Jordan

I buddy read this book with Khushi Kishore.

I went into this really knowing next to nothing about it. All I know was that it was based on Japanese folklore. Ultimately, I thought this was so cute. It deals with themes of sexism and transphobia, as well as some other dark themes. However, these were all handled very well. The MC is a young teen girl, and she ends up surrounding herself with the most incredible, whimsical friends that just made for a beautiful, touching story. I highly recommend for readers of ya and folklore.

This book was definitely an improvement on the last. Most of my complaints for the first book don't apply here because I now had context about this world and these characters.

I definitely started to feel much more attachments to the characters in this book. I felt like their arcs were getting very interesting, and a lot of those grim dark elements really started to shine. The plot was interesting, and I'm eating up all of these little breadcrumbs that are being left about the bigger picture. I'm very excited to see how all of these characters stories end up tying together.

Update 09/22/23: y'all I could reread this book 100 times and still learn something new every time. My jaw was on the floor for the entire last chunk of this book. Tamsyn muir is a genius.

One of the absolute best books I've read this year.

In this follow up, from the beginning you really have no idea what's going on. You're following Harrow's point of view, with time jumps back from the past to the present, but the past isn't lining up with everything we read in Gideon the Ninth. Basically the first 70% is Harrow trying to figure out what is going on. Since Harrow doesn't know, it doesn't ever feel frustrating that the reader doesn't know because you're figuring it out with harrow. When you DO start figuring out what's going on, it's just back to back reveals with some of the most heart shattering lines. I started putting tabs in because I just knew I needed to come back to those moments. This book is an absolute masterpiece. The way Muir was able to keep me interested even though I didn't know what was happening is a masterful feat, but to also make me feel so invested in these characters outs her in the top of new favorite authors. Read this series.

I think this book surpasses the first book in the series.

In this addition, we follow Piper's sister, Hanna. She is trying to pursue a career in music in some way and convinces the film she's working on to film in the small town piper moved to. There isn't room for her to stay with Piper, so she stays with Fox. What follows is a touching romance.

The main reason I liked this book more is because I thought Fox was a less annoying LI than Brendan. He was just less douche-y and more fun. I really liked the explorations these two went through within themselves and together. It took some popular tropes and put a spin on them which I appreciated. Overall, an enjoyable book.

Guys, you all know I love Christina Lauren so much. But this book? Buck wild. The story follows a woman who's late father was a treasure hunter. She now uses his notes to run little tourist expeditions to do fake treasure hunts so she can buy her land back. When the man she had a summer romance with comes with his friends to do this expedition, the two must come to terms with the miscommunications they had in the past. From there, the plot goes off the rails.

First, something very big and very dark happens pretty quickly towards the beginning of the story, and no one acts like how a normal human would act in this circumstance. I was so confused. And then the plot just kept taking more and more wild turns. And the fact there was still a romance happening this whole time just felt so wild.

Ultimately, the romance was cute, but the plot got so out of hand I just didn't find any of the story believable. It did give me some national treasure vibes so I loved that.

I want to preface this review by saying that I do not know the original story of Kaikeyi, so I do not know how it holds up to that. My thoughts here are purely based on this story alone.

As most people that have been following me for a while know, I absolutely love mythological retelling. This one was no exception. Most of the retelling I have read have been Greek, so it was so refreshing to read this one from a different culture.

This book follows Kaikeyi, a misunderstood woman who just wants to make a place for herself and other women in the world. This book follows her life, from young childhood to far into her adulthood.

I found all of the characters to just be so well rounded and all of the interpersonal relationships to really grow Kaikeyi's story. We got a really unique view on these relationships because Kaikeyi has the ability to go into the Binding Plane, which only she can see, and where she can view the different bonds she has with people and how strong they are. She can also manipulate these bonds to get people to bend her way. She learns from a young age that this can be manipulated too strongly and she can completely sever bonds accidentally. This story follows her as she tries to toe the line of convincing and manipulating.

I thought this book did such an incredible job of exploring feminism, family, and motherhood. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves mythology.

Please don't come for me.

