Suzi
Given how much I've enjoyed this author's other series - The Ending Fire - and am eagerly awaiting the final book in that series, I thought I would love this book but it was a huge disappointment for me.
There is a severe lack of world building in this book, so much that even by the mid-way point I still had no image of the world, the underground city, the Elves and the Fae, etc. I usually find that I can visualise the story even when world building is a little lacking but in this I was completely blind.
I also found the characters quite underdeveloped, at no point did I feel connected to them or have any feelings about them being in danger or their relationships growing. I was completely ambivalent to them which I think it worse than loving or hating them.
The plot was okay and was really the only thing which kept me going in the story, but it wasn't anything new in the genre and was fairly predictable.
Perhaps a personal issue for me, as I've read the author's books so closely together, is that I found a lot of the names in both series very similar, some of the side character names are nearly identical. It's just an odd choice when in a fantasy story you can literally make up anything, but perhaps I'm nitpicking.
Overall this one was a miss for me and I'm unlikely to continue in this series, but I am very excited for The Ending Fire to release later this year and will look for other books from this author.
This was so good and so frustrating at the same time!!
By this point in the story, we're used to Magnolia and BJ and the way they get back at each other but there were certain points in this one where BJ got nasty and it wasn't nice at all.
There were some amazing moments in this too - the December 3rd reveal, Julian being Julian, Henry always being amazing (can we get a Henry book please?!), the whole last 100 pages
After not loving book 2 in this series, I'm so glad this one worked for me. I absolutely loved this instalment.
I'm not the biggest fan of fake dating but I didn't really mind it in this book. As with all Catherine Cowles books, I loved the family dynamics and the suspense elements.
I'm already looking forward to Roan's book next!
This is the exact opposite of “middle book syndrome”, it is a brilliant sequel and expands everything laid out so well in Jade City.
My thoughts about the first book still stand after reading the sequel - you should not go into this expecting an expansive high fantasy with the usual cast of creatures. This is an epic clan saga, with a low fantasy magic system in an urban setting.
The strengths of this series are the characters and the storyline of the ongoing clan war. Whilst there is the occasional dry moment, where the reader is simply witnessing a political business meeting (yawn!), they never last long and the plot picks up again.
I had some major shocks in this one, I actually gasped at a couple of them, they came as such a shock which is just a sign of Fonda Lee's great writing.
This is turning out to be an amazing series and I will be moving onto the finale very soon.
This is a case of the cover not matching the story at all! From the cover and title, you would think this was a domestic thriller between mother and daughter, maybe with some drama on holiday. It's most definitely not that.
I won't spoil what actually happens as I think it's the strength of this book, but I was invested from the start and enjoyed how it all tied up at the end.
DNF @ 48%.
I don't know whether it was the audiobook/narrator, or the type of horror this is (I don't read enough to know about the different sub-genres) but this absolutely did not work for me.
It's such a short book that the audio is less than 6hrs, normally I would just fly through that on x2 or x3 speed but I could not bear to listen to this any longer.
I'm glad this works for so many people, clearly I'm an outlier here, but life is too short to hate read books.
This was very good for a short prequel story!
I was already sold when I saw the main character referred to as “a mix of Durzo Blint meets Ezio Auditore” but I was also completely engrossed from the first page.
This was a great intro to the author's writing, and I'm downloading the first book in the series straight away!
This was good!
This is a mystery set against the turbulent political and religious background of Elizabethan England. Its starts with the murders of some of the Queen's maids but develops into a larger political plot.
I read the first book nearly 10 years ago but as each book is a contained story it didn't feel like I'd lost anything by not continuing sooner.
I'll definitely be contuining as Bruno is such a good character to follow.
I'm not sure I could give a book in this series less than a 5 stars, because I don't think there's another author out there this consistently good, even in a novella.
In this one we go back to events just before the start of book 1 and see how Aeson acquired the egg. Even in 200 pages, it's epic and dramatic and even made me tear up!
These novellas are an absolute must read in the overall series so please do yourself a favour and don't skip them.
This was so good! Definitely right book, right time for me.
You go through most of the book thinking this is the stereotypical jealous/over protective Mother in Law trope but it has such a good twist at the end that it really had me shocked.
I will say I thought some of Emily's choices were moronic and I don't think we needed the love triangle element but apart from that it's a solid domestic and I really enjoyed it!
Perhaps I've been away from the ASOIAF world for too long, but this felt quite underdeveloped. It's written as if it expects the reader to already know the history, the places and the families as there's little world building.
The stories themselves were quite quick and fun, and both Dunk and Egg are great characters to follow, but overall this was just fine. Nothing awful about it, but probably quite forgettable in the long run.
The narration by Harry Lloyd was excellent so definitely recommend the audiobook (although I know the physical book has many great illustrations too).
As a series, I've loved this since book 1, it's epic and sweeping and incredible, but as a single book this one actually fell a bit short for me. I really enjoyed most of it but in the overall Maasverse, it's probably my least favourite book, saying that they're all 5 stars so really how can you choose!
The first few hundred pages were amazing - I absolutely loved every minute we got with Bryce, Nesta and Azriel. I loved their interactions, I loved the lore they discovered, it was just perfection. I didn't love Ithan's and Tharion's chapters as much, they took a much longer time to get interesting.
