Review - "Winterglass"

Winterglass
by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
rating: ☆☆
published: 5th December 2017
spoilers? hints

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

I am angry at this book. Angry because that's not an ending. Angry because there's throwing you straight into a world, but then there's lazy worldbuilding. Angry because of the lazy characterisation and lazy relationship development. But mostly angry because I put up with all that in the hopes that I'd get a satisfying ending and I didn't.

(But Charlotte, you say. Life often doesn't have satisfying endings. Yeah, but this ain't life, is it. This is fiction, and I would like my satisfying ending.)

But, ranting aside, this book did nothing special for me. Sure, it had potential, but ultimately, it was just a bit too short to live up to it. Short and underdeveloped.

The two main characters are primarily archetypes: the perfect warrior, and the loyal general. They aren't ever seen as much more than that, and it's boring. Because these are the people I'm supposed to be rooting for (though how I can root for Lussadh, the loyal general of a colonising invader, when she is so completely loyal she believes the invader to be right in every aspect, I don't know - but that's a whole other kettle of fish). And I just didn't connect, because they didn't seem to be anything beyond those archetypes.

Then there's the fact that there's never any intensity to any of the scenes. Not the fight scenes, and not the sex scenes. You know, the two types of scene in particular where you might want there to be something on the line? And also, you're telling me that Nuawa, the perfect warrior, meets no one close to her match in a tournament of 400 people? That she passes through it perfectly, almost without even having to break a sweat? Heck, even having one battle put in where she doesn't win it easily would be enough to raise the intensity. As it is, we breeze through these fight scenes (I'm not kidding, they take 2 pages, maximum), without any conflict. What would have happened to Nuawa's plan to assassinate the queen if she had failed at any point to become part of her army? What if she'd ever been in a position where that would have threatened to have happened? Who knows, because she's never put there. And it's frustrating because there's so much more that could have been done, but no. She's the Perfect Warrior, and thus will not be defeated.

The lack of intensity in the sex scenes also arises from their shortness, but also from the fact that the characters don't seem to have any personality of their own (archetypes, remember?), and it's just boring. Give me more. Actually develop the relationship. It's not even instalove here, it's just shoving two people together when they have no chemistry and being like "now kiss". Does not work.

And, finally, the ending. Don't even get me talking about that ending. It's like this isn't actually a standalone book. Like maybe the author planned another. Well, you're not getting me with that hook. I'm out.

Review - "Love, Hate & Other Filters"

Love, Hate & Other Filters
by Samira Ahmed
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 16th January 2018
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This is a classic case of it's not you [the book], it's me. I've been on a mystery kick of late, and I don't think I'm quite past it. A YA contemporary book is just not going to cut it. That being said, this was still a really good book, even though I rounded down to 3 stars.

Love, Hate & Other Filters is about Maya, an aspiring filmmaker living in a town in Illinois. To start with, the book switches between chapters from her point of view, and brief interludes from the terrorist's point of view. That was my first major sticking point, because I didn't see a reason to include these interludes. All they served to do was break up Maya's narrative and that sort of thing doesn't really fit into a contemporary book. It makes sense to have that sort of thing in a mystery book (not that I particularly like it as a trope), but it just felt out of place in this. It makes more sense the further you get into the book - it's like a parallel story going on, and even later is used for things like newspaper articles, and all that works - but it's just to start out with that I struggled with it.

The other problem with the first half of the book I had was the love triangle. Particularly the fact that one of the people involved in it was a 21 year old. And Maya is 17. It definitely felt a little uncomfortable. At least it wasn't a serious love triangle. It kind of died off pretty quickly, which was nice. The only thing was all the romances in this book seemed kind of unsatisfactory, and just a bit lacking in character development. We know from the start that Maya has a crush on Phil, but then about two thirds of the way through suddenly it's being called love, without any sort of development to back it up. Heck, they're not even together at that point. It also had a pretty unsatisfactory ending, but I guess it makes sense. They're 18 at the end, and going off to completely different universities. And they weren't even properly dating so far as I know? So you can see why I called it unsatisfactory (even if it is realistic).

One last point: the pacing of the book seemed a little off. It goes pretty slowly for the first half of it, or so, and then everything's crammed into the next 40%. And then it slows down again for the last 10%. Either it could have been better spaced out, or the book could have been longer to deal with that - the ARC was only about 250 pages long, so it was short, as far as books are concerned.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I am being a little harsh in rounding down, but I think I wasn't in the right mood to enjoy it as much as I might have otherwise.

Review - "Off The Ice"

Off The Ice, Hat Trick #1
by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 30th October 2017
spoilers? nope

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This has been on my "need to read urgently" shelf since just about when it got announced. I love hockey fiction, and I really like Avon Gale's hockey fiction, so I understandably had high hopes. I'm not setting this up to say I was disappointed, because I wasn't - I know what Avon Gale's writing is like, and it was just as good as most of her other books. There were just a few aspects of it that I wasn't quite expecting, namely the age gap and (how do I put this) rather rough (BDSM-lite) sex.

When I read the blurb, I expected that Tristan would be somewhere in his late 20s, early 30s, approaching retirement from the NHL and looking to have a career post-hockey. More fool me, because he was actually only 22. Me and age gaps don't generally get along, so that was obviously a pretty big NUH UH from me.

Moving on, we get to the relationship. Now, the biggest problem I have with respect to this aspect is more of a general problem with the genre (which I'm sure I've mentioned about a million times). There is just never any relationship development before BAM they're lusting after one another and then BAM they're having sex and then maybe (MAYBE) if you're lucky you get some before BAM they're in love. So my issue is that there is not nearly enough slowburn in this genre. And by slowburn I mean genuinely having to wait 80-90% of the book before anything happens. I mean pining and longing and angsting. I don't mean them jumping into bed with one another after like 30% because that just feels like it's then porn without plot (oh. Wait. Some of this shit basically is just that. But I'm getting off topic).

I mentioned the sex earlier, and I'll briefly mention it again. It involved (consensual) slapping, face and arse. And like. I just find that really uncomfortable no matter the characters participating so. That wasn't fun.

Besides all that, I did enjoy the book in the same way I've enjoyed most of Avon Gale's (and to a lesser extent because I've read less, Piper Vaughn's) stuff. And I'm definitely looking forward to the other books I assume will be in this series (my bets are on Ryu and Bellamy as the MCs) because the characters are, as usual, wonderful. If only I'd enjoyed some of the other aspects of it as much.

Review - "The Uncrossing"

The Uncrossing
by Melissa Eastlake
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 2nd October 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

I had never heard of this book before requesting it, and what made me request it was the blurb. It's an urban fantasy set in New York, about these mob-like families who control the magic in the city, each with their own way of doing magic. There's not a lot in the way of actually telling you this information, so there are no big info-dumps (a good thing), but it's pretty easy to pick up as you go along.

The book tells the story of Jeremy and Luke. Jeremy is a member of the Kovrov family, brother to Sergei and Alexei, and he is under a curse, bound to his brother Sergei, and as such he can't leave Sergei's house between 1am and 12 midday every day. Luke is a Melnyk, a family who works for the Kovrov's but not directly, until he is called up by them to help unravelling curses (or, "uncrossing" as it's referred to).

The family relationships are perhaps the best thing about this book. The Kovrovs, despite being framed as a dangerous family, love each other so much, and just want to protect one another. The relationships between Sergei and Jeremy, and Alexei and Jeremy get me in particular. The brothers have completely different vibes around him, and different ideas of how he should act, but in the end they love him as one of their own. The Melnyk family is another example of a great relationship. They're supportive of one another, and would risk the wrath of the Kovrovs for each other.

One disappointment was the relationship between Luke and Jeremy. It felt like it was just missing something, a spark of some sort, perhaps. It fell a little flat, like although we were told that Jeremy has had a crush on Luke since he was six, it all felt a bit shallow. But there was potential there, and because I loved Luke and Jeremy individually so much, I couldn't bring myself to fully dislike their relationship.

One last point: that ending. Why would you do that??

Review - "Shadowblack"

Shadowblack, Spellslinger #2
by Sebastien de Castell
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 5th October 2017
spoilers? yeah

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

I feel like Sebastien de Castell will never write a book I won't enjoy. There's something about the worlds he creates and how he writes that just has me hooked from page 1 of every book, and no matter how long the book is, I'll be able to finish it in a day or so. This book is no different.

