elementarymydear's Reviews (967)

 This book was fun and ridiculous and everything I hoped it would be, with a surprising amount of darker twists too.

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The most important thing in a romance book is, of course the Big Romance, and these two delivered. Penn and Raff are clearly made for each other, and rooting for them over the course of the book was so much fun. I felt the ups and downs of their relationship in real time, and even though the Happily-Ever-After felt pretty contrived at the end, you couldn’t help but be grateful for it. (Side note: creating genuine HEAs in LGBTQ+ historical fiction is always going to be tricky, so although I had my head in my hands I commend the author for her valiant effort!)

Perhaps quite fittingly for a queer story, the theme of ‘identity’ is a strong one – not just the mistaken identity plotline (which was executed brilliantly at the start but just went on a tad too long in my opinion) but the characters also finding their own identities and places in the world. It added a nice dimension to the story and gave us some very satisfying character arcs.

All in all this was a fun read, and delivered exactly what it said on the tin.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own. 

 Laela and the Moonline is an incredibly imaginative, immersive story. The author has thought through every detail of the world; it’s the kind of fantasy where you get the impression that somewhere there is a 100k word document of world building that didn’t make it into the final edit. That’s the sort of fantasy that really suits a story like this. Instead of relying on our own real-world assumptions as to how things should go, the author takes the time to let us get to know this world before we set out on an adventure.

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And what an adventure it was! The titular character, Laela, takes us on a journey not only filled with fantastical and terrifying and wonderful things, but one with heart too. The story didn’t come quite as full circle as I would have liked but it was still an emotionally satisfying ending, giving Laela – and us – the closure needed.

In tone, the book is very reminiscent of old adventure stories. It feels like a modern response to mid-century children’s books with all the magic and timelessness but a more updated outlook. It did take me a little while to settle into the writing style, but once I’d settled in it was a very enjoyable read.

Overall this was a lovely YA fantasy, with a fresh voice but a timeless style.

Thank you to the author for providing me with a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

 

 This was a really fun story, following the misadventures of Kitty Talbot as she throws herself into London society in a last-ditch attempt to find a rich husband and save her family from financial ruin. The added twist of managing to get the disapproving Lord Radcliffe on her side was a great touch as well; I think enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-lovers might be a favourite trope of mine!

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In many ways this is a conventional regency romance, with a predictable romance plot, all of the usual tropes, and a light-hearted tone throughout. What made this different for me from the other modern regency stories I’ve read is that the characters had slightly more ‘real-life’ problems than you usually see in the genre. Kitty, as I mentioned, has very real financial issues (and a very real scandalous past) and Lord Radcliffe is still reeling from his experience fighting at Waterloo. It was a nice complement to the slightly more outrageous plot-points and the frivolous side characters.

I would have liked to have a bit more depth to the characters, particularly Kitty’s sister Cecily. Without spoiling anything, she’s clearly a very layered character who has the capacity to make very unexpected decisions, and I would have loved to delve a bit deeper into that.

The narration from Eleanor Tomlinson is, as you would expect, fantastic. The audiobook was engaging the whole way through, with all of the characters vividly brought to life. I hope she continues to read audiobooks as she does a fantastic job!

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a free copy for review. All opinions are my own. 

 This was a very compelling read, drawing me in from the get-go, with vividly imagined characters, flawed but ultimately likable.

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The main character, Manny, is a young man growing up in the 1970s. I was surprised the whole way through that I liked him as a character and rooted for him; some of his actions would make me DNF a different book, but he was portrayed with such an earnest vulnerability and an ultimate desire to do the right thing that I wanted to keep reading and to see how he evolved as a character. When a book is so character-driven like this one, the arc of the protagonist is hugely important. The emotional journey Manny goes on is a fulfilling one, and the author perfectly captures the conviction and bravado of being in your late teens and early twenties.

