miromie's Reviews (148)

What I enjoyed most about this novel was the focus on female liberation and strength. Penner wrote the mainly female cast to be independent and full of vitality. The characters themselves, though I believe their development was rushed, were fun and inspiring to read, and through Penner’s characters, women can ask themselves if they’re truly living the lives they want to be living. 

I also enjoyed the dual timelines paired with the triple point-of-views. This made the novel more dynamic, in my opinion, and without them, I believe the novel would have been much slower and much more dull. The triple perspectives gave readers the chance to dig deep with each character (as much as Penner allowed, which, honestly, wasn’t much) and piece the story together themselves, which leads me to my dislike about the story. 

I disliked the lack of suspense within the novel. It wasn’t pitched as a mystery/suspense, rather as a historical novel, but I would have enjoyed more of a mystery. Because of the triple point-of-views and dual timelines, it was incredibly easy for readers to piece together the story and the “mystery” stemming from it. I felt as if I were being spoon fed the conclusion, which wasn’t fun.

A cute little addition to the series that I enjoyed reading. It's short, fast, and sweet, though not super important to the series.

I just love my little group of fae that Sarah J Maas has created. I love that we got to see more into Cassian and Nesta's world and relationship. Though this book is long, it is truly amazing. 

What I liked most about this novel was how easy of a read it was. The language that Bardugo employed was incredibly simplistic, even for a YA novel, but it was also easy to get sucked into the world and its characters. I think this was the case because of the novel’s pacing. Bardugo did a good job at filling every page with action, doglessly progressing the story in order to keep her readers interested and guessing.

However, the pacing (a.k.a. how easy it was to get sucked into the novel) was all I really enjoyed about it. The pacing earned all the stars I gave the book. Again, I found the language so basic, so simplistic, even for a YA novel. While reading, I felt as if Bardugo didn’t believe in her reader’s intelligence enough to craft language that was, if not challenging and thought-provoking, at least clever. The reading level for this book was just too low for it to be truly engaging.  

This is the second book in the popular series by Leigh Bardugo. I remember only very little about this book (and the whole series) so I didn't think it was that great.

This is the last book in the popular series by Leigh Bardugo and while I enjoyed the series as a whole, the individual books were just okay to me. They felt very childish and unassuming. Bardugo's world building is pretty impressive, however.

I really liked how this story was crafted. For being a retelling of a mythological story, Saint’s novel was surprisingly realistic, and with realism comes tragedy, but I didn’t mind it. I felt as if it only added to the beauty of Ariadne’s and Phaedra’s story. Dealing with the gods certainly does not equal simplicity or ease, but in fact quite the opposite, and Saint did a wonderful job piecing together the difficulty and apprehension that comes with involving oneself with beings of great power.

I also liked how the Saint focused on the nuances of female life. There are many facets of the feminine that present themselves within the story, and I really appreciated how Saint approached them. It wasn’t too dramatic or obvious, so I enjoyed seeing those elements come through.

I don’t have many dislikes for this story, but one would be the usage of dialogue. In some places, the dialogue felt unnecessary and because of that, felt rushed, forced, and boring. Much of what was dialogue could have been actual story. I wish Saint had been more mindful of what was necessary to be dialogue and what wasn’t. I feel it would have enhanced the story. 

I really liked this book! It was an interesting twist on an old idea. I twas also strangely informative, too, while still telling a good story.

Okay, so at first, I was having a difficult time getting into this novel, despite how popular it is on bookstagram. I found the writing to be tedious and kind of childish. At one point Armentrout even uses the word “freaking” to describe how irritated Poppy felt. That, along with other examples, just felt silly. However, the more I read, the more drawn I felt to Poppy and her story. Despite the writing style (of which I’m still not a fan), the story is really good. It’s high fantasy and action-packed with well-developed characters that are constantly shifting. 

I am definitely biased when it comes to any of John Green’s work. Having first read him as a teenager, I’ve both loved and disliked his works of fiction. “The Anthropocene Reviewed”, however, I loved. It’s smart, funny, and touching in all the right places, just as most of his books are. With insight that only Green seems to possess, readers learn both about him as a person and about the world we all live in, with a sharp focus on the recent pandemic. It’s a lovely nonfiction read. 

The only thing I disliked about this book was that I found it difficult to read huge chunks of it in one sitting. Truly, it is a conglomeration of reviews, and that can get a little tiring to read, so I often would read three to four reviews and put it down for the day. Other than that, I found it nearly flawless.