Ayesha at Last
by Uzma Jalaluddin

Synopsis:
A modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice for a new generation of love.

Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

Review: In Another Life by C.C. Hunter

In Another Life
by C.C. Hunter

Synopsis:

Chloe was three years old when she became Chloe Holden, but her adoption didn’t scar her, and she’s had a great life. Now, fourteen years later, her loving parents’ marriage has fallen apart and her mom has moved them to Joyful, Texas. Starting twelfth grade as the new kid at school, everything Chloe loved about her life is gone. And feelings of déjà vu from her early childhood start haunting her.

When Chloe meets Cash Colton she feels drawn to him, as though they're kindred spirits. Until Cash tells her the real reason he sought her out: Chloe looks exactly like the daughter his foster parents lost years ago, and he’s determined to figure out the truth.

Review: 99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai

99 Nights in Logar
by Jamil Jan Kochai

Synopsis:
A coming-of-age story about one boy’s journey across contemporary Afghanistan to find and bring home the family dog, blending the grit and immediacy of voice-driven fiction like We Need New Names with the mythmaking of One Thousand and One Nights.

Twelve-year-old Marwand’s memories from his previous visit to Afghanistan six years ago center on his contentious relationship with Budabash, the terrifying but beloved dog who guards his extended family’s compound in Logar. Eager to find an ally in this place that’s meant to be “home,” Marwand approaches Budabash the way he would any dog on his American suburban block—and the results are disastrous: Marwand loses a finger and Budabash escapes.

PH Blog Tour: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (Review+Giveaway)

I am back, my book wanderer friends! I have risen from the book blogger crypts (or wherever place book bloggers lie when they are dead in the book blogging world) because I need to tell you about this new book by romance maven, Helen Hoang.

Huge thanks to Fay of Bibliophile Soprano for hosting the PH Blog Tour for "The Bride Test" by Helen Hoang.

Review: Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Two Can Keep a Secret
by Karen M. McManus

Synopsis:
Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone's declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Review: The Fade by Demitria Lunetta

The Fade
by Demitria Lunetta

Synopsis:
We don't want to disappear. We want to be found.

Something terrible happened in her basement. Haley can feel it.

Four girls went missing several years ago, and the police never solved the case. But Haley know the missing girls were murdered. How else can she explain the hostile presence in her house?

The ghostly girls need something from her. And unless Haley can figure out what they want...she might be next.

Review: Fire and Heist by Sarah Beth Durst

Fire and Heist
by Sarah Beth Durst

Synopsis:
In Sky Hawkins's family, leading your first heist is a major milestone--even more so than learning to talk, walk, or do long division. It's a chance to gain power and acceptance within your family, and within society. But stealing your first treasure can be complicated, especially when you're a wyvern--a human capable of turning into a dragon.

Embarking on a life of crime is never easy, and Sky discovers secrets about her mother, who recently went missing, the real reason her boyfriend broke up with her, and a valuable jewel that could restore her family's wealth and rank in their community.

Mini-Reviews: Some Mystery Books

In case you haven't notice with my recent reviews, I am slowly but surely becoming a mystery fan. So here are some more mystery books that I finished this year:

Review: Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
by Arwen Elys Dayton

Synopsis:

For fans of television shows Black Mirror and Westworld, this compelling, mind-bending novel is a twisted look into the future, exploring how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimen and what it means to be human at all.

Set in our world, spanning the near to distant futures, Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a novel made up of six interconnected stories that ask how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimens, and how hard that will push the definition of "human."

PH Blog Tour: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao (Review+Giveaway)

I have immensely adored Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (FoTL) so I am more than happy to be part of the crew of Filipino bloggers to promote it’s sequel, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix (KoBP).

Kudos to Erika of The Nocturnal Fey and Rafael of The Royal Polar Bear Reads who organized this blog tour and who also hosted a successful Twitter party last October 27. Check the hashtag #FPBChat to see what went down with that online event graced by Julie C. Dao’s presence herself.

But first, let’s check what Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix is all about.

