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Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar // Night Markets, Star Courts and Desi goodness

GOODREADS // AMAZON // BOOK DEPOSITORY The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. Pretending to be "normal." But when an accidental flare of her starfire puts her human father in the hospital, Sheetal needs a full star's help to heal him. A star like her mother, who returned to the sky long ago. Sheetal's quest to save her father will take her to a celestial court of shining wonders and dark shadows, where she must take the stage as her family's champion in a competition to decide the next ruling house of the heavens--and win, or risk never returning to Earth at all. This gorgeously imagined YA debut blends shades of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and a breathtaking landscape of Hindu mythology into a radiant contemporary fantasy.   ( A huge thank you to the  HOV Tours  and HarperTeen for the eARC and the opportunity to be a part of this blog tour.  ~When a book sees you~      Yes I am absolutely going to s

The Archived by Victoria Schwab // Unique but not Unpredictable

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da's death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.
     This book is unique. I've got to give it that. The idea of the dead being stored as records of their lives is such an interesting and entirely unique concept. Funny story is I didn't know what the book was going to be about. From the name I gathered it had something to do with books, maybe ancient texts and the book was on sale so I got it! I'm honestly quite glad I bought it because it turned out to be so much more interesting than I thought. but while the concept IS unique, the execution is not. At least not as unique as the concept itself and not entirely unpredictable.

     Things to flail about in this book-

     1. The concept. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The concept is as UNIQUE as it gets. The world building has so much potential and i was just so curious about how everything worked.

     2. Guyliner lol. Wesley Ayers is adorbs. He's an absolute cinnamon roll and a freaking gem. I don't come across as many guys like him in YA to be very honest. He's sweet, realistic, gentlemanly, likes to read, and just really a nice guy ♥ I was surprised at how much I liked this character and I think I'd love to see something from his PoV!

     3. Writing Style. I've not read many books in present tense and while it's not the most comfortable for me in general, I hardly noticed that in this book. The writing flowed in the magical way only Schwab can make it flow and I loved it.

     4. The dialogue and banter. I loved many of the conversations. The talks between Mackenzie and her Da (granddad), the banter between her and Wesley. These gave a lot of depth to the characters.

     5. The overall plot. It's interesting and although you can guess a couple of things, it keeps you turning the pages. I wanted to know what happens with every character and how it's all sorted out so I was never bored with the book.

     6. The atmosphere and the settings. Everything has a kind of vintege-y, eerie feel and I loved it. The apartment the family moves into is old and the Archive itself has a vintage feel that adds to the dark vibe of the book.

     Things I was not so thrilled about -

     1. Many plot points are predictable. I knew where certain things were going even as I was reading. Like there were these 'reveals' that fell flat because I predicted them like 50 pages ago. The concept of the book is unique but the execution is not without it's cliches. The romance was trope-y and I feel it would have been a lot better without the kinda love triangle in it.

     2. I didn't quite relate to the main character Mackenzie. I liked Wesley more and would have happily accepted him as the main character. Mackenzie was annoying at times and i honestly wanted to reach in and shake her!

BUT at the end of the day, I'm very intrigued by the book and can't wait to pick up the sequel soon!




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Have you read this series? Did you like it? Tell me in the comments below!

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