Kiss of the Night actually was much better than I was initially expecting in the end. This is the fourth book in the main Dark-Hunter series, but probably not one of my favourites. I think this is because I struggled to connect with Cassandra or Wulf, or believe in their romance as it all felt rather forced at the beginning. I would say that the Dark Hunter series always has an unconventional way of pairing together the two main characters. In this one it was a bit more bizarre as the two started their relationship in dreamscapes rather than in person and actually it got much better when they met in person.

Despite not liking Cassandra and Wulf all that much, I do enjoy the backdrop to the series and the world. For those that haven't read the books Kenyon mixes up the supernatural with Greek mythology. As a result of Greek God conflict, a race of curse individuals called the Apollites were created. These are supernatural creatures who cannot venture out in the day, who drink from each other to survive and will die on their 27th birthday. Some of them also have psychic powers and various abilities. The only way they can avoid death is to feed off human souls and turn to demons. They are in essence then vampires. In order to prevent the world being overrun by daimons, Artemis has an immortal group of warriors known as the Dark-Hunters who have given up their soul to her (usually in exchange for the ability to exact revenge on someone that wronged them and gained immortality). They then are granted with various powers, fangs, and also cursed to only walk the night as they hunt the daimons down. The problem is Dark-Hunters are forced to be loners as they cannot interact with each other physically or their powers wane. Their leader is Acheron, who is a mysterious, seemingly super powerful guy that helps intercede on their behalf with Artemis and is always very vague and mysterious. This creates a very complex, but interesting world as there are also Were-Hunters, Dream-Walkers, oracles, etc.

The premise of this book is that Cassandra is part of the cursed-Apollite race and is nearing her 27th birthday. Dark-Hunters are also forbidden from engaging with Apollites. Therefore, in order for her and Wulf to be together, they both have to break the rules, but also accept that in a matter of months Cassandra is going to die. This created quite a lot of tension in their relationship that just felt forced to me and I didn't really like that. I also found Cassandra a little bit annoying as a character.

Although I wasn't necessarily sold on the relationship between Wulf and Cassandra as much, I was reminded that there are lots of elements in this series that I do like such as the humour, the action, the overarching plot lines etc. I'll be reading the next book for sure, and the third book in this series I loved a lot, so I know there are always going to be books I enjoy more/less in this series.

Normal People by Sally Rooney is a heart-wrenching, sorrowful, and incredibly depressing novel. It made me feel desolate and despairing. It speaks of the pain of abuse: physical and psychological. It addresses issues of depression, anxiety, self-esteem, self-abuse and more surrounding mental health issues. It is incredibly profound for how open, how honest and how accurate this exploration of mental health is. This book also speaks about wealth, poverty, class divides, social cliques, being an outcast and the struggles of trying to fit in as a teenager and student. Ultimately, however, I found this book so difficult to read. It was both compulsive and unsettling at every turn as I had to finish to see if I could find a closure.

I warn you, I felt no closure

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The relationship between Marianne and Connell was deeply unsatisfying at every turn. They made me want to scream in despair as they failed to communicate, failed to be honest and failed to understand each other. And yet, there still managed to be pillars of support, they managed to do good things for each other in strange ways. They also made me deeply sad; especially Marianne as I saw the abuse and the self-abuse she inflicted upon herself. It pained me to read about her experiences and her behaviour. I wanted to reach out and stop her. I think in other ways I found reading about them so difficult because so many aspects of this novel resonated with me, about fears, anxiety, depression, social pressures and my experiences growing up as a teenager and through college. I couldn't enjoy this novel because I felt to my core, that I have experienced aspects of this novel in one way or another.

The concept of Normal People and being "normal" is one that doesn't really vibe with me either. Society has created a construct of "normality", yet we all have different social cliques, different social circles and that does not necessarily equate to us being normal. I think this book identified the perils of trying to fit with those cliques and how you can lose yourself as you put pressure on yourself to conform to social expectations. It also captured the difficulty, the stress and the social anxiety of trying to make friends, of meeting people and how that can make you feel. Although this is not something that can be told, this is sadly learnt through the fraught teenage years and time spent trying to become comfortable with yourself.

