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.