Peasreads:Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim

Publication date July 28, 2026.

Fishbone Cinderella follows a family for multiple generations. It weaves in the story of fishbone Cinderella, Ye Xian (Yeh-hsien), a 9th-century Chinese folktale regarded as one of the oldest Cinderella variants. This is a poignant story about love, belonging, mistakes made, finding yourself, and letting others see who you truly are.

Elizabeth Lim's storytelling is descriptive, and her characters are flawed yet real. Throughout the story you can see how our history and experiences can shape us. Lim addresses generational trauma and curses and weaves them into the fabric of each character with care.

There are different settings in the story, from wartorn villages in China and Hong Kong, to city life in those places, to life in America. Lim's portrayal of immigrants settling into life in America tugged on my heartstrings. It reminded me of stories my parents and family have shared about their experiences fleeing from their homes due to war and coming to America. With nothing but the clothing on their backs and the language of their country on their tongues. It was difficult. Heartbreaking at times, but survivors survive. 

This is a beautiful story. 

Description

A mother and daughter must break their family’s curse through trials of war and immigration, love, loss, and redemption in this riveting multi-generational saga with a shimmer of magic, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate.

1940s Hong Kong

When Japanese soldiers invade her hometown, Ha Yut Ying makes an unlikely escape—by turning invisible. But her miraculous survival is only the beginning. After the war is over, she’s sent to Hong Kong to live with her distant father and glamorous stepmother, who end her dreams of becoming a singer and turn her into the family’s servant. As the years pass, Yut Ying learns the hard truths of betrayal and ambition, of forbidden love and devastating loss, and discovers that sometimes the only way to endure is to disappear.

1960s San Francisco

Marigold has always had a knack for uncovering secrets, but nothing prepares her for the day she accidentally witnesses her mother vanish before her eyes. The moment fractures their bond, leaving questions that shadow her entire childhood. But when her mother’s condition suddenly deteriorates, Marigold is convinced she’s the only person who can save her. To do so, she must journey into the secrets her mother never shared and uncover the tragic, fairytale-tinged history their family has fought to forget.

A story of mother and daughters, the scars they inherit and the magic that binds them, Fishbone Cinderella is a tender and enchanting exploration of what it means, at last, to be seen.

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Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore | Del Rey, for this galley. I was under no obligation to leave a review. All opinions are my own. 

Peasreads-The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst

 AGHHHHH What in the magical, cozy cottage core, Doctor Who, Howl's Moving Castle with Sarah Beth Durst's personal magic is the perfection of The Faraway Inn!? This book has amazing magic. Great characters. A cool story that I didn't want to stop reading about. I didn't want to put it down. Magical realms that I wanted to learn more about. I was a bit concerned it might be too young for me. MC being 16 . I thought I picked a book that would be too young, and while Calisa was young she was a great character. I enjoyed the story through her eyes and her 16-year-old heart. She was resourceful, brave, and smart. 

Loved this one!

Description

After a devastating heartbreak, a teen girl decides to spend her summer helping her eccentric great aunt manage her quaint Vermont inn—but the fixer-upper is hiding a magical secret—in this cozy and irresistable new YA fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop.

This stunning first edition of The Faraway Inn will feature special designed edges!

When sixteen-year-old Calisa arrives at her great-aunt’s B&B in rural Vermont for the summer, she’s shocked to find a rundown inn rather than the cozy bed-and-breakfast she was expecting. Grumpy and eccentric, Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn . . . even though she clearly needs the help.

To convince her great-aunt to keep her around, Calisa sets to work fixing up the inn, enlisting extra help from the groundskeeper’s (handsome) son. But the longer she stays, the surer she is that there’s something strange about the B&B—and its guests. Something almost . . . otherworldly.

The inn is hiding a magical secret—but secrets are like doors. Once Calisa opens this one, she won’t be able to go back . . .

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I received this book from NetGalley

Random House Children's Books | Delacorte Press.  I was under no obligation to give a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Peasreads: The God and the Gwisin by Sophie Kim

Magical. Just as good as and maybe even a smidge better than the first book The God and the Gumiho. Seokga is ever the moody, trickster who has searched for Hani's reincarnate. When he finds her she not only doesn't remember him but she is almost the opposite of Hani. Watching Seokga fall in love with  Yoo Kisa for who she is was such a treat.  Sophie Kim is quickly becoming a must read author for me.

Description:

In this swoony sequel to The God and the Gumiho, a trickster god must work with his reincarnated lost love to solve his brother’s murder on board a luxury underworld cruise ship.

Seokga the No-Longer-Fallen is working on himself. Reinstated as a god, the trickster now attends much-needed therapy, even as he desperately searches for his lost love, Hani. But when the red thread of fate tangled around his finger—signaling Hani’s reincarnation—leads Seokga to a luxury cruise down the river of the dead, the woman he finds waiting for him isn’t Hani . . . she’s Yoo Kisa, and she has no memory of him.

Yoo Kisa is exhausted with her afterlife. While she’d hoped the underworld would be peaceful, whoever she was in a past life racked up quite the karmic debt, and now she must pay it, working thanklessly aboard the SRC Flatliner. Even worse, the red thread wrapped around her pinky followed her into the underworld . . . and although her fated partner has found her, he seems to find her lacking.

When the heavenly emperor is murdered aboard the ship, Seokga and Kisa must solve the crime before the cruise ends. As the mystery draws them closer, the god and the gwisin will have to decide what they truly mean to each other. But there’s something bigger at play aboard the SRC Flatliner, something that holds the key to Kisa and Seokga’s fated connection—and the fate of the mortal and heavenly realms.

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Amazon reviews Katereviews.

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I received this book from NetGalley for this review. I was under no obligation to give a positive review. All opinions are  my own.