Alice Rue Evades The Truth starts as a cute, situational comedy romance: Alice Rue, a sad, dowdy receptionist, saves her office crush's life when he hAlice Rue Evades The Truth starts as a cute, situational comedy romance: Alice Rue, a sad, dowdy receptionist, saves her office crush's life when he has an accident at work. The paramedics, thinking she's the guy's girlfriend, say so to his family, who immediately adopt Alice as one of their own. And if the white lie wasn't bad enough, bisexual-disaster Alice finds herself falling for Van, the comatose guy's hot lesbian sister.
I enjoyed parts of the book - the romance was soft and realistic and I liked Alice's rekindled relationship with her cousin - but it's also a bit darker than I expected for a romcom. Alice's past as a kid and young teenager struggling with her parents' illness and death left her deeply traumatized, and the woman she falls for is also dealing with MS.
I dropped my rating to 3 stars because after a few chapters, the book became repetitive, Alice caught in a spiral of lying and guilt that she can't find a way out of. The pacing felt a little off as well: Alice becomes completely obsessed with Van's family in under a week, feeling like they're the family she never had. She develops intense romantic feelings for Van after only a few conversations, and feels like Van's apartment could be the place where she'd feel at home. The speed with which all of these feelings happened left me feeling slightly uncomfortable, like Alice was in deep need of psychological help (which, to be fair, would be the case after all the trauma she went through). It took away from my enjoying this book as a light-hearted, queer romance.
A cute debut though, and I'll be looking for what this author comes up with next!
**Thanks to the publisher for pre-approving me for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.**...more
Copper Script has everything I love about a KJC novel: two lonely souls finding solace and deep understanding with each other while solving a murder mCopper Script has everything I love about a KJC novel: two lonely souls finding solace and deep understanding with each other while solving a murder mystery and righting wrongs. I loved the 1920s London setting which reminded me of Will Darling, another favorite. Loved the cast of supportive characters and how inclusive KJC’s narrative always is.
And the romance? Perfection. Restrained Aaron and outspoken and bitchy Joel make for such a heart-warming couple, and I loved watching them support and uplift one another (among other things ...more
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I was excited about this book when I read the des**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I was excited about this book when I read the description: a chronically ill, disabled dancer is hired as a spy in a cutthroat court.
I'm sorry to say this book did not live up to its exciting, fast-paced premise.
While the first pages were gripping and gave me high hopes for the rest of the novel, the story began to drag very soon. Vassalie (the dancer MC) is sent to the court where she's supposed to spy on the brother of the king who unjustly imprisoned and tortured her. Thus starts a series of scenes that don't progress the plot or the character's arc whatsoever. Vassalie goes to dance rehearsals. She dances for the court's guests. She magically attracts the sympathy and confidences of key members of the court who all think she's amazing. She manages to hide her disability and all the terrible pain she's in and seems able to perform complicated dance choreographies with little to no limitations. The author begins the book with a very moving preface about her own condition and how it inspired her to write this story. I want to support her one hundred percent. But I actually felt Vassalie's negation of her pain and chronic fatigue, and how she's able to push through it to achieve her means, wasn't empowering. Vassalie takes pride in hiding her condition and in the fact that nobody notices it, which seems like an outdated way to approach disability. Of course, this is just my perception of the disability rep in this book, and perhaps any rep is good rep when there aren't many examples in fantasy/romantasy yet. I'll be sure to read other reviews, especially those written by disabled readers, to see if they feel differently.
I would have continued reading despite the slow pace and repetitive scenes and the fact that we still don't know who the love interest is at the 50% mark (when the book is marketed as a romantasy). But I couldn't. All other comments aside, the writing was insufferable. This book is so overwritten it began to get on my nerves pretty quickly. Every detail of every setting in every scene is described in excruciating detail. The first person POV, which should easily lend itself to some interiority, makes instead for stilted, overdramatic writing. The MC's every physical reaction is described in the following over-the-top dramatic way:
The breath catches in my sternum. I choke on a swallow. Heat crowds my cheeks. A growl travels up my throat along with a score of insults. Cold settles against my bones. My dinner swarms in my gut, threatening to rise. Hatred rises up my throat. I swallow, my stomach once again ready to yield my dinner. Hate burns through me, like a flame set across oil, igniting at its flashpoint (...) as it spread into every vein, every capillary.
