DB
Four (#2)
Archer Kay Leah
Stars: 4
I received this e-arc through Less Than Three Press in exchange for my free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Note that even though this is the second book in a series, it can be read as a standalone.
This (Four) was Mayr's book, which I was excited for as I loved him in A Question of Counsel. I loved Tash (aka Halataldris – still trying to figure out how the author got Tash from that mouthful, but it's probably the same as getting Dick from Richard). He (Tash) was a good love interest and he and Mayr balanced each other out.
Something that annoys me when I read a fantasy romance book is that the pacing and flow of the story is nearly always sped up due to the romance aspect, and when you speed up the pacing and flow of a fantasy book, the plot tends to unravel and even move away from what the original plot was meant to be. This did not happen in Four. The romance and fantasy worked together to ensure that neither plot nor romance was lost.
I loved this book and will definitely read it again in the future, or even manage a series reread when the fourth book comes out (I saw it on Netgalley and am itching to request it).
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/RoAnna-Sylver/e/B00OI321DO
My blog link: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/
RoAnna's blog link: https://sylvernebulae.wordpress.com/
This book is fantastic. I love it. Buy a thousand copies and hand it out to a thousand people. Buy yourself a personal copy. Buy another one to frame on your wall – it's that good. It strikes something personal in your heart and just makes you want to adopt all of the characters (which I really want to do) and care for them and give them everything they want. Now onto the actual review.
I love vampires. I have no idea why I don't read more vampire books. I was a total Team Edward chick (Jasper and Emmett definitely helped with that) and definitely rooted for all the vampires that were lurking around in Mystic Falls (not hard to do when there were barely any werewolves). So yes, I love vampires. And when I heard this was a vampire book I instantly jumped on board. But this isn't just a vampire story, or a story about vampires. It's a story about friendships, about love, romantic and platonic.
Let's just talk about the aro ace rep. And grey rep if you're talking about Jude. That's all I really want in life – good representation. That's all anyone wants in life. That and the fact that the romantic and sexual orientation isn't a great big part of the story – which is actually great!
And that trauma and grief! I mean I could say ‘hey, don't give me any of that. I need sunshine in my life' but then I would be lying to myself because I read just as much angsty fiction as lovey-dovey fiction. And who needs sunshine when you're a vampire, right? Anyway, I thought it was handled quite well (the trauma and grief) – something which needs to be seen again in fiction.
Pixie is my favourite – ok, everyone is my favourite and they all have to deal with that which means you have to deal with me having tens of millions of favourite characters because that's how it works in the book community. If you are able to choose a favourite character, you're probably either very tired while reading the book or extremely distracted. Both of which I am. All the time and at the same time. But yes, Pixie is my main favourite in the novel. And then comes Jasper.
So there's the review. What are you still doing here? Go and read it!
So this is another The Little Mermaid retelling, this one being a M/M and the mermaid being less of a mermaid and more of an octuman? Or however you're meant to explain it – the water-dwelling creature has tentacles.
All in all, it was a good read. Not that good – as I rated it 2 and a half but because of Goodreads and its ratings (yes, another snide remark about how Goodreads needs to change their stars but then again, are you even a blogger if you don't complain about this?) so then I had to rate it down to 2 stars.
The characters were cute. Yes, the story focused more on Ben and Lyle (I mean they are the main characters, so obviously) but I did like Ben's parents. Though I did find Lyle a bit annoying – mostly his personality and the fact that he was a bit too whiny for my taste. Sure, I guess if you've been alone for a super long time, your personality might change, and you'll probably be a bit needy and whiny.
Another thing that bothered me was the instalove factor – I think that's mostly why the rating's not higher. I can honestly say that I have no idea why or how people can look at someone and then go “Ah, yes. I want this person.” Yeah, sorry. But I do applaud whoever does do this – be extremely confident in love and knowing what they want, because sugar, I can't even make up my mind on what to eat half the time.
Link to the blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2017/10/13/seriesly-a-question-of-counsel/
Received from the publishers (as I was approved for the 3rd book - Blood Borne).
