DB

I dnfed this very early on - didn't think I even reached 20%
I didn't like any of the main characters - couldn't connect with them - which I think is a very important thing in a book.
I also didn't like the narration or how the characters spoke with each other - which is another reason why I didn't choose to carry on with the book.

https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2019/07/28/running-with-lions-review/

Title: Running With Lions
Author: Julian Winters
Year Published: 2018
Publisher: Duet Books (imprint of Interlude Press)
Genre: Young Adult ~ Contemporary ~ LGBT+ Characters ~ Romance ~ Sports
Stars: 5

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc through the author in exchange for a free and honest review. The image header and the quote edits used are my own and the link in the book's details is to the book's Goodreads page. The summary is my own (well, I summarised the Goodreads description). All opinions expressed are my own.

So there's this high school guy named Sebastian Hughes, right? He's also a disaster bi, the best character you can get secondhand embarassment from, a soccer player, and also a really good friend.
The book starts off with Sebastian and his two friends (Mason and Willie) attending a summer soccer camp. And they know most of the other team members, having played with a few of them before. But there's a new team member this time – well, not new for Sebastian – as it's actually his ex-friend (Emir Shah), and of course he doesn't stay an ex-friend for long...

So, I first read this book...maybe 2 something years ago (as a beta reader)? And I just fell in love with it instantly – as Julian is that good of a writer (and such a good person too). So excuse me if I go on and on about how good this book and the characters are. Or rather don't excuse me since I should be talking about how good the book is.

The thing with the really good books is that it's difficult to say exactly why you loved them so much and why everyone should read them. I mean I could say that I just want to set up tables at literally every single bookstore in the world and just hold the book up so people will buy it (I mean, have you seen the cover?? Is it not just absolutely fantastic???).

But no, people want coherency and bullet points. Why, people, why? So I'll try my best – with the coherency and bullet points. Or maybe just a bit of the coherency – like 2 percent coherency.

So
Running With Lions is a:
cute, coming-of-age story following Sebastian Hughes (who exemplifies the term disaster bi, but we love him anyway).
He's a part of this soccer team (Lions, hence the title).
His team is just the best?!

Like we need more of this in books? A diverse team, with characters who care for each other and are so affectionate with each other like I just die because they're all so cute with each other – and THIS IS WHAT WE NEED!! We're used to seeing girls be affectionate with each other – open hugs, warm touches – but in this the guys are so loving and affectionate with each other – and we need more of this!!

The characters found in this book are the type of characters I want to see more of and even be able to write more of. These characters who truly, truly care about each other and who are funny as well as make you care about them – because I did do that – I cared a lot about these characters (which is not all that difficult to do).

Another thing that this book tackled really really well was body positivity (this was especially my favourite scene in the book) and just positivity (of himself). Sebastian had moments where he didn't think of himself as a good soccer player or wasn't content with himself or his body and by the end of the book he's more positive about himself and more confident about his soccer skills. That was something that was extremely important, as so many readers feel exactly the way he does and deserve to feel good about themselves and about their skills.

Emir and Sebastian are very very cute and I just loved them together. They complented each other well and they had an easy-going romance. That's something that I like seeing a lot of in books – where it's clear to see why the two characters are together. Listen, we need a whole bunch of short stories that delve in deeper into the book – like I just need more of this book!

The supporting characters were some of my favourites too (I just had a lot of favourites in this book, okay). Mostly Grey, I loved anytime she was mentioned or showed up, but I thought that she could do better than Mason and I didn't like that side of him. Like I said earlier, I liked that the team and the coach was very supportive of everyone and didn't try to change anyone (well, just help them with their soccer, I guess). Sebastian's mom was really cute too, and we always need more supportive parents in teen stories

STREET FREAKS BY TERRY BROOKS (REVIEW)

Street Freaks

Terry Brooks

Year Published: 2018

Publisher: Grim Oak Press

Genre: Young Adult ~ Science Fiction ~ Fantasy

Stars: 1 and a half, but I'll make it 2

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc through Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. The image header used is my own and the link at the top of the post links back to the book's Goodreads page. All quotes given in the review are from the e-arc and therefore might not be accurate. All opinions expressed are my own.


