Love & Olives Review

I’m not someone who picks up a lot of contemporary novels. I veer more towards fantasy and sci-fi, but I have a shelf dedicated to the contemporary novels that catch my eye. I even have a few authors who I eagerly await new releases from, including Benjamin Alire Sáez, Morgan Matson, Andrew Smith, and now, Jenna Evans Welch. I read what is actually the third book in her Love & series and I fell in love with her writing. This was a fun read, but with a lot of emotional baggage to tear through amidst the beautiful adventure through a Greek Island. I’ve already picked up Love & Gelato, which is coming to Netflix this summer (and I will absolutely be reviewing that as well.) In fact, her latest novel, Spells for Lost Things comes out this September and it already sounds amazing.

Liv Varanakis hasn’t seen her father, Nico, since she was eight years old, when he suddenly disappeared. Nearly ten years later, he sends a postcard, asking Liv to join him in Santorini to film a documentary for National Geographic about the lost city of Atlantis. When she arrives, she meets Theo, her father’s protégé and cameraman, who’s there to witness all the awkwardness in Liv’s reunion with her father. But as they delve further into the story of Atlantis, Liv begins to wonder if her father brought her to Santorini for other reasons.

Kalamata, no one knows what they’re doing. It’s called life.

Love & Olives

As I stated before, contemporary isn’t my go-to genre. I’m usually drawn in by the beautiful covers or title, and this book had both. But it also had the word Atlantis in its blurb, and I was hooked. I’ve been obsessed with the story of Atlantis, and I still believe the Disney film is a highly, HIGHLY underrated treasure. So, I didn’t hesitate to snatch this book off the shelf. It was a beautiful book, both in story and setting. Welch has such a lovely way with words, so I was flying through the book, not wanting it to end but still eager to find all the answers.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful country of Greece. Our itinerary included a five night stay in Santorini, so it only made sense to pack this book along for the journey. I only managed about halfway through before the trip ended, as we did a whole lot of walking and sightseeing, so by the time we were back at the hotel, I was way too tired for reading. I did, however, finish it just after we returned, so the memory of Santorini was still fresh in my mind.

It was absolutely incredible to read this book while in the vibrant setting it takes place in. Santorini in itself is gorgeous, but Santorini in the eyes of an artist is even more breathtaking. The vivid colors that you find in the sparkling Mediterranean water, the vibrant cliffsides, the iconic blue domes are all present in this story. Welch captured the feel of Santorini that I just barely got a glimpse of, and I could tell a lot of care went into portraying the island. Most of the story is in Oia, with a trip to Akrotiri and a few scenes in Kamari, which I didn’t get around to seeing for myself. The island came to life on the pages, and I’m so glad I brought this book on my own journey.

One of the places we spend the most time in is the Atlantis Bookshop in Oia and I sincerely thought it was a fake place made up for the book. I was shocked when we rounded a corner and the bookshop was right there, in front of my eyes. I was so thrilled and eager to rove through the shelves and discover the hidden bunk room for myself. I realized the shop was closed and we chalked it up to it being the afternoon when a lot of people close up and rest. So, we went back later, but it was still closed. Not deterred, we returned to Oia a couple days later only to discover that the shop had closed down a year ago. It was such a disappointment seeing the lively rooftop from the story abandoned with moldy books falling from the shelves and overgrown vines taking over the ground. If only I could move in and become the new bookseller, shoving romance novels in tourists’ hands.

The main premise of Love & Olives is Liv navigating her fragile relationship with her father. When he writes to her, she doesn’t want to go, but her mother is insistent, and she’s quickly whisked away. Meanwhile, there’s Theo running around, getting Liv all flustered around him. I really liked Theo. He was charismatic and fun and seems like the perfect person to explore Santorini with.

At the forefront is the search for evidence of Atlantis for the documentary, but the novel quickly shifts to the rediscovery of Liv’s relationship with her father. The two storylines easily weave together and falls into that cheesy saying, “The treasure was the friends you made along the way” but it’s so well portrayed here. All of Liv’s memories with her father are about their love for Atlantis and their quest to find it one day. Now that the time has come, a huge rift has formed between the father and daughter and the adventure is no longer thrilling for Liv. Instead, she feels embarrassment and shame that her father is so obsessed with a myth. With the help of Theo, she starts to discover what Atlantis truly means to her father and to herself. There’s a lot of emotional moments throughout and it’s a book that will sit with you after you’ve read it.

“There are two stories to the door – the tourist version and the local version.”

[…]

“Two stories,” I repeated, placing my palm flat on the peeling paint. Did anyone really believe the Narnia one? And if so, why, when there was almost always a boring explanation eager to explain the magic away?

I felt the thought coming before it spelled itself out. Dad is a Narnia person. He’d always seen the magic in the mundane.

Love & Olives, p.367-8

Here we get into spoiler territory so be sure to read the book before continuing on in the review.

I could tell right away that Liv’s relationship with Dax was not going to make it. From the first moment, he came off as the controlling boyfriend. He has a whole plan set up for Liv after high school and doesn’t seem to listen to what she wants. To be fair, Liv has molded herself into a fake persona that’s carefully crafted, so she wasn’t even being honest with herself. So when Liv started connecting with Theo, I was eagerly rooting for the two of them. Yes, it’s a rushed, whirlwind attraction, but they have such good chemistry with one another, it was easy to believe in their connection.

Theo is so much better for Liv because she’s able to drop the facade she had cultivated and be herself. Something about Theo brings out Liv’s honesty and his constant optimism really helps Liv open up to her father. She’s able to see him through Theo’s eyes, not as the horrible father who ran out on her and her mother, but as the active, selfless man that everyone in Santorini adores. I was very much on the side of Liv forgiving him and mending their relationship, but a lot of that is due to personal experiences.

But some people are worth second chances. Not all people. Just some people.