All opinions expressed are my own.
3 and a half stars
The summary made the book out to be more interesting than the actual story. I mean I was expecting this adorable f/f romance and instead I get a story that's plot isn't fully developed, its dialogue felt a bit forced, and the action and subplot that should've been the main plot were half-formed. Which makes me upset. As now (as I'm writing this review, I'm about halfway through the second book, Four - which I was going to update on my Goodreads account, but then the onnosel thing decided to be down. And I stilll have the 3rd book to read).
I mean, sure, I liked the book, but I didn't really enjoy it, understand? It took me a while to get through it (ok, mostly because I was going through some things), but also because it was a case of me literally forcing myself to read the book. Like read a half of a chapter and then you can watch some Avatar: TLA. And I didn't want to dnf because it's the first in a trilogy, and who knows which characters are introduced will feature in the 2nd and 3rd and what background ontent will become important later on.
Although the characters were easy to like and hate, they could have done with a bit more fleshing out. It's like their hearts weren't in their motivations and it felt like they were just going through the motions. Yeah, they probably thought about what they were doing, and maybe why, but they didn't motivate me to want to them go through the motions.
I understand she's a Steward, which brings to mind Denethor, so I don't know how I feel about Aeley's job. And thinkin of Denethor makes me think of a certain gif, so I'm super glad that Aeley did not pull a Denethor.
It's not that there were too many characters, it's that not enough time was spent on them so I never really knew what their job was and their purpose in the story. I mean I barely remember any of the minor characters, or their jobs, or even their names.
So summed up, not that good as I thought it would be. Do I recommend it? Yes, as it gives you background information on several characters, but that's it.
Afrikaans:
onnosel - stupid
The character's aren't interesting and the dialogue isn't either. So the study is basically ask each other a bunch of questions and you'll fall in love? Isn't that a bit of instalove or whatever the psychology equvilant to it? (though I should know - I just studied for a dev psych rewrite).
All in all - I didn't enjoy the characters or the dialogue. There were also quite a few areas I found problematic - one in particular being a comment that asexuals can't date or fall in love - that just put me off...
So this was sort of a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin (whom I love, thanks, Robert). Add gif of Robert. And it had some Cinderella elements to it too, so that was cool.
It was a quick read (I first thought it was a full-length novel and was disappointed when I saw it was actually a novella. But then I realized that if it were a full-length novel, I would probably lose interest along the way.
It was a cute read, yes. But that was all it was. The characters, as adorable as they were, lacked that certain thing about them that made me want to care about them.
The main character (Pip) is cute and I did like him, but I found him to be spineless – he didn't really stand up for himself and there was a definite theme of instalove with the prince – Ren, and really, can't we get away from the idea of instalove?
The descriptions and the setting were done rather well. I can tell the author spent time on that and crafted the world rather well. If only she spent more time on the characters, they too would be as good as the description.
Link to blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/oh-arc-my-arc-alice-the-wanderland-chronicles/
This is actually my first ARC I was approved for and I'm so glad that it was a good read, because if I had to have a bad read for my first approved ARC, that would have bad memories, but anyway, let's carry on.
So this book is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland and it has bloody zombies, what more could you want from a story? I love retellings, or at least good retellings, and this one was definitely well done. From the amazing characters to all the wonderful references and then of course the best: the gruesome parts – which I loved as spoiler alert the first sentence of the book was literally someone's head exploding – like, hello, could we get more books with someone's head exploding?
As much as I did love the inclusion of Dinah, as most Alice retellings do not really have Alice's sister in them (or at least the ones I've read, which aren't actually a lot, so that reminds me to read more of them – but actually, I shouldn't, because then I'll probably start having ideas for an Alice in Wonderland retelling, and really DB, you have more than enough book ideas). But I'm pretty sure that Dinah is Alice's cat. I can't exactly check in my copy as my sister stole it when she went over to America (how rude), but I did check the movie and apparently the cat's name is Dinah – and on that note I'm sad that the cat doesn't go with Alice to Wonderland.
