acozyreaderlife's Reviews (408)

Daud sets up an amazing world. Amani is taken from her family and forced to fill the role as stand in for Maram, future Queen. Amani is physically altered to be Maram’s double, and must learn to act and pull off being her stand in. She must also not slip back into being herself. Maram is very cruel to Amani. Amani mascarades at parties as Maram, and tries to fool Maram’s fiance Idris, but she is caught. Idris knows she isn’t Maram, and calls her out on it. Amani after weeks of standing in place of Maram is able to be herself with someone. She then begins to fall in love with Idris, and he with her. She must fool the Vath who have taken over the empire.

Amani then meets Arinaa who is part of the rebellion and promises to be a spy on the Vath for her. Amani and Idris’s relationship gets stronger. (They are so cute!) Amani joins the spies and has to keep watch over the Vath. She then finds out that the rebels plan to kill Maram. She takes Maram’s place at an event where the assasination will take place. She goes to protect Maram, but Maram later finds out that Amani knew about the plot and so no longer trusts her. At the event Amani is almost assasinated. Maram ends her friendship with Amani, and reverts back to her cruel self. And Amani is a prisoner, separated from Idris once more. This book was so good, I can’t wait for the next one!

This was a really good book for middle grade. I thought the story was pretty good and had it’s scary moments. As a kid this would probably be one of the best books. There were alot of Harry Potfer references which I thought was awesome. I liked all the tie ins with the mirrors, it was really cool. I only took a star away because I’m such a big fan of V.E. Schwab’s adult books, and this was different from that. But I think this is a really cool concept for a ghost story and I’m interested in what happens next!

I loved this remix of Pride and Prejudice it was so great! It was a fresh take on a classic. If you’re a Pride and Prejudice fan you’ll love this. I like how she kept the core character traits of new characters. A brilliant retelling.

Time's Convert was my first book by Deborah Harkness that I have read. I remember back when Border's Books was a thing I saw her 'A Discovery of Witches' book on the shelf and thought it sounded cool. Mainly because I love fantasy novels and witches are awesome. But 'Time's Convert' was not the amazing fantasy novel I imagined it to be. I read A LOT of fantasy books, but Time's Convert read like a really bad TV show. There was zero character development, at all. All of the characters were so bland I could barely remember who the characters were beside who was a witch or a vampire. The writing itself wasn't the worst I've read, but it was pretty bland. The plot of this book was split between Mathew's flashbacks of his life and how he became a vampire, up until 'the present day' when he is waiting for his love Phoebe to be fully changed into a vampire so they can be together again. There were also a couple of boring sex scenes, that were pretty cringy. My main problem with this book was that the characters all read like they are human. There's nothing extraordinary about the characters except that they are labeled 'witch' or 'vampire'. There wasn't much magic. I thought the whole family dynamic was at least interesting but this book really could have been edited much more. If the meandering scenes from the present had been cut I think it would have been a much more interesting read. The best parts of the books were the flashbacks.

This book was so good! Considering the time period it was set in this book was very scandalous! But to be honest Archer put himself in this situation! He was clearly in love with Countess Olenska but he can’t be with her because she is married. And of course Countess Olenska is besties with May. Olenska and Archer are ‘lovers’ throughout the book. Then Archer sees May and falls in ‘love’. But it’s more like an infatuation. But he deludes himself into being in love with her. It’s actually pretty tragic because he can never be with his true love, and has to suffer through the rest of the novel longing for Olenska but they are married to other people. I really liked the book, but in the end May dies and when Archer is on a trip abroad with his sons he goes to Olenska’s house but he doesn’t call on her. He just leaves. It’s such a scandalously amazing book. Is this the absolute most beautiful writing? No. But this book is really good.

I really enjoyed the ending of this trilogy! I was so scared to read this book for so long because I didn’t want it to end! I thought the plot of the book was really good. Kaoru had to defend her people and take on the job of resurrectionist for the chimera. I also LOVED all of the Zuzanna and Mik scenes. I love them so much! This book again, in Laini Taylor style broke my heart into a thousand pieces too many times to count. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to read it, but I was so absorbed in this world. Laini Taylor writes such beautiful prose that I couldn’t stop reading!