Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours for allowing me to take part in this tour for Deadendia: The Divine Order. I have watched the show and even took part in the tour for the first 2 books last year. I adore this story and characters so being able to take part in this tour was wonderful!!
About The Book:
Author:
Hamish Steele
Pub. Date:
April 23, 2024
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound.
Eisner Award–winning creator Hamish Steele’s DeadEndia series is Steven Universe meets Adventure Time for fans of Scott Pilgrim, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, and Pumpkinheads.
In this diverse YA graphic novel, third in the DeadEndia trilogy, Barney, Norma, and friends team up with unlikely heroes to fight a battle for the fate of the universe, all while dealing with their greatest challenge of their love lives.
The battle between angels and demons rages on, and Courtney finds themselves restored to former glory in the realm of the angels with a new bring about a new Divine Order and create a fourteenth plane of existence to keep the demons at bay. On the seventh plane, known to us as Earth, Norma Khan and Barney Guttman have allied with the demons in a search for both freedom and peace. There’s just one thing standing in their the Guttman family reunion. Badyah has joined the resistance as well, honing her martial arts skills and getting ready to protect Norma in battle.
But Pael, the Divine’s lead angel, has tricks up their sleeve that throw everything into chaos as Norma, Barney, and Badyah learn the truth behind everything. The three friends struggle to stop Pael before their lives are changed forever, and a familiar friend returns with a power that just might save them all in this stunning conclusion to the DeadEndia series.
Review:
Something about this series has me in a chokehold! I love the trans and queer representation and the fantastical situations that they get themselves in. I'm just constantly fascinated by the story and eagerly waiting what will happen next. I have a deep love for these books and I am so glad that I've gotten to read them.
The characters are my favorite part of this book. I love Courtney and Norma and Barney and their cast of friends and allies. The main three have my heart though. The way that they interact with each other is just exactly what I want in life. I just love it. It's not always perfect, but there's an underlying of love and care.
This book was more than I was expecting it to be. You think after two books I would be used to the balance of humor and intensity and emotional that these books give me, but I am always taken aback by it. Hamish Steele works wonders with these characters and I am left in awe.
I loved this book! I think it was a great follow-up to the previous two books and I really enjoyed it. I find myself having a certain level of emotions during this book. It's just this ball of emotion that builds up in my chest while I read the books. And I mean that in the best way. I love it! It's how I can tell if a book is really getting to me.
I love this book and I hope other people enjoy it to!
Favorite Quotes:
"Fine. I'm googling rousing speeches. You missed your chance."
"But I've been training! I want to protect you!"
"Nope. Just the eerie nothingness of eternity. Cool."
"To be fair, I don't think most exes fight using cannons."
"I think I'm sure."
About Hamish Steele:
Hamish Steele (he/they) is a freelance animation director and illustrator who grew up surrounded by legends, myths, and folktales. Since graduating from Kingston University in 2013, Hamish has worked for the BBC, Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, among others. He is the creator of and showrunner for the Netflix series Dead End: Paranormal Park, based on his graphic novel series, DeadEndia, and the Eisner Award-winning creator of the graphic novel, Pantheon. Hamish currently lives in London and can be found online at https://hamishsteele.co.uk/. He can also be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.
Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours for allowing me to take part in this tour for The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray. I had been so jealous when my friend won a copy off of Goodreads so getting to take part in this tour was thrilling!!!
About The Book:
Author: Christine Calella
Pub. Date: April 9, 2024
Find it: Goodreads
Storms and pirates are nothing compared to the evil within men’s hearts.
After a lifetime of abuse at the hands of superstitious townsfolk, Ophelia Young, a bastard child of the notorious pirate queen, is tired of paying for the sins of her mother. Despite playing by the rules her whole life, she’s earned nothing but spite and suspicion. So when a naval officer saves her from the jeering crowd at her mother’s hanging, Ophelia hatches a new hope of enlisting in the navy to escape her mother’s legacy and redeem her own reputation for good. But Ophelia soon discovers that a life at sea isn’t as honorable as she hoped.
Betsy Young is as different as she could be from her half-sister Ophelia. She’s a nervous homebody who wants to keep her family safe and longs to be in love. So naturally, she’s devastated when the son of their family’s business partner rejects her hand in marriage and her sister joins the navy. But when her father contracts a life-threatening illness as well, Betsy has to bring Ophelia home to save the family business.
Unfortunately for the Young sisters, Betsy trying to get Ophelia recalled reveals that Ophelia enlisted fraudulently under Betsy’s name, a secret which Ophelia struggles to keep from crewmates who would kill her if they knew she was the pirate queen’s daughter. To save Ophelia from the naval authorities, Betsy will have to board a ship during hurricane season and brave all the dangers of the sea to get them both home safe.
Content Warning: hanging, corporal punishments (whipping), strangulation
Review:
I was very excited to get to read wthis book. Every bit of the summary intrigued me and I was curious!!!