The characters were amazingly written. They were real and made you care for them. And I loved all the Wanderland names – mostly Chess, for obvious reasons.
So one obvious reason for reading this book is all the references – so definitely read it in order to catch all of them (which I love to do). Even if there were some unintentional references or references that the author chose to put in, hoping that someone would catch the very small reference – I got them – or at least I hope.
So is momerath the singular term or is it like moose?
Quotes:
Always protect your queen
Please let's have this on a t-shirt because I would sell a family member (I have thousands of cousins, it's super easy) to buy this.
The Max Recovery overrides the desire for frivolity and refocuses the brain on what basic instinct requires.
OK but I've studied the basic needs and things (thanks, Maslow) in communication and psychology and know that the bottom of the hierarchy is, yes, hunger, but there's also water, warmth, rest etc. – so if the Max Recovery does put the focus on the basic needs, then the momerath should not only focus on the hunger, but also on their other basic needs.
Link to my blog: https://wordpress.com/post/dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/255
Warnings: Homophobic language. Offensive language. Offensive remarks towards drag queens. Racism.
Note that I have expressed some thoughts towards drag queens. Now, as I am not a drag queen, nor do I know any drag queens, the opinions I express about them are solely on a general thought and not exclusive towards drag queens.
Ok, so I needed a cute read to get me over an arc that I dnf and about halfway through this book I so wanted to dnf as well, and then I decided to keep on reading it, to see how the ending would be. The title and description of this book are what drew me in and while I love a Cinderella retelling, a gay Cinderella hits all the right buttons. And I thought it would be this book. And then it really wasn't. Well, it was like a quarter of what I wanted.
I like that it changed from the usual two stepsisters to a stepsister and –brother. But then they fucked that up by making the stepbrother a total douche, and the stepsister mostly annoying (she had some redeeming qualities).
I was confused about the title. It seemed like there would be an emphasis on the drag queen (Coco), but even though there was a greater emphasis on the fairy godmother than usual, I'm still confused as to why the title was more about Coco than Chris (so proud of myself that I actually remembered his name).
So let me get this straight (ha) – Chris, the main character, just decides to fucking leave with this random person (Coco). Nahuh hun. Didn't horror movies or your parents or literally your fucking conscious teach you anything? YOU DON'T FUCKING GO OFF WITH A RANDOM PERSON. WEET JY WAT GEBEUR? JY SAL FOKKIN' GEMOER WORD (Do you know what will happen? You'll get fucking murdered – there's no actual translation for gemoer, but the closest it is is an extreme version of being murdered. That's why I love Afrikaans). And Chris also lets a random person (still Coco) into his house. How bloody American of him. I see that apparently you guys just let pizza delivery people in, like nee man, disse reg nie. Like, please, guys. Stop just willy-nilly letting people into your house. That's why you have so many horror movies.
So Chris is mean to be like 17...but he acts more like the 12 year old I look after.
There are tons of homophobic comments, most of them coming from Chris's supposed family – which they later try to justify by saying they only said those comments (which were homophobic, I might add) as a way of showing him support. The English language is failing me right now, so I'm going to switch over to Afrikaans. Wat die absoluut fok is hierdie boek? Watter sort kak is díe? Hoe is ‘n mens verondestel om daai sorte comments te sien as enigiets anders as fokkin' verkeerd? Translation: What the absolute fuck is this book? What kind of shit is this? How is a person supposed to see those comments as anything else than fucking wrong?
And then the whole introduction of Duane/Coco to Chris and as a matter of fact, how the entire book treats drag queens was very offensive. From assuming that just because Chris knows what gender Duane was assigned to at birth, that is the gender Duane wants to be known as (which means Chris using he/him pronouns when Duane is Coco – like no please, correct pronouns).
