At Claflin Academy, a group of five girls deemed The Ivies, have made it their mission to get into the Ivy League school assigned to them by head Ivy, Avery.  Avery has assigned herself Harvard, Emma is Brown, Margot is Princeton, Sierra is Yale and Olivia is Penn.  The Ivies have been ruthless in setting themselves up as perfect Ivy material with perfect SAT scores, club presidencies and elite spots on teams.  Olivia is the outsider of the group, she is at Claflin on scholarship and from a single family household.  The other girls have high powered families and enough money to throw at any problem.  Olivia's dream school has always been Harvard and she decides to apply for Early Decision.  When Early Decision day arrives, Avery is in an uproar after she finds out she was rejected from Harvard and demands to know who stole her spot.  Emma fesses up to being accepted at Harvard and she and Avery get into a physical fight ending with Avery saying she could kill her.  The next morning, Emma is found dead.  Olivia wonders if Avery could be the culprit and if she could be next.  Oliva dives into an investigation of her own and finds that The Ivies are more ruthless than she could ever have imagined. 

The Ivies is a young adult murder mystery thriller set within a private academy.  I loved the premise of an overly competitive group of girls gunning for limited spots in school, I have known girls this competitive before and the personalities are spot on.  Olivia's character was interesting to see in the mix, she knew she was an outsider, but didn't know how much the other girls kept from her.  At the same time Olivia didn't realize how complicit she was in their scheming.  Though the plot was fairly predictable, I still binged this rather quickly.  The writing kept a good pace and I liked Olivia's investigation as well as the fact that she turned things over to the police when she needed to.  I also liked that Olivia was dedicated to trying to find who killed her friend even when it made her look bad in the process.  It was fitting that almost everyone seemed to have a consequence to their actions as well.  With some interesting twists and turns at the end, The Ivies is a suspenseful, atmospheric thriller that once again reminded me that teenage girls are literally the worst.  

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

​In the near future, European Bat Lyssavirus-4 causing Virally Induced Hematophagic Predation Syndrome or VIHPS has been accidentally released to the public through the Benjamin Rush Health Initiative.  Causing symptoms such as increased strength, improved healing and the need to ingest human blood.  BRHI has kept the disease and its spread under wraps by hiring a Forced Protection team to identify and eliminate anyone infected.  Infinity DeStard is on a Forced Protection team when she is accidentally infected.  Soon after her infection, Morgan Lorenz, a high-powered trial lawyer comes out to the public saying he has been infected and is suing the corporation that has been hiding the virus.  Infinity sees this as her chance to act as a double agent and save herself from being taken out by her own team.  She finds Lorenz and gives him the lowdown before teaming up with the F-Prot team ordered to kill him.  As Morgan's case gains attention and leverage, Infinity's secret is uncovered, but it may prove to be the best thing in Infinity's life. 

Civil Blood is a vampire story that reads more like a contemporary science-fiction thriller than paranormal.  Elements of the Lyssavirus and how the affected people are treated are especially relevant now as the world faces a very different pandemic.  I was swept up by all of the science of the virus, the spread and the qi force within living things.  The virus definitely seems like it could be something that could pop up any day now and the qi-force, while definitely in the sci-fi realm, was plausible.  The writing is fast paced and kept me interested as the point of view switched between Infinity, Morgan, Ranath, and members of BRHI.  Infinity and Ranath were the most intriguing characters for me.  I loved Infinity's back story, her journey to becoming an F-Prot and her willingness to see both sides. Ranath was more of a mystery and I enjoyed watching Infinity tease information out of him little by little. The BRHI corporation was scarily accurate in the way it acted in trying to defend itself in court by trying to prove that people infected with VIHPS were no longer considered human and could not have Constitutional rights.  I also liked that all of the vampire characters were essentially just normal people, they had a range of traits, backgrounds and personalities and dealt with their diagnosis in a variety of ways.  Gripping and engrossing to read, Civil Blood will draw you in unlike any vampire story you have read before. 

​"Plague closed the theatres again and again, death flickering over the landscape.  And now in a twilight once more lit by candles, the age of electricity having come and gone, Titania turns to face her fairy king."

On the night eight year old Kirsten Raymonde watches famed actor Arthur Leander die onstage playing King Lear, life as she knows it changes forever.  A flu pandemic is sweeping the world, killing people in a matter of days. Those who survived are left in a dangerous world with scarce resources and people rising up to take advantage of others.  Kirsten eventually finds her way into the Travelling Symphony, actors and musicians who travel to different settlements acting out Shakespear's finest.  The survivors that she meets range from good to neutral to bad, and some of them are strangely connected to Kirsten through the actor she once looked up to.  

Station Eleven has been sitting in my TBR for a while and it was really interesting to read it during a pandemic seeing the similarities and differences between the fictional Georgian Flu and the very real COVID-19.  The writing pulled me in and created a world I could easily imagine both pre and post pandemic. I really did enjoy the pacing with quick chapters that jumped back and forth between pre and post pandemic between the connected characters: Kirsten, Jeevan, Arthur, Arthur's wives, and Arthur's son.  I enjoyed the Station Eleven comic and the character's different interpretations of it and how that led them to act differently in the post-pandemic world.  It was interesting to see what people found value in when the world as we know it is changed; the arts, religion, the past of new beginnings that definitely created some deep introspective and reflective moments  I didn't have any expectations going into this book, I didn't dislike anything about it, but it definitely left me wanting more.  
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.