writingpen

I wanted to write this review while it was still fresh. I love Laurie. And I especially love Laurie's story. I like that all the women she interact feel like real people. I like that there is strong female friendship and even growth. It may be a romance novel, but covers several different kinds of love. I finished this book in the space of an afternoon and it was worth it.

I enjoyed the book but I would have enjoyed it more if it was shorter. There were times it felt like the book was too long, but then the solution to the next plot problem would be weirdly convenient. I feel like this book need to work more on its villain and make better use of its page count.
Things I liked:
The queer representation that uses social norms of the time.
Acknowledgment that different protest groups/org have different goals. They don't all immediately meld into one super group.
The relationships between the sisters.
The effort put into describing the environment/ buildings
Things I didn't like:
The main hetero romance felt forced & weird. I could have taken it out of the book and barely changed anything.
Magic seeming to be really convenient / not explained to my satisfaction.
Consequences to actions never felt real enough. When a character sacrifices themselves, finding a really dumb loophole to sort of bring them back is just annoying.

2.5 stars or so. The writing style was okay and I liked the scene setting/ atmosphere. Unfortunately, the book never really grabbed and I kept putting it down. The mystery was blah and I dislike the plot hinging on someone being super crazy for unknown reasons. An okay read, but I wouldn't put it on top of your TBR.

This book probably rounds up to 3.5 stars for me. There were parts that I really enjoyed. Especially the setup/ beginning. Sleeping Beauty has always been one of my favorite princesses. As with the author's other books, I enjoy the prose style. Also, the interior art is cute. The ending could have been better but I didn't hate it. The main issue I had was the midpoint. The fantastical just didn't land for me? The phone working in the fantastical land and actually sending &receiving text messages just felt nonsensical to me. I know it was a novella, but the worldbuilding for the fantastical part of the story just felt a little more sloppy/unfinished than I prefer.

I read this for an online book club. While I am glad I tried something different, this didn't fully hit the mark for me. Some many panels were truly beautiful or shocking, while others were just confusing. Some of the cast were difficult to tell apart with the strange lighting choices. And the antagonist has a very stupid plan. That being said, I enjoyed to story and I thought dealt well with themes of family and corruption. I liked the twists and there several characters I would be interested in following if I could follow only them.

Slight asterisk on the starring system. I read a lot of gensres/subgenres and don't hold all of them to same standard. Vaugh delivered what I wanted, I nice cozy read with smart characters and romance that wasn't x-rated. That being said, I don't necessarily like it as much as other books I've given 4 stars to. The romance took a strange left turn and I wasn't in love with how the locals were characterized.

As always, Robin Hobb makes me care about the characters and get invested in their journey. I would say my main complain is how slow the books moves. I assumed they would get further on the their journey in Bk1, and they did not.

Just a short review, because other people have said what I wanted to say, in a more eloquent way. I love the vibes and am addicted to stories that involve folks traveling around in wagons. The first reveal moment is fricking hilarious.
The good:
The vibes!
The main character being consistently naïve and not becoming insta cool 20 pages in.
Parts of the world building.
The bad:
The world building needed to a little further. I was left feeling like I was holding a chain that had missing links.
The romance the main has...just feels sort of forced. It may have worked in a full length novel, a sequel novella, or if this novella had a time skip. As it is, it just feels like the author was super into these character & was shouting now kiss! while clapping her hands maniacally. tl;dr the romance timeline was off.
The ending was a bit disappointing to me because I felt like it overlooked certain issues. Sending the main character out to be a librarian when in theory she's on the run, just seems like a bad idea. It would make more sense for her chill with the resistance for a few months and get training first. Let the heat die off. Instead, we seem to have forgotten that may even be an issue. Forgetting how your book started when it's a novella is just a weird mistake.

This was very cute.
Things I liked:
-Misunderstandings that actually make sense
-The baked goods
- I liked that they knew who was on the other end of twitter account early on. It allowed for a more competitive spirit and they didn't have to forgive each other for as much stuff. Also, it makes sense that it would come up in conversation.
-Weazel!
Things that weren't so great:
-Some of the side characters had motivations that I just didn't get. It felt like the author wanted a particular set up to happen, but didn't build a strong enough foundation.
- Some of the decisions the parents were made were kinda crappy, but it gets swept under the rug at the end.
- Some parts of the ending just felt to0...sweet? tidy? The delivery app getting a chat service and games is just weird. I get why the character would want it but it pulled out the story a little bit with the perfectness. True neutral:This book has *alot* of pop culture references. And I got them! But I'm in my late 20's and theoretically, not the target audience. I'm not sure if current high schoolers will enjoy these as much. (To be clear, I'm making fun of current teenagers. I'm just not sure they're watching Mean Girls *and* Gossip Girl. I get that some media is forever, but still. )

Anthologies can be very hit or miss. I picked this one up, because it had two authors I was familiar with. Unfortunately, I think the prompt caused the authors to make the stories especially steamy. I Just wish there could have been more cleverness in the plot. That said, I'm glad I learned more about Ivy's background.

I would call this decent? I liked some of the characters but it all just felt very...tropey. It feels like standard urban fantasy ( with a romance twist) of a certain era. Nothing grabbed me and made me obsessed with the world. I'm more likely to tell someone to read the first few Hollows books. That being said if you enjoy female narrators and insta-lust, the writing isn't half bad.

