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| B0CPP6FLX7
| 4.22
| 4,847
| unknown
| Dec 28, 2023
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it was amazing
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The Daymakers is yet another feather for Grace McGinty to put in her cap. McGinty is already one of my auto-buy romance authors–especially when it com
The Daymakers is yet another feather for Grace McGinty to put in her cap. McGinty is already one of my auto-buy romance authors–especially when it comes to why-choose romance–and it’s books like The Daymakers that remind me why I love her so much. You can read the plot synopsis online. I don’t need to repeat it here. (Go do that if you need to and then come back.) Okay, so the plot isn’t exactly a brand-new idea, but I’m not taking off points for that because I rarely tire of why-choose rockstar romances like this. One of my favorite why-choose book series of all-time has a plot that’s in the same vein as this one (a desperate girl ends up on a rock band’s tour bus and ends up being their personal toy and they both have mm in them, but that’s where the similarities end) and as far as I’m concerned I could read several books with that same general vibe and never tire of it. McGinty does it particularly well here, leaning into the sex worker and feminist aspects of Charlotte’s (the FMC) role in the book and making it about her taking back control of her body and her life when so much of her life has been in the control of so many other people who used it and abused it. Sex work can be empowering for some, and I loved how McGinity leaned into that. The spice was a solid 3 / 3 on my spice scale. This was due to the number of spicy scenes, the language, the kinks, and the shared partners. There are no large group scenes in this book, but I actually think the book was better for it for once. This book is more about Charlotte’s individual dynamics with each band member than it is with the band as a whole, so the individualized attention works better (save for the shared experiences with Hero and Poet). I don’t think I need to tell you that the boys are definitely book boyfriend material. Grace McGinity does love her bad boy exteriors with marshmallow interiors. And the villain in this one is most definitely someone you’re going to love to hate (I personally wished he could’ve been done in). The supporting characters were fun and sweet, and the concert scenes were fun. You’re going to want to read it. You’re going to love it. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Contemporary Romance/Kindle Unlimited/LGBTQ Romance/Polyamorous Romance/Road Trip/Rockstar Romance/Sex Worker/Spice Level 3/Standalone/Why Choose/Workplace Romance ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 22, 2023
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Dec 22, 2023
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Dec 22, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1682636917
| 9781682636916
| 1682636917
| 3.84
| 293
| May 07, 2024
| May 07, 2024
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it was amazing
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I feel like categorizing and marketing R. M. Romero’s books strictly as YA is doing them and her a huge disservice, because her writing transcends suc
I feel like categorizing and marketing R. M. Romero’s books strictly as YA is doing them and her a huge disservice, because her writing transcends such boundaries: they’re novels in verse, poetry made into a novel. Poetry doesn’t know age groups. It only knows beauty. While it’s not my favorite of Romero’s books (The Ghosts of Rose Hill is still my fave), I was still enraptured by the writing, swept away by the story, and was crying onto my pillow by the end. Polyamory is still a titillating topic for fiction in adult books, let alone a book about 16 year-olds. On a personal level, I would love to see polyamory more normalized and treated as compassionately and as well as Romero did in this book, because every heart has the capacity for infinite love; however, that doesn’t mean that every person is capable of it. Capacity and capability are two different things, and no one is poorer for being capable of loving more than one person or not being capable of loving people at all (on a romantic level). Love is love, and no one has the right to tell you who you can or should love. I’ve met polyamorous teenagers because I’m polyamorous myself and raised my kids in a polyamorous household. My older kid is polyamorous. There was so much in this book I loved: The musical references to David Bowie (beloved but deceased bisexual icon), at least three significant references to Sylvia Plath, a haunting homage to Gianni Versace, and the unique spin on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth (which I almost forgot about at some points in favor of the more original points in the story). The feel of this story is very much soaked in duality: light and shadow, but look deeper. It’s bright neons and glaring sunlight against deepest shadows and darkest nights. It’s a gorgeous and important vibe that Romero executes well and is important to the story. As with all Romero novels, I recommend it. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/LGBTQ Fantasy/LGBTQ Romance/Mythological Fiction/Poetry/Polyamorous Romance/YA Fiction ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 07, 2024
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May 07, 2024
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Dec 20, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0316427012
| 9780316427012
| 0316427012
| 4.16
| 547
| Aug 06, 2024
| Aug 06, 2024
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it was amazing
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You know what they say: before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. One for your enemy and one for yourself. Life in Puerto Rico is nev You know what they say: before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. One for your enemy and one for yourself. Life in Puerto Rico is never easy. It’s life in a liminal state. You’re technically American, but Americans never treat you like you’re one of them, and since you’re an American colony you’re not free to do as you please, either. Somewhat like living in a small town, you grow up either never wanting to leave or clamoring to. Gabe and his friends are as tight as blood. You come for one of them, you come for all of them. Even though Puerto Rico is filled with grief, pain, and ghosts, these boys suddenly have their childhoods shattered when one of their mother’s is brutally gunned down while at work one night. What if it were your mom? Of course they’ll all set out to take revenge on the people who dared to take a mother from her son too early. It just isn’t done. The hurricane about to swoop down on Puerto Rico shares a name with the deceased mom: Maria. It’s as large, powerful, angry, and hungry as the fury of these young men. It took me longer than usual to finish a book of this length because it was a heavy read, thematically. I could feel the weight of neo-colonialism’s effects on Puerto Rico’s people and environment. I felt my own guilt and complicitness in being an American safe and sound in California while Puerto Rico suffers year after year being treated like a developing country when they should be America’s 51st state or be allowed to be their own sovereign nation. I swallowed down how it felt to not understand sentences of the book because they were in Spanish and then sucked it up because I’m the non-native here. This book has sound and fury and I’m here for it, even if I had to split reading it into two chunks. The theme that stands out the most here is pride: When you lose something, what will you risk or give away in order to get it back? There’s also grief: parental loss, loss of friendship, loss of a beloved, loss of innocence, and a longing for what once was. Anger is spread out over this book for so many reasons. I could probably write a whole essay about the part anger plays in this book. Let’s not forget the hurricane itself, which brings destruction and leave behind devastation. In all of this you have these furious and damaged young men who have too little to look forward to and have had too much taken from them in their short lives. None of them think they have very much to live for except each other and none of them have too much hope or desire to leave the island they have a love/hate relationship with. It’s their home, heart, and prison. But it’s always better to go with the devil you know. I highly recommend this book. It’s gonna knock you out. I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Reads/Coming of Age/Found Family/Ghost Fiction/Murder Thriller/Paranormal Fiction/Paranormal Horror/Speculative Fiction ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 2024