I thought this book was ok. I went into it with VERY high expectations, but I don't think I actually started enjoying the book until about 50% in. This book had a slow start. There wasn't much happening plot wise, and there wasn't enough context given for me to even know what was going on with the characters. I felt like around the halfway point was when I even really started to understand a little of what was going on and who these people were. I think the last half was fun and interesting and set up for a hopefully fun second book, but I felt like this one was just one big set up. I'm hoping that what it is and the next 2 books are super fun and interesting. I still have very high hopes for the next book!

TW: ableism, abusive relationship, alcoholism, assault, blood, cannibalism (mentioned), death, decapitation, emesis, gore, kidnapping, misogyny, murder, physical abuse, profanity, racism, slavery, torture, violence

This book definitely had some middle book syndrome.

Black Sun was one of my favorite books last year. However, I found that when I started Fevered Star, I remembered literally nothing from it. I even googled a recap, but nothing could jog my memory. I think that might have hampered my enjoyment because for the first 25% I was just trying to figure out what was going on. But as I filled in the blanks, I found that this book wasn't that exciting. There wasn't much going on at all. I felt like this whole book was a set up for the next. I felt like some of the characters did things that I felt was a little out of character for them. However, I do still really love this setting and this story, and I hope the third book knocks it out of the park. I do like what this book set up for the third. I think learning more about the gods and their magic was interesting, and hopefully will lead to a lot of interesting action in the third book.

TW: misgendering, suicide, self-harm for blood magic, alcohol consumption, blood & gore depiction, body horror, death of a parent recounted, murder, torture, war themes

As many people know, I had mixed feelings on [b: The Shadow of the Gods 52694527 The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1) John Gwynne https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610375894l/52694527.SY75.jpg 73710031]. I was definitely in the minority of that opinion, but I found that I didn't grow many attachments to characters and the plot wasn't memorable for me. I've always wondered if I just read it at the wrong time, which is very possible. Regardless, I went into this book hesitantly. I really, really wanted to like it, and knew I would be so disappointed if I didn't.Hey! I loved it! I want to start by thanking John Gwynne for all of the recap information at the beginning of the book. Every fantasy novel in a series besides the first should have this. We all read such huge, dense fantasy novels. There's no way to remember everything, especially when a lot of time has passed! This recap really helped remind me what happened in the first book and prep me to dive right back into this story. I grew so fond of the characters in the book this time. I love the camaraderie formed in each band of warriors. I love all of the nuances to their characters, even though many of them have similar motivations. By the end, I was definitely crying and rooting for everything these characters did. The setting was made to feel so immersive and real. It reminded me a lot of AC: Valhalla honestly. The different plot lines were a little confusing for me in the beginning, but as I got reacquainted with everything, I was no longer confused. The plots were all so well thought out and paced. I didn't feel like there were long stretches that dragged or unnecessary plot lines. I love the exploration we are getting of the gods, but I'm especially loving getting to learn about the powers of their descendants. This world is just so cool and I'm so excited to continue on with this series. TW: death, gore and blood, body horror, slavery, war, brief mentions of rape/sexual assault

I have a full review here on my YouTube channel.

Robin Hobb does it again. Guys, I know I've become a broken record player extolling Robin Hobb's virtues, but I can't help myself. These books are masterpieces.

This series finale was spectacular. There were so many satisfying conclusions, whether it be for a character arc or a plot point that we've been following from the beginning. Hobb's characters stay at the top of my list of best characters in fiction. Everyone is so well fleshed out and they each have their own thorough, well thought out character arcs. The plots never wandered or became boring. I was constantly enthralled by every single second of this series. I love series endings, and Robin Hobb nailed this one. There were no weird wrap ups or out of character decisions made. The word that I feel like best sums up this series is satisfying. I felt so, so satisfied finishing this book. Everyone, please read Robin Hobb's books.

TW: alcohol, animal death, assault, attempted murder, attempted rape, blood, child abuse, death, drugs, emesis, fire, hostages, kidnapping, misogyny, murder, pedophilia, physical abuse, poisoning, pregnancy, PTSD, rape, sexism, sexual abuse, sexual assault, slavery, slut shaming, violence

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In this retelling of The Juniper Tree, we follow the youngest of three sister. Their father is a wizard who has had a curse put on him. He has an insatiable hunger and can't feel love for his three daughters. Each of the daughters has their own magical power which he exploits to bring in money for their family. When the youngest daughter, Marlinchen, goes to the city and meets a dancer, a romance ensues.