This looked extremely interesting on Netgalley – science fiction, written by the (apparently) stellar Terry Brooks (I've only read the screenplay of Hook but my dad always raves about Shannara Chronicles), so I wanted to give it a try. Heck, even the reviews I looked at it spoke positively!

And then it slowly started to become boring. It's not that Ash (the main character) is boring, but he's whiny. And while that is relatable in terms of him being a teenager, there's a difference between a realistic whiny teenager and a jerk. And honestly, I'll rather have a boring character than a whiny one. He wants to find out the truth about his father and what happened, but then forgets that it's ever happened as soon as Cay comes in.

Now, Cay is a pleasure synth – which means she's sort of like a robot? And her only role is to please men (first of all, how heteronormative. And then secondly what a way to write a female character). The other (secondary) characters also sometimes don't treat her like she's a normal person, they only see her for what she's ‘made for' – which just made me mad.

But now I'm going to rant about all the ways Ash annoyed me (towards Cay and how he felt about her and thought about her). So Ash is super entranced by Cay (he's also seventeen – and while I'm not being rude about teenage love; I think it's also true that teenage love can be.. immature – or well, Ash definitely made it seem immature); and while you could make the argument that she's a pleasure synth and is therefore created to be looked at by men (which is how you can clearly tell this book is written by a man) but I'd rather you didn't as it's a really stupid argument that you clearly made up in a few seconds. And the way he talks about her puts her on a pedestal WHEN SHE CLEARLY DOESN'T WANT TO.

Next will be a couple of quotes I found re Ash and Cay that just annoyed me so much I had to put the book down for a few hours.



So what was she before? A painting? A table?




LisTEN, if a guy ever said that about me I would boot him through the rugby poles.




She's helPING you WASh not signing her ENTIre life over to you!!


And even she tells him to stop thinking about her, he doesn't, which was just so annoying to read. Like why did we have to read from his perspective?

I hoped the book would feature more street racing than it did. If you ask me, they should've focused more on the street racing and not added the unnecessary romance bit (Cay could've still come in, as I liked her, it could've just been without the romance).

The main plot (as the street racing was an underutilised subplot and the romance an unwanted subplot) just... (to me) fell flat and went nowhere. By the end of the novel, I barely remembered what had happened and why the main character was there. And in a novel, whether it be contemporary, or epic fantasy, or a sci-fi like this – the plot has to be structured. It has to be well-thought out and it has to connect throughout the story and it has to remain true. Otherwise what you get is a story that doesn't follow through, one that doesn't make sense.


That's all I thought of the book (mostly because I didn't want to keep on thinking about the book) Have you read this or saw it? Do you think I was right? Are you also really upset and frustrated with how some male authors write female characters? Tell me in the comments!

I've seen a bunch of Debbie Tung's comics before – her other work is hilarious and usually, if you're a bookworm and you're on Facebook, you'll be tagged on a whole bunch of book-related posts – so I definitely have seen some of Book Love before out in the wild (the wild meaning Facebook, of course).

So I was very happy to receive the arc through Netgalley! And sometimes, yes, it does have its reservations – a lot of these comics about funny bookworm problems do use book reader stereotypes. Even though those stereotypes are fun to read about – for the first few times, because I've had so many older people assume that because I like to read, I prefer physical books. But I don't. I like e-books so I can enlarge the font, or audiobooks so I can clean my room and listen to a book. Or a lot of people assume that because I read a lot, I love the classics. Which, yeah, I actually don't. And people do ask for book recommendations but they're not interested in YA or diverse books

I realise that the start of the synopsis actually comes from the movie but I've watched the movie(s) and read the books a bunch of times, so I'm like 90% sure that it's only in the movies. It's such a fun quote nonetheless. I have't read this series in ages, I can't even remember if I've read the last book or two, but I distinctly remember reading the older books over and over again.

