Emma Goto

The first half was quite boring, I was considering giving up on the book but it did get better in the second half.

I enjoyed the plot in the second half, as the Kira's powers and alien heritage are revealed and there's a little bit of politics sprinkled between the different alien races / alliances, etc. However I'm getting a bit tired of reading about yet another sassy/witty/reckless main character with a dark past.

I'll give props that the although there is the potential of a romance (with an overbearing dude that wont take no for an answer but that's ok because he's super attractive) Kira is staying away from it because she knows it's a bad idea. I took a look at the second book's reviews and it looks like the romance ends up progressing though, so bleh.

3.5 stars - enjoyable to read, but not enjoyable enough to read the second book, or to recommend it to anyone else.

About a bunch of cowboys who live on the border between Texas and Mexico, and then decide to leave their small town to make an epic journey up towards Yellowstone. For a book you'd assume to be totally about men, I was surprised (in a good way) with how well the women were written - both strong and weak characters alike. However I felt a bit let down with how the author builds up these female characters, and then tears them down by making them prostitutes and have to endure rape, etc. Maybe realistic, but not really a fan of how that's used as a plot device.

This book didn't feel very romantic!

Elinor, the older sister, was in love with Edward, who turned out to be engaged to someone else the entire time.

Marianne, the younger, falls in love with Willoughby, who decides to get engaged and married to someone else who has a lot more money instead.

Also there's Colonel Brandon - he's madly in love with Marianne, but she's not interested because she's still in love with Willoughby and he's nearly double her age.

Elinor and the Colonel are quite friendly to each other though.

Then at the last minute, it's revealed that Edward can marry Elinor, and they do.

The Colonel and Marianne also get married, although their developing romance all happens in the last 20 pages of the book as all the loose ends are wrapped up.

To me it was disappointing because there didn't really seem to be any build-up of romance, like there was in Pride and Prejudice. If anything, the fact that Elinor and the Colonel got on so well made me think that those two should have gotten together.

I don't know if I want to go as far as giving this book 3 stars, though! Some of the characters are quite funny to read (like the gossipy Mrs Jennings, and the sisters' stingy brother John who gives in to whatever his wife suggests).

Walden is the sort of book you see referenced in popular media all the time. When the male lead in k-drama Hometown Cha-cha-cha was shown reading it (did not expect that!), I figured it was finally time for me to get around to it.

It's fairly readable for a book written in the 1850s but I wouldn't say it's a fun read. I can get through a book in a couple of days, usually, but this one took me 2 weeks to slowly meander through because I wasn't really motivated to come back to it.

Walden touches upon a lot of minimalist concepts. Thoreau decides to go and live in the woods, in a house he built himself, farms beans, and then writes about the experience and about all the different animals he encounters. Minimalism isn't anything revolutionary for a reader today but considering the book is well over 150 years old, he's basically the OG minimalist.

In the book he scoffs at a farmer who has to work hard, in order to afford the meat that he needs to eat to regain the energy he expended from working hard. Why not just not work at all, and then you don't need to afford meat? You can just live off beans! Poor dietary decisions aside, what irks me is that after 2 years Thoreau decides he's going to leave nature anyway. He probably went back to eating meat after that.

It was probably revolutionary for its time, and I don't hate the book. Maybe you can find it inspiring if you want to live off the grid like Thoreau. Or maybe you'll enjoy the way he writes about the pond by his house, or the wildlife. But personally I didn't enjoy it enough to recommend it to anyone else.

Kya, the “marsh girl”, grows up alone in the swamps of North Carolina in the 1950s/60s. Intertwined with her coming-of-age story is the mysterious death of the popular Chase Andrews in 1969. The jumping back between the two storylines really kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to hear more (I listened to this one as an audiobook).

At times Kya was a bit "woe is me", "nobody loves me" even though she had multiple people around her caring for her by that point - Tate, her brother Jodie, Jumpin' and Mable. A little bit frustrating, but I guess understandable considering her circumstances.I liked the twists - Tate being taken away by the sheriffs, and then the final twist right at the end.In terms of the murder itself, I'm not sure that if it turned out that Kya was smart enough to kill someone, not leave fingerprints or any sort of evidence, and wear convincing disguises as she got on and off the bus in the middle of the night, would have just left that hat in her closet?