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Aug 2024
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Dec 20, 2023
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Hardcover
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| B0CFRG4535
| 4.09
| 285,458
| Aug 15, 2023
| Aug 14, 2023
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it was amazing
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I checked this book out on KU months ago and it sat there for quite some time and today I finally read it. I feel like a dork for waiting so long to r I checked this book out on KU months ago and it sat there for quite some time and today I finally read it. I feel like a dork for waiting so long to read it because this book was flippin’ fantastic! Serial killers falling in love plus morbid comedy? Tell me a combination I love more. (There’s not many). Unsurprisingly, I loved the morbid comedy more than the love story. I have a love/hate relationship with straight-up MF contemporary romances. They either have to be really funny or really dark for it to work for me. This one only works because of that perfect blend of morbid humor and violence. I ended up highlighting quite a bit of phrases, and all of them were funny ones, because I’m just not sentimental. Brynne Weaver has a great sense of timing with her writing, though, because she seems to sense when’s a good time to lighten the mood and when’s a good time to let everything settle for a little while. Weaver just also has an impeccable writing style. It’s almost cinematic. Butcher & Blackbird could almost be a screenplay for how creative and vivid it is. I’d buy a ticket to see this movie (well, given my social anxiety I’d rent it). It is a slow burn (at least in my opinion), but it’s well worth it when you do reach the spice. I wavered between whether this was medium or high on my spicy scale, and in the end I went with high because of the number of spice scenes and how enthusiastic those scenes are once they get there. If you can handle the laundry list of TW/CWs Weaver warns you about at the beginning of the book, then I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a fun, engaging read. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Book Series/Contemporary Romance/Dark Comedy/Dark Romance/Romance Series/RomCom/Serial Killers/Spice Level 3 ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 13, 2023
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Dec 13, 2023
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Dec 13, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CPYK4CS1
| 4.45
| 1,833
| unknown
| Dec 10, 2023
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it was amazing
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So, the thing is: I’m still not sold on alien smut. But I am sold on this alien smut. Because when I was reading this series, but especially this fina
So, the thing is: I’m still not sold on alien smut. But I am sold on this alien smut. Because when I was reading this series, but especially this final book in said series, the fact that the MMCs were aliens didn’t matter in the least. It hasn’t mattered the whole time. When I’m reading the spicy scenes in these books I’m often too caught up in the way C.M. Stunich writes (which is always stunning) to bother worrying about which parts goes where. Who cares how many tentacles are in which orifice? Not me. I care about what Officer Hyt is saying and feeling, and I care about what Eve is saying and feeling. No more. No less. Because what they’re saying and feeling is actually hotter than which part is going where. To be honest, everyone’s possessiveness, attentiveness, and protective natures is a way bigger turn-on than almost everything else. The way Hyt, Abraxas, and Rurik constantly cover Eve in pheromones and mark spaces is both touching and sexy in a way I’d never condone in real life but find distinctly appealing when a tiny human female is stuck in outer space among environments and alien races who would love to see her dead. I loved the first half of the book as Eve spends time with Hyt on Yaoh, waiting for Abraxas to arrive and playing “fake-fiancee” with Officer Hyt. She gets to play “possessive girlfriend” and it’s so much fun. I loved the second half of the book more, as she reunites with Abraxas and Rurik and all four of them try to figure out the rest of, well, everything. (Anything more than that would be spoilers). The playful, sisterly banter Eve has with Jane is hilarious and familiar for anyone who has a bestie who’s as close as a sister. After not seeing much Abraxas since book one I was so happy to have him back. He’s just a dragon-y cinnamon roll who’s incredibly competent. Watching Eve and the guys come together and pull their stuff together in order to make everything work is everything I could have wished and hoped for out of this series. I loved it so much. I’d love to see what happened to some of the supporting characters in the aftermath of this story. I’ll wait and see what Stunich will do. All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Dark Romance/Kindle Unlimited/Monster Romance/Romance Series/SciFi/Spice Level 3/Why Choose ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 12, 2023
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Dec 13, 2023
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Dec 13, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CM86BG92
| 4.35
| 2,345
| unknown
| Oct 30, 2023
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it was amazing
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I read Pheromone and freaking loved it so much, but I didn’t write a review for it. I don’t remember why. Knowing me, I meant to and forgot. After I f
I read Pheromone and freaking loved it so much, but I didn’t write a review for it. I don’t remember why. Knowing me, I meant to and forgot. After I finished Seminal, though, I knew I had to write one because this series is absolutely phenomenal and I need people to get up and not sleep on it. I don’t usually go for the alien romances where the aliens aren’t humanoid. I know, right? I wasn’t even a fan of Ice Planet Barbarians. There’s something about Stunich, however, that always makes me want to give any genre or trope a try. She’s a terrific writer with fabulous FMCs, an absolutely hilarious sense of humor, and I’ve always enjoyed how sex-positive her writing is. There’s no shame in Stunich’s game, folks. Stunich has always had such a talent for writing dialogue and creating an amazing amount of sexual tension and chemistry between her love interests that even I, as someone who doesn’t get hot for non-humanoid aliens, was able to feel flushed and squirmy during the spicy stuff because the “alien” aspect of everything was almost the last thing I was thinking about–it was the snap, crackle, and pop of how intense everything felt between Eve and the aliens she’s falling for. A lot of stuff happened in Seminal, but somehow the book didn’t seem rushed or crammed. That’s proof of good writing, pacing, and editing. Eve has a lot thrown at her, but there are MMCs and supporting characters to help absorb some of the exposition and some of the emotional blows. Poor Avril gets to bear the brunt of Eve’s reckless, stubborn, and sometimes careless behavior, but honestly she’s one of my favorite characters (and the inside jokes between Rurik and Eve about how they should go about killing her made me snicker continuously). I love that Eve and Rurik both have some internal conflicts regarding the physiological manipulation that their bodies and minds are going through to make them compatible mates, but I love that Eve wants to find a way to free Rurik from the same fate as his father, too. Rurik truly wants to be a good mate and king, but there’s a lot of deprogramming to do there. Officer Hyt? Oh, you poor baby. And steady, protective, fierce, dedicated, loving Abraxas. I love him to the moon and to Saturn. I can’t wait for Venery, which should be out soon. I never thought that I’d be so happy for a side project that took Stunich away from the F*ckboy Psychos series, but I am. This review was written without any offer of compensation. All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 20, 2023
