Serenity

Overall, it was a good story, but I feel like the ending was somewhat anticlimactic. The “problem” at the end of the book (with Shadowclan) was simultaneously resolved too quickly and not at all. The fact that Firepaw never warned Bluestar about Tigerclaw was also very frustrating, although understandable. I can see that the authors were basically setting it up to continue the story into the second one. It feels like book one is almost just half the story, you just want more.

Regardless of the somewhat unsatisfying ending “confrontation”, the rest of the story was wonderful. The world-building and culture surrounding the clans is rich and interesting. The custom regarding names, sharing tongues, the warrior code - all of it was exciting to learn alongside Firepaw.

Firepaw- where do I start with him? I usually don't like the main protagonist, but him I loved! He's ignorant and slightly offensive at the beginning, but makes up with it with maturity, personal reflection, curiosity, intelligence, and perseverance. He truly earned his new name at the end of the book.

If you're a fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, & Mass Effect, this book may be the book you never knew you needed. It's cemented my love for the space opera genre, and it's catered to my love of space-related stories. The book is about a tunneling crew and basically focuses on their lives during a long-haul tunneling job to a hostile race's section of the galaxy. It is not very plot driven until the very end. Each character narrates their point of view somewhere along the way. It's a diverse crew of different species of aliens and humans. You learn about their cultures, their customs, and their history. You also hear the alien's perspectives on humans and it's HILARIOUS. The world building was very well done and reminds me of Mass Effect in that respect.

Pros:
- Diversity: lots of aliens and humans. It also shows how the races coexist and how they view each other.
- Funny: Kizzy is hilarious!!! The first half of the book made me laugh so much. The banter between the crew is amusing, scandalous at times, and light-hearted.
- Lovable Characters: if you don't like the characters, you won't enjoy the book because it just focuses on them.
- Family elements: the crew considers each other family. You see moments of love, friendship, hate, anger, bickering, and forgiveness. This is a big element of the story and Chambers portrays it beautifully. Not everyone gets along, but they always look out for each other. Crew is family here.
- Different sexualities, genders, pronouns, etc.
- Beautiful family ending that left me feeling tingly and giddy with happiness.

Cons:
- Quick fixes: although bad things happen on the journey, they're resolved a little too quickly for my liking. I would have enjoyed prolonging my suffering a little more (funny enough).
- I can't find other stories like it!!

Currently, there is a sequel but it focuses on two minor characters. A third installment will be released in July but is centered around new folks. I only wish Chambers would write a sequel to hear what happens to the crew of the Wayferer because there is so much she can expand upon!!! I want more!!! So beware, this is a great story of a space family and truly one of a kind.

I'd rate this book 3.5 if I could since I enjoyed it slightly more than the first novel. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is because this book was filled with too much drama! The worse being Fireheart and Graystripe arguing over a she-cat. My boys took the entire book to reconcile!

Fireheart is right to be concerned over Graystripe's romance, but he has no right to question his friend's loyalty to Thunderclan. It's pretty ironic that he does so when you consider how the clan (especially Tigerclaw) is always questioning FH's loyalty. He should know first-paw that it doesn't feel nice. That and he's meeting with his sister so.....

I can forgive FH for being immature and clueless about romance though. In time, maybe he will learn that the heart is a complicated matter. I still love this character dearly; he's so good and brave.

I'd have to say that the beginning of the book was my favorite. The mission to bring Windclan home was wonderful, and we got to see just how special FH is.

The ending was better this time around. The pacing was great and the major problem (i.e., the boy's fighting) was resolved. Definitely a better book. Looking forward to the next one!

Overall, I enjoyed this book. What I enjoyed most though was the narrator. She was brilliant! She really brought the character of Jo Kwon to life with her southern accent and charm. I would rate a 3.5 if I could.

In terms of the story, I found it to be simultaneously realistic and unrealistic.

It was realistic in the sense that it was an ordinary story lacking tension and drama. Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of an Asian American girl growing up in the south, but the story was still quite simple. Nothing out of the ordinary happens that I wasn't expecting. I wouldn't go so far as to call it boring, but if it wasn't for the narrator, it would've taken me far longer to finish this book.

I did love the concept of her being Miss Sweetie, and I also love Nathan and his family (especially Bear the doggo).

In terms of it being unrealistic: conflict seem to resolve itself are too quickly. For example, she is fired for her job and immediately finds a job the next day, Caroline is being cruel to her but Jo conveniently gets blackmail on her soon after, her grandfather is beaten to a pulp/ her home is discovered yet the owners don't get mad, etc. these examples don't particularly bother me as I was not looking for a dark story full of death and misery. The one thing that did stick out as being far too convenient to be believable was in regards to Billy. Spoiler- Noemi is his sister and is able to help Jo out of the debt. That was just far too convenient. Instead, I would have liked to have seen Jo and Nathan resolve the issue with Billy and the debt together. And her winning the horse race is another one! No way I believe that as she has no experience with professional horse riding.

I would've liked to have seen many things, including more romance between her and Nathan, and even her opening up to him about her issues to him. We get none of that, only a tease into their future. Lastly, I would have liked for Jo to speak to her mother about her father so learn more about him.

Regardless, I enjoyed it overall and appreciated its light tone and simple story.

This volume was better - a 3.5 rating. There's still a lot of the same stuff about Adachi reading Kuro's mind, but the scenarios are cuter, including a trip to the hot springs. I like the scene where Ada is upset that Kuro is “perfect” until he realizes that he's insecure and not. Kuro's thoughts about going slow and wooing Ada since he's inexperienced with relationships is very endearing. Kuro visiting Ada when he's sick at home is also sweet. Kuro is just sweet in general and Ada is super lucky to have a guy like that interesting in him.

