Jordyn
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To make what will ultimately end up being a rather long review short – I wanted more from Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe. This book has all the markings of being a phenomenal piece of fiction, but it sort of squanders all its potential. The beginning lagged – it lags HARD. Nothing happens until about fifty percent of the way through the book, and then things start to get interesting. A lot is laid out in the beginning, but you feel adrift in everything – nothing is really hammered down or set in stone. It's all vague, and not in a way that makes you want to keep reading. Instead, I almost ALMOST dnfed this one.
I'm glad I didn't – it does get better. I think Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe needs a complete restructure of the beginning because it does itself no favors. I would have loved LOVED to see Joanna and Esther's childhood, but instead we're given brief glimpses of their younger years. In order to really hammer home the connection these two had – or didn't – it would have been much MUCH easier to see through their eyes. A lot of telling was going on, basically. I wanted to FEEL the emotions. Instead, I'm just told about them.
Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe could have been a great book about sisterly love and affection, and family duty above all, but it really isn't. We're given a book about a cool magic system that is barely touched on, with a heavy dose of powerful man as the villain. The action, like I said before, doesn't kick off until about 50% of the way through the book! Who does that to themselves!! Gist of the action is that there are magical books – only some people can read them and perform magic – and the books are being sought after by one particular man. He'll do anything to collect more books, including murder, torture and blackmail.
I liked the characters, but I connected with Esther WAY more than her sister. Her sister I wanted to shake or yell at, multiple times. But of ALL the characters, I completely fell head over heels for Collins. Do I wish he had more lines? Do I wish we got a better sense of who he was? Absolutely. STILL. He was amazing.
Basically, this book had potential that it absolutely did not live up to. Three and a half stars.
I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THIS BOOK FOR YEARS. I read it a long, long time ago and totally forgot what the name of it was. I remember really enjoying it, but uh, upon a reread this is not worth the time that I've spent searching for it. Don't make my mistake.
Really this entire book should have been split into three books, with more drawn out characters and actual growth. Instead we're given one book split into three about three different couples. It doesn't work. We're left with some barely thought-out characters populating the book, with minimal romantic interaction. Almost all the couples just jump into bed without ANY courting. Really, this was not worth rereading, let alone reading the first time.
Don't waste your time.
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Meh. The ending to this series left a little to be desired, honestly. I was hoping we'd get a nice epilogue of everybody settled and happy and instead we're with Cooper and Oliver at their wedding. It was nice, and sweet, but not quite what I wanted from the ending. I also really wanted to see these two on an actual date with no murder or bodies or blood or threats, but that didn't happen either.
Cooper got some character development, but really not a lot. I wanted Coop and Oliver to feel grown and settled by the end of this, and while Oliver certainly felt content, Cooper felt like he still wanted something. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Who knows. The whole ‘moon' mystery felt unfixed, a plot dangle that was never wrapped up.
Overall, this book didn't really feel like an ending, and I'm sort of feeling adrift without much closure. Disappointing, but the rest of the series was absolutely worth the read. Maybe I'll reread this one day and feel differently.
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This one took a slight dive downwards in quality, but that might be me just not being a huge fan of this setting. The plot was a tiny bit hard to follow too – lots of inheritances, and siblings with two different last names. I was confused for awhile, basically. THOUGH we did get LOADS more lore, and now we have more specifics when it comes to werewolves. I loved learning more about the species, and hope that we'll get even more in the last book.
I also wasn't a fan of Cooper and Park having to pretend to be other people for like...90% of this book. Once they were themselves again, I was much more interested. Though I am glad that Coop is finally realizing how much his attack messed him up mentally. At least he'll be getting help for that. Hopefully.
I still love these two so so much. I'm so glad I started this series. It's so good.
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FINALLY WE GET SOME GOOD WOLF CONTENT. Finally, we see Park's wolf form. I've been waiting literally three whole books for that. I hope we get more of it now, especially after the revelation at the end of this book. (WHAT A COOL REVEAL, TOO.) Okay, anyway, we see Park's entire family in this one, and they're all sorts of screwed up and cruel to Cooper. He's a human, and they hate that.
