I enjoyed Crooked Kingdom so much more then I did the first book, Six of Crows. It helped that I came into the book familiar with the world and the characters. However, Crooked Kingdom also started off running and kept going until the end. There were only a few slow spots in the entire novel.

Overall, I felt that Crooked Kingdom was well written. The characters were distinct and well portrayed. The world felt strong and I understood it so much better. The plot was well presented. I was never surprised by what was going on, but it still held my attention through their swindling. The writing was also good.

However, at the end of the novel I realized that even though I enjoyed the book I was not hooked on the world. I should have been left emotionally empty when the novel ended. Instead I was not even moved. I enjoyed the story, but I was ultimately not strongly connected to it.

I do plan on continuing to read Bardugo, including going back and reading her trilogy as well as continuing with her future works. Next, I plan on moving to her Wonder Women novel.

I really had no idea what to expect when I picked up Cinder. All I knew was that it was a retelling and that the series is much loved. This book blew those expectations out of the water. The book was a fun twist of science fiction, with great characters and a strong plot. Even though I saw the plot twists coming I could not wait to see them play out. I cannot wait to finish the rest of the series.

I read this book via Kindle Unlimited.

The Rule of One is a dystopian novel about twins born to a futuristic American nation that has a one child policy. The story was written by twins telling twins perspective. The premise was interesting, and I have wanted to read this book for a few months. The execution was not as well done.

There were not distinct voices between the sisters. Given circumstances I tried to give this some grace at the start of the novel. However, I felt it should not have still been an issue at the end of the novel. I was left wondering what was the point of having to separate narrators. The characters were not all that likable. Since they spent their entire live hiding that they were twins, I would have assumed they would have started out a little more hardened. Instead they were pampered. Then there was not much growth.

I was also thrown off by how the Spanish was written. First, if it is a closed nation why are they taking Spanish? There could be a good reason for this. Maybe, the elite schools teach it because the students may go into international relations. However, it came across as just being modeled after high schools today, without much thought as to how things would have changed with a closed society. Then when there is a speaker who only speaks Spanish what she says is written in Spanish and directly translated into English. It was awkward as a reader. I have seen much better ways of incorporating in other languages into a primary English reading demographic. But again, how does high school Spanish allow you to speak proficiently with a native Spanish speaker?

Read via Kindle Unlimited.

I loved this book. Pines is a speculative fiction novel that starts when Ethan, a secret service agent, wakes up with limited memory in a small town. The novel deals with him struggling to figure out what is going on. I spent the entire novel speculating, but the truth blew me away.

There is a bit of everything in this book. It is part thriller, part science fiction, and a bit horror (just enough for my squeamish self). The book itself had an amazing plot and great characters. I was hooked from the start of the book until the end. I would have gone straight into reading the second book if it was not for a readathon that I was working on. I will be reading them this next month, however.

My one critique is that there is an overuse of the character's names. I think this is a common issue I have with Crouch's writing in general. I can tend to tell who is talking without telling me every line. It comes to a point where it is a distraction. I switched between Kindle and audiobook and it was more distracting in the audiobook then when I was reading it in print.

Read via owned hardcover.

This is the first Kim Stanley Robinson book that I have read. I have been meaning to read him forever and have never picked him up. I picked this up on sale at Barnes and Novel and have been excited to read it. Then I was disappointed.

Robinson is a good writer. He has strong characters, a highly detailed plot, and you can fallow the narration most of the time. My main issue was that this was the exact opposite of an own voices book. It was a abled white male writing about Chinese culture and a guy who was obviously on the autism spectrum (ASD) without specifically saying he was.

The ASD rep was not all that great. In fact the character was completely negative about every aspect of his diagnosis and it only focused on the negative parts of ASD. It does not make for a well rounded character. Especially, since his ASD - or hid supposed ASD - is most likely what made him so good at his job. It was a cookie cutter representation. Which left me to question the validity of all the other character representations. I kind of felt guilty about reading a book heavy on Chinese culture from someone not from Chinese culture.

After reading this book it turns out Robinson wrote another book where the main character was specified as being ASD. I think I will give that book a try and use it to determine if I will read more of his work. The writing is talented, but I'm not so sure I want to read the story that is being told.

Caraval seems to be a love it or hate it kind of book. I went into the book with very little idea of what to expect. I had heard great things and I was excited to read this book before the release of the third book. Besides the cover is amazing.

I loved this book. I was hooked with the main character from the start. I related too her a bit too much, and it felt like her reactions (and there reactions of her sister) were very realistic. Then add in the fantasy of Caraval and I was hooked.

There are reviews saying that it was not magical enough. Yet, that is one of the reasons that I did not like this book. The magic was not over the top. It did not take over the story. Instead, Caraval is a very character based story - my favorite type. The characters were real, even when you knew that they were not.

On one hand the plot twists of Caraval are very predictable. I saw things coming and the counter to the twists well ahead of time. Yet, at times, I was not quite as clever as I thought. I am so excited to start reading the second book. Thankfully it is in my TBR for next month.