Zo
Hmm. This started off strong, and then once the two MCs got together, it, hmm.
Minor spoiler.
Listen, I like languages too, but like one word of Italian and you're weak at the knees? Come on.
This just didn't hit the spot. I think it's that the big final battle felt anti climactic. I've seen this often though, so I won't let it detract from the rest of the book. Still a solid read.
Be warned though, the sex scenes are fade-to-black.
Ah. A space opera. Noice.
This was good. Slow burn. It's not a very actiony plot with lots of pew pew pew. It's more political but because Kiem isn't very experienced, there's less intrigue, less maneuvering, secrets, etc.
The romance, uh, takes time. It's fine though, there's some plot to make up for it, so the book doesn't drag too much. Narration is excellent.
Oh Jainan. You deserve the world.
I can't give this book 5 stars. Grace annoyed me too much. And to learn she's the main character in book 2? I wish Robin's was first, or even better that Miles' story continued. Why do some authors do this? Make book 2 follow a different character in the same story? If it's the same universe but different arcs, sure, for e.g Ocean's Echo by Maxwell, which I'm looking forward to. But the same story? Come on. The Last Binding is doing it too. I like the new MC just fine, but I would very much like to read more of the OG MCs too! WRITE YOUR SPINOFF AFTER THE FULL SERIES FOR FUCK'S SAKE! unless your original pairing sucks.
So yeah, the ending was pretty great though. Also the tender romance between Tristan and Miles. Really nice.
Also I listened to this, and the narrator sometimes mixes voices for Miles and Tristan. Tristan usually sounds softer, but sometimes he reads them the exact same and I have to rely on a “Tristan said” to know who spoke.
Fucking glorious.
About a specific scene:
Oh God the scene in the library with Robin and Edwin's ankles. Oh my God. It's the little things that burn.
Audiobook narrator was excellent, though a bit slow and with some long pauses. But, still glorious.
DNF at about the point of you will live on our come.
Nah. Nah I'm good, thanks.
I read this book in the middle of a reading slump.
And fucking loved it.
Mad Max, but magic. I liked Jin's pining and obliviousness at the start. At the end though, the obliviousness started to get annoying.
The world was pretty cool though. “Hail, sparkrider”.
Also, the ending. She just leaves? That was so unsatisfying. What is she gonna do? Go after Falka? All the pining and she just leaves them? Doesn't even kiss them? Just walks away?Ugh.Also Reena at the end. Reena being convinced by her great uncle is so unbelievable.The end was so messy too. It just didn't feel neat. Looking forward to book 2 though.
Oh God. I'm supposed to find it funny that several people are assaulted by this ghost? It's problematic, to say the least.
And the dialogue is awful. Nobody talks like that irl. Was more interested in the story from the past but couldn't make myself read through to finish it.
Are the Lambdas OK?
Let this be my sign to not take goodreads ratings and reviews seriously. Or book covers. The cover of this book is an absolute travesty. Honestly, its title too.
It's not terrible. It just did not come close enough to the depth of this book. Something abstract would've been better, I think. I don't care now. But I judged it before. I only picked it up because it won the Hugo. And I thought, huh, I thought this was a random space opera, there must be something else here.
And by god, there was something. I remember being hooked at 30%. I remember at 54% thinking holy shit holy fucking shit.
Because this book is unreal. This book made me question everything. There was depth, and complexity, and so much character growth.
There is so much in this book. If you're thinking about reading it, please do so immediately.
Thank you, Emily Tesh. Honestly, seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for this book's existence.
Victory or death.
ALEX. MY SWEET SWEET ALEX.
There is a line at the beginning of the book: “He looked like a lion tonight.” I highlighted it and noted Well. Damn. That's certainly one way to introduce a character.
Like, I'm all for enemies to lovers. But when you have a character describe another character by saying he looks like a fucking lion, how can you not expect me to SHIP?
I'm subtracting one star because I felt like the love happened too fast. Perhaps I was shipping someone else and was just absolutely bored by all the scenes with our genocidal MMC.
But the story was easy to read. The writing didn't get in the way. There was a very limited cast of not very complex characters (-0.25 for that), but it was a fun read. I enjoyed myself.
ETA: bumping this down to 2 stars. 3 stars just doesn't sit right with me.
