amelianotthepilot's Reviews (835)

This was a really fun Frankenstein-adjacent story! The plot follows Mary an orphan who happens to be the great niece of Victor Frankenstein. From a young age she's always been interested in science but being a woman in the 1800s the best she could do for her future was marry a scientist who respected her as an equal, or so she thought. Her marriage quickly falls apart with her husband after a miscarriage and gambling problem. As a result, they move up to his family home in Inverness and begin a desperate project of attempting to recreate life from the inherited Frankenstein notes Mary has. 

A wonderful queer and age of science story with murder, scientific politics and racism and sexism of the time. 

It was a bit slow and the beginning and my only disappointment is I wish Nessie was more heavily referenced/alluded to.

Cozy fantasy Gilmore girls and practical magic book this was not.

This book had so much going on man. Gilmore girls and practical magic vibes sorta yes but also Christianity, cancer death, family reuniting, and a baby entrapment plot.

Our main character Sadie is a casual witch in a small town, she runs a witchy bakery with her Grandma in town and all of the townspeople ?are vaguely witchy as well? or at least accepting and don't care.  Sadie has been told all her life that in order for there to be balance in the world, as a result of her having magic, she will go through four heartbreaks in her life. She has already been through two heartbreaks, her boyfriend dumping her and leaving town and her twin brother Seth randomly leaving one day, but now she's faced with a family member dying of cancer and the return of both her ex and her brother. All this while learning about an absolutely insane curse on her family and having to solve that too. 

This book has so much going on really. Between every chapter, there's a recipe for whatever food was mentioned in that chapter. This was frankly really annoying, but also unwanted. If she wanted to write a cookbook, do that instead? Or maybe include all the recipes in the back, or on a blog? On top of that there's basically three different plots happening: Sadie reuniting with her sibling Seth and reconnecting with her family, Sadie reuniting with her ex and coming to terms with his new relationship but also falling in love again, Sadie coming to terms with her grandmother Gigi's death, and her family's overall curse and restoring balance. Overall definitely needed better editing and maybe a few of the plots taken out completely. 

I also found the Christianity element bizarre. They went to church and were part of the church community which is fine and good as character traits and values but what jarred me as a reader was everyone in awhile the author would make some sort of really specific Bible reference that would completely loose me. (I am not religious and only vaguely know Bible stories)

All in all this book was messy and overhyped.

Wyatt grew up surrounded by cult activity on her family's farmhouse in Maine in the middle of the woods. Every summer men would come to the house and do odd things all summer with her father leading them. With the men came too boys her age, Peter and James. James was a posh English kid and Peter an abused shy kid. 
It's been three years since she's seen them, three years since she's been to the house since her mother took her and left to Salem. Wyatt's never heard a word from either of her 'friends'. 
Not until now, when James's father shows up on her doorstep to tell them her father's dead and she has inherited the house and his 'business'. She returns to the house alone with plans to burn it to the ground and all it stood for only to find Peter tied up with branches in the basement for who knows how long. She has no cell service but somehow a call from James gets through telling her not to do anything until he get's there, it's dangerous and he's on his way from London right now.

This book was spectacular, ooky spooky, and super dramatic and I loved every second. Spooky woods, a Gothic haunted farm house, untrustworthy everything-what more could you want?

Also it had big marauders influence vibes to me: James a posh English golden boy and Peter a shy forgotten quite boy. Big maruader's energy which I of course loved.

Five smokers hang out in the cemetery every night by chance, it's the only place to smoke on campus. Together they become a rag-tag scooby doo mystery-solving gang by witnessing a sus midnight grave digging. 
Together Edie a student journalist, Tuck a mushroom-obsessed nerd living in the abandoned church, Theo the local dive bar bartender, Tamar a hotel receptionist, and Hanah ?a chaotic friend? solve the mystery.

Overall it was fun and spooky but seemed a bit too short so it wasn't satisfying. (it's a short story)

448 pages is too long for a silly rom com, there I said it.

Zahra works at the equivalent of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (all the location names in the book are changed for copyright reasons lol) and comes from a Disney Cast Member family. She's always dreamed of being an Imagineer but has no schooling only ideas and enthusiasm. 
Rowan is one of Walt Disney's grandsons (the youngest grandson of three) and as Walt has died he has now owed his inheritance but only if he complies to his grandfather's last wish. The oldest brother must finally marry and have a kid, the middle brother ?has to do something we're never told?, and Rowan has to work in WDW Florida for 6 months and discover the park's weakness and solve it.

Cue a meet cute and a HR meltdown worthy CEO and employee relationship. 

Rowan is controlling and aggressively rich and protective and Zahra is a sunshine happy-go-lucky dreamer, together they make each other better but I also do not believe for a second that Rowan is not a walking red flag with the amount of mistakes he makes in this book. Zahra should never take him back is all I'm saying.

However the two epilogues were indeed cute for the fantasy of it all.

All in all not the worst romcom I've read but also not that good imo, and certainly entirely too long.

comic exploring racism and whose side your fighting for when joining the arm (knights)

a self insert Outlander knock off

I've followed Sasha for years so when I saw she'd finally written a solo book I wanted to support. In general, it's a fine fantasy novel if you don't want to think and just want a silly book. 

The plot follows Klara, a red-headed American living in Scotland with her dad who runs a Bnb, and Callum, a 1500s Scotsman who just watched his best friend Thomas die and has fallen through time to the present day. Klara and Callum meet and then inevitably go on an adventure around Scotland to save the world. I will say I'm not a big fan of chosen one tropes and Klara is indeed a chosen one golden child. The whole plot revolves around her being the one and only left in the entire space and time to have magical blood. 

My main problems with the story revolve around the magic and the plot. The plot easily jumps from location to location without a real reason or rhyme, the author wants the characters in Skye so now they are. But the main character also immediately becomes a natural at her magic and also becomes an amazing sword fighter in two pages. It's just not believable. The magic system is also never really explained and there are a few random magical characters that are unexplained and just plot devices (Aion the shopkeeper, the deer man god, and the bean nighe).

I also found the romance really dull. They both are instantly attracted to each other and find each other hot but that's basically it. They spend three days together and decide they're deeply in love after having one maybe two weird kissing scenes. I don't believe their romance nor do I think Callum is particularly swoon-worthy, he's literally just hot and has not other positive factors.

My biggest problem though was with the locations. The story mostly takes place in three places: Edinburgh + a surrounding suburb, Skye, and Orkney. Every time they go anywhere it's described as 5 hours away. The beginning of the distance problems for me was when they went from Skye to Orkney, it seemed like they hadn't even gotten off Skye before going to an inn but then they discussed missing the ferry to Orkney-Skye to Orkney would be a good 7hrs (including a 1hr ferry). Meanwhile, the Dad visits them in Orkney in 5hrs? I also think that describing the fairy glen as 'Castle Ewan' is confusing for readers, although that's one of its names that paints a picture of a medieval castle where in reality it's more of a geological structure. There was also a bit in Edinburgh where they're in 'the tunnels' referring to the vaults under Old Town. All in all, not a very accurate picture of Scotland. In general I think there could've been more description of the setting, clothing, appearances, and actions in the whole book.

All this to say, by the end of the book I literally didn't care about the climax or characters. It wasn't shocking and it wrapped up super quickly and easily (as everything did).

But if you like Outlander you'll like this. It references: the skye boat song, Jamie standing outside of Claire's window alla S1Ep1, a knockoff Jamie (tough protective gentleman Scotsman), falling through time via mystic centers.