If you love If We Were Villains, may I recommend this book? I think the two have quite a few things in common, but this one is historical and, if my memory serves me right, more diverse. I loved it more, but this will be down to personal preference. I do think if you liked one, you'll have a good time with the other at least.
What can I even say about K.J. Charles at this point without sounding like a broken record? The writing? Super engaging, as usual. The characters? I was invested within the first couple of pages, also as usual. The relationships? Not just the romances, but all the different dynamics within the Seven Wonders were so good. And for a book that isn't even about a romance, why did the romantic elements still thrill me so much?
As a mystery, it probably could have been a bit tighter, or more effective, but I honestly just didn't care. I wanted to know what had happened, I wanted to see Jem reconnect with these people he once loved so dearly. I was salivating to get to his meeting with Nicky, because so much is made of him in the flashbacks, and it did not disappoint.
I don't know if this is the kind of book where you can predict the twists, or sleuth along with the main character, because as the reader you're missing a lot of information. But I liked how everything unraveled in the end, and if Charles chooses to write more mysteries, I'm there for them all....more
The premise had a lot of potential, but the book didn't manage to deliver on all of it, and that's mostly because the main character got in the way.
Toxic masculinity is the central theme of the story. The King's Cup is a competition between the male students where they score points based on their sexual prowess. Once Alyson, our main character, finds out about it, she starts the Queen's Cup as a way to get back at them. There's no point system, but the female students are officially part of the cup when they dump their boyfriends. We even get to see some of the elaborate dumping schemes, and those parts were fun to read about if you're in the mood for feminist revenge plots. But switching between that and Alyson being completely oblivious about her own boyfriend felt weird.
It wasn't too bad at first because I could buy into her being completely in love with him, and thus blind to his faults. But there is such a thing as too naïve, and Alyson soon hit that threshold for me. If she had been brought back to earth sooner, and had fully leaned into the Queen's Cup and turned the tables on Riggs, I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more. Regardless, it was entertaining enough, although I wouldn't necessarily describe it as "comic" in any shape or form....more
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
If you're looking for a quick, entertaining read, this book definitely delivers. The cARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
If you're looking for a quick, entertaining read, this book definitely delivers. The comparisons to The Inheritance Games are apt, but I think I actually enjoyed this more. The mystery felt more solid to me, even though some of the characters' actions and snap judgements still smack of convenience to move the plot along. That said, I think there was a good amount of focus on the relationships. I really liked the found family aspect, and how certain characters grew closer together by the end of this. ...more
Nobody is fearless, Bianca. Nobody. What matters is that despite your list, despite how long it is and how scared you are, you don’t give up.
If you're looking for a book that talks about what it feels like to struggle with your gender identity as a teenager, I think this is a great one to pick up. I can't speak to how accurate the experience is, but it felt like it came from a very personal place. Watching Bianca come to terms with their identity and how they proceeded to open up to people was really touching. Parts of their journey do feel a bit unresolved, however, especially when it comes to their family.
Where this really fell flat for me is the mystery. A YA mystery where a teen sets out to solve a murder is a really hard sell for me to begin with, but it can still work. However, in this case, a lot of the plot felt really convenient. They continuously stumbled upon the right people or the right locations to find the next clue. One moment that really stuck out to me was when Bianca and Anderson were interviewing someone in the victim's building. They asked this older woman a few questions, and the woman then asked them if they suspected foul play. They said yes, and she just nodded, and the conversation proceeded from there. I just can't buy into an adult just nodding along when she hears two teenagers are investigating a murder like it's no big deal, instead of immediately calling their parents, which is the normal thing to do. The resolution of the mystery borders on ridiculous, and the entire motivation behind it doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
So in short, would recommend for struggling with gender identity, would not recommend for the murder mystery.
Also, shoutout to the author for mentioning my favourite anime of all time, Case Closed/Detective Conan. ...more
I grew up with this series and others by Enid Blyton, and always really enjoyed my readingCWs:(view spoiler)[mentions of animal abuse (hide spoiler)]
I grew up with this series and others by Enid Blyton, and always really enjoyed my reading experience. I was curious to see what I'd think of them as an adult, and I'm honestly surprised how much I ended up enjoying this.
