Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for my place on this book tour.

Esme's Gift is the continuation of Esme's Series. Part One, Esme's Wish was published in 2017.

A brief summary of Esme's Wish:

When fifteen-year-old Esme Silver objects at her father’s wedding, her protest is dismissed as the action of a stubborn, selfish teenager. Everyone else has accepted the loss of Esme’s mother, Ariane – so why can’t she?
After Esme is accidentally swept into the enchanted world of Aeolia, the truth begins to unfold. With her newfound friends, Daniel and Lillian, Esme retraces her mother’s steps in the glittering canal city of Esperance, untangling the threads of Ariane’s double life. But the more Esme discovers about her mother, the more she questions whether she really knew her at all. (From Goodreads).

Esme’s Gift
Synopsis:

Terror was within. Terror was without.
Like her mother, she was at the water’s mercy.

In the enchanted world of Aeolia, fifteen-year-old Esme Silver faces her hardest task yet. She must master her unruly Gift—the power to observe the past—and uncover the secrets she needs to save her mother, Ariane.

In between attending school in the beguiling canal city of Esperance, Esme and her friends—old and new—travel far and wide across Aeolia, gathering the ingredients for a potent magical elixir.

Their journey takes them to volcanic isles, sunken ruins and snowy eyries, spectacular places fraught with danger, where they must face their deepest fears and find hope in the darkest of places.

Esme’s Gift, the second instalment in the Esme trilogy, is a gripping fantasy adventure for readers 12 years and over.
 
Fans of Harry Potter will love this book for its similar themes. The genuine friendship of the characters make this book a satisfying read, and hints at a healthy romance in the next book. The conclusion of the trilogy will be greatly anticipated! Sorcha, Goodreads
 
From dragons diving into volcanoes, Esme and her friends portalling out of art class and deep underwater adventures, Esme’s Gift is quite simply a thrilling and exciting read. Jean, Goodreads
Esme's Gift.

Purchase Links

Amazon UK  / Amazon US

My thoughts:
I was absolutely enchanted by Part One of Esme's series and couldn't wait to start Esme's Gift! Whenever you love the first book, there is also a bit of apprehension: is it going to be as charming and adventurous? How are the characters going to develop? Is the pace going to be as fast?

Esme's Gift as wonderful as Esme's Wish and I liked it even more.
After Esme's brief stay with her father Esme returns to the enchanted world of Aeolia and its capital city Esperance. Now there is an additional dread of knowing that Aaron and his new wife may try to commit Esme to a mental institutions if she continues trying to persuade her father that Aeolia is real and Ariane is alive. Esme is only happy to come back to her new friends and so was I because it meant new adventures!
Esme's bond with her mother is strong and tender, but there are more complicated feelings mixed in now. Esme is finding it difficult to accept that it was her mother's choice to spend extended stretches of time away from her and her father. Perhaps, she is a bit jealous? Perhaps, she is questioning her mother's love? Or perhaps she is trying to understand what her mother is really like.
One thing is clear. Time is running out. her mother's condition is getting worse and Esme needs to collect special magic ingredients for a potion that could save Ariane and this means a magic quest with her loyal friends Daniel and Lillian. For all her life Esme used to be a loner, that strange Silver girl. Now she is learning to trust and share her feelings.
I  loved the new setting of Pierpont College - Esme's new school where students are encouraged to experiment with their magic gifts and learn to control them so that they won't hurt or offend others. After all, Esme needs to master and understand her own magic ability of travelling to past. She needs to face her fears and learn the power of past to influence present.
There are dragons, ghosts and sirens and lots of other magic creatures. Elizabeth Foster created a beautiful and exciting world that is waitng to be discovered by new readers. There are also bigger issues- politics and equality in society, history and justice.
Fast-paced, packed with adventure and a mix of tender, funny and sometimes scary moments, esme's Gift is a great sequel to a fantastic middle-grade series. I'm really looking forward to the third book and returning to Aeolia once more.

About the author:

I read avidly as a child, but only discovered the joys of writing some years ago when reading to my own kids reminded me how much I missed getting lost in other worlds. It’s never too late to find and follow your passion! I now have two books published and am about to start writing the third and final story in the Esme series.  My home base is Sydney, where I can often be found running (just kidding – walking) by the water, or scribbling in cafés.

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Thank you very much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy reading Esme's Series as much as I did!

When fifteen-year-old Esme Silver objects at her father’s wedding, her protest is dismissed as the action of a stubborn, selfish teenager. Everyone else has accepted the loss of Esme’s mother, Ariane – so why can’t she?

But Esme is suspicious. She is sure that others are covering up the real reason for her mother’s disappearance – that ‘lost at sea’ is code for something more terrible, something she has a right to know.

After Esme is accidentally swept into the enchanted world of Aeolia, the truth begins to unfold. With her newfound friends, Daniel and Lillian, Esme retraces her mother’s steps in the glittering canal city of Esperance, untangling the threads of Ariane’s double life. But the more Esme discovers about her mother, the more she questions whether she really knew her at all.

