The Sassy Bookworm
ββββ β Great cover on this book!
This was a thoroughly entertaining and quick read. I finished it in one day! Great writing. Fast paced. A riveting plot that had me hooked from the first page. All wrapped up in a very satisfying ending. The only tiny negative thing I could say about this one is that, it is maybe a teeny bit far fetched towards the end. Still, that was a really minor issue for me. This definitely gets two solid thumbs up from yours truly!
βββ β Lovely cover on this one!
This one was pretty middle of the road for me. The author did a beautiful job making the story very atmospheric and magical. I loved the secondary characters as well. The mother and daughter relationship was well explored and Janey was a delight. What brought the rating down for me was how slow and wordy the story was. I found myself bored and had difficulty staying in the story. I think it probably could have benefitted from a good edit to tighten up the story a little. Just my 2 cents!
ββββ β Love the cover on this one!
I have been reading this one off and on for a while now. It's the type of book that is perfect for before sleep reading. Beautifully written and engaging, you can tell the author is passionate about fishing. His vivid descriptions of places and people really immerse you in the stories. This book was just a delight to experience.
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This was an interesting quick read that I enjoyed a lot. It's a short historical fiction novel based on true events that happened in the 1920's in Africa with a fictional twist. I had a few issues with the pacing at times, especially when the plot went into an information dump and really brought the story to a stand still. The worst was with Edoa. This is a translation of a french(?) novel, so perhaps the issue could have been because of that.
βββββ β Adore the cover of this book!!
This book was a visual cornucopia of awesomeness! Packed full of creepy and gruesome graphics and interesting/disturbing facts. Divided into the following sections (Artificialia (art pieces and automata). Naturalia (natural objects, people, and animals), Spiritualis (spirit world), Scelus et Supplicium (crime & punishment torture devices), Scientifica (scientific instruments), Magicae (magic), Morteum (death) and presented in a found journalistic format. If you are a lover of strange, disturbing, dark and bizarre things, then this is a must have for you!
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I quite enjoyed the first book in this series and was excited to dive into this second book and see what Astrid would get up to this time. Unfortunately, i just didn't love this one. The art assignment aspect was non existent, as was the Celeste/Harlow storyline. Which frankly I was more interested in than the center mystery.
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I haven't been a huge reader of graphic novels mainly because it has been nigh on impossible to read them on my small reading tablet. However, my darling other half bought me a new larger sized tablet recently, and so here I am reviewing my (nearly) first graphic novel. I enjoyed this one a lot. First, the graphics were great. Second, as a fan of cheesy 80s horror films the plot literally made me (at times) laugh out loud. I also enjoyed the tongue in cheek commentary on social media and millennials/generation Z.
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βThe Ruinsβ. is billed as a gothic, feminist coming-of-age tale. I am not sure I would have used those words to describe this story. Especially βgothicβ. However, the book was very atmospheric in its setting (a chateau in France). This was the type of book that creeps up on you. I wasn't sure I was going to throw in the towel or keep reading as I was finding the story difficult to get into, but the more I read, the more invested I became. Nobody in this book is likable. The parents are atrocious. Even the three young girls (except maybe Annie) are unlikable. Yet there was something that drew me in and kept me reading. I needed to see how everything ended. I needed to see if these nasty people got what was coming to them. Overall i think this one deserves a solid thumbs up.
Readers should also be aware that there is sexual abuse of minors.
ARC Via NetGalley
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I am a little on the fence with this one. The first 65%ish of this book I really enjoyed. This author does a really great job of immersing you into the setting of the story (in this case Guyana). I also really enjoyed the characters and the plot with the Jonestown tie in was really interesting. However, at @65% Zoe makes a decision that just threw me completely out of the story because it was so...dare I say...stupid?? Because of that I never quite got back into the story and felt that it dragged on a bit too long.
βββββ β I love the covers on the books in this series!
Having rated Winter, Spring, and Summer in this series I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Fall version! My favorite time of year. All the books in this series have been wonderful and this one was no different. Full of colorful and adorable illustrations, fun facts (Fall crops), recipes (pumpkin muffins), crafts (making a birdhouse from a gourd), and activities (uses for cores, seeds, and peels)...just to name a few. This book (and all the books in this series) would make the perfect gift(s) for any curious young person.
ARC Via NetGalley
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I wanted to like this one more than I did. I found it super slow. There were a million (slight exaggeration) of characters to keep track of. I found it difficult to keep everyone straight. Especially with all the jumping around from one POV to another. Last, it was just way too long!
ARC Via NetGalley
