Gemma

I thought because of the second person POV I would end up giving up on this book, but it has turned out to be one of my favourite books so far this year and I'm dying to continue on with the series.

Hmm. Not sure about this one. I really liked exploring human-daemon relationships but felt like the plot about the roses was background noise I mostly ignored. I think it'd be 3.5 stars

This is the second last installment (as of yet) of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I have been trying to complete in time for the new season of the show. I really love the show, but the books so far have been a genuine delight and they have really proved all those who feel the show missed out too much of the plot correct.

In this book, the first plots which I had not been spoiled for began to unfold. Dorne were particularly enjoyable for me as I did not know many Dornish characters. Additionally, the Wall is always a firm favourite, as is Daenerys. I really enjoyed this installment of the series and can't wait to begin the final book. I think I've only disliked one book so far in this series, and otherwise rated the rest four or five stars, which is pretty impressive for such a long series.

Leviathan Wakes ???????????????Caliban's War ???????????????Abaddon's Gate ???????????????Cibola Burn ???????????????

Another solid installment in The Expanse series.

I really love the sensation of sinking into another one of these books, where I know that there is going to be 500 pages of well written, enjoyable science fiction following a main cast of characters I know and enjoy reading about. It's like putting on your favourite clothes again, or watching a favourite tv show. Obviously things change, and stakes are higher in the next book, but there are many constant qualities to the series that keep the engagement high.

In this book, a new world has been colonised by two opposing parties and Holden has been tasked with keeping the peace. As with each book, there are some guest POVs introduced that keep the story feeling fresh. The stakes in this book felt the highest, and the story the most intimate. The majority of the story was set on one planet with a cast of characters who were in much closer contact than ususal. Obviously being set across the expanse of space, in previous books a lot of our characters were interacting through video chat or sending messages. With the main conflict being on the surface of this planet, it really changed up how the characters interacted. And when stakes were raised for survival on the alien planet, it affected majority of the characters in the book. I really enjoyed reading this one, and I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.

I picked up Americanah as part of my bookclub as one of the members had used it in their dissertation and was excited to share it with us. I'd heard a lot about this book through booktube, but I never thought I'd pick it up myself. I don't read a lot of literary fiction and I already own quite a few that I haven't got to yet. I listened to the audiobook, which I would highly recommend. I really liked the narrator's voice and it made the listening experience so lovely.

PLOT ???????????????
As with most literary fiction, we are going for a deep dive into Ifemelu's life and relationships. But I found the plot of Americanah to be much easier to read because there was an inciting incident that we remained firmly in the midst of throughout the book. Ifemelu decides after thirteen years in America that she misses her home, and moves back to Nigeria.

CHARACTERS ???????????????
I wasn't that interested in Ifemelu's relationship with Obinze, which was the main reason I couldn't connect to the story. I found so much of Ifemelu's life interesting that Obinze didn't really rank high enough on that list for me to care about. Ifemelu's blog posts added a more informal style of writing which was interspersed, and I really liked those breaks.

OVERALL ???????????????
All in all, this is a well crafted book that probably just isn't to my taste. I can't really say anything bad about it, I just didn't love it.

I have been queuing for this book on my library app for a while now, maybe a month or so. I remember being excited for it when I discovered it was provided by my library and immediately forgetting what the plot was and why I was excited. As you can clearly tell, I loved it.

My overall feeling from the book is that this is an adultier, better version of An Ember in the Ashes (which I liked, possibly loved). This book follows two (kinda three, but honestly not really) children of the Emperor. One son is the heir and was sent to live in a remote monastery as a part of his training. The other was sent to train to become a member of an elite military squad. The Emperor dies (it's in the Goodreads blurb, so I can spoil it) and the sons are thrown in immediate danger. The book follows both boys closely as they try to complete their training but there is also a murder mystery at the heart of the story that is a stroke of genius. I want more fantasy murder mysteries.

