I received this book from Usborne Publishing UK in exchange for an honest review

I'm not one for contemporary romance novels. For me, they've always been the same old recycled stories, filled with sappy dialogue, and eye-roll worthy declarations of love. Don't get me wrong, I love a good love story as much as the next romantic. I'm a serial shipper, of course I love love. But for some reason, a romance novels have never been my thing. It has to really be something special for me to even like it.

If I Was Your Girl wasn't a very exciting book. As expected of any debut novel, this one had problems in terms of writing and pacing. A lot of them. The dialogue had me rolling my eyes a ton of the time, and I couldn't care about any of the characters very much.

That said, it's an important book.

The blurb summarizes this book pretty well, I think, so I'm not going to try and nutshell it further. Basically, it's about a trans girl who moves to a new town and falls in love with a boy. If you read this as a love story, strictly, and for a moment, ignore the fact that our heroine is trans, then this whole thing is yet another recycled "Girl moves to new town, girl makes a ton of friends, girl meets a beautiful boy and they fall in love" story. And that's the beauty of it. You can read this book without ever seeing Amanda as "other". Because she's not. She's a girl and she's in love with a boy who doesn't know about her past.

And this is something I find really important in a book that falls under the "diverse books" umbrella. In fact, it was something discussed on a recent Twitter chat (it's somewhere on the #DiverseBookBloggers thread, if you're curious). So often, a diverse book with tackle the issues a certain marginalized protagonist has to face. We're rarely ever given a look of a marginalized person and seen them deal with issues that don't have anything to do with their stereotyped issues. A black hero will deal with racism; a queer woman will deal with homophobia, etc, etc. We've all seen how this goes.

But what happens to the young people reading these books? What happens to the people who have the same problems and have to read about these protagonists with mighty, oppression related problems, and never have to deal with something as normal as boy-problems? Marginalized people are so much more than the oppression they face.

BUT, at the same time, you never truly forget that Amanda is trans. Because every time she fears for her life, you remember. Every time she worries about whether or not she can trust a friend, you remember. Every flashback, every strained conversation with her struggling father, every crude joke made by some dumb jock; you remember. And that's why you can't read this, strictly, as a love story.

When I Was Your Girl is so much more than just "Amanda met Grant and they fell in love". To a trans person, it's a reminder that you're normal, you're beautiful, and you deserve to live the life you want to live. To a cis person, it's an eye-opener. It's a reminder that, even if you're an ally, there's so much you don't understand. It's a chance to understand a bit better.

Look, I know people are going to have problems with this, because Amanda is an idealized trans person. I know that Amanda doesn't represent every trans woman. Amanda was lucky. She was able to start hormones early, and legally, she was able to afford the surgery. She made friends. She got a boyfriend. Her parents did not cut her out of their lives. The author addresses all of these things in her notes to the readers at the end of the book. Amanda's idealism did not take anything away from the importance of this novel.

So, yeah. If I Was Your Girl wasn't the most riveting thing I've read. I didn't care for the romance, and I was bored from time to time - but it's an important novel about a trans woman, written by a transwoman, and dammit, it needs to be read.

Finished it anyway. Sue me.

meh.

2.7 stars

Nothing good comes from journey books. Well, most of them anyway.

The problem with journey books is that, after a while, everything becomes repetitive. We rode for this-many-days. We set up camp. Someone made a meal - it was bland. A thing happened. We took care of the thing. Unless an author decides to keep the journey part of their stories short, this repetition is inevitable. I mean, what else is your character going to talk about?

This book? It had a LOT of journeys in it. It should have been called There and Back Again, instead of Fire Study. Yelena & Co just went back and forth and back and forth. So many nights wasted on the road. I mean COME ONNNNN

It felt like this book regressed. The writing was bland-er, the narration was more annoying, and the plot??? It wasn't very interesting if I'm being honest. It was like, "Yawn. Okay, yeah, great. Fire demons. What else?"

This book lacked the charm of the previous two. Not even Valena could make up for it. I skimmed through a lot of it.

I am disappointed.

I expected better.

3.5 stars

Okay, so I was right about the Srah J. Maas vibe. This was much better than the first book.

I'm not going to do a long review this time, but here's a quick list of things I liked.

1) The writing was much better this time around. Don't get me wrong, it still needs a ton of work, but there was improvement. I appreciate improvement.

2) There's actually some world-building this time! Yay.

3) Yelena and Valek. These two are so shippable. I couldn't stop squeeing. I may not have liked their lack of foundation, but GOD. Good chemistry. I love their dynamic. But I've already mentioned this.

4) The whole business with the clans. I liked that. T'was a nice touch.

