cunningempress's Reviews (526)

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC.

This sounds so much like fanfiction you can't help but compare it to that.

However the book feels like fanfiction. And not in a good way. I expect a little more from a book than I do from fanfiction. At points this felt a lot like a string of one shots. Fluffy pieces that don't really give anything to the plot other than showing Zach and Ruben get closer to each other. I'd say that roughly the first third of this book sounded like fanfiction. Zach and Ruben were the only characters, the others were just names. Neither of them had anything, though. They had each other and that's it. There were no friends, no family, no one outside of the band. And not even any of their past was introduced, like how they became a band (it's not explained in too much detail) or even how the band got it's name. I think the beginning would've felt more like a book and less like fanfiction if there was a story behind these characters. In fanfiction you already know the characters, in books they're new people and there's really not much to say about who they are. It's not until later in the book there's more. The other band members are introduced to the reader, they hang out. I love that Zach's and Ruben's parents are so large pieces of the story, because whether you like it or not family does mean a lot, especially if you're closeted queer kid in a boy band everyone knows.

The beginning is what I have problems with. The rest of the book? SO GOOD. There's an actual plot! I love how the whole band is looking out for each other, I love how Ruben and Zach both have challenges and they help each other and grow as people. I love that not all of this is a romance. If anyone asks me, I ship Zach and Ruben.

Other things to note:
- What's the audience for this book? At first I thought this would be for young teenagers but there are quite heavy topics here like drug abuse and neglect. As a European I don't really mind, I read this sort of thing when I was that age but Americans?? Maybe I'll just forever be confused about Americans.
- And the cover. As a former art student I think the cover is good, but it could be better.

All in all, this is a pretty good book. If I owned this I might even read it again someday when I wanted to get out of a reading slump and wanted something quick and easy to read.
I finished this at 2.30AM and I cried.
Someone might've heard me say I despise romance but love[b:Red, White & Royal Blue|41150487|Red, White & Royal Blue|Casey McQuiston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566742512l/41150487._SY75_.jpg|61657690]. And this is going to that pile as well.

I'm not gonna lie I think I missed a chunk of this because I only had the audiobook and I'd probably enjoyed it even more if I could've actually read it.

But even as an audio this book was amazing. I love the world building and I just can't get enough of these female warriors, they are so badass!

I'm not even going to act as if I'm not trash for Nesta. Or SJM in general.

I really don't like the Nesta haters online. Not because I think they're wrong (I actually agreed, they have a point, Nesta was an asshole) but because they judged her based on books from Feyre's POV. And I don't get how some of them flat out refused to read this because it's about a character they despise.

And because everyone talks about how much smut this book has I'm gonna talk about that too. And really, I enjoyed it. I get it if smut and erotica aren't for you but I find it fun. HOWEVER, SJM makes some very, shall we say, interesting choices. At this point they're just inside jokes about steel and velvet and makes it almost impossible to read the smutty scenes in public because you'll end up laughing on the ground.

If I'd have name a character I disliked it would be Rhys. That fucking idiot. You'll know what I mean if you've read this. If you haven't, then you should. I'm starting to see why there are people who hate Rhys.

But as I said before, I wouldn't stop reading this series just because the books are about characters I hate or dislike. These books are too good for that. I mean, I read 700+ pages in 3 days. My schoolwork could never.

I loved reading Nesta's story. This book brings up important themes about our society even in the context of magical kingdoms and Fae warriors.
This also made me wish I could be Illyrian or Valkyrien but lets be honest, I'd probably quit after a month of training because I'd still stumble.

I have seen so many mixed reviews for this book and I think it's because Sarah J. Maas has a very distinct style which I've seen in all of her books and I actually don't mind it. If anything, I find it at times hilarious.

I love mysteries where the madness never stops.

Originally I picked up this book because the title reminds me of my cousins and all the fun we used to have during summers at our lakehouse. I've read other books by Karen M. McManus and truth to be told, I wasn't very excited. I went into this thinking it might be just as much of a let down as One of Us Is Next. But this was better. Way better!