If anything, I preferred this book to the first one, because the worldbuilding is pretty much all finished, and the action starts immediately. Like the books in the Greatcoats series, it stands on its own, so there's no cliffhanger or serious continuation from the previous book. In this book, Kellen and Ferius have travelled to the borderlands, and have discovered that people there are getting infected by the shadowblack, a plague that should only affect mages.

There's a whole cast of new characters too, perhaps my favourite of which only showed up for a chapter and was never mentioned again thereafter. One thing I didn't like about that though was that obviously there had to be another love interest introduced. Because that girl that Kellen kissed in the last book and claimed to love (who's name I don't even remember...) wasn't enough. He needs to be collecting love interests wherever he goes apparently. (At least he found out that the girl back home had got engaged to someone else before he started anything. Small mercies.)

Anyway, the girl this time is actually also engaged (and has been since childhood) to another guy (who is actually a properly nice guy, so you can't even hate him). Then, of course, to clear the way for Kellen/Seneira to happen, he has to die. But even worse, you find out he was actually a gay character. I mean, fair enough, you find that out well after he's died, but yeah. Still not too happy with that. Kellen and Seneira also don't actually seem to have that much chemistry, either. Maybe I'm just inured to all attempts at chemistry between hets in YA lit now, because I was more bored by that storyline than anything. At least it ended in the same book it started though.

Overall, this was another solid book by Sebastien de Castell. I only wish he hadn't insisted on having a romantic subplot.

Review - "Eyes Like Those"

Eyes Like Those, Seven Shores #1
by Melissa Brayden
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 1st October 2017
spoilers? vague ones

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

More like 3.5

If there's one thing I struggle to find, it's good wlw lit. Melissa Brayden may well be the solution to all of my problems. This is the first book I've read by her and, while I wasn't overly impressed with the writing (it's good and readable, which is impressive in the genre to begin with, but nothing special), the plot and the characters were more than enough to make up for it.

The book tells the story of Isabel, a promising scriptwriter who has been working in a restaurant while trying to find script work, as she moves to Hollywood to take up a job writing on a popular TV show. There, she meets Taylor, a captivating and unattainable woman, who is also her boss - the showrunner.

The best part of this book was the relationships. Isabel moves into her friend's apartment, and meets three other women - Autumn, Hadley, and Gia. Her friendship with these three was my absolute favourite part of the book. They're always building each other up, and supporting each other, and that's something you really don't see enough of in lit. Similarly with Isabel and Taylor's relationship. They actually became friends before anything started, and I feel like that doesn't happen all that often in NA lit.

If there was one little complaint I did have about their relationship, it's that, while the slowburn was good and appreciated, it lacked some tension. Mariana Zapata is a very good example of someone who writes the most excellent tension, and that's what this book lacked. Sure, we see that they're attracted to one another, but the tension, either romantic or sexual, is just not quite there.

I also didn't really like how the narrative refused to explicitly frame Taylor's past relationship, with Aspen - the lead actress on the show, as abusive. Because that's what it was. Aspen manipulated Taylor, got violent and threw plates around, and cheated on Taylor, and once Taylor's broken up with her, she conveniently forgets all that and tries to get her back. But it's never mentioned as being abusive, not even when, once Aspen realises she won't get her own way, she aims to ruin Taylor's whole life. If that doesn't smack of manipulative and abusive, I don't know what does.

Overall, this was one of the best wlw NA books I've read (I know that's not saying a lot, but trust me here), and Melissa Brayden is definitely a writer I'll be coming back to.

Review - "Invictus"

Invictus
by Ryan Graudin
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 26th September 2017
spoilers? nope

Goodreads

He was a hero spurned. No, it felt worse than that. He'd become a bystander in someone else's story.

Galley provided by publisher

Invictus tells the story of Farway McCarthy, a cadet kicked out of the time travelling corps after he fails his final exam, who takes up black market missions so he can travel back in time to find out what happened to his mother. He captains the crew of the TM Invictus - Priya, Gram, Imogen, and Saffron the red panda. On a mission to retrieve a priceless book from the Titanic as it sinks, he encounters another time traveller, but one who's story does not ring true.

From the start, the world building in this book is epic and so unique. It's like nothing I've read before, which is always a good start. But despite the promising opening, the plot builds slowly. Incredibly slowly, that is. It was a good 70% into the book before I got to the point where I couldn't put it down.

Part of that came from the fact that it was overwhelmingly heterosexual. There are two relationships: Far and Priya, and Imogen and Gram. Of the two, I much preferred Imogen and Gram, because you got to see some development of that relationship. When it came to Far and Priya, what you got was them as acquaintances in one part, then a skip-ahead to a few months later and they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Which, honestly, was just tedious. There were even parts of the book I marked as insert heterosexual interlude because it was that boring a relationship. I love Priya and, to a lesser extent, Far, but together they just didn't do anything for me. Both romances felt entirely unnecessary.

Not to mention that Far is an absolute arsehole (I say this even though I love him), and I just couldn't really sympathise with him. He genuinely reminds me of the Brooding YA Hero twitter account. In fact, scrolling through that, I found a number of tweets that actually reminded me of Far. He's arrogant and quite selfish and always trying to do ""heroic"" things and it just grinds on you. He was okay to start with but it quickly got a little boring to read from his point of view.

Another aspect of the plot dragging was that it seemed to have a kind of pattern where it went slow for a bit, then fast for a couple of chapters, then back to slow, and then fast, and so on. And the slow parts were so much longer than the fast parts, which meant that, while several moments had me going HOLY CRAP, they were overwhelmed by the slight boringness of the slower sections.

That all being said, I did really like this book overall. And I think that's because, for me, the dragging in the plot was made up for by the characters and the ending. I loved each and every person in this - especially Eliot, even though at times she bordered on being the ~mysterious girl~ trope personified. And the last 130 pages or so? If only the rest of the book had been so good.

In the end, I just wish it had fully lived up to Blood for Blood.

Review - "Circe"

Circe
by Madeline Miller
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 10th April 2018
spoilers? some

Goodreads

"How do you bear it?" he said
[...]
"We bear it as best we can," I said.

Galley provided by publisher

Circe is perhaps one of my most anticipated books for the next year and, while I have been wavering on how to rate it, it definitely did not disappoint. I would say I perhaps didn't like it so much as I did The Song of Achilles when I read that, but that's always going to be a hard book to top.

The novel tells the story of the nymph, Circe, from her birth up until she is released from exile. Circe is the daughter of the sun god, Helios, although by all accounts she is a strange child, lacking in the powers that her father and siblings all possess. The first quarter or so of the book is taken up with Circe living in her father's palace, ignored by most of her family and his courtesans. Then, she discovers the ability to do witchcraft, at which point she is exiled to live alone on an island, Aiaia. It was at this point that I really got into the story.

That's not to say it was boring up until that point - Madeline Miller's gorgeous writing was plenty enough for me to maintain interest - but after the exile happens, Circe really comes into her own. That was my favourite aspect of this book, seeing Circe develop from being someone who's eager to please her father, even as he tells her she's the least of his children, into someone with the power to challenge Athena herself.

My favourite part of the book comes when Circe meets Telemachus and Penelope. I loved how Miller wrote the growth of the relationship between Penelope and Circe. Initially, Circe believes that Penelope and Telemachus wish vengeance on Telegonus, her son (for reasons which Wikipedia will happily tell you), but they get to know each other and become friends. There are too many books where two women, in love with the same man, will be framed as nemeses so I appreciated that they became close instead.

If there was one thing I found pretty awkward about this book, it's that it ends with Telemachus and Circe implied as being in a relationship. The awkwardness comes from the fact that Circe had previously had a relationship with Odysseus (Telemachus' father), which had spawned a son, Telegonus. So Circe ends up in a relationship with her own son's half brother... It just felt weird.

That's probably why I can't rate this five stars, though I originally did so immediately after finishing. I was wavering between four and five for a while, but that is enough to tip my review to a four.

NB. non-graphic rape TW just before halfway through, and implied incest TW throughout.

Review - "Strange The Dreamer"

Strange the Dreamer, Strange the Dreamer #1
by Laini Taylor
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 28th March 2017
spoilers? some pretty major ones

Goodreads

"You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable," she pleaded. "Something beautiful and full of monsters." "Beautiful and full of monsters?" "All the best stories are."

