Sync is a free program for teens to engage with awesome audiobooks. Every week, teens (and anyone else) can access two “free” audiobooks through the free SORA app. (The books are “on loan” indefinitely – so basically free.) New titles are available every Thursday at midnight Eastern Time. If you miss the deadline, no books for you! (My suggestion is to log in every Thursday morning and download them right away!)
To find out more, visit the Sync FAQ page.
Dead to the world
but somewhere in our souls
we are both scratching at the walls
yelling to the sky
punching the air
to let everyone and everything know
that we are in here
still alive
Amal is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. Not that anyone is listening to him. He’s black and the victim is white. And in a coma. No one else can clear his name. Now he is in prison and angry.
On a scale of one to ten
how angry are you?
Eleven, I say
Amal is a reader, an artist, and a poet. He wants to join a poetry class but is too broken to care. The white prisoners are making his life a hell. He doesn’t want to join a black gang. It is only when his crush sends him a letter out of the blue that he grabs onto a tiny bit of hope and of life.
Zoboi make us feel Amal, inside and out. Past, present, and future. Her writing is phenomenal. Give this book to everyone.
Sophie is spending her winter vacation with her grandparents. She had been hoping to spend it with her boyfriend – but he broke up with her. Now her extended family is determined to show off their matchmaking skills
by running a dating tournament. Ten relatives get to set her up on blind dates and, just like an office pool, they bet on how long the date is, whether or not she had fun, and more. Sophie reluctantly agrees to the deal and has a holiday unlike any before.
A great beach-read with likeable characters, relatable incidents, and cringe-worthy relatives. Sophie comes to realize how special her family is and at the same time, finds herself. Highly recommended purchase. Will appeal to readers of Han, Fitzgerald, and Menon.
Josie was a big deal in high school. A beautiful singer, she always had the lead role and the adoration of the teacher-director in the school plays. He adored her acting so much, he convinced her to head to Broadway to test her luck. So she quit school, packed her bags, and found out that making it on Broadway is much more difficult than she imagined. Now she is in Montana as a nanny for a little girl and spending her time with her nose in a book.
Literally. Because when she opens a book, she actually becomes one of the characters in the book and gets swept up in the action. She starts to look forward to these out-of-reality moments and living her dreams. She meets two people in the books and they become more friends than the ones she is ignoring in real life. And it is getting harder to return to the real world.
While I’m a fan of Shannon Hale, I am not a fan of this book. It felt chaotic and disorganized. This is particularly true of the relationship with her boyfriend. Are they together? Is he losing interest? Does she really care? What about the people in her life now? Pretty much a shrug to me.
The NetGalley download for this book was just a few chapters. Thank goodness I started it a few days before publication because I didn’t want to put it down.
Talin is a refugee who has been given the chance to fight as a Striker, the elite warriors of her adopted country. When her partner dies in an ambush, she is given a new one. This partner is an escaped soldier from Karensa, the encroaching kingdom her country is fighting. She is determining whether or not to trust him when they are thrust into a fight and he reveals that he is more than meets the eye. And then they inexplicably bond telepathically.
The characters and their friendships is the strongest attraction of the book. It is easy to see that they care enough for each other that they will take on unwinnable odds against them. The world building is great but the distances and areas seem much smaller until they are actually in them. Once she is running towards something she sees and then is on a horse and it still takes her awhile to get there.
Kids will love this action-packed fantasy, especially fans of Marie Lu’s earlier books.
Spoiler Alert for book one!
At the end of the first book, Heart of Thorns, Mia kills herself in order to spare her sister. In this book, she rises from the dead. Only she is not herself. She has some memories but no emotions including the love she once felt for Quin. Quin has discovered that he has been manipulated by Angelyne and can no longer trust his own feelings, even about Mia. Pilar feels everything, but primarily feels gutted by her mother’s betrayal. The three characters are headed separately to the Snow Queendom of Luumia for answers and assistance. They cannot count on each other but they can trust that no one is telling the whole truth.
The author provides a note at the beginning of the book to warn readers of a potential trigger as one of the characters is carrying the weight of a rape that she thinks is her own fault. This burden threatens to destroy her with guilt and shame.
Published copy provided to WASHYARG for review.
Since the end of the war, Magic Crafters in Creije have gone into hiding. With no crafters, all of the city’s magic has to be recycled. When a new, dangerous magic appears, it is newly crafted; Somewhere there are crafters who still exist. And they are under the control of the Kingpin, the drug lord who plans to rewrite the world’s hierarchy no matter who gets hurt. Wesley is one of the Kingpin’s underlords and Tavia is one of his buskers/sellers. Saxony is an illegal immigrant and former lover of Karam, Wesley’s warrior bodyguard. These four flawed heroes reluctantly join together to defeat the Kingpin and make the realm safe for all. But they each harbor secrets and regrets that may put everything at risk.