Jo, a woman doing birds nest research in rural America meets girl who claims to be an alien sent down to witness 5 “miracles” before she returns home to her planet. She ends up co-parenting this child with neighbour Gabe, as they debate whether they should hand over the child to police.

Jo and Gabe both have a lot of backstory (illnesses, a tragic past) but it's presented to the reader through the two characters basically word vomiting this out to each other. I felt like the author was trying to give flavor to these two characters but it didn't quite land right.

Jo and Gabe's romance feels very rushed, and Jo comes across as very pushy towards Gabe and it's like she just magically cures him of his mental illnesses.Also it's actually quite creepy how Jo and Ursa are so obsessively attached at the end. Jo kinda goes nuts, surely that sort of erratic behaviour wouldn't make a good candidate for foster parent? That problem isn't really addressed and it all ends happily every after. I will admit I actually thought the girl was an alien until it was revealed at the end that she was not. Looking back, how can a 9 yr old pull off the deception that well??

Sort-of memoir/book about the author's experiences of helping to produce a film about his life. Miller is really good at painting himself as a very ordinary guy (slightly veering into pathetic/loser territory). Apparently he's also written a bestselling book. It's almost confusing - because I couldn't see why he's famous (from the way he writes about himself), and I probably should've just read that bestseller instead of this one.

It comes across as a book for the everyday person. Miller struggles with life (and don't we all). Maybe his conversational, casual tone is what makes his writing so popular.

Unfortunately I think I'll have to give this one a 3 or 3.5. I think it is probably a lot better if you go into it with the context of knowing about the author.

Beautifully written. Twin sisters run away from their home in the South. Both are black, but one goes on to pass as a white woman while the other eventually returns to her hometown.

To be honest it initially made me question - if no one can tell the difference, why not pretend to be white when it's convenient? The book takes place in the 50s onwards where there is still segregation and a lot of discrimination e.g. can't get certain jobs.

Obviously an ignorant question, and the book does a good job of showing how the white-passing sister struggles to deal with the effects of hiding her true identity from everyone around her.

Wow this was a wild ride.

Props to the author for killing off a bunch of characters at the beginning (I honestly thought they were going to get resurrected, since there was a decent amount of time dedicated to them).

Then there's the usual “wow this guy is scary and bad but this quirky girl doesn't care!” And then they fall in love etc.

Tbh felt like the plot twist where Hunt was caught buying drugs came out of nowhere and it all went downhill fast from there. Not sure why Bryce was like “I'm going to do something smart” and then proceeds to try and beg to exchange his life for hers (how is that in any way smart, that is SO DUMB).

And then the final battle, it was like everyone was sitting around watching on a Zoom call as she fought Micah by herself? Like what? The battle was actually kind of cool but that really ruined it.

And then the classic “wow she actually had powers and is like the most powerful person ever!! The chosen one!!”. The end.

Really dumb, but I guess Sarah J Maas is kind of like a trashy guilty pleasure at this point lol.

Lee and her girlfriend Mal are investigating an alleged monster sighting when Mal suddenly disappears in a blizzard. Mal's mysterious return 4 years later is of interest to MI5 agent Julian Sabreur. He's investigating a crime committed by a group of people who don't quite look human, and Mal is somehow involved.

Then the sci-fi aspect of this novel kicks in as it's revealed there are worlds parallel to our own Earth. Evolution has diverged at a different point in each world and created a different dominant species. As cracks form between worlds and monsters slip through, humanity may lose its position at the top of the food chain.

I would have preferred to see more of Lee and Mal, and less of the MI5 agent Julian. He's less of a suave James Bond type and more of a grumpy everyday man with a struggling marriage. How much you like him probably depends on how well you can relate to him.

The parts of the other parallel worlds that we did get to see were excellent, and I would have loved to read more about that. For me the best part of sci-fi is reading about a completely different setting - whether that's the future or somewhere in space. So the bits set in “present day” Earth weren't as interesting to me.

