DB

I know I spoke about Beau Taplin being an Instagram poet and his collection being a bit too mushy – and while Poindexter is definitely very mushy too, I just love Poindexter's work.

When I got back into poetry I of course looked for modern poetry. A lot of modern poetry is indeed ‘instagram poetry' – short poems usually on a filtered background or so. Which doesn't mean that it can't be good or meaningful poetry. And Poindexter shows that. I've always enjoyed reading his work. Which is why I was happy with Old Soul Love as it was both his old and new work – meaning I could recognise his old work – some of them being ones I really really loved.

Again, I'm not a huge fan of love poetry (I do prefer the hard-hitting poetry – which I've found is a lot in slam poetry). But Poindexter makes me want to go back to reading romantic poetry. When I read his poems I want to find love, to be in love with someone (and then I remember I mostly like to be alone. Or with my cat). And that's a testament to how good of a writer he is – that he can make you feel emotions that you didn't necessarily think you really had.

I remember going to the library (to take out a whole stack of books I'd return in a few days to get more stacks – listen, I was a very busy child. But like only with reading. Definitely not Maths. I liked stopping at the magazine shelves and quickly read the Nat Geo Kids – I liked all the short and sweet articles and bright pictures.

Which I think is great because kids are definitely entranced by bright pictures and most kids, if they're not used to reading a lot, they like short articles. And animals – fun facts about them and even funnier stories. It also gives out information in an easy way that any kids could understand.

Of course I chose this because of my kitty cat (he's just too fantastic and I love him even if he uses me for food) but I'd definitely be interested in other National Geographics about other animals – dogs or whales (just not spiders. Please no).

CW/TW: Extreme and sudden death – violent.

It was a quick and easy read. There were mini dragons involved and a smart female main character – I was interested. But that's all I was – just merely interested. I don't remember much of this other than a cave? And the school project? There was enough to keep me reading, sure, but there wasn't enough to keep me involved in the story, and not enough for me to want to read further.

I liked the writing, and the characters, Khaly was probably my favourite character and I do like how spunky she was. And like, yes, tell the superiors off, definitely, because they don't want to listen to reason – just because they think they're the better person or more educated – you can always learn from another person. I like the cover – it's a good drawing and partly why I took it (as I think it was a download now arc).

Do I recommend this: From what I can remember of this was a cute and quick read. Something you could read in a day and maybe carry on with the series. And it has dragons.

Well, first of all, the synopsis (the true synopsis, not my summarisation) is fantastic and it's a major major reason that I took the book; it is also massively long. Even for a fantasy novel. So, picture this, right? The synopsis is all fantastically good, makes me super excited to read the book and I can't wait because it's going to be epic... aaand it... just fell apart.

And by ‘just fell apart', I mean the synopsis built up this expectation and I was already thinking of like it's gonna be like Game of Thrones with the dragons or some type of siren-like power with the singing, but it didn't have any of that.

And the whole thing with the actual wing walkers (who only showed up a bit) – this confused me a lot because I thought they would be there a lot and that their role would be important; and while it was, I didn't think it was properly used. And that was a shame because they could've been fantastic. But alas.

Do I recommend this: Listen, if the book lived up to its synopsis, I would be all over it. But if you like dragons and magic involving dragons, maybe pick this up!

The Cauldron Stirred
Judith Stirling
Stars: 3
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from Netgalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc in exchange for my free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was an average read for the most part. I really liked the plot and setting and I felt like I was there, alongside the characters – which is why I flock to fantasy – because I like to feel like I'm there. The plot was well-written – I liked the mystery aspect and I definitely enjoyed the paranormal aspects.

I didn't connect with the characters. I thought them a bit boring – which is a bit weird in fantasy as there's so much room to play and you could dress them up any which way – and they were a bit unrealistic.

But all in all, this was a quick enjoyable read, definitely something to be read in an afternoon.

Warning: homophobic slurs. I don't know of any other because I didn't read further.
I think I could've liked this book a lot, but I just ended up not being interested in it. And I got about 30% in and realised I wasn't enjoying it.
I liked the premise – the post-apocalyptic plot, the characters have to travel. But that wasn't enough to keep me reading.

I was excited for this because it promised a heist book... and all it gave me was a stock market meeting – or something equally as boring (apologies if you love stock market meetings). Now, Afrikaans has this wonderful word: langdradig (if you want to hear the pronunciation) – and it means wordy/tedious/drawn out. And that's exactly how I felt about the little (9%) I read.

The sentences were drawn-out (unnecessarily) – like I would be reading about the one character and it would go off on this tangent – also unnecessary and made the story more boring. Maybe the plot would've been interesting, or maybe I would've liked the characters a lot – but the writing just put me off completely. And I'm sad about that, because it looked really cool.