I loved all the nostalgia the book brought back. From Mia thinking the worst thing in the world was her mom dating her Algebra teacher (and me not really understanding what that was because stuff like Geometry and Algebra was all rolled into one class for us), to Mia writing down actual dialogue between characters. Even all her homework – though I barely understood most of it – I still loved the memories it brought back for me.

I definitely didn't feel this way back when I used to read it all the time, but Mia is so freaking dramatic. All. The. Time. Whether she's talking about how she looks at Josh Richter and suddenly she knows what he's having for supper because they're that connected, to her moaning about how much homework she has; she is so so dramatic.

While I love her being dramatic and all the references which date the book (which is something I actually really love), it also makes me realise how much YA has changed? Like Mia makes remarks about the popular guy (Josh) and how she thinks she's stupid in case Josh sexually harasses her and she doesn't notice – I didn't notice anything wrong with that before but now, of course, I'm like... what on earth.

And that isn't even like, a once-off creepy thing. She mentions a fan of Lily's radio talk show – how Lily hopes to enrage him (the fan) enough to go out and get a gun – which I think isn't a good thing to begin with and reading it in today's environment...

There's other moments as well and if I carry on with the series reread (which I will probably, since I haven't even finished the last two or so books), I'll probably pick them all up (the iffy moments), and it might deter me from reading, but I also think it's important? What do you think?

The book also brought back the memory of Lars, Mia's bodyguard – whom I loved, his funny expressions and Mia's almost friendship with him (pretty sure it's like that). And all her other friends we don't see at all in the movies – Tina Hakim Baba, even Boris Pelkowski. I'm glad Mia gets to make other friends.

I must say, I do prefer Lily and Clarisse's personalities in the movies over the books. Lily is more likable (for me) in the movies because Mia seems to talk less about her and more about their friendship (which is also because there's less of Mia's journaling, where she talks about Lily a lot). Clarisse, in the movies, is more warm of a character. She isn't as rude to Mia and other characters as she is in the books – which she is definitely rude.

This is a very much romantic anthology. It speaks for itself. You can feel the love with every verse. But it's part love and part loss. And there's no separate parts like Part 1: Love and Part 2: Loss. They just blend together and it's both love and loss. And it's very interesting because normally you would definitely have those two conflicting themes separate, but Taplin just puts them together and somehow it works.

As well as being both love and loss, the anthology also shows the bad side of love alongside the good side. How love can be amazing and beautiful but also deadly and dangerous.

Yes, I did rate it 3 stars. Sometimes I felt it went too mushy with the love. Not that there's anything wrong with mushy love (well, unless you're not interested in that mushy love

I was really hoping to absolutely love this one as it seemed to have cool things – pirates, tons of magic, immense world-building. And a mermaid to boot! Unfortunately I soon realised it wasn't going that way, but also that I still liked it enough to carry on. 3 stars for both books, which is totally fine!

I think it was a mixture of Grace wanting to do absolutely everything plus it's her debut novel. To me it just didn't just work out although I will commend her for trying to do a lot. In my opinion debut authors do tend to cram so many things in their debuts – either because they aren't sure if they'll get another one or they want to prove themselves. Grace is a good author, yes, but I think she just tried too much here (I hope it's not a recurring theme as I have another of her books to read).

I'd say it was also a combination of the characters, the plot, and world-building – all too much and not well-managed. Maybe others felt differently (as is their right). There are seven versions of magic, and all very complicated (to understand). Maybe if there were only 3 or 5 (ways of magic) or still seven just not so big. The world-building goes along with the magic system – in that it's confusing (but also they are tied together). I didn't understand much of it and that confusion carried on into the second book. Plus because it's so linked to Amora, whom I started to like less, I sort of didn't want to pay a lot of attention (whoops).