My thoughts:
It's been long time since I read a book where I could get lost to the extent that I didn't want to come back to my real world with its real problems. Esme's Wish is set in 1988, but it could have easily been today. The story feels timeless and enchanting.
The book begins with a wedding. Esme's father Aaron finally got tired of looking for his missing wife Ariane and decided to re-marry. Everybody seems happy with his choice of a bride. Penelope is feminine and practical, she fits in the social fabric of the village. She is very unlike Ariane whose head was always up in the clouds thinking of the next painting she is going to make. Ariane's body was never recovered, but Esme still  hopes her mother is alive and so she objects to the wedding. Unfortunately, nobody takes her seriously and her life is about to change after her father and stepmother going to come back fromtheir honeymoon. Ariane decides to take a trip to her grandmother's house where she finds her mother's notebook which gets snatched by a sea eagle. Desperate to retrieve it Esme runs to the rock pools at the water's edge. One of them has the same shape she saw in one of her great-grandmother's drawings. Ariane follows the eagle and dives in. And...discovers a portal to a magic world where you can breathe under water because it is enchanted. There she travels to a magnificent city of Esperance and makes new friends Daniel and Lillian and has lots of amazing adventures at the heart of which is her search for her mother Ariane. You guessed it right, Ariane visited this magic world many times. In fact, she probably spent in Esperance as much time as in her own world.
The story is a sheer delight. Who hasn't dreamt of a secret place where magic is alive? Most citizens of Esperance get a magic gift which develops in their adolescence - charming water, seeing future, healing, singing spellbinding songs and many others.  Didn't you dream as a child of having a special magic ability- something that would make you stand out from others? Unfortunately, the world of Esperance isn't stable. Terrible earthquakes have been devastating it for the past seven years. The same time as Esme's mother has been missing. Perhaps there is a connection to discover and perhaps it is up to Esme to save this beautiful city with its friendly people.
Esme's is a fabulous character. She is determined and fiercely loyal. Esme might come across as a bit younger than her age, a younger teenager who is coming into her own. She shows courage and intelligence in going through her numerous adventures in Aeolia and it is easy to root for her.
Wonderful world-building, good pace, likeable characters, Esme's wish has a lot going for it. Any big questions? family, trust, friendship, feeling of belonging or not belonging somewhere.
Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

 Synopsis
Lex was taken – trafficked - and now she’s Poppy. Kept in a hotel with other girls, her old life is a distant memory. But when the girls are rescued, she doesn’t quite know how to be Lex again.

After she moves in with her aunt and uncle, for the first time in a long time, she knows what it is to feel truly safe. Except, she doesn’t trust it. Doesn't trust her new home. Doesn’t trust her new friend. Doesn’t trust her new life. Instead she trusts what she shouldn’t because that's what feels right. She doesn’t deserve good things.

But when she is sexually assaulted by her so-called boyfriend and his friends, Lex is forced to reckon with what happened to her and that just because she is used to it, doesn’t mean it is okay. She’s thrust into the limelight and realizes she has the power to help others. But first she’ll have to confront the monsters of her past with the help of her family, friends, and a new love.

Kate McLaughlin’s What Unbreakable Looks Like is a gritty, ultimately hopeful novel about human trafficking through the lens of a girl who has escaped the life and learned to trust, not only others, but in herself.

My thoguhts:

Heart-breaking, raw, emotional, powerful. Some stories are very hard to read, but they are also the ones that can make a difference. The book begins with a police raid of a motel in which a sex-trafficking ring is busted. Alexa (Poppy) is one of the girls drugged and forced in prostitution for months. She is taken to a hospital. Her mother and her boyfriend are friends with Lex's trafficker, so she has no home to go to. Her Aunt Krys would like her to come and live with her, but first Lex is sent to a recovery house where she begins her journey to normality. Lex's friend Jaime (Ivy) chooses to run away and for a long time Lex doesn't know whether Jaime ended up back in the game or found strength to stay away from the only life they have known for such a long time. Lex doesn't trust anyone, she thinks she isn't worthy of love, because she is somehow responsible for what happened to her. It takes a long time for her to be able to see that people may be upset with the situationshe was put throught, not her herself. As a coping mechanism Lex learnt to disassociate and self-harm, and now she finds it difficult to change her whole reference system. Gradually with the help of her new family and her new friends, Lex grows stronger and becomes an advocate for all the girls (and boys) who weren't as lucky as her and who didn't survive.
Alexa is an amazing character. Her story is heart-breaking and realistic. It needs to be told and read, because there has to be more awareness of the issue from families, schools, above all teenagers. If this story prevents one person going through Alexa and Jaime's experiences, it has done its job.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Wednesday Books fro the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

Title: Out of My League
Author: Sarah Sutton
Publication date: June 16th 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:
It’s all fun and games until someone catches feelings.

Sophia Wallace is convinced her life is over when her high school cuts the journalism program. Without the elective, she loses her chance to intern with the biggest newspaper company in the county, and why? All because the baseball team needs more funding.
To make matters worse, her boyfriend publicly dumps her at a party, which is mortifying. But the icing on the cake is when the captain of the baseball team and the most popular guy at Bayview High, Walsh Hunter, decides to be chivalrous. He jumps in, throws his arm around Sophia, and declares his undying love for her. In front of everyone.
Suddenly, Sophia is thrown into a world of fake relationships and undercover journalism, and she realizes she’s way, way out of her league.
Good thing she’s got the team captain to teach her how to play.
But faced with choosing between saving her journalism class or her newfound feelings for Walsh, will she strike out or hit a home run?

Goodreads
Purchase:
Amazon  / B&N   /  iBooks   /  Kobo

About the Author:
Sarah Sutton is a YA Romance author, bringing you stories about teenagers falling in love (sometimes with magic)She spends her days dreaming up ideas with her two adorable puppies by her side being cheerleaders (and mega distractions).

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