard to make everything right. He has earned so much trust and respect from his team and also his patrons, it’s a wholesome environment full of love and care, especially for the magical creatures including the dragon Calico Thunder! He takes everything in his stride as best he can and has the wellbeing of others at the front of his mind at all times.  Grace is equally wonderful as the carer of the magical creatures and her and Jake make a great team as they attempt to save the day as plans inevitably never quite come together.

The circus is a vibrant environment and the author paints a wonderful picture of the circus acts and also the interactions behind the scenes especially with the circus’s resident diva! It’s a fast paced story leading up to an exciting conclusion that will certainly tug at the heartstrings but ultimately leaving you with a feeling of soaring like you’re dragon riding yourself!

4*

I received this book to read and review as part of the BBNYA 2020 competition and/or the BBNYA tours organised by the @The_WriteReads tours team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. 

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Through blood and sacrifice, Amora Montara has conquered a rebellion and taken her rightful place as queen of Visidia. Now, with the islands in turmoil and the people questioning her authority, Amora cannot allow anyone to see her weaknesses.
No one can know about the curse in her bloodline. No one can know that she’s lost her magic. No one can know the truth about the boy who holds the missing half of her soul.
To save herself and Visidia, Amora embarks on a desperate quest for a mythical artifact that could fix everything―but it comes at a terrible cost. As she tries to balance her loyalty to her people, her crew, and the desires of her heart, Amora will soon discover that the power to rule might destroy her.

Wow, where to start! I absolutely adored All the Stars and Teeth and it was easily in my top 10 reads of last year. It’s no surprise then that All the Tides of Fate was high up on my list of anticipated reads and honestly, it didn’t disappoint. Thank you so much to Titan Books for sending me a e-arc to review, I devoured it in a day!

Set a season after the closing stages of book 1, Amora is fighting a number of battles, one to keep her loss of magic a secret, another to hold her own against the old cronies who feel they know best, and lastly to convince a Kingdom that she is up to the task of setting right decades of wrongs. Immediately there is a new maturity to Amora, the “do first think later” princess has pushed those thoughts into an inner monologue and at least has perfected sounding like a Queen, full of ideas of how to rebuild. I hated the corner that Amora was pushed into and that her ability to rule was immediately reduced to the production of an heir. But as a plot device it allowed the story to get where it needed to – another adventure!

I enjoyed the different sides that we got to see of the Islands throughout their travels and whilst Amora’s secret mission threatens to unravel at every turn, her sense of duty also runs high and its a delicate cat and mouse balance for her. Whilst she is often far from regal, it makes for great reading as the team all do what they do best together. For as many that are delighted by her there are clearly many who deplore her being in such a position and want to hold her to account, which leads to some of the most stressful moments of the story to read. I felt that the mental health portrayal was very well executed, Amora has PTSD from what she experienced at the end of book one and she has no control over where and when it finds her,  and it is telling that those around her have also had severe trauma as both Vataea and Shanty quickly recognise the signs and are able to help her work through it.  Whilst it was difficult to read I do feel that it was important that having witnessed what she did that in fact it would be more unbelievable that she just carried on as usual.

The islands are beautifully written and I had such a huge sense of being there with them, the sights the smells and the sounds all perfectly balanced to create a totally immersive reading experience.

But OMG the end was so heartbreaking at times and whilst one character got their just deserts another really didn’t and as the true understanding of what we had been told fed into what had happened I honestly had so many tears.  Minor little down points were that the twist was quite easy to work out, and on occasion Bastian sounded a bit like a controlling alpha but it was pulled back by looking deeply into the connection the curse had upon them and actually their thought process about that ended up quite sound. For me this was everything I hoped for in the conclusion, the world was more vibrant with the changes Amora’s leadership had instigated and the characters had a new maturity, which as an older YA reader I absolutely was here for.

5*

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Piranesi is one of the most surprising books that I have read in a long time. The blurb was kind of informative but also vague and I really didn’t know what to expect going in. I’m still not really sure how I would describe it, but I’m going with intensely captivating. As i started reading I was hit with a sense of dystopia which quickly moved onto something else and then something else entirely. Piranesi is a beautiful voice to follow though, he has almost childlike wonder at this home and he is so wholesome with his earnest approach to every task and situation he finds himself presented with. He is resourceful and mindful and just a joy to read. Because of how joyful he is, that is what for me, as a reader, made it so difficult to come to terms with what happens in the pages. Whilst there was a minor sense of underlying unease from the very start as the story unravels it becomes very dark at times as a wider existential conspiracy begins to surface.

It’s very hard to write a detailed review because of how much the story twists and takes you by surprise which then makes it even harder to explain what it didn’t like, because sadly this fell short at the final stage which I think was mainly down to a certain flatness following a major incident. I feel that there were many paths the author led us too but only really walked us all the way down one when I wanted to know so much more!

Piranesi as a character though remains infinitely charming throughout and I could have read his often soothing and methodical narrative for many days more. If you’re a fan of short punchy books which are full of twists and puzzles, you will love Piranesi!

4*

Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men.
As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.
But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive