books_ergo_sum's Reviews (933)

Hannah Arendt, reading us for filth.

Underneath all the philosophy blah blah in here, this was just Hannah Arendt spilling some piping hot tea 💅

Because when you get to the end of this book and she says:
”the modern age—which began with such an unprecedented and promising outburst of human activity—may end in the deadliest, most sterile passivity history has ever known.” 

She’s not wrong. And she has the densest 300+ pages on the history of ideas from antiquity to the 20th century to prove it. 

It was interesting to think how much she was going against the grain in 1958 to argue that our work culture and technological advances undermine human agency and political freedom (the first pages of Bowling Alone, for example, cite a few 1958 articles showing how optimistic people were about politics and civic engagement at the time) but nowadays we just read this like… 😅😅 yeahhh.

On the one hand, the method in here was cool. She looked at Western history, isolated a few different modes of human activity (like politics or labour) and explained how different historical periods prioritized some modes over others, surprisingly randomly. And how, at least according to most of human history, the mode of activity our culture is currently prioritizing (labour) is the worst one.

Very cool. Very well researched. 

But—almost unreadable. Unfortunately for us, German philosophy had a ‘no thesis statements’ trend for a while there. I think it was supposed to be about philosophical integrity? Like, let the details speak for themselves; don’t make sensationalist arguments like those dirty stinky French philosophers…

But honestly, it was just annoying. If I have to read your philosophy book twice in order to suss out its unstated arguments, let’s call a spade a spade and say its format sucks.

Still loving this premise--I think this world is an especially good setup for a 'humans as alien pets' trope. I especially loved these two characters and I thought they were really compatible. 

I only wish that this book had been more slow burn (but I’m probably in the minority with that).

I kind of love the whole ‘humans as alien pets’ trope? It’s not a sex thing. It’s a… sci-fi reimagining of extreme social inequality thing. How aliens with better technology might view humans as naturally inferior, thing. It’s weird. And it tickles my brain.

This series promises to be an especially good version of the humans as pets premise because… okay, hear me out—because of the role ideology played in this alien culture.

Basically, these aliens physically needed affection and formed incredibly close and loyal bonds—to the point that it was their Achilles heel as a civilization. So, of course, they viewed affection and close bonds as taboo, told themselves they were strong independent non-affection-needing baddies, and projected the need for affection onto weak little humans.

It was just really well done. These alien love interest didn’t go from viewing humans as pets to viewing them as equals overnight and I can see how this culture is going to get majorly disrupted by a push for human freedom (it’s all about the social ethics of co-constitutive identities, thank you Hegel).

The setup for the series is perfect. But I gave this book four stars--just because there was a feelings reveal that could have been deliciously awkward but was helped along by some high-on-space-drugs declarations instead (I want awkward).

Why can’t I remember that I hate the amnesia trope? It’s like the amnesia trope gives me amnesia… it always sounds so great in the synopsis but then I inevitably have a bad time actually reading it 🤦🏻‍♀️

But I think this book solidified why I dislike it (and maybe that will help me remember?): I don’t like the way that the remembering person approaches the love story so hesitantly, even half-heartedly? I want it to feel angsty but instead it feels tepid.

But I can’t just give this book one star for having my most hated trope. 

Because Sweden. This Yuletide Sweden setting was everything. 

It was like this:

Person: before this novella began, the heroine was saved by her fated mate in space, fell in love with him, yet decided to have her memories erased and get sent back to earth instead

Me: that makes no sense

Person: she was from Sweden

Me: okay, that makes complete sense

Not believing in fate (but kinda sorta believing in gnomes), being obsessed with equality (she couldn’t be certain of their relationship unless they were on equal footing), being frustratingly passive (going back to earth with no memories and no plan of how to find each other again)—this premise only makes sense in Sweden.

And it almost hurt me with how nostalgic it made me feel (have I mentioned that I used to live in Sweden?). Plus, no one does Yuletide, aka the darkest day of the year, like a remote northern Swedish cottage (med en sauna, naturligtvis).

This author definitely knows how to do world building. And it’s strange because the alien culture she’s created makes me a bit uncomfy? I’ve only read novellas in this universe so far, and I feel like I need to try a full length novel next.

Do you have an author who’s your ‘exception to the rule’ author? Because I think Jennifer Haymore is mine.

There’s a like… shenanigans-y historical romance that I kinda hate with every fibre of my being? The plot doesn’t hand together, the historical setting gets stomped into nonexistence, and the characters are always two dimensional at best.

But not so with the books in this series? I should have hated this. The heroine made lists, we had a comedy of errors as she tried to get herself ‘ruined’, and our heart of gold charmer guy had a ‘dark secret' that wasn’t that big of a deal. Also, he had a bunch of wards—so there were lots of children in this book, and I ain’t about that Children In Books Life 🫠

But I really really loved this book. And I think I know why:

✨ There was so much flirty flirty on-page falling in love. Like, a gratuitous amount.