All in all, there were good quotes about lgbt+ and all that jazz, which did in fact, make me want to give the book two stars, but then I decided on one star after I saw how the book treated its drag queens. There are also a few times where Chris explains a view of gay (all about emotional connections and being gay doesn't go away) that is great and all, but then he mucks it up by saying that being gay had certainly never made me want to dress or look like a woman – which just sets his previous arguments about gay and what it means back like a few paces. Then there's another quote about drag queens that really irked me: Coco slipped a gloved hand between me and Special Kaye, looking up into her much taller friend's heavily made up face. “Bitch, you are one pair of scissors away from going drag queen to transsexual, understand?” – that, that quote nearly made me put the book down. YOU DON'T MAKE A FUCKING JOKE ABOUT TRANS ISSUES!!!
Ooh and continuing with drag queens – there's a scene where Duane tells Chris this: I haven't been to bed yet. But Kevin – that's Special Kaye's real name... - real name, like the persona of a drag queen is just for kicks.
There's also this part where Chris asks Duane if he's bi (because he's drag queen) and I think I had to exit Kindle for a few minutes and go read Sterek. Because wat die absolute fok soort a vrag is daai? A person isn't bi because the way they dress. Similarly, they are also not gay or lesbian due to the way they dress.
The next paragraph involves a quote that I was super upset about it as it implied something extremely rude and I'm not sure as to whether it was what I thought it was or just an actual joke (note that I will be ranting a bit on this). So it follows on the previous paragraph (Chris asking Duane if he's bi because he's a drag queen) and Duane replies that (and I quote) the only fish I eat is at Red Lobster. So because he reveals that he is in fact, gay, does this quote mean he thinks of women, or rather their genitals and how it supposedly smells like a fish. Listen here, bra. You can't say something like that about a woman (this is where I was wondering what gender the author was. I guessed male. I was fucking right) when you possibly have female characters – now how are they supposed to feel good about themselves and their bodies when you write such a shitty quote – which is fucking is, I'm very sorry (actually not) but it is. And if it turns out to be that this quote is meant to allude to vaginas, I will scream and write a long paragraph.
- This paragraph, not counting this sentence, is over 200 words. Trust me, I will do it.
In conclusion, no I most do certainly not recommend this book and if anyone does know if that fish quote does allude the female genitals, please tell me and I'll happily write various lengthy paragraphs. Some might even be in Afrikaans.
So technically, I didn't finish it. I think I got to about 50 or something percent, according to my Kindle, but I should have stopped long ago.
Found it boring, too much religion, instalove, characters were annoying - need I go on?
So yeah, was sad that I didn't like it, because I love the crusades and thought I would as it had the added element of demons, but most of the characters annoyed me - I think I only like Mattias - is that the spelling?
Forgot when I started it, so just made it to today.
Yes - the book is spelt True Colors, but I live in South Africa where we like the u's so I write Colours with a u (like it's meant to be).
I probably fell in love with these characters from the get-go. I'm going to the Town Hall to adopt them, anyone coming with? If we all pool our money together, we can buy McDonalds.
It was such a good read. I loved basically every scene of it, especially anything to do with Marco and Oskar (who are my babies and I love them with all my heart). I really wanted to give it a 4-and-a-half, but stupid Goodreads doesn't offer that. tumblr_nposxnAqnw1uu93c8o4_250
I love the whole friends-to-lovers trope, but it's also the worst because they're friends, which means there's the possibility of them growing up, which means they know each other, so they'll be used to each other and know everything and probably have inside jokes and touch each other like real friends do and as much as I love that, it's also the absolute worst, as it makes you slam the table or whatever is near you - please let it not be an animal - and cry out in anguish because these characters that should be together are not.
I love how Marco sees in colours like come here and let me hug you and bring Oskar as well and then I can just hug both of you 24/7. It reminded of Percy Jackson - with the titles in a specific way. It seems like Chapter Titles are either Chapter 1 and so on or like in Harry Potter - The Deathday Party and so on; but I'm also happy to find a book where the titles are different.
They live in Germany, yet I never see any indication of that other than the landmarks? Where's the language and slang?
