Emma Goto

This one was pretty decent. A story about a peasant girl trying to hide her heritage and the source of her magic from the Spanish Inquisition. It comes with a side of romance, which was OK - not overly sappy but I didn't feel like the characters were fleshed out enough for it to be satisfying.

Fantasy book with a fairly strong romance side-plot. I think the fantasy bit is pretty solid, and the romance starts off good (with a whole lot of yearning and pining) but I feel like it starts to get pretty sappy and a little old. Less goo-goo eyes over each other and more time focusing on the politics and story, please!

I wanted to go into this book hating on the author, because she starts off like a complete dumbass by setting off on a a multi-month hike in the wilderness with literally 0 hiking experience and no physical fitness.

However, the fact that she continues to hike for 3 months straight and by the end is doing 20 mile days, as much as any experienced hiker would do, makes me feel respect for her - at least she didn't give up!

I finished reading this and then forgot to ever write a review.. I think it was decent, maybe?

So the setup immediately had my YA alarm bells ringing (17 year old lead who is really smart, strong and is fighting against an unjust and wrong society) but this was honestly really good! The plot and characters are complicated enough that it's not clearly split into good guys and bad guys, so I'm keen to see where this goes next.

I really struggled to get started on this one (it took me nearly 3 weeks to get around to finishing it!)

The book throws a lot of different characters at you, and I found it really hard to keep the story straight in my mind. Once I did wrap my head around it all, it's not a bad story but maybe could have benefited from being longer? Or more coherent?

Felt like I was reading a fanfiction, but not in a good way, because I've read some top-tier ones.

The plot is basically centred around a forced marriage / forbidden love between a vampire and a werewolf. Maybe could have enjoyed it more if there was more lore building or story behind it (like more high fantasy vibes) but it felt a bit too romance-heavy for me.

A multigenerational story set in 20th century India. The book touches on India's independence movement, but mostly focuses on the story of a 12 year old girl who marries a 40 year old window, and the family and community she helps to create in her small town.

Honestly the age gap marriage is a yikes, but with the way the widowed man is portrayed from the POV of the girl you never really get that icky feeling. (Should you? I don't know). Nonetheless she goes on to become the matriarch of the family so in that sense it is empowering (relatively speaking).

Definitely not a super uplifting novel (there's a looot of tragedy) but although this book has 700+ pages (which I didn't realise since I read on a Kindle), I really felt like a flew through this one.

A quick and easy action read about a woman going undercover, lying about her identity to gain information from her mark.

Took an interest in this one after I saw the movie version was nominated for an Oscar!

A really interesting read into the Osage - a tribe of Native Americans that became rich off oil that was under their land, but with this money came white Americans who did their best to take their money off of them (either by really racist laws or worse, poisoning and murder).

A book about 3 witches across different time periods who have some form of magical abilities. Touches on abuse themes as well. I didn't really vibe with this one, it's not really quite fantasy-themed (more like regular-life but with magic on the side) and the plot felt pretty simplistic.

3.5 stars. A romance novel about a codependent couple, one with bipolar disorder, who decides to go off her medication with some success. The author partially based the character off her own experiences with bipolar disorder, which is is cool that it's realistic, but at the same time the character is very flawed, selfish and pretty unlikeable so it's not a very flattering portrayal of it.

Interesting sci-fi book, the concept is good but also quite short and the payoff didn't feel that satisfying as you can sort of see the twist coming. 3.5 stars

The romance was way too cringe and I tried to skip past that for the dragons.. but I wasn't a big fan of the plot either.

Surprised this has under 4 stars on Goodreads but this is some good shit!

The story follows some billionaires who own companies that have a lot of influence on the world (think Amazon on steroids) and how they're able to use their tech to predict and avoid an impending apocalypse. Obviously they're not likeable people so the story also follows some hackers that try and undermine their plans to get them to use their influence for good.

Picked it up because it won the Pulitzer Prize. It's a little bit of a confusing setup with 4 parts (a novel within a novel, the main story itself, a memoir and finally some diary entries?) and the plot is interesting but at the same time I'm not really a fan of how it was structured.

About a guy who ends up in a gay relationship while cheating on his girlfriend. Kind of melancholy (tbh really melancholy) but good at the same time?

A story about a girl kidnapped from her Native American family and raised by white parents, as well as the anguish of her family she leaves behind.

It's a pretty compelling plot line although I didn't find myself super awed after finishing it, hence the 4 stars.

It's good but it's also about the opioid epidemic in rural America so pretty depressing at the same time.

About a lady's relationship with the octopus at the aquarium that she helps clean. Quite a heart warming book.

About a serial killer, so kind of disturbing to read??

“Prince falls for his bodyguard” kind of romance but there's a decent enough plotline with some politics thrown in. The characters were all fairly flawed which was sometimes a little bit annoying, but more realistic too.

Sort of like an alternative history British empire where they gain their power through magic that's powered by translation (hence the name Babel).

It felt a bit weird though, like the book was shitting on the British empire (and rightly so) but via the alternate magic history version of the British empire.. like why though. Just shit on it directly or not at all thanks

A short and sweet romance book about an apartment that takes you 7 years into the past. Fairly straightforward plot but cute enough.

A girl ends up working for a dude in a spooky haunted house.

I don't want to give this a 3 because it's objectively not badly written, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone either? 3.5/5