I'll give this book a solid 3 stars. This isn't a spoiler but it isn't in the blurb: the book is from the point of view of Helena, not Konrad. Also, it's one of those first-person past-tense books where the narrator is actively telling from the present. So we get sentences like “If we had known,” or “More was to come” (not exact sentences from the book btw). But that basically strips all the tension away from the book. All of it. I'm not surprised by anything because Helena helpfully tells us, “Btw this went wrong.” It annoyed me so much that I highlighted several instances of this happening and noted, “Shut the fuck up.” And when you have to tell the narrator to shut their goddamn mouth, they've gone too far.
Now for spoilery things:
Insta-love. In a way, Mattas (Did I spell it right?) was basically the male version of what many female love interests are for a male fantasy protagonist.Insta-love, and then a sorrowful death to motivate the protagonist.Thank you, Mattas, for your sacrifice. Also, they banged, to completion I'm sure. I was like, girl, you're gonna get preggers what are you doing? If she turns up preggers in a later book, I'm gonna shake my head.Anyway, Helena. Oh Helena.Helena angry all the time for no justifiable reason. Like justifiable anger is epic. Unjustifiable anger is go sit in the corner and breathe deeply.Helena screaming for no reason and then blacking out when hearing a dead man's voice. Maybe we were supposed to be scared by the necromancy. But I wasn't. All I thought was Jesus Christ shut the fuck up. Even the second time I was lmao.Helena being mean to her love interest. Sigh.Helena nineteen years but acts like she's fifteen.Helena I grew up in DA HOOD screaming crying Helena.Helena I just met this guy and I wanna abandon my career and have all the babies.Helena nineteen and acting like a hormonal teenager Helena. I don't expect her to be the most mature human being, but come on. She's nineteen.And Konrad doesn't get off either.Konrad I'm gonna just do nothing instead of stopping the watchmen from opening the gate.Claver somehow gets away.Helena foreshadowing moral decline like HELENA SHUT THE FUCK UP. LET ME FIND OUT IN THE BOOK. SHUT THE FUCK UP.Jesus Christ.
Forget the characterizations. Forget that this basically turns into cookie-cutter European fantasy complete with “Gondor calls for aid scenes.” Forget that the mystery isn't very compelling TBH. Forget that I recently read Tainted Cup, which similar in the Watson/Holmes vibe in a fantasy world, except those characters had more personality than Konrad I-am-the-law, Dubine drink-and-whore, and Helena angry-so-angry. Forget the plot holes.
Forget how many times the phrase “wrong-footed” appeared.
Forget that I saw two back to back paragraphs begin with the word “Ultimately.”
Forget how much time this...Helena spends describing places at the start. Places I didn't give a fuck about because...Helena focus on the current village please.
Forget all that, and you have sparks of something interesting here.
I hear Helena shuts the fuck up in book 2. I will read it.
FIVE GLORIOUS STARS.
James Islington HOW DARE YOU?
Red Rising is my favorite book series of all time. So naturally I started this with a firm comparison in my mind.
It started angsty and angry. And then grew. Then characters, reveals, surprises, expected happenings, the Academy. Everything.
It was SO GOOD.
This is the first book I've read with my new and first Kindle, and what a way to break that thing in.
WHERE IS THE SECOND BOOK?
First book I've read in a while! I liked this. Sherlock Holmes but in a fantasy world, and some surprisingly magnificent worldbuilding too! Lots of humor.
-0.5 because I wish the main character had some more character, which sounds funny. We see glimpses, but his characterization isn't very strong. Looking forward to the next one though!
-0.25 because I figured out the mystery quickly.
I'll be checking out more of this author for sure.
It is apparently a twist to some people that
Damaya, Syenite, and Essun are the same people
This is bizarre to me. There is no way it could be otherwise. And I saw it when they were introduced.
Anyway,
Look, this book is 5 stars. The prose is tight and neat. The only things I would point out are
1. How confused she was. Her understanding seemed to always come later, and at some point I started to wonder why we couldn't join her at the end of her understanding, why we had to had to spend so long in that in-between. Then she understood. Then she saw. It got repetitive.
That's literally one thing. Huh.