Does it hold up on reread? For the most part, I'd say yes. It's definitely dated, both in the language and the way gender expectations are handled. George doesn't want to be considered a girl because she likes to do the things that boys like to do. George definitely looks down on Anne, who is sometimes referred to as a baby because she's more scared than the rest. But there are also moments where Blyton pushes back against this, by making it known that Dick used to cry too when George states that boys never cry. However, the story itself is still a fun adventure, with tight pacing and a nice group of characters, and the kind of writing that makes it very easy to read....more
I read a fair amount of Nancy Drew books back in the day, way before I was tracking my reading, so while I am 80% sure I've never read this specific oI read a fair amount of Nancy Drew books back in the day, way before I was tracking my reading, so while I am 80% sure I've never read this specific one, I could be wrong.
It's definitely interesting reading this as an adult. When I was younger, I never noticed how dated the descriptions of their outfits were, for example, but it's something that stood out to me now. The writing itself doesn't feel too dated to me, but obviously the way the characters talk is, as are any cultural references.
This is a quick, fun read. Even though the characters are teens, I do think it works better for a middle grade audience. It requires a lot of suspension of disbelief with regards to the leeway Nancy is given to perform her investigations. I wanted to read this one specifically because it's the first time we meet Ned—I actually had no idea that this would also be Nancy's first time meeting him. For some reason, I thought they were dating even before the official start of the series....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
DNF'd @ 43%
I can tell you the exact line that made me decide to stopARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
DNF'd @ 43%
I can tell you the exact line that made me decide to stop reading this book:
If he was Hyde, then I would be Seek.
The writing style was my biggest problem, and that will be a matter of personal taste. I thought the author overused the phrase "my dear Henry" within the prose, to the extent that it irked me. The pacing was really uneven as well—I'm supposed to be invested in the relationship between Henry and Gabriel, but the entire development of it gets glossed over so that it feels like insta-love. It's a shame, because based on the content warnings at the beginning of the book, I actually thought the author was doing some interesting things with this retelling. ...more
Here's the most important thing to know if you're picking up this book: it's not a fantasy. It's not a romance. It is gothic literary fiction inspired by fairytales. Going in expecting anything else will lead to disappointment.
Why it's not a romance To me, a romance book means that there is a focus on building a romantic relationship between (at least) two individuals that spans the entire story. That is not the case here. Our main character, known only as the bridegroom, falls for and marries a woman named Indigo within the first few chapters, and they've been married for a few years by the time we get to the actual story, which is unraveling the mysteries surrounding Indigo.
Why it's not a fantasy To really explain why this doesn't count as fantasy, I have to talk about some things that could be considered spoilers. They won't reveal the plot, but will make certain things about the world clear that you wouldn't otherwise know for sure until the end, so I'll put it behind a cut. (view spoiler)[There is a lot of focus on fairytales throughout the story. When we meet Azure and see her with Indigo, we're seeing everything from Azure's point of view, and she believes in magic. There is an Otherworld that looks and feels special, the House of Dreams has feelings and shows her things, and Indigo firmly believes that they don't belong to this world and will be spirited away once they reach a certain age. There are also other off-hand mentions, like two types of whiskey, one that will fill your belly for the rest of your days but make you only able to speak the truth, and one that will leave you hungrier than before, but a polished liar. By the end of the book, it became very clear to me that there isn't actually any magic, and that almost everything can be attributed to a) childhood/teenage fancies, or b) introducing fairytale elements to their lives. The only thing that isn't clarified outright is whether the house is actually semi-sentient, but my conclusion by the last page was that it's very debatable that this is true, considering how unreliable our narrators are. This means that every single thing that would make this a fantasy book, is actually just people's imaginations. Hence, not a fantasy. (hide spoiler)]
That's not to say I don't think the book is worth reading. I actually really liked the way fairytales were such a central theme throughout. It's more of a character study than a book with much of a plot, but it was interesting to see how the Indigo we see in Azure's chapters became the Indigo of the present. The pacing was very slow, however, and this has to do with the dual timelines. It bogged everything down, and every time I felt like we were getting somewhere in the present, we'd be back in the past for a significant chunk, which made the bridegroom's story lose its urgency. I also found parts of it to be overwritten—I had to reread a lot of paragraphs, sometimes more than once, because my mind kept wandering from the words....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Having read and enjoyed The Appeal last year, I was really excited tARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Having read and enjoyed The Appeal last year, I was really excited to read more from the author. This one has a unique structure too—the entire book is in the form of audio files transcribed by specialist software. This means that almost the entire text of the book is annotated according to transcription conventions. For example, pauses are denoted by (...), the number of dots indicating how long the pause was. An indrawn breath is .hhhh, an expelled breath is hhhh, etc. And while this sounds fun initially, it ends up becoming tedious to read. It's not even that this book is very big comparatively, but 330+ pages of this was too much.