(these are literally just a few examples I highlighted when I started noticing, but there are many more. Sometimes, telling something in simple words instead of showing it in obnoxious detail is JUST FINE.)
[image]
The author also uses a ton of similes that are so distracting. I had to stop and try to picture what those must have looked like:
Lips that contain a multitude of secrets. [his eyes] sweep over me like a sandstorm. the claps resound like the snapping of bones.
[image]
All of this to say, the constant eye-rolling made reading this book difficult. I have to DNF (even though I hate DNF'ing ARCs and especially ARCs of stories I want to support).
If you're looking for stories with a disabled/chronically ill MC, and you're not as sensitive as I am about the above writing quirks and don't mind a slow read for the sake of romantasy, this might still do it for you....more
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
(See book content wa**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
(See book content warnings at the end of my review)
A Theory of Dreaming is the all-vibes, no-plot sequel of the fan-beloved A Study in Drowning, which I enjoyed a lot more. This book has Preston and Effy (who each get a POV here), but little of what made ASiD a gripping, gothic read. The book takes places in the city where our MCs go to university. There's politics in the background (university politics over a backdrop of war between Llyr and Argant). Preston dreams of a place below the sea; Effy goes to class for a chapter or two then sinks into a deep depression.
While the gothic vibes of the book rival those found in ASiD, I found the narrative extremely slow and spent many pages feeling confused about the characters' thoughts, feelings, and the direction of the plot. Or rather, the absence of plot. Ava Reid said she didn't plan to write a sequel for ASiD and it shows: though Effy and Preston have an equal share of chapters in the book, their plot lines don't really intersect. There are parallels between the book Effy studies and the story underlying the palace below the sea that Preston dreams of, but those parallels are never acknowledged by the other. There's no real character development after the events of ASiD. From a psychological perspective, both MCs were very static and spent the book thinking they're unworthy of love and a burden to the other. Aside from being repetitive, it annoyed as a reader because most of the "conflicts" could have been easily solved with honest communication. Instead, the characters kept things to themselves (so as not to be a burden) and hid their worries and fears from their partner and friends. The fact that they both did that made for a very frustrating read at times.
(the book commits one of my big pet peeves in literature: inconsistent "cultural inspiration": you'll find entire phrases in French, supposedly the native tongue of Argant, and then you'll have a made-up Argantian language and English-sounding names for Argantian characters (Preston, Oliver...). I don't know much about Welsh culture, but I imagine Ava Reid butchers it for the sake of this book as well)
We still get to spend a lot of time with Effy, and particularly Preston, so if you're an Effy or Preston fan, this book might still make you happy. I was so excited when I got the ARC. I enjoyed the writing, the vibes, and some of the side characters who popped out more than the protagonists: Master Gosse, Angharad, Preston's friend Lotto and Effy's friend Rhia. Beyond those, this sequel felt a bit pointless to me, and I wish it had built more on the events and character arcs of the first book.
CW: depression, graphic depiction of attempted suicide, overdose by sleeping pills, suicide attempt recovery, parental emotional abuse, implied father-daughter incest.
Awake in the Floating City is the quietly heart wrenching tale of an unlikely friendship between a centenarian and the woman tasked to care for her, iAwake in the Floating City is the quietly heart wrenching tale of an unlikely friendship between a centenarian and the woman tasked to care for her, in a near-future San Francisco ravaged by constant rain. The book is presented as cli-fi, but I’d advise not to go into it expecting to find much of that genre. The dramatic change in weather, and its consequences, stand more as a metaphor for changing times and isolation than an important premise of the story.
Don’t expect a fast-paced plot either. The writing is deep and contemplative, focused on description and the inner life of the narrator, a woman named Bo who used to be a painter but now works as a social worker and caregiver to pay her bills. Her friendship with Mia, the old woman she’s hired to care for, takes a whole year to develop. It gives you time to get to know them, their environment, and the people that come and go in their lives.
