themelodyofspring
Spoilers and Rant/analysis
The beginning was confusing and annoying (didn't like Victor) but the ending was amazing! Both the characters existed because of each other and were constantly at a war with themselves and with each other. I loved the story but didn't like any characters
This was even cuter than the first book!
I loved this one even more, probably because it had a more elaborate storyline. Didn't think we'd get a full fledged dragon but here we are. It was nice to see more of Erik and Hese's backstory.
This was so much fun to read again. I'm pretty sure I read some of these in my childhood when I used to read comic after comic.
Also, thanks to this book, mom and I had a lot of discussions on some of the story elements and how she remembers the actual story/mythology. And my pronunciation was wack due to fact that the English spellings for some of the names were weird.
Overall, super fun.
“Will the world end in darkness because it is foretold? Or because there will be those who believe it so strongly they will make it so?”
This book is sort of like a spin-off of Moby Dick. The story is told from the POV of a whale who is trying to keep its family safe from humans by hunting them. Humans hunt whales so whales hunt back. It is a short read that you can easily finish in a day.
The story revolves around a pod of whales who are hunting the one human responsible for killing whales. And during their journey, they meet other whales and humans. They see the horror caused by the killings and tell their own stories of how they became a part of this hunting pod. Yes, it gets serious.
The book has pretty illustrations of the oceans from the viewpoint of the whales. They draw you into the story and present a large scale view of the oceans.
This is a great book to give to kids as it has a moral in there regarding protecting Earth, the oceans and its creatures. Of how humans can be selfish and how a whale can teach you to be kind-hearted but headstrong.
This book is definitely recommended for people who liked the DCEU movie ‘Aquaman', and felt strongly when the villain (Orm) threw the trash out of the oceans back onto the lands at the beginning of the movie :D (Yeah, I kept remembering this for some reason while reading this book).
P.S. This book was bought and gifted to a non-reader friend for their birthday (because they kept asking me to let them borrow one of my books. Needless to say, they're probably never going to read it).
This was awesome ✨ Hadrian and Royce are so much fun. It's hilarious to see how much these guys have evolved over the years. And how much they used to annoy each other.
This book references Legends of The First Empire a LOT! That part where Royce is looking at the frescoes of Persephone and co. was amazing
OMG this was weird as hell. Cover looked cool but story was nothing special.
There's dragons in this but very different from what fantasy usually has. The MC is a Chimera, i.e., she's made up of dragon parts. (The dragons are humanoid beings and not flying winged creatures). If you cut off a part of a dragon, it regrows that part (omg so much gore).
It should've been more interesting, but the whole vampiric sub plot between Savare and Auri was forcefully introduced, even though you have no vampires in the story. Your characters should not fall in love because of the vampiric subplot you've put in. Baaaaaad!
TW: Blood, gore, killing, eating hearts, regrowing body parts, just lots of blood.
Florence was a good character. That is all!
The ending was good and I got the message this book was trying to get across with accepting yourself with all your flaws and accepting your friends even if they sometimes choose to hide things from you because people are complicated and everyone lives different lives that we can't possibly begin to comprehend.
Buuut, I was thoroughly annoyed with all the drama in the middle of the book. Although, I did enjoy how Mike and his sisters were so close and open with each other. So it might not have been very enjoyable but it was fine as a one time read.
This was waaaay too good!!! This book is what Children of Virtue and Vengeance should have been (but was NOT). It was also a little like An Ember in The Ashes (which I love a lot).
Loved:
* The magic! I liked the fantasy element in this a lot. Especially Xemina's magic! It was awesome and so cute when THAT happened.
* The theme was really good. It described both sides of the conflict - The oppressor and the oppressed. And how they change positions depending on who tells the story.
* Dare I say I liked the romance in this! I love when stories have romance and especially if it doesn't sway the characters from their original storyline but instead adds to it.
* There was a lot of wool weaving in this and my God, did I enjoy reading about that.
* Also no spoilers, but I love the cover and how well it goes with the story. All characters on the cover are in the story. The author made the cover so that's another win ☺️
* I don't know Spanish so I pointed the camera at this book as many times as Maggie Stiefvater made me do in The Raven Cycle
Once again, super fun to listen to this! Loved the plot!
