Rosanne

There were a few things that bothered me about this book. Throughout the first two books in the series and a few chapters in this one, it was a whole thing that Miriam and Alo have pined after one another for 5 years. But in this book there was zero slow burn! It went from 'oh we'll never be together' to 'WHAM BAM snack up shack up'. And the whole 'Iggy is so adorable' doesn't work on me, I'm not a kids person. That's on me, I knew what this book was about. But the biggest issue I had, was that Iggy's mom was pictured as some evil person, just because she didn't want to be a mom. She was pretty clear about that from the start, and she still went through pregnancy to give Alo the child he wanted so much. And then he blames her for not being there as a mom. That was the deal they made when they found out she was pregnant, right? It's unfair to expect her to take up that roll. And Miriam crying about it and reassuring Alo he is somehow the victim in this whole thing, just pissed me off. If I would live in Ever, these two would not be my friends.

It can be hard to write a negative review about a sensitive book, but I don’t mince my words when it comes to reviews. I frowned so much while reading this book. I expected all the mysterious issues to be cleared up by the end of the book, but no. I should have looked closer and saved myself the trouble, because this is part 1 of a series that I won’t be continuing.

Everyone in the book gets a nickname, so it takes a long time to figure out who they’re talking about. Garrett is Greedy, Levi is Duke, and Hunter gets a different name from everyone. The worst were Arti and Temi, short for Artemis. Because her name is Hunter, you know? Sigh..

Hunter apparently has anxiety, but it’s so poorly addressed that the only thing I know about it is that she sometimes stays in bed for a few days. And during those nights, she apparently has to lie on top of someone. Or between two people. Ironic that Greedy isn’t the most greedy character.

I think my biggest issue was, is that no one communicates in a healthy way! There is no chemistry between the characters, but Hunter is apparently a magnet for men. I felt sorry for Greedy, they should have shared the big secret with him. He is next level obsessed with Hunter, who treats him terribly. Let her go, boy. Especially when in the last pages another dude suddenly shows up at the door. Sorry, Sir Kabir Kareem Alexander Louis Cornelia Spencer 😂 Hunter apparently picked him up with her mysterious attraction during her mysterious tour through ✨Europe✨.

This story is held together by tie-rips and duct tape, and I will not be reading part 2

Cliché after cliché.. she's a petite girl in a man's world, who, of course, knows everything about cars, and who, of course, wears a tutu while working on cars. But with combat boots on, of course, otherwise she wouldn't be ✨different✨ from the other girls. Nope, not even going to spend an hour in this one.

In the first few pages of this book I already found three reasons not to waste my time reading it:

1) OMG YES "Omega Chi Kappa!" I'm zero percent interested in reading about some sorority girl who shakes her ass on a parade floatie.

2) The quote "Because even at twelve, strutting down a pageant stage in a bikini, I knew what my power was." Excuse you? Twelve??

3) She tosses her dirty wet wipes on the sidewalk. I'm done. I couldn't care less what her story is going to be.

The whole idea of a mystery book club through a free library is fun. I would've loved if the exchange had included some contemporary books, not just the classics. But that's just because I'm not a fun of those classics.

The FMC ruined this for me. She was extremely self-centred and there was not enough character development for me to root for her. The MMC was a good guy, and I hoped the ending wouldn't have included them getting together. I feel like he deserved a lot better, but he was too stuck on his high school crush to realize it. Lucky her.

Normally I like Rebecca F. Kenney's books, but this one wasn't for me. Whatever plot there was went by way too fast, and I didn't connect with the characters at all.

The first half of the book was a bit slow, but I knew it would pick up eventually. And it did not disappoint! This series finale wasn't as spectacular as Kingdom of Ash, but it was still very well done. I liked the connection between Maas's different worlds, and I can see that another book in the ACOTAR series is indeed needed with all the loose ends.

This is unfortunately the book that made Rhysand drop to the bottom of my book boyfriend list. Wow. That guy. The lack of empathy is astonishing. Suddenly the found family I got to know in the first four books have turned into a clique of mean people who have very limited space for error when it comes to others outside of their circle. There is clearly no room for Nesta and her trauma's, and it was hard to read. Which makes it a good book, because boy did I feel things.

Thank the cauldron for Cassian, and Gwyn, Emerie and the House.

Also, the pregnancy thrope was unnecessarily complicated. And why didn't Elaine get a magical Illyrian anatomy upgrade hm? 👀 This brings me hope she will not end up with Azriel. Get back to your designated redheads, please.

Jack Frost is swoon worthy. But I didn't like Emery at all, so it's an accomplishment this book gets 3,5 stars. All thanks to Jack, of course😌

"You find me ugly, don't you?"