Well, these books being what they are, of course there's a murder mystery at the heart of it. It was mildly interesting, but I was way more interested in the dynamics of the pack, the wolfy bits and just like....everything else. Give me more werewolves, period.
Park and Cooper seem to be settling into their relationship for real, and actually TRUSTING each other fully. Finally. I understand their reluctance based on their....everything...but c'mon. THREE BOOKS IN???
STILL REALLY LOVING THIS THOUGH.
Also, GO BOOGIE GO.
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I loved this one almost as much as I loved the first one. The only thing that really bothered me was that Cooper was SO wishy-washy on what he wanted from Oliver. He spent a lot of time arguing with himself in this book, and it was bordering on irritating. Once he finally got over himself and realized that he does in fact love Oliver, it was much more enjoyable.
Cooper's dad was frustrating as hell, especially when he just kept LYING to his sons. Why not come clean with everything as soon as the body was discovered??? It's not like they were kids anymore – hell, they're both in law enforcement! Bad decisions, there.
I wish there had been more wolf-y bits to this book, but I still really liked it. I'm hoping for way more lore soon, though, because we still didn't get very much in this one. Fingers crossed.
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YES. YES. YES.
Look – you all know how much I love werewolves. I'm extremely picky when it comes to my werewolf lore, so it's hard to find a book (let alone a series) that I'm interested in reading all the way through. I start every werewolf book with doubts, and well, The Wolf At the Door quickly squashed them. This was almost everything I've been looking for – I do wish the romance side of things was pushed slightly more, but whatever. I'll take it.
The Wolf at the Door is, at it's heart, a murder mystery all wrapped up in werewolves. The greater public has no idea that wolves exist, but there's a whole offshoot of the FBI that specializes in them. Our main character, Cooper, is an agent with the BSI – and he's been given a new wolf partner to investigate a series of murders in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. I was THOROUGHLY wrapped up in the case, desperately wanting to know what was going on. I thought I had it figured out about half way in, but nope. I didn't see the end coming.
Dang, did I enjoy this. And dang, did I absolutely love Cooper's werewolf partner – Oliver Park. I can't wait to learn more about him, because he was amazing. Cool, collected, a hidden sense of humor. An alpha werewolf who really didn't act like one. I'm 100000% into him, and so is Cooper.
I do want more werewolf lore, but I assume that's coming as the series progresses. Absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to get into the next one.
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Oh, that was a great series.
There are little nit-picky things that I wish had been changed/took place, but overall it's an absolutely phenomenal example of a middle grade series. I would have loved this when I was the appropriate age, but I still really enjoyed it now, at 33. I love that everything got wrapped up, but I do have more questions about specific things.
- How did Marissa find Ezekiel?
- What WAS Ezekiel? Was he a ghost? He was like NO other ghost in the series.
- What was the Skull's real name?
- Why didn't Lucy and Lockwood kiss? NOT A BIG KISS, JUST A NICE AGE APPROPRIATE ONE.
- What are these kids gonna do once The Problem goes away?
- Why didn't Kipps die? There was no reason why they couldn't have an actual death that would have been appropriate for the situations that they were in. It would have given more emotional weight to the ending!!!
Overall, though, the series is absolutely worth the read. Despite being about death and horrible things, they are quite lighthearted. An interesting look at a society where children put themselves in danger for society, but without much thanks for it. The characters are where the heart of this series lies, though, and by the end you care so much about them. Stroud does not disappoint.
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OoooOooo this one was SO much fun to read. (Sensing a theme here?) I loved the mystery in this one – the extremely haunted village was fascinating, and I loved that we got a solid answer as to why!!! I LOVED the reveal at the end. Things are all starting to come together, but I am wondering what the POINT of all of this is. What are the adults at the agencies trying to do? I know we'll find out in the last book, but I'm still here wondering.