Ok now more spoiler-y things:
That island interlude Jesus Christ. Innon, my God, and their little family. It broke my heart and I'm so glad Alabaster fucking ripped the world apart for it, just like he said he would. Syenite, poor Syenite. How did she even rebuild herself after that? And for it to happen again with Uche.Also that beginning, You are here, is insane. Fucking insane.The narrator for this book is a fucking goat. The whole thing is read so gloriously, all the right pauses in all the right places. I just had to mention. Some narrators get in the way, some are just a vehicle for the story, and some accentuate the story. This one took it to a whole new level.The foreshadowing in this book is great. When Damaya leaves and Jemisin writes she'll wish she had looked back is just one great example.The Guardians are fucking terrifying. I don't think I've read a book recently with terrifying villains. Most times they inspire rage or maybe just annoyance. But these ones, absolutely terrifying. Part of it has to do with how absolute they are, how even the strongest orogenes can be neutered by them. The oppression in this book is systemic and they are the architects of it.When Syenite sees burgundy at Allia, my heart was in my fucking stomach.
This book has temporarily ruined me. I'm trying to read Witness for the Dead and finding its prose too stuffy.
Boo. Boo this book. Everybody boo this book. All together now: booooo.
SPOILERS. SPOILERS EVERYWHERE.
1. The ending. The mystery's ending anyway. I called it close to the end. But the lack of justice is deeply unsatisfying. This man murdered a woman because she scorned him. That's it. That was the whole reason. The protagonist then decides that because he has contributed money to charity, he has atoned? That's it? It's ok if rich people kill others, as long as they donate to charity? Fuck this book. Timmy should've fucking run screaming to the police so the pig would have to face the world and answer for his crimes. Gee, if I reject a rich person and they murder me, I sure hope they've never contributed to charity.
2. The dissatisfaction of finding out the murderer wanted the case solved. Boo. Boo. I wanted the surprise in his eyes when he realized that the crime had caught up to him after all.
3. The relationship. Oh my God we've had sex a bunch of times. We aren't in a relationship because there are fundamental issues at play here. We just talked about those issues, and made verbal declarations. Do you want to get married? How tf was I supposed to react to that? “Aww,” instead of “WHAT?”
Unsatisfying. Well written, as usual, but a dumpster fire.
Read this a couple weeks ago so this isn't a fresh review. I remember it was hot though. One of the books I've read recently where I wasn't bored of the sex scenes.
The gripes I remember are:
1. Bob (wait was his name Bob? The police chief?) I don't really like over-emphasized scenes with an ex. It's whatever.
2. Obviously super convenient rich dad is convenient.
3. The characters are very one-dimensional-ish. Adam is the happy carefree one, Simon is the serious one, and MC is a bit blank. Which is fine for what it is.
“Deep despair had descended.”
That's a quote from the book. Somebody typed that sentence and thought, huh, absolutely nothing wrong with that dramatic alliteration. Let's keep going.
“...seeping into his soul.”
That's the next part. Am I doing scansion? What the fuck is going on?
“...and all the hope he'd harbored before.”
Hope he'd harbored before. Here we see three h's and then two b's, with one b occuring in the middle of the sentence. The soft sounds of the h and the transition to the bass-like quality of the b mid-sentence is a metaphor for the character's transition from hope to despair...sorry got carried away.
Another gem from the very first line:
“King Laoch lowered his body in the comfortable padded chair that was his...“
I mean, you know possessive pronouns can come before the noun right? Not after? Like, say, for example, as a possibility, “his comfortable padded chair.” Also padded already hints at comfort. So now we have, “his padded chair”, and we have removed four words. But how will we ever meet our word count without doing stuff like this and having paragraphs upon paragraphs of dialogue. I'm sorry, has the review started?
1. The dialogue sucks. It was cringe in the first series and it's cringe now. It's worse when there's conflict. Then the exclamation marks come out.“Erwan! Erwan!”Fuck. Me.Erwan comes out and talks a lot. The king screams (and I'm literally dying of laughter at this scene) and then is all like, you know what, fuck off. Yeah that's right, I don't even remember why I kept you here. I had no reason other than plot reasons. So you fuck right off.2. The Great Shame. I'm sorry, you betrayed your oath. Okay? Like are you not going to move on? I mean there are two scenarios here:A. You actually don't give a fuck and just move on with your life. Like why are you even hiding? You betrayed the oath, thought, oop, and then built a whole ass castle and just kinda waste away there? I'm sorry this is overkill.B. You actually feel shame. So you try to make up for it maybe? Or like, don't make it worse?But all of this requires brain cells, and the villains in this book don't seem to have any. It's cartoony villainy too. Beata Maria, you know I am an evil king, of my treason I am greatly shamed...Anyway,3. Lel. You want the books destroyed but can't do it yourself. What do you even do all day?4. Palani wtf. Why'd the author do him so dirty. He's a better person than this come on.5. One True Alpha lel. This was Rhene's book. I'd have liked to see him manifest some powers of his own instead of having to rely on daddy Lidon.6. Grayson is actually useless.7. Man all the secrets in this book are so annoying. Like I already know, and already suspected everything from, well, everything. Just let it out bruh.8. Also we're back to homophobia and sexism and, traitism? What are Alpha and Omega?9. Too much sex. Too many sex. Too lot sex. Important scene is happening, then sex. Fuck's sake. Yeah I know that's what it is and that's what the previous books were too, but sometimes you just want to read plot not smut, ya know?
