gaylic's Reviews (728)

This is the cutest sapphic story I’ve read in a very, very long time and I highly enjoyed it overall.

Rounded down from 4.5. Normally I round up, but the subpar world building in this book was distracting me from how much I loved the story often enough that I couldn’t justify 5 stars. This is potentially just because of my own hang ups on sociopolitical theories, but I find it hard to believe that a world that is so set up on sexism and the idea that women specifically have to marry by a certain age would also be a society that is completely free of homophobia. The sexist ideas that tie a womans worth to her youth are the same that force comphet onto society, the same that defaults love and marriage to the ability to procreate, and the same comphet societal ideas that would have made the Ash Witch believe barring a Honey Witch from love would kill off a bloodline.

Otherwise, the love story in this is adorable and uplifting, the struggles to overcome the curse were well done and kept things at just the right tension, and the love conquers all themes were predictable in the best possible way. So overall I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you are able to look past the above criticisms more easily than I am.

Rounded up from 4.5; Inez as a main character annoyed me with how naive she was at times, but it played well into the emotional aspects of the betrayals that occur through the story. The setting is wonderful, the romance is fun, and it ends with enough questions to make me interested in the sequel.

This book was such a cute little murder mystery with a great side story about love after traumatic loss. Being set just after WWI is a perfect time for the vibe of the story; it’s awesome to see something written about the booming science discoveries during the Roaring 20s instead of just the party scene. I also love the depth the author put into the world wide trauma that everyone had to face after the first war and the overall feeling that things weren’t quite done with it. The way she explores the trauma of civilians who lost people both to the battles and the PTSD after the war as well as the first hand war trauma with Alexander is fascinating. She really nails the various coping methods people utilize when trying to heal and get back to every day life. I think these are things I enjoyed almost more than the mystery itself, which was well written, albeit fairly predictable. But as I’ve said on other reviews, I think it’s a sign of a good mystery when the reader can figure out who did it and why, because it means that realistic clues on means and motive have been given throughout. A big twist just means the author withheld important information and that disappoints me as a reader far more in all honesty.

Definitely recommend!

This book was exactly what I expected it to be. Some good content about Tifa and Aerith before the contents of the game, explaining some of the ways they became the badass women they are. It’s got it’s flaws, but it fits the vibe of Remake, and is realistic to the world. The translations seem solid and it reads very easily. Definitely enjoyable.

I loved the reunion of Alex and Saffron in this book and the addition of Elizabeth into the mystery was a lot of fun. Nick’s character was well done overall, but he wasn’t enjoyable to read in the long run for me. The solving of the mystery also felt a little rushed in this one, but not to the point where it wasn’t fun. Maybe more like a 4.5 than a 4, but not quite enough for the 5 stars I gave the other two books.

It said it reads like a warm hug in the cover and it absolutely delivers on that promise. If Hallmark made a witch movie, this would probably be it. There’s so much goodness in it and so much love, and just the tiniest bit of drama to keep the plot moving along. It’s predictable in a lot of ways, but the twist was one I actually didn’t expect.

But the best part of this book was the diversity in the cast of characters and how that diversity is represented in such a natural way in the writing of the story. Nothing ever felt forced, or thrust into your face for representation points, and it still managed to tackle all the complicated feelings of being a WOC in England and paralleling that to the isolation of witches. It’s very clever and I loved every second of it.

Would definitely recommend this book if anyone is looking for a lighter hearted read with a great set of characters.

This book is beautifully written and the love story is executed in such a unique and beautiful fashion. I loved reading the letters and blasted through this book because of wanting to get to each letter.

However, that’s also part of why I’m placing this at 4 instead of 5 stars. I loved the letters, but the lore and surrounding story being written to get to them felt so vague and loosely constructed that I almost wondered why it was there at all. I still don’t fully know what the war was truly about or why these two different factions sprung up to fight it. Maybe I’m not supposed to because Red and Blue don’t really know either, but it felt like that could have been more clearly expressed as well. It was only the last 20 or so pages of the book, when the letters had stopped, that the action portion of the book became interesting to read and I think it was because all the emotions from the letters got transferred into those actions. I would have liked this to be a little longer so it could flesh out the world the letters exist in.

It’s poetic and flowery in such wonderful ways, but the structure of the story could definitely have used some stronger roots.