At first, the very slow pace bothered me. But soon I was totally won over. I was looking forward to spending time with that story every evening. Sometimes Bo’s choices baffled or irritated me (let’s just say if I was stuck in a city where it rained non stop for years, I’d be gone by the second week) but in the end I was empathizing with her and happy she stayed. I also really appreciated the representation of very old age via Mia’s character. In our modern Western cultures where very old people tend to be erased, or old age treated as an uncomfortable inconvenience, it felt powerful and unique to read a story centered around a hundred year old woman. Mia’s age and all the ailments that come with it were addressed with respect and profound love for the character.
A recommended read if you enjoy thoughtful, slow-paced stories that delve deep into the characters’ daily lives and emotions. The writing is gorgeous - Susanna Kwan is clearly in commend of her skill despite this book being a debut.
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
A poignant and poetic coming of age story about James, a gay teenager who becomes fascinated, then falls in love with Luke, his charismatic neighbor aA poignant and poetic coming of age story about James, a gay teenager who becomes fascinated, then falls in love with Luke, his charismatic neighbor and best friend. The writing is lyrical and the descriptions of the narrator’s small village and surrounding nature are visual and vivid. The turmoil, pain, and beauty of first love/desire was also very well rendered here, and the MC’s thoughts were relatable and realistic for his age.
This novel reminded me of Call Me By Your Name in tone and theme - so if you’re a CMBYN fan you’ll probably love this one, too.
Read as part of my personal challenge to read more novels by non-US authors this year!
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
Well-written and thought-provoking. The novel goes through the POV of four women living in a future where men hHappy publishing day to Eleven Percent!
Well-written and thought-provoking. The novel goes through the POV of four women living in a future where men have all but disappeared from society, and the few men remaining are kept in Centers for the benefit of women's pleasure and procreation. While the concept of the novel is sold as a reverse The Handmaid's Tale, it felt closer to Alderman's The Power, to me. Despite what the blurb makes you think, 'men' are virtually absent from Eleven Percent. The focus is on the four MCs - all women - and the female-only society in which they live.
The novel pushes some bio-essentialist TERF theses to the extreme (men are dangerous, can't control their urges, women are naturally more gentle and caring and can never hurt each other etc.), in order to create a dystopian world that is very far from perfect (for men, certainly, but also for women and anyone who doesn't meet biological expectations). Some characters make transphobic/sexist comments, misgender, or hurt/abuse trans characters, but those behaviors, though in line with the confining binary world of the book, are never excused by the narrative.
Each woman's POV was very interesting to read, each character flawed, imperfect, and morally gray. I liked that there was no big HEA or overarching moral message to this book, which - given the theme - was rather refreshing (and in that sense, deserves its comp with The Handmaid's Tale.
I'd recommend this book to readers looking for a good dystopian novel focusing on nuanced female characters. I would caveat this by saying it's not a novel for the squeamish or the faint of heart. Mind the content warnings before reading.
Read as part of my personal challenge to read more non-US novels this year.
**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
The height of romance fiction, to me, is when two characters see each other for who they really are and fall irrevocably in love for it.
That trope is The height of romance fiction, to me, is when two characters see each other for who they really are and fall irrevocably in love for it.
That trope is at the center of K.J. Charles' new novel (a duke goes on an incognito month-long trip during which he meets a 'gentleman of uncertain fortune' who will assist him in his quest, both lifting each other up and falling for each other along the way), and BOY does it deliver. I love KJC's books in general and this one has definitely become one of my favorites. The Duke at Hazard is everything KJC does best. If you love smooth, intelligent writing, vivid characters, adventure, self-discovery arcs, dramatic reveals, hot smut, angst with a happy ending, and heart-melting romance, this is the book for you. As for me, I will re-read this soon for sure!
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
This was everything I’ve come to expect from a Lex Croucher YA fantasy romance! Great characters, fantastic queer rep, easy to follow writing, snappy This was everything I’ve come to expect from a Lex Croucher YA fantasy romance! Great characters, fantastic queer rep, easy to follow writing, snappy banter, and a delightful main pairing.
