Yorha
A standard, enjoyable romantasy that reads way more YA than adult.
My biggest complaint is that I don't really understand where the devotion of the LI is coming from.
Gave it another try — might write down thoughts after I process the book tomorrow.
Sadly, it's a dnf @ 55% initial rating 2 stars
So sad to dnf it as I was convinced I am going to adore this series but unfortunately it's been a struggle to get this far and I am not going to subject myself to this no mo. The world building was really nice albeit a little too complex at times but I would be very interested to learn more. However, I just cannot stand 2 out of 3 main characters, as much as i try to force myself to continue, whenever there is a chapter from Nahri's POV, the book becomes painful to listen to. They are simply uninteresting and whiny to me, and the romance makes me cringe. Also not digging the idea of reading about a love triangle with romance written the way it has been so far, im good, thanks.
I have heard that this series gets better near the end of the first book but sadly i dont think i have it in me to make it till the end, which is a shame cause i expected this to be exactly my kind of book. Giving 2 stars for Alizayd, who is the sole reason I made it this far.
This was such a fun ride! I wanted to rate it 3.75 but I am bumping it to 4 for Raksh who stole the show for me.
My only complaint is that I wish we got a bit more lore cause that was the one thing I did like about Daevabad but I still enjoyed it immensely and can't wait for book 2.
I struggle to decide what i think about this book. It started out so strong and i had high hopes but the more i read, the less impressed I was.
Let me start off by saying that the world building and the politics were done superbly well. I was so invested in the politics of the world and made sure i am not missing any details that might later end up being important. However, I kind to slowly but surely stopped caring past the 30-40% mark.
One of my gripes is the fact that we get info-dumps throughout the entire book. As much as i loved the world-building, I felt like i couldn't just relax and go with the flow because new information was given throughout the book at all times. Every 5% we are learning something new and it never! stops! The issue isn't that in itself cause yay! more world-building! BUT for me was that it felt like this book had very little to offer outside of it. For most of the book, nothing much happens aside from the very beginning and the very end of the book so the new info felt, to me, more like reading a textbook a times. Maybe that's just me?
Another thing is that the characters felt so flat and uninteresting. Both the main characters, and all of the side ones. Side characters kept appearing but they had one, maybe two, traits assigned to them without offering anything else. The main characters definitely had more personality, but none that were interesting for me to read and explore. I felt zero attachment to them, or the plot itself. Deaths were happening, and were written to be emotional but as a reader you don't really care because nothing in the book made you care for them at all. The character deaths felt simply like plot devices for the main character's journey and growth and that feels cheap to me.
It was sadly also pretty predictable. The writing was very pretty though, alas a bit too flowery for me at times.
Unfortunately, as much as i loved the beginning and thought it was gonna be a solid 4*, it just ended up falling short and not really make me feel much at all. It will probably be the kind of forgettable read that you won't remember in a year. I definitely did not dislike it, but I can't say it really stands out amongst other books I read. Overall, I just don't really... care, and I really wanted to love it.
Would've been a 3 star if I didn't think the begining of the book was done so well.
✨ Tom Cruise ✨
Edit: okay, actual review!
“Grief is a journey, and everyone has their own way, you know?”
Rogue by Mona Awad is a psychological thriller about complicated parental relationships (mother-daughter one to be precise) and the struggle with high beauty standards. The only reasons I picked this book up was because I loved Bunny despite all its weirdness and I wanted to experience it again.
Rouge was weird, it did not disappoint me on that front but the writing felt a little repetitive and it really does not feel like the length of the book is justified, even though the book isn't very long at all. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't really gripping me the same way as Bunny had. However, I liked the ending and the way the book wrapped up. The conclusion to the relationship Belle has with her mother was absolutely beautiful and made me feel things (ew) which is very rare. The last 20 pages solidified Rouge as a 4 star for me and made it worth pulling thru even though at times I lost interest. Funny how sometimes the ending truly makes or breaks a book! I am definitely going to be coming back to this book and I hope to one day annotate it properly.
