Lori

This is a light-hearted but great zombie read. I did miss the authors usual deeper thoughts behind his slasher stories, but this story was a fun killing spree just for the sake of it.

The book does introduce us to a large number of characters in the beginning that was hard to keep track of but once the mayhem starts it becomes much easier to remember. The first half of the book is a lot more humorous while the second half focuses more on a tighter cast of charters and their survival. Not to say there wasn’t still some good jokes there. It was the perfect Friday audiobook to get me though the workday.

I loved the personality of the children and the setup of the governess making the male lead a better person but it’s that last part that the book struggles with. The kids had so much personality and I couldn’t wait for them to get better lives through caring parental figures and resolving their trauma.

The female lead has a different background that connected greatly with the kids. The only thing I didn’t like about her was how she constantly made promises on the male leads behalf when he says he want’s nothing to do with them. Basically, setting up the children for disappointment again and again. The male lead was then set up with too much resistance to the kids that it was honestly hard to watch the governess try to create a bond between them. This made most of the book a slog to get through.

This was a classic that didn’t read well for me. Despite the creativeness of the story and the amazing descriptions the author made I was board by the writing. The book is filled with action and adventure but it’s so hard to get into. Long winded descriptions mixed with an overly scientific style takes away from the excitement of it all.

The writing is such a distraction to the story which is sad as the captain is an amazingly interesting character but is almost hidden behind lines of textbook descriptors. The author focused more one the ocean views then the characters or even the plot. The story is slow moving and doesn’t give you enough juice to keep you energized. Interactions with the captain are doled out in morsels that taunt you more then they develop the character. He was by far the most interesting part of the story and where we leave him feels so unfinished.

I did end up enjoying most of the back and forth as you got to know the people through both the letters and time. The woman who put this together comes across as a brash American and might honestly be one. Sometimes her letters border on rude but since I listened to this book the narrator does a decent job of deflecting part of this rudeness.

It feels like there are many letters missing as there are some letters that references ones we don’t see. I make me wonder why they were removed. More importantly it makes me wonder why the ones presented were picked. There is no explanation to this, and I would have loved a part at the end of the author talking more about piecing the book together. As good as this book show us a sample of real life in a specific period of time so much is missing. Turning this into something closer to Angela’s Ashes with more details outside of the letters would make this a more well-rounded narrative and simply more interesting.

I liked this book at first as the couple were both funny and it seemed like a good set up. But the farther in the book I got the more I disliked how the author handled the male characters physical deformity. I have read other historical romances that have males with physical wounds and disabilities and manage to handle them with care and understanding. This book did not do that. It actually went for the opposite of that and made the whole society show revolution towards him. If it weren’t for that the book would have been better.

I just could not get into this book. There are some great lines in the book but I couldn’t keep my focus. As I listened to the story my mind would drift. The constant back and forth of the timelines didn’t work for me as not enough time is spent on any side to make me involved in the stories. It could also be the way the story is written as we get so much extra information that is either not relevant or it felt like padding to make the book longer.

The reason I wanted to read this book was that it was marketed as Mexican horror but the book falls short of Mexican history, language, and folk lore. I thought this would be closer to Vampires of El Norte which does a better job at these things.

The main villains in each timeline are easy to spot and it becomes irritating to listen to these characters look everywhere but right in front of them. Also, the whole sleeping with your uncle multiple times thing was unnecessary.

The beginning romance was so great but any good will that was built is ruined once they are together. He originally treats her with respect and care. Taking interest in her activities and setting up adventures for her. Once married he suddenly starts to treat her like nothing more then a petulant child that needs to be reined in. She ceases to be an equal and it was honestly disgusting. The rest of the book is spent with him training her to be a good wife.

I should have paid more attention to who wrote the book as I didn’t care for this author’s other romantasy series. This book continues the terrible male leads and spineless females they take advantage of tropes that the author repeats in their books.

The smut was bad in this book as most of the time he starfished it while she did all the work. They both clearly didn’t want to sleep with each other. This is written like a poor and problematic Wattpad story by some teen that doesn’t know better. The male lead is the worst and never repents in anyway for the things he’s done. He degrades her in pretty much everyway he can. Even when he tries to be nice to her, he still turns to his friends and talks shit about her. There is no redemption for a character like this.

I really liked the premise and I know I will read the next book in the series once it’s out. The light magic use spread throughout the book paired with historical romance created a great setup.

The book starts with the nanny graduating from the academy but all her training isn’t utilised fully in the rest of the book. She often breaks the rules and tends to become frazzled in bad situations. Although she’s a nanny we don’t get to spend a lot of time with the children. For me it was mainly the girl that was interesting as the boys were mainly know as the boys. The book could have developed the children more at the same time as giving us some fun scenes with the nanny and her magic. This was a huge, missed opportunity.

The duke was a good character who deals with childhood trauma and autism. This could have made the story better by building the characters connection and understanding and this is done but only to a point. The author builds up these issues but then drops it for a quick happy ending. The duke is suddenly ok with everything that happened. Taking time to properly talk about difficult subjects in books especially romance truly makes the story better.