"Hideous. A hag of a woman. And you? You don't think me a handsome man?"

"Had you crawled out from under my bed when I was a child, I would have bludgeoned you to death with my father's mace."

😂

Four short stories that made me sad but happy at the same time. The writing style felt a little bit simple at times, but that didn't really bother me.

A beautiful Chinese legend, romance, betrayal, a strong female main character (who remains strong throughout the story), powerful friends. A bit predictable, otherwise I would've given it 5 stars.

Strong story, with a good structure, interesting characters and plot twists. The bond between Will and Katherine was built too quickly, so it didn't have much weight. The ending didn't feel so much as an open ending, more like it was cut short. I will definitely read part 2.

I loved it! It's been a while since I read a story as magical as this.

"I have a lot of dreams. A lot of nightmares, too. Only time will tell which path my life will take."

I finished The Prison Healer last week and I loved it! The title summarizes the book pretty well: it's about a girl who is imprisoned and who works as a healer😁 Of course it's not just about her daily practices, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to tell you the ins and outs😉 The setting reminded me a bit of Kauf Prison from the Ember Quartet by Sabaa Tahir. I I liked how the story had a clear structure and even though it takes place in one location, it doesn't get boring at all!

I immediately started the second book of this series, The Gilded Cage. I haven't read much, but I have to say I'm not as enthusiastic about it as I was with the first one😕 There are some loose ends that aren't tied up properly. Because I've only read 60 pages, I thought it would be fun to make a few predictions and see how it goes! Be warned, these predictions are not spoiler-free!

1. Kavi is not going to do anything about the terrible state the prison was in when she left, or the crimes of the warden and guards. In the second chapter she basically says: "though luck, I have more important things to do". Bad Kavi🤨

2. Torell and Naavi are going to fall in love, bonding over their fondness for weapons and righteousness😏

3. At the end of the book, Kavi will have to choose between her family (who abandoned her, to be honest) and her boyfriend the royal Avatar💦🪨🔥🌬️ They are going to make an end to the battle of power that's been going on for centuries. Or she's going to end him, and then I'm completely wrong😂

We'll see how well I predicted this story! Stay tuned for the review😎

"This is where you belong. This is where you were meant to bloom. Not every flower belongs in every garden."

It took me a few chapters to get into this story. There was a lot of information to take in and occult magic is not something I read a lot about. But when I started to learn about Alex and her past, I became really invested in the story. The background story is written in a way that's not too descriptive, and it makes you appreciate Alex' strength and resilience. A lot of people are raving about Darlington, but I didn't learn enough about him to actually really care. Honestly, the first 5 chapters I thought he was an elderly man 😂

"Dutch is harder to pronounce."

TRUE 🤓 I don't know what the connection between Bardugo and the Netherlands is, but in every book she writes she mentions the Dutch language or gives cities and people Dutch names (Ketterdam, for instance). Does anybody know why this is?

Bardugo pays attention to important topics, such as victim blaming. I'm glad she's doing this, because this issue sometimes shows up in very small statements or gestures and more people should be aware of this. At times it felt a bit forced though, like it didn't really apply to the situation but she wanted to make it work anyway. Other times it was very subtle but spot on.

I'm curious to see how everything is going to play out in the sequel!

I'm sad to say this book wasn't for me. The overall message is a good one, but I don't think it should have taken Nora a whole book to come to the realization that just because there was a bad experience, there wouldn't only be bad experiences. There's one quote that sums up what exactly bothered me about Nora. It's when Mrs. Elm tells her that sometimes, the only way to learn is to live. Nora than replies “sounds hard”. Yes Nora, that's the point. Life can be hard sometimes, but you learn from those times as well. I'm glad she realized this in the end, but throughout the book there was too much self-pity and Nora expecting others to solve her problems in life. If you don't like the direction your life is going, you have to roll up your sleeves and do something about it. I know this sounds a bit blunt, and I'm not trying to diminish the fact that depression can make people feel like there's no way out. I just wished the author would have taken the time to explain more how Nora came to be like this, without describing her as an easy quitter. There were moments in the book where I recognized some of Noras struggles. Her habit to overthink, her not wanting to stand out out of fear of being mocked or how she worries about other people's approval. These are issues I know a lot of people struggle with, and I think we should all take Mrs. Elm's advice to heart: “you don't need a permission slip to be yourself”. This book made me realize that, even though I don't consider myself an optimist, I do have more of a positive outlook on life and it's challenges. I always try to keep in mind that when things seem a bit heavier, better times will come around.

Never fear shadows, they simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby - Ruth E. Renkel

"You ask us to wake,When we want you to sleep,Secrets are meant,For one soul to keep."