There's really only one word to describe how I felt about this book. Disappointed. Because I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone when I read it, and this book started off like it could reach similar heights. Unfortunately, it did not.

For the first say, 40% of the book, I was in love. The writing was gorgeous, as usual, the characters mysterious and interesting enough that I was captivated, and the plot maybe going slowly, but still with enough happening that I was interested. And then the instalove happened.

In young adult lit, I find there's instalove, and then there's Instalove. The former, I can just about deal with (it's clearly there, but there's also enough of a connection between the characters that I can about forgive it). The latter is the real killer, and that's what happened here. There is quite honestly nothing between Lazlo and Sarai, and yet they meet each other in a dream and are shoved together, and within about two meetings, they're in love. And from that point on, I was just bored of the whole book. Because Sarai is also a manic pixie dream girl kind of character, and to top it off, gets killed, and then resurrected so that the evil character can control Lazlo by controlling Sarai. Because why not. It's honestly depressing that this is the main female character.

On top of all that, the plot twist, that Lazlo is the son of a god, is one that you can see coming a goddamn mile off. It wasn't even a surprise. And not just because of the (slightly shoddily employed) foreshadowing. Genuinely because of the fact that there was not going to be another outcome to the story. I mean, boy who doesn't know his own origins, but feels a visceral pull towards a mysterious city that no outsiders have visited for over 200 years? Um. Can we get more obvious?

Perhaps what disappointed me most though, was the sheer amount of potential there was for a hate-to-love relationship between Lazlo and Thyon. And if we're going to go with instalove between Sarai and someone else, why couldn't it have been Calixte, a confirmed wlw? (I say confirmed, but in true Laini Taylor fashion, we get a 2 second glimpse of her relationship with another woman and then she doesn't appear further in the story.) And yet, what we end up with, is yet another heterosexual instalove tale. But I honestly don't know what else I expected. I mean, after all, we all know LGBT characters are hardly ever central to mainstream YA authors' plots unless it's to kill them.

Review - "Battle Royale"

Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami
rating: ☆
published: April 1999
spoilers? no

Goodreads

How to I explain how much I despised this book? Let's just say that if I could rate a book zero stars on this site, this book would be one I would give that honour to.

I started this book way back in June. I picked it up just before I headed back home from uni, but I only read one chapter before I realised that I just wasn't in the mood for a dystopia like this. It sat on my desk, unread, for a good month, before I packed it to go on holiday because I just really wanted to get it read finally.

Good Lord, do I wish I hadn't.

The writing in this is terrible, and I don't know if that's because this was a clunky translation or if the writing is genuinely that bad. Either way, it was so cringeworthy I just couldn't take any of it seriously. Every time I read a bit out to my parents (we were all stuck in a tent and it was raining), I got a round of groans or snorts of laughter, depending on whether the particular part I'd chosen was bad, or so-bad-you-really-have-to-laugh. And don't even get me started on the song lyrics that were thrown in at random, because the main character loves rock music. The goddamn book literally ended with the lyrics of 'Born to Run' by Bruce Springsteen! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Then there's the characters. There were so many of them, I genuinely lost track. And none of them seem to have any personality. You can sum each of them up using one, maybe two (if they're lucky), words and there, you're done. Not to mention I just wanted to slap the main character around a bit to, one, get rid of his naivety ("oh no, we all just want to work together," he says, as everyone starts killing everyone else), and two, to get him to shut up with that lowkey misogynism. He genuinely says at one point, that the girl would make a good wife. Miss me with that, thanks.

So yeah. Christ do I wish I hadn't bothered.

Review - "Pride and Prejudice"

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 28th January 1813
spoilers? some

Goodreads

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

I first read Pride and Prejudice in Year 9, aged 13, as one of that year's set texts for English Lit. I, quite frankly, despised English Lit, so it's honestly a surprise that I actually enjoyed reading and analysing this book. Especially since I never got an iota of the same enjoyment out of analysing any other book in my five years of classes. Jane Austen's novel also has the (lofty or dubious, you decide) honour of being the first classic I can ever remember liking (and still one of the few I do).

It took me another 7 years to actually get round to rereading Pride and Prejudice, at which point, I came to my senses and realised that my original four star rating was way too low. If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. I love every single aspect of this book (besides some of the adaptations it has, and will (fuck you, ITV), spawned).

If I'm really honest, Lizzie Bennet is second only to Anne Elliott in my list of favourite Austen heroines, but that's a really really marginal second. Lizzie Bennet is definitely one of my favourite characters in lit, and I'd forgotten how much I loved her until I reread this book. I had also forgotten just how much I love Mr. Darcy too. He may not be my favourite Austen love interest (Henry Tilney took that title just recently), but he has one of the best character developments I've read in Austen's work, if not the best.

Probably the best thing (or worst, depending how you look at it) about rereading this, was picking out all the parts that didn't foreshadow as such, but were precursors to the big events of the story. Wickham telling Lizzie his whole life story on their first meeting (Lizzie. Lizzie my girl. What trustworthy man tells you his whole life story the moment you meet him? No one, that's who), "Will the shades of Pemberley be thus polluted?", "You are the last man I could be prevailed upon to marry." Knowing what's going to happen later only enhanced my enjoyment of the novel.

Really, one of the reasons this, and other Austen novels, are among my favourite classics (when I will admit I rarely enjoy classics) is because of the writing. It's always lighthearted and vaguely mocking (Northanger Abbey more than most, I've found), and as far as classics go, it's very easy to read. And one of the major reasons I don't read a huge number of classics is because I have trouble with the writing (The Brothers Karamazov is case in point. It's taken me about 10 months to get 170 pages in). So it's really refreshing to read Austen's writing.

So, in case it wasn't already clear, I love Pride and Prejudice with all my heart. So much so that I'm currently trying to stave off the desire to reread right now, only two weeks after I read it last.

Review - "Permanent Ink"

Permanent Ink, Art & Soul #1
by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 7th August 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

You know those books which you liked, but you don't really have any clear-cut opinions on them? This is one of those for me. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but it's not one that's got me really hyped, or has me really angry. It's just. Good. I don't know how else to put it.

One great thing I did note was that there's no relationship based angst going on (the bane of my existence when it comes to new adult lit). I had three predictions for what the inevitable angst would be based on: "I'm your employer", "I'm 17 years older than you", or "I'm your dad's best friend". While these topics did come up, the true source of the angst was, in fact, none of these - which I am grateful for, because they're all overdone - and not only that, they didn't just sit and let misunderstandings fester. They talked them through like adults, and solved their problems that way. That happens in so few new adult books, and it was great to see.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of these characters (especially Blue *cough cough* book 2 maybe?), even though the daddy kink is... uh... definitely not my thing.

Review - "The Goblins of Bellwater"

The Goblins of Bellwater
by Molly Ringle
rating: ☆
published: 1st October 2017
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Not gonna lie, I was probably turned off this book from about 20 pages in, when I had to read the line She fell and never hit the ground. The goblins carried her crowd-surf style. because no one deserves to have to read a line that bad.

But I continued. And discovered just how much of a mess this book was. Firstly, for all that it was a fantasy book, there was actually not that much world-building in terms of the goblins. Later on, you found out how they got to be there, and the deal they had with Kit's family, but felt a little light. Come to think of it, most aspects of the book felt like that. There didn't feel to be too much in the way of characterisation or plot, and I was actually pretty bored for the most part.

Then I got to the mess that was Grady and Skye's relationship. First of all, Skye chooses Grady as her mate, so she doesn't have to choose a goblin. Does Grady get a say in this? No. Does Grady even know Skye before she comes up to him in the woods and snogs him? No. Does all this seem a dubiously consensual premise for a relationship? Absolutely.

Basically now, throughout their relationship, Grady is being influenced by the goblin's magic. Which means, what he might think he feels for Skye is actually a product of the magic. And Skye knows this. But does she try stay away from him, limit the damage, maybe stop him being involved? Nope. She instead takes him to a place where the magic is stronger, and has sex with him. In a situation in which he cannot give his consent because the magic is making him want to do it. Hence why I did not like their relationship. Kit and Livy's was somewhat better, although it did seem rushed, and to be quite frank, absolutely pointless. Do all the characters need to be paired up in relationships? Apparently yes.