I enjoyed Weir's first book about a science dude on Mars, but decided to give his second one a miss after hearing lackluster reviews about his attempt at a female protagonist.

For his third book, he's gone back to his tried-and-true approach of having a science dude talk about a lot of science shit and although my eyes glaze over as all the science shit happens, it was a fun and heartwarming read.

Heartwarming isn't the first word that comes to mind when the plot centres around him waking up alone on a spaceship but it really does turn out that way, somehow.

I don't want to spoil it any more than that, so give it a read if you like sci-fi (I would love if they could turn this one into a movie too).

From the title and cover I actually thought this was some sort of YA-ish romance book (oops, probably getting confused with “the space between us”) but it's actually a decent soft sci-fi novel.

Basically they've invented travelling between parallel worlds, but the catch is you can only travel there if your counterpart in the other world is dead. Since rich people tend to be alive in most of their worlds, this means the job of travelling falls on the poor underclass.

Our main character, Cara is one such traveller. The travelling is actually for quite mundane reasons - to gather data on parallel worlds for statistical analysis and to try and make money off of it. The book isn't too heavy on sci-fi, as it more ends up being about the people that Cara meets between the different worlds, and all the ways they are different (or the same). So don't expect the author to really explain the travelling thing.

The first quarter felt really slow as the author established the character's backstory and all the supporting characters and I was half-considering giving up on it. It did pick up the pace midway for an relatively satisfying conclusion. The villain and the way the ending played out definitely had room for improvement, but just don't read too closely into it lol.

Linus works as a caseworker for magical children living in orphanages. He's a very boring, by-the-books type of person but this all changes when he spends a month investigating an orphanage with potentially dangerous children who all have highly classified case files.

I went in with high expectations considering its 4.47 rating on Goodreads but was left feeling quite disappointed. It felt very, very cheesy at times, especially the romance subplot which really didn't make much sense at all. Honestly I cringed a bit while reading it.

It goes for a lighthearted, kooky tone (Linus's bosses are literally called Extremely Upper Management). But at the same time they live in a world where magical beings must be registered and monitored, and there is a large amount of discrimination towards them in society. And so the combination of those two things feels weird for the very happy, good vibes ending that we get.

I don't really want to give this a 3, the writing isn't bad. I think I'm just completely the wrong demographic for this book. I could see it being targeted towards YA or even lower.

An east asian-inspired fantasy book, where each race has the ability to control an element - in the case of the Kaigenese (based off of the Japanese), it's the ability to wield water/ice.

The technology in the world is on par with ours (satellites, mobile phones) but for some reason the Kaigenese are very traditional and don't use any technology at all, so the book is essentially transporting you back in time a couple of hundred years.

One of the main characters, Misaki, is a housewife, with no real say in how things are run, even in her own home. Initially this sexism kind of sucks but through the course of the book you learn that Misaki is actually a badass so it's not too bad.

Overall it was a great book with a lot of character development.

My one nitpick would be I'm not a big fan of foreign words inserted into the text e.g random words like “mother” or “damnit” are translated into Japanese. Right at the end, there's a serious conversation in a formal setting, and there are full sentences written in Japanese where they're talking with slang/very casually which felt very very out of place. Just stick to English!

A Deadly Education follows El (short for Galadriel) who is in her junior year at the magic school Sholomance. The school is a highly hazardous place. There are murderous creatures out to kill El and all her classmates, and even if you make it to graduation, there's an all-out bloodbath waiting for you when you try to leave the school grounds.

In reality this would make for a very depressing book (something like Attack on Titan comes to mind) but the book sidesteps this and it's actually more humorous than anything, because it's so absurd. The school provides spells to students in languages that they are familiar with, so El spends all her time studying different languages to try and get all the spells that she can.

I was originally a bit hesitant to read this since it's considered YA, but El is quite a flawed character and this book doesn't veer too close to the “chosen one” trope so I finished it pleasantly surprised.

In this space fantasy novel, people belong to one of the nine Houses, which are spread out across nine different planets. The Emperor alone resides in the First House, and orders the Second through Ninth houses to send their necromancer and cavalier (the necromancer's bodyguard/swordsman) to his planet.

