lisashelves's Reviews (976)


⭐️⭐️ / 2 stars
Curse of the Stars is a story set in 1900s London, where Melody starts at Darkgrove Academy and meets a group of Cult members enrolled at the Academy.

I was contacted by the author if I was interested in reading and reviewing her book, as I had not heard of it before she contacted me. I was intrigued by the synopsis and cover of this book.

Unfortunately, this book just didn’t seem like my cup of tea. It has a lot of potential to be a really good book, but for me it just didn’t do it. A lot of it didn’t have to do with the writing itself, as it was a pleasantly written book, but with what was written. I had a hard time connecting to the plot and characters and thus didn’t really enjoy it.

One of the stumbling points for me was the world-building and how it was poorly explained. In the beginning, the writing was done with lots of details such as “lavender-scented sheets” and “burgundy carpet”, but with how poorly explained everything was it just seemed as if it was written like that to give the book more dept and cover up for the fact that it lacked explanation. For example, Melody goes to this Academy, but what for? Is it like high school? College? What does she study? All these things could’ve easily been explained but weren’t. The magic seems to work because of rituals, but how does that work? Where do they learn these rituals? How is the magic inside people noticed?

The same problem was with the overall plotline. I’ve finished this book, but still don’t understand what happened and why it all did. The group was working towards something or preventing something, but why? A lot of things just kept happening and I just didn’t understand why.

The synopsis also says the story takes place in 1900s London. The only points which made that clear were the dates mentioned above some chapters. The clothing wasn’t really described in great detail a lot of the time, so I don’t know if the women wore trousers or skirts. Also, they fought with knives all the time, but guns already existed so that makes it seem as if it should’ve been further back in time?

I just couldn’t really follow along all that well with what was happening. Now, I don’t know if this next point is because of the formatting of the book, but the switching in POV’s were really confusing as well. The whole book is written in third point of view, but in the middle of chapters with the start of the next alinea the focus would suddenly shift between different characters who were at different locations. This became really confusing, as it wasn’t always noticeable immediately and I sometimes had to reread passages and alinea’s to understand about which characters I was reading, which didn’t help with connecting to the story or enjoying it.

The characters themselves also didn’t connect with me. They came across as quite shallow and two dimensional. You only learn about surface points and not really what drives them or what motivates them. I would’ve liked it if they had more dept and more character growth throughout this story. Whenever something bad happened, I just didn’t feel anything like shock or something or wanted them to be okay. It just was a feeling like “okay, next” and that is a pity.

The romance was also something I wasn’t a fan of. Overall, I don’t really like insta-love type of relationship developments and that was really the case with Melody and Elliot. Their chemistry and growing feelings for each other weren’t really read about, which made the relationship not really believable in my eyes.
SpoilerThe same could be said about Rosalie and Nick. She had been in love with Melody for years and suddenly she can forget all about her and start feeling for Nick in what felt like a few days? That would never happen in real life like that I believe, so their relationship just seemed fake.


Overall, the book had a lot of potential and I think it can be really good if more attention is given to the explanation of plot points.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
The Atlas Six is an Adult Fantasy book about six individuals, chosen by Altas, as the initiates for the Alexandrian Society, where only five can continue on.

I got a beautiful edition of this book from Fairyloot’s first adult box and it is absolutely gorgeous! I couldn’t wait to start reading this book, which I did!

It took me quite a while to finish this book, over three weeks, and that when I can read 1000+ books in two days… honestly, this book was a bit frustrating for me. I wanted so much more that I didn’t get. I just couldn’t get into the story which made it so much harder to pick this book up and continue reading.

The world-building, albeit still a bit confusing for me (what’s the difference between a witch and median?) was really interesting. The magic woven into our world, like an urban fantasy was something I liked. Kinda made me want to have powers and be able to go to a university for magic haha.

The writing itself was really, really slow. When you have six characters that all get their own POV’s, usually a story just follows along. In this case scenes or moments often overlapped in the chapters from different POV’s, which made the story quite slow. Often times, scenes were written twice and then suddenly a time jump from a few weeks or even months happened which wasn’t always smooth. It made reading this book just slow.