I'm also extremely glad that Lucy is back with Lockwood – it's where she belongs and she desperately needs to stay there. She did not do well on her own, and well Lockwood needs her, too. Onto the last, hopefully it wraps everything up in a huge entertaining bow.
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These books are so much fun. I really enjoyed this one because we get two REALLY good mysteries at the heart of the novel. The first one gets solved rather quickly, but the second one was the one I was majorly interested in. Super cool reveals at the end, and even more questions about what caused The Problem. The dynamics of the group are questioned in this entry, too, bc Lockwood hires the company an assistant. Lucy doesn't like them immediately, and I understand why.
ANYWAY. Good book. Good antics. Can't wait to figure out what's going on in the next one.
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This is the first middle grade book I've read in....a long time. Like a long, long time. I always read ahead of my peers when I was in school, so I was out of middle grade by like...5th grade? Either way, it doesn't matter, not really. I picked The Screaming Staircase up simply because I'd seen the TV show and wanted more of the characters. (And not to mention that I absolutely loved Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series.) Well, color me absolutely not surprised at all because I loved this book.
Look, if you need a break from the adult world and want something that's funny, charming, and sometimes quite spooky, this is what you want to read next. Stroud stretches his writing chops here creating a whole parallel world to ours that is plagued with a huge problem: ghosts are coming back from the dead and killing people. For some reason, only children can see (and fight) the ghosts. Adults just...die. Stroud sets this world up quickly and without any impossibly huge info dumps – everything you need to know is given to you in bite-sized pieces between everything else.
Our heroes are Anthony Lockwood, a rather mysterious young man who owns his own ghost hunting/fighting business. George Cubbins – a large boy who focuses on research and irritating everyone. He was quite annoying, but not enough to degrade my experience of the book. Lucy Carlyle, whose POV the books are told, is a girl who is running away from a horrible experience. Together, they try to solve a murder-mystery. Is it predictable? Maybe a little, but you have to remember who the audience is, and well, predictable does NOT mean badly written. It didn't lessen my enjoyment of this book at all to know where it was going.
This was so much fun. I'm absolutely going right onto the next book in the series.
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Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of all retellings with a female lead being proclaimed to be ‘feminist' retellings. It's not necessarily true, for one — you can have a retelling with a female lead and the book be almost misogynistic. Having a female lead doesn't mean you're feminist. Luckily, Morgan is My Name does have feminism coming off of it in waves — but don't expect a woman to lead a queendom or anything inside it's pages. This is Dark Ages Britain we're talking about here. There's only so much Keetch could get away with here without losing the historical accuracy that she was so clearly going for.
Because yes, while this book does have magic in it, there is very much a layer of historical realness here that isn't usually present in these sorts of books. It truly feels like we're right beside Morgan in these cold and drafty castles, watching as war after war is started. Morgan is My Name reminded me very much of Lucy Holland's Dark Earth that I read last year and loved. These are both dark books with a heavy dose of female companionship and love. The Arthurian legend is here, but it's very much in the background at first. Arthur isn't even born until maybe halfway through the book. What we start with, and where we're based is in Morgan's childhood.
The aforementioned Morgan is, of course, Morgan le Fay or Morgana of the Arthurian legend. While she's usually painted as something of a villain, in this particular book she's just a wild-at-heart girl eager to learn everything she possibly can about healing. We see her heal someone miraculously with just her hands, and we see her dip into what we are supposed to assume is dark magic to bring someone else back from the brink of death. Morgan has magic, and she's desperate to use it. Unfortunately for her, her brute of a husband all but forbids her. (She ends up going behind his back and doing it anyway.) We see all sorts of familiar names and places in this book, but a great deal of it seems to be pulled from either history or made up. It's fine! It works wonderfully.
I really enjoyed Morgan is My Name — I love the Arthurian legend and always have. This was a fresh new look at a character that is most often shoved to the side or painted in rather broad strokes. I loved getting a look at what her childhood must have been like, at what forced her to become what she does.
