THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN By Ava Reid’s **Cover Reveal** @harpervoyagerus @avasreid

Happy Tuesday book friends!

It’s always a good day for a cover reveal and what a beauty this cover is!👀

Publishing June 8, 2021

“Ava Reid paints a rich and complex picture of a kingdom steeped in ancient magic, straining along seams of religious and cultural tension. From the first page to the last, every facet and detail is beautifully wrought. Rooted in history and myth, The Wolf and the Woodsman is a stunning debut – a powerful and haunting tale of a young woman’s will to live, of love flowering in defiance of tyranny. It will twine like a dark forest around your heart.”

—Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

 

 In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut— inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant. 

 

About the Book

Taken from the myths and legends of her Jewish and Hungarian heritage, and weaving that with diverse cultural magic, THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMANsets Évike and Gáspár on a dark, powerful journey that is full of tradition and yet feels entirely unique.  When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a girl to sacrifice to the king, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered. But when Évike and the Woodsman’s captain are attacked en route, they form a tenuous pact, forcing them both to decide whose side they are on, and what they are willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all. From the truly vicious magic to the sizzling heat between Évike and Gáspár, the twists and turns of this stand-alone will delight and surprise readers as they fall in love with Évike and connect with her struggles and triumphs.

 

Preorder Your Book Now!

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN

 

“Reid’s fast-paced debut examines religious freedom through the lens of myth and magic. … The convincing enemies-to-lovers romance, fascinating religion-based magic system, and thoughtful examination of zealotry make this a notable debut.” – Publishers Weekly

 

“Gorgeously written and grimly real, The Wolf and the Woodsman is both a myth and a mirror, a bloody fable about two people caught in the jaws of history. It quite literally took my breath away. It has the unsettling-but-compelling gore of Henderson’s The Year of the Witching, the folkloric lilt of The Bear and the Nightingale, and the moral complexity of Seeing Like a State. I’m obsessed.”–Alix E Harrow, Hugo-award winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

 

“THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN is a book that made me remember how beautiful and gut wrenching historical fantasy can be. It’s a fundamentally Jewish tale, one that gripped me from beginning to end. A riveting debut that will keep you up all night, desperately chasing the heart-pounding conclusion.”–Victoria Lee, author of The Fever King

 

“THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN, beautifully written and expertly told, is a darkly magical tale from beginning to end. I was equal parts terrified and delighted, somehow swept away and grounded in a world as beautiful as it is deadly.”–Isabel Ibañez, author of Woven in Moonlight

 

“Évike may be the only one in her village without ‘powers,’ but that doesn’t stop her from being an in-your-face heroine who stands up for the things she believes in and never backs down. Reid has crafted a story that is not only relevant for our times, but has timelessness about it that truly makes it shine. The Wolf and the Woodsman is not a book I will soon forget.”– Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart

 

“Combining religion, magic, and evocative language, Ava Reid has created a daring fantasy world full of imagination and fierce heroics.”–Luanne G. Smith, bestselling author of The Vine Witch

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim **Book Review** @parkrowbooks @harperaudio

Happy Tuesday all!

Happy birthday to this fabulous debut!🎉

My Thoughts

An authentic and raw look at the life of an immigrant. A compelling debut packed with culture and secrets. Margot is first generation Korean American, She grew up in LA’s Koreatown. Margot was always a little embarrassed of and never fully understood her mother, so she went to college in Seattle and never looked back. Now she is home, her mother is gone, and Margot is learning that there was much more to her mother than she ever realized. Told from the alternating perspectives of Margot and her mother Mina. Not only do we watch Margo try to figure out what happened to her mom we are also privy to Mina’s life when she first arrives in the US from Korea. This really allows the reader to glimpse the full picture of this complicated mother daughter relationship. As well as a real look at the life of an immigrant. Greta Jung narrates the audiobook masterfully. She gave the perfect voice to both Margot and Mina and what I appreciated is I always knew which character was speaking. I also really appreciated both her Spanish and Korean pronunciation.

