kishab's reviews
301 reviews

I haven’t read anything from Veronica Roth since the Divergence series so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I think this is a great novella, it’s a Slavic-inspired fantasy, and I really enjoyed the audiobook! Even though this is short I think it’s so packed with lore and great character depth. I love stories where mythical creature are living among human and they have no idea. The narrators were fantastic and I really enjoyed the multiple POVs. I really hope to see more from this world. 
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Veronica Roth for this ALC

In The Last Phi Hunter we follow an ambitious young demon hunter, Ex, as he tries to slay a legendary demon Shar-Ala. Even though his fellow hunters have long given up tracking Shar-Ala, believing him to be a myth, Ex is convinced he’s still out there. Along the way, to earn some extra money, Ex escort a mysterious pregnant woman, Arinya, through a spirit filled forest. The story features Thai mythology and it was interesting to learn about the various demons and spirits, but not hard to follow. I really liked the magic system and world building but this book could almost do with a prequel to get further into it. The two main characters were interesting and likeable but they both felt a little younger than they were described to be and I was kind of surprised by the romance aspect of the book. I also enjoyed the other characters but would have liked to see more of them. The story was fast paced with a few interconnecting storylines, it was bordering on too much but I think it still worked. I think on a re-read/listen I would find additional details that I didn’t catch the first time around. I liked how the book ended, it was unexpected (at least to me) and I would be interested to read more from this author

Thanks to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media and Salinee Goldenberg for this ALC

I’m in two minds about this book. On one hand I really enjoyed it, I raced through reading it because I needed to know what was going to happen and the slow burn on the romance was excellent. I really enjoyed all of the POVs and the dual timeline was very interesting. The good parts were really good. On the other hand I felt annoyed at some parts in the book. In the first book I found the FMC really endearing and strong but in this one she was very unsure of herself, going back and forth on her feelings for the MMC. There wasn’t as much action in this book and it was much more exploration which I don’t usually mind but here I felt like we didn’t get anywhere. I was hoping for more interaction between Lor and her siblings, it felt odd that they were so separated. I feel like the third book in this series is where we’re going to get all of the answers and the first two books were mostly set up. Again there was a lot to enjoy here but I finished the book wanting for more. I will continue the series because I think we’ll get a lot more out of the next books.
Thanks to NetGalley, Forever Publishing and Nisha J Tuli for this e-ARC 

Tulsi Gupta, her mother and grandmother run a spice shop in Salem focusing on ayurverdict healing. But Tusli feels stuck, to keep her family legacy she should take over the shop but deep down that’s not what she wants to do. Her whole life has been about the shop and at 30 years old she has no sense of self. 

The story centers on the Gupta family and their shop and also their lack of family history. It becomes apparent very quickly that they just don’t talk about anything difficult, Tulsi doesn’t even know her deceased fathers name because she avoids upsetting her mother by leaving it alone. There seems to be many secrets of the past that the elders of the family are content to forget and never speak of again. The writing is simple to read and you get a sense for the family dynamics, characters and setting quickly. Even though it’s low stakes fiction and obviously will have a HEA the family dynamics and turmoil felt real. Overall it’s a lighthearted and feel good story, I loved the other characters in town and how they all worked together. Some of the references to pop culture made me laugh (Yes, chef 🐻) I also really appreciated the authors note about the hyphen connecting cultures, I’m Indian-Canadian so I really related. I did enjoy the commentary about Ayurvedic practices, that while they belong to no one culture in particular, real knowledge is required to make true use of the spices and blends. Not just quick social media remedies. It’s seemed like a light way to touch on cultural appropriation without getting too deep 

The Curious Secrets of Yesterday publishes on June 1. Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Namrata Patel for this e-ARC

If you’re looking for something like Legends and Lattes this is it! A cozy and sapphic fantasy about queen’s guard Reyna and mage of ages, Kianthe, as they run away together to open a tea and bookshop. I think almost every reader I know dreams about leaving their day jobs to open a cozy bookshop. I wouldn’t say this is as low stakes as Legends and Lattes, and some of the conflicts are unresolved but I think this is to set up for more books in the series. I did get very invested in all of the characters, and even the side characters. They were all well thought out and very likeable. The narrator does a great job distinguishing the two FMCS and uses various accents throughout. The audiobook includes what I think a hint at the next book in the epilogue and a prequel chapter which I really enjoyed. Overall this is a fun read, I just wish some more of the conflicts were resolved. Thanks to NetGalley, Rebecca Thorne and Macmillan Audio for this ALC. 

