Tag: NetGalley

What You Are Looking for is in the Library – Michiko Aoyama

Translator – Alison Watts

How uncanny the way what one reads can sometimes synchronise with reality.

A book about books and a librarian who recommends the right one at the right time is always going to be a must read for me. I’ve experienced bookish transformative magic and have long suspected some librarians are particularly gifted in wielding it.

This book introduces you to five people who are at a crossroads in their life. Whether they’re unsatisfied with their job, wanting to follow a dream or are searching for purpose, they all find their way to the librarian.

‘What are you looking for?’

After a short conversation with Sayuri Komachi, the librarian, she produces a list of books on the subject they have requested but invariably also sneaks in a surprise title that appears entirely irrelevant. It is this title that leads the reader on a journey of self discovery, while trying to decipher the meaning of the librarian’s bonus gift.

The comparisons between this book and Before the Coffee Gets Cold made sense early on. Each chapter focuses on a specific individual, although as you make your way through the book you discover connections between characters and their backstories. One of my favourite things about this book was searching for the ways in which the seemingly unconnected stories interwove.

One description, which initially niggled at me, became something that impacted my enjoyment of the book. Every character, upon seeing the librarian for the first time, noted their shock at her appearance. She’s described as “huge”, “really huge”, “large” (multiple times), “very large” (more than once) and “humungous”. She has “plump fingers”. Characters are surprised she can move quickly and that she is capable of the fine work of felting.

The paleness of her skin was also consistently commented one; it reminded one character of a “white glutinous rice cake”.

Comparisons are made between her and a polar bear, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, Disney’s Baymax and Genma Saotome from Ranma ½. While I’m usually up for any Ghostbusters reference, all of the comparisons felt disparaging rather than descriptive.

I haven’t been able to find a better word to describe my experience of this book as a whole than ‘soft’. It’s easy to read. The characters aren’t difficult to get to know and you don’t need to think deeply to follow the story. It’s a nice, feel-good read and there are sentences that leave you feeling warm and squishy. Ultimately, though, while I will remember how it made me feel, I don’t think any of the individual stories are going to linger with me long term.

Everybody should have their own story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Doubleday, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Sayuri Komachi is no ordinary librarian. Sensing exactly what someone is searching for in life, she provides just the book recommendation to help them find it.

In this uplifting book, we meet five of Sayuri’s customers, each at a different crossroads:

– the restless retail assistant eager to pick up new skills
– the mother faced with a demotion at work after maternity leave
– the conscientious accountant who yearns to open an antique store
– the gifted young manga artist in search of motivation
– the recently retired salaryman on a quest for newfound purpose

Can she help them find what they are looking for? 

What You Are Looking For is in the Library is about the magic of community libraries and the discovery of connection. Already loved by thousands of readers all over the world, this inspirational tale shows how, by listening to our hearts, seizing opportunity and reaching out, we too can fulfil our long-held dreams.

Which book will you recommend?

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How Does Chocolate Taste on Everest? – Leisa Stewart-Sharpe

Illustrations – Aaron Cushley

Cover image of How Does Chocolate Taste on Everest? by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe

This book transports you to some of the world’s most extreme places: hottest, longest river, darkest, most magical, highest, deepest, most secret, most electric, harshest, stinkiest and coldest, as well as somewhere that’s out of this world.

It invites you to use your imagination, casting you as the explorer. You pack your bag, use different modes of transport and experience each location via your senses.

Along the way, you get to read the postcards you send your parents. Not all readers will have a mother and father they’d be sending postcards to if they were on a round the world adventure, though, so I would have preferred it if the postcards were addressed to a friend instead.

You’ll find a glossary at the end of the book for the trickier words.

The second person point of view was engaging. It brought to mind the Choose Your Own Adventures of my childhood (minus all of the choices). It’s the type of book where your learning is accidental because you’re busy enjoying the ride.

This journey through the senses hooked me by including ‘chocolate’ in the title. I was most looking forward to learning some new fun facts. Because this non fiction book reads like a story, it wasn’t as chock-a-block with facts as I had hoped but, having said that, I was more entertained than I’d expected.