The plot itself, and the amount of it we get for the length of the book, felt lacking. The most interesting parts to me were the recorded phone calls, and the times when the main character quickly tried to stop recording, presumably because he was trying to hide something from us. Towards the second half, we get told the entire story of how Steve landed in prison to begin with, and while I understand the need for this part, I thought it was way too long. This goes double for the following of the Twyford Code. The idea intrigued me initially, but I steadily found that interest fizzling out the more I read.
The rest of my quibbles with the book are spoilers for the unraveling of the mystery, so unless you don't care about reading this, I'd suggest skipping the next part until you have.
(view spoiler)[The fact that Steve is an unreliable narrator didn't come as a surprise. I do think that the "twist" in both this book and The Appeal are very similar, namely that a character we've been reading about and hearing from ends up not being a real person.
I also thought the very last paragraph with the super simple code and even more simplistic secret message was completely unnecessary. (hide spoiler)]...more
While I can't say this series is a new favourite for me, or that I was fully blown away by any of the books, I ended up having a pretty good 3.5 stars
While I can't say this series is a new favourite for me, or that I was fully blown away by any of the books, I ended up having a pretty good time. The mystery in this one is a bit less compelling than the other two books, but I think the author made up for it by finally giving me character development. One of my main complaints initially was that the characters all felt like caricatures, and the second book didn't do much to develop any of them beyond that. For me, this third installment finally succeeded where the other two failed. I bought into the relationships, I bought into the romance, I bought into the way the Hawthorne brothers finally showed depth and complexity.
I want to take a moment specifically to discuss the romance, because I was half afraid that we would get a third take on the love triangle. Avery does clearly still care about Grayson, but fortunately the triangle is well and truly flattened. I thought Jameson and Avery worked, and Tahiti helped to make me more invested in them as a couple.
With regards to the story and mystery plot, it was a decent way to wrap everything up, even though the series could've ended just fine as a duology. I do think that what happened here was maybe a necessary catalyst for Avery and the Hawthorne brothers to grow beyond the shadow of Tobias Hawthorne....more
I had a pretty good time with thiCWs:(view spoiler)[bullying, infidelity, drugging, gun violence, murder, adult/teenager relationship (hide spoiler)]
I had a pretty good time with this. The characters were compelling, there was some very juicy drama, and the writing style was engaging. Some of the twists I saw coming, but others were a total surprise, which is always nice, especially because the author played with a few generalizations and managed to surprise me with the character growth.
Where this fell apart for me was the ending; both the motivation of the killer, and the way the reveal was set up, just didn't make sense to me. (view spoiler)[Olivia thinks she knows who the killer is (she's wrong), finds the actual killer (who she doesn't suspect), tells them that she knows who it is, at which point the killer pulls a gun on her, even though she wasn't suspecting them. Just...why? They could have gotten away with it. I just didn't buy the way it happened. (hide spoiler)]...more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had such a good time with this book. I loved the setting (isolatedARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had such a good time with this book. I loved the setting (isolated closed circle mystery on a space ship!), the characters, and all the weird elements that have to be part of this because we're dealing with a murder in space. I really appreciated how much effort the author made to make sure the science part wasn't neglected; the frustration of Tesla's lawyer being on earth and the communication delay getting longer and longer was palpable, but it also made everything feel more real.
Tesla, Shal, and Gimlet were delightful, and I loved spending time with them. The banter and humor between characters was fun. However, I didn't feel like the murder mystery had enough foreshadowing so that readers could figure everything out on their own, which is usually part of the fun for me, but it could also be that I just wasn't smart enough for it.
There's a small learning curve at the beginning of the book where you need to get used to all of the terms and technology that exists in the book, but I thought the author did a good job of easing me into it without a lot of infodumping. I also appreciated the way she dealt with Tesla's chronic pain, including Gimlet, the adorable service dog. One thing I did notice is that even though Tesla makes it a point to mention that people shouldn't just touch her dog because she is on duty, she also sends Gimlet off to distract people with cuteness and pets ridiculously often. And I know Tesla and Shal were on their honeymoon, but there was a lot of making out considering how dire the situation was....more
I think I liked this more than the first book. It still reads pretty young, and there were a couple of riddles that felt way too simple to be a challeI think I liked this more than the first book. It still reads pretty young, and there were a couple of riddles that felt way too simple to be a challenge for a family that supposedly was born solving puzzles of all kinds. Still not a fan of the love triangle, but we get a lot more Max in this book, and I absolutely love her. I would've liked to see more of Xander, though. He kind of got shoved to the background again after a promising start, in favor of the two guys Avery can't make her mind up about. Also really not thrilled with the way this family deals with potential murderers.