The plot of this Robin Hood reimagining flowed seamlessly and it smoothly took me from one scene to the next. Clem (the epitome of the ‘sunshine’ side of the pairing) and Mariel (the ‘grumpy’ MC we slowly get to know and love) were both well fleshed out and with interesting levels of depth. Usually, historical novels written in a modern tone irk me, but Croucher’s voice for their characters is so consistent, and their humor is so engaging, it fits perfectly with the concept of this novel.
A recommended book for anyone looking for an engaging romcom with a likeable cast of queer characters to read this summer! ...more
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
What a beautifully-written, wistful, hopeful, and e**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
What a beautifully-written, wistful, hopeful, and emotionally touching novel. It is rare to read books that leave you feeling more knowledgeable, or at least more curious, about things you didn’t know about before.
This novel made me want to know more about the history of Ancient Mesopotamia, Yazidi culture, and current threats to water worldwide. all thanks to the engaging stories of three main characters that span centuries and locations.
I was curious to read a novel by Elif Shafak and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read this one - I will for sure explore the rest of her bibliography now....more
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sharing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I didn't enjoy this book as much as othe**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sharing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I didn't enjoy this book as much as other readers did. At this point, I think it's a "it's not you, it's me" problem. I just don't connect with Allison Saft's worldbuilding and detailed descriptions, they tend to confuse me and pull me out of the story. The fact that it took me over a month to read this average-size novel is proof of that.
On the positive side, I thought Lorelei Kaskel was Saft's most interesting character so far. Well-rounded and developed, it was easy to get a clear picture of her, her emotional baggage, and the burdens she carried at the beginning of the story. However, she was also an emotionally closed-off, angry character. While I usually connect strongly to those types, the way Lorelei was written made it hard to be completely invested in her.
The romance also felt a bit rushed, possibly because the "enemies" phase lasted so long, and because we only saw Lorelei's side of things (an emotionally distant and rather unreliable narrator). I couldn't really see why Lorelei had singled out Sylvia to "hate" when all the other side characters in the expedition around which the plot focuses are, in theory, equally unlikable and in the same position as Sylvia. It would have helped to see why Lorelei pinned after Sylvia (words or gestures that showed Sylvia wasn't the same as the others) besides finding her beautiful. And then we suddenly find out that Sylvia also pinned for Lorelei all along.
Finally the other side characters all felt very similar to me. No one was likable (they were written that way, but villains and assholes can be very enjoyable characters to read! here they all felt rather flat), and (view spoiler)[when a few of them died, I didn't feel anything, nor that the other characters missed them in any way (hide spoiler)]. The author built this whole history between them, but they all still spoke and behaved like petulant teenagers rather than adults in their mid-twenties with political responsibilities.
I'm giving this book three stars because it was enjoyable at times, with an interesting main character, but not engaging enough to have me turning the pages well into the night. ...more
After World was nothing like I expected, and that's a very good thing. The summary on NetGalley made me curious, but once I was approved for an ARC I After World was nothing like I expected, and that's a very good thing. The summary on NetGalley made me curious, but once I was approved for an ARC I deflated a bit. I wasn't that excited to read yet another story of AI taking over the world and/or discovering it had human feelings. I'm glad I pushed past this hangup and started reading.
Having prefaced my review with what After World isn't, let's dive into what it is. And what it is is, probably, one of the most realistic depictions of an apocalypse I've ever read.
In a nutshell: when asked the question, "How can we save the Earth?", AI responded: "Get rid of all humans." What happens in this novel is the result of that answer. In a world devastated by human greed, climate change, and massive species extinctions, a virus is released that renders all of humanity sterile. Civilization collapses after that.
The story follows Sen, the last living human, 1,500 days after the release of the virus, and the 'storyteller' AI in charge of writing Sen's story to upload her on humanity's new virtual home. I thought the side plot of the AI 'falling in love' with the human it is tasked to write a story for happened toward the end and doesn't really bring much to the story, so while it's a big part of the synopsis, I'll encourage you to read this novel even if you're not into that kind of storyline.