This book is very dark and graphic. It is definitely a horror story. I want to preface this whole review by saying there should've been trigger warnings provided by NetGalley and the publisher. There are a lot of graphic scenes in this book. I will list trigger warnings below.

I really liked the fantastical story telling devices used in this book. I've always liked a dark fairy tale, and this fit the bill. It was so atmospheric and scary. However, I really feel like the entire story was over-sexualized. There was so much emphasis on nipples and boobs, like constantly. A lot of it was really hard to read. I think that that was probably the author's intent, but it was still tough. I felt like we could've cut back on some of the sexualization and the story would've still be successful.

This story definitely isn't for the faint of heart. I really did enjoy the story and the ending, but please go into this with caution.

TW: gore, body horror, child sexual abuse, incest, cannibalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, scientific racism, physical and psychological abuse by family members, gaslighting, self-harm and suicidal ideation, bulimia, graphic descriptions of vomiting, animal death

This was a fun book. We get to see these teens all a little older and a little more mature. We get to see the plot line of these books kind of come to a close, while seeing the prophecy become fulfilled. I thought it was a satisfying conclusion to the series, and also set up the next series nicely. I'm excited to get into the next series because I've heard they're a little more mature. One of my biggest obstacles in this series was that they were obviously written for a much younger audience, so I had a hard time connecting. I feel like if I had read these when I was this age, I would've been absolutely enamored with it. Today, I still definitely respect the story and understand it's hype, I just couldn't connect as well. Still definitely worth the read!

TW: death, demons, depression, fire, loss of loved ones, skeletons, violence, war themes

The book community led me astray with this one...

In this, we follow a man who is set on a revenge path to ruin the person who killed his parents. We also follow a woman who is all sunshine and rainbows, but can't remember a large chunk of her childhood due to trauma. A romance ensues.

This book was bad. I was led to believe this was a super steamy, dark romance. And it was a dark romance. But all of the twists and turns were dumb. While they weren't predictable at least, they were all just there to make the story worse. So I was hopeful the steamy scenes would at least make up for it. And they also sucked. They were short and boring. This book was not worth the read.

TW: attempted murder, blood, child abuse, death, stalking, violence

In this third installment to the trilogy, we follow Elle's best friend, Margot, as she runs into her childhood best friend. In high school, they had hooked up, which cause their friendship to fall apart. Both of them have different ideas of what made their friendship dissolve like this, and they haven't spoken in 11 years. When Olivia becomes the wedding planner for Brendan's wedding, where Margot is the Best Man, their paths collide. Through a twist of fate, Margot and Olivia become roommates. They must confront what happened 11 years ago. What follows is a cute romance!

I love Alexandria Bellefleur. I think her characters are always adorably written, and the steamy scenes are STEAMY. I love that she doesn't fall into the miscommunication trope too hard. While there was hardcore miscommunication in the past, we don't fall into that too hard in this book. I really connected with Margot's otherness feeling in her group of friends. I felt like it was really relatable. The romance itself was cute, steamy, and mature.

I love Alexandria Bellefleur and will read all of her romance books.

TW: alcohol, sexual content, toxic relationship (past)

First, I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In this book, Loulie and her jinn bodyguard, Qadir, search the desert for magical artifacts to sell for a steep price. One day, after saving one of the prince's lives, Loulie ends up on the Sultan's radar. He recruits her to go with his oldest son out to the lost city of the jinn and find a particular artifact that he will then use to wipe out all jinn. What follows is an adventure of friendship and love and loss and adventure that is so enthralling.

Guys, I really loved this book. I went into it without many expectations, and I was swept away. The setting was so magical and fully captivated me from the beginning. Abdullah's ability to make me feel present in this world was incredible. The plot was medium paced. There were a few points where I felt like the pacing was a little off. However, they weren't so egregious that I thought the book was bad.

The real star of the show was the characters. I am dying for the second book just to spend more time with these characters. They were so well developed and so unique, and all of their interactions together felt so real. Qadir and Loulie's relationship was beautiful, and I loved every minute we had with them together. I liked that there wasn't any overt romance to the story. Normally I love a good romance, but this book felt like it didn't need it yet.

Overall, an incredible book. I think you should all preorder it.