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Nov 20, 2023
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Nov 20, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CG6NXPNM
| 4.05
| 2,679
| Feb 08, 2024
| Feb 08, 2024
|
it was amazing
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Man, oh man this one was hot. Fire. Spicy filthy hot. This is the third book in the Park Avenue Princes book series and hooboy Ella and Brooke knocked Man, oh man this one was hot. Fire. Spicy filthy hot. This is the third book in the Park Avenue Princes book series and hooboy Ella and Brooke knocked this one out of the park! Preston Abernathy is the diplomatic good boy of the Park Avenue Princes: Straight, has a long-term girlfriend, doesn’t go around boozing and carousing as much as the other guys, does a lot of volunteer work, and does all his homework. Right? Preston’s been keeping secrets: He’s very gay, his girlfriend is his happy bestie beard, he doesn’t really want the life his parents have had planned out for him, he’s starting to chafe at the sight of all of his friends falling in love and being happy around him, and he’s been in love with his girlfriend’s father for years. This book just hits so many of my buttons: age difference (around 20 years), sexy men in sharp clothing (AKA expensive clothing and suits), filthy talk, voyeurism/exhibitionism, let’s-have-sex-in-as-many-positions-as-possible, and these two are just so lovely together in general. They take care of one another and pay attention to one another. I don’t know if there’s a kink for getting off on the fact that someone is so turned on by your age, but that’s in there too. I don’t know what it is, but I love it and I want more of it. Preston’s friendship with Serena, Archer’s daughter, is one of the most important cornerstones of this book and I’m so happy with how Ella and Brooke handled it. It could’ve been mishandled so easily in other authors hands. She’s written as strong, knowing, and competent but not so blase that she comes off as cold and uncaring. She’s warm and emotional and cares about both Preston and her father. I cared a great deal about what would happen with her and I’m happy with the result. I highly suggest you read this if you haven’t gotten into the series yet and then go back and start at the beginning. If you’re looking for an endorsement for the next book if you’ve read the first two books, then know you won’t be disappointed in the least. It’s hot and I’m here for it. I was provided a copy of this title by the authors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Age Gap Romance/Book Series/College Romance/Contemporary Romance/Forbidden Romance/Gay Romance/Kindle Unlimited/LGBTQ Romance/MM Romance/Romance Series/Spice Level 3 ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 27, 2024
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Jan 27, 2024
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Nov 20, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1250871255
| 9781250871251
| 1250871255
| 3.92
| 1,567
| Mar 19, 2024
| Mar 19, 2024
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it was amazing
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Cascade Failure is just plain fun to read. It’s got that found-family-full-of-misfits feeling from Firefly mixed with a whole lot of adrenaline-spiked
Cascade Failure is just plain fun to read. It’s got that found-family-full-of-misfits feeling from Firefly mixed with a whole lot of adrenaline-spiked space adventure and a truly great sense of emotion and humor. It was science fiction sunshine in a book…except with way more dead bodies. So maybe a partly-cloudy day in science fiction land? I’m an atheist, but there’s a saying that goes something along the lines of: You make plans and god laughs. Well, something like that is certainly what happened when a guy named Jal is wandering around the docks on a space station looking to board a ship for his own (very personal) reasons and accidentally lands himself exactly where he doesn’t think he wants to be but maybe exactly where he needs to be. The captain is an AI who is more human than most humans, the engineer is also the doctor and wouldn’t know tact if it smacked her in the face, and the XO and he have…issues. Let’s call them issues. It’s just easier that way. But then they intercept a distress signal from a planet where everyone’s died all at once from something horrible, and the lone survivor has a story to tell, a theory about it, and a possible solution. They’re all absolutely nuts, but if they survive they might have just saved the universe. I know Sagas is a debut author, but this really doesn’t feel like a debut effort; and when I say that, I mean that it feels almost effortless. I feel like the crew of The Ambit has been living in Sagas head for a long time, like they’re friends rather than characters. The world building in this book is amazing, like maybe Sagas has been writing backstories for these characters, these planets, these space stations, and everything involved for quite some time now–almost like simulations she would eventually use to finally build the language that would bring this book to life. It’s an amazing story that ends up being a compulsive, page-turning read. I’m dying for book two! I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Found Family/Science Fiction ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 14, 2024
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Mar 14, 2024
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Nov 17, 2023
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Paperback
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| 3.62
| 47,871
| May 07, 2024
| May 07, 2024
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it was amazing
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Often I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and my
Often I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and my friends call “jungle juice”: a bottle of this wine, a bottle of this liquor, a bottle of that liquor, a bottle of champagne, a bottle of some clear soda like 7-Up, a whole lot of frozen, chopped up fruit thrown in to keep it cold and to mask the taste of the alcohol… You know? A little bit of everything thrown into one big bowl until it becomes something dizzying, delightful, and unpredictable. That’s what The Ministry of Time is: part-spy thriller, part-time travel romance, part-science fiction novel, part-psychological fiction, a whole lot speculative fiction (which is really what this novel should just be classified as, but try telling that to marketers), and it’s all wrapped up in such lovely storytelling prose I can only describe it as literary fiction. This book led me through hill and dale, up mountains and down into valleys. It was funny, only to take a steep drop into darkness. Romantic one second, only to turn around and be bereft the next. Often I didn’t know if I should be crying or not. Sometimes I’d find myself crying and didn’t know I had started. This story and these characters wound themselves around my heart, latching on with hooks, for good or for ill, and I knew this could only end in heartbreak but it was worth holding on anyway. Insofar as the dynamic between our two main characters and their sociocultural norms and mores, that’s an intrinsic issue built into the framework of the book and is too much to explore in a review. It’s completely interesting, though. I highly recommend the whole thing. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Espionage Thriller/Literary Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Sci Fi/Speculative Fiction/Time Travel Romance ...more |