What I found so interesting in After World was the ruthless, thoroughly researched care the author put into describing a world where humanity is slowly going exctinct while the world 'rewilds.' No dramatics, no sentimentality, no hopeful message in the end. I loved that the author also references several post-apocalyptic novels in this one, including my beloved Station Eleven, while the characters reflect on how different the real end of the world is.
After World is truly masterful, beautifully written, with a fascinating structure alternating past, present, and chilling 'documentary' asides. It made me think of our place in the world as individuals and as a species, the role we play in our ecosystems. The author's conclusion isn't optimistic. And after reading After World, it's difficult not to agree. An absolute must-read if you're a fan of post-apocalyptic/cli-fi novels. And it comes with a reading list I can't wait to dig into!
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
It was such a pleasure to be around the characters of This Vicious Grace again. Particularly Alessa and Dante, but the rest of the cast was equally deIt was such a pleasure to be around the characters of This Vicious Grace again. Particularly Alessa and Dante, but the rest of the cast was equally delightful.
The romance part isn’t always easy to land when our MCs already got together, but the premise of the romance plot in this book worked great to build and maintain the tension between Alessa and Dante. Making them unable to touch each other was genius (and I wish Ms Thiede had leaned in the UST even more lol). While it was crystal clear they loved each other, it was also wonderful to read about this perfect/imperfect relationship, where you love someone so much yet are still insecure in their feelings for you, where you feel like you have to keep your issues from them because you must appear strong or you fear they won’t love you anymore. Alessa and Dante are extremely endearing characters for that—strong yet filled with very human flaws, so in love with their partner yet unable to see what the other loves so much about them.
As it was the case with the first book, I felt like the build up to the final “battle” was a bit longer than necessary (retrospectively, it also had little bearing on the conclusion of the plot except to advance parts of Dante’s character arc, which might have been done differently?). As a result, my reading of the book grew much slower past the second half.
It doesn’t really change my overall appreciation for the world Emily Thiede created (mixing in her Italian roots to create a place and culture that was familiar yet unique) nor her characters. I enjoyed this duology a lot and will recommend it to fans of fantasy and romance alike, as these books strike the perfect balance between the two genres.
**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
Oh, miss Saft, I’m so sad I didn’t love this book as much as your previous one. Especially after reading in your acknowledgments that it wasn’t an easOh, miss Saft, I’m so sad I didn’t love this book as much as your previous one. Especially after reading in your acknowledgments that it wasn’t an easy one to write nor an easy couple years in your life.
A Fragile Enchantment was a long book. Way too long, considering how little plot it contained. Funnily enough, for such a drawn-out story with so many descriptions, i had the hardest time getting a clear visual sense of the characters and the places. The pacing of the romance felt off as well: I knew it was supposed to be a slow, ‘enemies to lovers’ burn, but I disliked how fast Niamh forgave Kit for being, let’s be honest, really f**king rude and hurtful in their first meetings. Then they were in this weird limbo of getting to know each other through interactions that didn’t really progress their romance or their character arcs. And then boom, they were in love. There was a bit of hand wringing about the fact that she was a Macklish (Irish?) commoner and he was an Avlish (English?) prince, but everyone seemed to be cool about it rather quickly.
On a similar note, the discrepancy between Kit and Jack’s royal status and the way they talked and behaved kept jarring me out of the story. For a buttoned-up crown prince inordinately concerned with appearances, Jack began confiding in Niamh awfully quickly. I had a hard time believing that a prince would even know who Niamh was, let alone open his heart to her and tell a common seamstress about his innermost worries, when he’d only known her for a couple of days. The same went for Kit, who fell in insta-love with Niamh and not once considered their difference in rank and power. Considering the historical realities of common girls who caught the interest of men in power, this wasn’t addressed enough and it made me uncomfortable through the book.