This book is 100% character driven, as not much happens story wise. Honestly, when I was about 200 pages in, I was still confused as to what was going to happen or in which direction the story was going. The characters were learning and studying, but not a lot of it is seen. Some conversations they have were very theoretical/scientific sometimes and I sometimes required me to read the passage again to understand what they were saying. Because of the character-driven way the book is written and the slow pacing, the stakes just weren’t high and thus it didn’t really make me want to keep on reading. I could easily put the book down and just start another (which I did whoops).

The characters themselves though, were really interesting to learn. The different vibes they each give off and the different ways they interact is really interesting to read. Not all characters were really likeable (not a fan of Parisa and Callum, while I love Libby and Nico) they did grow on me. The way they interact with each other does change, especially towards the end and it makes me really curious to see how they’ll grow together in the second book. I did think not all characters got an equal opportunity to grow. Reina is a character for example that I can’t really pinpoint and it feels like she was mostly on the side this whole time. I would’ve liked to see more of her.

Towards the last 100 pages, the stakes really do become higher and the pacing picks up. From that point on I was totally emerged into this book and couldn’t stop reading. I was shocked to read the reveal, it was so cleverly thought out! I hadn’t seen that reveal coming and I loved that shocked feeling it gave me!

Overall, I did enjoy this book. it is really interesting, but you have to be aware that the pacing is really slow and the story is very character driven. Other than that, it is very detailed and super intriguing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars
Obsidian is the first book in the Lux series. It is a story about Katy, a girl who moves to a town in West Virginia with her mother, and Daemon, her neighbor and an alien.

Jennifer L. Armentrout, an author I discovered last year, has quickly become one of my favourite authors. I have loved everything I’ve read which was written by her. Knowing she has 65+ books published (holy shit!) I decided to dive into older series which are just as praised. While contemplating reading the Lux Series or the Covenant Series, I remember I had Lux: The Beginning gifted to me once, so the decision was quickly made.

I just love the way JLA writes her books. They are written in a way that makes it so easy to read and fall in love with the characters. This book is no exception. The book just flows, with a pacing that compliments it. You just want to keep on reading and reading. The little jabs when a chapter ends on some type of little cliffhanger and the next continues much later are frustrating in the best way haha.
I love the idea of aliens, who are just big bulbs of light basically. I haven’t really read books about aliens. I have read books that take place in space with different species present, but nothing like this, which made it so fun to discover this book.

The characters are just amazing! I love Katy!!!! She is something who loves books just as much as most who read the book, which is just amazing. Also, the sarcasm and humour are just amazing! She could easily blend in with my friend group hahaha! Dee is such a sweetheart who really longs for the friendship with Katy and it is really heartwarming to read the scenes of those two together. Daemon…. Well hello book boyfriend ten thousand… my god, why are the males always written to be perfect and hot in books… but characters like Daemon are just perfect for these types of books.

The romance, well hello haha. I love how the romance between Katy and Daemon grew and progressed into what it became. They bicker constantly, love that, but the chemistry they have is undeniable. Yes, Daemon is often a real dick when talking to Katy or how he interacts with her. I do wonder if that is because he isn’t human haha. I love how Katy grew more confident and doesn’t let him just do anything. The chemistry and the longing beneath the bickering and sarcasm thrown around though is something I loved seeing. How it continued to grow steadily will give this relationship a solid base and foundation.

Overall, I loved this book full of hot aliens, lots of sarcasm and humour and amazing chemistry between characters. I can’t wait to continue!

Questions/Predictions for the rest of the series:
Spoiler Does Katy have powers somehow? Like, what happened at the end with her levitating etc can’t be just because she was in contact with Daemon and Dee at that time when fighting the Arum right? And how they are now connected, she can’t be just human!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars
Opal is the third book in the Lux series. It continues right after the events of Onyx, with Katy having been freed and Dawson being back in town, wanting to find a way to free Beth from the clutches of the DOD.

Obsidian review|⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Onyx review|⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Elephants Can Remember is one of the many books in de Hercule Poirot series. In this novel, Hercule is helping Mrs Oliver to try and find out what really happened in a double suicide twelve years ago.

I’ve been wanting to read books by Agatha Christie for a very long time. I happen to tell my sister about it and she ran out of the room, which I found strange. Just minutes later she returned with two of Christie’s books, to my surprise! So, I couldn’t really put it off any longer and decided to read Elephants Can Remember, also because the other book, Murder on the Nile, was recently turned into a movie which I had just seen that week haha.

