We all know the saying, “go big or go home.” Well, this summer I really took that to heart and – to my own amazement – managed to read eleven books in three months, which makes this edition of The Minis the largest one.
Now with that being said, let’s get this show on the road and dive into the 2023 summer edition of The Minis: Book reviews on a smaller scale, but still filled with lots of love.
Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguié
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling, Fantasy, Romance
Page Count: 208
Some tales, are simply timeless.
Pearl is an outsider in her small fishing village. With unnaturally pale skin, silver hair, a fear of the ocean, and no memory of her life prior to the night that her adoptive parents saved her, Pearl has always known that she’s different from everyone else. The only true friend she has, who understands the desire to want to just be like everyone, is Prince James in the Kingdom of Aster.
As Pearl and James try to take control of their lives, the appearance of a mystery man who claims to know who she really is has Pearl questioning the life she grew up with, and a woman missing her voice has captured the affection of Prince James, allowing danger to infiltrate the kingdom. But the answers that Pearl needs in order for everyone to have their happily ever after, and to break their curses, can only be found deep within the ocean.
My copy of Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguié, the first installment to the Once Upon a Time series, has seen better years since it’s June 2003 release. The spine has long since been cracked and broken, the pages have yellowed with age, have been dog eared to mark some of my favorite moments, and I get a thrill when I see the older text style font. A fast read with romance, magic, and curses that have dire consequences, Midnight Pearls spins a unique take on the original The Little Mermaid that has kept me coming back, time and time again.
Five Summers by Una LaMarche
Publisher: Razorbill (an imprint of Penguin Group)
Genre: Young Adult/Coming of Age, Contemporary, Romance
Page Count: 400
Emma missed her chance with the boy of her dreams on the last night of summer camp when she was thirteen. Maddie was too deep into her lies to tell her friends the truth. Jo felt betrayed by the person she considered her best friend. And Skylar hadn’t meant to hurt anyone…she just wanted to forget about the heartache.
These four best-friends are reunited when Camp Nedoba holds its annual weekend reunion, and while the girls reminiscence about the five summers they spent together, the truth about what happened that last night of their final summer unfolds and threatens to destroy the bonds they created. As much as they want to go back in time and relive the past, if they want to save their friendship, they’ll have to find a way to move beyond the lies and heartache.
Told in alternating points of views with flashbacks to the summers they’ve spent together at camp, Five Summers by Una LaMarche is full of drama, summer romances, and late night bonfires that will bring you back to the days when it felt like summer would never end.
Roadmap by Monica Prince
Publisher: Santa Fe Writers Project
Genre: Choreopoem, Poetry, LGBTQ+ representation
Page Count: 98
In this radical twenty-first century choreopoem, Dorian, a young American Black man, is tasked by an ancestral spirit to thwart his inevitable murder. Guided by The Novelist, an omniscient muse, and her troupe of dancers, Dorian must interrogate his legacy, forgive his past, and reckon with being Black in modern America. Through the poetry, dance, and song of Roadmap, will Dorian overcome the odds or become another hashtag?
This was my first time reading a choreopoem, so I will admit that I was a little nervous diving into Roadmap by Monica Prince. I didn’t know what to expect, but these nerves existed for no reason because it only took a few stanzas to engulf me into the world that Monica created. While at the same time, we (the readers) are forced to acknowledge a hard truth: that this world already exists, and we’re currently living in it.
Roadmap is both haunting and beautiful. It’s an artistic depiction of the reality that Black Americans face daily, intertwined with poetry that sings and demands to be remembered, even when the book has been closed. Intended to be performed on stage, I can only imagine the power and love the actors have put into bringing this choreopoem to life.
When you read Roadmap, be prepared for it to stay with you.
Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
Publisher: Quill Tree Books (an Imprint of HaperCollinsPublishers)
Genre: Short Story Collection, Romance, LGBTQ+ representation
Page Count: 256
Six couples, six complicated relationships, and a blackout that conveniently happens on the hottest summer day in New York City. What could possibly happen?
An unresolved breakup brings readers all the way from 125th Street to Brooklyn, a stopped train leads to a confession, a lost photograph ignites a connection, two best friends sneak into a library after hours, a field trip to New York City from Mississippi takes a backseat when a relationship suddenly becomes ‘complicated’ while on the bus, and two strangers realize they have more in common when the car runs out of gas.
Full of humor and heart fluttering moments, Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon comes together to celebrate Black love stories as these young couples try to navigate this complicated emotion that we call love.
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Publisher: Ballantine Books (Random House Publishing Group)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Family Life Fiction, Romance
Page Count: 304
All you ever need to do, is make a wish.
Lucy Hart knows what it likes to grow up in a loveless family, and she’s willing to do anything to make sure that seven year-old Christopher never has to go through that, but trying to foster-to-adopt is hard when Lucy’s only twenty-six and a teacher’s assistant, drowning in debt, lives in an apartment with three roommates, and has no car. All they can do is wish for a miracle so they can be a family.
When their favorite author announces that not only has he written a new book, but that there’s a contest to win the one and only copy, things suddenly appear to be looking up for Lucy and Christopher when Lucy receives her invitation to Clock Island. But Lucy’s not the only one who wants this book. Promising to win, Lucy returns to Clock Island, finding it to be exactly as she remembers: full of wonder and riddles, including its creator Jack Masterson and the grumpy but handsome illustrator, Hugo Reese (did I mention he’s British?) In order to win Lucy must face her past, or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.