It's all very good and well that Marco's learning to love his body and all, but he basically goes from zero to a hundred in a heartbeat, to ‘I can barely look at myself' to ‘draw me, Elena.' Not that much realistic. It takes some time to love yourself and be able to let someone else look at you in that way.
There was this confusing part in the beginning of the book where the boys were 13 and the one narrating it (Marco) used words like ‘lurched', ‘slanted' and ‘protruded'. I look after a 12 year old and she's never used any of those words – and she's smart.
I was wondering on how to pronounce Marco, as I know three ways to pronounce it:
English version – as in Marco Polo
Afrikaans version – pronounced Mar-coh
Italian version – pronounced Mar-koh
- Just wondering which pronunciation I should use. Though considering the book is set in Germany, it's probably the Afrikaans version.
So, they never speak of what happened to Marco the entire book. I was wondering and speculating and thought they would tell me and the scene would end with Marco and Oskar kissing or whatever, but I'm happy that they didn't tell us.
I love how every chapter's title is a colour.
So yes, I would definitely recommend this book to everyone! It's amazing, cute, gay, what more can you want?
Quotes:
“Two swashbuckling enemy pirates race over high seas searching for Lord Large's lost treasure. Nothing and no one can stop them except their hearts – or lack thereof.”
- I'm down for that. Anybody with me?
“Bodies – nakedness – it's nothing to be ashamed of.”
- PREACH IT – let's just print this quote out and pin it out on every wall and shop window..
Link to my blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/oh-arc-my-arc/
Spoilers ahead: I have listed all the warnings and whatnot I could find in the book. They do spoil some of the plot, but it's better than to go blindly into the book
Warnings: Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Medication overdose (supporting character overdoses on his insulin). Supporting has depression and nothing is done about it. Intense dislike towards a diabetic person and their disorder. Racist language. Racist character. Non-consensual harassment (rubbing body parts up against another unwilling person). Slut-shaming. Lastly, the view of Christianity is a harsh one, and not necessarily true (from someone who has experienced a positive view of Christianity).
Received from Netgalley
So the cover caught my attention and the description made it seem as if it was a good book...and it just wasn't. I'm going to do my duty and tell you why I didn't like it and the few reasons why I did. Prepare for a long review and quotes. Get your snacks and towels, kittens.
I started not feeling the love for the main character within the first 50 pages of the book. He's so flighty and indecisive and while those are two traits associated with teenagers, the way Adam portrays it and how he comes across in the book makes him out to be childish. And he's not. He's in his final year of school, but the way he's been written, it feels like he's 14/15.
Those of you who are wondering if Christianity is like this – well, it depends on how harsh your church/pastor is. My old one was pretty harsh – part of the reason why I left – and this book's just bringing up all the old feelings I had when attending the church and believing. I didn't mark the book down because it brought up old feelings – I speak about the way faith is portrayed in the book in the next paragraph.
So I marked the book down half because of the characters/plot/dialogue (all usual reasons) but I also marked the book down because of how Christianity is portrayed, and more accurately, how the author portrays Christianity. Please note the following: I do not know the author, and therefore I am not aware of his religion, or lack of one; which is to say that I am discussing how the author writes the religion that is shown in the book, and not the author's religion. So there are a few quotes in the book that...irked me, but I'll mark all those quotes in the ‘quote' section of the review – there's a quote section because I couldn't stop myself from commenting on the quotes.
But anyway – so the author writes from the main male character's point of view, and he goes to Christian camp to try to turn straight – because you can pray the gay away, didya know? And obviously at the camp, there's a lot of talk about faith and God and most of it is negative towards anything that some readers might deem not sinful (masturbation, premarital sex, etc.). Like I know the author is trying to get into the whole religious thing to show the readers how heavy the camp is, but the way he's writing the story is just...not cool. It's too much. I'm not sure if it's just me and the feelings I have towards Christianity but I'm not liking the way everyone talks about faith in the book. I feel that the author is writing the Bible Camp view of faith (if you're understanding me) with too much vigour – like he's enjoying it.
