Girish Kumar

This book was just a hallmark Christmas movie. But it takes places over thanksgiving.

It's cute and it's a quick read. It's delightful. I loved it.

This book (novella?) is short and sweet. It's gives your exactly what it says it will - a sweet romp featuring a human and a shapeless, formless being who find themselves attracted to each other.

It is cute and it is nice.

All I knew about this book was that it was a different kind of horror novel - practically went into this book blind.

The Haar is definitely a new kind of horror novel - at easy for me. It was beautiful in the strangest and often goriest of ways.

I didn't expect a horror novel to make me feel emotions at the end of it. It was really a beautiful book.

I was ready to be annoyed by this book. I was soo ready. But, it seems, I ended up really loving this one.

Tsalmoth felt like old school Vlad. I thought we won't be getting the voice of younger Vlad anymore, but I'm so happy to see the return of classic Vlad. It's weird to call this novel old school, or classic, because for me I started this series only in April, and I fell in love with it.

This is, yet again, a simple Vlad tale with the usual hijinks. It's uncomplicated, and enjoyable. Vlad and Cawti are just too cute with each other, and I loved watching them together after the events of the last few main line books.


The epilogue does a good job of giving some context for what's to come in the main line series. I'm glad the next book in the series is just a few months away, and it continues the main story.

This is the second time I am reading this book - the first was for book club, and now to refresh my memory of it before jumping into the sequel.

I think I loved this book so much more the second time around than the first. When I read it last year, I had only rated it 3 stars, but it is definitely a 4-star book for me now.

I loved the world that Fawcett has created in this novel. I loved the characters - especially Emily. This cosy fantasy world is inhabited by faeries and other odd beings, filled with wit and dry humour. I enjoyed the banter between Emily and Wendell so much more this time.

I'm genuinely looking forward to book 2 now.

I really enjoyed this book!

It is honestly a 3.5 star book.


The story starts a bit abruptly, with Popstar Amelia Rose crashing her car into Noah's front yard. She's escaping to Rome, Kentucky, because of her love of Roman Holiday and Audrey Hepburn.

The story is pretty simple and conflict free, so there really wasn't a feeling of tension towards the end. The characters are absolutely delightful. Especially the sisters. I am a fan of small town romances, so this was ticking that box for me. I am also a fan of celebrity romances, because of my love of Notting Hill, so this book ticked even that box.


I wish a few things could've been done much better - a deeper exploration of Amelia and her mom's relationship, a bit more drawn out conflict with her manager Susan. And, I also have an issue with the all too neat and clean ending.

As much as I enjoyed it, I really think this book could've been much much better with just a few changes.

I started this book an hour or so ago, and I sadly come out of it very disappointed. I really should stop trusting overly hyped books, but I make that mistake again and again.

The premise is definitely interesting - a woman witnesses her son murdeirng someone and ends up being sent back in time by a day, and then another day before and then yet another day before, so on and so forth. She needs to piece together the mystery of why her son stabbed that person.

I am not one of these type of domestic thrillers, but the time travel element got me curious. But, damn, was I disappointed. If youve read one or two of these type of stories, you can guess what will take place. And sadly, this one is no different.

It is probably my mistake to try to apply actual time travel logic into this, to try and make it make sense, which perhaps ruins whatever is left to enjoy of this book.

I want to give it 1.5 stars just for effort

This was a nice sweet, witchy romcom. I do have a. Few issue with this, pacing and even plot elements, but it was a nice sweet romance.

It's been a while since I read a really good sci-fi novel.

This was the perfect one to pick up to get over my sci-fi slump. It helps that it reminded me of one of my favourite TNG episodes- Yesterday's Enterprise. It's evokes a lot of the same themes.


I really loved this book.

I wasn't expecting much while going into this book. And I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the ride.

Full of fantasy hijinks, this book feels like a D&D campaign. It's funny. It's got a simple but exciting adventure, and sweet and spicy romance. I enjoyed this book.