Overall, the novel felt both too long and disjointed, like some plot lines were tacked on much later: the side plot with Lovelace and the Macklish protests didn’t really bring anything to the story; the romance(s) felt rushed; many side characters lacked a purpose or personality. I thought the magic system was very cool, but regretted that it wasn’t a bigger part of the plot. The same story could have been written if, say, Niamh was ‘just’ the best designer/seamstress in the country. Magic didn’t really progress the plot.
I will still happily read Allison Saft’s next books when they come out. Her writing is lush and has a lovely gentleness to it. That said, if you’re looking for a place to start in her bibliography, I’d recommend A Far Wilder Magic over this one.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
I'm sad to say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first one in the series. The tone of voice and pacing issues that already limited my engagementI'm sad to say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first one in the series. The tone of voice and pacing issues that already limited my engagement while reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries really hindered my experience here. The structure of this second novel was so close to the first as to feel very repetitive (view spoiler)[(travel to a new country, meet the wary-turned-friendly local villagers, meet the scary-turned-friendly local faeries, sneak into a courtly fae’s realm, return victorious) (hide spoiler)]. The beats I described even fell in the same places as the first novel. I felt like the author had just changed the names of the locations and faeries while the plots of the novels stayed virtually the same.
Despite the similarities in plot, I might have enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands more if the pacing was so maddeningly slow. It takes about a third of the novel for Emily and her group of sidekicks to get to the location of their research (a fictional village in the Austrian Alps this time), then another third until any real plot-propelling action happens. And even then, the pace doesn’t pick up, bogged down with useless descriptions of nature, trees, skies, castles, and every fae and faun that Emily encounters. I get that this is in part due to the choice of writing this book as the diary of a scholar – but there’s a reason why academic theses rarely make for heart-pounding page-turners (to my reader friends in academia: ily nonetheless!). Perhaps Emily is too bland and boring a character to generate any kind of thrill in a reader. It was impossible to relate to her overly analytical mind coupled with her constantly short temper.
While the secondary characters of the first book were endearing and well-defined, in the second book I couldn’t tell the difference between the Austrian villagers, who all sounded the same to me. Ariadne, Emily’s niece, was bland and rather useless in the plot. Farris Rose didn’t bring anything either. The “mystery” of de Grey and Eichorn (view spoiler)[petered out the moment those characters appeared on page (hide spoiler)]. Aside from Wendell and Shadow, the characters in this book lacked good enough characterization to make me care about what happened to them. And that includes Emily.
Lastly, the romance subplot was honestly just so… lukewarm. I never got why Wendell was so crazy in love with Emily, who sounds to me like a very unappealing person, both from a personality and a looks standpoint (does she ever brush her hair or wash her clothes??). Similarly, I found Emily’s endless dithering about whether or not she should accept Wendell’s proposal annoying – perhaps because it was never made clear whether she loved him in a romantic way, since all she does is whine about his exasperating habits and his fussy personality. Emily and Wendell had close to no romantic chemistry in the first book, and the second book managed the feat of quelling the little chemistry they had until pretty much nothing was left. And that annoyed me too, because the potential of having a beautiful, sassy faerie king as a love interest is honestly endless and it was completely wasted here.
I usually speed through the last chapters of a novel, but with this one I was bored from start to finish. It took me two weeks to finish this book, when I normally read a book this size in a couple of days. It honestly made me sad because the first book of the series was good, if not perfect. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you really, really loved the first installment and are dying to get your hands on the sequel.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**
Merged review:
I'm sad to say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first one in the series. The tone of voice and pacing issues that already limited my engagement while reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries really hindered my experience here. The structure of this second novel was so close to the first as to feel very repetitive (view spoiler)[(travel to a new country, meet the wary-turned-friendly local villagers, meet the scary-turned-friendly local faeries, sneak into a courtly fae’s realm, return victorious) (hide spoiler)]. The beats I described even fell in the same places as the first novel. I felt like the author had just changed the names of the locations and faeries while the plots of the novels stayed virtually the same.