Another severed heads mystery incoming!!!!!!! (Paladin's Grace flashbacks
3.5 stars?
Why you gotta put the miscommunication trope everywhere. For the love of God, let go of Reylo for books. How many more protagonists are gonna be their carbon copy? There's other people in the Star Wars universe.
Might I suggest the author watch Andor?! Fucking masterpiece.
Other than that
4.5 stars! This was so good. The blurb telling Sanderson fans will like this was not wrong.
I liked sooo many of the characters! There was a lot of development. This is mostly plot driven but all the characters are so compelling.
Let my boy Caeden have some peace
This book is really cute and sweet and lovely and warm and fuzzy. It talks a lot about mental health, queer representation in media, love, friends, consent, friends who don't push you to do stuff you're not comfortable with, and just generally a lot of sweet stuff. There's no angst in this. Lots of hand holding and hugging and stoned conversations. And weed, lots of it. But in a good way.
TJ Klune is my new favourite author.
I should also mention that audiobook was perfection. The narrator sounded stoned, the writing was stoned. Was this book written while the author was stoned? Because it was awesome. Also, I keep hearing Gustavo in my head going ‘Oh my God! What the hell.'
This was amazing, mind-blowing, terrific, so well written. Stormlight is my favourite but omg this little story was such a gem.
—Spoilers for all 3 novellas below—
Legion:
• Your hallucinations have hallucinations
This was awesome and it gets 5 stars for the amazing story and the plot twists.
Stop comparing this book to ‘the loneliest girl in the universe' which was such a mess. I hated that book more and more with each page but this one I fell in love with deeper.
Audiobook narration was great. Everyone sounded different and had different accents so it was fun.
—minor spoilers—
No one updated their BIOS while the damn spaceship was running
Another cute sequel
I am constantly floored by the amazing art, and the care with which the story is written. Minn missing her family and feeling displaced but being comforted by Erik, and the guardian spirit telling her that she is whole made me cry
This started really good (better than The Kiss Quotient), then got better, then completely derailed during the drama near the end. 4 stars only for the cute fluffy stuff for 80% of the book.
Was the damn drama required near the end? Should you be pushing an autistic person that way? It seemed so weird and I cringed a lot because it was really uncomfortable.
But apart from that, I liked the characters and the interactions a lot.
Also, there is no way Esme looked up tax laws in Indonesia when Khai asked about it and other English words, but when he mentions he's autistic, she doesn't Google that!
I loved this book! Bridget Collins is writing really good adult books and I'm here for it! I loved this as much as The Binding (though this one was more confusing, but also more magical and surreal).
The prose was beautiful. I like how the surroundings were described as a way of describing how characters were feeling. The recurrence of the scene with the spider's web to describe Léo's feelings and growth throughout the story was a nice touch (that's why the back cover has a spider!)
TW: Homophobia (little bit), suicide (big part of the story), mental health issues (also a big part, gets mentioned a lot), sexism (one of the MC's is a lone woman teacher for the first time ever in the history of the academy), bullying, religious persecution.
Liked:
* Bi MC
The beginning was confusing as hell because so many things were going on at once, but then again the characters were confused too. Enjoyed this a lot. Didn't think it'd be so much fun with just Locke and Jean but omg it totally was. The new characters were amazing, especially the Poison Orchid crew, but I also really liked Selendri.
—Audiobook notes (spoilers galore)—
• Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen were getting beaten like a dusty carpet.
This was cute but the story was for a very young level. The art was mind-blowing! The forests and flowers looked ethereal and made me want to draw them.
While I'm enjoying the story, this is still not upto 5 stars for me. Something is still lacking. But it's a really good and unique story.
Fav things from the book:
* Ophelia spoke more in this. She didn't just think things, she did them. Also, gave a piece of her mind to a lot of people.
* The missing people mystery was nice.
* Ophelia's mom telling Farooq that he was giving her a headache was hilarious
The footnotes were the best thing :DThis story explains kolos in Mistborn Era 2.Read this as part of [b:Arcanum Unbounded 34226341 Arcanum Unbounded Brandon Sanderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532120976l/34226341.SY75.jpg 48765829].