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1
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May 2024
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May 02, 2024
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Nov 13, 2023
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Hardcover
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| B0C4LQZ4K5
| 4.13
| 1,610
| Nov 11, 2023
| Nov 11, 2023
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it was amazing
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Finally! Finally we’re fully in Project Watchtower for The Watch series, the second Necessary Evils spin-off series by the genius Onley James (the fir
Finally! Finally we’re fully in Project Watchtower for The Watch series, the second Necessary Evils spin-off series by the genius Onley James (the first spin-off series being Jericho’s Boys). We’re starting off with The Bone Collector, which considering that’s the notorious name one of the project’s instructors, Park, went by when he was still active in the field (and the second book is going to be called The Sin Eater, which was the field operative name of the head of the project), it seems that all the books in The Watch series are going to be titled after field operative names. I’m down. I’m not going to go over the whole synopsis with you. That’s just blase. Let’s go over the tropes you know, and then I’ll go over what I found of interest that doesn’t come across in the blurb, shall we? *Age-Gap Romance (oh yeah, it’s a good gap, too!) *Teacher/Student (this one’s a little loosely interpreted, since Park, one of our MMCs, doesn’t teach much in this book because Gift, our other MMC, isn’t one of the students learning his speciality) Tropes that the blurb doesn’t mention: *Older brother/younger brother dynamic (they aren’t brothers, but Park insists on Gift using the honorifics for those roles) *Daddy k!nk (Ohhhhhh yes. Our Park is a Daddy Dom and our Gift is his sweet baby boy (no ageplay)) *Semi-public k!nk, virginity k!nk, slight degradation k!nk, edging, impact play, filthy talk *Touch him and you die *Gift is manipulative, secretive, touch-starved, and needy *Park is a possessive mofo *Park is essentially Gift’s legal guardian and full-time bodyguard Besides the extremely high heat rating of this book (it is super dooper freaking hot, you guys) and how well-written that spice is (good lord, Onley is trying to kill us all, ffs), it needs to be known this book is FUN. It’s hilarious. It’s like “Necessary Evils: High School Edition”. Imagine if the Mulvaneys, Jericho’s Boys, The Feelings Faction (IYKYK), and Elite Protection Services ALL went to the same boarding school. Some are there on merit via scholarship and some are there because they have connections. Some are there because they have both money and merit. There’s all genders, all walks of life, neurotypicals, neuroatypicals, geniuses, people of average intelligence…you get the picture. The point of the place is for the neuroatypicals to be matched with an emotional support human to keep them tethered to their humanity. It’s brilliant. It’s volatile. It’s going to either be wildly successful or they’re going to burn the world down. Either way, I’m going to have a wild-ass and fun time reading to see what they do while they screw each other into every available surface and torture the bad guys along the way. Please be mindful of your own mental health before attempting to read this book and read the list of CW/TWs before you start. I don’t ever need them but you might. Take care of you. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 11, 2023
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Nov 11, 2023
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Nov 11, 2023
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0063211505
| 9780063211506
| 0063211505
| 3.78
| 55,269
| Sep 19, 2023
| Sep 19, 2023
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it was amazing
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I should begin by saying I might be a bit biased because Ava Reid is one of my auto-buy authors. I love everything she has written so far, and I loved
I should begin by saying I might be a bit biased because Ava Reid is one of my auto-buy authors. I love everything she has written so far, and I loved A Study in Drowning, too, even if my love for it is more complicated than the love I feel for, say, Juniper & Thorn. I’ve seen numerous reviews from people who’ve said this book gives them all the “fall feelings”. Well, then I feel sorry for what you think fall is, because this book made me feel incredibly sad, heavy, and emotional. I felt as weighed down as all of Hireath (the Myrrdin family home mentioned in the book’s blurb) feels in all its waterlogged sorrow. (Interestingly enough, I know the word Hireath from its Welsh origins, and while there is no direct English translation, to the Welsh, it’s a feelings that mixes longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for what–or how–something used to be). Wales plays more than one part in this story, as Emrys Myrddin was the name of Merlin, King Arthur’s court magician, in the oldest known Welsh texts. Sadly, in those old texts, Merlin was just as atrocious a figure as Emrys is in this book, in the worst of ways. Also, notably, A woman named Angharad James was quite a notable poet in Wales from the mid 17th to mid 18th century. Both her son and husband died before her, and she wrote a beautiful elegy for her son. The manuscript survived and you can find it online. I think my complicated feelings with this book begin with how much I identify with Effy, our female protagonist. It’s in her struggles to be taken seriously in academia, her mental illness issues, and her trauma. (BTW, here is a good place to suggest that you look up a list of TW/CWs before you read this book, if you’re the type of person who wants to know what they’re getting into before they start a darker book). For Effy, books have been her only friends and her only escape for her whole life, and I feel that sentiment in my bones. Books never leave like people do. Books never die. Books never physically harm you. Books are reliable, a portal out of here. And Effy, well, Effy has needed something to rely on her whole life because she’s had no one else to rely on. The only problem is she ended up relying on a single book to hold onto everything for her. This book has a lot to say about misogyny, r@pe culture, victim blaming, grooming, the theft of women’s intellectual property for the sake of putting a man’s name on the work, prejudice against women in academia, philosophies behind what you believe and what you know, unwanted children, folklore, mythology, the younger generation changing the power structures, and more. But what I find I enjoy more than anything when I read an Ava Reid book is the writing itself. The prose. The atmosphere. The imagery. The sentence structure. The way you can almost smell the sea, feel the ocean spray, shiver in the cold, smell the damp, feel the wood flooring bow beneath your feet, see the termite holes in the baseboards. Her books are immersive and evocative. You can feel the heavy doors and freezing water. You can see the trees flying through the air and the curving roads. And this is why I can’t help but love Ava Reid: her writing, just pure and undiluted, is magical all on its own. