charliauthor's Reviews (531)

After reading The Final Strife i wasn't a huge fan of this author but since I quite liked the writing style more than the story, i thought I would give her another go. The blurb was interesting enough and of course who doesn't want some Black fae. Can i get an amen!

The premise of this is that an elf is forced into exile and stumbles upon some fae who are believed to have been extinct for thousands of years. Where I had trouble with this is that from the offset there were no real stakes. Yeeran the elf (yes there are elves in this book as well as fae and human but don’t ask me how they differ other than elongated canines) is sent into exile for reasons but within the span of what feels like five minutes, her sister finds her to help her and she’s derived a plan that will allow her to return from exile. If it’s so easy to get back in then why is it ever considered a punishment?

The entire book is full of this weak lines of plot and lack of stakes since everything is so perfectly resolved. At no point was i in fear for any of the characters or wondering what they would do next. It was all very predictable and frankly very immature considering the characters range from their late 20s to early 40s. While the writing made this an easy read thankfully, there was a lot to be desired by way of action, stakes, romance or drama.

The best part of the whole thing were the animal side kicks who were really sweet.

The smut while okay was also highly unnecessary. It felt rushed and forced with both scenes appearing in quick succession as though the author wanted to get it out the way.

In a word, this book felt very childish and I was disappointed because i feel like the author is capable of so much more. It feels like she wrote to trend to meet a quota but that her heart wasnt actually in the content.

The best thing about the whole book was the diversity and inclusion. There are a ton of Queer and Gender Neutral characters which was very inclusive and positive.

DNF @ 49% after some skimming cause it was trash lol

A lot tamer than my usual reads but definitely one for an emotional but sweet and reflective story about second chances. 

Cassidy and Sienna are now together in heaven after the events of book 1 and have to navigate their new surroundings. There are some great additional characters in this one, my favourites being Mateo and Graham. 
I liked the concept of the Life Albums as this really helped us look into the consequences of trauma and how we might help those that are struggling. 

The ongoing ideal of fighting for souls is an interesting take and the fact the girls have to enter training to do so makes it more believable as far as it can be in this setting. I did have an issue with there being something to learn throughout but as i was learning alongside the girls, it made sense and a good style choice for the book just not for my reading taste.

I absolutely loved the end which was a great cliffhanger! The lead up to that was emotional but made sense for the story and im interested in seeing how the girls navigate this newest hurdle. 

Overall a clever, inventive and sweet story that continues to explore the notions of faith and the support it can provide in such extreme circumstances.

Despite this being my fourth time reading this, i've yet to write a review so here we go!

Where the Throne of Glass series is undisputedly YA and the first book in the series much more so, Crown of Midnight takes the genre up a notch with its complex relationships, multiple plot lines and amazing host of characters that all have so much to offer.

I could not put this down and when I had to for sake of raising my child, I was highly annoyed lol. Celaena finally gets to do some gory assassin stuff considering she is in fact an assassin, which we didn't see much of in book 1. She gets into a a heart warming and later gut wrenching romantic relationship while forming deeper bonds of friendship with Nehemia.
i loved how it goes further into the plot line of how magic went missing from Erilea and on many reveals there are about the world, the past and Celaena herself.

ToG is SJM at her finest and CoM is the first step towards the rest of the series becoming a powerhouse in the genre. Despite knowing what's to come, I anticipate going back into the story with such excitement which is something I fervently miss about story telling.

For those that wanted/expected more of the knotting in Bride, then this is book for you! lol

Nascosta is the Queen of Monster Smut for me so you know she is always going to bring the goods when it comes to the heat. Where she continues to shine is that she couples this with plausible compelling worlds and creatures that you cant help but get invested in.
Where she does tend to go of a tangent with a bit toooo much backstory, i can start to glaze over but this is a taste thing rather than an issue with her books.

I've read a few of her books now and while this one is just as sweet as some others, the prospect of a breeding clinic was a bit much even for me. Still, the subject matter is handled well and the main characters are nice enough. A trend that seems to be a thing with the werewolves I've read of late, in that the men are all really touchy and needy which i personally find a bit of a turnoff. However, there is praise kink in this which i was able to get behind a lot more rather than just a needy MMC. There's room for all but i like my wolves to be alpha in all aspects lol

 

Umm so... this was bad. For my tastes, this was just laughably bad. 

I've listened to the whole thing and have no idea what happened or why I was supposed to care. The reveal meant nothing to me, I had no connection to the characters, the magic system was fairly boring, and it was riddled with the theme/trope I hate most of being treated differently because one is dark skinned. 

I just cannot with this. If not for what was obviously good research and an attempt to build a cohesive world it would have been a 1 star. I’ve given it a 2 here but on Storygraph it will definitely get a 1.5. 

I received this book from Goldsboro a few years ago and kept it on the shelf as the cover and blurb looked great. I was ready to be invested in some epic fantasy from a female author and thought this might be something good in that vein. This was not to be the case and I just felt really disappointed and unsatisfied for every second of it. 

In this world divided by some dark rift, there is a school of mages who know how to fight each other mentally called mind linking. There are novices who want to be like the revered mages but one such novice is called Isha and she has a big ‘ole tattoo on her face that sets her a part as an ‘Other’ that of course nobody likes and treats like shit. There are horned creatures and other such beings who are also treated as second class citizens for no other reason it seems then to just have people to disrespect. 

Alongside Isha is some random dude called Tatters – what a shit name) who is [a] Collarbound? Not really sure of the terminology but it means, hey, you guessed it, he’s a slave. But get this friends, he’s a runaway slave hiding out from his masters with a some kind of mental bestie who constantly talks into his head. They tried to make this slave element a little less offensive by making him white but then hey, we’re not down for slavery whatever race so why is this even here. Why is he collarbound? Who is he running from? Why has no one returned him to his master if this collar is so noticeable? Why is this grown man chilling with kids in a tavern? Don’t you have any friends dude? 