It did take me a bit to get invested in the book. That's just the way it is sometimes, not all things are instant clicks. But once I got invested, I was hooked. I needed to know more about these characters and what they were going through. What was their plans. All of that.
I loved Ophelia and Betsy. They were distinctive characters with some of the same traits, but enough personality that they didn't feel stale or like poor copies of each other. They were both really interesting to follow and I loved watching as they encoutnered some of the harsh realities of the paths that they had chosen.
The plot was an interesting one once it picked up steam. There seemed to always be something happening that kept the story chugging along. The action was exciting and the twists and turns were at times expected but were surprises at other times.
15 Reactions While Reading:
Okay...let's see where this is going.
I just really like how people talk in historical/fantasy type books. It just makes my brain happy.
Well...now I'm worried he's going to die.
Eh...f that dude.
I have trust issues with everyone right now haha
Go Betsy!
Love having a crew!
What's happening!?!?!?!?
Ooh tricksy!
10 Dangers of vanity perhaps?
Eww gross.
This is why I don't trust people.
Not expected, but not totally surprising either.
Ooh, that was a nice scene!
That's a nice ending!!
About Christine Calella:
When not writing, Christine Calella spends her spare time singing showtunes in the shower,
drinking more chai lattes than is strictly necessary, and either over- or under-watering an unfortunate string of houseplants named after sitcom characters. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, and she lives in New York City. As her romance alter ego, Madeline Bell, Christine also pens adult rom-coms with a bookish twist. For more information, check out the Books section, under the “By Madeline Bell” drop-down. You can find her on her Twitter, her website, Instagram, and Goodreads.
I am bloody excited to be taking part in this fangtastic tour! All my thanks to TBR and Beyond Tours for allowing me to take part in this tour. Click here to check out the other hosts. I was absolutely batty for this book and it kept me glued. It was fun and exciting and I was loving every second of it.
About The Book:
Author: V. P. Anderson & Tatiana Hill (Artist)
Pub. Date: April 9, 2024
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Formats: Paperback, Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 192
Find it: Goodreads
Skates on. Fangs out. Let’s roll. This perfectly paranormal graphic novel about a 13-year-old ice skater who embraces the dark side and finds her light when she joins a vampire roller derby team is to die for.
.
Ice-skater Mina is on a one-track path to Olympic gold and glory—that is, until she totally wipes out at her biggest competition, and is kinda-sorta-kidnapped by undead kids on roller skates. Sucked into the high stakes world of Paranormal Roller Derby, she finds herself "recruited" by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their team—just in time to save the league from losing it all.
Between learning to play derby well enough to kick butt on the track, crushing hard on the dreamy team captain, and navigating the spooky rules of the supernatural, how can Mina go from striving to be a ten alone, to becoming one of nine chaotic bodies forming a perfectly-imperfect team? Forget being the best. Will she be enough to help her new friends survive the season?
Review:
This was a really fun read! I love queer books and graphic novels and roller derby, so this was an easy home run for me. It was fun and exciting and I loved the idea of an underground supernatural roller derby.
I really liked the characters in this book. Despite there being a lot of them and not enough details (to my liking) about all of them, none of them felt forced in. They just were there and they felt like the sort of people who would fit in well with the group.
The group was mildly chaotic and I adored it so much. There was enough drama to keep the book going without feeling forced, but the side characters also gave a sense of humor that kept everything chill.
I loved the artwork in this book. The lines were clean and the characters had distinctive appearances so I didn't get them confused. The colors were gorgeous and I thought they did a great job at being dark for the supernatural side without being too dark.
This was honestly amazing and I am super excited for the next book, should there be more!
Favorite Quotes:
"I was gonna say super mad."
"Okay...so. Vampires. Roller-skating vampires."
"You know what, I AM suddenly in the mood to hit things with projectiles."
"Must...process...oxygen."
"I've got your creepy little pet."
About V. P. Anderson:
Veronica Park (VP) Anderson(she/they) is a neurodivergent, queer, feminist millennial writer with a resume that Victor Frankenstein would disown for being “a bit much.” V’s previous job titles include: award-
winning community theater actor, professional lecturer on cruise ships, indie film producer, literary agent, and creative project manager; however, “writer” is the title that always fits. V plays competitive flat track roller derby as “Scarlet Five” #55 and prefers the pivot role, aka “surprise jamming.” Born in Alaska and raised in Oregon, she currently lives with her partner in Upstate NY and has two cats named Skeletor and Bo-Catan. You can find her on her Twitter, their website, and Goodreads.
About Tatiana Hill:
Tatiana Hill (she/her) is a Black and Latina illustrator by day and roller skater by night. Her art journey began simultaneously with her growing love for anime and culminated in a BA in Animation. Receiving an award for Best Art Direction in her end of the year showcase, she would later apply her skill set in color and design to her illustration career. As a member of the Los Angeles roller skate community, Tatiana enjoys participating in a space that celebrates diversity and found family. Her love for this community led to her illustrating The Roller World Tarot Deck and eventually Blood City Rollers, her debut graphic novel as an illustrator. You can find her on her website and Goodreads.
