Nathalie

Genius Foods is not your typical food or diet book as the precedent is protecting your brain when ageing, with the motivation being the author's mother suffering from Alzheimer's, and asking the question: Can we prevent this through our diet?

The premise is interesting to me as we do have Alzheimer's in our family, and it is an interesting subject in general. I found it overall to be very informative and I've already made some small changes in how I approach food.

But, as with any of these, don't ever take any advice concerning nutrition at face value. The book holds a few controversial opinions, and research that he did might not apply to what you have locally available, or might not just work out for you personally. At one point very late into the book, he suggests getting a trash bag and throwing a very large amount of supposedly bad food in there (including pasta, bread) which I wasn't personally a fan of. I mean, suggest that you think twice about buying them, but don't advocate for throwing them away?

It's not all about food though - there is a lot of focus on brain health in general, so he also explains the benefits of good sleep and exercise, and how to get the most out of them.

It is overall very informative, and it encourages you to be more aware of where your food comes from and what's in it. I liked the book when it was just informative, and less so when it was very specific in what you should be doing diet wise. The first 75% of the book works very nice as a reference, and that was great, but in the last half it becomes very “this diet is best” and “you should be doing this” while I would have liked to draw my own conclusions from the information I was given earlier on.
The book also includes meal plans, but I didn't really like that aspect of it. It's great to get ideas from it, but following those to a T will become boring very quickly. I get that they're meant to give you ideas though.

Even though the author says it's not, I do see it more as a reference book, with your own research from good sources as a backup. Even if there are conclusions that I don't agree with, at the very least it's made me more aware of what I choose to consume and, yes, be sure to eat those veggies!

I postponed reading this one because I was pretty sure that I would like it and wanted to save it for a time where I'd need a damn good book. Unfortunately I was just bored most of the time.

I can't even explain what it was, because some of the ideas and characters were cool, but none of it ever really grabbed me. I also never got super into the writing style, but I can't really put into words exactly what I was missing.

A bit of a useless review, but it was just alright for me. Nothing bad, but nothing overly great either.

I received a copy from Melville House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

The Strange Beasts Of China is a strange beast in and of itself. It's about a woman writing a bestiary in a town where beasts, sometimes not all too different from humans, live. The book itself is written as a bestiary, with each chapter focusing on a different strange beast, followed by a story relating to that beast. What the woman writes about them is all based on her own experiences with them, and through those stories her story gets told as well, so all short stories are very connected and all happen chronologically.

The way it's written feels very surreal and weird. The dialogue isn't quite right, the way these characters behave and interact with each other doesn't feel realistic, and yet it works as part of its charm. It very much reads like a weird fever dream.
I found the stories of the beasts interesting, but I was also curious to find out what the deal was with some of the recurring characters and the mystery of who exactly they were.

It's not a book I would recommend for everyone, but I think this would be a good read for when you feel like going out of your comfort zone a little.

After all these years of reading fantasy, I have finally given Brandon Sanderson a proper try. I had checked out a few of his standalone stories and his YA entry, none of which left a super good impression, so I figured his more popular entries like Mistborn wouldn't be that much different. Everything I read afterwards from naysayers about this book only confirmed that belief, but I thought now was a good time to finally give it a try for myself.

And well, I liked it! Do I recognize the complaints? Sure. Sometimes you got beaten over the head with character traits that are fairly obvious (yes, yes, Vin has trust issues. I GET IT) and it's not like I would be particularly heartbroken if any of them died (except for Sazed probably), but none of that got in the way of the cool plotting and story structure, the world and its villains, the way the action came together, and just general entertainment value. All of it is just pretty cool and exciting! But not in a way that it's just mindless entertainment.

Overall, super glad to finally be able to cross this off my list and not having “mist” out on this! Gives me hope to one day be able to tackle The Stormlight Archive when I ever get around to it!

This book single-handedly put me into a bit of a reading slump. (I say slump but it just took me about 5 days longer than I usually would, so this is a bit overdramatic but still).

