Review: League of Liars by Astrid Scholte

Title: League of Liars

Series: The League of Liars #1

Author: Astrid Scholte

Genre: YA, high fantasy, mystery, thriller

Publication date: February 2022

Published by: Putnam

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis: In this fantasy thriller, four teens charged with murder and the illegal use of magic band together to devise the ultimate jailbreak.

Ever since his mother was killed, seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal--to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it. If he can learn all the tricks of public defense, the better he'll be able to dismantle defense arguments when he's a prosecutor. Then he'll finally be able to make sure justice is served.

But when he meets the three criminals he's supposed to defend, it no longer seems so black and white. They're teenagers, like him, and their stories are... complicated, like his. Vardean, the prison where Cayder's new clients are incarcerated, also happens to be at the very heart of the horrible tear in the veil between their world and another dimension--where all magic comes from.

My rating: ★★★★★

"They all have a story," Graymond said with a sweep of his arms, raising his voice over the racket. "Are you ready to listen?"

I loved this book more than I thought I would! I’m not much of a high fantasy reader, but there is just something about Astrid Scholte’s world-building that I just love. One thing I loved about Four Dead Queens, which was the first book I read by this author, was the world and how it was divided into four starkly different quadrants. And the world in League of Liars was equally as intriguing. There is this type of magic in this world called edem that lives in the shadows, and when used it can call forth things from the past or future. But the use of this magic is illegal because it’s unpredictable and usually always leads to disaster... of the death variety.

Review: Forget Me by K.A. Harrington

Title: Forget Me

Author: Kim Harrington (as K.A. Harrington)

Genre: YA, mystery

Publication date: August 2014

Published by: Putnam Juvenile

Source: Library book

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Synopsis:

On the three-month anniversary of her boyfriend Flynn’s death, Morgan uploads her only photo of him to FriendShare to get some closure—but she’s shocked when the facial recognition software suggests she tag him as "Evan Murphy." She’s never heard of Evan, but a quick search tells her that he lives in a nearby town and looks exactly like Flynn. Only this boy is very much alive.

Digging through layers of secrets and lies, Morgan is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her boyfriend, her town, and even her parents' involvement in this massive web of lies.

My rating: ★★★★★
So this little book is written by Kim Harrington under the pen name K.A. Harrington. It's a bit different than her other books in that it is a more contemporary with no supernatural components. And if you know me at all, you know I don't read contemporaries, like, at all. These realistic-type books are just to every-day-life for me! I need a little paranormal stuff in my life! However, because I read and loved every other of Kim's books and I just happened to be in the mood to read something specifically by her (and this was the only YA book by her that I had left to read and I actually love mysteries), I knew I had to read Forget Me! And after having read it, I will pretty much read anything by Kim Harrington and under any pen name! She is amazing! *Forget Me* is amazing!