Despite the similarities in plot, I might have enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands more if the pacing was so maddeningly slow. It takes about a third of the novel for Emily and her group of sidekicks to get to the location of their research (a fictional village in the Austrian Alps this time), then another third until any real plot-propelling action happens. And even then, the pace doesn’t pick up, bogged down with useless descriptions of nature, trees, skies, castles, and every fae and faun that Emily encounters. I get that this is in part due to the choice of writing this book as the diary of a scholar – but there’s a reason why academic theses rarely make for heart-pounding page-turners (to my reader friends in academia: ily nonetheless!). Perhaps Emily is too bland and boring a character to generate any kind of thrill in a reader. It was impossible to relate to her overly analytical mind coupled with her constantly short temper.
While the secondary characters of the first book were endearing and well-defined, in the second book I couldn’t tell the difference between the Austrian villagers, who all sounded the same to me. Ariadne, Emily’s niece, was bland and rather useless in the plot. Farris Rose didn’t bring anything either. The “mystery” of de Grey and Eichorn (view spoiler)[petered out the moment those characters appeared on page (hide spoiler)]. Aside from Wendell and Shadow, the characters in this book lacked good enough characterization to make me care about what happened to them. And that includes Emily.
Lastly, the romance subplot was honestly just so… lukewarm. I never got why Wendell was so crazy in love with Emily, who sounds to me like a very unappealing person, both from a personality and a looks standpoint (does she ever brush her hair or wash her clothes??). Similarly, I found Emily’s endless dithering about whether or not she should accept Wendell’s proposal annoying – perhaps because it was never made clear whether she loved him in a romantic way, since all she does is whine about his exasperating habits and his fussy personality. Emily and Wendell had close to no romantic chemistry in the first book, and the second book managed the feat of quelling the little chemistry they had until pretty much nothing was left. And that annoyed me too, because the potential of having a beautiful, sassy faerie king as a love interest is honestly endless and it was completely wasted here.
I usually speed through the last chapters of a novel, but with this one I was bored from start to finish. It took me two weeks to finish this book, when I normally read a book this size in a couple of days. It honestly made me sad because the first book of the series was good, if not perfect. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you really, really loved the first installment and are dying to get your hands on the sequel.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**...more
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would given the description. The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, reminiscent of GreDNF @ 36%
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would given the description. The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, reminiscent of Greek myth (Hades and Persephone with the passage of seasons). But the pacing was very slow. I'm a patient reader but after many chapters with no much happening, I had trouble staying engaged and caring about the characters. I hate to dnf ARCs but this book dragged so much I kept being simultaneously surprised and discouraged by the read percentage displayed at the bottom of my Kindle. After a while I noticed what bothered me most about the author's writing style: every small action had to be described in great length, which made for a rather boring read:
Deep into the night, I walk back to my room with weary footsteps after my courtyard vigil. Autumn was nowhere to be seen tonight, and I wonder if he loses faith in me. My sandaled feet echo softly in the midnight silence, heavy in the Temple halls.
Every action has a descriptor, every noun has several adjectives, every verb has its adverb... it was way too overwritten for my tastes.
If the quote above appeals to you and you enjoy books with slower pacing, introspective MCs, and well-described worlds, this book might be for you.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I've got mixed feelings about this book.
I would consume an**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I've got mixed feelings about this book.
I would consume any media that’s inspired by When Harry Met Sally, my favorite romcom of all times. So when I saw the description for this book, I knew I had to read it. I enjoyed this well-written, heartfelt slow burn queer romance between a commitment-phobe and a hopeless romantic even though it’s rather long for a romance (by the end of the book I felt like we could have done without a few chapters). The nods to WHMS weren't obvious beyond the fact that the story is set in NYC, the MCs are dealing with mental health and neuroses that prevent them from acting like rational adults at times, and the basis of most of the dialogue is banter. It was a smooth read, witty and funny, with interesting side characters.
It's a shame I never completely warmed up to the two MCs. Ari started off as fun and relatable as a struggling comedian making a living in the NYC gig economy and having lots of commitment-free sex, but fter a while she didn’t have much else going on for herself. Her constant thoughts of and talk about sex were supposed to appear as a defense mechanism but instead made her look very shallow. Josh, on the contrary, begins the novel as a thoroughly unlikable, privileged white asshole. He does something in the third or fourth chapter of the book that I found very hard to overlook, and that I thought was brushed off a bit too quickly in later chapters.