It's been a while since I've written a review of a book, but I guess this one calls for it.

This book is one I didn't want to put down, and read slowly savouring each word on every page. The prose is beautiful. It's a long book, to be sure, but it's worth it.

At some points, I did feel that the author didn't trust the audience enough to understand what is going on, so at many points they spoonfed the message of the book to us. Which did get a bit annoying, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the book that much.

Overall, I really did enjoy the world that R F Kuang had created. A very interesting urban fantasy, and a very unique one as well.

I'm genuinely conflicted about this book - on one hand, I think it's a very interesting read, and the other I think it doesn't always work.

It is very interesting in the sense that it is written by a married couple, and the plot is about the dissolution of a partnership, and them coming back together only to realise they were in love with each other. Given that we are reading a romance novel, it doesn't really come as a surprise. But I feel like the authors wanted us to see it as such, which is the “doesn't' always work” part.

I think life imitating art is a fun concept to play around with, and this book does good job of that. But what it doesn't do a good job of is convincing me these two should really be together. Just because the two of you work well together, doesn't mean the two of you should be together. We don't really see them interacting much with each other outside the confines of their writing partnership, and if more of such scenes were included I feel like this book would've had a stronger impact.

So I'm not sure if I should rate this as a 2.5 or a 3 star book, because at the end of the day I did enjoy this book at some level.

I think this book also felt a bit like a fan fiction of the authors' lives and romance. Which is something that put me off it.

This book was really amazing. But more than the short stories - which were amazing to begin with - I loved the essays that were included. The essay about gender and the final one about Translation were the best, personally.

Among the short stories, it's hard to pick just one really good one. They all had their own flavour. It was amazing, really amazing. A collection of SFF short stories by female or non-binary Chinese authors. I sometimes wonder how many more amazing SFF stories that don't get translated, that I'm missing out on.

Ohhh what a book this was.
It's hard to believe that it is the author's debut novel!

The book starts off a bit slow, and takes some time to set the scene and the events leading up to the heart of the story and gives us a long list of characters and a LOT of acronyms (sometimes these were hard to keep track of, so a glossary of acronyms would've honestly helped a lot).

The first half of the book is definitely exciting, and rich in the world building, but it is slow. And I think that works in favour of the book, because the second half ends up being quite thrilling - very edge of your seat I need to finish this book TONIGHT type.

After about the 50% mark I really couldn't stop reading it. I needed the next chapter and the next. I just wanted to know what happens. I found myself anxious and scared and worried for these characters, and I didn't expect to feel so strongly at all.

Being ex-CIA, the author does bring in a certain realness to the plot, but breaks some rules to make it exciting. And I think he balances the real and the fictional elements of spy craft of it all really well. Things don't feel too absurd to too out of place. Just the right amount of action and drama to maintain the pace of the story, to keep you going.

Genuinely such an excellent book. I am so ready to pick up the next one.

Book 1 of 2024 is complete!

Though I've rated it 4 stars, I was so close to DNFing it in the middle. I had actually started this book in December, stopped it bec I wanted to wrap up a different series. And I restarted the book yesterday.

The point where I had stopped was where I was about to DNF it, 5-6 chapters in. But I kept at it, and it turned into this absolutely stunning and gripping thriller. This book is definitely a slow burn. It takes time to understand the characters, and by the end of it you still aren't sure you know them fully, but what you do learn makes them so interesting.

But if i do have to make some sort of criticism, it would be with the narrator and, perhaps, the editing of the ebook version I read - because sometimes it wasn't clear when the scene had changed and when the narrator was describing something else and not a continuation of the previous scene. That was about the only thing that threw me off and kept taking me out of the narrative, and maybe that is why i was on the verge of DNFing it.

There were so many threads at work here, crossings, double and then triple crossings and herrings of all colours - it really was a but hard to get through without taking a breather every few chapters - this isn't an easily bingeable book. Once you've got the flow, then it is well worth the mildly confusing narrative.

