Jessica

This rating is only for the Hobb stories.

Full disclosure I am biased. I've been friends with the author for many years now.

This book has so many interesting concepts that I don't know where to begin. I also don't know how to talk about it without spoilers. But this is a book that I wouldn't want to know a thing about it so I'm not going to give spoilers. I will say that I love the AI themes. I'm someone who is equal parts fascinated and terrified of AI and this book really played into those two feelings and I loved it. I love how fast paced this book is! The adventure Armand go on is wild. I don't know about anyone else who has read this book, but with everything goin on in the world right now I've been thinking a lot about machines and karma. That's all I'll say about that. Sophia is bad ass and adored her from the very beginning.

I was a fan of the first Armand Ptolemy book, but Mark out did himself with this one. The cover. OMG the cover is gorgeous! Mark designed it himself with the use of AI. Beautiful!!!! I can't wait for the next book.

It wasn't a good shower book.

I loved almost everything about this. I love how Ikenna grows as a person. I loved the story. But that ending was trash. I'm sorry. I realize she wanted this to be a trilogy but the publisher said no. But that doesn't mean you end it on a cliffhanger. I was left so unsatisfied that I'm taking away 2 stars. I predicted this to be 5 stars for me.

The more I think about this book the less I like it. So that's why I've dropped the star rating by 2. I just can't get over the feeling like it's an unfinished work.

So Awesome!

I feel like I can't really say anything without spoiling so I'll just say the story is great. I think the transition from web series to book was good. This isn't 5 stars only because of all of the formatting/spelling errors. I know Shenelle is working on that though. Normally I wouldn't take stars off of indie/self-published books because of formatting/spelling errors, but Spellbound is a company and not one person operation. This book should've never went out like this. I can't wait for the fixed copy to debut. I'll gladly give it 5 stars when that happens. I highly appreciate having the book though. I'm just not someone who wants to read a novel a chapter at a time on Substack.

Could've been 4⭐️ but the disability rep isn't good. I liked this world though. I didn't like the fat rep either, but that's not my wheelhouse. I definitely feel comfortable talking about the disability rep though.

The romance wasn't good enough to save this. I missed Charm and Prim. I liked Eva, but the romance was just to lackluster for me to care about it succeeding or not. The world is still interesting, and if if there's a third I'll read it. But this was a huge letdown from the first.

This was way too heavy emotionally to be good. This is not what I want from my monster smut. There was too much grief and trauma and not enough smut to balance it out. The Dragon's Bride was way, way better. At least it didn't take long to read.

I loved EVERYTHING about this book! It was the right amount of everything! The characters were great. The setting was awesome! I love witches and I love when books are unapologetically queer AF! I'm definitely reading Ross' other books!

This should've been a full length novel. I really wanted more. That's why it's not a 5 star read for me.

I am unequivocally shattered.

Nesta is trash! Cassian still deserves better. I did like this more than I thought I would though. But overall this isn't a good Maas book. It lacks the twists she's known for. I just expected more from a book that's 751 pages.

What I didn't expect was this book to be so sexually explicit. At some parts I thought to myself I'm not old enough to read this and I'm 37.

The cover is butt ugly. I listened to this book also and the narrator was so over the top. She over emphasized everything. I don't regret reading/listening. It was a journey. I'm not convinced it was necessary but here we are nonetheless.

For a debut novel I was impressed. Unlike other reviewers I don't think it was mis-marketed. I liked the romance because it was realistic. I'll definitely read Maxwell's next book.

I loved this just as much as I loved the first the book. However, I can't give it the 5 stars it deserves because of the errors. I can give it 4 stars though because the errors have been significantly reduced.

I really liked this! But I can't give it 4 stars because it's in need of editing. I reported many errors on my Kindle. The errors won't stop me from reading the rest of the series!

I really loved how Farmer wove so much history into her tale! It was awesome. This story could've been amazing with some editing.

I saw a YouTube video review of this series and I was intrigued. Then Amazon recommended this book to me after I finished the Dread Nation a couple of weeks after saw the video. So it's like it was meant to be.