There's one POV character that is legitimately interesting, which is Miko. Her opening lines were great and immediately brought you into her story. I think if you had to name a main character, it would definitely be her.

But then there's Rah, whose chapters (and whose character) I found very boring and was only really interesting for the connections to the other POV characters.

There's also Cassandra - who on paper should be a very fascinating character, but it doesn't really work. The situations she got herself in were just so ridiculous at times that I couldn't take her seriously, and the way her thoughts were written she felt way younger than she was supposed to be.

There's a few side characters that cross over between each character's chapters, and I felt that Rah's and Cassandra's chapters mostly served as a purpose to let us know what they were up to or what happened consequences wise after certain events in Miko's chapters. Them as characters didn't get as much development or attention as Miko did, and were mostly our viewpoint for the other characters that just happened to be at their location.

Miko's story is genuinely exciting though, and does have some surprises along the way. I just wish the other characters were as engaging.

I recognize that this setting and plot is pretty cool (and it's so much more than its cover would suggest), but unfortunately this never really grabbed me. The first 10% I even considered DNF'ing it, but I ended up liking it a bit more as I pushed through. Caine is alright, but everyone else I couldn't really care less about. I mostly just wanted to be done with it.
Granted, I'm not one for fast-paced action books (which this was), but it also didn't give me much else.

The actual equivalent of 2,5 stars! I literally just finished it now and based on how I'm currently feeling I fear I might have to round down.

This is something really special. Who would have known that a book starring an accountant could be this interesting?

That is a very simplified way to say it though, as there is way more to it than that. A woman rising up through the ranks of the enemy in order to use their own secrets against them - but at what cost? (This is not an accounting pun.)

Baru uses money in order to manipulate things, and uses people and situations just to her advantage. This makes her a very cold and calculating character. But there are cracks, so it's not as if she's completely robotic. She starts out with the best intentions, and her reasons for revenge are reasons you can get behind, so in spite of her not being very in tune with her emotions, you do want to root for her.

The writing is weird, because at times it reads like a retelling of historical events. It's distant, and at the same time not. There are certain events that happen that hit extra hard just because of the tragic way in which they are described. There's a certain moment in this book that I actively think of that is exactly this.

It is really rewarding to read slowly and read between the lines. Things aren't always explicitly explained to the reader, but you can kind of guess it from the context. Then there's also tons of foreshadowing (some I caught, some I absolutely didn't), which is cool as well. I also learned a ton of new words from this book as for once, a lot of what I didn't know wasn't made up! (This genre definitely likes making up words!)

The negative part of it is that at a certain point it all became a little bit too much. Suddenly you're keeping track of so many characters who each have their own alliances and morals and motivations and it would be easy to mix them up. The names I found difficult to remember as well. I'd recognize them while reading, but I wouldn't be able to spell them out afterwards. Even a name that's as simple as “Muire Lo” is an example I had to look up just to be sure, and then you have Pinjagata, Ihuake, Lyxaxu, Dziransi, Xate Olake and Xate Yawa, Unexekome.... You know? I have a sense of who they are when I see their names, but I easily forgot the names themselves. If you are able to really tell them apart and keep your attention 200%, this would definitely be a non-issue and even a plus, so that might just be me.

The further the book went, the more distant Baru becomes, and the more distant the writing becomes, and so I started caring a little less the further it went on. The ending is still great though, and I figure this story is going to stick with me for a while which is why I'm rating it more than four stars.

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to agree with what a lot of people are saying about this book. This is very mediocre and at times incredibly boring.

Claudia Gray is by far my favorite Star Wars author for the new novels, with Lost Stars and Bloodline being my absolute favorites. She excels at character work and deepening existing characters.

Unfortunately with Into The Dark, I think it might have wanted to do too much. We have 4 to 5 different POV's, many different characters to keep track of, and also a bunch of semi-related flashbacks. It spread itself too thin.

Reath Silas, our main character, is a type of Jedi we haven't had all too often, but he doesn't get as much time as he should have gotten in this book. The other Jedi are the ones who are flashing back, and we also spent a lot of time on the pilots of The Vessel which I frankly didn't care too much about.
The Nihil also remain an enemy that I just do not care for at all.