Most of the characters were okay but I didn't really feel connected to them. I didn't like Ferrick at the start but I realised that was mainly the narrator's voice for him – it made him so whiny and annoying. Ferrick's personality and voice (both written and verbal) definitely improved for the second book. I liked Bastien and Amora but as the books went on I liked them less (no real reasons). Vataea, the mermaid, was probably my most-liked alongside Ferrick. I did get the feeling she was mostly there to play against Amora but I like that they became friends. They could've easily made them jealous of each other. Plus she did have a full personality other than just “pretty and magic”.

Merged review:

I was really hoping to absolutely love this one as it seemed to have cool things – pirates, tons of magic, immense world-building. And a mermaid to boot! Unfortunately I soon realised it wasn't going that way, but also that I still liked it enough to carry on. 3 stars for both books, which is totally fine!

I think it was a mixture of Grace wanting to do absolutely everything plus it's her debut novel. To me it just didn't just work out although I will commend her for trying to do a lot. In my opinion debut authors do tend to cram so many things in their debuts – either because they aren't sure if they'll get another one or they want to prove themselves. Grace is a good author, yes, but I think she just tried too much here (I hope it's not a recurring theme as I have another of her books to read).

I'd say it was also a combination of the characters, the plot, and world-building – all too much and not well-managed. Maybe others felt differently (as is their right). There are seven versions of magic, and all very complicated (to understand). Maybe if there were only 3 or 5 (ways of magic) or still seven just not so big. The world-building goes along with the magic system – in that it's confusing (but also they are tied together). I didn't understand much of it and that confusion carried on into the second book. Plus because it's so linked to Amora, whom I started to like less, I sort of didn't want to pay a lot of attention (whoops).

Most of the characters were okay but I didn't really feel connected to them. I didn't like Ferrick at the start but I realised that was mainly the narrator's voice for him – it made him so whiny and annoying. Ferrick's personality and voice (both written and verbal) definitely improved for the second book. I liked Bastien and Amora but as the books went on I liked them less (no real reasons). Vataea, the mermaid, was probably my most-liked alongside Ferrick. I did get the feeling she was mostly there to play against Amora but I like that they became friends. They could've easily made them jealous of each other. Plus she did have a full personality other than just “pretty and magic”.

https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/the-summer-of-jordi-perez-by-amy-spalding/

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles)
AMY SPALDING
Year Published: 2018
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Genre: Young Adult ~ Contemporary ~ LGBT+ characters ~ Romance
Stars: 4

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc through Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. The image header and the quote edits used are my own and the link at the top of the post links back to the book's Goodreads page. All quotes given in the review are from the e-arc and therefore might not be accurate. The summary is my own (well, I summarised the Goodreads description). All opinions expressed are my own.

Lil' summary: Abby Ives has always been the one content to just be happy with her blog about plus-size fashion and style and she seems to be thinking she'll do more of the same when she starts an internship at her favourite boutique. That seems more difficult when she starts to fall in love with Jordi Perez, the other boutique intern.

So why the best burger in Los Angeles? Well, they live in Los Angeles and burgers are amazing. Okay, the burgers are because she makes an unintentional friend, Jax, who has to go out and try burgers for his dad's app.

And then things start to change, and Abby has to decide if she still wants to be in the shadows, or step out a bit.

Review: I absolutely loved this book. It's more about fashion, it's more about a good summer. It's about love, and acceptance, and understanding why you do what you're good at. It's about finding yourself and finding more friends and even love (listen, I get happy at some cliché things, and this is definitely one of them).

Abby is such a good character. She's realistic and funny. She makes you root for her, you want her to be happy and to get what she wants. What's more is that she makes you feel like you're there – which is something I always enjoy in books and something I think is important to have – the ability to relate to a character.

Her love interest, Jordi, was a good character. I liked to see her passion of photography and was happy to see her as Abby's love interest.