What was good about the book was that it did have Grady and Skye have a discussion about all they'd done while under the goblins' spell. But I'd appreciate the attempt more if it had actually felt a serious one. They ended up deciding that they did genuinely have feelings for each other, although how they could have known that when they'd only known each other while under the spell defeats me. Maybe they should have tried to get to know each other anew, because that to me would make more sense. Either way, that relationship was the main reason I didn't like this book, despite the promise of the initial premise.

Review - "Heat Wave"

Heat Wave Seasons of Love #3
by Elyse Springer
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 31st July 2017
spoilers? a few

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

It's hard to find good mlm NA lit. It's harder still to find good wlw NA lit. This book is definitely in the category of good wlw NA lit, while never actually managing to be amazing.

Despite that, I did have some issues with the book. For one, there's very little actual relationship development. They start off as friends with benefits (or rather, exes of the same guy and then they become friends with benefits) and then they're having sex. And then supposedly they're in love. One problem I often have with NA lit, is that there seems to be an insistence on including a scene where the main characters say they love each other. A lot of the time, that appears forced, like in this case, and honestly I'd prefer if they maybe just decided to date or something. That feels more realistic almost. There are some cases where an "I love you" works, but this is not one of them.

I get that this is a friends with benefits to lovers scenario, too, but the speed with which they start to hook up (they get together for the first time a tenth of the way through, after what's supposed to be 2-3 weeks - timeskip included) felt a bit rushed. There could definitely have been more of a slowburn going on there.

Another problem I found was actually with Sara (the narrator) herself. Some of the things she complains about seem a little childish, and she's supposedly touching 30. There's a part early on where Nate, her ex-roommate who's since moved in with his boyfriend, was supposed to help her move out of her place but forgot and his boyfriend booked them a holiday. And Sara just has a more extreme reaction than that really warrants, in my opinion. He genuinely just forgets a prior engagement, it's not that big a deal, but she refers to it as "screwing her over" especially when "he was one of the main reasons she had to move" like. Just take a deep breath and move on. These things happen. And as for being one of the main reasons, so he met someone and moved in with them. Get over yourself. This happened pretty early on in the book, so you can imagine I was not Sara's biggest fan for most of the rest of it.

Not that I was Laura's biggest fan either, to be perfectly honest. She actually treats Sara pretty badly. There's this one scene, when they're still friends with benefits, where she spends the whole time with Sara pointing out hot girls. But when Sara points out some hot guys (they're both bisexual), she grows cold and blanks her. When they have sex after that, she essentially kicks her out of her flat, and subsequently doesn't contact her for a bit. And she doesn't apologise for that move. I wouldn't have minded so much if she'd admitted she overreacted, and messed up. But no. Not only that, she later blanks Sara completely again after not telling her that she's going to move away. Sara hears it from Laura's boss (after a messy moment which makes Laura think Sara and Tony are hooking up and ventures way too close to the cheating bisexual stereotype for my liking). Again, it's not something Laura apologises for.

I liked the attempt this book made to be at least sexually diverse, but at times it did feel a little like the characters were being shown off as diverse rather than just existing. There was a scene where Sara was talking to Jer, her kickboxing trainer, about how she's finding out new things about her body having had sex with Laura for the first time, and Jer, to reveal that he's trans, lifts his shirt to show her his top surgery scars to say he knows "exactly what it's like to redefine yourself". It just felt a bit of a crude way for him to come out, honestly.

Overall, actually, the book was kind of boring (I say, even as I rate it 3 stars). There wasn't really any plot besides the romance and it drifted a bit at times. Not to mention the part where it's made clear that Sara is ""not like other girls"". Thanks.

Review - "Daughter of the Burning City"

Daughter of the Burning City
by Amanda Foody
rating: ☆☆
published: 7th September 2017
spoilers? yes, big ones

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Quite honestly, this book was a letdown. It was one of those ones that has an amazing idea, and an intriguing synopsis, but when you get down to it, it's just a bit lacking.

It started off so well. There was just the right amount of worldbuilding and plot mixed together, and the characters were interesting and novel. The mystery was introduced early on, and all in all it looked to be heading in the right direction. Sadly, things just went a bit downhill from there on out.

Firstly, there's the romance. It is, frankly, tedious and underdeveloped. Sorina meets Luca about a quarter of the way through the book, and by the halfway point, has effectively fallen in love with him (which covers the timespan of maybe a week or two in the plot). To add to this, he's a dickhead. And there's not much redeeming about him. It's really, really not clear why Sorina at all likes him, beyond for his looks.

Once I found the romance tedious and underdeveloped, I started seeing the plot as a whole as that too. It claims to be a mystery, but there is very little actual investigating that goes on in the narrative - it's all hidden from the protagonist, and all done by Villiam and Luca. Not to mention that whenever Sorina is investigating with one of them, they always take over everything so she ends up doing nothing, actually seeming a bit boring in terms of characterisation in the end. And she believes whatever they tell her (which, fair enough, sets up the finale but doesn't make for that interesting a story for me).

There was also the initial plot twist that Luca was a spy, which I honestly saw coming a mile off. To be fair, I didn't see the rest of it coming, and I was momentarily interested to see whether the author had the guts to stick to Luca being a spy, and not having some deus ex machina moment where it turns out that he's a) framed, or b) redeemed. Unfortunately, she didn't. Then it also turned out that Luca was an illusion too, and yet the romance continues. No offence, but it seems a little... iffy? He claims he's his own person etc, etc, but can that really be confirmed? She can control him because he's an illusion. It seems messy to me. There were definitely some other promising plotlines. The whole part with the Alliance was so interesting, but because it fell outside of the Festival's bounds, it was done away with in a quiet manner, which was disappointing. I also love when authors slot in some diversity, almost as an afterthought. Sorina is bisexual, but it's only mentioned once at the beginning and then never touched on again. It would be nice to see some evidence of that in the text. Even worse for me though was the mention that came about 85% through about her anxiety,

"How could I possible lead Gomorrah when I can't even protect my family? When my anxiety threatens to send me into a panic every night?"

Which had never previously been shown in the book, let alone mentioned. So, apologies for not considering this to be good rep. My least favourite thing about this book was the whole "it makes sense he likes her because only a "freak" can like another "freak" in that way" narrative. She actually twice says something along these lines, the second case of which is:

"He was made to love me. That's the explanation. Only someone forced to could actually love a freak like me."

Given that she's a "freak" in part because of a physical disability, I'm really really uncomfortable with this rhetoric. And, guess what, it's never called out or challenged. She's just allowed to think that. I did like one thing about this book: there was some diversity in sexualities. As previously mentioned, Sorina is bisexual, but Nicoleta is also a lesbian. As well as that, Luca is demi. So it's a more interesting foundation than other fantasy books I've read recently, but it's really only ever mentioned, and I kind of need more than that. So overall, I was disappointed by this book. It promised so much, but in the end returned so little.

Review - "Shattered Minds"

Shattered Minds, Pacifica #2
by Laura Lam
rating: ☆☆
published: 15th June 2017
spoilers? nope

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

I think it's safe to say that me and present tense narratives do not get along. That's not to say that's the sole reason for my low rating of this book, but it's a big one. And when it's present tense for both the present and past (besides Carina's memories), that just makes things even more confusing. I don't know exactly why I have a problem with present tense narratives, but I can't name any books that have used one that I've particularly liked.

On top of the present tense writing, some phrases just came across as purple-prosey, forced, and downright cringeworthy at times. There were scenes which sounded exactly like badly written action film scenes (you know the type) and it just didn't work in a book.

I mostly found the plot of the book boring, to be honest. Firstly, it was hard to sympathise with a serial killer as the main character (though granted she only killed people who had themselves committed terrible crimes, and only in her drug-induced world, but it still was hard to connect to her). Also, I didn't really need all the graphic descriptions of exactly how she was fantasising killing people. Thanks, but no thanks.

Secondly, the story never really seemed high stakes enough. Sure, there was the risk of death if any of them actually got caught, but it honestly never really seemed like the bad guys were even getting close. There was one close shave that seemed like it was slotted in to try raise the stakes, but it still didn't help.

The whole idea of the plot was great, and I really thought I'd like it, but in the end, I was just a bit bored by it all.

