charliauthor's Reviews (531)

 DNF at 36%/Chapter 21 once i found that i was no longer following what was going and actually didnt care to.
In short, there was too much going on, too many people and not enough action to really warrant what was meant to be taking place. The two people who made book 1 what it was, were pushed aside for an abundance of random people you have to no care for which just made everything drag.
I will say that if i was reading this - rather than audiobook - i might have taken a lot more in but the fact i was able to just zone out was an issue, as i dont do this with other audiobooks.
In this book, i didnt really understand what the Thunderhead was even after, what it was trying to do. What did finding a blindspot even mean?
I was really waiting for some massive revelation of who the Thunderhead was and it just didnt amount to much. I eventually just googled what happened and im glad i didnt waste time reading it because i would have been really angry.
Such a great start, but this ended terribly and just got super boring. 

This book was dangerously close to be a 2 star but the author does endings/cliffhangers really well which once again saved the whole thing. 

This book and its predecessor are a problem simply because they have serious plot holes riddled throughout. Nothing really makes sense, they all make stupid decisions and the conflict is hanging together by a thread most of the time. 

Kiva is really unlikeable, naive, ungrateful and quite frankly quite boring. Jaren is a little better in that hes a nice guy type but theres no other depth to him. 
A lot of the other characters are a lot of filler and unnecessary irritants - heres looking at you Tipp - so could do with a cut down in that regard. 
I really liked Caldon as a character as he provided some much-needed banter among the drudgery of the rest of the text. 

The end as mentioned was the best part as the revelations were fun and the betrayal quite good.
I really hope that in the final instalment we are given answers quickly, or at least that Kiva can figure things out sooner by not being so dense.

This book was a definite improvement on its predecessors, and I am extremely grateful. I expected to go into this just as disinterested as I was before, but the uptake in action made this much better paced. There felt like there was more of a point to every chapter and that did wonders for the story.

What allowed me to appreciate this story more was accepting that it was SUPER YA! It wasnt trying to be dark or mysterious or adult in any way and once i got my head around that, i was able to appreciate the hilarity in its simplicity. 

The characters continue to need development and a majority of the cast were completely unnecessary but they were saved by Cresta and Caldon who were by far the standout personalities.

While there was a tidy ending wrapped up neatly in a little bow, i was almost disappointed that it wasnt sickly sweet in the way i’d anticipated.

Where was the marriage proposal for Jaren and Kiva? Coronation for Cresta? Its all implied to varying degrees but i wanted it to be more explicitly seen/stated

Kiva continued to annoy throughout the book. While i can always appreciate a heroine who isnt warrior based, her lack of skill was ridiculous and made no sense towards how she’d managed to survive for so long. It was infuriating having to watch her use her friends endlessly since they all had skill/power to help. 

Very slow start but a fun read that my mates and i had fun trashing. A super slow burn for those who like that kind of thing but no smutty pay off…for those who like that kind of thing 😅

 While i enjoyed this enough, ive discovered that i dont like friends to lovers as much as enemies to lovers lol

The attraction between the MMC and FMC was instant so there wasnt really much angst or pining. There was but it didnt hit the same simply because there was nothing in their way other then prejudice.
It felt too easy at the end as well. Without spoilers, the MMC didnt really have to make any hard decisions since it all works out well for him and the naysayers about his involvement with the FMC.
Again, like with the previous book, the end seems drawn out when it could have been wrapped up faster.
Decent smexy scenes but doubt ill read the next one since this particular formula wasnt fluffy enough.
Very good writing but its almost too good for the lightness of the content. 

 Ive read this book once before but never written a review so here we go.
As one of those people who watched the show before reading the books, i was blown away by how faithful the show was to the books. Every scene, dialogue, edit was lifted so expertly that it felt like watching the show all over again.

Aside from that, i enjoyed the multiple POVs because they showcased the appropriate views of the land and everything that took place and everything felt necessary.

To control all the pieces on this board takes such skill and i am in awe.

Now, as much as i love her, the sexual nature of Daenerys’ POVs was a tad worrying since shes 13/14 in the books. There was always such heavy reference on her relations with Drogo and her lady bits. It was all too much and felt icky for lack of a better word. Why did she give a blowey to a dead man!?

