Kirbur
Thank you NetGalley & Orbit for the advanced listener copy.
I liked this book a lot but there were some things that I found frustrating mostly having to do with Aila's love life, I wish less time had been spent on that overall. The best parts for me were all of the mundane things about working with animals and all the worldbuilding about how the magical creatures affect everyday life. I want to live in this world!
Aila is a main character that could easily frustrate readers, she has a lot of times where her anxiety overwhelms her and she'll start catastrophizing. and she also doesn't seem that great at a lot of aspects of her job, she is book smart but not real world smart. She takes things too personally and holds grudges easily. But all of these things were done in a way that felt very real and believable to me. She felt human and I loved seeing her passion for the phoenixes. I had a lot of fun following her work within the zoo and watching her try to work on her people skills.
I also really loved the relationship between Aila and her best friend, Tanya was always willing to call Aila out on her bullshit. The romance was the weakest part of the book for me because we don't spend nearly enough time with the love interest but exploring Tanya & Aila's friendship made up for that. Honestly, I feel like Connor (another zoo keeper that Aila has a crush on) could've been cut from the story completely and that would give more time to spend with the animals and with Luciana & Tanya.
The best part of this book by far is the animals, I love love loved all of the animals.
Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for the advanced lister copy!
What a wild ride!
This was my first read from P. Djèlí Clark so I didn't know what tone to expect and was very pleasantly surprised by how hilarious it was.
I loved the main character Eveen and hope their will be more stories following her, or even just more stories within this world. We are given so much lore in such a short fast paced story and it would be very cool to spend more time in it.
Overall, I found this book to be very engaging and listened to the whole thing in one sitting.
Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy!
The Sky on Fire by Jen Lyons is a fast paced heist story featuring a fun cast of characters. The chapters were all very short which helped keep the pace moving.
I really liked our main character Anahrod, she felt very real to me and I was very invested in learning about her past. The planning and execution of the heist was well done, nothing ever felt too convenient, there were plenty of times where plans fell through and we got to see the group brainstorming together on next steps. I especially like that we got to see everyone play a part in how the story played out, none of the side characters felt redundant.
The magic and the dragons were awesome and I'm left feeling like we've only just scratched the surface, there is definitely potential if Jenn Lyons ever decides to tell more stories in this setting.
Overall this book was fantastic and I could see myself rereading it in the future!
What happens when your "estranged best friend and former co-showrunner" shows up on the first day of filming, but this time as a contestant? Mess.
These characters are messy in the most fun way. They are selfish and manipulative and not always very good people, but I was rooting for them to figure their shit out from page 1.
I still need to read book 2 but I really like that all 3 books in this series can stand alone but also take place during the same time frame. Even though you know how the season will play out, McAlister did a great job making the romance in each book the focus so we aren’t completely treading the same path each time. It is also a lot of fun seeing how the same characters get perceived differently depending on who the main character is.
Overall book 1 worked better for me, but I still loved this book!
What happens when your “estranged best friend and former co-showrunner” shows up on the first day of filming, but this time as a contestant? Mess.
These characters are messy in the most fun way. They are selfish and manipulative and not always very good people, but I was rooting for them to figure their shit out from page 1.
I still need to read book 2 but I really like that all 3 books in this series can stand alone but also take place during the same time frame. Even though you know how the season will play out, McAlister did a great job making the romance in each book the focus so we aren't completely treading the same path each time. It is also a lot of fun seeing how the same characters get perceived differently depending on who the main character is.
Overall book 1 worked better for me, but I still loved this book!
A Fate Inked in Blood is the start to a Norse inspired fantasy romance series. We follow Freya as she is forced to leave the life she has known as people fight to control her fate and magic in order to become king. I found Freya to be a well realized main character, she feels very human in that she has a tendency to let her emotions get the best of her and to act before thinking. There were multiple instances where she would jump to conclusions and turn a blind eye to any other possibilities. Sometimes this could read as a bit repetitive and annoying because she would go back and forth in her mind on what decisions to make, but it felt realistic and I understood why it was a struggle to make the decisions she needs to. I'm interested to see how her character develops in later books in the series. The plot was fun and adventurous and it was cool to encounter other children of gods and to see their powers in action. Overall I enjoyed reading this book and can see myself picking up the later installments in the series.