Love & Olives

When Liv’s dad started disappearing to Athens without any notice, I didn’t buy the tax story one bit and knew immediately that he was sick. I watched my own dad battle cancer so when we started to see the toll that filming took on Nico’s body, I realized he was very sick. Liv, though, gets the entirely wrong idea, thinking that her dad is just abandoning her again and I was so frustrated. I wanted to scream at her because stories about a sick parent always tug at my heart. Even though her dad left her when she was a child, I can’t help but always want people to treasure the time they have with their parent because I would give anything to have more time with my dad. I will admit that I am fortunate to have had a good relationship with my dad, so I don’t have the emotional baggage Liv had to deal with, but I’m glad that, in the end, she started to mend the relationship.

If I’d learned anything from the legend of Atlantis, it was this: stories evolved. They got passed down and twisted, and sometimes they came out okay and other times they quadrupled the size of continents or transported timelines to entirely different centuries. If Plato could’ve missed the mark so entirely, was it possible I had too? Was it possible I could learn something that maybe wouldn’t change this whole situation, but could at least give it nuance?

Love & Olives, p.404

I loved that with each chapter, we learned another thing that her father left behind. Along with that item, Liv shares a memory tied to it and we slowly learn about their relationship before her dad left. It’s a great way to show the past alongside the present.

The last item revealed at the end brought me to tears. I was already overwhelmed by all the feels, and when Liv tells us that number twenty-six is herself, I was sobbing. You can see how much her dad loves her and the revelation that he left because of his mental illness is such an emotional moment. Again, due to personal experience, I was ready to forgive him and I’m so glad that Liv was able to begin doing so as well.

Nico is not a perfect father by any means, but he clearly loves his daughter. Their shared love for Atlantis bonds them and when we learn why Nico is so obsessed with it, it makes you want to believe that the city is real. That perfect island that was lost to the sea could one day be found. If that could be found, then Nico can find the life he once had, before his own father brought it crumbling down, leaving Nico and his mother to pick up the pieces, ostracized the people that had once loved them. Liv experiences a similar situation but Atlantis brings them back together.

After reading Love & Olives, I’ve become a believer that the island of Santorini is the setting of the lost city of Atlantis. I did have a few tour guides help me discover the ancient city when I was in Santorini, but Nico’s passionate search won me over. And Jenna’s beautiful story has won me over to her books.

Spin the Dawn Review

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim is a magical retelling of The Ballad of Mulan. I read this book as part of Charity Rau’s 2022 Fairy Tale Reading Challenge during the month of March. I actually got this book on a whim at the bookshop one day, as I wasn’t wholly captivated by the blurb on the back. I didn’t really have a book in mind in that visit but I was intent on getting a book that day. And I’m so glad I read this. I flew through this book so quickly and enjoyed just about every page.

Maia Tamarin is the best tailor of her village and she dreams of becoming a master, but as a woman, she must keep her talents hidden. Until her father, a former master tailor, is summoned to the palace to compete in a contest to become the imperial tailor. Worried for her ill father’s health, Maia goes in his place, posing as her older brother. The challenges are difficult and the competition ruthless, and the court enchanter seems to see through her disguise, but Maia is determined to succeed. Even when the final challenge seems impossible – create three magical gowns from the sun, the moon, and the stars – Maia faces the perilous journey to prove herself a master.

I adored this book. It wasn’t perfect and I had a few issues with it, but as a whole, it was fantastic. I’m a sucker for a good fairy tale retelling (I have an entire shelf dedicated exclusively to retellings and it constantly needs readjusting to fit in new additions) and while the original tale of Mulan is actually a folk song, Spin the Dawn definitely felt like a fairy tale world.

I loved the romance in this book, especially the romantic interest which I won’t reveal until the spoiler section. It appealed to all the tropes that I fall for every time. The characters had good banter and I enjoyed watching their relationship change and grow over time. Sometimes, it did get a little corny, but I still loved the romance.

I knew then that we were like two pieces of cloth, sewn together for life. Our stitches couldn’t be undone.

Spin the Dawn, p.344

The world of A’landi was very vibrant and beautiful to experience. The magic system is incredible and unique to the world. We also got to see many different terrains, including a desert, the mountains, and even a spooky island. There are palaces for the season which were beautifully detailed. We only got to see the Summer and Autumn palaces so far but I’m sure we’ll see the others in the sequel, and I can’t wait to visit them.

I understood now why so many revered Amana’s dresses, why some called them her greatest legacy. Because of them, she gave us the world as we knew it. Day after day and night after night, she spun the dawn and unraveled the dusk.

Spin the Dawn, p.340

As I said, I enjoyed this book for the most part, but I had a problem with how the first half and the second half are so different from each other. It’s like we have two different stories completely, with some key elements of the synopsis left behind as we moved into the second part. I won’t get too specific so that I don’t spoil it for those who haven’t had the chance to read the book yet. All I will say is that we go from Project Runway to the Impossible Task trope of fairy tales. Both are great for the story, but I wish they had been tied together rather than feeling like separate plot points that divide the first and second halves of the story.

The rest of the review will be filled with spoilers as I go into detail over the issues I had with the story.

Continuing in the discussion about the story feeling divided, it felt like the main ideas were abandoned in the second half, only to be brought back briefly in the end. Maia is supposed to be posing as her brother but almost immediately, her secret is found out by Edan, the court enchanter. He holds this knowledge over her, which I like, but I didn’t feel the tension from this. Because the secret was revealed not long after. In the final challenge, Maia is revealed as a woman to the entire court, including the emperor and his bride-to-be. We are less than 40% through the book. And as Maia sits in the dungeon to wait for her execution, Emperor Khanujin fixes everything and has Edan erase their memory of her deception and she’s made the imperial tailor. So the competition is officially over halfway through the story.

She is given a challenge immediately after being named the new royal tailor. She must sew the impossible dresses of the goddess Amana. All of a sudden, we are no longer in the palace but on a perilous journey with Edan. I loved the journey. Like I mentioned before, we get to explore various terrains and it made the world feel so much more real and vibrant. I don’t dislike the journey at all, especially as we get Edan and Maia falling in love over the course of it.

