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.