Because I can’t read fun facts without sharing some, here are my top five:

A dromedary, which is a camel, can drink 50 gallons of water in three minutes. That’s 189 litres!

When Russian priest Fedor Konyukhov flew his balloon around the world in 2016, he survived for eleven days with only half-hour naps. To keep himself awake and avoid crashing, he held a spoon between his fingers. If he dozed off, the spoon would clank onto the floor and wake him up!

Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei survived an avalanche before becoming the first woman to climb Everest in 1975.

Venezuela’s Catatumbo lightning “lasts around ten hours every night about 297 days a year.”

Pablo Signoret, Rafael Bridi, and Guilherme Coury set a record when they walked a 656-foot-long slackline between two peaks of the French Alps, 10,000 feet above ground!

The illustrations are colourful, the amount of text per page isn’t overwhelming and the layout is uncluttered.

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And the answer to the question the book’s title raises? Suffice to say, the summit of Everest may be the only place on Earth you won’t see me eating chocolate.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Charlesbridge for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

An immersive round-the-world adventure, where YOU are the explorer experiencing the most extreme places on earth and doing it all through your five senses.

Have you ever wondered what the buzz of the rainforest sounds like on a trek through the Amazon? Or how it feels to experience the biting cold as you voyage across Antarctica? Or how chocolate tastes on Mount Everest? From every heart-bursting sight to tummy-lurching smell, you will experience them all – and do so without having to leave the comforts of your couch.

This funny and fast-paced interactive thrill ride that young adventure-seekers are sure to enjoy is chock-full of facts, history, and survival tips peppered on every page.

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Edinburgh Nights #3: The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle – T.L. Huchu

Cover image of The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T.L. Huchu

As part of her internship, Ropa finds herself playing host to a bunch of hoity-toity magicians at Dunvegan Castle. She’s not getting paid so she plans on liberating a little bit of something for her efforts. Before she can get her hands on anything shiny, the entire event turns into a locked room mystery: magic edition.

‘Everyone is a suspect.’

I absolutely adore Ropa. She has a distinctive voice, her education is pretty much courtesy of the school of hard knocks and she’s currently sporting orange dreadlocks and black lipstick.

One of the things I love about this series is Ropa’s relationships with her Gran and younger sister, Izwi. While both were mentioned in this book, neither had page time and I really missed their interactions. I also missed River, Ropa’s vulpine companion. Thankfully, Ropa’s friends, Priya and Jomo, are Under the Dome with her, as are the Hamster Squad, who we met in the second book.

They’re the admin gophers where I work.

Ropa is a ghostalker. She puts food on the table by delivering messages from ghosts to their loved ones. There was less ghostalking in this book than the previous ones.

Whenever there’s a list of who’s who in the zoo before you get to the first chapter, a part of my brain shuts down. I assume that if there are so many people I need to know about that I need a list to help me, I’m never going to be able to remember them all. This then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I’m pretty sure I ignored the lists in the previous books and didn’t have a problem. Here, there were details of the principal magical institutions, places and characters. I read them all carefully. My brain then went into panic mode and never recovered.

There was a lot of discussion about the history of magic, which I found interesting, and I learned of the existence of the biblioparadise, where I’ll be spending my afterlife.

A realm within the astral plane where every book written and unwritten sits on shelves high enough to touch the sky.

This book felt like a bridge between what we already knew about Ropa’s world and something big that’s on the horizon. Ropa seemed to tread water a bit in this book and as a result I wasn’t as invested as I usually am in this series. I am absolutely ready for what’s coming, though, and am really looking forward to the next book.

Favourite no context quote:

Thing about kangaroo courts is, the conclusion’s baked in before the dough’s in the oven.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Ropa Moyo is no stranger to magic or mysteries. But she’s still stuck in an irksomely unpaid internship. So she’s thrilled to attend a magical convention at Dunvegan Castle, on the Isle of Skye, where she’ll rub elbows with eminent magicians.

