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This was so much fun!! While also being really dark. It’s a hard balance t Six-of-Crows o create a criminal group who are…actually criminals. I love Kaz desperately, but there is no doubt in my mind that dude is bad news. But the great thing is that as horrible as he is, Inej can totally handle him, so I feel okay wanting them to be in love. But I’m rambling too quickly without any background.

Set in Bardugo’s world from her Grisha trilogy, we get to explore Ketterdam and Fjerda. And our cast of six characters are from all over the world – I really appreciate a woman who creates a fictional world and still manages to have racially diverse characters. I mean, honestly, Bardugo is genius at world building. She’s created five nations with distinct people, values, languages, and cultures. Throwing them all together in one criminal gang and watching them hate and love each other is so much fun! Continue reading →

By the time books arrive at my library after months of sitting in my request queue, I usually forget how I heard of it in the first place. Such was the case with Unbecoming, and the cover didn’t grab my attention. I very nearly decided to return it unread, but I decided to give the first page a cursory look. The very first sentence grabbed my attention, and by the end of the first chapter, I knew I was going to read the whole thing.

The first lie Grace had told Hanna was her name.

Unbecoming is an excellent example of one of my favorite tropes: the unreliable narrator. Grace shares what she wants to share, and as the reader, I had no idea how much of the information presented was truth, fibs, omissions, or outright lies. I loved it! The suspense was heightened even more by alternating sections that described her present life in Paris or her past in Tennessee. Halfway through the book, I was dying to know what had happened in the past as well as what would happen to her in the future. The double mystery made the book twice as interesting.

I don’t want to say too much, because I want people to experience the book as I did: totally unprepared. The characters are rich, the themes fascinating, and the plot fantastic. What more do you need? Read it now! (Or click through to read the book jacket, which does do a great job of setting up the story.) Continue reading →