I truly thought this was a standalone novel, but the end of the book proves that to be absolutely false. I am very much looking forward to where Keetch is going with this. Right now, I can't see this Morgan doing what Morgana does in the original legends, but I guess we'll see how she gets there! Four stars!
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This was cute, bc Killian was a total SIMP for Libby, but the rest of the book felt mostly unbelievable. The mechanics behind the music scene and all that. It felt like everything moved along way too quickly. What do I know, though? I'm not a musician, and I certainly never will be one. Who knows. Book is a fun little romp, though. Steamy plenty of times, though I do wish we had seen Libby and Killian together WITHOUT jumping into bed. Like...on a real date or something? I think it would have added a lot to their relationship, because it mostly felt based on some serious lust.
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I read this in a manner of hours. Like....five to be precise. Reckless Girls is insanely easy to read – a thriller that really will have you turning pages like a mad person. I'm not big on thrillers. It's not a genre that I frequently find myself reaching for, but seeing as I follow Rachel Hawkins on Twitter and love her to pieces, I thought I'd give Reckless Girls a try. I'm glad I did!! I don't know if I'll pick this one up again – kinda spooked me to be honest – but it is absolutely worth a read. Especially if you're looking for something fun, or something to read on a beach, I'd highly recommend! Though you may be wishing for a machete by the end of the book.
I really don't want to spoil too much of this one because the reveals are done rather nicely. The main character, Lux, is sort of in a dead-end spot, being dragged along through life by her boyfriend. She's followed him to Hawaii on the promise that they'll go sailing around the world, but Nico – the boyfriend – is making no moves to deliver on those promises. Nico runs into two young women who want to go to a particular island and want to hire him to get them there. They go....and everything goes wrong very quickly.
My only beef with this book is that Lux's decisions at the end felt very out of character for the woman we saw in the rest of the novel. She suddenly became very confident in her choices, and just went for it. Didn't feel like her, really. It felt like everyone but Lux was hiding something from everyone else, and while it worked for what sort of novel this was...eh. Not really my cup of tea, usually. I especially did not like Amma, but I don't think we were really supposed to like any of the characters all that much.
I don't know if Meroe Island is real or not, but you will not catch me there ever.
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Alright, basically take my review from the last book and just copy and paste it here. The Devil Gets His Due didn't work for me. I wanted it to, but nope. Keely and Graham pretty much hated each other the entire book, and once they finally did fall together I just didn't sense the chemistry. I still don't know why they're together, other than their kid? Like...what on earth did they have in common? Keely drove me nuts – more worried about fitting into her designer clothes than eating right for her baby.
Oh yeah – there's an accidental pregnancy plot, if you hadn't grasped that yet. It didn't add anything interesting to this book, and I love babies. Meh. Not a fan of the last entry into this series, at all, which is unfortunate considering how much I enjoyed the first two books. Oh well.
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Unfortunately, The Devil You Know is (so far) my least favorite book of the The Devils series. There's much less humor in this one, and there's a lot more screwing with each other in not so nice ways. My main beef is with the main couple — Gemma and Ben both had some serious baggage that kept rearing its ugly head throughout the entire book. I understand jaded characters, characters who struggle with trust, etc. But when the entire book is about it, well, it just...gets old quickly.
As someone who isn't particularly career ambitious, reading about what Gemma is doing with her life was just sort of depressing. Gemma is a lawyer at a hot-shot law office. She's been there six years, and is doing everything in her power to make partner. She hates it there, but stays because she's got a ~plan~. She lives in a blank-slate apartment with minimal furniture and no decorations. She works all week — including the weekends. She never took a break, and was seemingly very proud of it. It was...well it was almost boring, honestly.