For Ropa, it’s the perfect opportunity to finally prove her worth. Then a librarian is murdered and a precious scroll stolen. Suddenly, every magician is a suspect, and Ropa and her allies investigate. Trapped in a castle, with suspicions mounting, Ropa must contend with corruption, skulduggery and power plays. Time to ask for a raise?

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They Lurk – Ronald Malfi

They Lurk is a collection of five novellas, four previously published between 2009 and 2012, and one that’s brand new. All of the stories are of the strange and unusual variety, with a good dose of dread thrown in there.

Skullbelly

Three months ago, four teenagers went into the forest. One returned, and he’s not talking. The families, frustrated by the police’s lack of response, hire P.I. Jeffers to investigate. Wandering around in a forest looking for evidence of … something gave me Predator vibes. I love Predator! This was my favourite story.

“There’s animals, Mr. Jeffers. Things with claws and teeth.”

The Separation

Prizefighter Charlie hasn’t been himself since Gloria left him. Charlie’s psychotherapist friend, Marcus, hopes he can help. I guessed where this one was heading.

“She took a part of me with her when she left”

The Stranger

Someone’s sitting in David’s car. And they won’t get out. I had absolutely no idea where this story was going to take me. In hindsight, I would have been extremely surprised if I’d figured this one out ahead of time.

“God has laid a miserable fate upon us.”

After the Fade

Tommy was planning on breaking up with his girlfriend at The Fulcrum tonight. Then once upon a cheerleader Wendy Pratchett showed up and everything changed. Tommy probably should have stayed home instead.

“It’s still ringing. How can 911 still be ringing?”

Fierce

Connie and her mother survived the car accident but now they’re living a nightmare. There’s a fun connection between this and the first story.

Keep it together, Connie. Collect yourself.

I’m keen to read more books by this author. As this is only my third Ronald Malfi read, I’ve got some catching up to do.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

COME CLOSER…

Five terrifying collected horror novellas newly reissued from the “modern-day Algernon Blackwood”. 

Skullbelly
A private detective is hired after three teenagers disappear in a forest and uncovers a terrible local secret.

The Separation 
Marcus arrives in Germany to find his friend up-and-coming prizefighter Charlie in a deep depression. But soon Charlie’s behaviour grows increasingly bizarre. Is he suffering from a nervous breakdown, or are otherworldly forces at work? 

The Stranger
Set a rural Florida parking lot, David returns to his car to find a stranger sat behind the wheel. The doors are locked and there’s a gun on the dashboard. And that was when then the insanity started… 

After the Fade 
A girl walked into a small Annapolis tavern, collapsed and died. Something had latched itself to the base of her skull. And it didn’t arrive alone.
Now, the patrons of The Fulcrum are trapped, held prisoner within the tavern’s walls by monstrous things, trying to find their way in.

Fierce
A teenage girl and her mum are in a car accident with another vehicle on a remote country road in the middle of a nightmarish snowstorm, which soon devolves into gruesome madness.

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Wolf Road – Alice Roberts

Illustrations – Keith Robinson

Twelve year old Tuuli is a member of a talo, a small tribe of connected families. She lives with her parents, ten year old brother and her cousins, aunts and their partners. Their talo are reindeer people, “sustained by the reindeer, connected with the reindeer”.

One day, Tuuli meets a boy who doesn’t look like anyone she’s ever seen before.

I’m a sucker for an eye catching cover image but usually rely on the blurb to decide for sure if a book is going to be for me. My decision to read this book, though, was based solely on the fact that I saw Keith Robinson’s name on the cover. Keith is one of my favourite illustrators and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see more of his work. I was not disappointed.

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I only wish there had been more illustrations.

It’s obvious how much research has gone into this book. As I tagged along with Tuuli and her talo while they travelled through the seasons, I saw how they lived and was able to get to know them through their beliefs and customs. While I learned a lot reading this book, my emotions never really engaged.

I absolutely adored Lupa, Tuuli’s wolf, but didn’t form a connection with any of the humans. Andar was the one I was most intrigued by but I’m left with unanswered questions about his past. I thought I should be reaching for a tissue a couple of times but I experienced those events as an observer, looking on from a distance, rather than feeling them.