But, I wish the challenges had lasted longer in the book. They took up such a small portion of the story, even though the synopsis seemed to hinge on them. They’re what brought Maia to the palace, they’re what will determine who will be the imperial tailor. But the competitors are whisked away quickly, with several being dismissed at once. It began to feel rushed very early on and I wish we had spent more time with it. I liked the cutthroat atmosphere that Maia had to navigate as a boy, living a lie. I wish that she had learned the magic in a later challenge and was barely scraping by on challenges, but still using her own talent. Then the magic gets revealed as things become tenser and more dangerous. With the magic in the first challenge, it lessens the stakes for our character and makes it pretty obvious she’s got the competition in the bag.

I wish Maia’s journey to make the dresses had been part of the competition. I was under the impression that there would be many others taking this same challenge, all racing to complete the gowns first. This would’ve increased the tension, as Maia is racing against both time and people. Instead, we get a brief run in with Norbu which I thought would lead to some big chase or confrontation but was forgotten a page later. It would’ve been interesting to see the different competitors come up with their answer to the challenge. Like a dress that’s the laughter of the sun is spun from the most beautiful gold thread, or the blood of the stars are rubies or red diamonds. But only Maia has the true dresses.

And in the end, the Emperor reveals Maia’s identity to everyone out of nowhere. Why go through the trouble of making everyone forget Maia is a girl when he was just going to reveal it anyway? If we hadn’t had the reveal earlier, I think this would’ve worked better. Maybe the Emperor learned her identity early on from Norbu who was spying on everyone, but the Emperor promises to keep her secret because of her magic. So when all the tailors go off on their journeys for the last challenge, we still have Maia needing to keep up her disguise. I really didn’t like how she was able to go back to being Maia in the journey when it was such a big part of the synopsis. It was forgotten far too quickly.

“My father promised he’d never force me to marry. He taught me to hunt and to fight like a man. I was just as good as all my brothers. And now?” Lady Sarnai wrung her hands. “He broke his promise to me. At first I thought it was because the war and magic had blackened his heart, but that is just the way of men. For what is a promise if it’s made to a woman?”

Spin the Dawn, p. 105

I also wish we got more time with Lady Sarnai. Her story mirrors Maia’s in a lot of ways. As a woman, she has no say in her future, but unlike Maia’s father, hers sold her away to a marriage she doesn’t want. I like how brutal and ruthless Sarnai is, but I wish there had been some sort of comradery with Maia. When the truth of her identity is revealed, Sarnai immediately sends her to her death, with a cruel beating beforehand. I would’ve expected some level of compassion for a girl needing to disguise herself to make a life for herself, but I guess the unexpected makes it all the more interesting. I really hope that we get more of Sarnai’s story in the next book.

I absolutely adore Edan. He’s mysterious, he’s got amazing quips, and he’s very layered. There’s more to him than we initially see and I loved learning more about him and his past. He was definitely my favorite character in the book and undoubtedly charmed me the first time we met him.

“How thoughtful, Your Highness. I have been thinking about having new shoes made, but I think I’ll stay with my current pair a little longer. I’ve no desire to walk on any more pins and needles than one does with you already.”

Spin the Dawn, p.84

The magic in this world was so easy to understand and believe in. The way Edan uses it and the constraints he has makes it very vivid and real and not just a fix-all kind of thing that makes life easy. The fact that Edan had to give up part of his self to achieve this level of power, making himself indebted to whoever wears the amulet that his oath is tied to. My one complaint is Maia’s reaction to magic. She is very doubtful about the existence of magic, even though it’s very prominent in the court. There’s a royal enchanter who’s always by the Emperor’s side and the fact that magic caused a rift with the Shansen in the first place. Magic is integral in this world, so why is Maia not a believer?

“All enchanters must swear an oath – it prevents us from becoming too powerful, or greedy. Magic is…addictive, you see. And over time, it can corrupt.”

Spin the Dawn, p.239

Spin the Dawn is still a very enjoyable read, despite the complaints I had. I recently picked up the sequel, Unravel the Dusk which will explore the repercussion of Maia’s dealings with the demon, Bandur. I’m excited to continue the story in this gorgeous world and see how Maia manages to undo her deal and escape her fate. As well as navigating her new betrothal to Emperor Khanujin and the disappearance of Edan.

The Wild Ones Review

Before I get into the review, here is a trigger warning. This book deals with themes of sexual and physical violence, so do not proceed if those topics are triggering for you.

The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad caught my eyes at the bookstore immediately because of its absolutely gorgeous cover. The vibrant colors stand out on the shelf and the illustrations are too beautiful to resist. I wish that the story within had been as captivating to me, but it’s unfortunately my least favorite book I’ve read this year.

When I tried describing the plot to a friend, I found that I was unable to articulate it clearly because it felt as if the book focused on everything but the plot. Beneath all the vivid details and long descriptions of food, and between the eleven girls’ one liners, is the actual plot that isn’t strong enough to drive a strong story. It took me a very long time to get through this book. I found myself forcing my way through it, making myself sit down and read a set number of pages to finish it. I usually don’t mind setting a book as a DNF, but after a difficult two years where I couldn’t finish a single book, I couldn’t accept a DNF. So, I trudged through, and I have many thoughts.

Our mothers. Would they love us still now that we have turned into the cautionary tales they used to tell?

The Wild Ones, p.33

I will start by saying that my thoughts on the book are in no way indicative of the quality of the book. It has a pretty divided response on Goodreads. Slightly over 1/3 of reviews are 3 stars or lower, with another 1/3 of reviews giving it a 4-star rating. People either loved the book and the themes it explores, or they share the same complaints that I have. I think it all comes down to what type of reader you are. If you’re like me and rely on strong, distinct characters, this may not be the book for you. But if you love vivid worlds and strong themes, then I believe this book is the right fit.

After Paheli is betrayed by her mother, she stumbles on Taraana, a boy with stars in his eyes. He gives her box of stars and she becomes an In Betweener, drifting between the real world and the world of magic. Over time, she collects more girls like her, giving them a star. When Taraana reappears, he’s being hunted by a middle worlder and the girls take him in and protect him from those seeking to steal his stars.