I mean my only knowledge of Monty Python and everything is basically just the Holy Grail (the movie they made), so

I did not know that there were so many Grimm Brothers stories. Honestly, my knowledge mostly comes from The Brothers' Grimm movie – with Heath Ledger (RIP) and Matt Damon. And then some of the more popular stories I know. But this had so many stories you could probably read this to your kids for years and still not reach the end. I even skim read most stories and that was still quite long. I think probably the most famous Grimm stories is Hansel and Gretel, but did you know they also wrote The Frog Prince, Rapunzel, and Cinderella? And most of the stories are... quite dark (which I'm not exactly sure you'd like to tell them to little kids, but I guess some kids' movies are also violent and can get dark).

All in all, it was an enjoyable read and I'm definitely wanting to read more retellings that have the dark themes in common with the original. Or manage to find other, smaller collections of their tales and reading those. I think every storyteller has something different to contribute. My favourite storyteller is still Hans Christian Anderson because I love the way he tells the story. I now also really like the Brothers Grimm, also because of how they tell the story – very different to Anderson.

I've loved Matilda (the book and the movie. Have not seen the musical) ever since I first read it. I mean she loves to read, I love to read. She's got telekinetic powers, I wish I could have powers. We're basically twins, right? So when I saw this I instantly snapped it up. I did not know it was going to be this, actually. Just thought it was maybe a reprint of Matilda or something. But I was pleasantly surprised by what I found inside.

I would definitely hang a bunch of these up in my house. My favourites are: The books transported her into new worlds & introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives and Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it

It's a super quick read but really adorable if you want to gift it to someone who loves reading (because to be honest, readers always could do with one more book).

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.

I got to about 33 or so percent when I realised I wasn't taking anything in and I wasn't really interested. Not the characters, plot, world-building, anything could really get me into the book. Unfortunately, skimming ahead didn't really do anything for me, so dnf it is.

I don't have much to say about the characters because I didn't feel like I knew them. The writing's partially at fault. It's also due to the pacing. It was incredibly fast at the beginning and then slowed down, then went fast and back and forth. That didn't give me the time I needed to figure out the characters' personalities or the world-building because I kept trying to catch up with the pace.

I think I can tell you like two things about Kiera (well, three if you include her name). One, that she has a father. I have no idea if she talks to him after she goes to the palace. Or if she ever sees him again. And two that she's able to wield some type of healing magic that was probably explained as she grew more experienced.

I also don't really have a lot to say about Dorian because he wasn't exactly memorable to me. He didn't feel like he was a Fae character. He felt more like a character who simply happened to have pointed ears and could use magic. I know I'm fairly new to the Fae genre but I don't think that's how it should be?

I really wanted to like this one. I pushed nearly to 50 percent – which is quite far as usually I know by 10 or 20% if it's a book for me – but I kept trying to make it work for me. It had a cute cover, it looked like it was about something important and apparently it did find its audience – which is great! I'm glad that it was able to mean something for someone – just not for me.

It read like a book I could easily find in back in 2010s. We're nearing the end of 2022 (still cant believe that) and reading this really felt like I was a teen again reading cringey reads. By cringey I mean unnecessary stereotyping of various characters just because they're a cheerleader? A pretty girl must be one that has no ‘real' thoughts and so on – I was very unimpressed and that was a big reason for me not wanting to read anymore.

I also didn't like the style of writing – it contributed to my dislike of the book and also made it feel like a book stuck in the 2010s. It's not that I didn't like Jess, I I just didn't think much of her because of how she saw everyone else. And okay, sure, I understand how that's not her fault, her circumstances are much different and all that – but even that didn't help my feelings towards her/the book.

I sort of expected Lovelace to narrate the audiobook and she did a really good job! The audio actually had a little bit of extra in it – sometimes Lovelace would expand on a poem, or explain why she wrote the poem. I like how simple the poems were and at the same time meant a lot. As always I could see the passion she had for writing in her poems – both for poetry and for the topics in general.

Persephone is a big part of this poetry collection. Some people see the (Hades and Persephone) myth as a happy one – where Hades and Persephone are in love; others as more of a horror story – where Hades kidnaps Persephone and tricks her into eating the pomegranate seeds. This collection focuses mostly on Persephone and her knowing that she's more than just a love interest, that she's powerful and she knows it.

I GET IT, I get why everyone loves McLemore

I listen to podcasts so I like them being added in books. Especially when I'm listening to the audiobook – then it's like a double feature or something

This book is basically Supernatural if the brothers weren't so close. And if they kept to hunting demons. And if it were a less likable story. What did I mean by that statement? I mean that the book's got all the makings of something I would highly highly enjoy! But it falls terribly flat. And then I ended up not liking it. Like I have so many notes on my Kindle about this book but if I had to write down everything this post would be super long.