The Ninth House sends Harrowhark and Gideon, life-long enemies, who must work together to bring glory to the Ninth House and receive the power of immortality.

The book starts off quite slow as the author introduces Gideon and Harrow and do a bit of world-building. It's all a bit hard to get your head around what's happening but the book picks up pace once all the necromancers and their cavaliers land on the Emperor's planet.

Necromancy is spooky in general but the Ninth House takes it to the next level with skull face paint and a reputation for being super-religious. It's amusing to watch them try and interact with the more “normal” necromancers of the other Houses in comparison.

It's disappointing that Harrow and Gideon build up relationships with all the other Houses, and then they all die. Even the relationship between Gideon and Harrow, too. It makes me less interested in reading the second book. Also their deaths didn't really feel that emotionally impactful either. Maybe there wasn't enough time to properly build up that relationship between the characters.

Sci-fi with a side of romance. Jainan's husband Taam dies in an accident, and so he is quickly married off to Taam's cousin Kiem to maintain the treaty between their two planets. Turns out it's not an accident and a murder-mystery ensues.

There's a bunch of space politics, although Jainan and Kiem are both super bad at politics and just go around revealing all their findings to anyone important (including the Emperor) which kind of seems like political suicide and/or very dangerous.

Regardless it's refreshing to be able to read a romance novel that's not completely trashy, especially in sci-fi (is it just me or is romance is more common in fantasy?) so this was a pleasant read.

Basically the premise is, “imagine that the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty was actually a woman” and go from there. In saying that it skips over a lot of the possible issues that come with a woman pretending to be a man and more focuses on the “attempting to become Emperor” bit.

I really enjoyed how the main character, Zhu, wasn't shy or quiet like someone you would expect to be who is hiding their gender to be. They're talkative, witty, and willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top. This lack of a moral compass towards the end kind of sucks, but I guess that's what it takes to become Emperor.

The book is set across three different eras - the first I found the most interesting, with it being an alternate history late 1800s America where gay marriage is legal (and people even do arranged marriages for it). We then jump 100 years forward to a Hawaiian living in America. It gets a bit confusing here because the main character's names are reused (which made me think this was going to be like Cloud Atlas?) but they're not actually connected in some tangible way, although storywise they are sort of similar. Then we jump forward another 100 years for a dystopian, pandemic-ridden America where gay marriage is now banned in an attempt to increase the population. Honestly you could have just turned one of these eras into it's own book and I probably would have preferred it more!

A common theme across all 3 stories is the uselessness of at least one of the characters in each due to their passivity. Which I visit makes for some frustrating reading. And then I finished the book and it's like, well what was the point? But maybe that's what you get with Yanagihara books. A bunch of people suffering.

This is one of those books that starts off very confusingly, as you're thrust into the stories of five seemingly disconnected lives.

In the 15th century, a boy and a girl living on opposite sides of the walls that protect Constantinople. In modern-day America, a Korean War veteran and a teenager living in a small town. And in the distant future, a girl leaving behind a barren Earth in hopes of reaching a new planet to colonise.

As it turns out, the one thing they have in common is an ancient Greek tale called “Cloud Cuckoo Land”. And the links between their lives all come together for a really satisfying finish.

Shizuka Satomi has sacrificed the souls of six violinists to the devil, and has now found her seventh soul in runaway teen and violin prodigy Katrina. When she visits a local donut shop, owner Lan Tran catches her eye. What she doesn't realise is that the donut shop hides a spaceship, and the Tran family are actually aliens from another planet.

In amongst the quirky plot, the book touches on a lot of serious topics. The main one being the transphobia that Katrina experiences throughout the book. Her parents are unsupportive and abusive, she has to do sex work to make a living, and there's mentions of sexual assault. When she performs as a violinist on stage, she's misgendered and made fun of for wearing a dress. Most of the characters are Asian, so we also see some casual racism directed their way, as well as some bigotry towards two other LGBT characters. There's also the side plot of a violin-maker with super low self-esteem, because her father told her that the secrets of violin-making can only be passed down to his sons.