Another point of the book that I really liked was the romance. It was super sweet and so cute and just something that I really liked seeing. That and it had the feeling of a total rom-com – like something you could see on the big screen.

A side character I just wanted to squeeze becuase he too great was Jax – he was absolutely delightful to read. He was kind, and a good friend to my girl, Abby. And I mean, he had the best job – where can I get a job like this? Like eating burgers in the name of helping your dad? Could we carry on to trying the other foods – like the ice-cream? Or the nachos or sushi? Yes, please, I will sign up for all of those.

All in all, a very cute read, definitely perfect for the summer and great if you need a pick-me-up book with good ownvoices representation.

I started to like both main characters but that stopped early and then I just disliked both of them. I sort of liked Laia a bit more than Elias. I was, however, annoyed at Laia quite a bit and that didn't stop in this book. Laia's shown as this strong character, and she is, but the constant, constant mentions of needing to find her brother... did get annoying and repetitive. Especially when she kept saying that her need to save her brother was immediate and then took her time. I get needing to make plans but it just seemed like she kept forgot her urgent need to save him every time she saw Elias.

I'm hoping that Elias gets better and learns when he's away from the military school. I don't like it when the character says or does things because they have to fit in or to ensure others that they're not sympathetic. In here, mind you, they won't like it if Elias is being sympathetic to slaves... and treat them like they're people.

I can guess at the end romantic couple but I really hope they won't do a love triangle because I just can't see it. I do like Helene a bit more than Elias and Laia but not enough that I want her as a romantic contender. Also I just didn't really see enough reasons for the possible romantic couple to be together anyway.

I liked some of the world-building but I thought it was a lot to put in the first book. And then Tahir started to focus more on the characters and plot so the proper world-building was put on the back burner. I love world-building but don't like it when it's set aside for other aspects of the book (unless the other aspects are done well and I like them.

I was instantly drawn by the comps – Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity and immediately wanted to read the book. I wanted to get the same type of psychological horror we see happen to Natalie Portman's character in Black Swan – that type of dreading we get from having to see the character slowly going down this path where they're not sure what's happening to them. With Paranormal Activity¸ I'm a fan of seeing creepy and disturbing things happening to the characters and sometimes those around them who don't believe them (about the paranormal happenings) at first.

I like Marianne – her personality and her narration. We see enough from her point of view that we root for her from the beginning and like her early on enough. Which is a good thing because I really don't like reading books where I don't like the narrator. She's also an unreliable narrator – though that's more because she's experiencing the strange circumstances happening around her rather than her being unreliable due to her personality.

I liked Ron and her relationship with Marianne. She believed Marianne from the beginning and helped her as much as she could. Their friendship easily melded into a sweet relationship and I really enjoyed that transition.


The first half of the book starts creating the atmosphere and showing the reader odd things that are occur around Marianne. Then it starts to escalate and the action happens more – which is exactly what I like in this genre.

Memory plays a big role in the story and Marianne's understanding of herself and what's happening. I always enjoy reading books where memory loss occurs. And by enjoy, I mean I like to angst over the memory loss, the character having the memory loss and now having to deal with that. And the book adds the paranormal genre and the love for this book grows.

Most of my experience with the paranormal genre comes from movies, so I did compare the storyline and the timeline of this book to paranormal movies. It worked out well and I'm impressed by how well Bérubé channeled the feeling of a horror movie into a book format. I could easily see this as a movie and I think that's a big reason why I liked reading this so much – the easily readability of The Dark Beneath the Ice.
Everything flowed well together and although it did sometimes feel like it dragged in places, the pace picked up nicely the next chapter.

Ghost Squad was a cute and short middle grade but nothing really past that. It held its own in terms of characters and plot but I don't think it'll be a book I remember much of. The book shined in the characters and their relationships with each other, which was nice to see. I liked that Lucely (our main character) and Syd were such close friends and how Syd stuck by Lucely.