Review: The Witch Elm by Tana French

The Witch Elm
by Tana French

Synopsis:
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life: he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

Review: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light
by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis:
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

Review: The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa

The Lady Killer
by Masako Togawa
Translated from Japanese by Simon Grove

Synopsis:
A dizzying tale of lust and murder, from one of Japan’s greatest mystery writers.

A hunter prowls the night spots of Shinjuku
But he’s the one walking into a trap…

Ichiro Honda leads a double life: by day a devoted husband and a diligent worker, by night he moves through the shadow world of Tokyo’s cabaret bars and nightclubs in search of vulnerable women to seduce and then abandon. But when a trail of bodies seems to appear in his wake, the hunter becomes the prey and Ichiro realises he has been caught in a snare. Has he left it too late to free himself before time runs out?

Review: What They Don't Know by Nicole Maggi

What They Don't Know
by Nicole Maggi

Synopsis:
Three secrets. One decision. A friendship that will change everything.

Mellie has always been the reliable friend, the good student, the doting daughter. But when an unspeakable act leads her to withdraw from everyone she loves, she is faced with a life-altering choice―a choice she must face alone.

Lise stands up―and speaks out―for what she believes in. And when she notices Mellie acting strangely, she gets caught up in trying to save her...all while trying to protect her own secret. One that might be the key to helping Mellie.

Review: The Second Life of Ava Rivers by Faith Gardner

The Second Life of Ava Rivers
by Faith Gardner

Synopsis:
Ava's disappearance was the crack in the Rivers family glacier. I wish I could explain to you how we were before, but I can't, because the before is so filmy and shadowed with the after.

The after is all Vera remembers. When her twin sister, Ava, disappeared one Halloween night, her childhood became a blur of theories, tips, and leads, but never any answers. The case made headlines, shocked Vera's Northern California community, and turned her family into tragic celebrities.

Review: We Regret to Inform You by Ariel Kaplan

We Regret to Inform You
by Ariel Kaplan

Synopsis:
Mischa Abramavicius is a walking, talking, top-scoring, perfectly well-rounded college application in human form. So when she's rejected not only by the Ivies, but her loathsome safety school, she is shocked and devastated. All the sacrifices her mother made to send her to prep school, the late nights cramming for tests, the blatantly resume-padding extracurriculars (read: Students for Sober Driving) ... all that for nothing.

As Mischa grapples with the prospect of an increasingly uncertain future, she questions how this could have happened in the first place. Is it possible that her transcript was hacked? With the help of her best friend and sometimes crush, Nate, and a group of eccentric techies known as "The Ophelia Syndicate," Mischa launches an investigation that will shake the quiet community of Blanchard Prep to its stately brick foundations.

Review: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

The Incendiaries
by R.O. Kwon

Synopsis:
"In dazzlingly acrobatic prose, R. O. Kwon explores the lines between faith and fanaticism, passion and violence, the rational and the unknowable." —Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere.

A shocking novel of violence, love, faith, and loss, as a young woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Time, Parade, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, PBS, Vulture, Buzzfeed, BookRiot, PopSugar, Refinery29, Bustle, The Rumpus, Paste, and BBC.

Review: So Glad to Meet You by Lisa Super

So Glad to Meet You
by Lisa Super

Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Daphne Bowman, a bookish drama nerd in public school, might never have crossed paths with Oliver, the popular, outgoing mascot for his private school's football team, but one event has bound them inextricably. Daphne's older sister, Emily, and Oliver's older brother, Jason, who were high school sweethearts, committed suicide together seven years earlier.

When Daphne uncovers Emily and Jason's bucket list—a list comprised of their "Top Ten" places to visit before they die—she knows she has to tell someone. The one person who might actually get what she's going through and who might not think it's silly that she wants to complete the list, is also someone she's never spoken to—Oliver Pagano. Throwing caution to the wind, Daphne sends Oliver a Facebook message that will come to change the course of both of their senior years—and maybe their entire lives.

Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver

by Naomi Novik

Synopsis:

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand. nd up finding what they never knew they needed—each other.

Review: Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

Tell the Machine Goodnight
by Katie Williams

Synopsis:
Pearl's job is to make people happy. Every day, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion?

Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of "pursuit of happiness." As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett--but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job--not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either.