Meg Shaffer’s debut novel The Wishing Game, is tooth-achingly sweet in all the best ways possible. With a dash of heartache, hope, and romance, I found myself wanting to believe in the power of magic and wishes like a child all over again. In this day and age, it can feel like the world is falling down all around you, all the time, making it impossible to believe that we can achieve our dreams. But then you’ll find a book that’ll help rediscover that missing magic and hope. The Wishing Game is that book.
A Stranger at Fellsworth by Sarah E. Ladd
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Historical Fiction (Regency), Romance, Christian Fiction
Page Count: 336
It’s 1819 and after the death of her father, Annabelle’s future is bleak as his financial ruin hangs over the head of her and her cruel brother. When her brother tries to force a terrible fate on her, Annabelle takes matter into her own hands by running away from London to Fellsworth, the school that her uncle works at and does the unthinkable by trading her high society life in for that of a working woman.
As Annabelle settles into her new life and love starts to bloom with gamekeeper Owen, the danger that had been looming over her back in London has followed her to Fellsworth. With the peace and safety of Fellsworth being threatened, it’ll take everything that Annabelle and Owen have, including their faith, in order to uncover the truth hiding in the shadows.
A Stranger at Fellsworth is the third installment to Ladd’s Treasures of Surrey series but can be read as a standalone, and is a great next pick for Bridgerton fans who have wondered what it would be like to run away from high society, and to start all over.
The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck
Publisher: Zondervan
Genre: Christian Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction
Page Count: 384
Sixty years ago, Jimmy Westbrook built a chapel for Collette Greer the woman he loved and planned to marry. But when he returned to Heart’s Bend, Tennessee from the war, the wedding chapel became just another monument full of memories.
After a short romance and a sudden elopement with Jack Forester, Taylor Branson is returning to their hometown of Heart’s Bend with mixed emotions on where their relationship stands. The more she begins to learn about the chapel that she’s been sent to photograph, Taylor soon realizes that the key to releasing the ghost of Jimmy’s past, and the secrets her grandmother took the grave, are all being held by the one and only, Collette Greer.
The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck is the second installment to The Wedding Collection series, and explores the power of love and faith in a small town that despite seeing its fair share of pain and tragedy, continues to have hope.
Wicked Lovely (#1 in the Wicked Lovely series) by Melissa Marr
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Romance, Fae
Page Count: 328
Aislinn has lived by three simple rules her entire life: Don’t stare at invisible faeries, don’t speak to invisible faeries, and don’t ever attract their attention. That is, until the Summer King sets his sights on her to be his queen, and suddenly Aislinn’s entire world is thrown upside down.
In a race against time, Aislinn begins to questions the rules that her grandmother put in place to keep them safe. With Faeries as dangerous as they look, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr is a full of twists and turns and romance, as a decades old game is set in motion as the Summer King and Winter Queen try to beat each other, and Aislinn learns that it’s not just her life on the line if she refuses to play along.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Publisher: Red Tower Books (Entangled Publishing)
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult
Page Count: 500
Violet had spent her entire life studying to live a safe life as a Scribe. The commanding general – aka her mother – has ordered Violet to do the opposite and join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when there are less dragons willing to bond then there are cadets, Violet has to find a way to survive the year without being killed by her fellow classmates. Which is easier said than done, especially when the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant sets his sights on her. The only way to make it out is to graduate…or die.
The longer that Violet lasts though, the harder it becomes to ignore the secrets that are hidden within the walls of Basgiath War College. Full of twists and surprises that kept me flying through the pages, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros invites readers into the deadly and seductive world of Navarre where friends become enemies, and enemies become you’re only hope to survive. If you loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, then consider Fourth Wing to be your next favorite read and bump it up to the top of your TBR pile. Just beware, the dragons’ fire isn’t the only thing that’s hot in these pages.
*Fourth Wing is the first book in The Empyrean series. Iron Flame (book two) is expected to be released on November 7th, 2023.
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Publisher: Pocket Books Fiction
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Drama
Page Count: 416
Working as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, Australia, Tom and Isabel live a free, but rather lonely life. But after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, Isabel is consumed by grief when she suddenly hears a baby’s cries on the wind. Tom wants to report the tragedy and return the child to the mainland immediately, Isabel however, believes that this child is a “gift from God” for all the pain they’ve suffered.
Full of love and tragedy, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman promises romance alongside heartbreak as it reminds readers that the choices we make, have a way of coming back to us in a way we might not always expect, while also raising a singular question: What would you do, had it been you?
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Publisher: Quirk Books
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal
Page Count: 382
When tragedy strikes, Jacob finds himself journeying to the remote island off the coast of Wales, determined to find the children’s home that his grandfather had lived in after fleeing Poland during the war. Only, instead of walking through the front door of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, he’s met with the crumbling ruins of what once was. The longer he explores the decaying house, the more he realizes that the stories his Grandfather told him about – a girl who could fly, a boy who was invisible, and the monsters that hunted all of them – might just be real. And that those peculiar children, might somehow still be alive.
Incorporating old black and white photography and mixing elements of horror with history, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs invites you to a world where reality is not what it appears to be, making readers second guess who the monsters are, and who are the heroes.
Lindsay Stenico 