natreviews's Reviews (445)

So this book. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy this. I would've given up on it if I didn't need a Z book for my Alphabet Reading Challenge. 

In broad strokes this is a re-telling of Beauty and The Beast. Classic inhuman kidnaps girl and holds her hostage for a bit, he is totally in love and obsessed with her and she knows nothing about him, but eventually falls for him. Now, I will say I'm fine with this trope and have no problem with it BUT it wasn't mentioned anywhere. See, I'm fine with this trope being in adult books or having it as a warning and letting the reader know this is going to be in it, but this is a YA novel. This is advertised to teens, who, let's be honest, aren't always the smartest. This shouldn't be considered romantic, which it is in this book. It really put me off of reading it to be honest since I was in it for weird alien invasion sci-fi, not alien beauty and the beast falling in love. 

Also, there are somethings as a Canadian that really pissed me off. The major one being they always talk about distance in miles. MILES?!? YOU'RE IN CANADA! Here we use kilometers. I understand if these characters were from the 80's maybe them using miles, but as someone who was born in 1999, we literally only use kilometers. That or measuring things based on how much time it takes to get there (ex. 200km in a car can take about 4 hours, depending on speed limits). It really took me out of the book when they kept on mentioning miles.

The book does have a good cliff hanger, I will give it that. Will I continue with this series? Probably not. Just isn't for me.

To be honest, I really wasn't into this storyline.

Instead of the normal Marc/Steven/Jake dynamic, they switched it for Marc/Captain America/Spider-Man/Wolverine. I mean it is a cool idea in theory, but in practice it just didn't super work for me.

I will say this does feature my favourite out of context panel though (when Carol Denvers asks if anyone has dated Moon Knight and Spider-Man says 'A little bit'), but other than that I would skip this line. It also ties into Age of Ultron, which is cool, but just not something I'm interested in.

I honestly can't remember where I first heard of this book. I will say for being published the same year as Dracula, it is a very good read.

This isn't your 'traditional' vampire (sucking blood, immortal, etc.), but more of what you think of with Mercy Brown (America's first 'Vampire'); sucking the life force/energy out of someone until they die. It's this premise that an interesting story is told.

You will need to keep in mind the society this book was written in. Woman are treated as objects, slavery was a normal thing, etc. (so expect the N word to show up because it does). 

Overall, if you're looking for classic vampire novels I would add this one onto your list.

My first introduction to Moon Knight was through the Disney+ show. After finishing that series (and loving it) I thought I would give some of the comics a try. This Moon Knight collection shows the origins of Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley. It's also what the second half of the Disney+ series is based on for some segments. 

I liked this run. It was confusing at times, but overall fun. Of course we need to touch on the issue of DID. Again, this isn't great representation. It came off as something that could and can't be cured (depending on the issue of the comic) and doesn't show a good representation of what it's like to live with the disorder. On one hand people will say it's just a comic so it doesn't need to adhere to what the disorder is actually like, on the other hand I've heard other runs of Moon Knight have delt with the issue better.

Overall I did like this run and will probably read it again at some point. It's basic premise is about dealing with your inner demons, which it does a pretty okay job at portraying, minus the whole DID thing.

As with a lot of really good books, this should be one you should just go read. My review will be short. The only thing that stopped this from being a 5 was that I found it a bit too long. At points the book seems to drag on. It makes sense (given that you can feel her immortality and it's length through this), but at times it made me just wish the book ended.

So this book is interesting. It did have scary parts, but then it just got confusing towards the end. To be honest, the last chapter and the epilogue really confuse me. Like, I get what happened, but at the same time, what did happen?

I liked the format of how it was told. The story wasn't chronological, but still made sense all the way through. You actually start out (prologue) towards the end of the book, then flash back to 3ish months before that part happens. I found it an interesting way to tell a story.

I do like the allusions throughout the novel. I found those pretty neat.

I do think this book could've been shorter. Some parts felt repetitive or lagging.

Overall a good read, but one I don't think I need to read again.

So this book is slow. Like REALLY slow. It isn't super long, but it feels like it's longer than it should be. To be honest, this one didn't grip me like others I've recently read. It's okay, but it felt like I've read this story before (even though I know I haven't). There were sections that felt like it was written straight out of whatever cliché it was portraying. I know there is at least a sequel to this book, but I think I'm going to pass on it.

So this is another BookTok read! I heard about it a lot, and when I saw it while picking up some other books I thought "What the heck?" and decided to give it a shot. 

It exceeded all of my expectations. I haven't really stepped my toes into the fake-dating trope, but this is a great example of it done right. As many of you also know, romance usually isn't my thing, especially straight romances. This book is so well written though. It also features a main character who is demi-sexual (although it is never stated by name in the book) which is awesome and great representation. It has a couple of queer side characters as well that don't fall into the gay best friend trope (I think we're all grateful for that).

I really bought the dynamic between Adam and Olive. They seemed like real people (well, the majority of the time). The story was easy to follow, and kind of predictable at some points, but if you are familiar with romance tropes it isn't shocking.

Now, I will comment on THAT scene. A lot of BookTokers show their or their friends reaction when reading that scene, and I understand that. It is a bit of a shock. It does come up in the story naturally, but holy cow. (Those who've read the book know what I'm talking about). 

This book is staying as part of my collection. It's all around a fun time.

Let me get this out of the way first, I liked the ending. I don't know how the fourth book (since I've been told there is more Oxana stories to be told) is going to turn out (whether it's another sequel or a prequel), but I'll probably read it.

Now onto more of this book. It just wasn't as good as the others. I felt no tension since the cat and mouse chase is gone. This book also goes into a first-person perspective (through Eve) rather than sticking with the third-person format that the other two were written in. I found it just didn't work with the rest of the series.

Just.. oh my god. It got gayer. And that ending!!! I can't even. 

(This is less of a review, since to do a proper review would be spoiling the book, but oh my god it's so good! Basically the perfect follow up to Codename Villanelle. It also keeps the quality going and doesn't dip like the majority of sequels do. I will probably be reading the third one next because how do you leave it on that cliff hanger?)