The theme and ideas of the book are really cool. It's about attachment and mourning and what that means for a Jedi. That's super interesting! I just wish everything else would have been interesting as well.

I don't know why, but this took a while to click for me. The first 20% of this went so fast plot-wise and read like it was targeted at a younger demographic than I was, but then at some point it all started to come together and I was into it.

People weren't lying when they said it could be compared to Assassin's Apprentice (though this one has more action). Not that much that this could be considered a ripoff, but in the “if you liked that, you might like this” way.

The story (which is almost like a whodunnit) was great. I'm a bit confused on how the magic in it works exactly, but that's fine. My favorite were the characters! Girton is alright, but I gotta give it up for Rufra and Nywulf!
I liked the dialogue between Girton and Rufra especially. It was done in a way that really made their friendship believable and why they enjoyed each other's company so much.

On the other hand, I didn't care for Merela that much, which I think is partly because Girton keeps referring to her as “master” (which is probably the most used word in this novel) and we don't get to know her much as a character of her own.

Really liked it!

An ARC of this book was given to me through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What if society was reset every four years? That is the question Reset asks itself. Every fourth year, humans undergo “Tabula Rasa” in which their memories are wiped and they start a new cycle with a new name, job, home, friends. This helps in keeping the peace.

But what happens when people become interested in recovering their memories?

Story
I think the story is pretty interesting! I never really need a lot of detail on technicalities or specifics when it comes to sci-fi stuff, so I can't really judge on that, but I found it pretty complete! We get the origins of it, the consequences of it, and possibly the future of it.
The story flows very well. Not a lot of dull moments or chapters you really have to push through to get to “the good stuff”. There are no wasted scenes here.

Writing style
The first thing I noticed when I started is that it's in present tense! People sometimes feel iffy about that, but I felt it was a very deliberate choice, as the entire story is about making the most out of the present.
It reads very easy overall. It's very dialogue heavy, but not in a way that you get confused over who's talking. Exposition and info are given to you in a subtle manner.

Characters
There's quite a few characters, but they all feel very distinct from one another. Aris, Metis, Benja, Thane... They have their own quirks and personalities and their own voice. I can't say I got really attached to anyone in particular. That is something that is very hard to achieve though when it comes to action-packed stories.

Romance
So.... I'm not a very big fan of romance generally, and unfortunately this was no exception. I kept thinking about how I would feel about Aris and I would honestly just check out if there was ever so much pressure put on me by a man I'd only met about a week prior. The book deals with that a bit, but it's also quickly forgotten because there are more urgent things going on. I just felt it was a bit too fast. It felt more like infatuation instead of loving eachother for the person they were.

Other
I haven't mentioned it yet but THAT COVER. It's incredible.

This was a fun read! It's a bit out of my comfort zone. Would definitely recommend it if you like a light dystopian sci-fi with a bit of romance on the side.

Call of the Bone Ships has one of my favorite openings - from the opening quote to the first few chapters, this was super exciting. A stark contrast from the first book in the series, which was difficult to get into at first.

Weirdly the opening is my personal highlight from this book, though it never lets up.

We get a lot more of what made the first book great, but better. Everything flows, the characters and how they get along work, and I found myself being more invested in this one's story compared to The Bone Ships. Joron improves, and Meas remains great. I kind of miss a bit more focus on the other characters, though they also get their moments to shine.

If you liked the first one, I most definitely recommend this!

A nice little short story in which the magical students' exam test is returning one book to the Living Library. The tone is light and at times absolutely ridiculous, but it works!

It's pretty fun, and works perfectly as a short story. It's not something I'd want more of, so this makes it a great format for this.

This book would have made for a really entertaining videogame. A party system with lots of different fighting styles! Side quests! Boss battles! Memorable appearances! A big battle at the end!

It would just be a game that wouldn't be particularly known for its story. That's fine for games as long as the gameplay is fun, but I expect more when it's a book. In a game it's fine if you linger too long someplace even if your quest is very urgent. Here you just wonder why.