Alright. This book is highly recommended. I recommend it too for fans of contemporary sports romance. I prefer spec fiction, so somewhere around the 10% mark I found myself thinking that the book was too long. Luckily, my copy had an excerpt from another book that padded the number of pages, and I was given sweet sweet relief earlier than I'd expected, which was a relief unto itself.
So what went wrong?
1. I'm not very knowledgeable about hockey, and have probably ever seen like one or two games. However, even if the characters played soccer, I'd still be bored. There are no real stakes. Like yeah sucks for the characters to lose the Stanley cup or an Olympic gold, but I don't really feel it, you know? I think it's because the book takes place over a career progression, so there are highs and lows. It's not like the characters' final year of college and the championship is at stake and we follow the highs and lows of qualifying and everything up to the final. That would have more emotional impact. This one is more like a biography. It's celebratory, no matter what. All to say I was bored with all the games and wins and losses.2. During the night club scene with Shane, Rose, and Ilya, I thought to myself, “Do it you won't.” Do what? Idk, make them kiss. Make something happen. It's fuck, play hockey, fuck, pine for each other, fuck, play hockey. The only thing I was tense about is when they'd finally confess feelings. And it happened on one of those pages where I swiped and my eyes went to the middle and I was like, oh, okay.3. All the “I'm going to end it” and “I'm definitely not going to his room” got stale quickly. At 60% in, I don't believe you. I simply don't. Once again, “Do it you won't.”4. It really might just be what happens in contemporary without lit-fiction-like prose (are my hyphens in the right place) e.g Kit Oliver's The Place Between.Again, I recommend it. But it wasn't for me. Will read the sequel though to see what happens at the end.
Mm. Review always has spoilers so
This was pretty short, with not a lot of plot. Just lots of sex and insta love. Mark was kind of a comical villain. I really wish he hadn't been, you know? But I'm always rooting for side characters to not turn out to be dicks.Smut was alright. Not mind-blowing, and boring after like the first scene. I get bored with sex scenes easily though unless there's sexual tension, and that dissipated after they fucked for the first time.Not a bad read.
The middle to the end of this book was much better than the beginning. That doesn't happen often for me.
My review is full of spoilers. I'll wrap it in a spoiler tag just in case there's some scrolling by.
Okay let's start from the beginning.1. Detective Doyle from the FBI. Aren't they Special Agents?2. The entire roadside exposition. Oh my God. It's lazy info dumping.3. You know, the fact that Ellie is trans just shows how bullshit inheritance based on gender is.4. Nicolae didn't have any proof Franny's parents murdered her. Zero. Such proof couldn't exist because of course they did not murder her. But he convinced her ex husband, who was then in the process of convincing their child.5. The ending twist was anticlimactic. Whoa reveal. Whoa cliche bad guy gets killed by bigger bad guy. Whoa fight, whoa it's over. Just like that.6. I knew he was going to be an omega immediately we learned what an omega was.7. Honestly I saw a review that turned me off when I first read the blurb that said Ellie was ungrateful. But after reading it, man, see it from her point of view. She's just been with her grandparents, who we now know are innocent, and returns to find her dad shacked up with a man they both hated last time they were together.8. Andrei is so cute omg. I cannot believe they just left that child to sort of hang around until Jack stepped in. What a society.9. I don't remember who, but someone said all the female alpha wolves are bitches. I mean, literally they are hehe. But also casual sexism.10. The romance was kinda quick. That first sex scene was hot holy fuck. But then Ellie arrived and plot started to plot. Then suddenly marriage proposal. Didn't really feel Nicolae fall, or even Jack. It was hot though.11. Ellie is sixteen. That mate bond thing. Did the author really have to include it?12. I know I've mentioned the ending reveal before. But it honestly fucking sucked. Too easy a villain. Easy to dislike, easy to defeat.
SPOILERS!!!
Some people think they're playing chess, when they're really playing tic tac toe. My biggest issue with this story is that the plot tried to be bigger than itself, but failed to commit.