I really wanted to like Ben more than I did. He really helped Drew out in her book, but in his own, well. He comes across as a kind-of creepy, almost stalkery kinda guy. Admittedly, Gemma could be described that way too, but that's probably another reason that I wasn't a fan of this one. That's not to say that the writing itself took a nosedive or anything. It's still top-notch, not overly long or anything. I just didn't mesh with the characters. Probably just a me thing, but who knows! Not every book is for every person, so onwards and upwards, my friends!
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Good news! The sequel to A Deal with the Devil was just as good, if not slightly better!! This one took me just slightly longer to read because I picked it up right as I was leaving work on Friday, and then well, it's next to impossible to read over the weekend. So it took me like...three days to swallow this one down, but omg. I could have read it in 5 hours like I did the first one! O'Roark is absolutely phenomenal at creating bickering characters that are perfect for each other. I loved reading Drew and Josh butt heads — they loved picking at each other and then all the sudden, Josh was protective. I love that in a hero, so...yes. Sign me up for more of this.
ANYWAY, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is Drew's story — she featured semi-regularly in A Deal with the Devil, but honestly, you don't need to read that one to understand what's going on here. It's very self-contained which is another great thing about these books. Regardless, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is about what happens when Drew is invited along to her on-again-off-again boyfriend's family's vacation. I never really caught on to why she agreed to go — Six made her so angry and upset — but she did go, and boy was that the right decision. I don't need to summarize this — it's all in the synopsis above.
I felt so bad for Drew almost the entire novel. She was so unhappy with her life and just sort of...muddled through it. She didn't know how to get out, how to make it better, or even that she could make it better until she really got to know Josh. He woke her up from her life. Watching him watch her, watching him take care of her in his own way... well, it was just...chef's-kiss amazing. Then you turn around and see how Six treated her. Oof. No comparison. I loved that Josh wanted Drew to fix her life for her, not so they could be together.
I wasn't a fan of the Somalia scenes just because it felt...rushed. How on earth did Drew have no idea how bad it was there? Felt a little forced and a lot White-savior-y. Unfortunate, and unnecessary.
I loved this book, and yes, I'm going right into the next one. Don't wait up for me!
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Okay, this was absolutely delightful, so delightful, in fact, that I read it in less than 5...hours? I've been having some bad luck with books recently, and wanted something low-pressure, fun, and easy to read. A Deal with the Devil met every single one of those points, with the added bonus of being written extremely well. I liked all the characters I was supposed to, when I'm usually sort of resigned to at least being irritated by the main character. (Why are so many main characters in romance novels whiny?) Talia was extremely competent in just about everything she was asked to do. But she'd only do what she was told if she could gripe about it. She had a smart, wicked mouth. I loved watching her and Hayes bicker with each other. That's quickly becoming a favorite trope of mine — the mild-dislike-to-lovers trope. If you like that one, too, you'll love A Deal with the Devil.
Anyway, Talia is a debut novelist struggling to finish her first book in time. She's poor as dirt, with a family that's struggling after her father died. When her friend offers to let her work as his replacement while he's off adopting his daughter, Talia leaps at the chance. Only...she knows she'll be working for a man that she despises. Only like...we're never really given a reason why she hates him. Not that it really matters — I think we're supposed to assume that her friend talked bad about Hayes before, but we don't see that in the book. Either way — I liked how we saw Talia struggle with writing while being so good at just about everything in her life. It was a nice foil.
I can see why someone might dislike this book — Hayes is extraordinarily wealthy and appears to work continuously so he can become even more so — but I truly, truly enjoyed it. I loved how much Hayes wanted Talia before they bent together, and I really loved how much he was willing to change in order to be right for her. They both shifted their lives in order to work together. They were so similar, but so right for each other.
I hope the next book in this series is just as good.
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Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I've read seven books by Connie Willis and have enjoyed almost all of them. When I saw The Road to Roswell come up on Netgalley, I clicked REQUEST without even reading the synopsis. I didn't need to. I'll read anything she writes. (Though to be honest, I had no idea she was still writing!) When I finally did get around to reading the synopsis I was a tiny bit unsure. I'm not huge on alien books, but I had enough trust in the author to give it a go. See the thing about Connie Willis books is that they have a lot of humor in them, but they're usually about huge big concepts too. My favorite books by her are about time travel. BUT THAT'S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, WE'RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE ROAD TO ROSWELL.