The whole thing is just a mess of forced mystery and murky details that was just so incredibly boring all the way through. The audio was only six or so hours on 1.7x and that still wasn’t fast enough. I really wanted to find something different for once but this wasn’t it. I can respect lyrical prose as much as anyone but I need my books to, I dunno, have a point maybe? 

I am a sucker for a billionaire romance so I decided to give this one a try from my friend, Laura.

So without, giving too much away, Isla is separated from her husband Don and struggling to come to terms with her new normal after having been with him for over a decade. For the Love of Art, follows her trying to navigate falling for the gorgeous billionaire Nathan Manning while discovering who she is post marriage.

From the very first page I really enjoyed the banter in this book. I enjoyed the sarcasm from Isla and her two besties in the form of fun loving Lianne and eccentric gay, Frankie. Both were funny and sweet without being caricatures and were the right blend of madness to the straight laced Isla. There were some great scenes in their respective work places and I really liked the New York setting. NYC is one of my favourite places to visit and there was something so subtle about the descriptions and way of life that was very Sex and the City that i really loved. Would this be a high end romance set in NYC if we don't go to the Hamptons atleast once? I don't think so! haha.
I liked the overall story/premise and the hurdles both physical and emotional that Isla had to overcome and by the end I was on her side for finally claiming her happiness and doing the right thing.

This brings me subtly to the fact that before the last part of the book, I wasn't on Isla's side. I found her a bit unlikeable if I'm honest as I couldn't get my head around her attitude towards Nathan from day one. Perhaps if he had done something to her personally or even shown his personality/actions etc. to be anything like Isla presumes, I may have understood her hate for him. Without this hard hitting evidence of his heinous ways, she was judging a man she really didn't know based on what she read in newspapers and that really annoyed me lol constantly jumping to conclusions about him felt a little unfair and i was glad when she finally opened up and explained what was going on with her.

Re. what was going on with Isla, I appreciated the sensitivity of the subject so much and loved its inclusion in this genre. Cant say too much without spoilers but it was a nice edge to an otherwise straightforward love story which i really enjoyed.
Lastly, the smut was smutting and we know I love that. It was a cheeky slowish burn at the start then they were just going at it and we find out that Isla is a bit of a freak which was nice. Dont sleep on this housewives dudes. They got some secret moves! haha

Defo try this one out for an easy, no frills read with heart and banter.

Like so many of you I jumped on this train because I am feral for the tv show so off i went to see how the books would fare.
Now, despite being perfectly enjoyable based on the characters we already know and love, I did appreciate how much better the show had made this book by cutting out all the unnecessary chaff and upping other characters and broadening the world overall.
I will say though, that had i not already seen the show and knew what was going to happen and the characters I liked, i probably wouldve really disliked this.

For me, it was too long, dialogue heavy and not enough heart. I liked show and book daphne but there is something a little unfinished about her in this that i was happy i had taken more from in the show.
Also, and although i know i'm likely in the minority, i didnt think 'that scene' was that deep. I didn't in the show before knowing what people were upset about and I didnt think so in this. She took advantage of him physically sure but he took advantage of her intellectually if thats the right word. Simon knew very well she didn't know what it took to make a child and deceived her anyway. Yes, he was willing to die, blah blah but as Daphne later points out, you were really willing to let a dead man define you and your life. Whatever dude. Grow up.
What I did pick up and that rubbed me the wrong way, was how quickly book Simon resorted to 'a man of his times' by telling Daphne at one point that he owned her and could force himself into her room if he wanted. He didnt, sure, but the fact he even mentioned it was a bit of a red flag for me.

This book is perfectly enjoyable and for lovers of HisRo then its probably standard fare.  Even the epilogue was a short novella! Like wtf?! lol For me, it was too slow and the show was better so I won't continue with the rest of the series as the style just isnt really for me.

 I was looking forward to this one but it didn't turn out to be as hard hitting as I'd hoped.
I've come to expect a lot from LB after the incredible Ninth House and Hell Bent and I'd hoped this would follow in a similar vein but frustratingly it did not.

It started out well enough with a good location, premise and intriguing characters that had a lot of potential but they didn't end up meeting it for me.
Luzia is a scullion living in the home of a petty woman called Valentina who discovers that she has powers. Luzia can be imprisoned and even killed for this so when they conveniently have some kind of tourney to test magic powers, the stakes of the whole thing fell abit flat.
Luzia's aunt is the mistress of a bad dude called Victor who has a weird looking dude who follows him around a lot. We learn that he's his sinister sidekick and while he doesnt do much to prompt fear or passion, Luzia apparently falls for him, her for her and then it turns into some kind of love story.
Where this didnt work for me is that there was no proper build up of their relationship to warrant the story moving in this direction. What was meant to be a stake filled tournament to evade persecution from zealots and soldiers, turned into a romance that was tepid at best.
The whole book felt like it was tittering on the edge of being dark and refused to go over the edge into the abyss of heated passions, black magic and religious inquisitions.

Why I gave this a three is that despite the above leaving me disappointed, the writing was great. At no point was i struggling to read. The chapters were good lengths, the setting was interesting and we finally did get a character who shined a little bit more than the rest. Valentina ended up being the breakout star of this despite what was expected of her from the blurb.

In terms of Leigh's catalogue, its not my favourite and i feel she could have done a lot more with this. However, for those who like historic settings, mild romance and a dash of the occult/magics, then you may well enjoy. It picks up at the end despite a lagging middle but is still enjoyable enough to prompt discussion.