The book felt very episodic as I read it, which sometimes worked well, but I would have liked to see a little more of the groundwork for plot points being laid earlier on. Usually the episodic style leant itself to the book; for a character of this age, life often happens in one- or two-year stages so it worked well. In some instances though I would have liked a bit more of a through-line, especially given that the style of the narration gives us a big insight into the emotion of the characters and the story.

I am fascinated by American politics, and this book gave me not only an insight into the American politics of forty years ago, but also got me thinking more about populist politics and political engagement today. It’s rare that I read a fiction book about politics, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one.

Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy for review; all opinions are my own. 

 Wow. WOW. What. A. Book!

Safe to say there has been plenty of hype surrounding this book but it more than lives up to it. The story is brilliantly crafted on every level, and completely took me by surprise.

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All I knew about this book going in was that it was dark academia, it was about translation, and that it critiqued the euro-centric elements of academia. While all of these things are true, they barely scratch the surface.

The setting is an alternate industrial revolution-era Britain, where silver rather than steam has fuelled the British Empire. Only translators can work silver – I will save the how and why because it’s fascinating and revealed so well – and the more languages you have access to, the more powerful you are.

Enter Robin Swift, an orphan from Canton who is ‘taken in’ by an English professor and primed for an education at Babel, the world’s most prestigious and powerful translation centre. He makes friends, studies hard, and creates a life for himself in Oxford, but soon comes to question the place Babel has in the empire.

It’s a long book (the audiobook was over 20 hours), and the first half is what I would call ‘dark academia shenanigans’ – friendships forged over research, late nights in the library, secret societies, and so on. Not only is this part of the book a good read in its own right, it brilliantly sets up the world, the research, the inner workings of this version of empire for the second half of the book.

There are so many layers to the story: there’s the surface level plot; intricate and shifting friendships; commentary on the way languages and culture are exploited in the name of empire, and on the inaccessibility of education and academia. It’s a long book, yes, but never a dull one, and one that has you on the edge of your seat in the final chapters.

The only drawback I had – and this is a small criticism – is I wish there had been a different, or shorter, author’s note. The book began with an in-depth, slightly defensive explanation of all of the historical and geographical liberties taken. While clearly well-meant, its only effect was the smug feeling I got every time I spotted an inaccuracy that wasn’t specifically addressed.

The narration is fantastic, and its no easy feat for one person to keep me engaged for so long! The footnotes had a different narrator altogether, which made them easily distinguishable and kept the tone of having an aside, rather than making them part of the main text. My only small complaint is there were a couple of mispronunciations (Michaelmas, for example, was read as ‘Michael-muss’ rather than ‘mick-ul-muss’ – I can’t speak to any of the non-English pronunciations) which only bothered me in that it’s a book specifically about language and translation, and the book opened with the previously mentioned author’s note. But if an author’s note and a couple of mispronunciations on the audiobook are my biggest complaints, that speaks volumes to the quality of the book, both the text and the audio performance.

I was hoping I would enjoy this book; I was not expecting it to be one of the best books I’ve read this year, and perhaps one of the best I’ve read ever. Don’t doubt the hype; this is a brilliant book that is destined to become a modern classic.

I received a free copy of the audiobook for review. All opinions are my own. 

 Reading The Headsman is an atmospheric, immersive experience. It’s stunningly written; so much so that I’m desperate to re-read but this time with a highlighter in hand! The book is a selection of dark, fairytale-esque short stories, much more reminiscent of Grimm than of Disney. The stories are all a little bit twisted, and haunt you long after you finish reading the book.

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All of the stories take place in the same village, with some characters appearing in multiple different stories. Although this is something I usually really enjoy, in this case it was the only drawback of the book as it was sometimes difficult to keep track of who was who, and how they all knew each other. However, I think this is something that on re-reads would make much more sense, and this book definitely lends itself to that!

What really struck me at the end was the way the author ties together the stories with discussion of justice: both what it is, and who gets to enforce it. She cites Terry Pratchett as one of her influences, and it’s clear to see that in the way fantastical fairytales are used to explore themes of humanity and philosophy. I’m very excited to see what she writes next!

Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy for review. All opinions are my own.