And speaking of the parents – look, I grew up with Christian parents and family. My friendship circle and my parents' friendship circle is basically made up of Christians (well, not mine so much anymore). I know what's expected (from parents) and what God expects. But the parents in this novel are terrible...It's like the author was tired the one night of trying to flesh out the parents and decided: ‘all right! I'll make them crappy and just make them send Adam away so they won't have to deal with him!'
Ok, so, warning – I'm going to talk about one of the characters and depression. So one of Adam's roommates is depressed. They don't really talk about why he's depressed and they do absolutely nothing to help the poor guy. Adam and mostly everyone at the camp calls themselves Christians and yet they do nothing to help him? cough cough very unchristianlike.
The only reason why I sort of liked this book is because of three characters – Martin, Mike, and Rhonda. That's it.
I think the author thinks we can read Adam's mind. He makes Adam think/say sentences and he's like ‘ah, yes, I was thinking about this.' like where? Please show me. Do you know what that's called? Inconsistency.
Another problem I had with the book was the fact that Adam met one of the male characters – his love interest – basically immediately had a crush on him cough cough instalove and then when the love interest and Adam have a disagreement, Adam stops having a crush on the love interest.
Quotes:
“It's about a preacher who uses an app to brainwash his followers into believing God is speaking to them on their phones.”
- I will literally pay you to be able to read this instead of the book.
“Two boys shopping for clothes,” Greta says. “How interesting.”
- So if boys can't shop for clothes then they can't wear them, right? And also let's just bring up the fact that if they were two girls shopping together no weird thoughts would be there (but then again we could argue that if the one girl is a confirmed lesbian, the other would surely follow – if we were to play by the rules shown in the book.
“Camp Revelation.”
- A camp named after the book in the Bible that's about the end of the world? Yeah, ok. That's what the book's about, right? Hopefully the Bible hasn't changed the last time I read it. Which was in high school.
Turns out khakis and polo tops were the only things we're allowed to wear at the camp.”
- Because jeans and a tank top will turn you to sin.
“Screens get between you and God.”
- Except the Bible tells us that God is everywhere and the only reason why screens get between us and God is because we allow it to.
“The way a man finds another a man's wife attractive. And you know the commandment against acting on that.”
- ok A: If you're happy in your marriage, you shouldn't be looking at other women.
B: I'm like half sure that even thinking about finding another's man's wife is lust or covetousness (because women are property of their husbands – right?).
“I don't know if I would compare being gay to being addicted to drugs.”
“Both end in death and destruction.”
- Hang on – how does being gay make you more likely to die? Romeo and Juliet were straight and they died. Gatsby was straight(ish) and he died. Jack Dawson was straight and he died (ok let's stop with all the Di Caprio references).
“Rhonda gave everyone a scare yesterday. And she may have hurt the reputation of the camp.”
- The...reputation...of a camp that converts (or tries to convert gays or stop sinners or whatever)...is good? Oh right, people think they can pray the gay away.
Sarah is sitting next to Paul. I watch her as she takes his hand in hers. She looks into his eyes while she sings out of key at the top of her legs.
- whispers is that not a sin? Because seriously my youth had a whole talk on how to hug the opposite sex. Spoiler alert: Approach from the side, hug must not last more than 5ish seconds.
Ashley is having a Goodreads Giveaway! Read more here: Goodreads Giveaway! or read on to read my review!
Link to my blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/the-author-less-read/?frame-nonce=995302e5b8
Amount of Stars: Fiv
Ok, so first I've read this book at least five times (I mean, it could be ten, but I'm crap at Maths). Half of those times were editing it and the other half beta reading it. I'm not giving it five stars because I've read it five times or whatever (because if I have to go that route, all the Harry Potters would be over ten).
Nocturna deserves five stars because it's amazing. Like just read it. Give it a go. And give an indie author feels to feel. Because the author is a friend of mine and she's just wonderful and she will most probably just love you if you read her book (tbh she'll probably love you if you support Slytherins and hate Dumbledore and whatnot – as is seen by our very lengthy and heated discussions about Harry Potter and all the characters we want to adopt and hug and pair them up with each other).