As lovely as the details of this world were and how much I wanted to be enthralled by the many characters, the story lacked substance. It was a weird amalgamation of too much and not enough. It was too many characters, not even time for the reader to get to know them. So many beautiful cities in the world, not enough time to spent there to really appreciate it. Too many chase scenes, not enough tension. To summarize, I love the idea of this novel but not the execution.

I do have positives to share about the book. First and foremost, I love stories about found families. Where people who felt like outcasts or had horrible families come together and make their own family. The Wild Ones are their own family. They are girls that were broken and have found healing with one another. They find themselves with a voice and the power to help girls like them.

Obviously, we are still not completely safe, but to be a Wild One, you have to be comfortable with walking on dark roads. The road to becoming a Wild One is dark.

The Wild Ones, p.179

I also love the feminity of this book. Not once does the book shy away from the femininity that is often rejected for being considered weak. Paheli boasts pink hair and the girls douse themselves in glitter and flowers. They are unashamedly girly and I am here for it.

Now I’ll be getting into the spoiler part of the review, so click off if you haven’t read the book.

The lack of tension is a real turn off for me. The Wild Ones have taken on the role of protector for the Keeper of the Between, Taraana. They are chased by Baarish and his middle worlder minions all around the world as they try to keep Taraana safe. But the stakes never feel life or death. It’s established immediately in their first meeting with Baarish that middle worlders’ magic does nothing to them, so they can’t be harmed by them, and they escape easily by disappearing to the In Between. At most, they are simply inconvenienced by Baarish and this is not enough to carry a story.

There are too many characters and we don’t get to know who they are. Paheli is the only clear member of the Wild Ones, with Valentina getting some individuality. All the rest are presented as a single conglomerate of girls, even referring themselves as an ocean.

Just because we talk in one voice doesn’t mean we are of one mind. We are different shades of one color. We do not represent other girls around the world who might be in situations similar to ours. Would you ask a drop of salt water if it represented an entire ocean?

The Wild Ones, p.35

But they feel like one single entity. I don’t know who these girls are. Not even the ‘Book of Memories’ snippets we get interspersed through the book, written in very lyrical and hard to decipher text, give any clarity. All it does it tell me their name, where they are from, and that they suffered some form of trauma, which is what bonds all the girls. There are very few unique traits given to each girl and it’s easy to miss them. So by the end, it felt as if there were actually only four main characters: Paheli, Valentina, Taraana, and the conglomeration of girls. It was distracting trying to keep track of who each girl was and eventually, I just morphed them into a single entity in my head.

In trying to figure out the characters, I had to look to Goodreads and found a response from the author detailing that the LGBTQIA+ representation in the book includes characters that are lesbian, trans, and non-binary. I truly cannot tell who these characters are, aside from Valentina who ends up with Tabassum Naaz in the end. I would’ve loved to read about a trans girl finding her place in this found family, who take her in after whatever trauma she faced in her previous life. The same goes for the non-binary character. There is so much potential here and it feels wasted on surface level stuff and way, way too many references to mangoes.

It also focuses a lot on the romance between Paheli and Taraana. I really did not like Taraana. He seemed to change personalities quickly, without proper development. One minute, he’s a scared little boy who clings to Paheli, then he’s lovesick and awkward, then he’s arguing with Paheli every other page about her putting herself in danger. We are told that some time passes but we don’t get to really experience it, so this shift is jarring. I couldn’t connect with him because I didn’t know who he would be in the next chapter. While I do appreciate the idea of navigating a relationship after you’ve been hurt so badly, like Paheli was, but it seemed to take up too much space in an already crammed story. There is too much going on and I think the romance was one of the weakest parts of the story.

It seems like the author only wanted to write about the beautiful cities in the world that get very little recognition. I love the places we got to visit in this book. From Latouka City to Agra to Beirut, each was detailed in beautiful prose that allowed me to feel each soul.

Cities have souls, you know. They are alive and sometimes they die. They grow old either gracefully or shamefully. They shrink and they expand. They grieve and celebrate.

The Wild Ones, p.16

In each of these cities, we get many descriptions of the large quantities of food they eat. It seemed like every other page, the girls were eating something new and rushing off to another city. This made the book feel rushed, even when nothing was happening. And the details of food took up precious space that could’ve been used detailing one of the girls or actually helping another girl in need. In fact, we get very few encounters with other girls who have been hurt and even after we lose a Wild One who chooses to move on, we don’t gain another. I would’ve loved to see them take in a new girl and grow their found family.

But we survived. If not in entirety, then in fragments.

The Wild Ones, p.28

The last half of the book was much stronger than the first half. It still dragged in most parts, but I loved when Azad showed us the unique parts of this world, especially the magic. I wish we had learned more about it and it was used more throughout the story, rather than just existing in the background. Magic is important to the story so it should’ve been more prevalent throughout, not sprinkled in until it mattered. Also, ghosts were brought in, but only for one scene and I feel cheated. The chapters in Marrakech were by far the best in the whole book and I would’ve loved an entire book that matched this, instead of the slow-paced, crowded story we have instead.

Magic is thick in places where blood has been spilled.

The Wild Ones p.261

The book often gets repetitive, reiterating the same mantra over and over again. It discusses how the Wild Ones will never again allow themselves to be hurt again, how they are more than their trauma, but it doesn’t have the impact the author was going for. This goes back to the lack of stakes and lack of character development. How am I supposed to care about their plight if I don’t know who they are? Of course, I feel for them after the trauma they endured but it would be so much more powerful if I knew who Ligaya from Cebu is or what happened to Sevda of Marmaris. I don’t know their past, or even their present. They are nothing more than drops of water in the ocean that is the Wild Ones. It’s incredibly difficult to navigate a story that deals with sexual and physical abuse, and I don’t need elaborate, detailed descriptions of what they endured. But I need to know something otherwise it reads as virtue signaling. I truly don’t believe that the author had that intention and I see that there are positive reviews of the book, so this means that my experience is not universal.

