Hello lovelies! Today I’m sharing my review of Wench as part of it’s blog tour with TBR and Beyond Tours. I’ll be sharing a spoiler free review, some of my favorite quotes and my Top 5 Reasons for why you should pick up this fantastic, magical book!
Title: Wench
Author: Maxine Kaplan
Publisher: Amulet Books
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Formate: Digital Advance Readers Copy provided through NetGalley
Synopsis:
Content warning: Some magic in the book involves self-harm.
A funny, fiercely feminist YA epic fantasy—following the adventures of a tavern wench
Tanya has worked at her tavern since she was able to see over the bar. She broke up her first fight at 11. By the time she was a teenager she knew everything about the place, and she could run it with her eyes closed. She’d never let anyone—whether it be a drunkard or a captain of the queen’s guard—take advantage of her. But when her guardian dies, she might lose it all: the bar, her home, her purpose in life. So she heads out on a quest to petition the queen to keep the tavern in her name—dodging unscrupulous guards, a band of thieves, and a powerful, enchanted feather that seems drawn to her. Fast-paced, magical, and unapologetically feminist, Wench is epic fantasy like you’ve never seen it before.
Where to Buy:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indigo | Book Depository | IndieBound
Third Place Books | Elliott Bay Book co. | Powell’s City of Books
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review:
I loved this book. LOVED. Tanya is the reluctant hero we all need in 2021. Kaplan does an amazing job bringing Tanya’s world to life in this fast-paced book full of quests, reluctant allies turned friends, and power struggles. This can’t put down book will enthrall readers right to the very end!
What I love most about Wench is it’s diverse cast of characters. We have Honorable Thieves and Crooked Soldiers; Power Hungry Lords and Mysterious Queens; Corrupt Councilmen and Naive Scholars. Queer characters, fat characters, sassy horses. The list goes on and on and Kaplan has done an amazing job adding depth to all of her characters.
In addition to her well developed characters Kaplan also does an amazing job pacing the story to keep her readers hooked right till the last page.
Moving past the characters and the pacing Kaplan also weaves a fantastic tale full of quests that explore how far people will go to get what they think they want. Sometimes what people think they want is actually quite different from what they actually want. Life often makes us think we can only be or want or do a particular set of things in life, so we don’t look beyond those firm boundaries we’ve enclosed ourselves in. Sometimes we’re able to break those perceptions, or others break them for us.
In Wench Tanya is confronted by her limited view of what she thinks she can do with her life and has to decide what to do when new opportunities present themselves. As in real life, Tanya’s journey is full of twists and turns with no clear cut path. Kaplan has done an amazing job making Tanya’s quest for fulfillment as real and relatable as it is fantastical.
I highly recommend Wench to readers looking for a diverse cast of characters, magic and positive Queer representation. You won’t be disappointed.
Favorite Quotes:
This book has so many amazing moments and lines it was hard to just pick a few to share with you guys but these ones either made me laugh out loud or made me set the book down, they hit so close to home.
Top 5 Reasons to Read:
There are so many amazing parts if this book–it has something for everyone–but these are my Top 5 Reason to Read Wench.
- Girls. With. Swords.
- Body Positive
- Sassy Horse
- Epic Quests!
- Queer. So very Queer
Author Info:
Maxine Kaplan was born in Washington, DC. She and her twin sister spent their early childhoods trotting behind their journalist parents as they traveled around the world, eventually settling in Brooklyn, NY. Maxine graduated from Oberlin College in 2007. Following a long stint in the world of publishing, she has worked as a private investigator since 2009. She lives in her adopted hometown of Brooklyn, NY, with her dimwitted, but soulful cat.
Her first novel The Accidental Bad Girl received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and will be available in paperback January 5, 2021. Her sophomore novel, Wench, is coming in January 19, 2021.
Website | Twitter | Instagram |Goodreads
Tour Info:
Follow the link below to check out all the great posts for the blog tour and be sure to check Instagram too by searching these hashtags! #wench #TBRBeyondTours #maxinekaplan
Giveaway!
You can enter for a chance to win a copy of Wench by following THIS link!
One person will win a finished copy of Wench. The giveaway starts on January 25th and ends on February 1st.
I loved this book and I’m thrilled that I got to be apart of this tour! Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours, Amulet Books and Maxine Kaplan!
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post and add Wench to your TBR!
Basement.Bookcase 
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