5) Yelena's character. I don't think I mentioned this in my previous review, but I really do like Yelena, even if I dislike her narration. She's tough, but she's not invincible. She's powerful, and capable of many things, but she has her limitations. I LOVE THAT.

6) The plot's still compelling as hell.

And I don't have any major qualms. I just wish the writing was better and that the dialogue wasn't so modern. But that's about it, really.

ON TO THE NEXT ONE.

TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE

I cannot even begin to tell you how important this book is.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear is a novel about rape, and the aftermath of it - but not in the way you think. It could have very easily been a dense, gut-wrenchingly emotional book about the hurt, the suffering, and all the problems Hermione Winters had to endure after her assault. It could have. And, because E.K Johnston is a master of beautiful prose and pulling emotion off the page, it would have been beautiful.

But Johnston gave us something better.

This book is not about hurt. It does not chronicle Hermione Winter's long struggle to cope with what happened to her. We do not see this heroine curled up on the floor of her bedroom, hating herself, hating her abuser, and ostracized by everyone she knows. No. This book shows us the importance of a support system.

The book follows a strong, steel-willed, brave heroine named Hermione Winters. Hermione, named after the Harry Potter character we all know and love (her Dad is a Potterhead), is a cheerleader. A popular, well-liked one at that. She is, by no means, the preppy, snobby, I'm-better-than-everyone-else cheerleader that you'd see in the movies. Hermione Winters is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out.

Our story opens up with Hermione on her way to cheer camp. It's their final year, she's co-captain, and her entire squad is excited. Everything goes fine until, one night, Hermione gets drugged and raped at a party. When she wakes up, she doesn't remember a thing.

I'm not going to go into detail about the things that happen after this point, because I absolutely don't want to take anything away from the reading experience. What I will tell you is that Hermione is an honest-to-God inspiration. In the face of everything, she stood tall. When she felt disgusted and repulsed by what had happened to her, she allowed the people who cared about her to help her feel better. She did not let herself become ostracized or the subject of school gossip. She never let her rape define her.

And this is what I loved the most about this book. Exit, Pursued by a Bear (what a mouthful) is a beautiful, poignant tale about picking up the pieces and staying true to yourself. It does not make the rapist the focus. It does not make the rape the focus. Instead, what this novel chooses to shine a light on is the healing process, and the wonders a good support system can do.

There are going to be people who have issues with this book. Because it doesn't talk about the horrors and the pains of being sexually assaulted. At least, it doesn't let its heroine get consumed by it. But it's a realistic tale of rape that is so rarely told. You are most likely to read a rape story about uncovering the rapist's identity, or a story about a rape victim completely falling apart after their assault, a hundred times before you ever read a story like this one.

A novel that focuses on reclaiming strength after rape is a rare, rare thing, and Exit, Pursued by a Bear tackles this story in a subtle, yet powerful way. It's not an easy book to read, I will admit, but it's not very graphic, despite the incredibly heavy subject it tackles. So, if you think you can stomach it, I urge you to read this.

This review and more, here.

Well, wasn't this lovely.


Review to come

move over Silhara, there's a new hero in town

*shoves Silhara aside*
*replaces him with Brishen*

I definitely liked this one better than Master of Crows. Mostly for the fact that Brishen was a much more likable hero (Silhara could be an ass, let's face it) and that the plot never got wtf-y like MoC did.

This isn't amazing, unputdownable, high brow high fantasy, by any means. Draven's writing is nothing to really write home about, though she has improved greatly. It's not the strongest. But she makes up for this with super cute characters that you just want to root for.

I've never been able to review a Draven novel very critically because, while I do admit they all have their flaws, they're always entertaining a heck. Perfect for a me-night where you just take a break from all your responsibilities and curl up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of wine (or, if you're the adventurous sort, hot chocolate wine!) and book.

The plot for this one was simple, and, alright, a little uninspired, but the romance is cute (sometimes sappy, but still cute), and Ildiko and Brishen are very likable, and that makes up for the lackluster plot. From the blurb for the sequel, though, I feel like things may pick up.

This gets four stars mainly for the fact that I couldn't put it down, devoured it in one night, and REGRETTED NOTHING.

This review and more here

I've said it once, and I'll say it again; If I'm going to read a romance-heavy novel, you bet your ass it'll feature magic, death, and grumpy mages

This was flipping entertaining. Honestly, four stars for entertainment value alone. Whoo! I docked a star because the climax was slightly wtf-y, but beyond that, I had to actually force myself to put this down and work yesterday.

Also I'm mildly concerned by how hot I find Silhara. Like DAMN son. He can get it.