TW: alcohol, assault, attempted murder, blood, death, emotional abuse, fire, gore, murder, skeletons, violence

This book starts with Savvy getting dumped by her long term boyfriend for “letting herself go”. What follows is her learning to love herself and starting a new romance.

I enjoyed this book. However, it wasn't what I was expecting. I thought this would be a fun steamy romance. Instead, I felt like this was more of a fictional self help book. We mostly followed Savvy's relationship with herself and her career. She learned how to balance her home life with her career, as well as learning to feel comfortable in her body. There was a romance element, it just felt more like a side plot than the main story line. Also, I felt like it was a little overdone that Savvy was seeing her ex around town like every time she went somewhere... It started to feel very convenient for the story and very far fetched.

Overall, this was a cute book, but probably not a new favorite. It just wasn't what I was looking for!

TW: alcohol, anxiety, emotional abuse, fatphobia, sexually explicit scenes

A masterpiece. Sabaa Tahir is amazing.

This book follows three POVs: Misbah, Salahudin, and Nor. Misbah's story line is happening in the past, while Salahudin and Nor's is happening in the present. Salahudin and Nor were best friends, but when Nor professed feelings for Salahudin, but Salahudin didn't reciprocate, things were awkward between them. All three of these characters are Muslim living in a small town and America, and we get to see them face the challenges that come with that. We also get to see Salahudin and Nor just try to live their lives. Nor is doing everything she can to leave this small town and go to college against her uncle's wishes, while Salahudin just wants to keep the family business alive. The ending was bittersweet, and this book was tough to read at times. Tahir's ability to effortlessly weave this story along really shows why it took her 10 years to write this book. You can feel the pain and the rage she must have also felt while writing this. I was so angry almost the entire time I was reading this book. The rage truly comes off the page.

Go into this book cautiously. It deals with some very heavy topics. But it is an incredible book.

TW: alcoholism, bullying, death, drug addiction, Islamophobia, physical abuse, racism

I'm going to do a dedicated review for this on my YouTube channel, so I won't get too far into this review.

This book definitely made up for how much I disliked the last one in the series. The plot didn't drag like the last one, and I feel like we got some good character development throughout. This one so far is probably the best one of the series plot-wise.

However, we still had some annoying things. There is so much stuff that is repeated throughout, i.e. someone not understand people of another gender, or Nynaeve tugging her braid, or making it abundantly clear how much weaker women are than men physically. It all got very tedious and annoying. Every time one of these phrases came up, I just rolled my eyes. It was nonstop. Also, since there's so many characters in this book, Jordan tries to give them all some distinguishing mannerism or trait so we remember who he's talking about, but at some point, it gets to just feel like all of the side characters are 2 dimensional.

Complaints aside, I actually did really enjoy the plot and lore of this book. We got to explore the Aiel a lot more and that was great. Overall, a good book with some annoying writing mixed in.

TW: attempted murder, blood, bones, death, decapitation, violence

Guys. Guys. If you haven't read this series, do it.

This book picks up right where the last book left off. We get sooooo much more in depth with these characters. They are all so superbly fleshed out and made real. I felt so invested in their relationships and character arcs. The plot wasn't super fast paced, but I didn't feel like it ever dragged. I was definitely never bored by any means. I was constantly enraptured by the story. This one somehow was even better than the last book in the series and I thought that one was a masterpiece. Now I'm dying to start the third one because I honestly don't know how else Robin Hobb will be able to top this one, but knowing how I normally am (a crying mess) at the end of a series, I'm sure I will love that one even more. No middle book syndrome here!

TW: rape, sexual assault, slavery, violence, blood, death, murder, misogyny, grief, adult/minor relationship, drug use, drug abuse, gore, suicidal thoughts, addiction

Guys, Robin Hobb is a master at her craft and has been inducted into my imaginary Fantasy Writer HOF. This book was stunning.

Set in the same world as The Farseer Trilogy, but far away from the Duchies, we follow a family of traders who own a Liveship. A Liveship is basically an anthropomorphic ship that is created using a very rare wood called wizardwood, and then quickened by having 3 people from successive generations die on it's deck. Liveships are incredibly pricey. When the Vestrit family's Liveship is quickened, the youngest daughter Althea expects to inherit. However, her mother convinces her father to pass it on to Althea's brother-in-law. What follows is an expansive adventure as different branches of this family go their separate ways.