(Side note: For someone who thought the main character was Jackson Lamb, I was shocked to find him more of a background character in the first 9-10 chapters before I understood what is going on. The sequels are all also billed under Jackson Lamb thrillers, so I was confused at the start.)

I liked the fact that Hassan, the kid that was kidnapped, wasn't just some name or just some generic face - he had his own personality and was a fully realised character.

I started this series because the tv show seemed good, so I wanted to read some of the books before I started the show. Given how much I loved this, I think I'll love the show even more.

The way Herron write takes some getting used to, but once you've learned his tricks and his language, then a whole new world of thrillers has opened itself up.

I thought the concept of the book was really interesting, but a few things took me out of it. The overabundance of email correspondences seemed a bit too out of place for a novel in 2018. Maybe I am misunderstanding things, I don't know.

While the book cover invites you to try and solve the case, crucial information comes in the form of someone outside the events, who wasn't actively part of the investigation. While we are invited to solve it, we are not given enough information about the actual “evidence” and correspondences of the various characters involved in the mystery.

Additionally, we are not given ample opportunity to solve the case, because no real pause happens between the information being given to us and the trainees trying to solve the case - so who is really solving the case? I find the beauty of Christie and some of the Japanese mystery novels is that we - the reader - are given an opportunity to solve the case with all the evidence provided to us, which is always ample. But here, we are merely observers watching Femi and Charlotte solve the case.

The majority of the book is in the form of email correspondences, which does take me out of the reading of the novel, the discussion between the trainees happens in the form of text messages. It seems a bit of a large leap to see that a big lawyer and almost everyone in that tiny township are unable to use messaging apps, and instead rely on emails to communicate with each other, and often times very important information.

I also found the deliberate lack of correspondence from two people who are crucial to the plot are wholly omitted, very annoying. We only see their characterisation through the eyes/words of others. And, again, it didn't help me feel anything for the character and want to solve the mystery.

I also felt like the murder comes in too late into the novel, because we already know it is going to happen, so you keep waiting for it happen and it takes way too long for it to appear and then the ending is often rushed. Maybe that format is more appropriate for this kind of storytelling. It just wasn't my thing.

This is more of a 2.5 book for me. It was a bit too over hyped. I was quite disappointed at the end of this.

Oh this was such an excellent book. After a long time have I read such a fresh new fantasy novel. The world is so different than what I'm used to with the usual epic fantasy novels I read.

I absolutely loved this. It started off a bit slow, but once the action kicks in, it's relentless. The last few chapters are absolutely intense.

Honestly a 2.5 star book, but I didn't really want to officially rate it as 2 stars.

This book had all the makings of a good Christie-esque mystery: a detective has been invited to a faraway manor in the hills to help the owner with a will related issue. There's a murder and the detective has to solve it.

The beauty of an Agatha Christie mystery, especially a Poirot mystery, is its simplicity. A Will to Kill starts off simple, but at some point it becomes a bit messy. It's the execution that's the problem. It's hard to avoid cliches in mysteries these days, but one can pull off cliches well and the book can still be really good. Unfortunately, this book is filled with cliches and really doesn't do them particularly well.

This book is set in India, but is devoid of a feeling of being in india. Except for the names of the cities, and maybe one or two characters. I'm not sure what i expected for the book to feel “more Indian.” The way the book reads, it could be set anywhere in the world with very little change and it wouldn't affect anything in the plot. That could be a good thing or a bad one. But in the age where there are so many mysteries set all around the world, good ones need to differentiate themselves from the more generic ones. This book failed to do that.

All of that being said, I do think the detective is an interesting character and I will be reading the next book to see if the series is worth following.

Oohh this was such a good book. The book reminded me of Bones as well as a bit of Tru Calling - minus the supernatural.

The book had a good mystery, a really funny and engaging lead characters, and interesting supporting cast as well. I really liked both Cassie Raven and DS Flyte. Their banter and interaction also reminded me of Rizzoli and Isles.