I know I talked quite a bit about the bad in the book but I really did like it. It felt different then other books that tried the same thing. Its quirky but not over the top. I am hoping the next book does a little better.

This book was such a switch from the last book. This one focus more on the characters background and development of her character. It made me miss the short killer stories. I didn’t mind the storyline and apricated the female empowerment it’s just not what I came for. Killer grandma is what I’m here for.

This was a unique story as I liked the main character’s sureness in herself. She doesn’t think of being older as a disadvantage but uses others’ perceptions of elders to commit murders of some terrible or annoying people.

The first few stories were great and wished there was more in this collection. The last story is done in two parts one from the main character and the other from a detective. I didn’t care for this part as much as the rest of the book as it was a long and over involved. The other stories were nice in their quick simplicity.

Ps. The narrator they picked for the book was perfect for the character.

So... this is on me. I picked this book up on name alone and didn’t realize it was connected to the first book in the series that I had read only a few days before and didn’t like.

This book was a bit better than the last one I read and the main characters are a bit more ok this time around, but not by much. This time around she is the one with no personality and despite being a witch she uses no magic. His background was more interesting but not done justice.

The main story line is forced proximity as they have to compete in a program together. During the competition they spend so much time sleeping together that I honestly thought the other contestant should have won. The host of the competition is such a creep and they don’t do anything to stop him because they don’t want to mess up the competition. This ties into an assault at the end of the book.

A smut book should contain smut but this book managed to have too much with no substance and no talk of what’s ok. Nothing is as unsexy as not asking.

This is a short heartfelt story that had me near tears at one point. I have read a few feel-good life affirming stories and they can sometimes be generic but this one stands out to me. It does have a few tropes of finding a community when least expected and how having a pet can change your life. This is done in a way that was comforting and felt more real. Also, I love mice.

There is a few moments in the last half of the book that really tugs on the heart strings. So don’t go into this thinking its all lighthearted. Truly I was on the verge of tears listening to this at the office. 100% worth it though.

The beginning had me interested with the phone calls and when we reach the parent’s house, I thought this was going to be a good horror story. But… I don’t even know what to say. The whole ending was stupid. It was pretty much a fuck you twist to the reader that didn’t pay off for me. I don’t want to say what happens as maybe someone else would appreciate this, but I hated it.

The start of the book was good. I was fully invested in the characters and the story and the connection between the leads was building nicely. About 30% of the way in is where things started to annoy me. Mostly the male leads inner wolf. The wolf talks and acts like a teenage dirtbag. Nothing but sex and fighting on loop. The storyline also stops to build their relationship which is mostly long paragraphs of them lusting after each other.

Both main characters are not great. She bashes him about not knowing pop culture or all the things she’s interested in. The author spends a lot of time to make us understand how “geeky’ the female lead is. I can enjoy it when a book has good pop culture references, but this author takes the more toxic tropes of fan types and pretends it’s just her passion. I keep forgetting that she’s supposed to be in her thirties. He on the other hand had no personality except for the crude wolf we are stuck hearing about.

I did like some of the side characters, but they are very underutilized. They are all witches, but we never see any power from them. The female lead has an incredibly supportive friend/family group, but it takes her new boyfriend for her to go for her dreams.

Despite being about stalking the book is pretty light. The characters keep saying how dark they are in what they like, but they are mostly two average people. Stalking, exhibitionism (by cam), and voyeurism is the dark part of the book.

The first 40% of the book is mostly stalking and the male’s obsessive thoughts on the female lead. In this the author doesn’t do a great job explaining why he’s so obsessed, just that he is. The rest of the book is where the spice is at but I don’t understand why his everyday nice guy persona holds back in the relationship. He starts a second relationship with her online knowing who she is. This was so unnecessary.

The female lead wasn’t bad, but she does free cam shows despite having a morality clause in this day job. Seriously, don’t use items from your job to use in personal activities that conflict with your main source of income! Once she finds out about the male lead’s stalking, she is rightfully upset but gets over it once he stalks her again and saves her. With such an emphasis on stalking and her understandable reaction, she gets over it very quickly.

The good in the book is how nice and caring the male lead can be. Besides stalking he’s a firefighter who shovels her walkway. Since I live in Canada a man who shovels for you is pretty top tier. The smut is pretty light and spaced apart but not bad. Maybe others will like it more.

This was just a bad adaption. The storyline didn’t really match up to Pride & Prejudice and without the tile I would never have guessed it was a modern adaption.

I hated the main character as she wasn’t witty but mean. I liked the idea that she was supposed to be happy being an independent, successful woman, but the book spent so much time dragging her for not actually living a fulfilling life. Where the book should have taken this is to help her grow with her family and friends. Instead, we get more of her being mean to everyone, and only at the very end she turns it all around, not really though.

The romance is teen level interactions with so many bad decisions. The only good part of the story is the gay romance side story that not enough time is spent on. The side characters are there only to comfort the main character who doesn’t deserve it and are usually forgotten once they are out of sight. Worst of all is that the book didn’t even have a good winter vibe.