I do think that Xander and Max have a very similar energy to them, which brings me back to the main issue with the first book: the feeling that the characters are kind of caricatures of specific tropes. This book doesn't really show us any growth for any of them (well, maybe a tiny bit for Jameson? but it's hard to say for sure).
There's less puzzle solving here compared to the first book, where everything was a riddle. This felt a bit more traditional. I wasn't a huge fan of a lot of the riddles in The Inheritance Games (they just felt too easy for me), which might explain why I enjoyed the sequel more, but if you did really like that aspect, you might be disappointed with this one. It was a quick read and entertaining enough for what it is....more
I had a really good time with this! I enjoyCWs:(view spoiler)[violence, death of a pet, mentions of rape and sexual assault, drugging (hide spoiler)]
I had a really good time with this! I enjoyed the mixed media elements a lot, and the pacing of the story is pretty fast. Pip and Ravi are nice characters to follow. I liked Pip as an individual, even though she has a bit of "not like other girls"/quirky vibes about her. Ravi is my favourite, though, and he needs to be protected at all costs. I really liked the dynamic between them and how they slowly learn to trust each other.
For some reason, I didn't start theorizing until I was about halfway through, and I was wrong about a lot of it. There are definitely some loose ends, and I'm assuming those will come back to haunt us and Pip in the next few books. Definitely recommend if you're in the mood for a page-turner!...more
I wish I could stick with this one, because I do think that there's an interesting story somewhere to be found within these pages. UnfortunatDNF @ 21%
I wish I could stick with this one, because I do think that there's an interesting story somewhere to be found within these pages. Unfortunately, the narrative device used, which is snippets from different books interspersed with first person POV sections for our protagonist, is failing to keep me interested. The author teases us with a mystery, and then we get bogged down in the history of two characters that I haven't had time to care about, as well as random snippets like what our main character experienced on the plane....more
While I understand what this book was trying to do thematically, and while I do think it succeeded in a very brutal portrayal of the grooming of underage girls, this is, first and foremost, supposed to be a mystery thriller, and it utterly failed at that. It's extremely predictable, not very thrilling, and all based on a mother determined to keep something a secret from her daughter, even after dying, that her daughter, really, really should have been told.
George has been obsessed with Aspera, a resort catering to elite clients, ever since its owner, Matthew Hayes, found her as she was running away from home. He told her she was beautiful and she should come to Aspera when she was older. Her mother worked there and was adamant that it was no place for George, but refuses to tell her why. And the why is a doozy. I just don't buy that it's more important to keep this secret, even when she knows she is dying, than to explain in graphic detail why George needs to stay the hell away from that place. It's a very flimsy premise.
I do think there are some interesting discussions in here about the perceived value of beauty, and how much young girls can hang their sense of self-worth on being told they're beautiful, and how money equals power, especially for men. I just wish the underlying story had been better....more
This is a pretty fun cozy mystery. If you're more used to reading mysteries, you'll probably figure out the "whodunit" aspect much faster than I did. This is a pretty fun cozy mystery. If you're more used to reading mysteries, you'll probably figure out the "whodunit" aspect much faster than I did. I do think this book didn't have nearly enough Scrabble considering the name of the series, and I would've liked the romance element to be a bit stronger than it was, but other than that it's a nice palette cleanser....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Writers learn about themselves through their words, and that educati
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Writers learn about themselves through their words, and that education feeds our work, making it richer. Our lives leave an impression on the page, but the page marks us, and each word we write prompts change, so in the end it is impossible to tell whether the writer or the imagined world is most altered by the process.