Review - "City of Saints and Thieves"

City of Saints and Thieves
by Natalie C. Anderson
rating: ☆☆
published: 6th July 2017
spoilers? nope

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

City of Saints and Thieves was one of my anticipated reads for this year. From the synopsis, the book sounded as though it had a lot of potential to be amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked.

Most of the problems I had stemmed from the fact that the author of this book is white, and writing about Kenyan and Congolese characters. I realise that she has worked with Congolese refugees in Kenya and everything, and that's where some of the background for this comes from, but it's very very obviously written by a white author. And because that's how it felt, I had trouble actually getting into this book, and couldn't really connect with any of the characters.

I also had issues with the actual plot. It's supposed to be a murder mystery kind of thing, but if we're honest, there's actually no real investigating done by the main characters. It's all sort of reading through police reports and mumbling about how they need to do x and y, and then they go to the tech whiz and he gets it for them in a flash. Then the reveal comes out of nowhere. They don't even get close to finding out who might be behind it. They have no idea, but the bad guy then reveals his hand by kidnapping them even though they don't know who he is until that point. For this to be an effective mystery, you have to at least have them uncovering something that points towards the culprit. Otherwise it feels like the author's just gone and added it in as an afterthought.

The rest of what annoyed me was mostly just the usual YA stereotypes - of course the main character is incredibly pretty, it's just not going to work as a book if she isn't, and of course the gay character is camp as hell just so he can be slight comic relief, and of courseshe's not like other girls (she actually said this. My eyes near on rolled out my skull). So yeah. It was disappointing to say the least.

Review - "Raven Stratagem"

Raven Stratagem, The Machineries of Empire #2
by Yoon Ha Lee
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 13th June 2017
spoilers? small ones

Goodreads

“No,” Cheris said. “The war never ends.”

Galley provided by publisher

I'll be the first to admit that for most of the first book, I wasn't enjoying this series. Then the last 40 pages happened and suddenly everything ramped up a notch. So, going into this book, I was so much more excited.

Raven Stratagem picks up where Ninefox Gambit left off, except from a different point of view. Instead of being from the point of view of Cheris, we see everything through the eyes of a new Kel swarm - specifically Khiruev and Brezan, interspersed with the points of view of the Shuos hexarch, and one or two others along the way. While it was nice to see the old characters from a new angle, I did miss Cheris' voice as a narrator.

In this book, everything is higher stakes. Cheris (once you read it you'll understand why that part is kind of spoilerish) was not intended to survive the destruction of the Kel fleet in the first book, and as a result is persona non grata to Kel Command. At the same time, the Hafn are attempting to invade, and Khiruev's Kel swarm is the only one within distance of the Hafn fleet.

As with Ninefox Gambit, I found this a slow read. The difference between the two books was that I didn't get exasperated by the slowness of this one, partly because I knew what to expect in terms of writing style, and partly because the end of the first book had me hooked into this universe.

Perhaps I'm being stingy about my 5-star ratings all of a sudden because, while this book was very good, it didn't quite merit one of those from me. I did love the characters, and certain scenes had me so excited, but there was just something missing (maybe how good I felt the action scenes were? I'm not sure). But that doesn't detract from how desperately I'm needing book three now.

Review - "Heels Over Head"

Heels Over Head
by Elyse Springer
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 29th May 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This book was full of tropes that I love. There's the hate-to-love (or at least partial hate-to-love) trope, and the found family trope. And it's very cute to top it all off.

Heels Over Head is about Jeremy, a professional diver, and Brandon, who is all raw talent and no discipline. Brandon is hand-selected by the head of US diving (which is a little unrealistic given he's had zero training, but I'll let it slide) to join Jeremy under the coaching of Andrey. From the start, Jeremy hates Brandon because he is not as fully committed to the sport as Jeremy is. Brandon, on the other hand, just wants Jeremy to loosen up a bit. The rest of the story proceeds as you might expect, following the classic romance formula.

If there's one gripe I have with a lot of sports romances like this, it's that one of the main characters seems to always have to be incredibly deep in the closet, and also show some pretty intense internalised homophobia. This isn't a particular problem I have with this book - it's the genre in general - but this book does use that trope and it was a bit frustrating (I don't mean to say that's not ever the case, but it seems like the genre doesn't ever consider that maybe it could take the radical step of not having it).

Besides that, it was overall a good, solid, well-written book, and I'll likely end up reading a lot more by this author.

Review - "Flame in the Mist"

Flame in the Mist, Flame in the Mist #1
by Renee Ahdieh
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 18th May 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

There is such strength in being a woman. But it is a strength you must choose for yourself. No one can choose it for you. We can bend the wind to our ear if we would only try.

Galley provided by publisher

You would think, after the ending of The Wrath and the Dawn, I would have learned that the only way to read Renee Ahdieh's duologies is to read the first the day before the second comes out, so that I'm not left suffering over a cliffhanger for an entire year.

I didn't learn.

Flame in the Mist is a retelling of Mulan set in Feudal Japan. On her way to marry the emperor's second son, Mariko's convoy is ambushed and Mariko is left to die. Believing the ambush to have been the work of the Black Clan, she decides to infiltrate their ranks and find out why they tried to kill her.

Once again, Renee Ahdieh manages to weave a captivating story, full of twists and turns (and cliffhangers) that you would never expect. (Though you should probably expect the cliffhanger.) I saw none of the twists coming, and each had me a little more excited than the last. The characters are, as per usual, wonderful, and I loved each and every one of them.

So, really, the only complaint I have is that I now have to suffer an unknown amount of time until I can see this conflict resolved.

Review - "When Dimple Met Rishi"

When Dimple Met Rishi
by Sandhya Menon
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 13th July 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

When Dimple Met Rishi may just be the cutest book I'll read this year. And it's also so good. I read it in about 4 hours (2 of which were actually spent watching hockey, not reading), and stayed up late because I just had to finish it.

For me, the characters were the best part of this book. I fell in love with them within about 5 pages of meeting them (especially Rishi). I can't remember the last time that I adored any character almost immediately, but this book managed it for pretty much every one that was introduced. I really, really just don't have words for how much I loved them.

If there was one (really really minor) problem I had, it was that occasionally the writing got a little bit borderline on purple prose, but it happened like only once or twice so, as I said, really really minor.

Review - "Spellslinger"

Spellslinger, Spellslinger #1
by Sebastien de Castell
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 4th May 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

First thing you learn wandering the long roads, kid. Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story.

Sebastien de Castell's adult series, Greatcoats, is one of the best fantasy series I've read recently, and so I was intrigued to see what he'd come up with when instead writing for young adults. While I didn't enjoy it quite so much, it still had many of the characteristics that I love about Greatcoats.

The JanTep are a group of people living around an oasis that acts as the source of their magic powers. They are served by the ShaTep, who are JanTep who haven't succeeded in becoming mages. These ShaTep are often family members who, once revealed as having no powers, become a lesser class to the JanTep. Children gain their mage name at the age of sixteen, by passing four trials. So, naturally, there is a school for teaching magic. This was the major sticking point I had, especially to begin with, because "schools for magic" are done over and over, especially in YA fantasy, while they are used much less in adult fantasy. As a result, adult fantasy can feel more creative, so the start of this book at least felt a bit like it had already been done. Which meant I was thankful when the whole magic school thing turned out to not be even a major plot of the book.

What Sebastien de Castell does really well is keep the action going in a book. This is over 400 pages long, and I have a tendency to get bored around the 150-200 page mark of such long books, but that never happened with this book. There were never any lulls in the action, and it kept up right to the end.

If there is one thing I'd criticise about Sebastien de Castell's writing is that he's never quite able to write women of a certain age. Sure, he can write old women (very well in fact), and young girls aren't a problem, but it's ones that are in their teens to middle-age that always seem bland and are literally just there to serve the purpose of love interest. Yes, she did get some character development in this book, but that doesn't detract from the fact that she wasn't particularly interesting for the first 75% of the book or so. (I'm hoping the pattern whereby as we see more of her, she gets more interesting as in Greatcoats, continues.)

But overall, this book was very good. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm eagerly waiting for the second book (even if there does seem some promise of a love triangle. I suppose I'll just have to suffer that).