Maybe someone else would be like “god, I get it, they’re in love.” But I was like “yass go rowing together and have a polite conversation on the outside while you pine and think about how much you admire them in the inside!!” On-page falling in love is my drug.

Plus, I found the shenanigans entertaining, the characters were lovely, and the historical setting was mostly unmolested (that aristocrat who opened a store? I’m actively pretending that didn’t happen and so far it’s working).

I randomly love heroines who are excellent card player gambler types. Especially when they’re also rebel space pilots. That’s hot.

I even love them more than rakes with a heart of gold, which is what this alien hero was.

And this poker bet, fake dating, holiday party premise was great. I should pick up more by this author.

An alien fated mate story where both the human heroine and alien guy are in their 50s? Yes please!

I just wish the adventure plot had been more than a fetch quest plus animal companion. It was a tad boring.

ugh! this book was this close 🤏 to perfect and I’m kinda mad

This book was on track to be my favourite contemporary romance of all time. Which is why this four star rating guts me.

Loved all this:
✨ The one night stand to accidental pregnancy to co-parents to lovers was deliciously messy.
✨ There was so much heart in this disability rep (the author even has the same disability as the FMC).
✨ And then my favourite part—I LOVED that this heroine wasn’t Carrie Bradshaw. Set in Toronto, this was an amazing example of the Canadian cost of living crisis. She worked full-time but only made 20K, she could barely afford her apartment (which should’ve been condemned), she definitely couldn’t afford to move because rents had increased too much, and yeah, Canadian maternity leave gives you 55% of your income for 4 months but half of ‘Not Enough’ for ‘Too Little Time' is just ‘Definitely Not Enough’ for ‘How Daduq Are We Supposed To Live’ 😑 Her creeping realization that she wouldn’t be able to recreate her own impoverished childhood (also raised by a single mother) was The Moment.

But then 😩
✨Yeah, she wasn’t Carrie Bradshaw, but he was still Mr. Big. If you own a house with a yard within walking distance of Lake Ontario in Toronto by the time you’re 29–you’re either a multigenerational nepo baby or a unicorn. And that pivot from contemporary romance to fantasy romance wasn’t for me.
✨ I was ready to forgive the single POV in here (even though he had way too much character arc not to have a POV imo) until our hero became… too much of a Manic Pixie Dream Book-Boyfriend? He was such a mishmash. He was competitive and bossy-boots in the bedroom (who else is over Good Girl?) but also a cinnamon roll; a dork but also gorgeous; smirky but also shy; an ambitious startup guy but also a humble primary caregiver guy; etc etc. If all this fits together somehow, I needed some receipts (aka his POV). 
✨ Idk, in a book that was trying to keep it real, he was too fake.

A snowed-in, second chance, childhood friends to lovers story. From an author I really enjoy.

Love that this historical romance was set in the Pacific North West. Love that the year was 1908. The snow-in part was fun and festive. And I love that this photographer heroine was inspired by a real woman from the same time and place (I spent a long time looking her up and she was so cool). These two MCs were great and, like all of this author’s characters, had a super specific turn of the century west coast vibe.

If only there’d been some on-page first chance falling for each other. I thought we were relying on that first chance too much not to include it.

Also, completely randomly, how do we feel about the nickname Love? Because I might irrationally hate it.

Does he unconsciously love her and it’s manifesting as a name? Does he consciously love her, he just doesn’t think about it during his POV or say it directly? Does he just say that to all the girls? It’s supposed to make me feel feelings but it just makes me feel confusion 😅

A rant-y four star review:

The romance plot: All the stars. Completely deranged. Obsessive, possessive, barbarian bad guy catching feelings for the first time amazingness.

But,

—Rant Intermission—

Let me have a teensy rant. Because the premise was wack.

This was all fine: humans cryo-froze themselves and woke up 4,000 years in the future where post-climate-crisis-civilization-collapse tribes were living in the Nouveau Bronze Age.

What made no sense: our language expert heroine’s whole schtick was using her polyglot skills to understand future languages—but also, future humans had all genetically evolved into basically aliens. A bunch of different types of aliens.

No. Because for a language, 4,000 years is too long. We don’t know what languages were around 4,000 years ago and we have to hypothesize the existence of the Proto-Indo-European language like we hypothesize the existence of dark matter.

But for human evolution, 4,000 years is nothing. Not even long enough to develop a new eye colour, let alone new everything. And with those population bottlenecks?? These future peeps should have looked and acted human.

—Rant Intermission Over—

I really really tried to ignore the premise’s wack-ness (hence all the pent-up ranting?). But I do wish this book had been the first book in a spin-off, instead of just one standalone-y book in this series. All of these potential new spin-off-y stories ended up as side plots here and it made the story drag a bit.

Still, a good read when you’re craving a bonkers barbarian warlord guy who has A LOT to grovel for.