It's hard to explain why I wasn't really into this, as it does have some elements I usually love. Camaraderie, banter, emotional beats! Moog's own arc is something I'd usually be all over. But somehow the narration felt very distant? I was literally seeing the words that these people cared about eachother, but I had a hard time actually believing it, if that makes sense? It's not because of the blend of “humor” and emotional beats, as that can be done incredibly well. It's just the shallow way in which it was done. But even on the action front I found the fight scenes to be very dull as well.

It's still quite enjoyable, and what I wrote down might not feel like a downside to you, but for me it's such an important part of any story in any medium that I can't really overlook it.

My “erection joke” tracker ended at four at about 40%. I missed a few big ones but I just wanted to be done, I'm sorry to say :D

Man, this was disappointing. It honestly made me question my earlier review of the similar A New Hope novel, as I distinctly remember enjoying that a whole lot.

This movie doesn't really lend itself to “40 random short stories from other characters” as well as A New Hope does. It only really goes to Hoth (which I never found the most exciting part) and Cloud City, and neither setting's side characters are really fascinating enough to write about, and the book struggles to make them interesting.

I liked most of the Empire stories here, but all in all there were maybe 7-8 stories out of 40 that were worth it, which isn't much.

I liked the story. I liked the flashbacks. I liked Sabetha.

I really liked the dialogue, and certain lines in general. I found myself highlighting more than usual.

This book made me a bit “meh” on Locke as that relationship really just drags his character down. They're hinting that there's something more behind his very obsessive infatuation but booooooy. I like her but she has no idea what she wants and is absolutely not worth waiting for. (I feel like a parent sometimes)

It's also a bit too bad that the cat-and-mouse game in the book isn't all that present (or even just happens behind the scenes). Instead we got Locke and Jean constantly being thrown for a loop, which got tiring after the third time of that happening.

I think there could have been more fun with the politics aspect of it, which is a sentence that you don't hear me say often. Election-rigging! Come on! I just missed the scheming in general.

The first two thirds were very strong. The last third (coincidentally) focused a bit more on the Locke/Sabetha aspect and that may be why I wasn't as interested. The note on which the book ended was great though. Overall, I liked it a lot! Just a few things that left me a teensy bit annoyed.

Once again, I am pleasantly surprised by the Padmé novel. While not a necessary read, it does give some interesting insights into Padmé, her handmaidens, Naboo, and expands a bit upon The Phantom Menace. Just from the movies, that wouldn't really interest me at all, but this duology succeeds in giving it more insight, and makes me view her character and role in a new light.

Final Fantasy XV was a game and franchise I was never really interested in, but I got the game gifted to me, after which I played it and fell in love with it anyway.

The game itself went through development hell, and changed stories and concepts multiple times so much that the initial trailers have nothing to do with how the actual game turned out. The story therefore, lacks a bit in some places. I do however really love the character work which makes me more easily forgive those.

The game had two rounds of DLC, each consisting of four episodes. Unfortunately, the second round was cut short, and only Episode Ardyn made it. This book contains what they had planned for what they never got to make. (Though it also includes the Ardyn Episode).

As a fan of the game, this was super interesting to read, and it was a joy to see that it really got the character's voices right. As this novel was originally Japanese, it could have been easy to just do a straight translation instead of making it fit the English version and characters of the game.
And I gotta say, getting to read Noctis' thoughts during the final battle is very much a punch in the gut.

As with Episode Ignis, the story here includes an alternative ending.

Another cool thing: concept art! I had to load up the file on a computer to get to really look at it all in color and to read the little notes that the development team wrote. At the end of the book, there's an entire chapter filled with cool art of things they had planned to do or were ideas that they might have done. And then for some reason there's a bunch of designs for placemats and coasters :D

Very recommended if you like the game!

This book was the weirdest rollercoaster I've ever been on.

The first part where every character was introduced was great and interesting. I liked that we got solid long chapters from everyone's POV, while simultaneously getting to know the world a little.
Though I don't personally agree that this is a character-driven book (as it's often described as). Though quite a bit of time is spent on the story of these characters, they are nothing to write home about. The plot and whatever needs to happen for it still takes center stage.

