ARC Review | The Good Luck Girls

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Good Luck Girls

Author: Charlotte Nicole Davis

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 352

Publication Date: October 1, 2019

Categories: Dystopian, Fantasy, Western, Young Adult, Human Trafficking, Addiction

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Aster, the protector
Violet, the favorite
Tansy, the medic
Mallow, the fighter
Clementine, the catalyst

THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS

The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls–they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a “welcome house” as children and branded with cursed markings. Trapped in a life they would never have chosen.

When Clementine accidentally murders a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by Arketta’s most vicious and powerful forces, both human and inhuman, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one Good Luck Girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe.

It’s going to take more than luck for them all to survive.

Thank you to Tor Teen and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

In this dystopian/fantasy western world of Arketta, we have a group of females who are living in a “welcome house”, basically it’s a brothel. They are raised to be sex slaves in The Scab, a mining town in what seems like the worst part of Arketta. But when Clementine, one of the girls, accidentally kills her brag (customer), she, her sister and friends make a run for it. This story then follows these girls on the run from the law, supernatural monster called vengeants, raveners who mess with their minds and other powerful men. What a wild ride this story took me on!

I was so impressed with the world building. I’m not a big fan of westerns so I went into this book just mildly interested. But as I kept reading, I realized this world kept drawing me in deeper. Families in The Scab sell their girls for shine (money) and girls then sell their bodies. ☹️ It’s a tough world for women in Arketta and for the other dustbloods. Dustbloods, are a group of people who had their shadows torn from them because of a debt to be paid. Their children are born with no shadows, and these people are oppressed in a land where landmasters rule. Subject matter wise, it’s a tough one. I got angry about the welcome houses and how the girls are drugged to do their “job”. I was angry at the men and raveners. 😠

But landmasters and raveners are not the only evils out there. Arketta is teeming with vengeants, supernatural like monsters that prowl in the dark. We follow Aster, Clementine, Tansy, Mallow and Violet (yes all named after flowers), as they escape the welcome house. They travel to different towns on horses, navigating dirt trails, camping out at abandoned mines and even catching a ride on a train. Along the way they come across many dangers, meet new people, they plan heists and robberies to survive! All they want is real freedom! 😔 The cast of characters is diverse with people of color and with LGBT+ representation.

I loved Aster, who is the main character and takes a roll as leader of this runaway crew. She’s never been a leader and she makes mistakes along the way but she admits her wrongdoings and tries to fix things. I love how her character leaps off the page. And another thing I enjoyed was finding out the original names of the girls as their journey continues. It was empowering to see them shed their personas from the welcome house and reclaim the names they were born with!

This story is a strong debut from author Charlotte Nicole Davis. It is engaging, exciting and empowering. I look forward to the sequel!

Book Review: The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author: Ally Condie

Format: E-book

Pages: 328

Categories: Dystopian, Young Adult, Grief, Revenge

Book Blurb:

There is something Poe Blythe, the seventeen-year-old captain of the Outpost’s last mining ship, wants far more than the gold they tear from the Serpentine River.

Revenge.

Poe has vowed to annihilate the river raiders who robbed her of everything two years ago. But as she navigates the treacherous waters of the Serpentine and realizes there might be a traitor among her crew, she must also reckon with who she has become, who she wants to be, and the ways love can change and shape you. Even—and especially—when you think all is lost.

Ally Condie, the international bestselling author of the Matched trilogy, returns with an intricately crafted and emotionally gripping story of one young woman’s journey to move beyond the grief and anger that control her and find the inner strength to chart her own course.

MY REVIEW

I have to admit, I borrowed this e-book because I was seeing the title and cover everywhere. I didn’t know what it was about only that it was the same author that wrote the Matched Trilogy.

This book hit me in a place unexpected and not because of the setting or overall story. Poe Blythe, the main character was recognizable to me, painfully so. This character is a sharp blade whetted by grief and anger. I recognized her as someone I used to know: once upon a time, when I was 29 years old, I was made a young widow unexpectedly. Poe Blythe was me. It was like looking into a mirror. So as I kept reading, I became highly invested in Poe. I understood all her thoughts, her coldness, her detachment, her anger, her paranoia, her obsession with her ship – all the things that made her unlikable as a character. I knew how she became that person and I felt for her.