1. The intricacies of the cartel life are glossed over: a private plane here, human trafficking there, known criminal just walking around just around the corner. Also plenty of former law enforcement just kinda in bed with criminal associates with no explanation as to how they got there. But anyway, we've got big men with unlimited resources who are just all knowing. Which leads to 2.
2. Syren. Lol. I just went to Google to try to find the best technical term for this character and honestly the best description I've seen is NPC. Just exists to move the plot along.
3. Bruh. The romance is fucked up. It's so fucked up. Its very premise is rooted in being fucked up, but if you didn't realize it was fucked up, know it now.
4. The tic tac toe nature of the plot. It's just kinda boring. Even the betrayals have me going, “Why?” The break ups barely last two pages.
5. That ending twist. Lol. There I was, ready to skim my last 10% even harder and already bored with all the sex scenes, and suddenly, twist! It encapsulates everything wrong with the plot.
6. All the translations. It's literally just, “Spanish/Greek sentence.” English translation. Why? Allow me to infer please. Find some other way to translate: thoughts, actions before/after. Or just let it stand on its own. Leads to 7.
7. The scene where Daniel says, “Send it to everyone,” and Toro says, “How... Oh.” Just paraphrasing here. That was fucking beautiful. And then I turn the page and the author is explaining what it means and I'm like, so this is how this book is going to go. Like trust me to understand.
Very taboo romance read. Intriguing at the beginning, meh from the middle to the end. Plot wise. The writing itself was pretty poetic. But also kinda overdid it sometimes.
Ahhhhhh.
Omg this was so sweet. I have to go sleep but omg. Stayed up to finish this. Was just craving something really sweet and sniff sniff. Once Luke realized he was in love it was all systems go push W and full send. No 80% break-up, no misunderstandings, nada, rien. Everyone is fucking accepting, everyone's fucking great, and happy. And my God I'm so happy.
Take all my fucking stars.
This book was...unexpected. I figured it'd be one of those books I skim, just swiping and not caring if I miss info because nothing really happens. It wasn't. It's actually pretty good writing. No, really good. It's really good writing. On a technical, paragraph by paragraph level, it's fucking good. So most of the bad comes from the characters.
1. George. Too hot and cold. Does he love Ezer or does he not? We see moments of caring, followed by callous actions. And why is he even so desperate to buy out his sons? For Ezer, he stands to gain jack shit and spend a shit ton of money. He seems to have the money for it, so what the fuck is his problem? I assume then, that it comes down to a fundamental belief of this is how things should be. But going so far as to drug his children? And he gets a happy ending? What?
2. Shan. For fuck's sake what is that ending? Where is he? Is there another book with him? Is he okay?
3. Yissan. Another character whose motivations I don't quite...look I... fuck. He certainly has depth. He's not perfect, he's selfish, but like, the world is fucked for omegas.
4. Amos. I reserve judgement. He did cheat, multiple times. But it's not fair that he loses all the possessions he had prior to the marriage.
5. Ned. Sir, you were about to witness a rape. You already witnessed (and participated in) sexual assault by holding him down while they took his pants off. And you were going to what? Sir, what?
6. Almost everybody in this world is just kinda...just kinda a piece of shit somehow. It's grayscale. It's new. No one's absolutely good.
7. The world sucks for omegas. It fucking sucks. Such tyranny cannot be allowed to persist forever. Revolution wen?
8. Also I must add. The “We're so young,” is not convincing. Listen, I was nineteen not too long ago, and you better believe I never fucking thought, “I'm so young.” Like what? If anything, it's the much older people around them who would say that. I get having moments of fear and clarity, but nah.
9. While high school at nineteen is possible, it's more likely the author wanted a high school romance but with tons of smut. Are they even in their final year, or just kind of in a year. A lot of the world building isn't specific. What desert does Yissan go to? Nevada? Or the Sahara? Same for all the business talks? Vending machines? Tech bro? Farm bro? Stonks? Also the equations and what not, and calculus. Man are equations all you did in math? And calculus is kinda broad. Also is math all you're doing? No Shakespeare? Does Shakespeare exist in this world?
Plus all the school Ned misses. This man is going to fail his exams.
10. In one scene the phrase “technology screens” is used. Why? Only the author can tell us.
11. Where do Omegas shit from?
12. It's ok. You can say men breast-feed. They have breasts too. Chest-feeding is weird. Say breasts.