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/College Romance/Dark Academia/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Romantasy/Gothic/Standalone Novel/Spice Level 1/Women’s Fiction/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance Merged review: I should begin by saying I might be a bit biased because Ava Reid is one of my auto-buy authors. I love everything she has written so far, and I loved A Study in Drowning, too, even if my love for it is more complicated than the love I feel for, say, Juniper & Thorn. I’ve seen numerous reviews from people who’ve said this book gives them all the “fall feelings”. Well, then I feel sorry for what you think fall is, because this book made me feel incredibly sad, heavy, and emotional. I felt as weighed down as all of Hireath (the Myrrdin family home mentioned in the book’s blurb) feels in all its waterlogged sorrow. (Interestingly enough, I know the word Hireath from its Welsh origins, and while there is no direct English translation, to the Welsh, it’s a feelings that mixes longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for what–or how–something used to be). Wales plays more than one part in this story, as Emrys Myrddin was the name of Merlin, King Arthur’s court magician, in the oldest known Welsh texts. Sadly, in those old texts, Merlin was just as atrocious a figure as Emrys is in this book, in the worst of ways. Also, notably, A woman named Angharad James was quite a notable poet in Wales from the mid 17th to mid 18th century. Both her son and husband died before her, and she wrote a beautiful elegy for her son. The manuscript survived and you can find it online. I think my complicated feelings with this book begin with how much I identify with Effy, our female protagonist. It’s in her struggles to be taken seriously in academia, her mental illness issues, and her trauma. (BTW, here is a good place to suggest that you look up a list of TW/CWs before you read this book, if you’re the type of person who wants to know what they’re getting into before they start a darker book). For Effy, books have been her only friends and her only escape for her whole life, and I feel that sentiment in my bones. Books never leave like people do. Books never die. Books never physically harm you. Books are reliable, a portal out of here. And Effy, well, Effy has needed something to rely on her whole life because she’s had no one else to rely on. The only problem is she ended up relying on a single book to hold onto everything for her. This book has a lot to say about misogyny, r@pe culture, victim blaming, grooming, the theft of women’s intellectual property for the sake of putting a man’s name on the work, prejudice against women in academia, philosophies behind what you believe and what you know, unwanted children, folklore, mythology, the younger generation changing the power structures, and more. But what I find I enjoy more than anything when I read an Ava Reid book is the writing itself. The prose. The atmosphere. The imagery. The sentence structure. The way you can almost smell the sea, feel the ocean spray, shiver in the cold, smell the damp, feel the wood flooring bow beneath your feet, see the termite holes in the baseboards. Her books are immersive and evocative. You can feel the heavy doors and freezing water. You can see the trees flying through the air and the curving roads. And this is why I can’t help but love Ava Reid: her writing, just pure and undiluted, is magical all on its own. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/College Romance/Dark Academia/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Romantasy/Gothic/Standalone Novel/Spice Level 1/Women’s Fiction/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Sep 21, 2023
not set
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Sep 21, 2023
not set
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Nov 04, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250852919
| 9781250852915
| 3.95
| 1,592
| Jun 11, 2024
| Jun 11, 2024
|
it was amazing
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I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced because I just knew it was going to be good. It was so much more than good: it was
I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced because I just knew it was going to be good. It was so much more than good: it was excellent! I enjoyed Icon and Inferno even more than I did Stars and Smoke. Marie Lu took the magic of Stars and Smoke and turned everything that made that novel work up to 11. What came out is an amazing sequel to a fantastically fun book. We’re exchanging organized crime for an international special agent extraction and a murky conspiracy against a head of state. We’re exchanging a nascent romance for pining like a forest, opportunist exes, and vulnerable hearts. We’re going from narrow focus to wide. The cast is bigger, the stakes are larger, the action is more intense, and the fall is long and hard. It’s like a romantic Bourne Identity, but without the mind erasure. I love these books because it’s just like watching a movie like The Bourne Identity: I don’t care if every little bit makes sense or if it’s a little predictable. I just care about how much fun I have reading these books, and these books are an absolute treat to read. They make me happy in the part of my heart that loves fun, fast, action-packed, romantic, improbable-situation books. I loved every page. If Lu wanted to write another one I’d read that one too. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Conspiracy Thriller/Contemporary Romance/Espionage Thriller/LGBTQ Fiction/Rockstar Romance ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 06, 2024
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Jun 06, 2024
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Nov 02, 2023
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Hardcover
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| Park, Ed
*
| 0812998979
| 9780812998979
| 0812998979
| 3.77
| 1,753
| Nov 07, 2023
| Nov 07, 2023
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it was amazing
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This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is
This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is not a trifling thing–it’s a deep, dense, carefully-constructed, intricately-woven, and ineffably magical text that takes little to no time at all to sink a hook in you before reeling you into a story of an alternative history where Korea has had a shadow government at work behind the scenes since the 19th century. All of its members work to keep Korea unified, but not all of them agree as to how to do so. Some members don’t even know they’re members. Some become members posthumously. Some are tapped to be members, unwittingly, since birth. Cogs become sprockets that move the chain along the track. To tell you the truth, it’s difficult to describe this book, because it’s not a singular book. There’s essentially four “books” inside Same Bed Different Dreams. 