The book starts really casual, setting up the world and the characters. We first read about Mrs Olivier and won’t see Hercule for some pages. Mrs Olivier is a known mystery novelist, which I found really funny, seeing the book is also a murder mystery. She gets asked a peculiar question, which she later on wants to know the answer to:
Did the husband kill the wife and then himself or did the wife kill her husband and then herself?
I must admit, I was quite curious to the answer to that question myself. From that moment on, different “Elephants” show up which are interviewed in the hopes to find out the answer to this question.

I have always been a fan of mysteries and murders and always have a pleasure reading these types of stories. This book was no exception to that! I do think I would enjoy other books by Christie more than this one. I like the stories where the murder just happened and trying to find out what has happened. This murder took place twelve years ago, which made a lot of “finding clues” hard. Even though, the story was cleverly written and did have an explanation which I liked. It was harder to attain the puzzles pieces to get the whole pictures to answer the question, but they succeeded.

With some 75 pages left to read, I wrote down what I thought had happened, and my theory was about 95% right hahaha. Even though I predicted the ending, I liked the execution of it a lot.

Hercule Poirot is a character that I enjoy reading about. Having seen him in the recent movie, he is someone who intrigues me and is really funny to read about. The questions he asks and the way he operates are ways I enjoy, but in this book a lot is also found out by Mrs Olivier and not just Poirot. I would’ve liked to see them, maybe, work together a bit more.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and trying to find out the answer to that peculiar question, which I did. It was an enjoyable read with an interesting mystery that they had to solve.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars
The Red Palace is a historical fiction set place in 1758 Joseon (Korea), where Baek-hyeon and Eojin are swept up in an investigation about nurses who’ve been brutally murdered and the crown prince who is the said to be the one who've committed these murders.

"There is a saying among us who work there: Palace secrets must never get out, or else inevitably there will be blood."

I am an absolute sucker for k-drama’s, have been since 2014 and haven’t stopped enjoying them for one moment. The sageuk or historical dramas have always been my favourite by a mile. When I found out a sageuk would be written as a novel, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy! When Faecrate announced their January book I couldn’t be more excited for this book to come my way.

When reading the author’s note about the Crown Prince being based on Crown Prince Sado, I was even more excited, as I’ve known his story and read parts of The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyoung about what happened then and was curious to see how parts of history would be woven into this tale of fiction. I have to say, seamlessly!

Every minute I spent reading this story, I was sucked into that historical world from than. The terms used, the description of details and characters were each written beautifully and big. Everything was so easy to picture and to follow along with. It was almost as if I was watching a sageuk play out instead of reading it. Honestly, I would love if they ever made this book into a real drama! The storyline and plot are absolutely perfect for it, with interesting characters, political scheming and a mystery to solve!

The characters were all so likeable I was rooting for both of them. Hyeon struggling with wanting to be enough for others was sometimes painful to read about, because she is and has always been enough! Seeing her grow in character, her growing confidence and self-awareness were inspiring. Eojin, is just such a sweetheart as well and very different from what I expected at first. I kind off though it would be a bit of enemies-to-lovers, but his kind nature and his drive for justice made him such a full character who knew what he wanted.

The romance is exactly what I expected it to be. Very similar to sageuk and very believable for that time as well. The way it gradually grew and how it grew felt so genuine and appropriate for that time period as well. Had it been written differently; it wouldn’t have fitted into this story as beautifully as it did. It was heartwarming to read about the little moments between the two! The bold way they spoke to each other, heart flustering!

“You didn’t let go of me then. Don’t let go of me now.”

The reveal and ending were so cleverly done! Bit by bit a more would be revealed, but never did I expect the story to unfold how it did. It was totally unexpected in the best way and I loved how it all played out in the end. The epilogue written to accompany the ending also were a perfect close to this amazing story. I would’ve love to keep on reading and learn more and wasn’t really ready to say goodbye, but the conclusion it had was a perfect one. It left me feeling complete and content at having finished this story.

Overall, it was a very easy, fun and engaging read which I didn’t want to end! I enjoyed every minute I spent reading this book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars
Origin is the fourth book in the Lux series. It continues with Katy being in the clutches of the DOD and Daemon doing everything he can to get her back.

Obsidian review|⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Onyx review|⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️