Jennifer moans on and on about Savannah, Georgia and how she doesn't like it. And that it's too hot. She breathes, and it's too hot. She walks, and it's too hot. And it's too much for me. She was just an unlikable character – which made me sad because I did want to like this book a lot. She goes on about how her dad didn't tell her anything (okay, sure, that's fair. I can't blame her for that) – but the dad didn't leave any contact number? She's underage and he's her legal guardian? Or don't they have other relatives who might know about this? Did the main character maybe mention this and I didn't pay enough attention? Maybe.

The dad's journal plays a big role in the book. My issue is that it's probably touted as this know-all, be-all type of a thing – which can be written well – sometimes. The main character here is too fixated on the journal – but maybe that's because her dad suddenly left her by her sister with just the journal and no questions answered.

Another thing – regarding the dad, and his leaving. Jennifer has a phone – and most probably access to the Internet. Why don't we see her searching stuff up that show up in the journal – different types of supernatural entities. She's a teen with access to the Internet!! Why wouldn't she research it?

A lot of things were confusing throughout the book? To me it felt like there should've been a lot more – both character and plotwise – because they needed a lot of work. But I can tell you that I didn't like any of the characters. I didn't feel much for any of them, sad as that is to say. And it's not that I didn't want to like them! I did, I did try to like them, they just didn't hold any interest for me. I think the one character I did sort of like was Marcus, but then his character development was so confusing I don't even know if he had one?

Also, I know this isn't a final copy, I know how arcs aren't properly formatted, that's all fine and well. I'm used to arcs not being a 100% formatted. But this book could've been a little better formatted imo?

Did anyone ever contact the school to excuse her from classes?

I enjoyed this tremendously! It definitely amped up my interest in the trilogy and I could see why other readers love it. It improved the characters we already met while introducing new ones. The action was better this time around, the politics (which was already good in the first one) were even more interesting this time. I’ve grown to like politics in fantasies, especially when they’re done well and that’s the case here.

I like wars and battles (in fantasy books) but I like the lead-up to the war more. Figuring out who your allies are, whom you can trust and what secrets can you tell them. Lin really grew as a character in here. She had to take on a lot of extra responsibility and grow into her power. Jovis just continues to be my utter favourite throughout the series. He’s funny, he’s good, he’s just… Jovis, I don’t know what to tell you. The others (Phalue etc) were a bit more interesting this time around but I still had to make myself pay attention when it were their chapters. I did like how they all had to take up more responsibility too, just like Lin does, but they’re all extremely different people. The focus is a bit more on Lin and Jovis – plots, characterisation, so I didn’t feel too bad about having difficulty reading it.

Stewart only improved on the world-building and magic system in here, She definitely shines in those aspects and I hope that stays by her others books (I plan to read the new one this year – hopefully). I’m always happy to follow an author if it means I get good worldbuilding and magic system. I don’t think I got that “Second Book Slump” feeling that a bunch of sequels tend to have – which I’m happy about. Seeing as I wasn’t entirely enjoying the first book, I’m glad I felt better this time around.

I actually was not going to read this book because I didn't know where to get an e-arc of it. THEN I went onto Book Sirens (a site to receive e-arcs) for another book, but that wasn't available. I just decided to scroll on the site a bit. And then I happened to see this and I clicked SO FAST because this has definitely been an anticipated release and I was so happy to have read it ahead of its release.

As I said earlier, I started this after I finished Lightlark – as much as it gave me extreme amounts of annoyance (so so much) – it was definitely the right choice to go from Lightlark to Reforged. The reason I say this is because Lightlark... is a really bad book (of course that's just my opinion). Reforged made me remember why I like fantasies and adult fantasies so much. I read YA Fantasy most of the time but this just makes me want to go back to Adult Fantasies (or just find my favourites and reread them constantly

This is the type of sci-fi I like the most – casual sci-fi with a lot of “Earth inspiration”. I don't even really care if it didn't make sense that there was a Jacuzzi in a hotel room on another planet; or if they spoke exactly like people on Earth do – like give me all of that! I think that's why I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. If someone told me this was like a “casual” sci-fi rather than a hard (to understand) sci-fi I would've read it earlier.

I enjoyed the amount of action that the author wrote in the book. It wasn't too much and it was easy to follow. Easy to follow for here means as much as I do love science fiction (in any format), I often sit there and go “huh?” when I'm reading a sci-fi book. You know those Tiktok videos where it goes something like “And then we traveled to dhdhgjgj and we spoke to wjergjefe” – because it's making fun of fantasy books with weird/difficult names? That's me but with sc-fi. I have no issue reading Fantasy and their names, it's most of what's in sci-fi that just has me scratching my brain

This is under 300 pages and yet it felt more like 500 or something because it was extremely slow-paced. With the horror genre, if it's slow-paced, I'm more inclined to like it if it's a movie than a book. Nothing really against the book or its author – just my personal preference.