I was pretty disappointed in this book. I wish it had been more and that it took the time to focus on character, rather than details. There was so much potential here, but I am glad to see that many people did love it. Azad shared a powerful story that resonates with a lot of readers. It takes a serious topic of trauma that is very hard to write about and I love all the beauty Azad brings in this story. For me, it fell flat and lacked a lot of things I look for in a story, but to many others, it’s a beacon of light, and that’s what matters.  

The Ivory Key Review

The Ivory Key is a debut novel by Akshaya Raman which follows four royal siblings in the search of the legendary Ivory Key. Each sibling has their own agenda for finding the key and their lives depend on it. As the maharani, Vira needs the key so she can bring magic back to the kingdom of Ashoka. Her twin brother, Ronak, wants to sell it and buy a new life, Kaleb needs it to clear his name in the death of the former maharani, and Riya needs it to prove her loyalty to the vigilantes who have become her new family. The bickering siblings must work together on their dangerous treasure hunt, but their secrets threaten to tear them apart.

I got this book as part of Owlcrate’s Thrill of the Hunt January 2022 box. The edition is gorgeous and the dust jacket art stunning. The original cover is definitely a book that would catch my eye if I saw it at the bookstore, but I’m so glad I have this edition and that I joined in the readalong in February. It was fun to engage in the discussion about the book and speculate about what would happen next (though I just proved how terrible I am at guessing what’s to come).

I loved this book. It’s got all the things I adore: a richly detailed fantasy kingdom, quarrelling siblings, lost treasure, magic, and betrayal. This world is so beautifully written, and you can tell it’s one that these characters truly live in. Raman fills the pages with vibrant descriptions, from the wardrobe to the foods to the architecture, there’s not a single detail left out. I could easily imagine the setting throughout the entire novel which is what I love in fantasy. I like being able to immerse myself in a world carefully crafted and created for the story and Raman did not disappoint.

For the first time, the true gravity of their situation was dawning on Kaleb. It wasn’t about freedom or imprisonment. It wasn’t about magic or war. It was about family. Life and loss. For the first time, it was occurring to him – and perhaps to all of them – that maybe not everyone would return to Dvar.

The Ivory Key, p.296

She also did well with portraying the various dynamics in the novel. Vira has to not only navigate her familial relationships, but also her relationships with the council and her people as maharani. Vira is a young ruler, who was thrust into this position unexpectedly and she’s still trying to figure what’s best for everyone. It’s something that is far from new to the genre and can fall into tropes easily, but I loved it anyway because these characters were all so well-rounded and fully realized. Each sibling has their own wants and needs, and their personalities carry the story well. For me, I really focus on character and as long as they are believable and I am able to invest in their journey, I’m along for the ride.

I really love the variety of fantasy kingdoms we are seeing more and more in YA literature. There’s the Middle Eastern influence of novels such as Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes, Malaysian influences in Girls Made of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, and The Ivory Key is a beautiful Indian inspired novel. I have read many fantasy novels inspired by the European Medieval and Renaissance time periods. I have seen castles from this time, so I’m able to visualize these worlds fairly well based on real life experiences. Novels liked The Ivory Key that take inspiration from other parts of the world I am less familiar with push my imagination. Raman does well with the details to guide the visual, but sometimes, I have to allow my imagination to fill in the gaps. I enjoy getting acquainted with these kingdoms that take me to new places around the world and I look forward to seeing many more to come. I have several already waiting on my shelves, but there will never be enough.

Concerts in the gardens had always been his favorite. He recalled sipping rich badam milk by lanterns that hung down from tree branches, swatting away the mosquitoes that hovered around the magical flames.

The Ivory Key, p.131

As much as I’m raving about character and setting, the plot is also a strong part of this story. Raman crafted a well-thought-out hunt, with puzzles for the characters to solve, mysterious places to explore, and plenty of danger around every corner. As you switch between the siblings, you see how much is on the line for each of them. Not only does their individual futures depend on the key, but the entire future of the kingdom depends on it and the return of magic to Ashoka. We even get a little romance sprinkled in to break up the seriousness of the quest. There were a few slow moments that I will discuss later, but for the most part, the story was well paced and kept me engrossed from start to finish.

The rest of the review will include spoilers for the novel.

The novel focuses on the four siblings, with each chapter changing perspective between them. This allows the reader to really get to know each of them and feel that frustration that we as the audience feel when characters just don’t communicate with each other. So many of their problems would be solved easily if they just talked to one another but of course, there would no longer be a story. So, we just have to sit on the edge of our seat as Riya lies to her family about wanting to be back home and as Ronak makes dangerous promises to the terrifying leader of the crime world when all they have to do is be honest with one another.

As I stated before, these things can run into trope territory easily, but Raman avoids a mundane, run-of-the-mill story with her characters. I absolutely love the fact that Vira has already failed as the maharani. She lost a major city shortly after she took over and these shapes her decisions moving forward.

She couldn’t focus on anything in the past. Ghosts rose around her. Stories flashed before her eyes. She pressed her eyes closed, but the ghosts didn’t live in Ritsar. They lived in her mind.

The Ivory Key, p.280

This is a nice change in what we usually see in YA fantasy, where the protagonist is not yet in a place of power and is instead on their journey towards it. The fact that Vira is the maharani from the start really emphasizes the internal conflict that Vira faces as she tries to be like her mother who was very cold and distant to her children. She was calculating and strategic which Vira struggles to be. Her journey is to become a maharani that is true to herself and accept that she will never be her mother. This is such a powerful message to young people struggling to live up to the standards set by their parents. Accepting who you are and being happy with that is a scary thing to do but with open up the path to a happier life.

I also loved following in the other siblings’ journeys. Raman was able to bring a large cast to life and give them each a distinct personality. Riya is the runaway who constantly fought with their mother to the point where she had to get away from the confines of the palace. She joins the vigilante group to feel like she’s actually doing something for Ashoka and the people.