Still, I couldn’t put this book down until the 70% mark. That’s when things started to not work for me. There were maybe too many misses and twists for my tastes. The structure being very similar to WHMS, if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know the kind of twists I mean. In book form, though, it read as if the MCs were making themselves deliberately miserable for no good reason. Ari’s unwillingness to consider/admit her feelings for Josh felt very immature. Josh’s insistence made him look a bit pathetic and I wanted to shake him until he dropped the matter and left Ari with some of his dignity instact. I also felt some chapters were there to up the "tension" but didn't progress the characters' development at all. If anything, the "subway ride" chapter, which happens after it looks like Ari accepts the idea of a relationship with Josh, made me more confused about how Ari reacted later (i.e. freaking out in the bathroom, why-did-we-ruin-our-friendship mode.) The smut was good, but the drawn-out hand-wringing before and after was too much and the characters could have gotten to the conclusion much sooner without negative impact on the book’s pacing.
It was an enjoyable read overall, and the stuff I didn’t love might be a case of personal taste. I felt the same about Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, and since both novels are re-written Reylo fics, I came to the conclusion that Reylo-fic-converted-to-original novels might just not be my thing. ...more
I was SO excited to get this ARC. Naomi Alderman’s The Power was one of my favorite reads of 2021. I knew, when I read the summary of her new novel, tI was SO excited to get this ARC. Naomi Alderman’s The Power was one of my favorite reads of 2021. I knew, when I read the summary of her new novel, that this one would be right up my alley. A questioning of our relationship with tech, AI, hegemonic mega companies, and survivalism, all wrapped in Alderman’s fast paced plot and vivid characterizations? Yes please.
The novel doesn’t disappoint. Alderman’s prose seamlessly alternates between straightforward dialogue, lyrical descriptions, and philosophical speculation. Her treatment of current events (the barely controlled progression of AI tech, the omnipresence of and overdependence on a handful of tech companies (the parallels between the novel’s three fictional companies and Apple, Meta, Amazon were both fun and frightening to read), humanity’s headlong destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity, the rise of political polarization and staggering inequalities) will match many a reader’s preoccupations. The recurring motif of the future, our choice to witness it passively or change it actively, will also resonate. Alderman does a truly impressive job tackling all these topics in a well-thought-of and carefully plotted manner, while intermingling them with the personal story of a handful of characters the reader can’t help but root for: a small group of tech workers turned activists, a survival expert, and yes, even the founders and leaders of the very tech companies accused of doing a not insignificant part in the destruction of the planet. The diverse representation is the cherry on the cake that is this very exciting novel: non binary characters, gays and lesbians, Asian and Black ladies, all of whom kick some serious ass. A very exciting and enjoyable read that asks (and occasionally answers) some important questions.
In conclusion: I’m in love with Naomi Alderman’s brain and I will keep reading everything she ever wants to put out in the world.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**...more
This book takes the reader on a journey around Earth’s orbit with six astronauts/cosmonauts. It’s not sci-fi (if we except a small side-story about anThis book takes the reader on a journey around Earth’s orbit with six astronauts/cosmonauts. It’s not sci-fi (if we except a small side-story about another team of astronauts on their way to the moon), it’s rather a day-in-a-life story, quite literally (the novel spans an “Earth day”, or several orbits during which we witness the sun rising and setting over different parts of the earth), but also a deep dive into the astronauts’ thoughts, what dreams or ambitions brought them there, what goes on in a mind both physically confined and made to witness the unaccountable beauty of Earth and the endlessness of space.
The facts supporting the story were really well-researched and I felt like I was learning something while reading the novel. The ideas expressed were beautiful, deep, and made me pause several times through the book to reflect on them and highlight them for future re-reads.
I would describe it as a slow-paced, philosophical book about the limits and limitlessness of the human condition rather than a book about space. Beautiful, haunting, moving. A short but impactful read that I’ll definitely recommend....more