It's not that I didn't like the plot, it was easy enough for a middle grade but that was about it. Nothing really further to it. I've read other middle grade books with better plots so I know it can be better. But I think this book will be the perfect match for another reader.

I've watched Neil from Youtube so I was happy to see this book on the Read Now's on Netgalley (aka also the worst place to be if you're terrible at restraint like me. It should be renamed to something like People who can't restrain themselves – but that's too long, so we can shorten it to PWCRT – we'll have to work on the pronunciation or even rewrite the renaming).

I read (well in this anthology it mentions) that he wrote some of these while on the road and I can just see that – waiting at a petrol station or in the queue at a coffee shop and just furiously scribbling on a notepad or the back of a receipt. And I love it because it's so raw – which is something that's a theme with him – rawness in his writing. He writes poems that are to the point, ones that are real.

What I love about poetry (and slam poetry in particular) is that different people can find different meanings in the poems. I think it's so important for writers to talk about mental illness and to not treat it like something that should be stashed away in the corner. It shows that it can and should be commonplace, it should be showcased, it should be discussed.

Favourite quotes:

The Ballad of Fuckknuckle Jones:
He's the kind of guy who, when he says you'll be fine, is probably right. The end isn't coming soon, just what's next.

All Ages:
What's more punk rock than living despite all that which has tried to make you not?

Psalam 12, In Which the Author Alienates His Audience, Part 2:
Your cat is the best thing that happens in your day; your cat is the best thing that happens in your cat's day.

Going to Wales:
...right now I'm inventing castles and in one of them is a dragon.

The Future:
I know tomorrow is going to come because I've seen it. Sunrise is going to come,
all you have to do is wake up.
I saw the future, I did, and in it I was alive

I was so so excited for this book because the premise of it sounded so fascinating. Modern Labyrinth, reality TV show, super cool, right? I did, however, completely forget about this book for a while. That wasn't the reason I didn't finish it, though.

I did really really like how they blended the modernity with the mythology. It was a cool idea, just not well thought out re characters. But just like the previous dnf, it was the characters that annoyed me to no end. I managed to get to a whole 30% before I realised that even though I liked reading it, I wasn't enjoying it.

There's also some instalove and I'm not much of a fan of that. I do think instaloves can be written well, but I didn't feel like this for this romance. Ariadne also seemed to be a ‘not like other girls' girl and I'm not so interested in that. And I know I didn't read much of Theseus, but I really felt like he was boring, as was Ariadne for me.

There was also the problem of them trying to blend the modernity with the mythology just too much. Like swapping the iconic the face that launched a thousand ships line for a wink that will launch a million GIFs. I think it was by the ...his emptiness stowed away like he's closing a pop-up window on his browser that I knew I had to leave before I went into another reading slump.

I keep on thinking of this as Here Be Monsters because one of my wips (currently on pause) is titled similar. But that's definitely where the similarity ends

The cover is absolutely stunning. I'm now more for illustrated people on covers but this model did a really good job in holding up an animal skull in the creepiest way ever (which sounds weird because I don't think there's a non-creepy way of doing it

Gemini Keeps Capricorn #3
Anyta Sunday
Year published: 2017
Publisher: Anyta Sunday
Genre: Contemporary Romance ~ LGBT+ ~ New Adult ~ Humour
Stars: 4

I received this e-arc from A Novel Take PR and Anyta Sunday in exchange for my free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Leo Loves Aries Review (#1) ~ Scorpio Hates Virgo Review (#2)

Like all good readers, I love witty banter. Nearly all the characters in this series are so full of witty banter they're bursting at the seams. The more sarcastic the characters are the happier I am. Though if you're a reader who's not so fond of witty banter, don't worry, you're also a good reader, there are many types of good readers.

Wesley Hidaka is a relatable character. He studies with his textbook without really studying. He focuses his mind on several other tasks rather than studying. And Lloyd Reynolds – well, first of all, he studies Mathematics, which I don't get because Maths makes my brain hurt and then I need to hunt down chocolate – but he also really likes coffee, so he's all right in my book.

