The Last Namsara

By Kristen Ciccarelli

I would like to preface this review by stating that I read this entire book in one day. It was it was raining, it was the long weekend, and it was just that good!  

In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of the sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness-and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death bringer.

Asha, the daughter of the Dragon King, is that destroyer.  And what a fearsome destroyer she is! Her grandmother enslaved a whole population of foreigners, made enemies of the dragons, and banned the old stories.  Asha follows in that legacy. She goes out into the Rift with her trusty ax and takes down dragon after dragon. She is ferocious, fearless, and just plain fierce.  

Feared and reviled by all in the kingdom, it is illegal to touch her or even meet her gaze. As a child, she did the forbidden; she told the ancient stories outlawed by the king. For breaking this rule, the First Dragon, Kozu, set fire to her entire town, killing hundreds, destroying homes, and disfiguring the entire side of her face and chest. To atone for her sin, she became a killing machine, destroying as many dragons as she can find. Her other act of atonement will be to marry the cruel commandant on her eighteenth birthday. Jarek is a cruel, drunken, brute of a man that Asha will do anything to be rid of. 

When Asha’s father offers her a chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the head of the First Dragon Kozu, she eagerly takes up the challenge.  What should be an easy task becomes much more complicated when her brother Dax asks her to save one of Jarek’s slaves from a deadly lashing. Rescuing Torwin requires Asha to help him escape and an unlikely alliance is formed. With his help, her quest to kill Kozu seems to get more and more complicated.  Truths start to be revealed that cannot be denied. Are dragons really the bringers of destruction she has been lead to believe, or has someone been lying? 

Realistic characters, ancient stories, and Dragons make for an awesome debut novel by Kristen Ciccarelli. If you like great fantasy novels, with realistic, flawed, but tough as nails heroines, this book is for you. Similar reads I`ve tried out recently are Seraphina by Rachel Hartman or the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

The Sun is Also a Star

The Sun is also a Star covers one pivotal day in the lives of two American teenagers. 

Natasha, an illegal Jamaican immigrant has 12 hours before her and her family are deported. The thing is, this whole deportation thing is not Natasha’s fault! She’s lived in New York longer than she has lived in Jamaica – her dad made a mistake and now she has to pay for it. Determined to set things right, Natasha goes to the immigration office one last time to plead her case and stay in her home. 

Daniel, a Korean-American poet, is delaying his inevitable interview that will help him get a place in his parent’s dream school.  With the disappointment of his older, ‘golden boy’ brother’s fall from grace, the pressure on Daniel to make his family proud is overwhelming.

When these two bump into each other, Daniel falls for Natasha immediately. Natasha is not so easily convinced. Natasha is a scientific girl; she believes in facts, numbers, and data. Daniel believes in fate and he is going to convince Natasha, through science, that they are meant to be together.  Time and again throughout the day, Natasha and Daniel find themselves thrown together, be it by fate or coincidence.  

These 12 hours of Daniel and Natasha’s life swing from each character’s perspective, giving the reader a chance to get to know each character and their family.  Issues of immigration, family expectation, and racism are all covered in this romantic tale, giving it so much more depth than you’d expect from the average romance novel.  

This book gives you authentic perspectives from fully realized characters. Daniel and Natasha are flawed, relatable people that are easy to connect with. Not only do Daniel and Natasha have a voice in this story, random people that encounter them along the way also get little chapters of perspective. These interesting and touching glimpses into periphery character’s lives gives the book yet another layer that brings the story together.

If you are a bit of a romantic at heart, and believe in fate, this book is for you. The Sun is also a Star is more than a romance novel, it’s a touching story on the human condition.

Similar readers are: Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven and Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland.

The Poet X

The Poet X

                                                

 By Elizabeth Acevedo 

This book is the debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo. If you’ve ever been to a poetry slam, you’ll find yourself reading this book in the slam method, slamming your hands down in punctuation, sharing the feelings. 

I listened to the audio book which is read by the author herself. It is great as it has such feeling and rhythm, you really get inside the characters. 

Xiomara Batista is a young girl in Harlem who discovers slam poetry as a way to express herself in a world where she is dominated by her  mother’s religion with little voice of her own. She is a fierce, strong girl who lets her fists talk for her. 

One birthday her twin brother gives her a notebook as a place for her to write down things she has to say. Into it she pours her heart and soul, filling it with her passion. Xiomara quickly learns to keep these thoughts to herself, sure her Mami won't understand, especially as she develops new feelings she hasn't experienced before (read: maybe a boy!)

A teacher invites Xiomara to join the poetry slam club at school and although tempted, Xiomara is sure her Mami would never let her join. Finally, overcome by the desire to have a place to share her thoughts, Xiomara skips confirmation classes to get to the club, but when Mami finds out only trouble can follow. 

Finding a balance between her Mami's rules and her need to be heard is a difficult path for Xiomara, one she struggles with throughout this emotionally charged book. It is a quick read written in verse, one that moves fast, and moves you to rant and slam along with Xiomara.

After The Shot Drops

   

by Randy Ribay

After the Shot Drops is a powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen's mission to create a better life for his family. 

This is an amazing story that is told in alternating chapters in the voices of Bunny and Nasir, who have been best friends forever, but are at odds with each other since Bunny transferred to a private school on a basketball scholarship, and Nasir feels betrayed.  

Bunny, so called because he has ‘hops’ and is an excellent basketball player tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers and finds it hard to connect to his new surroundings outside of basketball. 

Meanwhile, with the absence of Bunny, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is not necessarily the best influence for Nasir. Wallace lives with his grandma and facing eviction, he makes some choices that put him in danger and put Nasir in jeopardy too. 

As Nasir and Bunny begin to rekindle their friendship, Wallace sees it as an opportunity to improve his situation and plays on Nasir's loyalty to help him discredit Bunny.

As the final game nears, Wallace asks Nasir the impossible asking him to risk everything to help Wallace out of a jam. Can Nasir come through, what will it cost him, Bunny, Wallace and their future? 

Throughout this book, I found myself yelling at the characters as they continually put themselves into difficult situations and made decisions that were not necessarily going to help. Just like at the basketball games, we are spectators in the lives of these characters and can only hope things turn out well in the end.