This book was a fun read. It was not especially good, magical or original, but I enjoyed reading it. Why do I only give it two stars, you might ask. Even though the story has real potential and the character are interesting, there were a few elements that stopped me from giving this book a higher score.

Sometimes the author crossed the line between sassy and vulgar language. I will not go into detail here, but let's just say I would've been happy with a bit more nuance🙄I mean, I like reading a bit of smut, but it needs to be written well for it not to make me cringe. One other thing that really bothered me, is the way Temper and Callie talk to each other. I've never heard friends call each other 'bitch' so many times, and I'm not here for it. Why would you even say that to a friend? I don't get it.

"And mountains may rise and fall, and the sun might wither away, and the sea claim the land and swallow the sky. But you will always be mine. And the stars might fall from the heavens, and night might cloak the earth, but until the darkness dies, I will always be yours."

The Bargainer might just be a long lost Illyrian cousin of Sarah J. Maas's bat boys, with his shadows, huge wingspan and possessive growling. A siren as main character is a great idea, a strong woman with magical abilities who learns that sharing your sorrows is not always a bad thing. Callypso would make the worst roommate, leaving sand all over the house, but I liked her. Her relationship with the Bargainer is a bit confusing at times, but they do fit together. But then, with only 30 pages to go, I had to laugh so hard at Callies stupidity. After her abduction, she's been trapped in a prison cave with other women for over 2 chapters, and it takes her all that time to figure out who the villain is. How? How is it possible for her to take that long to connect the dots??😂 I thought she knew immediately who was behind the abductions, but no, the author made it sound like a clever discovery. If there's one thing I'm allergic to in books, it's making logical thinking sound like the brilliant ideas of a mastermind. It's the main reason why I'm never touching another book by Dan Brown again. So for me, to experience this so close to finishing the book, it was a bit disappointing. I don't think I'm going to read the second book in this series, mainly because I feel like I can already predict what's going to happen.

But don't let my review keep you from reading this book yourself! It was just not what I hoped, but that might be different for somebody else 😊 if this is on your TBR, you should give it a go👍🏼

The Song of Achilles is one of my favorite reads of 2021. It's a magnificent and heartbreaking love story about Patroclus and Achilles, the last one you may have heard of because of his significant role in the Trojan war. It's a story about a love so pure and unconditional, and about how you can make your own choices even though your path seems already laid out for you. Unfortunately, it's also a story about how fate determines your life course, no matter how much you try to outsmart it.

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell, I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

Let me start by saying I had a few expectations before I started reading. I thought I would enjoy the writing style, seeing as Jay Kristoff has written one of my favorite series. I had my doubts about the genre, because I’ve never read a sci-fi book before. And lastly, I was hoping I would love it so I could add the sequels to my TBR. Well, let’s say it didn’t really turn out as I hoped..

The story started of strong and I was invested in most of the characters. The whole girl-out-of-time-idea was nice, and I like how the Goldenboy who rescued her was not her love interest. Instead this was a brooding, “hot as all get-out” alien specimen, who calls her ‘be’shmai’, has violet eyes and is referred to as the ‘Tank’. I’ll take one of those, please 😏 However, the story was told from six different perspectives, and only three of those were interesting to me. Finian carried the story for the most part, and I couldn’t help but feel like this was a high school edition of Guardians of the Galaxy. I can’t be the only one who thinks so, right? I actually checked the release date to see which came first.

The enemy turns out to be a communist parasite that wants to spread itself all over the universe. It’s not that it doesn’t work for the story, but I feel like I’ve heard it before in other books and movies. And I really don’t watch that many sci-fi movies!

I was still rooting for this book, but then the last chapters happened. Everything that happened in the end felt like a cliché. The self-sacrifice, the squad becoming a family and Goldenboys speech that was a bit too much. Not even Aurora and Kal ending up together could safe it for me, because at this point I was hoping for a plottwist and I kind of wanted him to end up with the science girl instead. Just to mix it up a bit, you know? Besides, the authors kept hinting at Zilas sad backstory, only to NOT tell it in this first book! It felt a bit like click bait, and nobody wants that😒 I read it in a couple of days, which means I didn’t think it’s a bad book, but I expected more because it is written by the creative mind behind Nevernight (one of my favourite series).

