Tyler Sparr

This series is falling into the trap many of these LitRPG series fall into where the things the hero needs to do turns into a checklist and whole books are just spent checking the boxes. Or the hero spends hundreds of pages on long tangents that aren’t central to the plot at all. It has lost a lot of its shine for me, but there’s enough there of what drew me to it to keep me reading them.

Quick callout, this is not really a story, but rather presented as if an episode of a podcast set within the Boys universe. It goes by quick, gives a little bit of insight into The Deep's story, and is well-narrated. There's nothing groundbreaking going on, but if you're a fan of The Boys, this is a fun listen.

I think this is the best entry in the series so far! There’s still so much to learn about the world, but we’re starting to get those peeks behind the screen. There’s plenty of action happening and the character interactions all feel very natural. Plus everyone loves a good tourney arc. I wish I already had book 4 available!

I feel like I still have no clue what’s ultimately going on in this series, but the picture is starting to become clearer. Like a lot of middle books, there’s a ton of moving pieces here that need to be pulled together, but it seems like there’s a consistent plan for that to happen. I really hope this trilogy sticks the landing!

I had heard good things from a couple different people about this book so I expected to enjoy it, but even still I was pleasantly surprised. The first book in a new series always has to do a lot of heavy lifting to get things going and that can make them slow, but Faebound doesn’t suffer from that at all. You’re immediately dropped into the world and taken along on their adventure. The characters are complex, the magic system is unique, and you’re given just enough information about the world to keep you intrigued without being beaten over the head by exposition. Definitely looking forward to seeing where the story goes!

If this weren’t a book club book, I would have DNF’ed so fast. I’m thoroughly convinced the author wrote this book solely to flex his knowledge of 14th century Catholicism. Many of the chapters added not a single meaningful thing to the plot and were tortuous to read. Finding enjoyable parts of this book was like panning for gold and just about as successful. That being said, it’s clearly very highly regarded so maybe it’s just not for me.

Wow, what a ride! I thought this series had a lot of potential after book 1, and Scott Reintgen really delivered here! The first book I think set readers up for disappointment and suffered from being labeled as “dark academia” while being compared to the Scholomance series when it really wasn’t that at all. Now that we’re fully away from the school setting, the rest of the world that’s been created here can really shine. It remains to be seen whether the series will stick the landing, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how the trilogy concludes!

I’ve yet to be disappointed by anything Mark Lawrence puts out and this is no exception. At times the pace was a little slow and it took a bit for everything to really get rolling, but when the action started, it really didn’t let up. Feels like a book that’ll really benefit from a re-read to pick up on any foreshadowing that was missed too. I am so intrigued by this world and this story and truly I have no concept of where it’s going to go from here, but I’m ready for the ride.

This was an easy, fun read, but what really threw me off were my own expectations going in. This book was sold to me with the tagline of "female John Wick story with dragon magic set in contemporary San Francisco’s Chinatown." (emphasis mine), and that set me up into thinking this would be just a continual action, revenge whirlwind. What I got was a retired assassin having to re-enter the world they thought they'd escaped. Definitely John Wick-esque, but skewed differently than I was expecting. The world-building is solid and there's a lot of interesting and unique ideas thrown at you, but again like John Wick, expect to have to pick up the majority of things by context clues. I'll be reading the sequel.