Tag: ya books

I’m sorry, I just…I had this awful image in my mind that when I came in, you wouldn’t be here, that you’d be…And I….I’m not ready to live in a world without you, Verity.

-Erin A. Craig, House of Roots & Ruin

I was so excited to read this book after speed reading House of Salt & Sorrows. I don’t know why, however, I read the first few chapters, then put it down for 2 weeks. I do know that when I picked it back up yesterday, I read the last 90% of it in one sitting. I legit could not put it down it was that good.

House of Roots & Ruin picks up around 14 years after the events of House of Salt & Sorrows. This time we are following Verity, the youngest of the Thaumas sisters. The girl who at age 4 in HoS&S was drawing graphic pictures of her dead sisters. Even the ones she had no way of remembering. Almost 18, Verity has honed her drawing and painting enough that she is asked to go to a far away manor in the area of Bloem to do the official portrait of the duke’s son. Against the wishes of her oldest sister and duchess Camille, Verity flees in the night to go on her own adventure. But similarly to her own home, the enormous manor house and it’s inhabitants hold very dark and disturbing secrets. Verity is caught between hiding a part of herself to seem more normal, and wanting to solave the mystery she has stumbled upon. All while getting no sleep due to a pair of screaming birds who roam the grounds (or is it always the birds).

Book Particulars:

• Page Count: 544 Pages
• Publisher: Delacorte
• Edition Read – eBook – ARC from NetGalley
• Projected Release Date: July 25, 2023
• Dates Read: March 22, 2023 – April 5, 2023

Book Synopsis:
In a manor by the sea, one sister is still cursed.

Despite dreams of adventures far beyond the Salann shores, seventeen-year-old Verity Thaumas has remained at her family’s estate, Highmoor, with her older sister Camille, while their sisters have scattered across Arcannia.

When their sister Mercy sends word that the Duchess of Bloem – wife of a celebrated botanist – is interested in having Verity paint a portrait of her son, Alexander, Verity jumps at the chance, but Camille won’t allow it. Forced to reveal the secret she’s kept for years, Camille tells Verity the truth one day: Verity is still seeing ghosts, she just doesn’t know it.

Stunned, Verity flees Highmoor that night and – with nowhere else to turn – makes her way to Bloem. At first, she is captivated by the lush, luxurious landscape and is quickly drawn into charming, witty, and impossibly handsome Alexander Laurent. And soon, to her surprise, a romance…blossoms.

But it’s not long before Verity is plagued with nightmares, and the darker side of Bloem begins to show through its sickly-sweet facade.

It shouldn’t matter what your parents did, just what you do as a person.

-Erin A. Craig, House of Salt & Sorrows

Ok, it should be pretty easy to tell from my bookshelf that I am a Fantasy reader 90% of the time, Romance 5% of the time, and Murder/Crime 5% of the time. Horror is literally never on this list. And man did I not know just how CREEPY this book would get. But holy shit did I love every sentance. I was happily granted the ARC of the second book House of Roots & Ruin and I started reading it before I realized that, despite it being on my physical TBR for years. So, on a long flight from San Jose to Tokyo I loaded this one up and dove in. I hadn’t ever read a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses or even the original fairy tale, so the whole premise of the story was new to me!

I think my husband lost count of how many times he looked over at me and my mouth was agape at what I was reading! This book was creepy, scary, thrilling, horrifying, and about a dozen other descriptions. And all of them equaled a book I was delighted to fall in love with.

I honestly don’t know how to talk about this book without giving away massive spoilers. Suffice it to say, it made me want to call my sister and tell her how much I love her. Made me want to check all the mirrors in my house and check my shoes in the morning. And made me think Cassius was such a sweet love interest, who managed to support our heroine without her needing him to save her. Now that I’m back home from Japan I can’t wait to dive into House of Roots & Ruin.

Book Particulars:

• Page Count: 403 Pages
• Publisher: Delacorte
• Edition Read – eBook – checked out from library via Libby
• Release Date: August 6, 2019
• Dates Read: Started and finished March 12, 2023

In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.