Kid me would have had difficulties with the hunting and the sad events. Adult me was too busy worrying that something bad would happen to Lupa.

While this story would work as a standalone, an opening is definitely left for a sequel. I would be interested to find out what happens next.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The greatest adventure of all begins here, in the epic new prehistoric children’s novel from bestselling author, academic and broadcaster, Professor Alice Roberts.

Tuuli is a prehistoric girl, travelling with her tribe through the seasons – making camp, hunting for food and protecting themselves against the many hazards that the climate throws at them. Tuuli knows there’s a bigger world out there, and when she spots a strange boy lurking outside their camp, she realises that he might hold the adventure she is looking for. 

He is a Neanderthal, sent by his tribe to find safer ground and as he and Tuuli strike up an unlikely friendship, they set out on a journey that will impact the rest of human history. 

A vast adventure with a very human heart, full of wild animals, huge scenery and heart-stopping danger and inspired by real anthropological discoveries. For fans of His Dark Materials, Wolf Brother and The Last Bear, join Tuuli on the adventure of a lifetime and uncover the start of all our histories.

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Fat Witch Summer – Lizzy Ives

“Will you run away with us? And choose your own destiny?”

A group of teenage witches go on a road trip… That’s all I needed to know to pick up this book. I was ready for the bonding that comes from shared experiences and the hope our four witches would meet some interesting people along the way.

Thrash really wants the Gift of Sight. Her mother wants Thrash to have the Gift of Glamour. This is a problem for Thrash because, in this matriarchal society, mothers get to choose which Gift their children receive. What’s a girl to do?!

Well, if you’re Thrash, this is the perfect opportunity to go on a road trip with three witches from school she barely knows. They’re on a mission to liberate the Gifts they want. They didn’t expect things to spiral this much out of control.

I was entirely on board with learning how magic works in Thrash’s world. I thought some bonding time between myself and the girls was inevitable but didn’t connect with any of the characters. There were also fewer scenes involving Thrash, Saki, Em and Cresca bonding and more with a bunch of people chasing them across the Thirteen States than I expected.

This is marketed as a body positive novel and there are some elements of that. This was offset for me by many of the characters having significant struggles with their bodies, though, including those who use magic to change their appearance.

While this was an entertaining read, I wasn’t captivated by it like I’d hoped. I’m left with quite a few unanswered questions, the most pressing of which is, did Takoda survive?

I definitely need a magical bottomless trunk to store all of my books.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sword & Rose Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Sixteen year old Thrash doesn’t enchant eyeliner over her lids or clear her acne with magic. She is plus-size, but she doesn’t hate what she sees in the mirror – that’s the realm of her mother, Osmarra, a slim and elegant Glamour witch. When Thrash unexpectedly breaks a mirror with her mind, she discovers she has a knack for magic and will receive one of the three sanctioned Gifts: Glamour, Growth, or Sight. The only problem is that mothers choose the Gifts, and Osmarra is convinced that the Gift of Glamour will fix her daughter’s looks.

When Thrash fails to persuade Osmarra to accept her as she is, a trio of cool witches who call themselves The Lunes offer her an out. Their leader, fiery and charismatic Cresca, recruits Thrash for a road trip to New Salem University, where the girls plan to steal their own Gifts. As Thrash crosses the magical Thirteen States of America, Osmarra hot on her heels, she discovers bewitched diners, haunted tourist traps, and a secret about the Gifts that will change the Thirteen States forever.

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The Last One to Fall – Gabriella Lepore

“Sooner or later you’re going to get what’s coming to you.”

Introduce me to a group of dysfunctional teenagers that go somewhere and all but one return because someone’s no longer breathing and now everyone else is a suspect, and I’m a happy camper. Add some social issue soup to the mix and I’ll be hooked. It doesn’t matter how many books along these lines I read; I just keep coming back for more.