Riya couldn’t handle this. Love letters? Magical bangles? It was all so frivolous and wasteful, and she desperately wanted the conversation to end.

The Ivory Key p.146

I enjoyed following her as she breaks into places and her acrobatic skills in Visala. In the end, she unlocks the true extent of magic which she can harness herself and doesn’t have to rely on the raw material. Going into book two, I can’t wait to see what she’s able to do with this magic and I’m also curious about her love life. She seems rather entranced by Kavita, but there also seems to be some sort of chemistry with Varun that has me very intrigued. With her loyalties torn between the Ravens and her family, I wonder where her journey will take her.

Like Riya, Ronak wants to escape the royal life. Before the quest for the ivory key, he was planning to run away with his best friend, Jay, and brother, Kaleb. In his desperation, he made dangerous deals with the crime lord, Ekta. We feel his anguish as his dreams of running away are made more complicated by his engagement to Preethi, a compensation made by Vira when her own fiancé was murdered in order to appease the council. We realize the corner Vira is backed into, yet we feel for Ronak who doesn’t want to be saddled with these responsibilities.

He was no more free than Kaleb. His prison was larger, more lavish, but he still felt the chains tightening around his wrists and ankles.

The Ivory Key, p.24

Of course, we also want to knock some sense into Ronak who proceeds to make more and more dangerous promises to Etka. With his seat on the council now offered to her at the end of the novel, the tension has mounted for book two. What will happen if Ronak isn’t able to uphold his end of the deal?

And last but not least, we have Kaleb, the eldest of the siblings. Being half-Lyrian and not the son of the former maharani, he is blamed for her murder and imprisoned.

They had a Lyrian boy in their midst they could conveniently pit it on, and the Council refused to search for another culprit.

The Ivory Key, p.90

I adored Kaleb. He is the least capable of the four in the physical aspect of their quest and struggles to lie to the Lyrians in Ritsar. But he’s brave, nevertheless, as he volunteers to go into Lyria and spy for Vira. There’s something about him that is just so endearing. He’s genuine, caring, and clever, so I have a soft spot for him over the other siblings. I also appreciate how his sexuality isn’t questioned or thrown in for the sake of representation. It just is and it fits into the world so naturally. I love worlds, especially fantasy ones, where different spectrums of sexuality are allowed to just exist and are accepted as normal to everyone within it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Kaleb finds a cute Lyrian boy to fall in love with in the next book.

Raman really utilized the reader’s sense of smell. Smells are mentioned in detail several times and I really thought it would have a bigger impact on the story. Particularly how she described Varun as smelling like tulsi, despite being a vigilante who had to live a very secretive life. It was so specific that I kept waiting for something to come of it. There’s even a chapter that begins with mentioning how smell is the most powerful sense for invoking memories, so I truly thought it would be an important aspect.

Papa used to say that smell was a powerful key to memory, but Vira didn’t anticipate the sharp sense of dread and regret that slammed into her…

The Ivory Key p.109

But it seems to just be a detail without any importance. This could have been utilized in a clever way, which I wish is what had happened, but as it is, it’s more of a distraction than anything else. Maybe it’ll come up in the following book.

I think the most interesting aspect of this story is the magic system. I am always so amazed (and a little jealous) of the incredible magic systems people are able to create in their stories and Raman created something I had never seen before: mineable magic. In this world, magic is found in quarries and raw magic collected to be used in objects, such as keys that only open specific doors, a paper that sends messages over vast distances, and a wall surrounding the kingdom that burns intruders to death. The unique way that magic is mined, processed, and forged, as if it were ores from the ground, is such an amazing idea and it fits so well in this story. It even has a sort of radiation quality, as raw magic makes handlers sick and special gear is needed to handle it. This brings in a real-world situation that allows the reader to better visualize how the raw magic works and interacts with people. With magic being such an abstract concept that even I struggle to grapple with as I write my own magic system, it’s genius to give the reader such a vivid and interesting visual to make it seem more real.

Prolonged exposure led to worsening symptoms – headaches, nausea, memory loss, paralysis, until it eventually led to death.

The Ivory Key, p.23

Because magic is mined like a physical resource, it is finite and at the beginning of the story, the quarry is empty and Vira is desperate to find the other quarries and restore magic. As I mentioned, she had failed before as the maharani and she couldn’t afford to do so again. She lost one of Ashoka’s cities to their Lyrian neighbors and if they discovered their lack of magic, they’d take more of Vira’s kingdom. Vira desperately needs to find more magic to protect her kingdom and with the discovery of the legendary ivory key, she’s one step closer.

Of course, this brings us to the other thing I loved in this book: the betrayal. All throughout, we’ve had the mysterious Amrit at Vira’s side. We’ve watched the clear romantic interest they have in one another that they can’t admit due to Vira’s obligations as the maharani, and Amrit being nothing more than her personal guard. It’s a forbidden romance trope we have fawned over for centuries and this one does not disappoint. But there’s more to Amrit than a dark and mysterious soldier.

When I’m fully engrossed in something, I don’t try to guess ahead and figure out the twist. But thanks to the questions in the readalong, I had to make some guesses in order to participate. And the only thing I managed to predict was Amrit’s connection to the Mercenaries always looming in the shadows. This group is responsible for the death of the previous maharani, of Vira’s fiancé, and threatens Ashoka’s future. When Amrit betrayed Vira in the end and took the ivory key, I wasn’t surprised, but this doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. If I hadn’t been prompted to look out for clues about Amrit, I would’ve probably missed them all and been blindsided by his betrayal in the end. I would’ve been too distracted by the descriptions of smells to catch on to his secrets.

The little boy didn’t know it then, but his destiny had been remade that day, a tapestry woven from carefully selected strands, twined with the life of a girl he wouldn’t meet for many years to come.

