litty_lydi's Reviews (123)

Well that was more softer/heart warming than I expected out of a 3-kind-of-spider-gods-1-woman-as-their-sex-servent story...

Not that I would have expected anything less from our Queen Ruby Dixon. I love the entire Aspect and Anchor series (although I have not finished Wed to the Wild God yet because I missed the slow burn of the first two novels but this might inspire me to actually go back to it), and this was no exception. As the blurb says, this is exactly what you expect it to be given the premise. Also definitely the "spicest" of the A&A series... which, again, is not shocking given the premise.

bullet point review:

- really cool premise, just not the best execution
- I liked all the references to fairytales and lore, although the flowery language of the bridegroom could be a bit much at times
- couldn't care less about the bridegroom. As soon as we got Azure's POV every time we switched back to him I was disappointed
- very accurate & jarring depiction of a toxic friendship
- if I didn't listen to the audiobook for this one I doubt I would've finished it
- when I was in it I was in it, but as soon as I had to stop, I didn't really think of it again. I was intrigued, but it didn't pull me in enough to make me want to just sit down & devour it
- I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS!! MANY OF THEM!!


**ALC was provided by Libro.fm

If Ava Reid has a million fans, then I'm one of them.
If Ava Reid has one fan, then I'm that one.
If Ava Reid has no fans, that means I'm dead.

The Wolf and the Woodsman is one of my all time favourite books, naturally as Ava's debut I was excited for whatever she published next, while also being a little nervous (how can it get better?!). Yet, somehow they managed to raise the bar again with their sophomore novel, Juniper & Thorn.

In broad strokes, this is a gothic-horror fantasy (with a dash of romance) story inspired by the Grimm Brothers fairytale, The Juniper Tree. Considered one of their more gruesome fairytales, Reid does not shy away from that. As no surprise, Ava Reids prose continue to be truly spell-binding, within the first few lines you are immersed into this world engulfed by the haunting atmosphere that quickly sticks its claws in you and is unwilling to let you go. The pacing of this novel is impeccable; you are immediately thrust into the story and the tension and adventure remains high from start to end.

At its core, Juniper & Thorn is about Marlinchen’s journey of finding her voice after spending her entire life under the rule of her abusive father and surviving the only way she knew how; keeping all of her emotions to herself, and doing anything and everything, without complaints, in hopes of pleasing her father. J&T deals with many difficult topics, and it will not be for everyone. There are sections that are hard and uncomfortable to read; but that’s the point. Despite this being set in a fantasy world, the experiences of the characters are very real, and very horrific (all content warnings will be below). Ava Reids ability to use these hauntingly beautiful prose to epitomize how the trauma Marlinchen experienced has shaped the woman she is (and becomes) was a cathartic experience for me. It's dark, emotional, confusing, and yet very, very real. Many will not relate to Marlinchen's character (quite honestly, that's a good thing) but I hope that those who do are able to find some solace in knowing that they are not alone in how their traumas have impacted their lives.

If fairytale retellings set in a gruesome gothic-horror world are your jam (with an added bonus of himbo love-interest head-over-heels for the mc), I highly recommend that you check out Juniper & Thorn.

I am diving back in to annotate this arc (& I might have three copies of this preordered; the uk cover has me in a chokehold alright?! [also word of special editions, ugh rip me]). I will also be rereading TWATW as my watch for A Study in Drowning begins.

❦❦❦

cw: gore and body horror, cannibalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and scientific racism, child sexual abuse; incest, physical and psychological abuse by family members; gaslighting, self-harm and suicidal ideation, bulimia; graphic descriptions of vomiting, animal death

As a disclaimer, I did request and receive this physical arc from Harper Voyager. All the quotes are from the arc thus are subject to change. 

Bettina Scott has spent the past few years living a relatively simple, some may say "mundane" life. After her father and brother left suddenly one night she has been attached to her mothers side, trying to be the perfect daughter and perfect lady, as her mother has taught her. One day, Bettina receives a letter, and a sign that makes her realize that her brothers and father may be out there, and they may need help. Bringing along two old friends, Gary and Trish, they seek out answers to what happened that night her family disappeared and find out that not everything, or everyone, is as it seems.