Review - "Goodbye Days"

Goodbye Days
by Jeff Zentner
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 6th April 2017
spoilers? not really

Goodreads

For the most part, you don't hold the people you love in your heart because they rescued you from drowning or pulled you from a burning house. Mostly you hold them in your heart because they save you, in a million quiet and perfect ways, from being alone.

Galley provided by publisher

Honestly, I should really have expected how much this book would wreck me. I mean, it's Jeff Zentner. The Serpent King actually had me in floods of tears so I should have known this one would too. And I did expect to an extent that it would, I just didn't realise I'd be reading through my tears at points (chapter 24 was especially rough).

I loved pretty much everything about this book, but if there was one thing I didn't it was the romantic subplot (although it never fully came into fruition it was definitely hinted at). I didn't necessarily think that Carver falling in love with his dead best friend's girlfriend was really needed. I mean, the plot would have been just as good if they'd been friends and that was it. I guess it added a bit of angst but it wasn't like that couldn't have been achieved another way.

But in general, the book was amazing, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to have their heart ripped out and torn up.

Review - "The Girl with the Red Balloon"

The Girl with the Red Balloon, The Balloonmakers #1
by Katherine Locke
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 1st September 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

I loved this book. Everything about it was so so good, and it was really enjoyable, even if I did take longer to finish it than I might have (reading slumps come at the worst time).

The Girl with the Red Balloon tells the story of Ellie Baum, who is accidentally transported back in time to 1988 East Germany when she takes hold of a red balloon. She finds out there is a group of people who work to help those stuck in East Germany escape to West Germany, using such balloons, but the one that transported Ellie back didn't work as it was supposed to.

The premise of this story is so original and it's written so well too. I loved all of the characters, especially Mitzi, Kai, and Ellie, and I'm sad this is just a standalone book. I can totally understand why it would be but that doesn't stop me wishing there was more from these characters.

If anything, there was just a bit too little action for me, but then again I need action almost every page because I'm so impatient and get bored so easily. It helped that the chapters alternated between different characters' points of view, though.

The ending was perhaps a little abrupt - they seem to be slowly working their way to a conclusion, and then all of a sudden everything's happening, and just as suddenly it's done. But that besides, I didn't have a problem with the pacing of the book.

Review - "Future Leaders of Nowhere"

Future Leaders of Nowhere
by Emily O'Beirne
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 15th March 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This book was so cute. Unfortunately, it often felt to me like there's not much more to it than that. Instead of having the camp with its political games as the central plot, and the romance the side plot, it has it the other way round, which leaves the side plot not so fully fleshed out as it could have been, and the romance is not quite strong enough to carry the book on its own.

The writing at times felt a little too much like purple prose, meaning I had points where I just kind of rolled my eyes and prayed for the story to move along already. I mean, you get things like "Because she is. Finn earths", which makes no sense. What is "to earth" even supposed to mean? That she's down to earth? Or that she's solid? Who knows.

Then there was a lot from both girls going on about how wonderful/amazing/brilliant the other was, and okay I get they're smitten but I don't need pages going on about it. It also seemed that neither would be able to admit to a fault in the other, which doesn't make for all that interesting characters, on the whole.

There were a couple of great moments later in the book, the first where Finn was like to Craig "you know bisexuality is a thing" after he points out she's been with a guy before. And the second was when Amira called Amy out for criticising her using her sexuality to get guys' doing what she wanted, and also vaguely slutshaming her. It was so wonderful. And there are so many good girl friendships going on in this book. I loved it.

Review - "The Broken Bridge"

The Broken Bridge
by Philip Pullman
rating: ☆
published: 2nd May 2017
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

DNF @ 45%

To be honest, I was disappointed by this one. I don't know if it's me misremembering how good Philip Pullman's writing is, or it's because this is an earlier one of his than His Dark Materials, but I was just underwhelmed by it.

The Broken Bridge tells the story of a mixed race girl growing up in a small, Welsh village in the 1990s. One day, she finds out that her dad wasn't married to her mother, as she had thought, but instead to another woman, and he'd had a child with her, before meeting Ginny's mother (meanwhile, not having divorced the first woman). And that revelation takes up the first half of the book. It's pretty tedious, to be honest. I was expecting some fantasy aspect to the book, but there was none.

It's understandable that if you're writing about a mixed race child growing up in a small, presumably relatively isolated, village in the 90s, you're going to have to touch on racism and microaggressions at some point. That's surely to be expected. Except every time Pullman approached the subject, he managed to make a mess of it. There is some clear internalised racism going on, made especially so when Ginny, who's mother is Haitian and studied art, refers to Haitian artists as "primitives".

"The lady from Haiti? They have a lot of painters there." "Yeah," Ginny said, "primitives. Peasants. I know about them. But she wasn't like that. I can't be, either. See, once you know about Picasso and stuff, Matisse, all the modern painters, well, you can't pretend to be a peasant who's never seen them.... You're stuck, really. You can't go back; you've got to go forward. My mother, she was studying art properly, like I'm going to do." "European art," Stuart said.

Ginny, herself an aspiring artist, should surely know better than to value the European artists over another style of art, let alone refer to that different style of art (coincidentally one with non-white artists) as primitive or lesser. It also seems that Pullman is using Stuart, a white guy, to tell her that this is a dubious opinion to hold. Especially when he goes on to tell her about Haiti, from his perspective (granted it's because she doesn't know because she's never been, but couldn't she have read about it at least?).

At this point, I just gave up. Coupled with the fact that the other black character, a boy who has been adopted by white parents, refers to himself as "a white kid with a black face" - which I get is intended to reference the fact he doesn't feel like he fits in anywhere but instead feels uncomfortable coming from a white author - I just had to stop.

Review - "Ninefox Gambit"

Ninefox Gambit, The Machineries of Empire #1
by Yoon Ha Lee
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 6th April 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

tw for implied rape in a flashback scene, implied suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts

Around 270 pages into this book, having skimread a few I'll admit, I was fully prepared to rate this book 2 stars. Up until then, it had been not all that interesting, bordering on tedious, with the only real bright spot being Jedao and Cheris' interactions, and the fact that Cheris is a wlw.

The book is essentially an extended battle scene, full of pages of tactical considerations. Some of these tactics are related to battle formations, which are computed using complex mathematical calculations, and the fact that every time one was used, Yoon Ha Lee went into a lot of detail about them, the book was slowed down immeasurably. Added to the fact that you just get dropped into this world with zero explanation of how it works, and that it's actually a very complex world for a sci-fi book, I found it hard to get into.

It took me a good while to understand that this Empire was underpinned by a specific, mathematically-derived calendar, and that any deviations from this calendar (presumably made by computing something new) were heretical. On top of that, there are six factions, each charged with a different aspect of life - much like Divergent. For example, the Kel - the faction Cheris belongs to - are the foot soldiers (and pretty much cannon fodder). In the past, the seventh faction, the Liozh, had turned heretic and so were destroyed. All this would have been helpful to know from the start, but I can understand why the author might not want to add a whole section explaining the world - it often makes the beginning clunky and unrealistic.

So, as I said, this book was heading towards a two star review from me, when the last 40 pages happened.

This is one of those books that sets you up so you think you know everything for about 90% of the book and then in the last 10% is like ha lol played you. Those last 40 pages alone were enough for me to boost the rating by one star (I was tempted to rate it 4 stars actually because they even made me look back in fondness on the 270 preceding pages of tediousness) and to want to read the next book. I think that if I now went back and reread this book, I would enjoy it a lot more.

On top of this, no one in this entire universe is straight. Cheris has only ever had female lovers, Jedao has had both male and female lovers, and they're also explicitly attracted characters of the same gender. A lot of the time it feels like authors don't necessarily write that part of the LGBT character, but Yoon Ha Lee does (Cheris more than Jedao in this book, but only because it's more like her POV - Jedao gets his turn in the short story prequels). In addition, in the short story Extracurricular Activities, there's a character who uses they/them pronouns.

In the end, this was a good book. I just wish I had enjoyed it right from the start.

Review - "Penance"

Penance
by Kanae Minato
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 6th April 2017
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Actual rating 3.5

Honestly, this is one of those books which I neither hated nor loved particularly much. It was a compelling mystery story, but it lacked something that meant I didn't connect with it as much as I might have.

