Lauren

2.75

The Last Hour Between World is about Kembral, a woman whose job it is to go into the echos of reality to save those who have become lost within them. Although she is currently on maternity leave, she attends a work New Year’s party, but it seems work never ends for Kembral thanks to the echos who plan to wreak havoc on the party. Listen, I actually think this book is good for someone, that someone just wasn’t me. The reason this book wasn’t for me is simple: I’m not a mom and I have zero desire to be one. Kembral’s whole identity is centered in the fact that she is a new mother. I have no doubt that new mothers probably feel very seen by this book, the struggles she’s facing around whether to return to work/which parts of work, and the bodily changes that come from having a baby. I totally respect that. However, I got so tired of hearing about her baby and how she wanted to be there and also wanted to be with her baby and how her baby rearranged her insides before being born. Again, I am sure this is super related able for those who have experienced this, but I got so tired of it pretty quickly. My more natural complaints: the world building was…odd. It felt like a lot of information for info dumped but at the same time nothing really made sense and a lot of the victories our protagonists had were honestly more lucky than anything else. We get told over and over how wonderful she is at her job, but honestly? I don’t see it. A lot of left unexplained. Things happen and then we just keep moving forwarding. Lastly, some of the writing was very campy, and I didn’t vibe with it. I think the idea behind this book was great, but the execution was just not it for me.

Note: I don’t remove stars for this, but while the audiobook narrator was good and I’ve liked her work before, the bongs she did for the clock drove me bonkers.

Prince’s Gambit is book two in the Captive Prince Series. As such, there will be spoilers for book one in this review.

We follow Laurent and Daman as they forge a new, odd sense of alliance while heading to “man a fort” while truly planning to face Laurent’s Uncle. Unfortunately, they are sent with a group of disunited men as their fighting force, many of which are more loyal to Laurent’s Uncle than to Laurent himself.

I don’t know. I felt so conflicted about this series as a whole. On one hand, I actually really appreciate the character growth of our two protagonists, Damen and Laurent. We can see Laurent is a little more complicated and has far more depth than what you might believe at first glance. He clearly cares about what he’s doing and has some sense of morals in trying to avoid unnecessary war. He’s also very smart, quick to learn things he is not proficient at and just as quick to admit to Damen when he is not as skilled in something as he is. I liked this for him, and I liked how close a Damen seemed to get to the other men. It served his well to see that his “enemy” are really just men. I also really liked the role of politics in this story. It was often hard to know who to trust, and Laurent did a good job of navigating that (generally speaking with a few slips) along with Damen’s guidance. I also really appreciated that Damen’s identity became a point of worry for him as it didn’t seem all that important in the first book. The interactions between Laurent and a Damen were well done, too. There was a slow sense of building trust that felt realistic. Almost a sense of friendship, even. I am really glad they didn’t just automatically like each other from book one. Some of my favorite scenes in this book are of them just talking and interacting. I will also say, minor spoiler, but the smut was fine too. I’m not huge on reading smut, but there wasn’t much of it and what was written didn’t make me cringe, which is high praise. So what’s my issue with this book? This part will be spoiler free, so note that some of these complaints may be vague or change over time. Damen remains a slave. I just can’t really get over that. Laurent could reasonably free him at any point in time, and the book seems intent on making us believe Laurent is misunderstood but truly a good person, so why does he keep Damen as a slave other than selfishness and mistrust? I don’t like it. Laurent is a new person. This, in theory, is good. he was deplorable in the first book most of the time, and while we get peaks into the why of it, I don’t just automatically forgive him because we see this new side of him. As far as I’m aware, he never even apologized. I’m not against the use of sex as an act of politics, but there’s still too much mention of young people getting with old people. We don’t see it in this book (mostly - there’s on exception but they’re both at least over 18 so that’s something), but there are still mentions and it feels so unnecessary Why are they all obsessed with male genitalia??? We already know most of this world is queer. We don’t need to be obsessed. The writing was…fine. The events early in the book had weird pacing and it felt like we kept jus rushing past things just ~because~ My last point is a spoiler, so it will be hidden below, but the TLDR is one scene of what I could say in non-consensual sex that is written so seem consensual that really sat with me wrong. I don’t know. I’ll read the last book. I think the ending was exciting and I do want to know where everyone ends up. I’m just not really cool with these things that keep coming up. It feels a little gross to me. The author could have literally omitted all of them and the plot would have stayed the same AND I would have rated it higher. . . . . . . . Back to point 6 from my list of issues: There are still casual mentions of forced sexual activities. I will say, 99% of it is consensual and between people of age, so that was a nice change (low bar here), but there is a scene in which Laurent tells Damen to take a drug (without him knowing what it is) that results in him sleeping with someone. This isn’t consensual because Damen never consented to being drugged. IS he said he was okay with it, that would be different, but he didn’t. I’m not a fan.

The Hallow Places follows Kara, a woman finding her footing after a recent divorce, and Simon, a local barista, while they experience finding an otherworldly portal to a strange land.

"If there's a way into hell, someone will always find it."