I also think this book handled the topic of male mental health really well, as we saw Connell's friend helping him seek advice, and an active engagement with therapy and support. As suicide is one of the biggest killers for men under 40, I think this is something that Rooney did not shy away from and I think something she handled with care and sensitivity. It felt important that this message was present in this book given the focus on mental health and relationships.

Overall, Normal People is a book I'm glad I can say I have read now, but it is not a book I would like to pick up again. It has made me feel a little hollow inside, a little uncomfortable with society and people, and a little despairing. I considered whether this was the right time for me to read this book, but then I realised there would never be a right time to read this kind of book. I can understand why so many people have been blown away by this book, and I do think it has a lot of value and tackles some really important topics. However, I think I just found it too difficult to read.

The Subtle Knife was an enjoyable read and I was encouraged to read it after watching the BBC His Dark Materials series which follows book one and absolutely loving it and being desperate to find out what happened next.

This book definitely felt like an inbetween book as we build up to the final book and what feels like is going to be an epic battle or turn of events.

I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Lyra and Will. Lyra was a little annoying as she was very full of herself, but I felt like she grew across the whole book. I also liked the unravelling of certain mysteries from book one.

However, it felt like this book was less dramatic than The Northern Lights and I missed Iorek Byrinson.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I am really looking forward to the next book!

The Power was an interesting read and whilst I enjoyed it, it didn't particularly blow me away. It felt like there was a little spark missing throughout the whole book.
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For those that don't know, The Power is a novel within a novel, where a man recounts an imagined history where women take over the world. Within this imagined history the story flits between a variety of characters, mostly women who tell their story in several parts over time. These women tell the story of how their lives changed as they and women across the globe developed the ability to give electrical jolts from their fingers. In gaining this power we see how women were able to protect themselves from the abuse and dominance of men. Women rose to power and in some cases became matriarchal societies.
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The book was incredibly clever as it entirely flipped on its head the concept of violence against women and showed it as violence against men. Alderman showed how the power became abused as women turned violent, abusing and killing men because they had the power. It was a clever critique of the patriarchal structures and power that men hold today, which enables them to abuse and kill women.
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Alderman also made some interesting attempts to consider gender fluidity and identity as some men developed skeins, which gave them the ability to shock people too. I think Alderman could definitely have explored her concepts of gender and gender structures further here and it would have been interesting to see more of this.
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Overall I think the book had a lot of clever themes and ideas, but there was just a spark of something missing that meant I didn't totally fall in love with this book.

Reading Women Challenge Prompt 5: Women's Prize for Fiction Winner

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was not quite what I expected. It had a much more sedate and philosophical pace than the original Hunger Games trilogy. It also lacked a underdog heroine that you wanted to root for and fell in love with for her loyalty, her love and her determination. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the story of the villain, Snow. He is not likeable, he is selfish, sneaky, deceptive and a liar. If you want to read this book because you loved The Hunger Games and you want more like that, then this is not the book for you.

For those unfamiliar with the storyline, this book follows Coriolanus Snow (better known as President Snow in the original trilogy). The 10th Hunger Games are about to commence, and this time the final year students of the most prestigious academy will mentor the tributes from the districts going into the games. Snow is given the district 12 tribute, the girl, Lucy Gray Baird. He believes he's been given the worst of the lot and will never win. This is his chance to shine in the academy and to win a prestigious prize and save his family from ruin. The plot follows him and Lucy Gray Baird as they navigate their relationship, the hunger games and the perils of the capitol political system.

I think to say I enjoyed this book would be misleading, but I found myself engrossed within the pages. I enjoyed the slower, more philosophical style and I think the writing was actually better in this book. It felt like Collins had focused on her style and the writing, in lieu of having a more action-packed world. The Hunger Games that take place in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes are nothing like those we witnessed in the original trilogy. This is the inception of the games, as we see how they begin, how they evolve, and how Snow helps to craft the games we know. I actually really liked understanding how the Hunger Games evolved as a concept, and the philosophical debate behind them.

This book draws you into the dark mind of a villain, who at times, seems normal and loveable and vulnerable and then Collins twists the story and you feel unsettled, you feel angry and you see the despicable nature of Snow. I liked this dual nature to the story and the way in which we learned and unravelled Snow's character across the book to being the man like we know in the trilogy.