Unfortunately it didn't quite come together for me. The book tries to straddle too many things. I'll admit I went into expecting a comfy sci-fi read (the book is described as “Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet”) so I finished it feeling really confused and disappointed.

16 yr old Mia Corvere is a darkin - someone that has the ability to control shadows, and has a small shadow-cat as her familiar. She sets off on a journey to find assassin hogwarts so that she can train to take revenge on the people that killed her family.

The writing style is supposedly quite polarising but I found I didn't mind it.

There are a lot of footnotes, and I just skipped them. Since I read it on a Kindle, they're all at the end of the chapter (not sure if it's the same for print?) and I couldn't be bothered to stop reading to jump to footnotes each time. So maybe that helped with the experience.

I also skipped over the cringey sex scenes but otherwise I enjoyed it.

Conveniently, as Mia's classmates die one by one, most of the time it's the first time they've even been mentioned. It's only towards the end that actually recognizable characters start dying.The fact that the school gets overrun so easily at the end makes me question the school's strategy to kill off most of their students each year. Doesn't seem like a smart move at all.And the fact that Cassius is supposed to be some super cool dude and he's caught just like that?? What a dummy.

The book starts off quite strong. We're in New York, and a plague has broken out. Either you're immune to the plague, or you catch it and die. The plague somehow strengthens the ability for a small percentage of the population to use magic. Society collapses, and people flee the city.

However once the book moves onto the bit where you travel the countryside, foraging for supplies, finding shelter and more travel companions (or losing them) it kind of loses steam a bit.

Especially when you get to the too good to be true 300+ person community of New Hope. Which obviously is going to have a conflict of some kind (you let those bad guys leave, who have intimate knowledge of the town, and you don't think they're going to come back and bring more bad guys with them? Really?)

The author builds up a lot of different characters, and so when Lana abruptly leaves them all behind, I don't think that really helps the book either. Especially considering Lana by herself isn't that compelling of a character.

As cadets graduate from Aurora Academy, they set off on their first missions across the galaxy in groups of six. Tyler, top of his class, is looking forward to take first-pick of the graduates to put together his dream team, but ends up leading a bunch of misfits instead.

The book cycles through the POVs of each of the six graduates, as well as the seventh character in our story, Auri. She had set out from Earth on a colonist ship, only for it to go missing 200 years prior. Mysteriously, Tyler finds her in cryo-sleep as the sole survivor on board the ship's wreckage.

The interesting thing to point out about Auri (other than the fact that she is now 200 years old) is that she's half-Chinese. Auri had a fractious relationship with her father (the Chinese parent) and in the book her Chinese heritage is usually brought up alongside mentioning something about her Dad. I guess this is an attempt to bring some extra flavor and conflict to her character. As a fellow half-Asian I did appreciate the attempt at representation but I'm not sure it really did anything for the story. If anything it might have been better to make her full Chinese because the other half of her heritage wasn't really mentioned at all.

There's a bit of romance with an alien “mating bond”. If they did this well I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it but the fact that they did it and it's bad just makes it all the more cringey. If you're gonna do this right, you've got to do a better job building up to it! It just comes across as really creepy otherwise. Kal martyrs himself by saying "oh, don't worry about me I'll just eternally pine after you and leave and return to my people then" and of course Auri will feel sorry for him and give him a go.

Complaints aside I didn't find it to be too tropey, I liked the conflict between the team who weren't all aligned on their mission especially the conflict with Cat and the betrayal twist.

Sophy bursts into her cousins' lives, all 5'9” of her, with a pet monkey, a parrot and a dog. Unlike the women in an Austen novel, she can handle horses, her father's finances, and even owns a pistol. Schemes and matchmaking attempts ensue.

This is a Regency-era novel, both in the time period and the style of writing. Since it was written in the 50s the author had a bit more imagination as to the level of independence a woman could achieve, so it reads like a more fast-paced Austen novel.

I would've liked to see a better romance for Sophy, though. After writing such an impressive character, I'm surprised anyone could tie her down that easily.