This was fine, very fun but not romantic.
It never actually felt to me that Cassie fell in love? I don't even think they ever told each other they loved one another (I just searched the eBook and this appears to be correct). So, I don't know that I can say it worked as a romance.
Overall, I did enjoy reading this and loved the inclusion of Frederick's texts, letters, diary entries at the beginning of every chapter. In fact those bits were probably my favorite part of the book.
Another excellent romance from Lucy Parker. Her books never fail to make me smile. She has a way of writing characters and character interactions that feel so real even if the circumstances of the stories sometimes feel farfetched. All of her books are perfect comfort reads for me and Codename Charming is no exception.
I was very fascinated by Pet as a side character in Battle Royal and am so glad that she got her own book! She is a quirky oddball character but Parker does a great job writing her in such a way that she doesn't feel like a “not like other girls” type or like a manic pixy dream girl. Matthias is a character who is more reserved and quiet, he is still grieving the loss of his best friend but his perspective never feels bleak or boring. I definitely felt the chemistry between the 2 of them and it was fun following along on their fake dating antics.
I also really loved Rosie and Johnny appearing as side characters again, they are a fun couple to follow even when they are background characters.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to all of Lucy Parker's future releases.
I really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were messy and not always making great decisions but it was the kind of mess that is fun to follow. I also really really loved all of the Broadway stuff in here. This book worked for me a lot better than Sussman's previous but it still didn't totally work for me as a romance.
I also really loved the focus on friendship and seeing how Kathleen and Harriet's relationship grew and changed over the years.
I feel like we (meaning the reader and our main character Kathleen) never actually got to know the love interest Cal as a person. After finishing the book I don't know what he sees in her and I don't know why they love each other, other than attraction. I really wish this book had been dual perspective, I think that would have fixed my issues with the romance plot (but also I tend to like multi POV stories more anyway, wouldn't it be fun to have the flashback's in his POV?)
I think that what I have learned now having read this book and Funny You Should Ask is that Elissa Sussman and I care about different things when it comes to romance. Both of the books I've read from her focus a lot on the initial meeting and then the pining and angst before the characters figure it out and can be together again. While my favorite part of reading romance tend to be once the relationship has started, seeing the characters get to know each other and keep finding new reasons to like each other, I like reading the slow deep conversations and scenes where the characters have each others backs in situations with outside conflict, and I want those sorts of scenes to be the majority of the story.
All that being said, I think I loved Once More With Feeling and I will definitely be reading Sussman's future books. It was highly entertaining and emotional (I cried, but I'm an easy crier) and I could totally see myself rereading it someday, it just doesn't totally work for me as a romance.
I only read the first 2 chapters (8% according to my kindle) and this book is definitely not for me, the writing feels like a first draft and I really don't like our main character Jake's perspective. He came off as a sleazy hook up artist finance bro and I do not want to follow him. It also seems sort of weird for a book that starts with a friends with benefits situation is closed door/fade to black. I don't know who this book is for.
Wow.
This was my first book by Cara Bastone and now I need to read everything she has ever published. This was amazing. The characters are amazing. The writing is amazing. The relationships and friendships are amazing. I cry very easily while reading, but books don't often make me laugh out loud. This one had me doing both multiple times.
The book is present tense and in one point of view and typically when a romance is only one point of view I will be wishing that we also got to see the love interests thoughts, in this case it never felt like anything was missing. I won't be able to accurately describe the authorial voice, but it felt both like the main character was speaking directly to me but also like an internal monologue to herself? It was maybe the most I've ever felt like I was in another persons head.
I loved Eve as a main character, it was a joy seeing how all of her relationships developed. I also really liked that this never felt like a love triangle to me even with the complex dynamics.
I will definitely be purchasing a copy of this book to reread physically it was amazing.