This was a book I heard would be a fun read but I didn’t know that I would love it as much as I have. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down.

I will say the book has a lot of detail about stats and notices that can be a bit much, but the farther along I got, the more into it I got. I did find that the book touches on some deeper subjects regarding the creatures they fight and the alien ideas of earth but the author sort of skims these. It’s brought up but not addressed. There are also a few descriptions that toe the line of offensive. Part of it I get as these are meant to be the alien’s ideas of what Earth is and over exaggerates the negative aspects of human culture. But... sometimes it didn’t land as I think the author wanted it to.

Still, I liked most of the book and would read it again. It has a very 2000’s comedy feel to it that I don’t mind. The format of the story felt fresh to me and scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. I do wish that there was a little more character development and depth but if you read this knowing, it’s a surface level basher then it’s a pretty great experience. There are inklings of more depth to come in this story line.

I really enjoyed this book, but it would defiantly be a hard one to recommend to just anyone.

I don’t like misunderstandings in romances as they are rarely done well, and this is another book that uses that trope and fails to build a satisfactory reason. This trope happens not only in their past but is used throughout the story to keep them apart. It was genuinely frustrating. There are constant references to what happened one night long ago but its not reviled for some time.

Their connection is beyond confusing as they are pining for each other for most of the book. You want to know what happened so that you can understand the hesitation of the main characters. This just leaves readers in a fog. I big issue I have is that the author uses a third party (a demon) to force the main characters to tell the truth by basically drugging them (He threw truth dirt on them). It takes away from the story and yet gives you no answers.

The main plot line of an evil force in town is mostly background noise to the pining of the main characters. The side characters are not bad, but they are pretty bland and act as filler. The only one that stands out was his sister and I would have been more interested in her story. Even the house was more interesting than most of the town’s folk. There are bits and pieces in the book that I wish was brought to the foreground that would have made this a great fall time read. The house for instance was magical and I wish the characters spent more time in it exploring.

I made a mistake and listened to the book as I didn’t know that this is a book that should have been physically read. Please don’t be me.

What I liked was the author’s ability to show how children take everyday interactions and make life and death stories. The story is a little weird and doesn’t seem to have a learning moral like most children’s books. I didn’t find it a charming story, and it honestly left me a little confused.

The story faces heavy subjects such as colonization, racism, and sexism but the author handles them poorly. I understand what the author is going for but they lean too far into one side of the story ignoring the issues they want to talk about.

We get so little time with the subjugated peoples (Kwen) and even worse is that we only get two of them as part of the main story. They are so interesting, but we barely get their point of view. The story mainly takes place from the female lead’s view but as she is part of the colonizing people, she pays little attention to the Kwen. I did like the main character at first but over time you really see that she’s no better then the people have been sexist towards her. The author presents a romantic connection between the main character and the Kwen janitor and it’s hard to believe as she barely bothers to learn anything about him and his people.

I did like the ending, and it does redeem the main character a bit but not enough to turn this book around.

For a book with Antichrist in the name, I thought it would be scary or at least be more horror oriented. The book focuses on the beginning of the band and the mystery of a former band member. The whole Antichrist idea was very underutilized as the author focused more on the music and building the band. The whole book feels low stakes like nothing bad will actually happen. There are some deaths in the book, but you are being told from multiple switching points of view that takes you out of any action.

I partly liked the interview format with the band members and other people as it felt at times like I was listening to a documentary. Each members parts were differentiated so there was no confusion as to who was speaking. The downside to this format is that you don’t really get to understand the characters as you only get to know them from what they say and what others say. It creates a distance between you and them. I don’t know if it’s the format or the story, but the book felt too long.

Such a great book to start the new year. The story is full of new beginnings from friends, found family, and even business. This book is definitely written for children but that doesn’t stop it from being charming. It makes me wish I got to read this when I was around the characters age.

I had watched the film as a child, and it will always have a touch of nostalgia that won’t be replaced but I loved this book more. It’s the way the book addresses being a child and reaching that age of maturity. The main character gets acne and there is some talk of beauty, but it’s done in a healthy ‘this is normal’ way. I feel like any child around the characters age will be able to connect with this story. The book is part magic but also simple childhood concerns, and the main character truly embodies that childhood transition and hopefulness.

The story has many challenges that the main character has to face, and I liked that the author has her tame time to think about how to solve each challenge as well as have her work with friends. The sense of community is a slow build, and it’s nice to see a character not be immediately enfolded into the community but work to gain their trust.

I’m guessing this was meant to be a one story a night kind of a book but since the stories were so short I read them all in one night. I did find most of the stories were ok at best but there were a few standouts. It’s not a bad book to pick up if you want something short.

I went into this knowing I would have to read bad parts of a make-believe book but they were genuinely funny. This author managed to pick out the worst parts of romance books and make it over the top bad in a fun way.

The main character was so relatable and I loved the slow building of the male lead. The romance was very well done an believable. After reading most of the authors Kinda Fairytale series I have come to love her over the top worlds.