I read the 5th book of Harry Potter about a week ago and one of the things I didn't like is that the book was big to keep reading just one PO3.5 stars
I read the 5th book of Harry Potter about a week ago and one of the things I didn't like is that the book was big to keep reading just one POV and I really wanted to get to know the other characters more. This book did the exact opposite ...more
I loved the start of this but I didn't like the ending. It was so fun to read tho I really couldn't stop! This happened to me so many times an3.5 stars
I loved the start of this but I didn't like the ending. It was so fun to read tho I really couldn't stop! This happened to me so many times and I should be upset that I loved this so much only to be disappointed by the end but I'm really not.
I loved every character in this but especially Jaime, he was one of the sweetest boys I ever read about and I love him! I wish we had his pov and I would scream my lungs out if we get a book totally about him! I love Rose, Sidney and the mom, I love Dan and their father too. I love Joydeep and Sasha. I LOVE EVERYONE! And it's a rare occasion that I do, but if anyone can make me feel that it'd be Emma Mills and she did. I loved the relationship between some characters and how it developed, especially between Nina and her father, also Nina and Dan.
This book is about Nina, a highschool senior who in order to pass her radio broadcasting class needs to group with her childhood friend Jamie, whom she's been ignoring for the last couple of years. With Sasha and Joydeep the group is aiming for an easy A, just play 90s music and let the show take care of itself. Should be easy right?
I love that plot and writing. I was hesitant at the start because I know school projects, they never really are described correctly in books while in reality, it's just one doing most of the work. This though felt real, because that group dynamic was true enough. There was carelessness, there was staling to the last minutes but there was also friendship and working together.
The family aspects of this were everything to me and I would totally read this if it only had the 3 sisters and their mom hanging around at home! Dan was a good addition to that mix and I love how Nina had her doubts at first. To me, it felt so real that the development in their relationship would be small and done through actions rather than just having a talk, I love how they started and how they ended even tho it's not the biggest change it's subtle and feels real. Same thing with Nina and her father. I saw that ending coming but I still love how it's not just your typical one, family relationships are complicated and sometimes they aren't just a "I hate you now" thing.
Still with all these good things, I think it could've been better. I don't like the romance much and I think of all the development in characters and their relationships, the romance was the worst. It felt too much. I also wanted to see some more things wrapped up nicely or if not then give me the second book that I deserve! I want to know what happens to Rose and her classes and I so want to know about Jamie's parents. I do like some openness in my endings but I think those two are very important things that define those two characters and I want to understand them better. I also hated that interview at the end because it felt so lucky! I guess with a title like that I should've expected something like this but it honestly was too convenient.
I do recommend this if you want a sweet contemporary about friends to lovers, about family and friendship in general....more
-This is my least favorite one so far. -I was afraid that moving to a more YA story would mean that the magic of the story and that child play3.5 stars
-This is my least favorite one so far. -I was afraid that moving to a more YA story would mean that the magic of the story and that child playfulness to it would be lost and while it's still there it's not the same. -It's also my fault and that of my brain which likes fishing for plot holes. When the focus is on the plot I always try to break it down and there are some that I couldn't ignore in this one. -There was more drama in this than I liked personally. -I like that Snape is the only one that talks back to Harry and I love it when Harry doesn't get his way :)
Finally, I was lead to believe that Ginny and Neville play a bigger role in the books and that their development is good, but in this one there's none of that, so I am disappointed but there's still more books so I shall see.
I was going back and forth about my final rating, I was about to give it 3.75 and round to a 4 but ultimately I expected more from this book consid3.5
I was going back and forth about my final rating, I was about to give it 3.75 and round to a 4 but ultimately I expected more from this book considering all the 5 star ratings I've been seeing and so I think 3.5 is a fair rating. I guess this isn't a popular opinion but I think this could've been better.
It's very hard to explain what went wrong for me because I don't even know what happened. I started the first page of this and I couldn't stop reading, I didn't lift my eyes from the pages until I ended the first chapter, after that I went to sleep that night happy as happy can be. Come the next day and I read and I'm enjoying it, loving it even, the writing was really good and it had complex, interesting characters and the plot... Well, that's when I started not caring about the book.