Savana and Jesse are neighbours who’ve known one another for years. They’re friends and there is absolutely some chemistry between them so when Jesse asked her to meet him at Cray’s Warehouse, the senior class’ summer break party spot, of course she was going to go.

She didn’t expect to see someone fall out of a fourth storey window when she got there. She definitely didn’t plan on getting caught up in a murder investigation. But here we are.

I have a horrible feeling this is just the beginning.

Supplementing the narrative, which is told by Savana and Jesse, are transcripts of an audio file, interviews and text messages, as well as an email and news article.

This was a quick, entertaining read. I guessed the who but not the why.

I don’t know what it is about books like these. They feel like a guilty pleasure. I don’t expect to stop reading them anytime soon, though.

“Don’t assume you know the whole story.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Six friends. Five suspects. One murder.

Savana Caruso and Jesse Melo have known each other since they were kids, so when Jesse asks Savana to meet him at Cray’s Warehouse in the middle of the night, she doesn’t hesitate. But before Savana can find Jesse, she bears witness to a horrifying murder, standing helpless on the ground as a mysterious figure is pushed out of the fourth floor of the warehouse.

Six teens were there that night, and five of them are now potential suspects. With the police circling, Savana knows what will happen if the wrong person is charged, but someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the truth from coming to light.

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Girls of Little Hope – Sam Beckbessinger & Dale Halvorsen

WELCOME TO LITTLE HOPE, CA! POPULATION 8,902.

Best friends Donna, Rae and Kat skipped school on Wednesday afternoon to traipse through the woods. Two of them returned on Saturday. One is still missing.

Donna Ramirez is a wannabe rebel. Her mother, who left when Donna was 9, now has a new family. Donna has an older brother, Jay. She lives with her father, Hector, who is fluent in Dad jokes.

Donna doesn’t remember what happened in the woods.

Tammie-Rae (Rae) Hooper is a preppy church girl and star of the athletics team. She lives with her parents and her brother, Brandon. Her parents have a list of “Forbidden Demonic Things”. It’s a long list.

They love you so long as you stay their good girl.

Rae returned from the woods screaming.

Their sweat glands have been on overdrive since they returned and they’re mighty peckish.

“Remember what we promised each other?”

Wallflower nerd Katherine (Kat) Larkin recently began wearing oversized men’s flannel shirts. She’s smart and loves Nancy Drew books.

Kat is still missing.

The story is told by each of the girls as well as Marybeth Larkin, Kat’s mother. Through them, you meet some of Little Hope’s townsfolk, including town boogeyman, Ronnie Gaskins, who murdered his parents when he was a child.

I flew through this book. I wasn’t a fan of the amount of times I read about how much weight one character had gained and the size of another’s breasts but there was a lot to love. The 90’s pop culture nostalgia. The mystery of what happened to the girls during the missing time. The squishy body horror. The newspaper articles and zine pages. Snooping in Kat’s diary. The fact that I was hooked the entire time.

If they didn’t live in a small town, Donna, Rae and Kat may not have ever become friends. If it wasn’t for newspaper club, they probably would have remained acquaintances. They reminded me of the intensity of teenage friendships: the shared experiences and the bonds that feel unbreakable.

I’m a teensy bit obsessed with the prayer to Scully, “our lady of The X-Files”.

Favourite no context quote:

“I will be the Batman of toilets.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they?

Being fifteen is tough, tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town like Little Hope, California (population 8,302) in 1996. Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen girl friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town’s most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago.

Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive. Donna the troublemaker can’t remember anything. Rae seems to be trying to escape her memories of what happened, while her close-minded religious family presses her for answers. And Kat? Sweet, wannabe writer Kat who rebelled against her mom’s beauty pageant dreams by getting fat? She’s missing. Dead. Or terribly traumatised, out there in the woods, alone.

As the police circle and Kat’s frantic mother Marybeth starts doing some investigating of her own, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same.

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The Prophet and the Idiot – Jonas Jonasson

Translator – Rachel Willson-Broyles

So, let’s talk about the elephant in the room … the last word in the title. It’s offensive. It’s awful. I hate it.