In addition, save Arya and Daenerys, the women/girls in this are all a bit lacking. Sansa is a naive little turd. Catelyn is a prideful prude. Lysa Arryn is a maniacal weakling. The only striking woman is Cersei and even she’s a manipulative bitch.
So yh, the women stressed me.

The men arent much better tbf. Ned stressed me, Robb is too rash, Jon is a moody little shit and Joffrey is well….Joffrey.

Truly loved this though, especially on audio. There was always something in each chapter that made everything fulfilling.

On to the next! 

 Not sure what was meant to be the point with this one.
Found it in TikTok as a “my wife” rec but it fell short in almost all other ways.
I spent as long as i did on it trying to figure out what the point was but after the millionth pointlessly degrading sex scene, was all pretty dry.

The MMC has forced the FMC into a seemingly loveless marriage as some form of revenge against her family but for the life of me, i couldnt figure out why.
The world built around secret societies and the powerful men who run it and the woman abused by it was interesting enough but it never really took of the way i wanted/needed it to. Why the endless abuse? Why the degradation? What was the need for this level of depravity?
It just didnt make much sense for the amount of smut it included.

No matter the smut, a semblance of substance is required and this didnt deliver. 

 This book was an absolute chore. It felt like wading through molasses with concrete boots on. It felt like trying to learn a new language.
I found it dense and tiresome and overly excessive for no good reason.
Everything i liked about the first book was completely lost or oversaturated that by the point of deciding to shelve it, i just wanted to claw my eyes out from the agony of reading the same unfulfilling repetitive word vomit.
It just kept going and going with more elements added to the mix that either felt shoehorned in or just werent properly explained.
I hated every character.
I can safely say i did not like anyone in this book. Their choices, reasonings, demands were all non sensical garbage.
Argh! Im so frustrated with how annoyingly boring this felt 

 Despite having a read-along with friends,i couldnt get into a vibe with this and decided to DNF after about 120 pages.

Witch King starts with a demon waking up in a tomb, realising that hes been betrayed into being killed/captured but possesses a new body in order to get free. He and his witch friend set about finding out who did this to them with a little sidekick orphan kid along for the ride.

My first issue with this was the list of characters placed at the very start of the book. It was almost a deterrent from starting because it felt overwhelming before even beginning. There were a bunch of complicated and unfamiliar names straight off the bat that i didnt have time to marinate so just felt like too much.

Following this, while i enjoyed the initial mystery of the opening, the ongoing haze of what was happening and who was who was frustrating.
The magic system wasnt clear, the world building while rich with tons of potential just felt complicated and obscure which made it hard to connect.

Same with the characters, i felt no real connection to them or excitement to see what came up next. I was intrigued by Kai and Ziede had real bad bitch energy but there was just something lacking in emotional connection or care.

I respect the intensity of it but when i found myself drifting off or counting how many pages left in a chapter, i knew this wasnt for me. 

The Houses of the Veil had too much power, and the rules they had put in place were really about controlling access to that power, not limiting the damage it could do.

What a rush!

This book was one of those special that actually lives up to its hype. Not the superficial hype of online but the critical hype and recs from other authors and i am so grateful for that!

I went into this without any real idea what it was about and have come away really surprised and excited for what is to come!

So, Alex Stern is a bit of a troublesome young woman who can see ghosts. She is subsequently hired by regulators of secret societies of Yale University to use this ability to help them. Using this powers starts unlocking some crazy shit filled with magic and murder and it is a crazy ride. 

Admittedly a little hard to get inti style wise, once the techy bits are out of the way, NH turns out to be a rather emotional, intense and dare I say scary little read. Mixing the horrors of the supernatural with that of sickening practices that effect many realities was really well done and i loved it.
I loved that Bardugo was able to write an Adult novel that was in fact Adult in terms of style and content rather than writing the same old YA book and throwing in some sex and curse words. 

This book is dark, gritty, scary as well as intelligent and i really really enjoyed it. Once i got past the first 2/3 chapters, i didnt want to put it down!

Definitely one that becomes a hardback on the shelves!

#ReadYourShelf2023