The Ivory Key, p.370

My only real gripe with this story is how long it took for us to get to the big quest. It felt like we were in the city for way longer than we should’ve been. With how much it seemed that the quest part was hyped up, it seemed to take way too long to get there. It’s not until over sixty percent through the book that they embark on their journey. This doesn’t affect my rating too much, as I still really loved the book, but I wish we had spent longer on the quest. The scenes inside the court, where Vira is walking the tightrope with her family and the council, and with Riya and Ronak sneaking around, are all compelling and didn’t drag down the story. But the quest was so heavily emphasized to me that I felt a little let down by the lack of it. By the time I got halfway through the book, I realized it hadn’t even started yet and that was a little bothersome.

Once we did get out into the world, it was so interesting to see more of the place Raman had brought us to. I really enjoyed the jungle the siblings had to trek through and the underground city of Visala full of riddles and puzzles. This was the treasure hunt I was promised, and Raman orchestrated it all brilliantly. Each stage within Visala had me guessing how the siblings would make it through the next trial and with quite a few close calls, I was tearing through the pages. It wasn’t necessarily a drag to get to this point in the story, but it was noticeable how long it did take.

We have a long while until book two hits the shelves and I am waiting in anticipation for it. With Kaleb volunteering to go to Lyria to spy on them, and Riya unlocking magic from within herself, and Amrit revealed to be a Mercenary, I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next. The Mercenaries have the Ivory Key, but Vira has a copy of it, so it will be a race for the quarries. I am fully invested in this world and so I will be sure to grab the sequel as soon as it hits the shelves to learn what’s next to come for Ashoka.

Cemetery Boys Review

Yadriel is a transgender boy who wants nothing more than to prove to his traditional Latinx family that he is a brujo. When he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, he has to race against time to release his spirit before Día de los Muertos, but Yadriel quickly learns just how stubborn Julian really is.

Cemetery Boys is a strong representation of what it means to be a trans boy who wants to prove himself to a family that refuses to break from tradition. For the most part, I think it’s a strong story. Even though it faltered at the end, and my rating dipped down a bit, but it didn’t make me hate it. I do wish it was done differently but as it is, I give this a strong 3.7 out of 5. It’s definitely worth the read and should be on everyone’s bookshelf if you enjoy YA fiction filled with magic and the paranormal, but more importantly, endearing characters.

I have been trying to read this book for about a year now and I finally managed to finish it. This is in no way a reflection of the book, but rather myself, who struggled to get any reading done in 2021. I reread the first 50 pages about three times which means it was a strong opening. I usually don’t torture myself so if a book isn’t grabbing my attention, I put it down. I wanted to read it, so I was very willing to read those pages again each time I attempted to finally finish a book. I kept going back to it over and over again, determined to read something. And finally, I got myself to focus and stick with the book, and I’m so glad I did.

Character is the most important thing in a novel for me and I fell in love with Yadriel, Martiza, and Julian. For the most part, there was good pacing, the writing was strong, and it was a really lovely story. The last quarter of the novel was drastically weaker though, and I’ll discuss that in the spoiler portion of the review.

Cemetery Boys centers on a Latinx family and I love the liveliness and the strong familial bonds depicted. Often times when a novel has a large cast of characters, the secondary and tertiary characters feel flat and unrealized. They often lack a substance and feel as if they’re an afterthought. Here, for the most part, I didn’t feel like any of the characters were there for the sake of being there. I got a clear sense of the large family Yadriel was a part of without needing to have them running around in every scene. There were some characters I wish we had spent more time with, but the world of Cemetery Boys felt realized and lived in.

This is the first novel about a transgender character that I’ve ever read. It’s not that I actively avoided such a topic, I just simply hadn’t found the right book that spoke to me. I’m drawn more to the fantasy and sci-fi genres than contemporary which is more often the genre that tells transgender stories. When I found Cemetery Boys, I was immediately intrigued by the premise, and I was excited to find a novel about a topic that I know very little about but want to learn more. I have met only a few openly transgender people before, none of whom I knew beyond acquaintance. I am ignorant to a lot of the issues that transgender people go through and I often felt like Yadriel’s family. Though I was speaking more from ignorance than willful refusal to acknowledge one’s gender, reading about Yadriel’s frustration showed me how frustrating and disheartening it can be for the transgender community when people like me slip up and make mistakes.

Novels like this are powerful. They allow people who are like Yadriel to see themselves portrayed and it gives them a character to bond with. It also allows people outside of the trans community to have empathy for trans people. Ignorance hinders progress and the more novels we have about the LGBTQIA+ community, the easier it is to tackle ignorance. I am so glad that I found this novel and that it was even featured on the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club, which is the gorgeous edition that I got. We need to continue highlighting these stories, not only for the youth that this book is largely targeted to, but for adults as well. I have always been an advocate for people to support media that depicts people different from them. We have far too many CIS white men and women in leading roles, and any time these roles deviate, the biggest argument is ‘I can’t relate to this character’. I am not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I relate to Yadriel feeling alone in his school. Obviously not to the extent that he did, but I did struggle with bullying and feeling isolated in middle school and high school so I can empathize. But I also empathized with his struggle that I myself will never face. I don’t have to relate to every aspect of a character to be invested in their story and it seems a lot of people have yet to learn that.

Now, onto spoilers.

I absolutely love the way Yadriel describes Julian, especially as he’s falling in love with him. In the beginning, Julian’s stubbornness threatens to expose Yadriel’s secret and he has to put up with him until he finds Julian’s friends. By the end, Julian’s stubbornness becomes endearing, a trait that Yadriel falls in love with. I think that the progression of their affection for one another is well paced and feels organic. Many times, when you have a story that takes place over just a few days, the romance can feel rushed and unbelievable, but in Cemetery Boys, I can believe it.

“He didn’t see how anyone could get a clean break from Julian once they entered his orbit […] He was a bit of an ass. Headstrong, impulsive, and definitely obnoxious. But Yadriel could see how ferociously he cared about the people who were important to him.”

Cemetery Boys p. 157-158

“He was so…visceral. He was so real. Even with his blurry edges and chilling touch, he was a force of nature. He was loud, he was stubborn, he was determined, and he was reckless.”