The book focuses on 3 friends who travel to a secluded cabin – it's in the family of one of the men. I very much could not tell the friends apart, whoops, so I can't really tell you anything about them? I remember things that happened to them before the book – leg injury, something about drowning or ice? But I can't tell you their names or which name belongs to which character (and who had which incident happened to whom). Which, this book is like 98% solely these three men; so I should've known their names before the 50% mark or something. That's half on me and half on the book, in my opinion? Like, of course you should make an effort to remember their names (even if your memory is bad like mine) and differentiating the characters and such. But also it's up to the writer to make sure no two (or three) characters are the same.

The horror was well-written, I'll give it that. It's a very slow one but it has all the elements of “spooky things start to happen and we start to notice them”. That's something I like a lot. It's fun to see the weird things happen – often before the characters do, because of course, they don't know they're in a horror book so they often don't think xyz is weird until the weirdness increases/an actual injury occurs.

There was a big Indigenous/folk tale subplot but unfortunately it happened in the second half of the book – when I was already bored of most things – so I didn't pay as much attention as I should've. I did like what I read – most of what I can remember – I liked. It tied in a lot with the main character's family, but as I said, I don't remember much so I think it made it all the more confusing to try to remember anything.

I am sad that I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would because when I saw the comps I thought “oh wow yup I'll love this extremely”. And it let me down because I didn't really care about the characters much. I forgot most of the plot and basically everything that happened but the other books I read around the same time as The Broken Places I remember much better.

Realised very quickly on that I wasn't going to carry on with it. I didn't like the writing style and even though it's a short book; it's hard to want to carry on when you already know you won't like the writing style.

Another issue I had was the amount of world-building I got in the very little I read. This was also the issue with the next dnf. Now, as a big fantasy reader, I'm very used to a lot of world-building. It's the bread and butter of fantasy worlds. It has to be done in a good way. Which was not the case here, as you can see.

Stewart put her heart into this book, making it a great ending to a fierce trilogy. The characters grew, they evolved, I’m not mad about how their stories end – which can happen quite easily, let me tell you. If Stewart wants to write a novella set in the future about what happens far after the war. I like wars in fantasy, but I like the build-up and aftermath even more. Not sure why – maybe it’s the politics I like? Building/restoring communities? Also it’s making me want to go back and reread the trilogy! Which is great because I’m all for the re-readability of a book/series. I want to go back to the world and the characters. One thing that’s clear with this trilogy is that it’s so much of a unique story, worldbuilding, and characters. I think that’s why it’s good and how it builds it way up – even when the plot reaches its climax it doesn’t stop being good and unique. That’s what I want and like in books.

I didn’t realise that there was a time jump (two years) between the second book and this one. It did jar me a bit and took me a bit to get back into the story but luckily it didn’t stop me from enjoying it. Although Stewart did make the time jump work which is something that isn’t the case for everyone.

I did feel a bit more connected to the other main characters that I wasn’t (connected to) in this book. Even though we’re finishing the book and therefore won’t be spending time with them, I think I gained a better understanding for them and started to like them a bit. Although Lin and Jovis remain my firm favourites. I really liked going on their journeys and see them through the pain and fights they have to deal with. The ossalens were great, I’d definitely like to know more about them in any way. They had such personality and I think Stewart had a fun time writing them.

I thought I was going to like it and then I just couldn't get into it. The one time I thought they were talking about one character and it turned out to be a whole ‘nother character. While a lot of times that's happened before, I just knew this wasn't a special case (where I would like it if I just carried on).

Some likened it to Stranger Things, which I would've really liked to have seen. But ultimately I saw i was forcing myself to carry on and I'm really trying to not do that anymore.

Most sequels I read don't seem like they follow the ‘sequel slump' feeling (or whatever it's called) but I felt that this one did. I know this is a series so I hope the third/next book (no idea if it'll be a trilogy or more). I still enjoyed this but not as much as the first book. It didn't have the same energy as the previous one. I did like where we went with the characters. How they changed, how they looked at things, because of what they went through in the previous book.

I really enjoyed how Jacques approached the characters this time around. Last book they were getting to know each other and this book it's more like they've been together for a long time (longer than the brief time that they actually are). I liked how easy they fit together, but they still had their differences.

I liked parts of the plot but not really the entire plot overall. I liked seeing the Estate but I also expected there to be more creatures there and we only saw two new characters (and others though they were antagonists). Even though about ¾ of the book is set in the Estate, I didn't feel like we really knew the two characters we meet there.

The pacing for this book was slow, slower than the first book's. I don't mind slow-paced books, but I don't want to take a long time to read a book because it's a slow-paced book. It did pick up after the 50% mark and I was able to read a bunch in one sitting.