Bite-Size Book Reviews: Summer, 2021

Happy Gastroparesis Awareness Month! Are you ready to strike up a new and unusual friendship while running from an alien scientist from space, romanticize Mexican food while infiltrating an evil organization, discover who your friends are during a wild Western zombie apocalypse, and race through the genre mashup for the ages? The Summer Edition 2021 of Bite-Size Book Reviews introduces imaginative titles by R.J. Anderson, Hope Bolinger, Alyssa Roat, Justina Ireland, and Jim Doran!

Quicksilver

Food Group: Young Adult

Flavor: Sci-fi, mystery

Key Ingredients: Brilliant engineer girl (yasss!), friendship over romance, STEM-loving plot, fast-paced mystery, character growth, and Isaiah 41:10

Sentences to Savor:

“That’s not what I mean,” I said, fighting to keep the anger out of my voice. Because it wasn’t Milo I was angry at, it was the whole stupid world. A world where relationships like the one I’d had with Brendan were normal, and the one I had with Milo was not. “There’s no such thing as just a friend, Milo. Friendship is one of the most important things there is.”

Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪

Allergy Warning: A character contemplates suicide and almost goes through with it.

Taste Test: You can check out Quicksilver on Amazon or read my full review on Goodreads!

Chef's Note: Tori has to be one of my absolute favorite protagonists in YA fiction. Prickly, brilliant, growing, loving, and has so much good stuff to say about relationships. I love her to pieces!

Dear Henchman

Food Group: Young Adult

Flavor: Scifi, comedy, action-adventure

Key Ingredients: Superhero action, romance, Mexican food metaphors, witty banter, and sly - sometimes violent - humor

Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪

Allergy Warning: Violent deaths.

Taste Test: You can check out Dear Henchman on Amazon or read my full review on Goodreads!

Deathless Divide

Food Group: Young Adult

Flavors: Horror, Western, historical/alternate history,

Key Ingredients: Wild western zombie romp, unrelenting suspense, supreme setting, diverse voices, and an AMAZING BrOTP between two kickbutt female leads!

Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪

Allergy Warning: Violence and gore. C'mon, it's zombies!

Taste Test: You can check out Deathless Divide on Amazon or read my full review on Goodreads!

Deliver Us

Food Group: New Adult/Adult

Flavors: Fantasy, scifi, historical, mystery, action-adventure (it's quite the story!)

Key Ingredients: Fairytale-inspired characters, new and exciting worlds, a plethora of unique and heart-warming relationships, and a plot that manages to incorporate at least five different genres into an engrossing and cohesive story line

Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪

Taste Test: You can check out Deliver us on Amazon or read my full review on Goodreads!

Why "Bite-Size" Book Reviews?

These "bite-size" book reviews are a fun way for me to promote authors and provide short, tasty reviews for readers, but they're also a way for me to raise awareness for a debilitating digestive disease called gastroparesis.

People with gastroparesis have paralyzed stomachs. Severe cases (like myself) can only eat a few bites of food at a time, so we have to make those bites count! I hope these "bite-size" book reviews help feed your mind's appetite in the same way. You can learn more about gastroparesis by reading my blog post on  Gastroparesis Awareness Month.

Kristiana Sfirlea is the author of Legend of the Storm Sneezer, a finalist of the international Wishing Shelf Book Awards and two-time finalist of the Realm Awards. Its sequel, Legend of the Rainbow Eater - which pays homage to the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise as well as Inception - came out August 3rd, 2021. Her short stories, featuring clueless zombies, undercover werewolves, grumpy ghosts, and marriage counselors for fairy tale couples, have been published in numerous anthologies. She loves Jesus, her family, and imaginary life with her characters.