I really liked this book. It wasn't what I was expecting, it actually exceeded my expectations, so I would rate it as a 3.5. I've been curious about this series due to all the random YouTube recommendations with clips that occur later in the story. So I had an idea of the characters, but got something better.

Anyways, the story is about a girl that got kidnapped and then sold to work at the palace. She loves making medicine, and is the only maid that can read. She's discovered after she tries warning two concubines that they've been poisoned. A beautiful eunuch figures her out and then assigns her to work as a lady in waiting for the emperor's favored concubine.

Maomao is funny. Her only passion is making medicine, and she's like a mad scientist with her experiments (all on herself too). She's immune to many poisons, including the eunuch that discovered her, Jinshi.

Jinshi is a “eunuch” (I saw spoilers so I know he's not) and very attractive. He's accustomed to men and woman pursuing him sexually and romantically. He's beautiful, but Maomao isn't interested. Instead, she's repulsed whenever he tries to charm her. She looks at him with disdain whenever he flirts with her, and because of this, he only continues to do so mercilessly for fun. Thankfully, his aid, Gao Shun, another eunuch, warns her not to look at him like that because it delights Jinshin and the ladies can't function around him (most annoying for him lol). She's catching on to his game.

I was hesitant to begin this story because it takes place in a palace. I've seen bits and pieces of the drama “Ruyi's Royal Love”, which is a story regarding the lives of the wives and concubines of the emperor. It's a cut-throat series where poisoning, death, and backstabbing is the norm as they try to gain the emperor's favor and quite heavy. However, this story is more light-hearted, despite there being a poisoning off the bat in the beginning lol (the culprit was a powder, not a person).

I've seen some clips already so I know that drama awaits later in the series, but for now, I'll continue reading as it's definitely fun and I like the characters.

This book was not what I expected. If you think it's going to be like the Disney version, you're in for a big surprise. This story is very different. Some of it I liked, and most of it I didn't.

In a nutshell, I would say that I prefer Disney's Peter Pan over the novel. The story had a strong start. It felt very magical, but it lost that magic towards the end and I lost interest. The last chapter is especially sad since it's based in the future and some characters are dead, and worse, Peter forgets them.

Pro:
- Tiger Lily is a badass! She carries a hatchet with her and even Captain Hook fears her

Cons:
- Some parts are confusing and hard to follow. For example, “Mrs. Darling's Kiss” is a phrase I don't understand and is never explained in the book.
- Peter Pan: book!Pan is VERY different from Disney!Pan. He's way more childish and ruthless. He nearly kills all the pirates and then forgets them. He's extremely forgetful. At the end of the book, he even forget who Tinker Bell was after she died. He didn't even remember who Captain Hook was. He also has this thing about believing “make belief play.” For example, if you pretend to give him an apple to eat, he will actually believe that he ate an apple. All of the other children knew that they were playing pretend, but not Peter. It made the other children feel uncomfortable, but everyone was too scared to tell Peter that it was fake.
- Ending: I preferred the Disney movie ending to the book ending. Hook's plan to kill Peter is way too complicated in the book. I just felt it was needlessly complicated and it dragged too long.

At the end of the story, JM Barry (the author) makes it a point to repeat multiple times that the only children who can fly are those who are “gay and innocent and heartless“, meaning that they were “happy, innocent, and heartless”. I interpret this as meaning that Peter Pan is a character who is very carefree, young, and heartless in the sense that he lacks the social and emotional maturity to the point where he is hurtful to others and very self-centered. That basically sums up Peter Pan's character in this book.

In the Disney movie, he is immature, but he's not heartless. He's also far more charismatic in the Disney movie than in the novel. In the book, the lost boys simultaneously fear and respect him, and then they decide to leave him and stay with Wendy's parents. Whereas in the movie, they stayed with Peter out of loyalty and respect.

The audiobook was FANTASTIC and only about 5ish hours long. Highly recommend it as there are multiple colorful narrators that truly bring life to the characters. That being said, all the names will probably be wrong.

This story did not go as I expected it to; it was much better!! I would say that it had a very strong beginning, somewhat slower middle, but a fast paced and exciting ending. Our main character is a princess named Cimorene. She doesn't want to be a conventional princess and marry a prince, so she runs away to be a dragon's princess. Specifically, Kazul's princess.

Kazul is a super cool dragon. She completely sounds and acts like a dragon, but she is also very witty, intelligent, and cunning. She treats Cimorene well and fairly. I adored their relationship. I wouldn't call them friends, but they were friendly to each other, and there was loyalty and a bond between them both. Their personalities were perfect for each other.

Along the way, Cimorene also meets another princess named Aleanora. They had a nice friendship. I liked how all of the princesses got to see each other despite being captured by dragons. I expected Cimorene to end up finding a prince and falling in love, but instead, she helps the other girls find princes, which was great! I totally wasn't expecting it, and I actually really like that she stayed by Kazul's side when Kazul became king of the dragons. She isn't ready to settle down yet, and that's OK. She should enjoy her freedom while she can.

Overall, I would call this a lighthearted and charming fantasy story. It's always lovely to read a story about dragons without the “the dragons are dying out “or “this is the last dragon alive” tropes. It's silly and cute, but not childish. I would recommend it to others, and I would listen to it again in the future.