Penance is the story of four women, 15 years on from the murder of their friend, Emily, in the village they grew up in. It's told as five separate accounts - letters or speeches or conversations - each of which provides a little bit more information about the killer. The final account is from Emily's mother, and draws the entire mystery to a close.

It's an easy and quick enough read, and the mystery itself is compelling, but there were parts which threw me, like when it turned out that Takahiro married Sae because he saw her as a human doll and he wanted to treat her as such and when it turned out Akiko's brother was sexually abusing his stepdaughter because his wife didn't want him to touch her so instead offered up her daughter and he accepted. It also felt a bit too short for me to entirely connect and sympathise with the characters (besides Yuka) . But then again, they probably weren't supposed to be entirely sympathetic.

So overall, it was a good mystery and kept me engaged enough to finish it in one night, but I never really fully connected with it.

Review - "Letters to the Lost"

Letters to the Lost
by Brigid Kemmerer
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 6th April 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

"You can't make your own path with your eyes closed."

Galley provided by publisher

How do I put into words how much I loved this book? It wrecked me. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I cried over a book, but this one made me cry at least twice and tear up many times more.

Letters to the Lost is the story of Juliet and Declan, both of whom have lost someone in their family, as they start exchanging letters after Declan responds to one Juliet has written and left on her mother's grave. It's an emotional bruiser of a book, with suckerpunches coming basically every page, no holds barred. It does this all the while being a far from complex story - it's about two people finding refuge in each other, while not knowing who the other is.

It's written in dual POV, so you get to put yourself in the shoes of each person. Which is good, because a lot of times when you have a dickhead character, like Declan is painted as in Juliet's POV to begin with, you don't get a sense of how they actually are because it's single POV. And that makes any sort of character development, unless very explicitly done, hard to believe. There was one time where I was a bit confused about who's POV it was, but that was just because it didn't change when I expected it to have (there was a reason behind it though).

A lot of things about this book really messed me up. Specifically, the ones based around the family relationships. There were some scenes, mostly revolving around Declan and his family relationships, that really got to me, and those were the times I ended up crying.

I don't know if I'll read another book this year that messes me up as much as this one (although Jeff Zentner's new one is out soon and just the blurb tells me I'm going to end up in tears). I read it in only a few hours too, and then had to wait for about an hour before I could leave my room because of all the crying. It's definitely one I'll be coming back to over and over.

Review - "A Crown of Wishes"

A Crown of Wishes, The Star-Touched Queen #2
by Roshani Chokshi
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 28th March 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

And the truth was that he was not afraid of being seen for what he was. He was afraid of being seen as someone who could never be more.

Galley provided by publisher

You know when it's an author's second book and the first one was so amazing that you're kind of worried that nothing can live up to that? Not so with this one. A Crown of Wishes is as amazing, if not more so, as The Star-Touched Queen.

The writing is just as gorgeous as usual, with some wonderful descriptions (especially of food and gardens) that bring the story to life. The setting this time is the Tournament of Wishes, in which Gauri and Vikram are competing. Gauri is Maya's sister, introduced in the first book, a princess who has been in captivity by her kingdom's enemies for 6 months. Vikram is the adopted prince of Bharata's enemies, who wants to be king and to be respected by the council.

The characters are also wonderful, and so realistic and their relationship is a hate to love one, which is one of my favourite tropes ever. They start off as enemies, on account of their kingdoms, and they develop so beautifully to fall in love. And Roshani Chokshi writes it so well. And writes it without any relationship-based conflict, which I always appreciate.

I think Roshani Chokshi is one of my favourite authors, on the basis of this book and the last, and from now on she'll definitely be an auto-read.

Review - "The Heartbeat Hypothesis"

The Heartbeat Hypothesis
by Lindsey Frydman
rating: ☆☆
published: 20th March 2017
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Honestly, 3 stars is probably not indicative of how much I enjoyed most of this book. I say most because, for a good three quarters of it, I was really liking it. The writing was good, the story was engaging, possibly the only issue I had was how quickly they got together (I feel like a slowburn would have suited this a lot more). And then the last quarter happened.

It started off with the reveal that Jake (the love interest) had been abused as a child, as in beaten to the point where he thought he would die. Implied multiple times this happened. And because we're all about using abuse as an angsty plot point apparently, this is only ever mentioned once. Never past that.

Then, at the same time as he's telling Audra about this, he makes this comment:

"But... what about your mom? I mean, was it just your dad who..."

"My mom couldn't stop him, even if she'd wanted to. Sometimes I don't know if she did want to."

Because if she'd wanted to stop him, wouldn't she have left? For her own sake? To save her children?

"She's mentally ill," he said, sliding off the bench. "But it's never been a good enough excuse for me."

Where to even start with this. The assumption that she didn't want to stop him because she didn't leave? The victim blaming? The implication that her having a mental illness was behind her not leaving? The fact that he thinks she's using that as an excuse not to leave? It's all messy. And I wouldn't have minded it so much if the narrative had called all these things out. But guess what. It does not. This is brought up this single time, and never challenged. Just thinking about this quote makes me angry and I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't rate this lower.

Tack onto this, the fact that, at the end, his mother burns down their house, killing herself and his father, and that this is painted as her "cracking"? Even messier.

There's also a point where Audra reads Jake's diary (violating his privacy much?) because she's so curious, and the contents of this diary imply that Jake has had or is still having suicidal thoughts. But don't worry (Jake says), he only ever thought about it, only ever planned where he might do it, he never really considered going through with it. And with that, this plot point is just brushed aside.

With all this, I feel like this book had ample opportunity to explore a love interest with a mental illness. The question is, whether I would actually have wanted it to, given how much it demonises his mother who does have one (an unidentified one, too. So don't worry, we aren't just demonising a single mental illness! It's equal opportunity demonisation).

So yeah. On second thoughts, I'm rating down.

Review - "Making Faces"

Making Faces
by Amy Harmon
rating: ☆
published: 21st February 2017
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

DNF at 15%

I may be a masochist when it comes to finishing awful books, but I am not so much of one that I will finish a book that makes me almost cry with how bad it is. I don't know if that's just me, because most of my Goodreads friends have rated this 5 stars, but I just can't do it.

Honestly, I knew from about the first chapter that I wasn't going to enjoy this one. The description Fern gives of Ambrose

"The squared-off edge of his sculpted jaw kept him from being too pretty, that and the fact that he was six foot three in his socks, weighed a strapping 215 pounds by the age of eighteen, and had a body corded with muscle from his shoulders to his well-shaped calves."

was just too much. If that had been because 18-year old Fern was infatuated with him that would be alright, I could accept that because then the writing style would change. But there was more

"Fern Taylor loved Ambrose Young, had loved him since she was ten years old and had heard his young voice lifted in a very different kind of song, but in that moment he reached a whole new level of beauty, and Fern was left reeling and dazed that one boy could be gifted with so much."

Because of course he's perfect at everything he does [biggest eye roll known to man].

And this writing style continues even when it's not in Fern's point of view (which was the dealbreaker for me - if it had been because of Fern's infatuation, I could have coped).

"Ambrose wasn't trying to be a jerk. He just didn't understand. And the little redhead with the crazy, curly hair was kind of freaking him out. He'd seen her before at school and knew her name. But he didn't know her. He wondered if she was special. His dad said he had to be nice to kids who were special, because they couldn't help the way they were."

The point at which I just couldn't take it anymore, was when Ambrose decided he wanted to join the army because

"Like the whole country, he wanted someone to pay for the deaths of three thousand people on 9/11. He wanted justice for the kids who lost their moms or dads."

"The United States was in Afghanistan, but some people thought Iraq was next. Someone had to go. Someone had to fight. If not him, then who? What if nobody went? Would it happen again?"

No consideration of the kids who would lose their mums and dads when the US invaded though, but I don't know why I expected otherwise. It's a book about war, written by an American author. What else is it likely to do? (Which I should have known before picking it up, etc etc - I knew it was about war, I didn't realise it was set in 2001.)

Also every time a character said something happened, or someone told them something, there was a flashback to that moment. Like, is that really necessary? And I don't know if it was just the formatting of the ebook, but it was hard to tell when the flashbacks started and ended.

So in the end, I just gave up. The prospect of finishing this book didn't appeal at all. I have better things to do with my time than force myself through it.