DNF @ 50%
The book is incredibly dull and the characters are one-dimensional and uninteresting.
I decided to DNF at 43% solely because I really don't enjoy the writing style and whenever I put the audiobook, I just find myself turning it off. I also hoped for more introspection but what I have listened to was interesting. Also I think perhaps memoirs just aren't for me, sadly.
The Hapless Milliner, the first book of the Miss Austen Investigates series, starts off strong with a murder of a mysterious merchant whom only our main character Jane recognizes.
The first 30% of the book was enjoyable and I thought this has the potential to being a 4 star read. However the joy flew out of the window the moment you realize Jane is not exactly clever... at all. It's definitely not going to bother everyone as it is a matter of preference, but I do expect the main character of a murder mystery novel to have at least a few working (little grey) brain cells. Jane does not need much evidence to come to conclusions and accuse (publicly!) every character she starts to suspect. She does not take her time to think it through, she just points fingers to the point where even her own family is telling her off. She did that to every main suspect, making the mystery... not really that much of a mystery.
That is also why I felt the conclusion to the mystery was anti-climactic and didn't make sense to me personally. You really want me to believe that someone who doesn't think much through and is guided by emotion rather than logic suddenly solved the murder and found an extremely unlikely murderer? I personally could not, leaving me very disappointed by the end.
There was also so many side characters and they mostly read the same, which isn't a big problem but I did find it a tad boring.
I think there is potential in this series but sadly this book just didn't do anything for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book was so much fun! The characters, their growth and their interactions truly made the book for me. The romance was adorable, the humor was great, vibes were immaculate and Emeric is everything.
The best thing of the book is the variety in the cast. We have a thief who was forced to rely solely on herself. An adorable nerd, who cares for the truth and those close to him. A princess that is forced to live a life of a commoner, and the cutest shapeshifter who will always protect her friends. Each makes mistakes and each has to consider those around them to grow into better people.
Me being me however, I have a few things that stop me from absolutely adoring the book:
- I really do not enjoy heavy-handed writing and that's how I felt when it came to Vanja, our main character. Her struggles were repeated so many times that I felt the author doesn't trust me to understand it when it's said once or twice. It was just a little too spelled out for my tastes. It's not a big deal honestly but it did sour my enjoyment whenever it happened.
- The magic system isn't really built up. Things just... happen/exist for convenience of the plot. This is very much a character-driven book so this can be easily overlooked and isn't a deal-breaker but definitely something I wish was developed more.
- Villains were sorta just there to be bad without much depth whatsoever.
I am definitely going to pick up book 2 cause I am here for the gang and their shenanigans.
This book definitely has its flaws but it's was so silly and fun overall. I think my love for magical girl genre is what made me ignore the silly parts of the book and just somewhat enjoy the ride. It's definitely nothing special but if you want a magical girl anime in the form of a book, I think it definitely does its' job. Its a fun book to pass the time, but it's not without flaws.
As mentioned, it's pretty silly. It reads very young, and the humor is also on the juvenile side. I think it reads younger than YA personally, and I am definitely waaaay past the age range to laugh at the jokes. It was my biggest complaint in the book, and it took me out of the story. Also keep in mind the humor is very present throughout the book.
The characters also feel very young and I don't think any of them really stand out much. I don't think I will think back fondly on them in the future, just kinda forget about them. Same goes for the romance — it was a cute puppy love kind of romance but it's not really my thing. At all.
The lore could've been so much more interesting, but it fell flat for me. It all felt very simplistic.
Also it's worth noting it's a Cinderella retelling of a sort. The comparison to both Sailor Moon and Cinder are definitely accurate.
So yea, I can't really say I was disappointed cause I felt like this might not be that great but it was fun enough to go through and I might pick up the sequel when it comes out. Maybe. If not just for the magical girl vibes and animal familiars.