It's done, I finished the final book in this amazing series! I'm just going to dive right in with this review. First off, I want to thank Laini Taylor for writing these books, she really has a way with words that make me pause for a minute. However, compared to the other books, I have to say this was my least favorite. I've made a small list of the reasons why:

• The story was still thrilling and I had so much fun reading it, but there was also a lot of information being dumped.
• I didn't like the character Eliza.. At first, she was just boring, and then I felt like she wasn't really part of the story (even though she was actually at the beginning of everything).
• I'm also not sure how I feel about the slightly open ending. Maybe it was this open because Taylor wants to keep writing about the world of Eretz, which I'm absolutely fine with, but I kind of needed closure after three books.
• I think somewhere in book 2, I kind of lost interest in Akiva and Karou's relationship. Of course, I still wanted them to have a happy ending, but I didn't really care as much as I did in book 1. In the end, I was way more invested in Ziri & Liraz and Mik & Zuzana ("the most excellent rabid fairy"😂). I will always be team Akiva, so if he's happy with Karou, I'm happy 😉

That being said, I'm still very enthusiastic about this book and there were so many beautiful moments as well. I loved Liraz's storyline in this book, and I shipped her with Ziri from the moment that was even a possibility. So glad they got together in the end❤️ I'm glad Karou finally decided to create soldiers with honor, that was what I was hoping for in this last part of the series. The chapter in which we get inside Razgut's mind was one of my favorites. He is feisty. At the end of book 2, I was so disappointed in him, but I love his wit and internal dialogue. It reminded me a bit of Gollum on a good day. What was done to him was so cruel, I thought his backstory was very important. And poor Akiva, he just can't get a break, can he? "I keep getting second chances, that aren't rightly mine". If you've read the books, you understand how intensely sad it was when Akiva spoke them😭

Because I've only read two books this month, I'm going to pick this one as my Book of the Month⭐ I will miss the world of Eretz, and I will say goodbye to it with the appropriate words:

I kiss your eyes and leave my heart in your hands.

"It seemed like just another Monday, innocent but for its essential Mondayness, not to mention its Januaryness".

This brilliant line immediately set the mood for me. I loved Taylors writing style from the beginning. The way she portrays the beautiful city of Prague or the lively souk in Marrakech. Her characters come to life and even though at first I thought they were a bit ordinary, I soon found out that's definitely not the case. Then comes the part where there are monsters, and angels, and a big mystery surrounding.. teeth? Everything is explained later, in a ‘let me show you, ‘cause talk is cheap' kind of way. Needless to say, I was hooked!

I liked Karou and her strange family of monsters. You can say what you want about the morally grey Brimstone, but he did give Karou some pretty good advice about her love life and any “inessential penises” she may encounter in her life. I laughed so hard at that.

“Someone who was for her, as she was for him, whose blood and butterflies sang to hers and answered them, note for note”.

I asked for a book with a badass main character, romance and action, and this book delivered on all three of these topics. I read the Dark Elements-series before this and I have to say, I liked this spin off better than the original series. I didn't care much for Zayne in the first three books, but I was pleasantly surprised by his personality and his banter with Trinity. She was another interesting character, with an unique background. The story was a bit similar to the other books in the series, due to the structure of the story and the way you can already predict certain plot twists. I don't think I'm going to read the sequel, unless I can get it for free 😉 Because of this I can't give it 4 stars, but I think 3,5 star is a pretty good score!

This is one of those books that you will read over and over again, envious of someone reading it for the first time. A world is created in which you immerse yourself completely. It has been so well thought out and nothing was described too extensively. The Waiting Place in particular is brilliant, I think it's a nice version of what happens after someone dies. The dynamics between the characters are just right, the friendships and bonds come across as very believable. Sometimes the story slowed down a bit, but by building up to the exciting final battle, the Nightbringer's intensely sad story was even more impressive in the end.

When you are so invested in a story, you have to pause a moment when someone dies. At times I had to put the book down for a while, what a misery. It's also what makes it a great book, nobody's spared from the catastrophes of war.

After the first book, Hel quickly became my favorite character. With everything she endured, she just kept going. She is so strong and loyal, and when her tribulations just didn't stop, I felt for her. She lost everything and everyone, and still fought on. Loyal to the end, indeed.

❤️ "That, just for a moment, I can hold my breath and be with you again, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all."

This book totally lived up to the hype. It was funny, heart warming, heart breaking and deliciously romantic. Casey McQuiston has a way with words, and the story she wrote is going to mean a lot to so many readers. There is so much pure and joyful love between Alex and Henry🥺 I'm not a hopeless romantic, but I swooned when I read the love letters😍 my favourite read of June, for sure!

Shout out to the translater by the way! Most of the time I feel like something is lost in translation, like the little jokes or powerful statements. But in this case, the translater nailed it👍🏼

Another quote I chose for this review is not from the story itself, but from the acknowledgements. It was the perfect last sentence for this book. I translated it from Dutch, so maybe it's not completely correct, but it's a strong message all the same:

✳️"Keep on fighting, keep writing history and look after one another."✳️