The plot keeps on bringing up the fact that the two main characters are undoubtedly attracted to each other but can't, (due to Lloyd being the RA) and so of course the attraction between them just grows, which is just absolutely fantastic.

Amidst all the drama and slow-burn romance, which is inevitable in a Sunday novel, there's also the fantastic chapter headings – in this book it's to do with coffee.

Song of Blood and Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles Book #1
L. Penelope
Year published: 2018
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Young Adult ~ Fantasy ~ New Adult ~ Romance
Stars: Dnf'ed at 50%. Wasn't interesting me enough. But for the most part – it was a 2 star read.

Someone said on Goodreads that the book was self-published in 2015 and then was picked up by a publishing company. But since I received the book through Netgalley – I'm choosing the details of the ‘newly' published over the self-published detais

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from Netgalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for a free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. Please note that as this as I read an arc I have no way of knowing that if the scene shows up in the published version.

Warning: There's illusions towards rape and also an attempt at rape.

So, I wanted to like this book. It looked good – had magic and mentioned a land at war and I really like those things. But then it all fell apart. The book wasn't interesting enough. I tried to keep on – that's why I kept reading until 50% – thought it was maybe a slow read – and it was a slow read, but it didn't pick up for me.

The characters were a bit boring to me. I liked Jasminda, though, she was strong, but her story confused me a lot. I could never keep up with which side of the land her dad comes from and which side her mom comes from and what's the story behind both – it all confused me so much. And Jack, yeah, it's not that he was too intense, it's just that he instantly fell in love with Jasminda and that's not really in my interests.

The plot, while decent, had too much going on and too much time spent highlighting subplots to allow the main plot to thrive. The plot had the chance and ability to grow, it just didn't – and that upset me a bit.

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!

Scorpio Hates Virgo #2
Anyta Sunday
Year published: 2017
Publisher: Anyta Sunday
Genre: Contemporary Romance ~ LGBT+ ~ New Adult ~ Humour
Stars: 4

I received this e-arc from Netgalley and Anyta Sunday in exchange for my free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Leo Loves Aries Review (#1) ~ Gemini Keeps Capricorn Review (#3)

I love how Anyta writes characters – I fall in love with them the second they appear on a page or open their mouth – and I love it when I fall in love with the character within the first chapter. It allows the reader to root for the character from the get-go. Not that rooting for the character/loving the character in the middle of the book or near the end is anything less than loving the character from the beginning, but you get what I mean, right? Yes, no, carry on? Okay.

The plot sounds simple – Percy Freedman returns to his aunt's house to sell it (after she passes away) but sees his ‘nemesis', (like extreme extraness, tell me more tell me more) Callaghan Glover, (I mean we all know why the enemies-to-lovers trope exists and I am here for all of it – it exists because the characters don't actually hate each other, they're just ‘nemeses' – please note the quotation marks) and because his aunt used to live in a cul-de-sac where the neighbours are super friendly, the result is a game that I don't fully understand? Like do they just allow their neighbours to go into each other's houses?

I think I loved Cal more than I loved Percy (Cal likes dinosaurs, I like dinosaurs – it just makes sense). Anyta also writes characters who are family-orientated – they have loving relationships with their families and I love this!

P.S. I thought what's really funny is that even though Percy claims Cal is his nemesis, Cal really isn't? So, it's even funnier because Percy's trying to maintain the fact that he dislikes Cal when it's actually him (Percy) just trying not to give into his insane crush on Cal – which just makes it so much better.

Actual rating 3.75

Cameron Post thinks her life is good. But then her parents die. She thinks her life is getting better. But then she's found kissing another girl and sent to a conservative boarding school. And in there she finds friends again. She finds happiness. She finds herself.

CW/TR: Self-harm, attempted suicide, homophobia.