I adored every second of this book. I initially planned on marathoning it in one day while I was in work. The initial 30% or so is a slow paced deep dive into the world, but as we get further into the plot we reach the surface of the water and things just gradually speed up until we reach a comfortable pace. The plot was complex enough, and the different connections between the separate story lines kept me interested.

I found the male characters to be compelling and enjoyable to read. There wasn't too much in terms of variation between the women, they were all gorgeous and adept at their required physical skill. This in some cases felt surprising (a young girl who has not trained physically can keep pace with three others who have trained relentlessly everyday) and repetitive. No bloke was described by how sexy or attractive he was, so I could have done with less of a focus on the women's bodies and more on their person. All that being said, there were some fantastic female characters that showed flaws and strengths at the same time. I think the main source of the poor characterisation came from the idea that the book was written from the point of view of a 19-21 year old man, so he will be focusing on the sexy aspects of the women. If we could abandon this idea and let young men in books control their genitals more often, that'd be great.

The setting was clearly well developed and I adored every aspect. I'm desperate to find out more and see a map, as my library ebook copy did not have one. The writing had me by the heart from the prologue and it didn't let me down once. I feel acutely aware that the next book I read is going to be heavily compared to this, and likely won't hold up.

I'm excited to see where the second book goes, and I will definitely keep an eye out for more of the author's works. My largest paragraph in this review is dedicated to a negative aspect of the book, but it was a minor issue and overall I felt like this was going to be a five star book all the way through from page one.

I picked up The Husband's Secret because I'd been recommended it by a friend at work. I quite like domestic thrillers (or simply thrillers in general) when I'm in a reading slump. And this book did just the trick!

I enjoyed the story, although the big reveal came altogether too early in the plot I think. The characters were enjoyable and felt real. The ending felt a bit like a cop-out with all the endings neatly tied away. And we're not going to talk about the epilogue, because as far as I'm concerned that ruined the book.

Leviathan Wakes ???????????????Caliban's War ???????????????Abaddon's Gate ???????????????

The third book in the Expanse series establishes quite a few new point of view characters. It may have taken me a few books to catch on to the system of point of view characters in this series, but I have to admit it works well and I really enjoy it. Aside from the main cast of recurring characters, there are a few points of view in each book who are specific to that book. It allows the authors to widen to the scope of the plot while still keeping each aspect intimate and close to the reader. And these characters who we only see for one book feel just as real and firmly placed into the universe of the series as the others. There is only one other series I feel has managed multiple points of view this well before and at this scale, and that would be A Song of Ice and Fire.

This book was less action and more politics and plotting. Which is some of my favourite parts of any story.

I have started this series around four times over the years, and always I have only managed the first book. This reread was fantastic.

I enjoyed every aspect of the book, and have no complaints. I thoroughly enjoyed comparing scenes to the TV show as I remembered it and gaining the broader idea of the world as a whole.

I only have this four stars so that the following books could have the chance to beat its rating.

The last 100 pages blew me away, and I honestly didn't expect the ending (although I really should have). The Handmaid's Tale was completely different to anything I've read before.

The Raven Boys is a low fantasy young adult novel about four private schoolboys in Virginia and Blue, the psychic's daughter. I have heard about this series from probably everyone I know who reads and from half of the booktube community I follow. I decided to pick it up after being recommended it so many times over the years because I felt I needed to know finally if it was exactly as good as everyone said it was or if I'd find another over hyped YA novel.

And as with the trend this year, I immensely enjoyed the book. We begin focusing on Blue, the daughter of the local psychic in Henrietta, as she goes on the annual trip to the local churchyard to record the names of everyone in the town who will die in the next twelve months. The novel goes on to follow her as she meets the Aglionby boys and discovers their search for the Welsh king.