This should've been a short story on a blog or on released on Kindle Unlimited. This did not deserve to be its own book. This is basically just one long epilogue.

This is a cute story, but it's lackluster in comparison to The Paper Magician. It just doesn't have the same level of charm that the original series has. Alvie is a much better character than Ceony because she doesn't do stupid things. In Ceony's defense she also wasn't stupid in the first book.

But the Polymaking is boring in comparison to Folding. I understand that it's a new discipline and there just isn't much to work with. But I also think that's a cop out for Holmberg to not have to come up with some on the same level as Folding. Basically Folding is just origami and there's plenty of resources on origami. I loved how disability was prominently featured, but it wasn't done in a negative way. The disabled person isn't showcased as the villain and she doesn't hate being disabled. She doesn't see it as her life being over and I as a physically disabled woman appreciate that.

It was good to see old characters we've grown to love. I loved seeing Ceony and Emery! And Bennet has redeemed himself in my book. I didn't like how he implied Ceony was a whore. Whether or not she slept with Emery is irrelevant. He had no right to judge her. I loved Ethel!!!!! She was so funny and very good for Alvie. They were good for each other.

I will read the rest of this series if it ever comes to fruition. But Polymaking is going to have to get so much more interesting.

I loved the magic system. It's cute and charming. However, as a historical fiction novel it mostly failed. If we are in Victorian London why does the dialogue sound very American and not even American for the time period? That was a bit jarring. But I really loved the story overall.

This rating is only for Life And Death. I'll mark Twilight as currently reading so it will count as my second reread.

I liked this retelling.

I'm a diehard fan of The Hunger Games. But this book fell flat for me. I loved the extra world building and I liked Lucy Gray's songs. But Snow isn't a compelling character. This got a third star only because once again a narrator can make or break a book. Fontana made this book so much better.

I have mixed feelings about this book. My Mom has the audiobook and told me to read it. On one hand I couldn't put it down. On the other I found it to be infuriatingly bad. So basically I've decided this book is a prepping right-winger's masturbatory fantasy. We learn everything about guns but we can't read the words pads/tampons. Those words are just too sensitive. Lots of killing and Jesus is totally cool with it. Rape is a major theme but of course the word rape isn't in the book at all. Again the word is too sensitive. But we get all the intricate details of the justified killing of rapists.

I'm also not a fan of the traditional gender roles. Women defer everything to the men folk. We keep getting told everyone has to work and learn new skills. If that's the case then I think the men need to learn how to cook, clean, care for the kids, do all of the domestic stuff they expect from the women. Throughout the story women are weak. I'm just not here for that BS. Several things that needed doing could have been done by women.

With all that said it was entertaining. It's not meant to be a comedy but I laughed at several points. I'm not ashamed to say I'll probably read Reed's other work. This is like the literary equivalent of a bad SyFy channel movie.

If I could give this 10 stars I would!!!! White feminism isn't ready for this!

I think Harkness overestimated how much people would care about Phoebe.

I had never heard of this book so I had no expectations. I only read it because I participate in my library's adult book club. My feelings about this book are conflicted. On one hand I liked it, but on the other I didn't. When I read the synopsis I got excited. I love dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. I feel as though I was cheated. Don't get me wrong it's beautifully written, but I think the synopsis lied to me.

This reads like a series of novellas. I hate novellas because just as soon as you get hooked on the stories/characters the stories end. That's how I would describe the timeshifting. There was one character in particular I loved from the beginning of the book, but I didn't get to read anymore about him until chapter 27. Characters I'm certain I was supposed to care about I didn't.

I love how interconnected it all was though. I just wish we could've gotten there with more plot and action. I was super disappointed by the "big" scene with the Prophet. All that build up for nothing to really happen in the end.

Not that it matters but I absolutely hate Shakespeare so I didn't enjoy those parts.

If I were describing this book I'd say it's literature meets chick lit meets dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction. I'm still glad I read it though and I can't wait to discuss it at book club next month.