Overall a pretty good series. However, its ending was pretty obscure and I hope the author will write a sequel. I don’t think she will, so I'll give the book 3.5 stars. The plot covers complex political relations very well and gives good examples that not everyone is what they seem on the outside. The author also writes characters who can find redemption after making bad decisions.

I love Hades and Persephone retellings, and A Touch of Darkness is no exception. One of the plot points that distinguish this retelling from others is Persephone knows she is a Goddess but cannot access any of her powers. Persephone was hidden from the world by her mother, Demeter, but meets Hades one evening at his nightclub, where she unknowingly strikes a bargain with the Lord of the Underworld. St. Clair creates a good plot, good side characters, and a loveable dark hero. Perfect for when you are in the mood for a quick romance with a little steam. Overall I give the 4 stars.

The Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi is a novel with great potential. Adeyemi's debut novel is a Nigerian -inspired magic fantasy where you meet the three young main characters, Zélie, Amari, and Inan, on their quest to change the kingdom of Orïsha. The book covers topics
of oppression and prejudice against different cultures. Inan, the series potential anti-hero, is my favorite character out of the three. He is a flawed crown prince who wants to improve his kingdom by getting rid of magic permanently but improve the lives of the Maji. Inan’s character has so much growth potential, and I'm excited to see his journey over the next two books.

I do have questions about some of the historical background of Orïsha. Adeyemi never fully develops the complex backstory of the relationship between the monarchy and the Maji, specifically how these two cultures evolved separately from each other. How these two factions end up in this "war" is never explained. I hope in the next book Adeyemi grows as a writer and gives a better background to the story. Overall for a debut novel, Adeyemi does a good job, and I would give the book 4 stars.

Adeyemi could have improved her storytelling abilities after the first book, but after finishing the second book, I’m still left with many of the same questions as I was at the end of the first book. Failure to improve world-building has caused this series to disappoint. Adeyemi never explains how the relationship between the monarchy and the magic users begins, how the monarchy became disgruntled, and how the previous king worked to improve relations. Nor does she explain the past relationship between the monarchy and its relationship with magic. I feel as if I'm writing the same review ending for the first book. Adeyemi did not build upon her first novel and only left the reader going in circles.

The plot of Children of Virtue and Vengeance consists of the characters making the same poor decisions over and over again. It starts with the rebellion deciding that Zèlie should become the future queen, which is a terrible idea, as Zèlie has never exhibited signs of good leadership skills. She often makes brash individualistic decisions for her own self-interest. This doesn't make her a bad person or a bad character, simply someone who should not be placed on a throne. The rebellion makes this decision before ever meeting her. This part of the book does not seem realistic or like good storytelling. However, in the YA genre, the main female character who saves the world is supposed to be a good the future leader. These decisions just come off as cookie-cutter in Adeyemi's desire to write a bestselling YA novel. The rebellion's main goal is to kill off the monarchy, but they've made no plans to accomplish that or how to create a stable society afterward. Adeyemi's failure to write a detailed storyline just leaves the reader wanting more. This should be a good story. There is a lot of potential in the plot, but no follow through with the details.

Overall, I'm giving this book 2.5 stars.

A Game of Fates by Scarlett St. Clair is the retelling of A Touch of Darkness from Hade’s perspective. This is honestly the best retelling of a book I’ve read. St. Clair manages to write an entirely new story rather than just the same scenes from Hades’ perspective. A Game of Fates was better than the original book. The reader learns about Hades and The Underworld and gains new insight on information that even Persephone still doesn't know.

In Game of Fates, you meet several other gods and goddesses. Personally, I loved learning about Aphrodite and Hephaestus. It is a story that doesn't have as many retellings as Hades and Persephone, and I’m excited for St. Clair to explore their relationship in future books. I also like that Zeus isn’t portrayed as the villain, marking another example of how St. Clair's writing stands apart from other Greek mythology retellings. Overall I would give this book 4.5 stars, and I hope St.Clair continues this series!

I read this series after its release in 2012 and remember thoroughly enjoying the books. Now nine years later, I decided to reread the series in preparation for the new Netflix series. I didn't remember anything about the plot in this book when I started rereading it; however, after finishing the novel, I don't think I enjoyed reading it as much as I did at 18.

The book is not bad, the storyline is interesting, but the characters haven't fully developed, including the darkling, who at this point in the story is the most complex character introduced in the book. The author also doesn’t describe what any characters look like in detail, leading readers to imagine all the characters as white. The character who I find the most compelling is the wayward prince, but he hasn't been introduced to the reader yet. Also, the author never explains the magic system in this world. Bardugo doesn’t describe the types of magic users, where magic came from, or why only some people are magic users.

I cannot tell if YA fantasy has developed to include more extensive storylines over the past nine years, or I have developed a higher standard for books as I’ve grown, probably a mix of both. The book is good, but not great. For that reason, I give the book 3.5 stars.

Snow Like Fire is your typical young adult fantasy novel. The author creates a world with season countries and rhythmic countries, with Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter staying entirely in one season and rhythmic cycling through the four seasons. The people of Winter have been almost entirely exterminated by Spring and with the last eight free refugees living in secret between the other courts. The book has a girl who wants more from her life, a boy she is in love with and can’t be with, and magic.