Maybe because I read Every Heart a Doorway, which felt very similar at least when it comes to the concept of doors taking you places. Actually the whole concept of the doors wasn't that original, but I powered thru hoping that a beautiful writing can make up for that, which it really should have but there were some problems, the book was in the third person, but sometimes it shifted to 1st and 2nd person and that annoyed me and I stopped enjoying it after that. I think the main problem is with the plot tho, not the writing, bc honestly I wasn't looking for or anticipating anything, I wasn't afraid for the characters.
I also think this book focused on the wrong theme or at least focused on the themes I like least. I felt that romance was more important than family and friendship. I personally don't think it should be a competition between those things but this is what the book made me feel.
I loved these characters tho, which sounds kinda weird but they are complex and real and I love them! Locke is probably my fav, not in an I'd die for him way, bc I kinda hate him, but I for so long hoped to read about a character that loves but does it absolutely wrong! It was honestly so satisfying to see someone do wrong things but believe wholeheartedly they are doing right.
You should read this, I can't tell if it'd be for you or not but I liked the things this book addressed, like race, sexism and even emotional child abuse....more
I keep saying this with every book in the series but it's very true! Not much action, good character development and I'm left confused on how 3.5 stars
I keep saying this with every book in the series but it's very true! Not much action, good character development and I'm left confused on how I feel! I think the reason for that is from book 1 there's a promise of war that will start soon but we don't see much of it and I'm honestly a bit sad bc I want to see more of the magic system in fights! We're at the last parts of this series and for me something big enough should've happened by now in this world.
But I'm happy with the characters in this series, they are definitely worth it. And the ones I thought I'd hate are the ones I actually really like, mainly Vivia, she's becoming my fav.
I'll admit that my hopes for the next book aren't that high, and I don't know if that's good or bad but I'll still read it....more
I liked Riyria books and this one was so similar to those. I should've loved it right? Well, in theory yes I should have but in reality it jus3.5 stars
I liked Riyria books and this one was so similar to those. I should've loved it right? Well, in theory yes I should have but in reality it just was unexpectedly un-epic. I thought going back in history and exploring the myths and legends of the Riyria world would be grander than the adventure of two guys and a bear terrorizing a village.
I hope the rest of the books are bigger in scope and higher in stakes, that's what this one suggested it'd happen but I'm not going to let my expectations get high after this. ----------------------------------------------- Buddy read with PhD in faking your way through life...more
I’m gonna take this first line right here to recommend this book right away, I mean I really do see why people would love this, so give it a 3.5 stars
I’m gonna take this first line right here to recommend this book right away, I mean I really do see why people would love this, so give it a try you never know.
If you told me before I started this that it’s a fantasy with a yakuza like clans in the early 1900s with cars, guns, planes and they use magic in jade stones. I would’ve said that I don’t know how I feel about this. And I still don’t.
Characters
If I must give one reason and one reason only to my lack of enjoyment for this book it’d be that I didn’t really relate to any of these characters, and at one point I even told Hamad, if any of them die I wouldn’t really care (how heartless of me!🙂)
And to go 180 degrees against what I just said. I really like the female characters in this book! No, they are not my favorite or anything like that but I felt the struggle they went thru to get where they are now. And I’ll be honest I thought sometimes that maybe they are exaggerating bc there wasn’t this leading male figure that stopped them nor there were any rules that discriminate on sex grounds. But it was apparent in the society, in the very male stacked hierarchy of the clan and once I read on I actually appreciated this book more. One, because it didn’t just put one male as the bad guy and be like get rid of him and society will fix automatically, this problem goes way deeper than that, and two it showed me how ignorant I can be sometimes, I mean after all I don’t have the smallest idea on what’s like being a woman.
Other than that, I must say Lan, Hilo, Shae and Anden all felt very unrelatable to me. They weren’t bad or anything, but you know how basically every character in a fantasy has someone in their family dead when they were kids? As much as overused that is, it’s basically a way to sympathize with the characters. These characters do have a past, but it’s also the family business that makes me not sympathize nor empathize really. Can I really empathize with a mafia like clan leaders that are fighting for territory and trying to monopolize the most valuable substance in this world? This is not to say that these characters don’t have struggles like any normal person would, they definitely do but here’s the thing, none of those characters showed sympathy to others, and I mean outside the clan, if we talk inside the clan then yes they did but that only makes me feel even stronger about this, it makes me think of tribalism, and believe it or not I still witness it in the real world and I don’t like it!