Guys, Hobb doesn't pull any punches. I always say a book needs stakes in order for me to enjoy it. And boy oh boy did this one have stakes. I felt so personally connected to every one of these characters. I was really nervous going into this book because it doesn't follow the same characters as The Farseer Trilogy, but I honestly think this book is better than the first 2 books in the Farseer Trilogy, and probably about tied with the last book. This book is definitely longer than the books in that series, and I totally understand why. By the end, I felt like these characters were my family and I was rooting for them every step of the way. They all had such well developed character arcs, and I am dying to continue.

I loved seeing the difference in this society than the society in the Duchies, as well as their opinions on that area. I also really loved exploring more of the magic in this world. Whenever something connected back to the farseer trilogy, this was me.

The tie ins were few and far between, but still made me very excited. I'm sure I missed a few too.

All in all, Robin Hobb is amazing and I will read all of her books.

CW: ableism, abusive relationship, alcohol, amputation, assault, blood, bones, bullying, child abuse, death, drugs, gore, misogyny, murderer, needles, physical abuse, profanity, sexism, slavery, terminal illness, violence

Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical particle physicist, talks about the things that excite her most about the universe and all of the unknowns. She also discusses the ways in which humanity has gotten this information, and the things western civilization has done to indigenous communities against their will in order to get the scientific knowledge we have today. She continues on to discuss the additional obstacles POC, women, and trans people must overcome in order to make it in science.

This book is phenomenal. The first section is all about science and the fun and exciting things involved with particle physics. You can really feel Prescon-Weinstein's excitement and love for this science through the page as she explains these incredibly complex systems. This first section is in direct contrast to the rest of the book, where she discuss how hard it is for her to keep her love for this science when she sees the harm that the science community has caused and all of the extra work she must put into her profession to be successful. I didn't know much, if anything, that was in this book, and I highly recommend anyone read this.

This book follows a young orphan woman who can see ghosts. All she has of her family is her mothers journal. One day, she gets a letter from an unknown uncle inviting her to the family house, Gallant. What follows is a haunted house story, where this young woman must confront her past and her present family, as well as the horrors beyond the wall.

VE Schwab is an incredible story teller. Her prose is always top notch. This book is no exception. However, I found this story a little predictable. I was a little underwhelmed with the twists and turns. The family was the most intersting part of the story, but I didn't feel like we got enough time exploring the characters. I felt like the house was the focus, which is fair, but I wanted some more character building. I wanted to know more about the people that already lived in this house.

All in all, a good book and worth the read.

TW: abandonment, ableism, bullying, blood, death, grief, self harm, suicide (off page), suicidal thoughts

George Johnson is incredible. I also read their book [b: All Boys Aren't Blue 44280883 All Boys Aren't Blue George M. Johnson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559859817l/44280883.SY75.jpg 61592230] which was beautiful. This is a short memoir where George details the life of their grandmother, who recently passed. They detail out all of the goods and the bads in their relationship, as well as with their brothers and cousins. The glimpses into their life they give us is so profound. I always feel so honored to get this peek into their life. I recommend all of their books.

Guys. This series. I am in love with Michael Sullivan at this point. Like, these books just get better and better. This review will be a little brief because a lot of what I said in the last reviews still hold true. These characters are masterpieces. I love all of them so much. The plot keeps taking turns that I never would have expected. The magic is so cool. The plot twists are wild. Like, everyone should be reading Sullivan's books. I'm so excited to read his whole backlog honestly.

Metzl uses statistics and specific examples throughout this book to prove that many white people would rather vote for things that directly endanger/disadvantage them than to do something that they perceive will help minorities. He does an incredible job of proving this. He specifically uses gun control, health care, and education as his methods of proving his point. For example, when gun control becomes more lax, more white men use guns to commit suicide than any other demographic, but the people that are affected by this still don't see it as a gun issue. This book was impactful because it really felt like he was proving his point by showing concrete evidence. For the most part, he tried to keep his opinion out of it. It definitely does bleed into this book some. He also makes sure to point out that he is a white man from one of these areas he's speaking of, so he is coming from a place of privilege. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that is curious how these political policies effect everyone.