1.The present-day story of our main protagonist, Soon Sheen, a sometimes-author who works for a tech conglomerate called GLOAT; 2. The five “Dreams” that make up the “book” within the book, called “Same Bed Different Dreams”; 3. The story of Parker Jotter, a Korean War veteran/POW and author of a series of sci-fi novels; 4. A handful of miscellaneous stories about historical events that are tied to fiction and fact by tenuous yet absolutely fascinating strings, like absurd Reddit conspiracy theories or internet train wrecks you just can’t look away from; There are two phrases repeated throughout the text, like magic, ritual, or religion. One’s a riddle and one’s evocative of an axiom or a proverb. “Did the straight line murder the circle?” (Or variations on this riddle.) “Same bed, different dreams.” The first? Well, that you’ll have to figure out yourself, just like I did. The second? Korea is the same bed. Everyone: the Koreans (North, South, or otherwise), Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Americans? They all have different dreams for that same bed. None of them involve unifying Korea as Korea. They all involve molding Korea into some kind of vision of what they think Korea should be. This entire book is about the shadow government known as the KPG and their intergenerational efforts to bring about the unification of Korea no matter what. Kick everyone out of the bed. Same bed, same dream. No matter how delusional the vision, no matter how tenuous the ties. No matter how far-fetched the plans or how desperate the hope. The research that must have gone into this book has to have been insane and had to have taken ages. From obscure film references to real and imagined Korean authors to real-life cults like the Moonies to American games shows to slapstick silent films to the assassination of President McKinley to the fate of KAL flight 007. The list could go on and on. What matters is that not only is the Korean War extensively researched for the purposes of this book (since a great deal of this book centers around the division of Korea), but that every real-life event and/or person has been extensively researched for the matter of this book so that when Park inevitably twists the narrative to fit his alternative history spin on matters, everything that needs to connect does so seamlessly, as if it was always meant to be that way. Ed Park is an extremely talented author, deftly writing four books in one, all with different tones, tenors, and modes. Soon Sheen’s story of working at GLOAT and reading “Same Bed Different Dreams” in pieces is written like a contemporary fiction novel, with Soon playing the part of a beleaguered father and corporate drone that has become enraptured with a secret book that fell into his hands seemingly by accident. “Same Bed Different Dreams” has a harsh tone and clipped economy of words that reminds one of both a confession and a manifesto. The story of Parker Jotter, Korean War vet, POW, and sci-fi author is written almost like a psychological fiction novel where the protagonist is a psychologically-compromised war vet whose thoughts and ideas might not all be his own. All the miscellaneous stories about historical events and people sprinkled throughout the book here and there vary in tone and complexity but never vary in interest. This book is a wonder, and one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s barely got a plot. It’s barely got a vibe. It’s barely got atmosphere. So what does it have? Beauty. The beauty of words. That’s all. It’s just a book that’s made up of beautiful words made into beautiful sentences made into beautiful pages made into a beautiful book. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without any offer or acceptance of compensation. File Under: 5 Star Review/AAPI Fiction/Alternative Earth Fiction/Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction/Meta Fiction/OwnVoices/Satire/Secret Society/Speculative Fiction ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 10, 2023
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Nov 13, 2023
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Nov 01, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0374389403
| 9780374389406
| 0374389403
| 3.57
| 18,820
| Feb 20, 2024
| Feb 20, 2024
|
it was amazing
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Part Six of Crows, part Oliver Twist, part gaslamp fantasy, part vampire fiction, a tiny touch of Camelot, and a hefty dollop of “British colonialism
Part Six of Crows, part Oliver Twist, part gaslamp fantasy, part vampire fiction, a tiny touch of Camelot, and a hefty dollop of “British colonialism sucked for everyone not British” (except with fictional country names), this novel was absolutely amazing. As complex, deep, and beautiful as any lovely tea blend described in the book, I was swept away from the first page and loathed coming for air at all until I was finished. Arthie plays the role of the Artful Dodger of a teahouse named Spindrift: they serve lovely tea blends by day and let beds by night. What Arthie and Spindrift collect best is secrets. Secrets let Arthie and her best friend, Jin, buy a whole lot that actual money can’t. Secrets aren’t going to keep Spindrift safe when the crown comes for the building, though, and a member of the guard with a secret agenda comes to Arthie with an offer she can’t refuse because with one heist she can save Spindrift and blackmail the crown. I loved everything about this book, and I do mean everything. Hafsal Faizal is a wonderful storyteller who weaves real history with alternative history, spinning fantasy with the paranormal, and does it all with a breathtaking writing style most authors could only hope to imitate. Her prose is elegant without being precocious and philosophical without being pedantic. The world building is thorough and the imagery is glittering. The characters are delightful, diverse, and multi-faceted. There’s cunning and pensive Arthie, elegant and gregarious Jin, naive and lonely Flick, rakish and manipulative Matteo, even the enigmatic and beguiling Laithe. A crew of misfits, led by Arthie, to a thunderclap end. It’s a cliffhanger, of sorts, and I can’t wait to read the next one. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Vampire Fiction/YA Fantasy ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 15, 2024
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Feb 15, 2024
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Oct 31, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 1250245338
| 9781250245335
| B0C1X7SWMT
| 4.58
| 13,470
| Feb 29, 2024
| Mar 12, 2024
|
it was amazing
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Please Note: This review is for a sample excerpt of Empire of the Damned, NOT the full novel. Obviously, this review won’t be long, because I want to Please Note: This review is for a sample excerpt of Empire of the Damned, NOT the full novel. Obviously, this review won’t be long, because I want to avoid as many spoilers as possible. I loved Empire of the Vampire. It was one of the first ARCs I was approved for when I first started reading and reviewing back in the summer of 2021, and I’ve been dying waiting for this sequel to come out. I can assure right, straight out of the gate, that I was just as enamored with Empire of the Damned as I was its predecessor, if not more so. The book starts with a very much-needed Dramatis Personae, which I was very grateful for. It’s very thorough, not simply reminding us readers of who people are but also their context in the story. It was helpful enough to me that I didn’t need to go back to EotV and do a re-read to completely get my bearings. Considering the depth and breadth of the story contained in EotV’s pages, I think that’s fantastic. The Marquis Jean-Francois sits down with Gabriel once more to continue recording history, which has now moved beyond simply Gabriel’s history and has intertwined with the history of the grail. We see great tragedy, hear of great horrors, meet terrible evils, and there is a betrayal. I was absolutely absorbed by what I read. Some passages in the book made me laugh out loud and some were absolutely insane, which is refreshing when the terror bites down. The illustrations were as gorgeous as in the first book. I can’t wait until the full book is released. I know I’ll be preordering it. I have space on my bookshelf reserved for it. I was provided with a copy of the excerpt from this novel by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation. Thank you. File Under: Body Horror/Book Series/Dark Fantasy/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy Series/LGBTQ Fantasy/Supernatural Horror/Vampire Fiction ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 09, 2023
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Dec 09, 2023