The romance was lacking and I didn’t enjoy the rare moments anything romantic happened, and that’s that.
World
Here’s an idea that seems not to exist. How about an Urban Fantasy that actually has some traveling done in it?!
Granted I haven’t read many Urban Fantasies but seriously what’s up with that? The High and Epic fantasies are filled with characters doing nothing but traveling and now with the modern setting and all the technologies available you choose one state to be the entire world?! The only Urban Fantsy I read that showed other countries was Daughter of Smoke and Bone and I loved it when it did that!
I didn’t really notice the lack of world building in this book till later on. There are mentions of other places and one character did study abroad, but there weren’t like any races or cultural differences apparent in this book. But okay let’s say this book is Asian and on its own is different from all the European fantasies out there. Here’s the problem tho, money is part of world building and I only noticed it when two characters were discussing money and they mentioned the currency in this world. I was nearing the end of the book so it struck me that I didn’t even know what currency they use in this world? So, I searched the ebook to see if maybe I missed it, and the first mention of the “dien” currency is on CHAPTER 42!!! It is so bazar that in a book about mafia, territory and dealings it takes this long to mention money! More than that the currency is mentioned 4 times in the entire book in just 3 chapters. I would've loved to see more of this world, I actually was fooled by the map at the beginning of the book and thought this would be a good one on that regard.
Magic system
It was good but unfortunately could’ve been so so much better this had great potentials! I’m talking allumancy (Mistborn) good. But no, it wasn’t very well explained and I can ask a dozen question and not have answers to how it works, and unfortunately, nothing suggests this would be explained in future books. The other thing I must say is Anden is at an academy that teaches how to master jade powers and not get addicted to it. I thought this is the perfect setup to teach us (the readers) about how it works but almost all of Anden POV were not school related, he talked about trials but we never seen him undertake any. I admit that a school for magic/assassin is beginning to be an overused thing and I’m a tiny bit happy about it but also I needed to understand more, and now that I think about it why does this school even exists? I understand the point of it but what I don’t understand is how much do these people know about jade to start a school for it?!
Plot
The plot was good, it’s not quite like anything I read before and it did grip me for some moments of the book when I felt like the characters are lacking. I don’t want t spoil anything, the book is about two brothers their sister and a cousin they have, the siblings are the leaders of a clan and we go with them as they go head to head with their rivals to see who gets to call the shots around here and have the jade, it’s all about the jade in the end.
Other than that, I can’t say much except the writing was good, and after all what I said I didn’t feel bored reading this, I enjoyed it and I hope you do too.
Project Runway meets Mulan I only know Project Runway bc (back when I actually watched TV) this channel keeps rerunning it and I always stumbl3.5 stars
Project Runway meets Mulan I only know Project Runway bc (back when I actually watched TV) this channel keeps rerunning it and I always stumble upon it, but if that made me feel anything is hate!
So I didn't think this book would be my cup of tea buuuuut I tried it anyway bc POC author! And boy was I glad I did that and I was glad too for my ability to sense diverse books just from the writing and the tone they set! Okay to be fair my ability doesn't get all the praise bc I suspected it but there were small things that I absolutely loved and you so can tell it's not from a white writer and to me one of those is the MC calling her father Baba, that was just ❤❤❤
I honestly didn't expect to love this but I did, it was really good! I do feel like the story went off on a tangent in the middle section which threw me off the main plot a bit but even that on its own was done well. I can't give this more stars because I think it's very YA for me, not that I hate YA but I'm starting to feel that YA is such a wide range that I can't trait them all the same, and coming off another YA that destroyed my heart I have to say that this falls in the middle of my YA range.
So I still do recommend this and I think it has good characters and at least to me an unexpectedly very good plot!...more
That was one heck of a foreshadowing! I loved the world and the theology in this book and the writing was really good, however, I kept feeling some sorThat was one heck of a foreshadowing! I loved the world and the theology in this book and the writing was really good, however, I kept feeling some sort of detachment from what's going on, I can't quite point what it is bc really even the characters were interesting and if not likable then I shall say understandable. One thing is I really want to read the series bc this was just a novella....more
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