Published copy provided to WASHYARG for review
Using icons and magic, Angel Mages can call angels to perform various tasks. Each realm is devoted to and guarded over by an archangel. The kingdom of Ystara was forsaken by its angel, Pallenial, and the inhabitants were forced to run or turn into beastlings with no memory of themselves as they were. Generations later, in the neighboring land of Lutace, the powerful Liliath awakens from a self-imposed sleep as though it were only a day later. She is a skilled magic user as well as an icon-maker with one goal: to return to Ystara and bring back the broken angel Pallenial. In order for her plan to succeed, she needs four descendants from Ystara and the magical connection between them. Henri, Simeon, Agnez, and Dorotea are strangers to each other yet each felt a pull to one another. They became fast friends and companions on the trek to Ystara. Unfortunately, the same element that brought them together may succeed in separating them forever.
Characters are diverse and females are in less “traditional” roles. The story was complete but hopefully Garth Nix will set more stories in the angel mage world.
Published copy provided to WASHYARG for review.
I read this as a proof copy for NetGalley. Here is my review: Sage is quite observant, brutally honest, and totally unfit for marriage according to those around her. Instead she is apprenticed to the local matchmaker and tasked with not only keeping an eye on the girls during their travel to the main city, but also to recommend which eligible bachelor would make a good match. Her astute observation skills catch the notice of an attractive soldier/captain and soon she is recruited to spy for the soldiers too. As the journey progresses, danger increases, and her heart has difficulty staying out of the matching pool. The only complaint I have is that the title does not really reflect the story.
Update: I enjoyed the rest of the series but once again, I didn’t like the title. Every time I see the title, I struggle to remember the series because it just doesn’t fit!
The Traitor’s Circle: The Traitor’s Kiss, The Traitor’s Ruin and The Traitor’s Kingdom
The kingdom of Farsala has enjoyed peace and prosperity for so long that it doesn’t see the danger rising next door. Three young people do see the prospect of war and try to prepare Farsala against the immovable political structures. Each of the three heroes have a unique voice and perspective throughout the series. The story is supposedly based on a Persian legend and definitely brings this culture alive.
The Farsala Trilogy: Fall of a Kingdom, Rise of a Hero, and Forging the Sword
Jude and her sisters were taken to the Faerie world after her step-father murdered her father. Now at seventeen, Jude wants to earn a place in the Faerie world in spite of her significant handicap of mortality. She finds her human ability to lie an advantage to her new position as spy. Now if only her staunchest enemy, the crown Prince, would just get out of her way.
Holly writes awesome “faeries behaving badly” urban fantasies. This trilogy is just her latest.
The Folk of the Air: The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, and The Queen of Nothing
A “graceling” is one who was born with a special talent – baking bread that never burns, calming any animal, the voice of an angel – and are noted because of their two different colored eyes. Katsa’s grace is the ability to kill. As the king’s enforcer, she is feared across the land yet she hides a double life working for justice. When she is sent to rescue a kidnapped king, she meets Po and her world gets upended.
The other two books in this “series” focus on different characters and time periods in the same world but this first one was my favorite.
Series: Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue
Imagine the War of the Roses is not between British royal families but between two magical houses competing for leadership of the Weir, or magical world. Jack lives with his hippy mom in a little town in the middle of nowhere and his only ambition is to be on the soccer team. When he tries out for the team, he blasts by the rest of the players with strength and energy he has never had before. The only thing that is out of the ordinary is that he forgot to take his daily heart medicine. And now everything is out of the ordinary because he is one of only two surviving Warriors destined to duel to the death, this year.
Series: The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, The Dragon Heir, The Enchanter Heir, and The Sorcerer Heir
Former street gang leader Han is trying to live a straight life taking care of his mother and sister. After confronting three privileged young wizards, he ends up with the amulet of the long-dead demon king. And he knows the wizards will be after him to get it back. Princess Raisa has returned to court after three years of freedom running in the mountains with the clans of her father. Court life is stifling when she realizes her mother plans to marry her off.
I LOVE this series. The world is so intricate and the characters are plenty complicated, even the minor ones. This is definitely a re-read.
Series: The Demon King, The Exiled Queen, The Gray Wolf Throne, and The Crimson Crown
Honestly I would read anything that Chima writes. Her characters are diverse, complicated, and compelling. Her worlds are easily imagined and complete. And she always surprises.
Caledon’s father swore a blood oath to the queen of Renovia and it has passed to him. It will continue through his line until the oath is completed. The queen’s daughter, Lilac, has been raised by retired soldiers in a rural village and has taken the name Shadow. She has some magic but is not highly trained; she also has a crush on Caledon. When he is thrown into the worst dungeon, she makes plans to rescue him and tag along on his real mission. Together they travel to the neighboring kingdom, Montrice, to find those who are plotting war against Renovia.
The world-building is incomplete as this is the first of a series. Plenty of questions are left open, particularly the queen’s motives. Definitely for a less sophisticated reader (middle school) as it is fairly predictable. There is high-class flirting, and most likely off-page sex (a young reader wouldn’t catch it) and no swearing.