It’s a dystopian story set in a future when resources are scarce. Poe Blythe is part of the crew on a dredge, a gold mining ship for the Outpost. The world building is sparse, because it only focused on the Outpost, the river and Poe. Her grief is a landscape on its own. She had tunnel vision and seeing Poe struggling to see more outside of her grief was triumphant.

A raider kills the one person Poe loves and she is consumed with grief, hate, and thoughts of revenge. Her grief inspires her to build a dredge ship that is equipped with armor to kill as many raiders as possible. But then she is sent on a mission where everything goes wrong. This mission makes her face her inner demons. There is a lot of action in this story and events that challenges Poe from the get go. The secondary characters are there to put dents into her armor, both her ship’s armor and her own emotional armor. As Poe says, if you understand her ship – you understand her. Poe needs to trust someone eventually – but can she? And who can she trust?

For me, this was a surprisingly quick, intense read. When it ended I was shocked – because I had no expectations of finishing it so fast. I also had no words to describe what I just read, because I was so bound to Poe, I had to decompress a little. This book took me on an emotional and familiar ride down the river of heartbreak, grief and anger. In the end, I needed to know Poe would survive her last voyage…like I did. It’s a stand alone book but I can actually see reading more books set in this world. It was well written, compelling, and it punched me in the heart. It definitely left an impression on me.

Book Review: Defy Me (Shatter Me #5)

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Format: E-book

Pages: 352

Categories: Dystopian, Young Adult, Romance

Book Blurb:

Juliette Ferrars isn’t who she thinks she is.

Nothing in her world is what it seemed. She thought she’d finally defeated the Reestablishment. She thought she’d finally taken control of her life, her power, and her pain. But Juliette has only just begun to unravel a lifetime of lies, and she finds herself faced with a familiar choice:

Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

This time, she’s not alone. Stronger, braver, and more resilient than ever, Juliette will fight for life and love with her friends by her side—but first, she has to survive the war being waged against her mind:

She has to remember who she was.

Narrated by Juliette, Warner, and Kenji Kishimoto, this gripping novel perfectly sets the stage for the highly anticipated forthcoming conclusion to the Shatter Me series.

MY REVIEW

Defy Me, is the fifth book that just released in the Shatter Me series. I’m still wrapping my head around the magnitude of what was revealed in this book. This book was wild! It was non-stop twists and turns.

Not going to lie, I’m having a hard time with the name change though. Juliette is really Ella. I’ve invested eight years of love towards this series, haha, so Juliette is now Ella – got it, but my mind is rebelling against it a little. I’m glad Kenji is still allowed to call her “J” though – it makes the transition a more bearable.

We already knew about the abuse Warner and ~~Juliette~~ Ella went through as teenagers but it broke my heart reading about the truth of their earliest years. Yes, I even teared up 😢. It made me want to protect them from their horrible parents.

We get three different perspectives from Juliette, Warner and Kenji. There is a lot of secrets coming to light in the beginning, so there was a lot of talking. And I just have to get this off my chest, has Adam always been this annoying? I’m glad his appearance was very brief. Being in Kenji’s head was great, I enjoyed his perspective the most because we pretty much know what goes on in the minds of Warner and Juliette.

Speaking of Warner and ~~Juliette~~Ella, they finally have the happy moment I was craving for. Yay! It was a bit over extended in the ending, in my opinion, just a few repetitive things, but it’s okay, let them bask in the love, they deserve it.

Some major things happen in the story which I won’t spoil but I felt like this book ended on a good, hopeful note. It wasn’t a cliffhanger so whatever happens in the next and final book would basically, I’m assuming, be about the war they have to fight and more about Emmaline. And maybe we find out if Kenji will get his happy ending too? 😉 I loved Defy Me, it broke my heart and mended it. Now Warner and Ella will be better for it, with the past behind them, they are strong in their present moment and the future looks promising.