Part 2 was a little slow for me, but as SJM always does she sticks the landing. That said, I do feel like part 3/the ending was a bit chaotic. There were a lot of plot points which just conveniently happened - Bryce is floating in space, but oh look there's Shahar's spirit with a handy mech suit so Hunt and pop into space and save her, and look the Princes of Hel just nicely holding a void open for them to float back on through.
This was not good.
The first 40% of this could have been condensed into one paragraph and the book would have been 100% better off from it. It was absolutely tedious to get through, even on audio.
Why on earth is seemingly normal Aaron so adamant to be the date for Lina?
Why can Lina not use one single brain cell and see Aaron does not in fact hate her?
Why at 66% is she STILL asking if they are still pretending?
Why does the author not just use character's names instead of describing them for the 749th time?
Why is the book SO VERY long? I mean I get that she was probably going for page count with it originally being on KU but once it got picked up, that publisher should have seriously edited all the crap out.
2 stars is solely for Lina's family and the parts when they (eventually) got to Spain as I love Spain!
Sci-fi is definitely not my usual go-to genre but, after hearing about this on the Currently Reading podcast and previously enjoying Child 44 from this author, I decided to give it a go.
This starts when an alien fleet suddenly appears in the sky and tells the people of the world they have 30 days to get to Antarctica where they will be allowed to live. Anyone who does not get to Antarctica will be destroyed. Naturally panic ensues.
There is very little focus on the alien invasion itself - this is much more a story about survival and resilience, how human's decide what is right and wrong in the face of disaster and how those decisions have lasting implications.
I had some issues with the pacing at times, the time jumps were a little jarring and there were perhaps a few plot holes, but overall this is enjoyable and engrossing. This reminded me quite a bit of books by James Rollins, so if you like his stuff give this one a go.
In all honesty, with how many times I've seen this trilogy on people's “Best Fantasy Series” lists I expected more fantasy but I still really enjoyed this.
If you go into it expected an urban fantasy which is more focused on clan power, family drama and some fantasy/action then it will likely be an instant 5 stars.
For me, I did find the first 50% enjoyable to read but quite slow, I could tell it was setting the scene, building the world and introducing us to the characters then an event happened which propelled the story forwards and turned it up a few notches.
I already feel so invested in these characters and this world, so whilst this wasn't a perfect first book for me, I know I'm going to love the rest of the series and can't wait to continue.
I think it's safe to say by now that Sarah Morgan can't write a bad book and this was no different.
This one explores grief and the impact it has on a family, but it's not heavy handed and the story still has a fun and light tone.
I will say I found some of the dialogue saccharine at times but it wasn't a big issue.
The narration by Katherine Fenton was brilliant.
Whilst I like this series, this was the weakest instalment so far.
It felt a little out of place in the greater story arc, as if it was it's own mini-story with little connection to the previous books. It also felt repetitive after reading 4 books with very similar plot points and actions.
Although I didn't enjoy this as much as the others, I will finish the series to see how this ends, and as always Joe Jamison was amazing on audio.
DNF @ 60%
Another hyped book and another flop.
The premise of this one just sounds SO good - a dystopian/alternate future where prisoners are on chain gangs and fight to the death, gladiator style, as entertainment on a TV show for the public.
I liked what the author was doing here, with the critical look at the prison system in the US, but I had a few problems which made me really not have a great time with this.
There was little to no description of the world so I had no idea of the setting in my head, and there were so many characters and side stories that it felt scattered.
I've read from other reviews that the author writes shorter fiction which makes my issues with the book more understandable.
This book will work for so many people but it just wasn't one for me.
2.5 stars
I was so hyped for this book but it ended up not really working for me.
Whilst I liked what the book was looking at (obsession with true crime, toxic friendships, teenage bullying, online fandoms, etc), and the mixed formats which I always enjoy, I didn't like the way it was structured.
The book is written as if its a non-fiction book written by another author, this part didn't bother me until the very last few pages when he is interviewed and basically admits to fabricating a lot of what was in his book, making the whole thing pointless. I really dislike an ending like this.
The book is also split into 4 main parts, relating to the 4 girls involved in the case, each part exhaustively covers their upbringing, lifestyle, friendship groups then gets to the actual night of the murder. This could work in an actual documentary but by part 3 it felt repetitive and made the book feel so slow and long.
Perhaps this is my own fault, I much prefer listening to nonfiction and whilst this is a fiction book, it's written in a nonfiction style so would have worked better for me on audio.
Well that didn't go the way I expected.
The first 200 pages of this was SO good, I liked the setting of the vampire city, the history of the virus, I liked Kanin as a mentor sort of character then it all went to shit when they parted ways.
After the best character left the story, Allie ends up wandering for a little while then runs into a religious group on their way to find Eden. As soon as she met them I knew I was out, but I gave it another 50 pages and it got no better.
I ended up skimming to the end and it just seemed repetitive chapters of Allie and the group, travelling, eating, sleeping, yawn.
I didn't give the latter half much time (hence the lack of rating) so I don't know if it got much better, from what I did read it just seemed much of the same so I won't be continuing.