The story wasn't what I was expecting, but it definitely kept me interested until the very end. Unfortunately, I think this book was bogged down by excessive exposition and explanations for the character motivations, when just letting them do something and leaving the reader to ponder why would have worked better. Definitely more telling than showing, but I can't tell if that is just the way this author writes, or if it's a choice he made because of the narrative device, which is kind of a book within a book. David Asha, a writer, is the one supposedly telling us this story. He introduces the book, after which we get multiple chapters from Harriet's perspective, and then interrupts it during the climax to take over the telling of it again. I wasn't a huge fan of the structure, and I think it's part of what dragged the pacing down in what should have been the most exciting part.
I can't discuss anything about the story and what did or didn't work for me without spoiling it, so unless you do not intend to read this book or have already read it, I'd advice not clicking the spoiler link.
(view spoiler)[First things first: The Doctor would not approve of this book. The plot hinges on time travel, where Elliot travels back in time as Ben to save his parents, and then teach his younger self enough physics to make this entire journey possible. A lot of time travel stories have pretty strict rules about meeting with different versions of yourself. In this book, there is no paradox and no consequences. It's interesting, but also a lot to wrap my mind around, and I do think it makes everything too easy in a way. Ben knew exactly what to say to Elliot, because he had lived it. I get that this is on the light side of scifi, though, and I don't think the author really intended to explore the ramifications of time travel and meddling in your own future (even though I think that could've been very interesting). Also, I know it's technically not a huge age gap, since Ben and Harri are close to the same age when they meet, but the reveal that Elliot is Ben soured what was already a not great romance. It might just be me, but having Harri desperately in love with someone she also knew as a child feels a little icky.
Everything wrapped up a little too conveniently, and while it does end up making sense somehow, there are a few elements that feel very forced. For example, Harriet started investigating the Ashas because of a book she found that had a plea for help with a warning that someone was going to kill someone else written in the margins. But by the end, we find out that nothing was going on, and those lines were written there purely because Ben knew this had to happen for Harriet to start investigating. We also never get a real explanation for why Ben decided to travel to a time where he couldn't reproduce this technology, rather than joining his parents in the future, but I guess that wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic. But that's part of the problem; everything that's in the book that could have been a touching or sad moment, feels like it was put there just to manipulate the reader, and not because it's the logical way for the story to go. (hide spoiler)]...more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
CWs: Islamophobia, racism, murder
One giant, endless conflict with a
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
CWs: Islamophobia, racism, murder
One giant, endless conflict with a lot of nameless dead civilians. Killed by drones, which somehow made Americans feel less responsible, because drones aren’t people. But only a person can issue a kill command.
This is my first book by the author, and one thing is very clear to me: she has something to say. She doesn't shy away from harsh truths, whether it's related to the politics within the US that cause suffering in other countries, Islamophobia, racism, and double standards, or the discrimination between Muslims based on what sect they belong to. That's something I can definitely appreciate.
One thing I learned by being invisible: People see what they want to see and decide it’s the truth. But it’s not. Let me show you. Here are some things people thought were bombs: A backpack. A sack lunch. A loaf of bread in a brown bag. A camera. An e‑cigarette. A science project about circuits. A clock.
The story is told through two perspectives: Safiya, an aspiring journalist determined to get to the truth behind the string of threats and attacks on Muslims within her community, and Jawad, a young Iraqi boy who was murdered. Jawad's chapters, while shorter, almost always landed like a punch. Reading his perspective was honestly heartbreaking, and not only because we discover early on that he is dead, long before anyone thinks of his disappearance as more than a possible kidnapping. The discrimination he faced made my blood boil, and I wish incidents like this were fiction. Unfortunately, this is reality for a lot of Muslims living in the supposed lands of the free.
The If a boy hits you, he probably likes you excuse. The If he calls you a bitch, maybe it’s because you rejected him line. Because it’s always, always the girl’s fault, right?
Safiya's perspective was focused more on trying to find the perpetrator behind the attacks, hampered by a school principal who staunchly denies that anything is wrong. The pacing of the mystery is pretty satisfying, and although I called the twist pretty early on, that didn't detract from the story.
There's a mixed media element here, where we get to see news articles and blog posts from different perspectives related to the Islamophobic attacks and Jawad's disappearance. I thought they were interesting until the very end; the last chapter is mostly written in this style, and it became too much for me to enjoy. Each chapter also starts with a mix of facts, truths, alternative facts, and lies. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. Some of them were very vague, and others were too on the nose.
As is often the case when it comes to books with Muslim characters, I was left wanting more from the representation. There aren't a lot of references to the Muslim characters practicing their faith, and I've lost count of how many fictional Muslim girls end up dating a white, non-Muslim guy....more
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