Review: Racing Savannah

Racing Savannah
Miranda Kenneally
304 pages
Sourcebooks Fire

This is the second time I’ve read this book, the first time being about five years ago when it was released. I instantly recognized the sweet story about a girl who moves with her father and pregnant step-mother to a huge horse farm in Kentucky, owned by an obscenely wealthy family. Her father works with the horses and her step-mother works as a maid in the main house when her pregnancy allows. Meanwhile, Savannah goes to school with the farm owner’s son, Jack. He is apprenticing under his father to take over the large farm, and she has strictly been told to stay away from him.

Obviously Savannah and Jack can’t stay away from each other... or keep their hands off each other!  When I read the book the first time I found this to be a very sweet story, both Romeo and Juliet-esque, as well as rags to riches as Savannah’s family is near destitute. This held true the second time I read it, although five years later and five years wiser I found some of Savannah's actions problematic. Savannah is a very intelligent young woman with a true talent with horses, just because her family is poor does not mean she's ignorant. So, it really bothered me when Savannah felt the need to ask Jack to accompany her to guidance office to get information about colleges, in case she didn't understand what the guidance counselor was telling her. Girl! This book was published in 2013, you are a strong, independent young woman who can handle a trip to guidance counselor yourself. I had the same problem when Jack's father asked her to have Jack look over all her college applications, and even more of a problem when Jack's father patronizingly took care of Savannah's money the way he saw fit, not the way she asked him to.

These modern feminist issues aside, this was a quick read, a sweet romance that held my attention.  I really rooted for Savannah when it came to her horse training and of course I wanted to see her and Jack end up together, all other females and angsty parents be damned. There was plenty of love, teenage angst, big rich houses, and fun parties to keep me entertained as a I read. If you like YA romance, I definitely recommend this book. A big thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing me a review copy; I apologize it took me five years to review it!

Review: Defy

Defy

Sara B. Larson
336 pages
Scholastic

From Goodreads:

Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory. 

The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect? 

There were a stream of feminist novels in the mid-2010s that featured a particular kind of kick-ass heroine (see also: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo). She had something important to fight for and she was not afraid to go after it full steam ahead. Undoubtedly, there were also romantic entanglements or triangles, but that still didn't stop her from kicking some enemy ass. Defy is one of those novels and on the one hand, I'm sad that it took me five years to read it, but on the other hand, this is exactly the kind of book I need in my life right now.

Alexa is an amazing character; she's tough and everyone around her knows it, but she's also hiding herself as a boy because of a severely misogynistic ruler. But is there anything more feminist than a woman-kicking-ass-while-hiding-as-a-male's secret being revealed and then her continuing to kick ass as a female? I love it. The only thing that bothered me about Alexa's transformation, so to speak, is that she and everyone else around her shed tears much more frequently towards the end of the novel than in the beginning, when the guard was entirely stoic and hid all emotion. There's nothing wrong with anyone having a good cry, but what made everyone change?

This book has all the aspects of a good fantasy, including magic, healers, sorcerer's, a good kidnapping, and of course, fierce battle. There was also a love triangle between Alexa, Prince Damian, and another guard, Rylan. It was a pretty one sided triangle for most of the book but it certainly opened up at the end! Yikes!

I love that the book didn't end with an earth-shattering cliff-hanger, but I am still inspired to continue on with the series. In the beginning of the novel there were dozens of women and girls being abused by the king and while they were mentioned throughout the novel, their tragedy was never wrapped up and I need to know how they're doing.

Overall, I really loved this book and if you loved the series I mentioned above, or Graceling by Kristin Cashore or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, I think you'll love this series as well.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing my review copy (in 2014, oops!). The opinions in this review are all my own.