Even if some of the chapters were long, they were easy to get through and so this book was quite an easy read. The way it is set up means you're not immediately thrown into the thick of things, which is nice! I prefer getting to know the world bit by bit instead of spending the first half of a book super confused.

Now let's talk about when my rollercoaster started going downhill.

With the entire world being in danger from demons, and people frequently dying, offspring and children are important. So there is a lot of focus on babies and sex and how you only mean something as a woman if you're also a mother. So girls that are old enough to do these things are cast off to a man so they can make some babies.
That of itself is a bit what we've come to expect from your average fantasy world, and while it's not something I like, it's something I can be alright with as long as the characters (and especially the female ones) get to rise above that.

WELL.

There is, as far as I could count, exactly ONE woman whose story isn't focused on sex and motherhood. And she was also the most enjoyable character of the bunch - Bruna.

Leesha, although plagued with bullying from her mother and her ex and her town, seemed to rise above it. She found it weird, didn't want to take part in that, just wanted to focus on healing people. Never even has sex.

And then the narrative punishes her for it. She gets gang-raped while being robbed.This isn't even the worst part.She spends maybe a few days being traumatized by it. Up until she meets The Warded Man and oh, she's in love and they have sex and she is absolutely fine with all of that even if she was raped only a few days before. All is fine and dandy!Why did the rape even have to happen in the first place?? I legitimately got mad while reading lmao.On a sidenote, I read a few reviews from the next few books, and apparently this becomes a common thing? Virgin characters getting raped?

Yeah let's just say, don't think I'll be checking out the sequels.

RATINGS ARE TOUGH. First 3/4 was a solid 4 stars, maybe 3. Last 1/4 is either 2 or 1.
Overall this deserves 3 stars, which for me would imply “it was fine”, but I also wouldn't ever recommend this book to anyone or think it's worth checking out based on rating alone, so I don't know. It's harsh but I think I'm going with 2 stars and maybe upgrade it sometime in the future after I've had a while to think about it.

Very much a novel geared towards children or young teens (the character of Avon especially just screams “junior novel character”), but it was alright. There's a few characters and references that refer to Light of the Jedi, but I wouldn't say this is a necessary read if you're interested in consuming the new canon. It's a nice little adventure but can pretty much be skipped.

The High Republic was what the Star Wars canon needed. A time in the world of which we didn't know anything yet. Nothing is tied to the Skywalkers or the Death Star and we have no idea what's going to happen to any of these characters.

For a really great and surprising story in the Skywalker time, you pretty much had to get people invested in more smaller scale stakes, such as for characters or dynamics that weren't as fleshed out in the movies, while a lot of authors work better with larger stakes and getting more freedom with the world itself. Claudia Gray really excelled at a lot of the character stuff, but she was one of few.

In Light of the Jedi, the author(s) could go crazy with worldbuilding! Coruscant isn't the same Coruscant we've come to know. The state of the galaxy is different, and we have different enemies to deal with.

Gotta say, it was really enjoyable getting to see these Jedi in their prime. There was a lot of uses for the Force that were new, as well as how some of the Jedi saw the Force and how they interacted with it.

As this is an introduction novel, it serves very much as the starting point of the entire era, and is very plot focused. I've seen the event that happens here referenced in other High Republic novel summaries, so it's safe to assume that this should be your very first read if you wanted to get into this era.

It also had to introduce a lot of new characters and set things in motion, so there was not a lot of time for said characters to really shine individually. There are some cool moments, but I do really want separate novels for some of them. Especially Avar Kriss and Elzarr Mann. Ooooh, that dynamic! I absolutely love it.

I did not really care for the antagonist though. Or at least not the organization or the way they worked and operated. That got way more interesting at the end so I'm not actively hoping against them showing up again!

This is a really promising start and I'm looking forward to more!