This book definitely serves as a solid prequel to the series in terms of building up the stage for the games, for Snow's character and the world. There were also a few allusions to Katniss, to mockingjays and to the future of the games which I think are always nice to see in prequels and something fans will grip onto. However, at the end of the book, I also felt like this wasn't entirely necessary. I could have quite happily read the original trilogy and never read this book and I would not be bereft.

I have to say this is a difficult one for me to rate, as I didn't love it, but I did want to keep reading. I liked the pace, even though it was slow, and I liked the style of the book. However, I think a lot of people will be left disappointed in this. Having said that, so often we read books about heroines and heroes and adventure, and there is something both deeply unsettling and quite interesting about being in the mind of a killer.

A Woman is No Man is June's @femi.books book club read. It's about three generations of women. The mother-in-law Fareeda who escaped the refugee camps in Palestine with her husband and sons and came to America for a better life; the young woman Isra who at 17 journeys from her home of Palestine to America to marry Adam; and finally Isra's daughter Deya, who is born and raised in America but is haunted by her parents' death and the lack of choice in her future as her grandmother Fareeda is forcing her to choose a suitor to marry. The narrative jumps between the three women and crosses time across the 1990s from the perspective of Isra and Fareeda and to 2008 from Deya and Fareeda's perspectives.
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I had very mixed feelings about this book as it focuses heavily on the oppression of women in the Arab Muslim community and focused heavily on violence against women. The characterisation of men in this novel was the most problematic as the men were aloof and violent and lacked any redeeming qualities. The book also felt incredibly repetitive as it continually focused on women having no choice and it being incredibly shameful to have a baby girl.
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I know Etaf Rum has spoken out about how her story wanted to focus on how each generation of women was trying to provide a better future for the ones following them, and whilst the end did offer hope and begin to show that. I felt that throughout the novel the focus was on the violence perpetrated against women and the shackles that culture and religion forced upon these women. She also spoke about how she wants to encourage women in violent relationships to have the confidence to leave them, which is incredibly important.
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However, I felt that Etaf Rum did not explore enough that the teachings of Islam do not support the treatment of the women witnessed in this book. There was one scene where Deya is in college and they talk about how the Qur'an teaches that heaven lies underneath the feet of women and that women need to be respected.

This small reference didn't feel nearly enough of a consideration of how religion and community can be a positive part of Muslim women's lives. I think the book is especially problematic if this was the first book a non-Muslim person was to read about the Muslim/Arab community as it only perpetuated the stereotypes people have been told by the media etc.
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This is not to say that I feel like this book should not have been written or that we should remain silent on the subject. However, I think aspects of the book could have been more nuanced and considered.

Reading Women Challenge 13: By an Arab Woman

A Girl Like Her was a delightful steamy romance. The main character Ruth is a black autistic women who is sarcastic, blunt and pretty reserved following some a bad experience in her past. Her autism means she sometimes finds it difficult to understand people's behaviour, she's not a fan of small talk and doesn't appreciate unexpected visitors. Evan, the main love interest is an ex-military man who is kind, caring and pretty damn hot. The story is set in a small English town where everybody gossips and there's a lot of narrow-mindedness and not a lot of history is forgotten.

The romance between Ruth and Evan is absolutely smouldering and it gave me butterflies in my stomach. It had both the heat and the slow-burn qualities that I love in a romance and I found myself racing through the pages to see their relationship develop. I also thought that both Ruth and Evan were great fleshed out characters. Ruth has a great character arc as she starts out unsure, not confident and focused on punishing herself. However, she slowly begins to gain confidence, find her spark and take back her life across the novel and I loved that journey. She's also funny, sarcastic and a little bit abrasive but I loved that about her. Evan on the other hand is just an all-around good guy who cooks (what's not to love about a man cooking), and I just fell a little bit in love with him.

Talia Hibbert is definitely a romance genius and she's a new firm favourite of mine for sure. She's written a brilliant Own Voices story and I loved every aspect of the book. I'll definitely be binge reading the next few books in this series because I'm entirely hooked on Talia Hibbert's writing style.