I'm Maya (she/they)
My interests - Octavia E Butler, paranormal romance, sci-fi, comic books, super hero, social justice, queer lit, fantasy, young adult, urban fantasy, Black literature
Location:California
Goal
59/100 booksRead 100 books by Dec 31, 2024. You're 22 books ahead of schedule. 🙌
Contains spoilers
💬: "There is only one way to fight, and that’s dirty. Clean, gentlemanly fighting will get you nowhere but dead, and fast. Take every cheap shot, every low blow, absolutely kick someone when they’re down, and then maybe you’ll be the one who walks away.”
Frost, Jeaniene. The Other Half of the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel (pp. 47-48). NYLA. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: fantasy, romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, vampires
📚Page Count: 398
🎧Audiobook Length: 13h 14min
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 - 4.5/5
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The Other Half of the Grave written by Jeaniene Frost, is an alternate perspective book based on the first book in her Night Huntress series, Halfway to the Grave. The Other Half of the Grave was entertaining and just as exciting if not more exciting than it's original predecessor. In this book, Cat and Bones meet for the first time but everything is from Bones' perspective, and even though he makes some interesting decisions, I still like him as a character. I appreciate Cat and Bones' relationship that much more.
There are still outdated scenes in this book, but that's because the original was outdated and had poorly aged scenes. I think the outdated scenes were handled much better than they were in the original story. For example, there were less triggering details about these particular scenes this time around. That might be because it's from Bones' perspective, it might be because the author realized her mistake from the past and maybe she understood that rewriting these scenes was a way to make up for the outdated scenes from the past. I'm unsure, either way they're done better around this time.
The spicy scenes were enjoyable and the audiobook narrator made them even more interesting than they normally would be. I'm giving the spicy scenes three point five chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️.75 out of five chilies
This was an entertaining story and I enjoyed it a bit more than reading the original from Cat's point of view. There was still an okay amount of triggering content in this story but most of that stuff was glossed over in this version. I'm giving this 4.50 out of 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4.50/5 Stars
I used an audiobook credit to buy this audiobook. I was not able to locate the audiobook on hoopla, libbyapp, or everand. (as of 3/4/2024)
Contains spoilers
March 12th, 2024
I currently just listening to part 1 of the DRAMATIZED version of Fourth Wing. The dramatized version by the company "Graphic Audio" makes the story much more interesting. I actually liked what I was listening to, and I didn't feel like the story was mediocre like I did when I read the novel. There are still some plot hole issues, the main character is still a Mary Sue, and I don't think the author really understood what "enemies to lovers" meant. With all that said, the dramatized version is STILL exciting and entertaining. It's definitely worth the listen, especially if you're like me and you didn't like the novel upon your first read.
I'm giving the DRAMATIZED version 4.5 stars out of 5 stars.
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October 1st, 2023
I wanted to come back and also add that the characters were flat and one dimensional and the main character didn't <spoiler>train with her dragons not once. she had two dragons and we got no training sequences ? yeah , lmao okay.</spoiler> I could deal with her being a Mary Sue but the dragon bit that I just mentioned? Very disappointing. This was just really mediocre.
I'm giving this a 2.5 stars out of 5.
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July 7th, 2023
I would say that I read this book because I had FOMO (fear of missing out) because almost everyone in my friend group was talking about this book and I couldn't join the conversation, I just had to sit there feeling silly and confused. So I decided to pick up this book!
That being said, I think it was okay. I'm not used to reading long fantasy books so I'm not sure if it was me or the book, but certain parts seemed to DRAGON (drag on - lmao I love puns). The audiobook was about 21 hours and I just remember listening around hour 18 wishing it was already over.
I also had an awkward time with the intimate scenes, not because I'm a prude and don't like sex or intimacy but because I'm a women who is 32 years old (as of writing this review) and the main character was about 20 and her love interest was about 23. I have no interest in reading inmate scenes about characters more than 10 years younger than me, it just felt a bit awkward.
Other than those two issues, I think the book was fine. I enjoyed certain parts more than others, like I really enjoyed the actions scenes and the scenes where "secrets" were releveled. If there wasn't much going on in the story, I was probably a bit bored.
I'm giving this a 3 stars out of 5.
💬: "He didn’t budge. “Plenty of room, Kitten. I’ll stay here.” “Don’t call me Kitten.” My voice was sharper than romance dictated, but I was seriously aggravated. The sooner he was truly dead, the better."
Frost, Jeaniene. Happily Never After (Night Huntress) (p. 83). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: fantasy, romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, vampires
📚Page Count: 97
🎧Audiobook Length: 02h 47min
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5
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Happily Never After is book 1.5 in the Night Huntress series, it's about a human named Isabella and one of Bones' friends, a vampire named Chase. Isabella somehow was promised to be engaged to a wanna be mob boss, one that she is repulsed by and one that wants to kill her brother. Well, Chance is going to try to make sure this wedding doesn't happen, even if he has to "die" several times to ensure it.
This was okay, it was somewhat interesting so it kept my attention for the short duration of the audiobook (which was about 3 hours long.) I was disappointed to find out that this novella wasn't about Bones but just one of his former acquaintances.
There was one spicy scene and it was okay, I think it could have been more exciting so I'm going to give this scene 2.75🌶️ chilies out of 5 chilies🌶️.
Overall, this novella wasn't as good as the first novella in the series, "Reckoning" the story about Bones. I even Happily Never After has spicy in it and Reckoning doesn't, I still think Reckoning was a more exciting story. I'm going to give this 3 stars out of 5.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5 Stars
I listened to this for free on [Libbyapp.com]
Contains spoilers
💬:N/A
📖Genres: shoujo, romance, humor, manga, graphic novels, comics
📚Page Count: 192
🎧Audiobook Length: N/A
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5
My Love Story!!, Volume 10 by Kazune Kawahara has some of the same charm that the pervious volumes had but I find the plots having to do with adults having crushes on teens makes the story fall flat and I end up feeling uncomfortable. The rest of the manga was cute and I enjoyed it.
The first part of this manga starts up where the last volume left off. The story continues with Takeo's girlfriend, Yamato, working at her summer job at a bakery. The main baker at her job has a crush on Yamato (and he also happens to be a grown man) and he begins to call Yamato by her first name, he's also been referring to her as his "muse". The baker has asked Yamato to help him in a baking competition. The second part of this manga is about a cop themed café that Yamato and her friends are hosting at their all girl's school. Takeo and his friend join to help Yamato and her friends at this cop café. The last part of the manga has to do with Takeo and Yamato potentially taking their relationship to the next step.
Overall, this addition to My Love Story was just okay. I think previous volumes have a bit more charm than the ones including adults having crushes on and trying to date teens. I'm giving this 3.5 stars out of 5.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I read this manga for free on [Libbyapp.com]