Also, for the love of all that is holy, stop repeating the term “good-looks giggles”. It's not cute, it's so cringe I can't believe it kept getting brought up so often 😭 the characters are supposed to be 17, not 7.
I think my enjoyment of this book wasn't high solely because I did it as an audiobook. I think I prefer Christie books read. Also the fact that one girl helped solve the murder because she knew who the killer was, solely because she thought a ghosts told her who was so silly, it drags the rating down.
Sad to say, this is another book that I thought I was going to really enjoy due to the blurb but it left me wishing I DNF'd halfway through like I wanted to.
First things first, if you want an adult fantasy with some sort of world-building that isn't painfully simplistic, this isn't it. This is my biggest complaint, what exactly is adult about it? It really feels like the world building was simply things that the author decided sounded cool but didn't think them through. Almost nothing get explained or built on, things “just are”. The book doesn't want you to think too hard on it, and that's fine, but it should not be advertised as adult fantasy – this is simpler than some YAs I've read. We don't even have an answer as to why the sea folk can shapeshift into humans. Can they only shapeshift into humans? Is there no other race out there? Why humans in particular? What gives them the ability to shapeshift? Is that considered magic or it “just is”? There is a sea witch which can shapeshift into other sea folk but we don't really get any explanation on how her powers work either, she is just a witch and that must mean she can do any magic that is convenient at the time. There is also no magic system whatsoever, the sea folk can water bend like 3 times in the book, that's it.
In general, the sea folk felt more like an aesthetic than anything that matters to the plot. The characters do almost everything (including sexual stuff) in their human forms. The entire book takes place in a single human city, the politics revolve mainly around whatever happens in said human city. We don't even know anything about the sea world aside from the fact it has royalty. You might as well just interchange the sea folk with humans, and you'd have gotten the same kind of story, there's nothing unique about them aside from making the book stand out for its aesthetic.
Fathomfolk is mainly a political fantasy which i tend to like, but sadly it didn't make me invested in them at all. It's the most basic politics and revolution plots you can find in a lot of younger books. Was it bad? no, but it also that you haven't seen many times before.
The characters were fine, for the most part. The female leads were all distinct, even if the villain felt like she was a little too inspired by Ursula from The Little Mermaid... Sadly, all the male characters were plot devices and I bet I will forget them in 10 hours.
The ending thinks it does something shocking but it feels cheap and ridiculous. On the bright side though, I think it might pave way to plot at least somewhat more interesting than book 1 but I am not going to be coming back to this series.
All in all, I am very sad that this ended up being such a dreadful read for me, as it was one of my most anticipated releases for this year. Initially I kept giving it a benefit of a doubt because I thought it has potential on which it can build on but it just doesn't.
Thank for Netgalley & Orbit for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
✨ this is exactly what I want out of my cozy reads!
I can't believe it took me so long to get to it because I adored every second of the audiobook (which was superb, btw). The vibes were immaculate, and I loved the way the faerie were incorporated into the story, as well as the journal style of writing.
Most of all, I adored the characters. Emily is a no-nonsense scholar whose main priority is her research. She is a little awkward and secluded. She has no time to mingle with others, girl is here to get her work done and that's that. We see her grow throughout the story into someone who starts to see those on her journey as friends.
Wendell though. Wendell was the star of the show for me. He is exactly the type of a character that I adore. He can be a jerk, but at least a hilarious one. He reminded me of book!Howl from Howl's Moving Castle and that's a huge compliment. Let's not forget about Shadow! Our good, lil pup.
Normally I do not like comparing books because I don't want people to go in with the wrong expectations but I think that if you love HMC or The Regency Faerie books by Olivia Atwater, there's a high chance you'll enjoy Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries! (And if not, please don't blame me 😭).
Emily Wilde is a perfect cozy winter read, and I hope that if you do try it, you will love it as much as I did 🍄
DNF@30%. When the prince and Wes ended up being the same person I just knew it's time to bail 😂 was a pretty bland read till then anyway