This is like Throne of Glass meets the bachelor. It’s a fast paced romantasy with a great FMC. Her backstory and the trials are equally interesting. You get a good sense of the FMC and a few of the other characters, but mostly the impression that there’s a lot more that we don’t know. Since it’s a first book in a series it lays out the groundwork for the remainder of the series with the history and lore. It seems like there are some things left unanswered but it only made me want to read the next book even more. It’s a great foundation book and the series can only go up from here. Thanks to NetGalley, Forever Publishing and Nisha J Tuli for this e-ARC

A Sweet Sting of Salt is the selkie folktale reimagined as a historical sapphic romance. Jean is a midwife in a small town, an important role but she still feels like an outsider. One night during a storm she sees a pregnant woman in labour outside of her house and rushes to deliver the baby. She doesn’t know the woman, Muirin, who doesn’t speak English and appears to have not had any prenatal care. She later learns that Muirin is the mysterious new wife of her distant neighbour. Although mother and baby seem healthy Jean can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. As she and Muirin grow closer, Jean puts everything on the line to help protect her. The author did a great job setting the scene with strong costal small town vibes and superstitious townspeople. There is an unsettling atmosphere throughout the entire book and it was oddly suspenseful for something I thought of as a historical romance. The main characters are well developed and you really get a sense of who they are, but a lot of the townspeople mentioned seemed to blur together. A character would be mentioned with some background to only say one line, so sometimes it was hard to keep track. However, I really liked the relationship between Jean and Muirin, it was a great slow burn with so much yearning. My heart was racing during the climax, the middle portion of the book was a lot of buildup but I sped through it. Even though the actual sequence of events was a little predictable, the setup and the descriptions of what was happening still made it a memorable experience. I really enjoyed all the superstitions that were mentioned, I find it really interesting to see what different people believe in but the main piece of folklore that the story is centred on isn’t mentioned until the end. It wasn’t a dealbreaker for me but just seemed a little weird. I think if you like a slow burn historical romance, with just a drop of fantasy this would be the book for you. It reminded me of another book I enjoyed called The Lighthouse Witches, which has a similar eerie costal vibe.

Thanks to NetGalley, Rose Sutherland and Penguin Random House Canada for this e-ARC

murders. Leonor is a retired mercenary who has settled into a small sleepy town to open an inn. Think something along the lines of legends and lattes. However one day a mage checks into her inn and is murdered during the night. Due to an avalanche most travellers are stuck in town. With the influx of visitors comes new suspects and even more murder. This is like a somewhat locked room murder mystery set in a cozy fantasy town. The author did a good job establishing the world setting and the main characters backstory in a short amount of time. I did predict the ending but in the beginning it was a bit more twisty. The main character had a lot of interesting backstory but it was only told to us but had no real implications to the story. There are a lot of characters introduced and not a lot of them have important roles to play, they only had a few lines each. Many times it was just groups of characters together sharing information but none had significant time on the page. There were also a lot of M name characters, but again since they didn’t have large roles I couldn’t distinguish all of them. Overall it’s a fun shorter story, and it’s obvious the author put a lot of time fleshing out the main character and the setting but I wish there was just a little more to it. 

Thank you to NetGalley, Xpresso book tours and L Evans for this ARC

Someone You Can Build a Nest In is a sapphic horror romance novel featuring Shesheshen a shapeshifting entity that falls in love with a human girl while trying to escape attack by the local villagers. However, Shesheshen finds out that she is being blamed for placing a curse on her beloveds family and resolves to help solve the curse and save her future in-laws. Even as an amorphous shape shifter Shesheshen was such a relatable character, I really enjoyed the growth of her relationship with Homily. I felt their bond grew in a realistic way as the book went on even with no physical aspect to their relationship. They had better communication skills than most couples I know in real life! I also liked the side characters, especially Laurent, and I would have liked to see even more of him (and his kinks) in the book. None of the named characters felt extraneous and they were all well fleshed out and contributed to the plot. There was a bit of a twist, maybe just to me because I did not see it coming at all but I loved the direction it took the book to. I’ve heard other reviewers comment that this would be great for fans of the movie Jennifer’s Body, but since I haven’t seen it I will be adding this to my watchlist. The novel is described as a horror but I didn’t find it too scary or graphic, I think if you are very squeamish some of the detailed shape shifting scenes may be a little much for you, but I liked how the author really thought out how shapeshifting would work anatomically. This was a very fun read for me and I am excited to go back and read through John Wiswell’s backlist. 

Thanks to John Wiswell, DAW Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC. Someone You Can Build a Nest In publishes on April 1st 

I’ve seen this compared to Agatha Christie but I’ve also seen another review say that the only similarities are that they’re on a train and there’s a murder and I have to agree. The only thing I would add is that each character does have their own motive and secrets but I don’t feel it was as complex. There are a few other nods to Christie but that’s about it. The entire plot is pretty straightforward but we’re following the characters and multiple POVs so it takes a while to get to the meat of the story. It’s very character driven and all the characters are well thought out, some more interesting than others. The ending really saved this book. There was a last minute plot twist that I did not see coming. It was really heartbreaking too. I understand that all of the character backstory and buildup was needed to really feel the gut punch of the twist but you can’t tell that when you’re reading it. Overall it was an interesting idea but I just feel like it took too long to get there