All that I mentioned above is accurate for this book too — Our heroine, Francie, gets abducted by an alien the weekend of her best friend's wedding. She's not taken off planet. She's being forced to drive said alien to a undisclosed location. Undisclosed because neither one of them can understand each other. A lot more happens, but I don't want to spoil you! There's a small romance side-plot. A gambling card-shark granny. An older gentleman obsessed with Westerns. A great deal of it is quite funny, and there's some extremely frustrating parts, too. Basically, The Road to Roswell is about first contact and what can go so, so wrong. But I can promise you this — none of the aliens are evil.
The Road to Roswell is cute, but the ending leaves quite a lot to be desired. It sort of ends in the middle of a scene, and I was left feeling like I missed out on a paragraph or three. Despite that, I really did enjoy this book. Connie Willis's writing reminds me a lot of T. Kingfisher, if that gets any of your gears going, but Willis is much more sci-fi than fantasy. Either way, it's a funny book, and if you're looking for something lighthearted, I fully recommend The Road to Roswell.
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Someone reviewed this book ages ago and I added it to my TBR because of them. It's been...forever, so I'm not sure who it was. Maybe Dini? DOESN'T MATTER. Either way, I picked this book up on the premise that it was Pride and Prejudice but set around a burlesque club. Putting those two things together didn't sound like it would work, but I was interested enough to give it a go. Overall, A Certain Appeal is a pretty dang cute romance book, but it was lacking something that really pushed it up and over the edge into awesome territory for me.
I think it might be because we only see Bennet's point of view, never Darcy's. We really don't know that much about him other than the fact that he's 1. rich, 2. standoffish, 3. really hot. Like, that's barely anything! I know he's supposed to be inspired by Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, but we don't know much about that Darcy either. You gotta give us something a bit more to go on. He struggles with the idea of burlesque, and of Bennet being a part of it. He comes around, but he seems kind of a dick for a great chunk of the book. Not that anyone could expect differently from a Pride and Prejudice adaptation.
Bennet and Darcy are, of course, snippy with each other for most of the novel, until things come to a head. There's one full steamy scene, but a few sizzly ones after and before. Nothing extraordinarily explicit. If you've read or watched any adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, you know how the book goes. It follows the plot pretty identically, just pulled forward into the modern day and set around a burlesque club. The characters were all entertaining, though some I wasn't sure who they were ‘supposed' to be. Wickham is, of course, a rather slimy character, and easy to dislike. Bennet's best friend, Jane, is a jazz singer. Her cousin, Chloe, lives across the country and is seen frequently on video chat. Ming was one of my favorites of the bunch — she's a curvy burlesque dancer with a dirty, dirty mouth. She was hilarious and just the bright spark the book needed.
Bennet was much more confident, much more interesting character. She's proud of what she does, and isn't afraid to admit it. She doesn't dance in the burlesque club — she's the show's stage kitten. She goes on afterwards and cleans up all the discarded clothes, all while wearing very little herself. I liked hearing all the descriptions of what she and all the other club members were wearing. King dominated at that — every outfit was easy to see in my mind, and they go through a lot of outfits.
To round this rather rambly review up — if you like Pride and Prejudice adaptations at all, I think you'll like this one.
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I really loved the first book in this series, but uh, I barely dragged myself through this one. First of all, why did no one warn me that The Heir Apparent's Rejected Mate is set basically in a high school? This is essentially a book about teenaged werewolves mating. I was so not interested, but by the time I reached wanting to DNF I was already 50% of the way through the book. With the way I read, I just decided to finish it. I'm not sure it was worth it. I don't want to read about teenagers. This was not a hot book. This was depressing.