While the book was good, nothing makes it stand apart from anything other Young Adult novel. It was fairly predictable, but the big twist doesn’t make a ton of sense, with a large plot hole that just logistically would have negative long-term effects that the book glosses over.

The book also doesn’t seem to have any LGBT characters, and the diversity is questionable at best, with the persecuted characters having white skin, white hair, and blue eyes.

Stay Sweet is a Young Adult Fiction novel about running a local ice cream stand in a lakeside town. The protagonist, Amelia, has worked at Meade Creamery every summer since eighth grade and now has been promoted to Head Girl or manager of the stand. Meade Creamery opened during World War II by Molly Meade and managed by girls living in the town every summer. At the start of this season, Molly Meade dies, and her great-grandnephew inherits and begins changing how the store operates.

Overall, I think a lot of this book was pretty cute and rather enjoyable. The book cover themes of women empowerment and women supporting women. I did not enjoy the plot where Amelia started fighting with her best friend at the end of the book. It felt catty and counterproductive to the sisterhood that was throughout the book. The book also had a vibe that men ruin everything and that women will have to work with them or around to accomplish what they want.

Unfortunately, this book had little to no representation. There were no LGBTQ characters, and the author did not describe what characters looked like, leaving readers to assume all of the characters are white. One BIPOC character, Frankie, is referenced, but the reader never got to meet her. Frankie was a former Head Girl whom Amelia looked up to, but it was the only time the author referenced a race or ethnicity. Nothing about the plot was offensive, and none of the characters did anything offensive; however, the lack of diversity on the author's part was disappointing.

Overall think I would give this book three stars mainly due to the plot. I would have rated the book higher had the author added diverse characters.

Six of Crows is an excellent heist story featuring a found family in the city of Ketterdam. The book features a cast of complex characters and relationships, all working to better themselves and find happiness in a city that took so much from them. The book features both different ethnic and size diversity without being about racial trauma or fatphobia. It is a nice change of pace from other young adult novels that lack diversity in multiple spheres. The main character Kaz is the leader and playmaker and is also disabled. Nina is a plus-size heroine who is continuously thought of and described as beautiful. Many traits that society demeans are not negative in Leigh Bardugo's book.

Six of Crows shows Leigh Bardugo has improved her writing, character development, and world-building skills since Shadow and Bone. The storyline never felt repetitive or obvious as to how the mission was going to conclude. The relationships in the book were slow burning and will continue to build in the sequel Crooked Kingdom.

Overall, I give this book five stars.

I have read all of Cora Reilly's mafia books. Most I really enjoy, others are just okay, and a few I do not have any interest in rereading. Unfortunately, Twisted Cravings lands in the latter of those three. This book was a disappointment. I did not have any real expectations of what the story would entail, but what Reilly wrote left a lot to be desired.

One positive aspect of this story was the pacing of Dinara and Adamo's relationship was good. In the last couple of books, Cora Reilly has spent too much of the plot before the two main characters' relationship develops, and I have not enjoyed that. This book does not have that issue with Dinara and Adamo entering a relationship in the first third of the book. Also, what little we saw of the Falcone clan was good; it was pretty cute; however, it honestly feels as if Adamo is not a part of this family.

The majority of the book takes place in Camp, the settlement of race car drivers, during their racing season. While the first couple of races were interesting to read about, they got old fast. The book felt repetitive, with Adamo and Dinara continually leaving Camp to return to Chicago or Vegas. Also, I am still a little confused about Dinara's motives to join the races and why her father is okay with her driving. There seems to be a dichotomy between him wanting to protect her and letting Dinara do whatever the hell she wants.

Reilly has created what seems to be two different Remos, the Remo from his own book or Nino's books and then the Remo you see in Twisted Cravings and in parts Twisted Hearts. I understand that Remo is supposed to act differently with people outside his family, but he does not act the same way in this book with Adamo as he does with Nino, Savio, or even a younger Adamo. This book made me miss the old Remo.

The grammar in this book was not good. I am not very good a writing grammatically correct, it is not something I would normally notice while reading books, but I did. To me, that signals that in the beginning, the book was poorly written.

Probably the biggest reason I did not enjoy this book was, the reader knows nothing about Dinara. We are given one line of information about her, but nothing is expanded on. The reader does not even know why/when Dinara learned to race. Towards the end of the book, Dinara makes a point of saying people do not tend to like her or that she is not very social. This did not line up with the personality presented to the reader throughout the book. Nothing about her was very off-putting that would make me think that she is an unlikeable person. By the end of the book, it feels as if the only thing the reader really knows about Dinara is that she is an abuse survivor.

When I do not enjoy Reilly's books, it's because I do not feel connected to the characters in the story, or I dislike the main character (Gianna). In Twisted Cravings I wasn't given the chance to like any of the characters, because I learned almost nothing about them. Anything I know about Adamo comes from previous books. Dinara's story was never fleshed out. This book had so much potential to be good, but the story just wasn't. Nothing about it was enough. The reader didn't get enough details in the Dinara's backstory, not just the abuse, but the aftermath. We learned absolutely nothing about Adamo's time in New York, and Adamo doesn't feel like a member of the Falcone family anymore.

While this might not be my least favorite mafia story written by Cora Reilly, I do think its the worst written story out of the Bound by and Camorra Chronicles. It was just disappointing across the board.
Two Stars