Review - "Off The Ice"

Off the Ice, Juniper Falls #1
by Julie Cross
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 28th February 2017
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Actual rating 3.5

This was a really cute read and, as a plus, had plenty of hockey being played in it. Off the Ice tells the story of Claire, a music student back in her hometown following her dad's operation, and Tate, a hockey goalie, who gets a starting spot on the team after the starting goalie drops out of the team.

Firstly, I really liked Claire and Tate's relationship, and the development of that relationship. They were both so supportive of the other, and it wasn't just a relationship based on physical aspects. The supporting cast of characters was also great, if at times, maybe underdeveloped (though more so with the characters who didn't appear so much, like Jamie and Tate's mum, which is understandable).

It was also so nice to see that there was no girls hating on other girls. I know this is a low standard to hold a book to, but when the plot has it like in this book, with one girl still in love with the main male character, while he and the main female character are getting together, all too often it seems to turn into girls hating on each other. But it didn't here (they even became friends), and that was lovely.

The book does also include child abuse and parents putting huge amounts of pressure on their child to do a sport. It seems to do well in dealing with that plot line, and what was nice to see was it wasn't thrown in at the end almost like an afterthought. It was set out from the start that the book would include this in it. A lot of books seem to have a tendency to just throw it in there, without any warning, and it feels almost as if they are treating the abuse as just another angsty plot point.

What would have been nice, though, would be if the book had also addressed the hockey team's coach's abusive behaviour. Because that's what it was. He made Tate face slapshots with only a glove, stick, and helmet, and that's incredibly dangerous. But it's kind of shrugged off by the players as "normal" for their coach. Which I could understand, if they don't know any other way, but Claire also sees their practice going on and notes how pressurised it is. And does nothing else. I hope that later books will address this though.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I'm really looking forward to more of this series.

Review - "Another Brooklyn"

Another Brooklyn
by Jacqueline Woodson
rating: ☆☆☆☆
published: 2nd February 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

I know now that what is tragic isn’t the moment. It is the memory.

Galley provided by publisher

Another Brooklyn is about August, an anthropologist, who, in Brooklyn for her father's funeral, sees an old friend, which brings back memories of her childhood and the formation and falling apart of her friendship with a group of girls. Most of the book is taken up with retelling her childhood, following her move from Tennessee to Brooklyn.

I'm honestly at a loss as to how to review this book. It is so so good. The writing is wonderful, and so evocative. Perhaps the only issue I had is how short it was - I could read Jacqueline Woodson's writing forever, so I would totally have been OK with another 200 pages added on.

Other than that, I don't have much more to say about this book. There's very little that actually happens in the book - it's all recounted - but despite that, I was completely hooked from the start.

Review - "An Extraordinary Union"

An Extraordinary Union
by Alyssa Cole
rating: ☆☆☆
published: 28th March 2017
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

You know those books where you just don't have a clear-cut opinion on them, you're kind of apathetic about them? This was one of those for me.

I loved the idea of this book, and the execution of it was good, but I just had a sort of disconnect between liking the idea and liking the main characters and their relationship. That's not to say I disliked them, but I didn't really get invested in them, and so I found it harder to like the book.

On top of that, the story seemed to drag a little. If it had dragged, but the characters had engaged me, I don't think I would have had a problem, but the combination of the two meant I was just a bit bored. Up until the end when everything started happening.

Also, the development of the relationship between the two main characters was kind of lacking. We know that Malcolm is drawn to Elle, but it seems very like a relationship based on him lusting after her - with the focus on her looks - rather than anything more concrete. In addition, he doesn't seem to know quite when to back off at times. She tells him multiple times that they can't be together, and he tells her she can trust being around him without him wanting her, but he stays around her and maybe sometimes seems to push the idea of them on her. Not in a way that felt hugely uncomfortable, thankfully, but it did feel like he wasn't respecting that maybe she knew better than he did on that topic.

Overall the book was good, but I just didn't engage with it as much as I might have.

Review - "Ensnared"

Ensnared
by Rita Stradling
rating: ☆
published: 18th December 2017
spoilers? a few

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

To be blunt, if I could rate this book zero stars, I would. I wouldn't even give it half a star - it does not merit it.

Let's start with the premise. It's a good one, a futuristic retelling of Beauty and the Beast, right? But the rose is not a rose, instead a robot named Rose. And the Beast is not a beast but a heavily facially-scarred man. At this, we get to the first sticking point. In the original, the beast is a man who is cursed to look like a horrific monster. So, is the author comparing the looks of a scarred man to those of a horrific monster? Apparently so. And if you follow that thread, then the curse appears to be either child abuse at the hands of his mother (which, I will come to later), or his terrible immune system which means he can't leave the house (in itself, framed as a result of his abusive mother never letting him leave). What seems like a good premise quickly turns into a mess.

So the premise is a problem. But perhaps the writing can solve the issues.

Not so. To begin with, the writing itself is tedious and the story drags immensely. I actually ended up skimming long scenes just because nothing was happening.

Secondly, Lorccan (the "beast") is a controlling and manipulative arsehole. I have numerous quotes saved related to this, but in the interests of keeping this review short, here are a choice few.

"You will come to the dining room every day at six exactly. If I am not in there, you will wait for me until I am. If I do not come, you will leave the dining room at seven." "Yes, sir." "You will not call me sir. You will call me Lorccan or Lor." "Yes, Lorccan" "And you will never come out of your room at night, ever." This he almost yelled.

"I cannot ingest food," Alainn told him. "I was assured that you could. That you could ingest it, then clean it out of your system by bringing the food back up," he sounded almost angry as he said it.

"You can go to your room," he said in a low voice. Alainn nodded. "Okay." "Go straight there. Once you are inside, you will be locked in for the night."

"Where are you?" she asked. "I am in my office, but I can see you." His voice sounded no less annoyed as he answered.

"What is going on?" he yelled. "I have... important computations to do. My systems are telling me my computations are more important than eating food with some man in the dark." He said nothing but after a second, his footsteps approached the bed. She swallowed hard and scooted to sit on the edge. "You will come to dinner." He was close, a hulking shadow directly before her.

So yeah. And this is the relationship I am supposed to be rooting for. There's absolutely no character development whatsoever either. Also, when she refuses to do as he is ordering her to, he gets upset and asks why she is so insistent on upsetting him. Tell me how this isn't a prime example of an emotionally abusive relationship.

Alainn, for about half the book, is pretending to be a robot for Lorccan. And it's during this first half of the book that they start a sexual relationship and apparently fall in love (though where that development is in the text defeats me). Which is terrible, because this is a huge deception, and Alainn is perfectly happy just keeping it up while also flirting with Lorccan. Don't you think Lorccan deserves to know not everything is as he thinks it is before you start up your relationship, Alainn? The first sex scene also happens immediately after Lorccan wakes up after a nightmare. I don't know about you, but on waking up from a nightmare, I feel pretty disorientated and not at all sure of what is going on. Lorccan, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have this problem. And there's no residual fear from the nightmare either. Alainn vaguely expresses not wanting to take advantage of him while he's vulnerable, but she doesn't seem like she's actually going to not have sex with him if he says he is.

There's also the whole thing where Lorccan's nightmares (and presumably his inability to go outside - though this is never explained, and if it is supposed to represent the curse, never resolved either) turn out to be a result of horrific abuse by his mother, which his father helpfully tells him is because his [Lorccan's] scars upset her. And there's never anything in the narrative to point out that this is abusive and victim-blaming in itself. And the abuse is genuinely only mentioned once. One time. All it does, is tell you what Lorccan's nightmares are about. And then it's abandoned. The true definition of using abuse as a plot device.

And then there's the point this review makes well. That Alainn does not care about Lorccan until she sees his scars and realises that she wants to help him. Which is framed as her "hero complex". Just when you thought this couldn't get messier, it does.

Also, there's hardly any evidence of a so-called "hero complex" anyway. More like Alainn's reckless with her own life, and others'. And then there's the whole 'her best friend was killed in a kidnapping' which a) why was she kidnapped? Because of her father's debts? Not made clear, and b) she appears to have suffered no effects as a result of the trauma. Maybe that is realistic, but if I'm supposed to believe that bringing up her best friend, as the robot does at one point, it doesn't make sense for her not to be thinking about her at least once besides this moment. Another thing that seems like a plot device just thrown in as an afterthought.

TL,DR; why didn't I dnf earlier.