So like, I liked this book, really liked it, like a 4, 4.5 out of 5 (stars) – which sounds great, right? It's just the pacing was very slow – which made me drop it down to 3.5. Doesn't mean I didn't like it, I did. It was just a bit slow. It also doesn't mean it isn't worth 4 or 5 stars, it probably is. And I went back and forth, trying to figure out if I should rate it 4 stars, because I did like it, but did I enjoy reading it enough to give it 4 stars? No, I felt 3 stars while reading it.

But I'm not for slow books. I've known about this book for years but I didn't know much about it? I thought it was only about a girl in a small town (the original cover shows that) and then maybe she falls in love. I didn't expect a book like this. I liked that the story started when Cameron was young. I think it's so important to show that girls liking girls and boys liking boys and everything happens when they're young and we have to let kids know that it's okay to feel that way.

The formatting on this e-arc was off but it did make me change my kindle font to all bold – I think it's sort of easier on my eyes? Or it's just nice to look at? Well, I tried using the nicer fonts, but it got difficult to look at. This wasn't the reason why I marked it 3 stars, if you wanted to know. Just annoyed that the fonts were like this.

I loved Cameron from the start. I remember I liked Adam when we met him but Jane took a while to like. I think that's because she did put up a wall and Cameron and the reader had to learn to trust her. But then I started to love Jane!! But those adults (at the camp and Ruth) ????!!! ANNOYED ME ENDLESSLY LIKE JUST THROW THEM ALL INTO THE ABYSS WHERE THEY BELONG. Like how do you profess being a good person and wanting to look after teenagers (who really really need that because they're in that spot where they do start to question themselves AND IF you're an ass who decides to make them start hating themselves, guess what they're gonna do!!

Also, you should watch the movie because it's excellent!!

If you've spent some time around the humour side of the Internet (which I recommend you do sparingly as Internet users have weird ideas of the word and meaning of ‘funny') – you've most likely seen some of Sarah's Scribbles. They're short. They're funny. They're so darn relatable.

This was no different from her other work I have seen. She blends humour with everything that I'm feeling – yes, coffee might make me more anxious, but it might also make me productive. Yes, I am known for calling my cat everything under the sun (he's my sunshine, my lamb, my chicken, etc etc), but does he know what his actual name is and can he tell other cats what his name is?

But at the same time it speaks about humour and cats and life – it also speaks a little about how we treat ourselves – burnout, seeing our accomplishments as failure and all. And that it's okay to take a break once in a while or to be happy and proud of ourselves even when we create something that's not a total 100% from the start.

I lent this book from a friend who really liked it so I tried finishing it (and probably could've, but I was so busy with packing so I just...didn't finish it. I could've, definitely could've, but by then I just didn't have the motivation to finish it. 
I understand that the book is set in extremely sad and really bad times - I know, I studied history in high school, I know all that. But I had no interest in the characters? They were...boring? Is that rude to say of characters in a concentration camps? Probably. Definitely. 
I read that it was originally a script and you could definitely tell that, because it was very dialogue-centered, but even the dialogue wasn't enough to want me to keep reading.

And the way they did all the transition scenes (so many) was too fast to gauge a good understanding of everything. 

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 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.

Bloodborne (#3)
Archer Kay Leah
Stars: 3
I received this e-arc through Less Than Three Press and Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Note that even though this is the third book in a series, it can be read as a standalone.

I like how each book expands on the world and how different characters see/experience it based on their religion or stature/class. I mean, yes, it's the same world, but through a different character's eyes, which basically gives the readers a chance to enter the world again.

The author incorporates the Goddess concept and characters who are Goddess touched into the story in such a way that you can't help but get engrossed (as I love magic).

As for the two main characters, Adren and Ress, they were interesting, mostly because it took me longer to like them than in the other two books (A Question of Counsel – Aeley and Lira; Four – Tash and Mayr). They're (Adren and Ress) not badly written, I think I just didn't like their personalities until they proved themselves to me.