I found the plot of the book to be intriguing, however slow to start. For the first half of the book I didn't know when things would begin to happen. While this wasn't a negative experience as vital the backstory and characterisation was done in this half it did feel slow. In fact, at one point in my status updates I lamented that one of the male characters felt surplus to requirement as he had rarely been involved in the plot so far. This was quickly corrected as the second half of the novel ramped up the pace. The characters are actually where I think the book excels. The book is in the third person perspective, which I prefer, and it spends time in all of the main character's heads but focuses mainly on three. Of these three, Adam and Gansey were my favourite characters. The setting felt equally real, and I have no faults with the book there. My only complaint was that the author regularly used flowery writing to describe various things or feelings throughout the book that made absolutely no sense.

All in all, a pleasant surprise of a book.

The Raven Boys ???????????????The Dream Thieves ???????????????Blue Lily, Lily Blue ???????????????The Raven King ???????????????

What a fantastic conclusion to the series. I am genuinely so excited for the sequel trilogy and all that is left in this universe.

I need to re-read the series before going into Call Down the Hawk as I don't feel like I fully grasped the ending. It all feels like a blur.

The Raven Boys ???????????????The Dream Thieves ???????????????Blue Lily, Lily Blue ???????????????

I can't speak to the plot specifics of this book, as it is the third in a series, but I found it to be the most enthralling book in the series to date. Plot aspects ramped up and elevated the tension that felt more like an undercurrent in the first two books. A plot point which I had heard rumors of began to unfurl.

Also, Jesse Dittley and the Better Ant is the best scene and possibly the best band name I've ever heard of.

The Raven Boys ???????????????The Dream Thieves ???????????????

Coming back to write this review at the end of 2019, I can still remember a strong sense of this book. This makes this one probably a better book in this series.

In terms of re-reading this series as an adult, I feel like the middle portion of this series really suffers. Initially from a formulaic story format in the first 4-5 books, and afterwards from a forgettable plot.

I really enjoyed my experience with this book. One of my goals for 2020 was to read more non-fiction, particularly history, and this was one of my top contenders for the year.

Firstly, I have studied very little history and while I learnt about WWI in school we did not cover WWII. So it was really interesting and enlightening to read about the transition period. The accounts go chronologically and come from a variety of walks of life. As another reviewer said, the fresh feeling of the letters and diary entries kept me very engaged and focused.

I would say that as someone who knows absolutely nothing about the time period, I could have done with reading a few other texts to get a better grasp of the major players of the time. A lot of information is packed into this book, and I am looking forward to re-reading it when I have a better base knowledge.

Another re-read from my younger years, which I enjoyed. The audiobook elevated the experience as it was a full cast production. I really enjoyed the performances and the story while being short has proven to be memorable as I could still remember the plot fairly well after 10 years.

I picked this one up as the first installation in a book club between friends, suggested by a member as it is her favourite book ever. It is fairly outside of my usual wheelhouse, so reading something different was a refreshing experience. This is a young adult book following Cadence, who is missing memories of a summer two years ago due to an accident.

Every summer her family descends on their private island, and the firm hierarchy of the family becomes constricting again. I really like the glimpses of family interactions between the aunts, especially the different tactics they use to one up each other. There is a lot of passive aggression, backhanded manoeuvring and using their children as weapons. I thought this was the most realistic aspect of this story because I have seen it in real life. It really helped the book for me, because otherwise I think I would have felt like I could not relate or emphasise with the characters.

This family is unfathomably rich, and it genuinely didn't feel real to me. This was worsened because the main characters are teens, but really don't read like teens. One character constantly mentions “sexual intercourse”, and they never contract their sentences (I am versus I'm). This really added to the surreal vibe, which did intensify the atmosphere. The book also took the time to touch on important topics such as privilege and racism, but I don't feel like it really did much with it.

All in all, I think this is a well crafted book and I can't deny the quality. If you are into contemporary or literary fiction this book could do well for you. I didn't personally resonate with the book, but I can see why so many do.

The Way of Shadows ???????????????Shadow's Edge ???????????????

Did that seriously only take me six days? It felt like an eternity.