This book is maybe 2.5 stars for me. It has really interesting art, which I liked. And I could tell alot of effort was put into lore. However, the overall story just does not hang together well. The timeline is all over the place and I couldn't keep track of who was where. It almost felt the narrator had dementia and was trying to tell a descendent their life story. Overall: I'm glad I gave this book a chance, it's very unique! But I doubt I'll pick up anything else by this author unless it recommended to me.

This book almost feels like it doesn't belong to one genre. It has humor,a monster and a detective story. And I don't think that's a bad thing. It's also an amazing palate cleanser if you've been reading a lot of one type of book. I enjoyed how fleshed out some of the characters are. It would be very easy to just type cast one of the characters as the “religious one” etc.
So given the above, why not five stars? This book has what I see as a few small problems. They weren't barricades to my enjoyment, but they caused me to pause and “Huh?” a few times. For instance, I think the writer needs slightly more practice writing action scenes. I had to re-read a paragraph a few times to figure who was doing what to whom and how. In addition, at one point a character undergoes some development (yay! Go Team!) and then there's a time jump and seems like the character development has moved to another country, changed its name, and disavowed it's former life as a plot point. The character recovers their mojo (which is part of the reason I have 4 stars.), but I would have liked if that time jump was handled differently.

This writing style, it is not for me. I thought it handled grooming in an interesting way, but over all I don't plan to read more books by this author.

Another one that I read for book club. I enjoyed the artistic choices and how difficult conversations and topics were handled. The town the story was told in felt very real. I think it could have used a little more polishing. As one the people in book club pointed out, it would be nice to see more of the time between the past we flash back to and the present.- ex) why is everyone in town so forgiving of the disgraced hockey player. Is there more to the story beyond his fame in the past.

This book was a breath of fresh air a few reasons: 1. I didn't feel like it was just good vs. bad. It was two groups angling around each other but the main reason we root the main characters is because we experience the story from their perspective. 2. Less plot armor than some books have. 3. The women are allowed to be strong but in different ways. It's not like we have 3 identical Buffy's running around. 4. The history the characters have with each other feels natural. 5. I did not see that twist coming, even if my reading buddy thought I should have.
I mainly docked 1 star because the pacing in the 1st third left something to be desired and 5% more time spent on making sure I understood the magic system would have helped.

Realistically, I would say 4.5 but I rounded up. I liked the concept and the characters. I also liked that characters injuries stuck with them, instead of being insta-healed by the plot. The structure of the book has been done before but I still liked it. I enjoy stories within stories.

I'm withholding my final review, because I read it for a book club and the meeting could potentially change my opinion.
Initial thoughts:
I love the unique art style and how it reflects the narrators perception of the world. The recreation of famous artwork was super fun. Unfortunately, this comic suffers slightly in the plot department. The ending felt slightly abrupt and I felt like there were too many loose ends/cliffhangers at the end of volume one, given its length. That being said, I am willing to read the second volume when it is published.

I was initially interested this author because she occasionally says interesting things on twitter and I liked the plot description. Overall, I enjoyed the prose style and the world building. The main character had well expressed emotions and she genuinely felt like a young woman and not a mary sue. The being said, I enjoyed specific scenes and moments more than the overall plot arc. Sometimes the characters arcs and motivations felt a little bumpy or inconsistent. I'm willing to read another book by this author, but would probably read reviews first.
Edit: After looking at other reviews, I agree that the pacing could have been better. It's a relatively short book, but it feels a bit hurry up and wait sometimes.

This book was amazingly good!

I'm not starring this review because I have accepted I am not the target audience. I enjoyed a lot of the small moments, like the conversations between Jabari and Tau. Or when Tsiora is telling her story. But for whatever reason, I could not get through this book at my usual pace. I kept getting distracted, playing with my phone... The plot just doesn't grab me the way I want it to. I was way more interested in Esi and her narrative voice, but we don't get it for very long. Maybe I just can't relate to Tau's level of vengeance?

Read this book! An amazing version of a fairy tale.

It's possible this would five stars if I hadn't also read The Hollow Places, recently. (Go read that one!) The set up of two the books is similar which caused me ( I swear this was involuntary) to make some direct comparisons. On to the actual review!
I used to watch the show Hoarders and if you enjoy that show you will get out of the mundane elements of this book. The main character helps to unhoard her grandmothers house and then spooky things happen. I unfortunately, do not read horror very often so I didn't know the White People were an established horror thing the author was referencing. If you truly want to enjoy this story I would at least google a summary of the original story. Since I didn't have that background I went into the book unprepped and that led to me not enjoying the magic part as much. As a fantasy reader I am used to all the world building and I was left unsatisfied with the amount of information I was given. Even the magic people seemed like they didn't fully know what was going on. I enjoyed the read, but if forced to recommend a book by this author I would choose The Hollow Places.

As always, Armstrong knocks it out of the park! The plot was fun, I didn't predict the twists, and the LGBT representation is well written. I just wish I could get more Otherworld, but I know all things must end.

Well Damn. The reviews weren't kidding about this one being even better. It's not perfect, there are one or 2 things I would have moved around to clarify who a side character was/ how much time has passed. But those were honestly * super minor* complaints. The pacing improved from the second book as did the action scenes. All around a very good middle book. I liked how distinct the different settings were. And how there wasn't one person who was magically smarter than everyone. There were smart people in different factions and none of them won every single time. I'm not sure if there will be a time jump or more books in the universe (aside from legacy.) but I would pay money for a short story entirely about Niko learning his real back story. I refuse to believe that ends well.