Nancy Jooyoun Kim grew up in Los Angeles and that as well as her Korean Heritage really shown through on these pages. I love seeing the diversity, especially the representation of the Asian and Latin cultures. This is the California I grew up in, I grew up in LA County in a neighborhood that was more white than this one but diverse none the same. So often this area is portrayed as this glitz and glamour place of privilege where the majority of Californians don’t live. The LA Mina lived in was broken and dirty, yet beautiful and diverse. I have to admit I enjoyed her parts of this book more than Margot’s. Mina was such a wonderful character! She was so strong, so resilient, so stoic, and yet she had a quiet sense of humor. I was humbled by how brave she was to uproot her life and move to a different country where she had no knowledge of language or culture. Her tenacity was admirable and she really made a good life for herself. What was unfortunate was that Margot never recognized it and part of that was on Mina there was so much she could have shared but didn’t. The mystery in the story was probably the weakest part of the book a lot of it depended upon coincidence. I think I would’ve liked more about Mina, more about her life in Korea and more about her life after her first year in America. A lovely story looking forward to what’s next from Mancy Jooyoun Kim.

This book in emojis 🍱 🍵 👗 🧸 🖼 🛒

*** Big thank you to Park Row & Harper Audio for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

About the Book

“Kim is a brilliant new voice in American fiction.” (Alexander Chee, best-selling author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel)

“Suspenseful and deeply felt.” (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times best-selling author of The Immortalists)

“Fans of Amy Tan and Kristin Hannah will love Kim’s brilliant debut.” (Booklist, starred review)

A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, The Last Story of Mina Lee illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America. 

Margot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to 26-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.

Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.

Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong. 

Grown-Up Pose by Sonya Lalli **Book Review** @berkleypub

Happy Monday everybody!

Hope everyone is safe and healthy! We are hanging in here, still trying to navigate the “new normal”.🧘🏻‍♀️

My Thoughts

Adulting is definitely overrated! Sonya Lalli has written a clever story full of heart and humor about the complexities of being an adult. Anu is in her 30s a wife, a mother, and a good daughter. But Anu isn’t sure this is what she wants, or that this is who she is. Was she so busy making everybody else happy and living up to cultural expectations that she forgot about herself? Then after she is tempted by another man at a work party, she begins to really question everything. What follows is a fun sometimes serious story about a woman who thought she was all grown up, trying to figure out what she wants to be when she finally really grows up.

This story was so relatable, I think we’ve all questioned our choices at one time or another. However I do have to say Anu was much more impetuous when it came to some decisions than I would be, especially for someone who seem to be so rigid when it came to the rules. There are some major life decisions that she came to rather quickly including separating from her husband and purchasing a yoga studio. Not going to lie the way she came about purchasing this yoga studio was bazaar at best. I did like the inclusion of yoga in the story, but I think it might have been less cluttered if the yoga storyline had not been included. What I really loved about the story and found very realistic was how Anu felt and acted after separating from her husband. I also really love the family dynamics both between her and her parents and her mother-in-law, especially when it came to cultural expectations. I also really liked her friends, but I have to admit I wish they were a little kinder to one another at times. I have some friends I am very sarcastic with, but it is also balanced out with kind words. All in all this was a very good story about figuring out what you really want out of life. Sweet, funny, emotional, with the perfect ending.

This book in emojis 🧘🏻‍♀️ 🍷 👩‍👧 💪🏻

*** Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

About the Book

A delightfully modern look at what happens for a young woman when tradition, dating, and independence collide, from acclaimed author Sonya Lalli.

Adulting shouldn’t be this hard. Especially in your 30s. Having been pressured by her tight-knit community to get married at a young age to her first serious boyfriend, Anu Desai is now on her own again and feels like she is starting from the beginning. 

But Anu doesn’t have time to start over. Telling her parents that she was separating from her husband was the hardest thing she’s ever done – and she’s still dealing with the fallout. She has her young daughter to support and when she invests all of her savings into running her own yoga studio, the feelings of irresponsibility send Anu reeling. She’ll be forced to look inside herself to learn what she truly wants.

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Have a lovely day!🌸

Berit☀️✨