All right so this is a YA Fantasy (and Fantasy is the genre that started me on reading – thank you, Pappa for reading LotR to me) and it's LGBT+ (which adds like 2 stars already). I mean everything's just wonderful in it. The characters are amazing and I just want to hug like all of them. Give or take a million times.
Read the book and you'll know why. I connected to some of the characters in the way I might act the way they did in certain circumstances, or how I would hope I would act (but I would definitely be a Merry and would most certainly be the one to accidentally kick armour off a well and wake up an entire army. I wonder if the goblin army in Moria reverted to cannibalism in order to survive. No, stop, DB. Stop finding ways to refer to cannibalism).
Onward with the characters. They're brilliant. They're funny. They care. They make you want to insert yourself into the story (which I suspect Narnia and Inkheart took that advice very close to their hearts. Not that I'm complaining).
So now that the characters have drawn you in, allow the plot to draw you in. Ashley (the author) has spent a lot of time building the world. And you can see that she's spent a lot of time on the world – which is very important, especially when you're writing a fantasy novel. Also add to the fact that Nocturna is her very first novel, and she self-published it. Can we get a hell yeah for her (hell yeah!)? Can we get a whoop whoop (whoop whoop!)? Can we get her redemption for Tom Riddle (well duh!)?
I mean I could literally go on for days about this book and how wonderful it is and how you should all read it, but then go ahead and then read it! Post a review on Goodreads and Amazon and rave to your friends about it!
Perfect for readers who love fantasy worlds, royalty and love. And sarcastic characters (Valon, you beaut).
This is one of the few sports I'd willingly sit and watch. That being said, I'm sad my joints aren't up to field hockey anymore because I really loved playing that! Even just hitting a ball around the backyard would be fun. And also, if I had a bunch of friends who were also either into The Foxhole Court or just very into hockey-like sports, I would've tried creating a team. Would we have played often? I very much doubt it, but just imagine! For those of you wondering, I would go for a defensive position (in hockey I played Left Back – it was great because a friend was another Back and our other friend was the goalie so we'd just chill in the goalie box until the ball came our side. Oh the wonders of being on a lower team so we could get away with things).
This is another book that I'd say reads like fanfiction. Which is a very good compliment. I guess some might say that that's not so much of a compliment but that's fine! Everyone has their opinions and are allowed to express them.
Neil Abram Josten has my entire heart. Like if he were real and Exy were a real sport I would make posters (as in tape A4 pages together and write with my awful writing) and sit on the couch and watch every match. Because you know, he would see my posters. I just love him so much. ‘“I'm fine”, Neill lied,' is the funniest and saddest thing ever because you get to know what type of character he is quite early on (or at least I know) – so I'm always just about shrieking at the book that he's not.
Andrew is also another character whom I love so very much. I know some people might say ‘but he does drugs and is not really a great person' and like a) basically all the characters make bad decisions and aren't entirely good (except for Renee, she's an angel) and b) there are valid reasons for him doing drugs. Andrew goes through a lot of character development and we love to see it! And he's in therapy and does make an effort to better himself!
Coach Wymack is actually a character I recently started to come to love (thanks to Tumblr, lol). I saw a lot of discussion on Tumblr and then for myself when I re-read the series. He needs a lot more credit than what (I think) we originally give him. There would be a lot of others who would try to manage the team and not last the first month. And for that I think Wymack should get a huge raise.
I felt Wymack's frustration when he specifically told the team to act nice on tv and Neil basically throws everything to the wind by majorly insulting one of the top Exy players. Iconic lines, though. Just some more truly iconic Neil quotes.
Another reason why I like to say this reads like fanfiction – the plot. It's a bit wild, but then again, so are a lot of popular movies. Like any royal rom-com – does no one recognize the royal person? Does the town not have newspapers? But I love the plot of the series – where it starts, where it ends up, the journey the series takes the reader on.
And also, sometimes the more ‘outlandish plots' are super fun. Like not all book series you read have to be serious and thought-provoking (but also nothing's wrong with you if you do just like serious books). I, for one, love to read ‘cringey' books.