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Oct 23, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1739404637
| 9781739404635
| B0CDJST6T1
| 4.37
| 2,404
| Feb 01, 2024
| Feb 01, 2024
|
it was amazing
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I’m convinced Lark Taylor is magic, because I can’t stop reading her books. Ever since I read Patience I’ve binged her books and with every single dro
I’m convinced Lark Taylor is magic, because I can’t stop reading her books. Ever since I read Patience I’ve binged her books and with every single drop of knowledge that more words are coming from her I become like Veruca Salt: “Don’t care how–I want it now!” So of course I signed up for Justice when it became available, and I loved every single one of its nearly 500 pages. Yes–this book is almost 500 pages long and I don’t regret a single page. From the start, this book is absolutely captivating and it takes you on a roller coaster of emotions. By the time it ended I had soaked my t-shirt and my pillow in a substantial amount of tears from ugly crying but I was also so soft for the HEA and so squirmy from the filthy-hot spice Lark Taylor does so well. Sebastian (you remember Sebastian, right?), the vampire assassin from Taylor’s The Reckless Damned series, is a prickly guy that everyone in the Supe Group (my phrase) pretty much loathes and only shows up when it’s time to get stuff done because Toby (the manager of The Closet) is his cousin and he generally doesn’t want the supernatural world to go cattywampus. It would be bad for business. Well, he’s been sticking around town, if only sticking to the shadows, because a human friend of the Supe Group has caught his interest: Matty. We heard of Matty at the end of Luck of the Devil because he’s mainly Lucky’s friend and he’s a sunshine precious cinnamon roll. He must be protected at all costs. Sebastian feels that way too. Adamantly. He lives to see Matty smile every day. So one day, when Matty isn’t smiling so much anymore and he starts to look a little haunted, Sebastian gets a little invested in finding out why. Thus begins their story. Well, for Matty that is. These two were the definition of hurt/comfort for me. They wrecked one another completely only to stitch one another back up so completely my heart grew three times its size by the end of the book. The sexual chemistry between them was fire, as was the spicy scenes. I love size difference and filthy talk and this was excellent for that. The supporting cast played their role to a T. Everyone has made their opinions on Sebastian known from clear back deep into the beginnings of The Reckless Damned books. Their opinions play an important part in this book, if only so Matty can but heads with everyone as he insists they’re wrong. It’s so sweet and so kind. I loved this book so much. It’s another Lark Taylor win and now we’ll finally, finally get Toby and Blaise’s book! I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Gay Romance/Kindle Unlimited/LGBTQ Romance/MM Romance/Paranormal Romance/Romance Series/Spice Level 3/Urban Fantasy/Vampire Romance ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 26, 2024
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Jan 26, 2024
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Oct 20, 2023
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| B0C6Y2C7RD
| 4.11
| 18,008
| Mar 05, 2024
| Mar 26, 2024
|
it was amazing
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What Happened to Nina? is another great novel to add to my list titled: “Books That Scream, ‘F*ck the Patriarchy’”. This list is, of course, not only
What Happened to Nina? is another great novel to add to my list titled: “Books That Scream, ‘F*ck the Patriarchy’”. This list is, of course, not only filled with books that make me so mad at the patriarchy while reading it makes me want to scream (not that I don’t live every day like this), but also filled with books where whatever/whomever is standing in for the symbol of the patriarchy in the book gets some just desserts. (Can I just note, very briefly, that I absolutely hate the cover for this book? I can’t stand it. I’m sorry.) What Happened to Nina? is a slightly misleading title, because we find out, rather nebulously, what happened to Nina in the prologue of the book. This book isn’t about Nina: It’s about the aftermath of her disappearance. It’s about her working-class family, the boyfriend that came home from their week-long vacation when she didn’t, about his rich and influential family, about privilege, about the members of law enforcement working the case, about domestic abuse in college-aged couples, about friends keeping secrets and enemies spreading lies, and it’s a lot about how far parents will go for their kids (and maybe some thoughts of how far should you go?). Dervla McTiernan writes an impeccably-plotted, well-paced, multiple-POV tale that threads a riot of emotions through a small town and two families divided by money, intellect, grit, love, and humanity. It doesn’t end pretty, but I like a lot of stories better that way because in real life a lot of stories like this don’t have pretty endings. Sometimes they don’t have endings at all. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Crime Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Suspense Thriller ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 20, 2024
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Mar 20, 2024
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Oct 20, 2023
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 059347385X
| 9780593473856
| 059347385X
| 3.38
| 2,744
| Apr 16, 2024
| Apr 16, 2024
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it was amazing
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There’s just something so spectacular about reading a book from a debut author and getting blown away, which is probably why I still seek them out. Fo
There’s just something so spectacular about reading a book from a debut author and getting blown away, which is probably why I still seek them out. For some reason, this phenomenon hits me even harder when the book is a thriller, because it’s often hard for even experienced and lauded thriller writers to write a thriller that will blow your socks off; so when a debut author does it (like in 2023 with Clemence Michallon’s The Quiet Tenant) the feeling is close to literary nirvana. Nguyen has written a dizzying, creepy, effective psychological thriller about the daughter of a Vietnam War refugee (Annie) who has a form of OCD that runs along with feelings of disgust and contamination. This is in direct contrast from her aging, controlling, and abusive mother, who has the form of OCD that runs along with hoarding behaviors. Very early in the book the mother dies inside the carriage house she lives in on Annie’s family property. This death is only the beginning of the unraveling and fracturing of the life Annie thought she was living and the person she thought she was. This story is told solely from Annie’s POV, though the timeline skips around a bit. Not to worry about it being lazy storytelling or infodumping: The flashbacks to past events between Annie and her mother help to shine light on both their relationship dynamic and who Annie is today, the cryptic present-day passages are disorienting at first, but once they catch up to present-day events you can see how they fit in, and a certain repetitive half-memory does get explained, eventually. There’s a lot of commentary about intergenerational trauma, PTSD, the toll mental illness can take on children in families, and culture shock. Is there a twist? Yes. It’s a doozy! I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/AAPI Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Psychological Thriller ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 18, 2024
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Apr 18, 2024
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Oct 10, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 1728281547
| 9781728281544