I think this is going to be one of those series that I follow for a long time.

After the last few being a bit disappointing, I didn't really have too many expectations for this one, but I was happy to be proved wrong - Relentless was really really good. I did dock one star down because the plot line of Desjani and Rione's “feud” keeps bring brought up and it seems more petty than anything else. The number of times they bring up the possibility of a relationship between Desjani and Geary is really getting out of hand.

Besides that, it was really good. I am genuinely looking forward to the conclusion of this series.

Military Science Fiction with a surprising amount of heart and emotion. Brilliantly written!

I'm a sucker for a story within a story narrative. So, there was no doubt I would this Asian inspired fantasy.

It's a short book, so I won't say much. But it's such a lovely story done really well, with unique characters.

Ooh this book was the best combination of Hannibal, Mindhunter, Criminal Minds and Through the Darkness but with 18-19year olds.

The first half of the book is a bit slow, a lot of interviewing and a slow buildup - you're not really sure where this book is going. Then, the novel kicks into high gear and you're in for a ride.

I loved the two leads. Emma was delightful. She reminds me of what Emily Prentiss and JJ would've been like in their younger days. Travis Bell, reminds me a lot of Morgan. But none of these book characters are a one to one copies, which I'm grateful for.

The book was lovely and gripping and thrilling. I loved it.

I think the author had written this really well as well showing that the characters have grown and learned from the experiences just within the book. It was a really good read.

While I didn't enjoy the first book as much as some of my friends did, the second book is a massive improvement over the first.

At times, these characters are very frustrating and annoying. Especially Bryce. Her obsession with her friend who had lied to her about everything is very frustrating. She definitely has a blind spot for her, but her insistence on being surprised everytime she finds something new about Danika is downright stupid.
If that is her character, well and good, but then a bout of genius planning comes absolutely out of nowhere and seems very unbelievable.

Unlike a lot of others, I somehow do not buy the romance/whatever the hell it is between Bryce and Hunt. It seems very sudden and it really doesn't work for me.

With the bad out of the way, on to the good - the second one was much better written compared to the first. There was better progression of story, the mystery here flowed much better and the reveals came at the time they were needed and weren't just out in for dramatic effect, like I felt the first book did.

The world of Crescent City is rich. The world building in book one does come at odd places, but in the second they flow much better. Some of the criticisms I had for the first book, were fixed or addressed in this book, which helped in the enjoyment of this one.


I enjoyed this book - truly. Mostly because of Ruhn and the brief appearance of Aidas, even some of the supporting cast are fun and engaging characters. There's a surprising romance I really enjoyed and some reveals that were just too good.

But, I think I find SJM's ACOTAR series far more engaging and fun when I compare it to this series. So while I like the two crescent city novels, I'm not sure I love them as much as ACOTAR. But I am looking forward to book 3 in January.

(Referencing spoilery material below)

To be very honest, I only read this book because of the spoilers I had read about the final chapter, and what the future holds for this series and it's relation to other SJM novels. I am really looking forward to the next book and all the more lore building and the connections with the other novels.

One of the most poorly written books I've had the misfortune of reading.

Each chapter seems disconnected, no semblance of cohesion. Poorly researched as well. I can point out several instances in the Korean, Tamil and Hindi/Urdu chapters where the language and the culture has been misrepresented.

It feel like the book was written with a strong white lens, and it reflects in the almost degrading way he talks about the Asian languages.

I had a look at some do the references he has used for the chapters, and it seems that for most of the Asian languages, the references are quite dated (1997/99 or even early 2000s) and if it happens to be from the same decade as when the book was written, it isn't from a native speaker. It's also questionable that the references don't all seem to be academic texts.

I can go on about how poor this book is. I wish I could erase the memory of having read this book.

If I could, I would give this book negative 5 stars. I would settle for zero stars as well. But 1 will have to suffice.