This book is weird (in a positive way). If you’re someone who liked things like A Quiet Place or BirdBox, it felt kind of reminiscent of that. Although both Kara and Simon provide comic relief, the overall atmosphere is very tense. This is definitely a horror novel, I can see slotting it more into the sci-fi/fantasy genres too and it’s seems to be an equal mix of both. The humor mixed with the dark atmosphere actually worked pretty well. The book itself is pretty fast paced and it only takes a handful of chapters to get into the action. Without giving spoilers, I will note around the 50% mark I had not idea how there was going to be more book, but I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it took. With a book like this, I really don’t think I can say much more without giving the plot away. (See the spoiler section if you’re curious). Some warnings/heads up I’d provide, however, is don’t expect everything to make sense. It’s not poorly written and there aren’t plot holes, but instead it is written in a way that’s meant to not answer all (many) of your questions because there simply aren’t answers. I do think some people won’t like that, but I didn’t seem to mind (mostly, again, see the spoiler section). I also think it’s relevant to note that historically I haven’t been a T. Kingfisher fan, so while I think her fantasy is out for me, I’d be interested in checking out more of her horror. Oh, and Beau is the best character. . . . . . . . Welcome to the spoiler section. Okay, this part is really just me rambling off my thoughts, maybe to get them into something that makes sense? Bear with me. There are two things I want to talk about in this section : Sturdivant and Simon’s eye, starting with the latter.

Simon’s eye What’s up with it? Now I know I said I don’t mind not having all the answers, and I don’t, but I need that one. I was so sure we were going to learn he had come weird connection to the Willows or to the weird aliens from the other world or SOMETHING but we never get answers. He can just see things that may or may not be there? I’m assuming he’s essentially seeing through the barriers between worlds (universes?) but what does that have to do with possible absorbing a twin (or maybe that was a joke - I’m not sure)? Or, is he from somewhere else and isn’t telling us? I don’t know, I really liked him, but something just felt off.

Sturdivant Weird character. I thought he was well done, really creepy, was able to exposition “dump” without making it feel like I was just reading exposition. Here’s the thing, I’m like 90% sure he’s the guy for the bible/journal entries and I just wish that was confirmed. Maybe that’s me being silly (fair enough) but I just want to know if I’m right. Sturdivant tells Kara and Simon that he was with a group and a girl who came to that place another way, and then their group died and they were being chased. Ultimately she died and he’s stuck being whatever he is (until they eat him maybe??). The bible journal follows a similar story, except we never find their fates. The only issue I see with this is that the bible journal tells us the writers are there for work, while Sturdivant tells us he is a ranger and kind of just stumbled into the world. However, I also think Sturdivant can’t be 100% reliable considering he’s unraveling and starving. If they’re not the same person, it feels like a missed opportunity to allow something to come full circle. I was also a little confused about his whole deal. When they first meet him, he says something along the lines of they need to back up and when they do he says he shouldn’t be able to reach them there, which insinuates he might hurt them even if he didn’t want to. But later, when Kara is in the water, he doesn’t hurt her. If anything, he helps her get away from the Otter, so what’s up there?? I found that whole detail about him to be very confusing.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow explores the story of a scholar and reluctant war Veteran, Owen Mallory, and a prolific knight, Sir Una Everlasting as they become bound to revive the same story time and time again to allegedly secure a better, healthier future for their country.

“I will wait for you. Beneath the yew.”

Honestly, it’s so rude to start the year with a five star read. I have no notes. Over the last two years, Harrow as secured a spot as one of my favorite authors and I think this might be her best work yet (though, if this book didn’t work for you I highly suggest her novella that inspired this book, The Six Deaths of the Saint).

This book is slow moving, and therefore are events you will see more than once, but while the plot is obviously important, it’s not really what the book is about. It’s about personhood and free will. It discusses the role of women and womanhood through history and how even when women were able to find successes and power, they had to be painted to fit a certain expectation and risked losing it all with every second. It looks at how people edit history to fit their own agendas and how the strong will always grapple for more strength and power, even when they’ve gained more than their fair share. It looks at how we treat the people we love and the way people can end up hurting those very things for fear of losing them. Surprisingly, it also explores the role of parents and what parents do for their children, what makes someone a parent (including what makes them a good or bad parent). It looks at how children react to their parents within the context of their own knowledge and experiences.

Not only are the messages of this book subtle and well done, but the yearning was incredible. If you’re hoping for a quick romance, this isn’t it, but if you can have patience it’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story.

The writing itself is wonderful. Harrow does a great job at making her writing flow and have the feeling of being flower without ever feeling bogged down or tiring.

I feel conflicted when it comes to the best way to read this book. I really liked the audiobook narration. The narrators were pretty good, but the story is really and back and forth conversation, so having the different voices was nice. However, without spoiling anything, around the mid-point of the book a cipher is mentioned. At the end of the book if you can see the text, the cipher is usable and it was a fun (though unnecessary) added detail that you wouldn’t know about and couldn’t solve if you didn’t have the text in front of you.

Something else to note is there some graphic depictions of sexual acts. They’re skippable if that’s something you don’t want to read, and aren’t present throughout most of the story. I will say, as someone who can take it or leave it, they were well done and added to the relationship, especially considering how sparsely they were used.