| 1728281547
| 3.89
| 3,472
| May 14, 2024
| May 14, 2024
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it was amazing
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My Darling, Dreadful Thing (hereafter referred to as MDDT in this review) is an absolutely lovely, dark, and haunting piece of gothic fiction with del
My Darling, Dreadful Thing (hereafter referred to as MDDT in this review) is an absolutely lovely, dark, and haunting piece of gothic fiction with delicious hidden pockets of horrid secrets tucked away like terrible treats right up until the end. We’re in the Netherlands and it’s the 1950s (probably early 1950s). Our protagonist is Roos, who is being examined by a psychiatrist (sadly, a Freudian) to ascertain whether or not she’s mentally responsible for the death of her employer, a Mrs. Agnes Knoop. Roos is of the opinion that she both is and isn’t. It’s a long story, and it starts when she’s only about five years old and her mother traps her for interminable hours underneath the floorboards of the house in order to better play a fake spirit medium. MDDT is told in two timelines, with two formats: One is the main story, told from Roos’ first-person POV, and the other is in the format of interviews the psychiatrist has with Roos in order to evaluate her mental state. This format can be hard to nail, but I thought van Veen did an absolutely fantastic job showing both sides of the coin. The psychiatrist comes across as understandably and realistically skeptical, and even though he’s a Freudian thinker (yuck), he never comes across as vulgar. He also does also seem to be truly interested in understanding Roos instead of exploiting her. The main story, Roos’ story, is the stuff gothic fiction dreams are made of. A cruel mother, a childhood full of suffering, and a rescue from that wretched existence by a rich and lovely widow who brings Roos to her estate ostensibly just because she they are so similar and she couldn’t stand to see Roos suffer in those conditions. However, in every gothic novel there must be a Manderley or Thornfield, and Rozentuin is the setting for where everything goes wrong in this book, because Rozentuin is where all those horrid secrets have been tucked away and left to fester. With Roos, Agnes, their respective spirit companions, and Agnes’ slowly-dying sister-in-law all inside this old house with all their combined secrets and personal ghosts it’s not too long until things start to go terribly wrong. It was really a terrific book and satisfied every need I have when it comes to gothic fiction. I definitely recommend it. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Gothic Fiction/Historical Fiction/LGBTQ Fiction/Occult Horror/Sapphic Romance ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 11, 2024
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May 11, 2024
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Oct 08, 2023
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Paperback
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| 0593128257
| 9780593128251
| 0593128257
| 4.02
| 15,163
| Feb 13, 2024
| Feb 13, 2024
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it was amazing
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I’m not a big fan of WWII fiction, but I’m inexplicably drawn to WWI fiction. From 2022’s lit fic novel Two Storm Wood (which this novel reminds me of
I’m not a big fan of WWII fiction, but I’m inexplicably drawn to WWI fiction. From 2022’s lit fic novel Two Storm Wood (which this novel reminds me of in some ways) to Rebecca Ross’s Divine Rivals (which takes place in an alternative-Earth’s version of WWI), novels that capture the ghosts and horrors of those monstrous trenches and stories of those who love them are of interest to me. Add my interest to my curiosity in author Katherine Arden (I’d not read one of her novels before this even if they are on my wishlist) and I was so happy to get a chance to read The Warm Hands of Ghosts. Arden’s writing is impeccable, from the words chosen to the sentence structure. The prose flows smooth as silk, the dialogue is perfectly suited to the characters and the time period, and the pacing is perfect. The story arc is sublime, with the alternating character-POV chapters lasting just long enough and hitting just when they need to in order to keep the suspense and emotion going. The world building is without fault, as its clear Arden didn’t skimp on the research one bit and put that knowledge to good use in conjunction with her ample writing talents. It’s an absolute masterpiece of a novel. The themes of trauma, grief, love, fidelity, memory, “madness”, and darkness are all implemented so well here, woven with one another like a complex braid until it becomes one messy unit of no ends or beginnings. Such is the life of a common soldier or a nurse who comes to war. They don’t come to the battlefield until the people in charge have already decided it’s time to fight. The war started before they got there. It’s a beautiful novel, even if it’s sad and brutal. I cried, but not as much as I thought I would. It was a fantastic read and I’d read it again. I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. File Under: 5 Star Review/Historical Fantasy/Historical Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Military Fiction/Supernatural Fantasy ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 13, 2024
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Feb 13, 2024
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Oct 04, 2023
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Hardcover
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my rating |
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|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 4.22
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 22, 2023
|
Dec 22, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.84
|
it was amazing
|
May 07, 2024
|
Dec 20, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.16
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 2024
|
Dec 20, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.09
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 13, 2023
|
Dec 13, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.45
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 13, 2023
|
Dec 13, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.35
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 20, 2023
|
Nov 20, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.05
|
it was amazing
|
Jan 27, 2024
|
Nov 20, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.92
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 14, 2024
|
Nov 17, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.62
|
it was amazing
|
May 02, 2024
|
Nov 13, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.13
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 11, 2023
|
Nov 11, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.78
|
it was amazing
|
Sep 21, 2023
not set
|
Nov 04, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.95
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 06, 2024
|
Nov 02, 2023
|
|||
|
| Park, Ed
*
| 3.77
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 13, 2023
|
Nov 01, 2023
|
||
|
| 3.57
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 15, 2024
|
Oct 31, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.58
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 09, 2023
|
Oct 23, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.37
|
it was amazing
|
Jan 26, 2024
|
Oct 20, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.11
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 20, 2024
|
Oct 20, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.38
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 18, 2024
|
Oct 10, 2023
|
|||
|
| 3.89
|
it was amazing
|
May 11, 2024
|
Oct 08, 2023
|
|||
|
| 4.02
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 13, 2024
|
Oct 04, 2023
|
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