The story of Flyaway unravels through the first person perspective of Petunia, with inserted short stories about the legends and creatures that haunt their town. Jenning's prose are excellent and easily suck you into the haunting landscape that is the Inglewell bush. The legends/stories that are told set continue to build on that atmosphere with tales that would be told around the campfire, or by parents to keep their children out of the woods. 

This set-up is both a fault and a merit of the story. It certainly adds to the creepy atmosphere, but in the beginning can be very confusing. There are quite a few names that need to be remembered for the story to really make sense and properly unfold. I found myself getting lost pretty easily and having a hard time linking the stories to current day people/events. I listened to the audiobook for this one, and at the end felt like I had definitely missed something. I went back and re-listened to the stories and the last few chapters and was then able to fully grasp the story. This may have been different if I had actually read it instead of listening to it... 

The characters are ok; I wasn't particularly attached to any of them. This book is definitely more plot/atmosphere driven than character development. 

If you are in the mood for quick (4 hour audiobook, <200 pages book) read with a haunting atmosphere steeped in legends of the monsters that watch you from the forests at night, definitely check out Flyaway.

The soulmate trope is one of my favourite tags in fic, and I am always complaining that there isn't enough in published fiction, enter We'd Know by Then.

Set in a world where everyone sees in black and white until they meet their soulmate, Brighton has had "The Glimpse" for as long as she can remember, but doesn't know when exactly it happened or it was that set her off. She, like most, dreamed about the day she finally found her soulmate and lived the perfect life she had always heard about. However, after losing her mother and watching her father go through losing his soulmate, and his ability to see the world in colour, Brighton begins to question whether the soulmate thing is worth the inevitable pain, or maybe being "happy enough"will keep her satisfied for the rest of her life.

I went into this expecting some heart warming romance with some fluffy lines that might make me giddy, and ended up being completely ripped apart. I will avoid spoilers but would warn that this book is likely to cause some visceral emotions, I recognize not everyone is a crier, but I genuinely can't remember the last time I ugly-cried this long and hard to a book. Keep that in mind when deciding when and where to read it.

This book made me grapple a lot with the idea of is "happy enough" enough? Is settling worth it if it means you're avoiding the pain? Would you trade a life of contentment and "happy enough" for a few days of pure bliss? lmfao can't wait to talk about this book with my therapist

Kirsten Bohling wasn't playing around when she said "I write heartfelt, complicated love stories..." in her GR biography. 

My only real gripe (and why it wasn't quite a 5-star for me) is the set-up/progression in the first half of the story. The author uses a lot of time jumps, and big ones, which I have a personal aversion to. Because of this I felt like I missed out on a lot of the earlier development between Brighton and Cain; it is a soulmates book so I don't want to say the relationship felt rushed in the beginning, because that's what I signed up for, but would've liked more of those early beginnings ... or just had the first half happen over a smaller temporal scale. I would say the climax probably works better because of the extended time, but I think I would've reacted the same way even if it was over a smaller period. 

A by-product of this is that I felt I never got a great grasp of Cain's character, aside from the fact that he's pretty fucking great; he's blatantly in love with Brighton but is willing to relinquish his own happiness just to be able to spend time with her. I would have loved to know a little bit more about who Cain was outside of Brighton (and his obsession with LoTR, totally valid btw). I recognize this is also just a flaw of single POV story-telling. 

Despite the ugly crying, I will be re-reading this as soon as my physical copy comes in. So many things I want to tab. This will definitely be one of my books I turn to when I'm in the need for a good cry (hence the new shelf I made, specifically because of this book). 

The ending also has me intrigued, I'm hoping we get to see this continued and this world delved into a bit more... 

All around excellent debut for Bohling and I am looking forward to what she publishes next! 

