chloefrizzle's Reviews (993)

This is the fifth book in the Stevie Bell series, and the one with the best mystery so far. The series blends teen drama with murder mysteries.
For me, the teen drama only gets more annoying the farther into the series I read. However, the murder mysteries? Those just keep getting better.

This book gives you the perfect amount of information on the murders to set you theorizing, without giving too much and giving it away. You get both flashbacks to the crime and police reports, which often disagree with each other. The trick is to combine it with clues from the present to figure out who is lying, and why.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I still hate David as a love interest. Somehow, this book got me to hate him even more. But, I must admire the consistency of his characterization. While the average YA love interest would lose his jerk-qualities over the series, David stays consistently terrible.

A video review including this book will be on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, at https://www.youtube.com/@ChloeFrizzle

Thanks to Netgalley and Katherine Tegen Books for a copy of this book to review. All options are my own.

I am.
I am flabbergasted that I am giving a Mistborn Era2 book only ⭐⭐⭐, but here we are.

I think it boils down to the INCREASED focus on Cosmere connections and worldbuilding we get in this book.
(I would recommend reading at least Mistborn: Secret History, Emperor's Soul, and Words of Radiance before getting to this novel.)
It's a whole lot of our page time being Wasted on info dumps that I feel like could have been taken out (along with the characters giving them) and produced a more focused and entertaining novel.
If I wanted to learn about Shard/worldhopper/magic systems in depth, I would go read the extensive wiki.

Here is my full video review: https://youtu.be/LDICzLzYnz4

I want to take a moment here to reflect on my relationship with recent Sanderson releases. I haven't loved them (I'm thinking of Rhythm of War, Starsight, and Lost Metal) as much as his older novels. Either my taste or his style has been shifting, and I think it's some of both.
For all of those novels, my complaint is the same: too much worldbuilding, not enough character work. (We can't even blame the enlarging of the Cosmere, because Starsight doesn't get that excuse.) It's just that worldbuilding details don't excite or entertain me when divorced from the angst of the characters.

This book is a murder mystery.
It also has:
- Time loops
- Time loops within those time loops
- Amnesiac narrator
- Multiple competing body snatchers

AMAZINGLY, it isn't confusing. This book has body snatchers who forget their pasts going through time loops on top of time loops (and plot twists) all blended together, and IT MAKES SENSE. It's a masterpiece of expositional clarity.

This is the first book in a new Urban Fantasy series. It come out of the gate fast-paced, and maintains that momentum to the end. It's dramatic and gorey and has just the right amount of feeling bad for our characters.

The Last Raven follows Lucas. The book isn't shy about telling you right away that Lucas has recently seen all of his friends murdered, and he isn't feeling too good about that. in the middle of him struggling to get back on his feet, he's called in to help with a suspicious magical investigation.

While the book does dump onto you that the character is angsty, it takes its delicate time introducing you to the world and magic system. The information is fed to the reader at a manageable pace. This also provides some anticipation, as we don't get to find out what our protagonist's powers are until later in the book, once we're already comfy with the system. It's a solid world, and I'm excited to see more of it in future books.

A video review including this book will be on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, at https://www.youtube.com/c/ChloeFrizzle

Thanks to Podium and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

The cover of this book is gorgeous. But I think it does the book a disservice. From the colorful and playful cover, you might assume (like I did) that this book is YA. That this book is going to be Fun over anything else.
That when you read the blurb, it means that this is going to be a heart-racing enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance.

And it isn't quite any of those things. So you may join the many unsatisfied customers that have read this book and left wanting.

It does, in fact, have an enemies-to-lovers romance. But, like everything else in the novel, the pacing is sometimes maddeningly circuitous. It's always two steps forward and one step back.

This book is about communities and prejudice. This book is about religion and power and philosophy. This book is about accepting other viewpoints and peoples, while finding something to fight for in your own. It's about the power of folktales.
I loved it. But, I was already interested in the concepts of religious cultures and philosophies. This book may not work for the people who think that sounds boring.

This is the third book in the Sunshine Vicram series. Sunshine is the sheriff of the small town of Del Sol, and something is always going wrong in the town. Oftentimes, something that deals directly with Sunshine's messy personal life.
Her teenage daughter, Auri, is also a narrator. She is insatiably curious, and sticks her nose into all the trouble of the town.

This book feels like a season of a TV show. It's the type of TV show that takes place in a small town where nothing should be happening that is all that interesting. However, all of these murders and plot twists keep happening anyway! And our main characters are always in the middle of it! It has the small town charm of everyone knowing everyone, with all of the shenanigans thrown in.
Another reason that it feels like a TV show is that there are so many plots. There are side plots heaped on side plots. There is always something happening and so many balls to juggle.
As Sunshine herself puts it in this book, "This town is like Smallville only none of the crazy people were infected by meteor rocks."

Every time the love interest, Levi, is on the page, Sunshine completely loses her mind to tell us how incredibly sexy he is. It's a strange mix of entertaining and over-the-top annoying. However, it does lead to some sexy payoff, so it's certainly plot relevant.

Overall, this is a solid book that pushes the series in a new direction.

A review including this book will feature on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, at https://youtube.com/chloefrizzle

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

Fascinating and poignant.
I think the only thing holding this book back is that the motivations and friendships of our protagonist are quite blurry until near the end.

Can someone please tell me why Nahri's big character development moment was off screen and told in retconned summary? Oh, for a surprise in the action. A big plot twist? No, just a little surprise. Hmmm, I think this book could have done better.

I think to start this series you should manage your expectations: no, the unusual magic questions you had at the beginning are never going to be explained.

I want to recommend this book to anyone who has ever said, "I want to read something like Harry Potter." Even better, this book is cleverer, funnier, and better paced than Harry Potter.

Ewww, David and Stevie are a couple still in this book. Their relationship is 45% miscommunication and 45% lust and I hate it. I wanted David to be the murderer.