lilibetbombshell's Reviews (2.79k)

What an ignoble ending. 

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but this book felt utterly slapdash and sometimes outright lazy. I don’t know if it’s the fault of the translator or the US editors, but there were two lines of dialogue that were almost taken directly from MCU films (as in, almost verbatim), and even though the Red Queen project has always been very reminiscent of other female secret agent “projects” in media it seemed like no one involved in the publishing of this book cared to even make this feel different in any way. 

It was empty, predictable, and bad. 

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. All reviews rated three stars or lower will not appear on my social media. Thank you.

To paraphrase Truman Capote, no matter how far you run you’ll just keep running into yourself. You can’t escape who you are at your core. This is Khana’s dilemma: She ran once in desperation and found everything she had been searching for. Now that her past is coming for her, she knows she can’t run again. That isn’t who she is. That’s not what she wants. She fought to escape and to be free, and now she has even more to fight and live for. 

The Witch who Trades with Death is full of wit, from the kind of silly and fond kind one might see within a household to the gallows humor usually reserved for action scenes and war encampments. If you’re familiar with Alongi’s social media works then this might not come as a surprise, but since I knew nothing about Alongi going in I was pleasantly surprised and absolutely loved every comic muscle flexed because it made every darker moment sink in that bit more. 

Make no mistake, this is a dark fantasy novel with a middling sprinkle of very slow-burn romantasy. Khana has been through a lot of trauma in her past and was sent away to be the Emperor’s concubine when she was young. She knows as little of family and friendship as she does romance and so Alongi made the wise choice to spend most of this book having Khana build relationships and bonds that meant more to the plot and to Khana’s core emotional and social development than thinking about romance. This choice brought a wonderful supporting cast of found family, friends, and enemies to the forefront. 

The third act of this book was absolutely my favorite part of the book, chaotic and full of seat-of-your-pants action. There’s a whole lot of problem-solving on the fly and “fake it ‘til you make it” scenes that made me smile because sometimes plans only work if you know the people you’re with down to the marrow. Plus, the shared emotions, sacrifices, responsibilities, and elation of Khana and the people she’s come to love feels so genuine it’s easy to smile alone while reading. It was a satisfying read. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher through the Robot Army and via NetGalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Action-Adventure/Dark Fantasy/Romantasy/Found Family/Standalone Novel/Supernatural Fantasy/Witch Fiction

What do you think of the idea of a sentient city? I don’t mean like cyberspace or AI sentient, but organically sentient: masonry repairs itself, it puts out fires, it repairs ripped up grass...it requires you to inter all bones underneath it with no covering in a labyrinth-like catacombs…

That’s the city of Vaiwyn, built by saints who are now long-gone, and guarded by vesper bells manned since the saints’ departure by the Strauss family. Never once have they slacked in their duties, until one night thirteen tolls ring out from one of the bells and unleash what the saints had trapped inside. 

What Wakes the Bells was less dark than I was hoping, but it was still an enjoyable book. I love the concept of a sentient city that isn’t sentient by some futuristic means. I’d read a whole book just about a sentient city. That aspect of this book didn’t get as much attention as I wanted, but that’s because it had other matters to attend to, so that’s okay. It also had an interesting take on saints and how they develop and the roles they play in the world of this book that I found really fascinating and would’ve liked to learn more about. I also enjoyed the world itself, which is very reminiscent of Prague (of course it is) and happens to be one of my favorite settings for fantasy novels. 

So, what’s missing? The characters. The characters just weren’t clicking for me. I wish I could have dialed in more to who they were, what they were going through, and become more invested in what happened to them, but I ended up forgetting about half of them most of the time. In my opinion, the B cast was too large for a book with this many moving parts. It ended up crowding space the book needed for other matters. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Action Adventure/Dark Fantasy/Fantasy/Romantasy/Standalone Fantasy Novel/Standalone Novel/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy/YA Fiction

I was hoping for a story that captivated me somewhere as close as Song of Silver, Flame Like Night did, and instead I got a story that barely managed to catch my attention at all. I’m frankly surprised I managed to finish it. 

The world building is there. The atmosphere is there. The plot? It’s been done before and had a trope I absolutely loathe. The story? Also been done before and done better. The characters? None of them were interesting, none of them felt new, and none of them had chemistry together. 

I felt incredibly let down by this book. When you keep falling asleep during the climactic events of the book, you know you’re in trouble. 

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. All reviews rated three stars or under do not appear on my social media. Thank you.

Were you specifically looking for a book recommendation in the vein of, “I want to read something that will make me cry my eyes out?” 

Let me introduce you to Our Infinite Fates. I need some eye drops, I think. 

First, I’m going to tell you one thing: Ignore the whole blurb, because it’s trash and then don’t get mad at Laura Steven, because she’s not the one who was in charge of that disaster. All you need to know about this book is that the two main characters have lived innumerable lives and one of them (they’ve both done it) has killed the other in each life right before they turn eighteen. Honestly, that’s all you need to know and that’s the best way to go into this. The rest is all a fantastical, emotional, philosophical, beautiful journey that hops through history and closely examines the nature of love, relationships, empathy, and sacrifice. 

This was lovely and painful and I couldn’t put it down. 5⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher through the SMP Early Readers Program via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Fantasy/Romantasy/LGBTQ Fantasy/Standalone Novel/Supernatural Fantasy/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy/YA Fiction

They say women can have it all, but maybe Finlay Donovan has had just a little too much at this point. Like, of everything. All of the things. Like, let a woman breathe, for pete’s sake.

As with every Finlay Donovan review, we begin with a disclaimer: You must start at the beginning of the series to understand anything in any book thereafter, including this one. As such, this interview is likely to only make a whole lot of sense to Finlay Donovan fans. 

BUT! If you aren’t already a Finlay Donovan fan, where the heck have you been? Under a rock? The Finlay Donovan series is the one book series I look forward to the most every year. I think I’d cry if Elle Cosimano skipped a year. 

I didn’t enjoy this installment quite as much as I did 2024’s outing, Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice, but it was great to see some of the characters (Cam!) from that book come back for this one and to see some of the loose overarching story threads that had been flapping around since as far back as the first book finally get either tied off or resolved. It was also nice to see Finlay’s relationship with Nick get out of neutral and into drive and learn more about the people who live in and around the Donovan household. 

There were some genuinely hilarious moments in this book (an eighteen-foot eggplant), genuinely relatable ones (the toilet training of Zach saga continues), the usual ones where we appreciate Vero and want her to be our bestie, and some when we really question Finlay’s sanity (I’d argue that’s pro forma, as well). 

The only thing that I felt dissatisfied with in this book was how predictable it was compared to the other books. Usually, Cosimano keeps us guessing well into the third act. It adds so much suspense to the plot that I never feel as if the tension has slacked off. This time, I felt like the tension snapped early on because there was this sense of, “I totally know what’s going on and Finlay’s smart enough that she should see it too”. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher through the SMP Early Readers Program via NetGalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Amateur Sleuth/Book Series/Comedy/Mystery/Women’s Fiction