Cemetery Boys p. 243

One of the things that Yadriel loves about Julian is how confident he is about who he is. When Yadriel assumes that Julian is straight, Julian corrects him instantly, stating that he is actually gay without any hesitation. Yadriel has struggled with his sexuality and gender identity, not having the confidence that he envies in Julian.

“He’d said it so… ’casually’ wasn’t the right word, but maybe ‘easily’ was. Whenever Yadriel came out to anyone, it was always an ordeal that he overthought and dragged out. It was nerve-racking, waiting to see someone’s reaction, whether they would reject him, or even understand what it meant when a trans boy said he was gay. But not for Julian.

He’d said it as almost a challenge. In a way that said he didn’t care what you thought.”

Cemetery Boys p. 125

We see Julian rub off on Yadriel as he becomes more and more comfortable with who he is. He gets the courage to use the boy’s restroom at school. This feels like such a small step but is actually a huge leap for Yadriel and I love seeing him become who he truly is.

“But he was a boy, and if this was what they bathrooms were like, then he’d get used to it.”

Cemetery Boys p. 209

We see why Julian is so good with helping Yadriel be truer to himself when we finally meet his friends. They are truly a band of ‘misfits’, people who are rejected by everyone else and have formed their own family. We have Luca who was abused and subsequently joined a gang, Rocky who lives in a group home, Flaca, a trans girl who was thrown out of her home, and Omar whose parents were deported. Julian lives with his older brother, Rio, as their mother abandoned them, and their dad was killed in street violence. I appreciate that Thomas touched on other subjects that the Latinx community faces, bringing these kids together in a support system that no one else shows them. When Julian is missing, none of them call the police because of their fear of deportation which is a very real and very terrifying issue that Latinx people face every day. I do wish this, and the other issues facing Julian’s friends, were touched on a little bit more since this is such a topical issue and feels like it could really add to the story.

This leads to my biggest problem with the book, the last quarter of the novel. We had been building up the mystery of what happened to Julian and finding his friends, but then we just leave them and don’t see them until a brief moment at the end. I wish we had spent more time with them and bring them in on the search. Luca helps for a brief moment but then is gone as well. I wanted to see more of Yadriel and Flaca interacting as they have that shared trait of being trans. Flaca has more confidence in who she is, using the girl’s restroom without fear, even as she gets in trouble for doing so. I wanted to see some bonding between them. They could be the friends that Yadriel desperately needs, as he seems to really have no one except for his cousin Martiza.

The final day before Yadriel releases Julian takes a sudden turn in tone and all of a sudden, Yadriel is skipping school and stealing Julian and Rio’s’ car. They go to the Halloween bonfire, and all of this adds nothing to the story. It severely weakened the pacing and all the buildup we had been leading to. I also want to know what happened to the whole day. One moment, Yadriel is buying all of Julian’s favorite foods, then they’re stealing the car, then they’re all of a sudden at the bonfire? Where did the day go? This was such a huge waste that could’ve been much better utilized.

I wish instead they had kept on track with finding Julian’s body. Maybe Yadriel skips school and finds Julian’s friends to get their help. He can still get Julian’s foods for his ofrenda, but the grand theft auto storyline needs to go. I wanted to feel the building tension as they run out of time to find Julian’s body. Maybe one of his friends is in danger of being killed like Julian or goes missing as well and they have to find them. I picked up on Tío Catriz being the villain about halfway through and I absolutely loved the potential of this. You have him being an outsider like Yadriel, as he was born without the powers of a brujo but then he chooses a very dangerous path to be acknowledged by his family. The juxtaposition of this would’ve been incredible but unfortunately, it’s rushed through. The fight between Yadriel and Catriz ends much too soon. It’s resolved almost as quickly as it’s revealed and that really weakened it. I wish that Catriz had shown some more hints to being the bad guy or that we got to see him spiraling into desperation and anger. Maybe he says something that raises Yadriel’s suspicion. His character is definitely the weakest of the cast. He needed more time to be more realized and so we could feel his anger and frustration that would lead him to such a horrid crime. I would’ve liked to see him come unhinged slowly.

I’m not sure how I feel about the end, with Yadriel bringing Julian back to life. I almost wish that Julian had died, and Yadriel released his spirit, so that we have a more unpredictable ending. Another part of me is glad they get to be together because Julian is such an endearing character. Although, I really hated how he was acting in the end. He was almost animalistic in how he held onto Yadriel, not even letting his family help him. It was excessive and eye rolling. I know we have built up Julian to be an incredibly protective person, but this just wasn’t done right to me.

I do love the ending though. Seeing Yadriel be accepted into his family, becoming a brujo with his mom there to see is so wonderful. The final line shows that not everything is resolved with a neat little bow in one day.  

“No, it wasn’t the end. It was a better beginning”

Cemetery Boys p. 342

But it is progress. His family has made a huge first step in understanding who Yadriel is and accepting him. Yadriel’s father’s speech really moved me and is something that I wish so many more people understood.

“Growth isn’t a deviation from what we’ve done before, but a natural progression to honor all those who make this community strong.”

Cemetery Boys p. 339

People are so afraid of growth when it means accepting something they don’t understand. Seeing Yadriel’s incredibly traditional family accepting Yadriel’s identity is a powerful message that I truly hope that one day everyone will achieve. This novel relied on Yadriel proving himself in a literal sense, summoning a spirit which only a brujo could do, but in real life, it isn’t so simple. It is still possible, and stories like this help in educating people about trans people. As we have more and more visibility in media, one day perhaps trans stories will be more accepted and we learn to understand those who identify as a trans person.

I really did enjoy this book despite the dislike I have for the last 80 or so pages. I want to read more stories about trans characters because I have so much to learn. I love that the LGBTQIA+ community is given a stronger voice and that we are starting to listen. Cemetery Boys is a wonderful novel and I loved reading Yadriel’s journey. I know that there are a few other fantasy novels about trans characters, and I will definitely keep my eyes out for them.