If I hadn’t told someone that yes, I was absolutely going to read a Jonas Jonasson book, my journey with this book would have ended as soon as I read that word. Because more than a year has passed since I made my bookish commitment, I moved on to reading the blurb and it intrigued me. It’s a shame, really, because I expect a lot of people won’t make it past the title.

If you do manage to put blinders on every time you come across that word, this is actually a fun read. The characters are quirky, there’s a road trip in an RV with a super fancy kitchen and there are wrongs to put right because the world is ending.

Everything felt right.

At which point nothing went as planned. It rarely does.

Johan, who the offensive word refers to, believes that’s what he is because his brother has called him that his entire life. Johan is not book smart but he’s a genius when it comes to combining ingredients in unique and apparently delectable way. I would very much like to sample his mango bread. Johan has also memorised a bunch of American movies.

Petra is convinced the sky is falling. Literally. And very soon. She has the calculations to prove it.

‘Who’s going to what now?’

‘The atmosphere. It will fall flat to the ground and the temperature will drop to 273.15 degrees below freezing. In a split second.’

‘Where?’

‘Everywhere.’

‘Indoors as well?’

Besides being a doomsday prophet, Petra is also a very big fan of flowcharts.

At 75, retired manufacturess Agnes’ hair is more violet than it used to be. Her alter ego, ‘Travelling Eklund’, has seen much more of the world than she has, although that’s about to change.

This is a book with grappa decisions, an endangered bird and unfinished cheese business. A bunch of famous people have parts to play, including Obrama, which, even though it very much looks like it, is not a typo.

Our road trip takes us to multiple countries and the impact of this found family is felt worldwide, even as they paint themselves into so many corners you begin to wonder how they can ever get out of them.

Ultimately, this book encourages you to live your life while you have the chance because you never know when a prophet’s calculations are going to be correct.

‘Isn’t now the time to embrace the world? With what little time you have left.’

Although I still hate the title, I enjoyed spending time with this unlikely trio.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Sweden, late summer of 2011. Self-taught astrophysicist Petra has calculated that the atmosphere will collapse on the 21st of September that year, around 21.20 to be more precise, bringing about the end of times.

Armed with this terrible knowledge, Petra meets Johan and Agnes, a widow of 75 who has made bank living a double life on social media as a young influencer. Together, the trio race through Europe as they plan to make the most out of the time they have left, in more ways than one.

But of course, things rarely go to plan, even the end of the world…

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Silenced – Ann Claycomb

Four women who work for the same company have experienced sexualised violence by the CEO. This is a man who will use all of his considerable power to silence the women he assaults.

He’s counting on us not telling anyone because we’re afraid they won’t believe us.

Jo, Abony, Ranjani and Maia have all tried to find ways to be heard but each has been constricted, by fairy tales of all things. These are definitely not the Disney sanitised versions with songs and adorable talking animals.

This is a difficult but important read. It highlights the many ways people who have experienced sexualised violence can be silenced by not only the perpetrator but also the systems we expect to help victims of these crimes.

“If you weren’t so scared that people would believe women, why have you tried so hard to silence us?”

It also clearly explores trauma responses and how the impacts can vary from person to person and across time. These can include the inability to say the words and the shrinking of your world.

There are scenes that describe the violations the women have experienced. While they’re not especially graphic, they don’t allow any doubt about what each woman has experienced so please tread carefully if you are likely find this content difficult to read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Four women. Four enchantments. One man. But he is no handsome prince, and this is no sugar-sweet fairy tale. Jo, Abony, Ranjani, and Maia all have something in common: they have each been cursed by the CEO of their workplace after he abused his power to prey on them. He wants them silent and uses his sinister dark magic to keep them quiet about what he did. But Jo, Abony, Ranjani and Maia are not fairy-tale princesses waiting to be rescued. They are fierce, angry women with a bond forged in pain, and they’re about to discover that they have power of their own.

In this sharply written, bitingly relevant modern fable, the magic is dark and damaging, and the women are determined to rescue themselves.

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