Firstly, I finished The Way of Shadows and adored it. This whole series is a re-read for me: I originally read this series around 7-10 years ago. I tanned the whole trilogy quickly and I was far too young to properly understand and appreciate the plot. Upon re-reading, I gave the first book a five star rating and was really disappointed by this book. In fact, when speaking to my dad about the series (he had read it around the same time I originally I did), he remembered loving the first and being disappointed by the second. He told me he never bothered with the third.

The second book is so disappointing because of how much of a departure it is from the first. The first follows Kylar as he grows from young orphan boy to a master assassin. The plot is complex, the book is fast paced and the relationships are rich. I found the dynamic between Kylar and Durzo to be one of my favourite parts of the first book and I did miss it in the second. But more importantly, Kylar seems to regress from the first to the second book. In the first book he is focused and calculating, even outside of battle. For the first third of the second book he is completely adsorbed by his relationship with Elene. It makes him a completely unlikeable incel (involuntary celibate), and the majority of his thoughts about Elene complain about how they haven't had sex yet as she wants to wait for marriage.

It brings me on to another point that other reviewers have made, more eloquently than me. All of the women in this novel are piss poor caricatures of women. A whore who fell in unrequited love, a deadly assassin who uses her body for her work because she can feel no love, a prudish virgin, a woman forced to whoring and rejected by her family. It disappoints me because I enjoyed Momma K in the first book, and I was astounded at how boring and predictable Vi's plotline turned out to be in the second book.

For the first 90% of the book, the pacing is too slow and it felt like running through soup to get through the book. The last 10% flew by too fast, and held a large portion of the action. I have heard that Brent Weeks' second series shows a large improvement from this one, so my hope still remains strong. I am going to continue on and finish this trilogy to see how the bombs dropped at the end of this book detonate.

This book felt really short to me. It was a quick blast of ASOIAF that got me really hyped and back in love with this world. The points of view in this book might possibly be my favourite, the plot points were new (any that had appeared in in the show I had forgotten about) and the writing was great.

I obviously won't go into plot, but the ending of this book surprised me and I really did not expect this series to surprise me. I expected that after the show the internet would be so saturated with spoilers that I would see everything coming. How much I could not put it down really earned this book its five stars from me.

I loved this! It feels like a proper divergence from the format of the previous books will begin from the next book and I???m so ready for it.

Another good installment in this series, one of my favourites so far. The introduction of characters I remembered vaguely from later in the series was a great touch.

Very much looking forward to the conclusion of this series.

The conclusion to this trilogy was rather flat, bland and did not live up to my expectations of previous books by Canavan.

My review of the second book in this series mentioned how much it stagnated and suffered from middle book syndrome, and this book didn't seem to change pace from the second much at all. I feel like this series was written more as an indulgence out f love for the world rather than because there was a plot to be told. As such, it felt like the plot meandered along at a slow pace until it came time to wrap everything up.

I think this has something to do with my preference for grittier, more viseral stories in fantasy. Some authors prefer the more positive style of story telling, which means any unpleasentness gets glossed over as much as possible. This leaves me missing a fuller experience of the plot and characters, as we don't experience hardship and struggle the same way. I am hopeful that some of Canavan's other stories make a bigger impact in these areas.

I would skip this series if you aren't too interested, but it was quite a nice series for a little bit of nostalgia.

I think I've figured out a plot twist that comes later in the series. That is quite disappointing, so I hope it twists again.

The story felt very bare and minimalist. I am baring in mind this is a debut so the next books will only get better. I don't feel any attachment to Jorg but in all fairness the audio for this book really emphasised how young and angst he sounds to that may be part of the problem.

I know the other books in the trilogy get longer, so I hope that they are packed with more world building and character work so I can enjoy the series more.

You know what? I actually was quite satisfied with the ending to this trilogy. I really hated the first book and only kept on going because a sudden surprising plotline opened up that I wanted to follow.

My hopes are high again to read Trudi's final trilogy!