Honest review because I beta read it.
So I beta read this book and the author kept me up to date with what was happening - and I was very happy that he did because I loved the book.
It's a story about people with superpowers, which already gets like 2 stars. And the imagery of the people using the powers gains another star. And I gave it another star because I liked the book so much.
The Rising is basically Percy Jackson, which is amazing because PJO is amazing.
I recommend this book to everyone that wants a good, fast paced and interesting read. You won't regret it and I can't wait to read the next book in the series
Technically it's 3-and-a-half, but Goodreads doesn't know how to play nicely.
CHARACTERS: Boom! Elizabeth is damn right awesome and yass!! Female character!!! Elizabeth comes so prepared I should ask her to summarise my college subjects. Wowee, Elizabeth figures things out so wonderfully I want to ask her to figure out why data is so expensive in South Africa (no really, tell me how much you guys have to pay for 1GB) and why the hell Donald Trump is still running, much less alive.
Received a copy of this eBook as a thank you for beta reading it. Then proceeded to promptly forget about it until I saw it a few days ago. Managed to find time amongst all my crying and stressing about college to read this.
One can never have enough Sherlock Holmes inspired books. I mean, sure, you can say no, but you know you'll be reading it.
Who stops while running from a murderer/downright weirdo to write down a few paragraphs of your thoughts? Unless she was using a text-to-speech app (if you have one that doesn't need constant data to work, please message me), which would actually prove to be harmful, as the weirdo can hear you and kill you. But I do like the fact that she's recording everything.
ACDH – I'll try not to call it ACDC
What kind of gym class do you have if they teach you archery? We had a basic of swimming and running (though sometime we did ‘rounders') and weird summery games (hoops, bok in die hok – a type of dodgeball – and in the winter, P.E/P.T was inside, and we mostly did Aerobics or something like that. I would have given my left arm to learn archery (though I'd probably hurt a few people in the process).
People in American get detentions for the weirdest things. I mean, what Cassy said wouldn't bet worth a detention in my high school (it's not even that bad, that's something I would tell my friend in the hallway even with teachers around me and they would probably just laugh.
If Elizabeth doesn't think the police chief doesn't have the skills, how would she have them? I mean, I'm sure people would raise an eyebrow if you buy the same equipment police stuff.
The writing is at times boring, but stilly good.
Elizabeth has a very good and realistic relationship with her father. It's actually interesting because if this book were a YA, you'd see a case of absent parents and odd relationships with the protagonist's parents. Perhaps it's changed because it's an MG novel? Or maybe it's just the author' doing? So well done on this. Half a star added for the whole parent-daughter relationship and it feeling real.
Professor Martin sighed. He looked like someone about to do something he knew he would hate. “The whole building is encased in a powerful lockdown spell. There's no way to get out without breaking through the spell and I need some time to sit and study it carefully. If I'm not careful, the person who put it there will know.” Seeing Elizabeth's mouth start to open, he cut her off, “I know you have questions; I talked to Albert, and we'll give you a history lesson after we get out of here. For now, let's get dessert and I'll do my best.”
: Oh yeah sure. Let's just go from not wanting to tell them things to let's just tell them everything. I'm sure if Professor Martin just said, “Some security problems” it would be okay, but let's go with it for plot and exposition.
So if the runes were enchantment runes and not locking runes, hence the reason why everyone's so calm, why is Elizabeth so against it and awake/aware? Did she not drink from the Kool-Aid as it passed through the crowd? Is she more aware of magic than others? And if she is, then why does she still ‘drink the Kool-Aid'?
Even though the action's good, there are times when there's a sentence of action and then that's it. Like a character does something that'll usually be an entire paragraph worth of imagery, is only one or two sentences. It's not much of an annoyance, but I'm pretty sure you want your readers to imagine a lot of the world.
So yes, this book is good. It's interesting and it's about magic and mystery and female characters doing things. Add it to your list for a good, quick read.