Side note: this is one of those rare times where I wish I ran a book club so we could have a discussion about this book... I have a burning question that I need everyones opinions on. Kirsten, if you ever need someone to write the "Book Club Discussion Guide" for this book, feel free to hit me up.

p.s. us reylos keep winning.

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April 11, 2022 - immediately after finishing
I spent the last 15% of this book ugly crying in the comfort of my home. I WAS NOT ANTICIPATING THIS. full thoughts to come but god damn that hit good and I need Amazon CA to get their shit together and send me my god damn preordered paperback

I'll start this off by saying that Frances Glessner Lee is another example of incredible woman who's tenacity despite her position as a woman at the time, progressed science, and she wanted none of the fanfare for it (and to no shock to anyone, didn't get it). The fact that this the first time I am hearing of her, given she basically funded an entire department at Harvard and my (as well as large number of the general publics) interest in forensics, is disappointing, but alas, not surprising. Frances was never one to back down, and truly put everything into trying to propel this field forward. She had no horse in this race, she genuinely just wanted things to be better. 

My main flaw with this book is the amount of time and information spent telling us about (i) the early early life of Frances and (ii) everyone else who wasn't Frances. To the first point, yes, give us a chapter about her early life, set the scene, make sure we know she's rich (Frances was privileged, and thankfully so, without her access to funds lord knows what this field would look like today). And to the second point, I do think it is important to discuss the influential characters in Frances life, i.e. Magrath, but when the book has her name in the title, a surprisingly large amount of the text was about anyone (or anything) else.

It truly felt like all research efforts went into those early years and less so on the, what I would consider, more interesting parts of Frances' story as she progressed forensics science. The minor details the author was able to pull about life pre 1900 vs the amount of "we don't know what happened with this" in the in mid 1900 parts was jarring. Frances did seem to be a relatively private person (e.g. destroying every photo of her and her ex husband so now none exist [mood]) so perhaps that explains some of it. The book was very heavily front loaded, and when we got to the more relevant parts of Frances story, i.e. the construction of the Nutshell Cases, they seemed generally glossed over and much less page space was dedicated to them.

Despite Frances starting her advocacy for the overhaul of the coroner system and death investigations, it is jarring to see how little we have progressed in this area. Reading about these systems as described in the 1940's and thinking of them as archaic (how can the individual investigating deaths not have medical experience??) these systems are still very much the same in some areas some 80 odd years later. It's chilling to think whether any progress would be made without her.

Also, this is not just a US problem. As a Canadian, I did the bare minimum due diligence to see how death investigations happen within this country, and not surprisingly, our system has the same weaknesses. We do not have any national standard for death investigations and depending on what province you are in, it is not required for the coroners to have medical experience. A lot of these issues tying to lack of resources and funding. You can't help but reflect and cringe at the amount of both wrongful convictions and uncontested murderer cases that are still occurring ... 

Aside from the specifics of forensics and death investigations, Frances story, and Frances herself, highlights another important issue that is still rampant today: peoples general lack of confidence, and respect for those who don't have a piece of paper, or letters after their name, labelling them as "officially smart". The doctrine that only those with a degree can be truly knowledgeable and/or trustworthy on a subject is still rampant today (and this is coming from myself, an academic pursuing more letter for my name). Pursuit of higher education is still full of a plethora of barriers today, and just because a person may lack the means or ability to get that piece of paper should not immediately result in them and their thoughts being discredited. 

I always have a hard time rating non-fiction, balancing the kind and amount of information disseminated versus the writing style is a tricky balancing act. Frances herself deserves five stars, but considering this book is titled "The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee" a large bulk of this book was dedicated to other men. It's somewhere between a 3.5-4 stars for me. 

𝗢𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱. 𝗔 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝘀? 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗼. 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲, 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀.

This is my top read of 2022 so far. 
This was so well done. The pacing was impeccable and I was so invested in every element of this story. For a relatively short book, I was not ready to let these characters go. 

This one is going to stick with me for a while.