There were plenty of clues and plot twists and I made quite a bit of my own theories while reading this (I don't think any of them were correct, though). I think this is the perfect book for buddy reads when you can share your theories and try to guess the ending.

If you like family feuds and secrets then you should definitely read this. It's like reading about someone else's family drama, it's great.

I wasn't supposed to read a book because I need to be studying for entrance exams but when I got this I noticed this is a comic so I read it in one sitting and it was so nice to read something else than politics.

I don't think this was anything amazing or original but it was nice.

Idk, at this point I expect a lot more from love stories. It wasn't bad really, just not very different from all the other books I've read.

I really liked this one. I spent a month reading politics for an entrance exam and I this is was perfect thing to read after all that heavy stuff.

I'm not usually a fan of contemporary so I wasn't expecting to like this.

This time there won't be anything more in depth about this book review because I just read this to escape all the heavy stuff.

This was fast-paced and entertaining! It only took me two days to read and I was visiting my sister. If you were bored and had nothing else to do you could probably read this whole thing in one sitting.

Halfway through I realised this is a first book in a series and I was a little skeptical because the last time I tried reading a YA mystery series I DNF'd the first book because I realised it wasn't going to go anywhere, but that's not a problem with this!

I liked the setting. It didn't feel too much like kids trying to act like adults and then getting into trouble with authorities/parents (which I feel like happens a lot in YA). There was always something happening and I feel like even if the second book wasn't prompted too much and I could stop here I still want to read it because if it's anything like this it'll be great.

I wouldn't have thought that I could read a book this long in only 3 days.

This book was super fast-paced and action packed. This would probably be something that'd get you out of a reading slump or if you just want something with a lot of action this book is for you.

I wasn't in love with this, though. There was a lot of potential for more character development and emotional and meaningful scenes between them but I feel like they were written very briefly. This isn't a book that would emotionally destroy you because you just don't get to know the characters that well.

Also, I thought some of the plot just didn't make sense.

Spoiler

Maybe I'm just a bad reader but I didn't see Athena's back stabbing at all. I felt it came out of nowhere and usually when characters have ulterior motives you have moments where you question them before they announce their ulterior motives or then they have some unseen plot behind the scenes.

When it comes to the Greek mythology I'm not mad about it. With my limited knowledge of Greek mythology I think this was a pretty nice book.

However, I do have to point out the fact that one of the minor characters was named Demos. And the political scientist in me just can't handle a single person being referred to as Demos. Also, Lore's name is never explained in a way that would make it sound less weird. Like is it a Greek name? Or a nickname? Or maybe it's just a clever reference to the mythology and the idea of 'kleos'.

This book deserves a rant review. Except that I can't deal with this so you're gonna get the short version of a rant review.

This book needs to have trigger warnings of incredible cringe, toxic family relations, rape culture, annoying main character and insta-love.

It's clear from the beginning that the main character is not like the other girls. One of the tropes that I hate. It makes for insufferable characters. And I thought, okay, it's been just 30 pages, it'll get better. Then Theseus arrives and they barely even talk to each other before they fall in love. Another trope I hate.

Meanwhile Ariadne's sisters - who have their own reality TV show that reminds me of Kardashians - act like idiots. Actually, that applies to the whole royal family. Yes, the royal family. If you want to write about Kardashian-esque characters, do not make them royals. Royals are known for being "proper" and they would never intentionally let out pictures of half naked princesses. Or intentionally have sex on camera. And the king would never ever have cameras in his office!

This book is so cringy I thought about just DNFing and being done with it. But I kept reading because the set of this is intriguing. It took about half the book for it to get decent. The second half is the reason this is getting two stars instead of two.

Ariadne finally starts to question her fucked up family and realises how fucked up their whole life is. It's what I expected to happen way earlier in the book when the "I'm not like the other girls" trope is involved. But no, this book isn't very enjoyable. I think if I had been older when I read Twilight this would've been my reaction.

So if you want to write a rant review, here's a book for you. If you'd rather not punch a book and cringe on every page just stay away and pick another book.