I'm honestly getting a bit tired of reading about Thrawn. There's only so many times you can read about how smart and tactical he is before it becomes not so impressive anymore. At this point I'm just way more interested in what Thrawn is up to right now, and I honestly think he'd work much better as a side character.

Granted, this book does do a few new things with him (how he was more compassionate compared to now), but as with the previous trilogy - the standouts for me were the side characters. In the previous books that was Eli Vanto, this time it was Ar'alani.

I liked the Memories, and I liked certain parts of it, but I'm not sure this is interesting or juicy enough for an entire new series? It was enjoyable, sure, but it doesn't really justify its existence. Unless you are really interested in the Chiss and politics, though I found even the latter to be a bit shallow here.

I'm an absolute sucker for stories on ships. It's why I loved the second Locke Lamora book better than the first one. Unfortunately most of those stories leave me a bit wanting in the character department, as that setting is very ideal for some good dynamics, especially when it comes to loyalty and honor. The Bone Ships delivers in that regard.

To be honest, I wasn't always 100% sure of what was going on in the story (I'm still not sure why The Tide Child had to be the first to get to that particular destination?), but the characters more than made up for it. There's quite a few characters here, yet I have a feel for most of them, and I immediately know who's who and what type of person they are. Which is honestly weird, because most of the focus is on Joron and Meas, and yet you already get quite a good sense of the other characters with so little.

I found the character dynamics very believable. It's not weird that the crew's sense of loyalty for Meas grows throughout the story. It's not too sudden, and just right. Hell, I‘d follow Meas to hell and back. Joron himself also has some real good growth, and has some interesting relationships of his own as well.

Very much a “part one” though. The story that is set up here isn't resolved, but there is a clear sense of where it can go from here. And that has a lot of potential!

3,5 stars. I went up and down while I was reading it, but I gotta round it down.

The story of this is your average revenge story (that reminded me a bit of Arya Stark's) which I wasn't really invested in as the one guy he focuses on the most was very obviously the one least deserving of it. I liked basically anyone else better than our main character (Tau) and found him too selfish to care for. I liked it when other characters called him out on it though.

There are some really interesting parts in this. The cruelty at the start that shows you how evil the Nobles could actually be was great. I also liked Tau's unique way of training.

I just didn't love the world too much, and there was a bit too much fighting involving characters I couldn't remember or cared about. The only ones I found interesting were Uduak and Kellan.

While I was getting nearer to the end, I was debating whether I would check out the sequel, as apparently that has multiple POV's other than Tau's, which could maybe work in its favor. But the way the story ended, I'm not sure I'll be interested enough in the main story for it to be worth it.

I found the start very promising. The narrator warning us of what was to come was pretty cool. And that scary night at Elena's house I found to be genuinely scary. I tend to read right before bedtime and I had some pretty wild dreams during the nights I was in the middle of this.

Unfortunately this didn't come into fruition for me. The fantasy was a bit too classic for me and the more grimdark aspects didn't affect me too much as I didn't really care all that much. There are a lot of characters that get introduced, even over the halfway point, and at times I had to remind myself who was who again. Not everyone got a chance to shine or enough focus to get myself to care about them.

I expected more from Elena as well. This is also perhaps the fault of the book's summary, that promises an “unforgettable heroine”, in a book where she spends a lot of time needing to be saved. I'm sure that promise becomes true in the following books of the series, but not yet in this one.

Then at the end the narrator that warned us comes back, just to tell us that the scary part is yet to come, which feels like a cop-out.

All in all, it feels very “old-school” fantasy, with lots of different creatures and races, and if you like that I'm sure this book will be a blast.

To be quite honest with you, I didn't even think I was going to like this. This is marketed as such a cozy story, and usually I find that those types of stories try too hard and it tends to be overly cheesy and fake and it just makes me roll my eyes.

HOWEVER. Even if The House in the Cerulean Sea has its fair share of cheesy moments, I loved the hell out of it. I loved these characters and I loved the growth between them all very much. The way it was written was also extremely enjoyable to read, and I never wanted to gloss over longer descriptions. I really wanted to take it all in.

Favorite of this year so far? Yes, yes. Very much so.