nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)

1) Misift City Vol. 1 ★★½

content warnings: violence
representation: black main character, fat main character, sapphic main character, black side characters, native american sapphic side character, sikh minor character, f/f minor relationship

This series was a major miss for me :/ I don't know what it is, but I just don't get the hype.

Honestly, my feelings haven't really changed from volume 1: unoriginal and bland characters, an art style that doesn't gel with me, a fine storyline that has been done better in other places. The dialogue is perfectly average, but I feel like it was written to be really witty and make me laugh and I just think it's really uninspired.

Also, I'm fairly certain the the artists have never drawn a fat character before, because her size is so inconsistent it's infuriating. Sometimes she seems like she weighs the same as the other characters, sometimes she seems to be the weight of two other characters combined, sometimes she's somewhere in the middle. It really started to bug me in this volume.

This series was a massive disappointment for me. It's really sad that in a series with such a cool premise, the most interesting part for me was the Goldie Vance reference (is she a real detective who existed, or is she a fictional character?? It's never explained and I wanna know).

content warnings: drug use, mentions of rape and roofies, violence, murder, poisoning

Honestly, I don't have too many thoughts on this book. Overall it was a really fun time. I enjoyed Jamie and Charlotte a lot as characters; I like that Brittany Cavallaro made them reminiscent of their great-great-great grandfather's while also making them their own characters. Their dynamic is also similar to Sherlock and Watson but still holds that originality. The side characters were a bit more hit and miss, with Lena and Milo being my favourites and the rest feeling pretty average. Not giving away spoilers, I really like the direction this book too concerning August Moriarty and his relationship with Charlotte.

The mystery was really fun and, similarly to a lot of the rest of this book, was clearly drawing on Arthur Conan Doyle's classics without ever being a cheap rip-off; in all aspects, this book is not just a one-note reminder of the classic Sherlock stories.

One thing that I really didn't like was the length of chapters. The books pacing was good, but some of the chapters could be up to fifty pages in length. I find it really difficult to read something when there are not only excessively long chapters but also when there are very clear points where a chapter could end and another one could begin. This is a personal point, but it did lesser my enjoyment of the book.

I would still really recommend this, and I think I'm going to pick up the sequel.

*2.5

content warnings: gore, body horror, violence, death, murder, necromancy, mentions of suicide, fatphobia, racism, sexism
representation: fat mexican-american wiccan main character, fat black side character, mexican-american side characters, wiccan side characters, implied side f/f relationship


“Spells are just prayers with more steps and a name that scares people.”


I'm having a really bad run of reading super underwhelming books that I was excited for this year. This book isn't bad by any means, but it doesn't live up to the expectations of the synopsis.

Undead Girl Gang is about teenage witch Mila Flores whose best friend died supposedly by suicide two days after the schools mean girls hung themselves. Mila, however, believes that Riley was murdered and decides to resurrect her so they can find her killer, accidentally resurrecting the mean girls as well. The mystery of who killed the girls unfolds from there because none of them can remember the night they died.

The mystery was okay. Admittedly, I didn't guess who the murderer was, but the reveal was super underwhelming because I didn't care about the character or their relationship to the other characters enough for it to effect me the way it was intended. Their motive was fine, but was extremely predictable once you figure out that they're the culprit.

Characterisation is where this book completely fell flat for me. The author seems confused as to what personality traits every character has and can't figure out if we're meant to like the characters or not. Mila is mean and judgmental, something I love in my female characters, but as a character she just didn't connect with me so I just found her off-putting. I genuinely have no idea if we're meant to like Riley, but if so the author completely failed in writing her. The entire time she annoyed me, and she came off as so self-centered and naive that I grew to hate her very quickly. June and Dayton were okay and I like the deconstruction of the mean girl trope, but they just felt very bland to me.

Spoiler

Honestly, my favourite character ended up being Aniyah and she gets barely any page-time.

Due to my lack of caring about the characters, I also didn't care about any of the relationships, romantic or platonic. Riley and Mila's friendship in particular is the entire basis for this book and it got to a point where I was bored every time they interacted.

Also, are we really still doing absent parents?? Come on people, it's 2018, let's stop having Mila's parents disappear for 100 pages and not care that she's sneaking out constantly even though they're supposed to be fairly strict.

I think this book missed a really good opportunity to explore grief, made even more annoying by the fact that the first couple chapters seemed to be going in that direction. But the second Riley, June and Dayton are back it's dropped entirely until the very end. It tries to halfheartedly keep it going with Mila and Xander connecting, but it didn't work for me because of my complete lack of interest in their relationship and the fact that all of their interactions boiled down to the fact that Mila had a crush on him.

On a positive note, this book had really good fat representation. Mila being fat didn't by any means make up the entirety of her character, but it was still mentioned several times as part of who she is. I also liked reading about other peoples' reactions to her weight, such as Riley being only able to call her "curvy" even though Mila insists that it's fine to call her fat because that's what she is.

One positive aside, I know I'm really ragging on this book. I can definitely see the appeal of this book, but it's clearly not for me considering the fact that I skimmed nearly the entire last half. Ultimately, I ended up finding it fairly boring with characters who I didn't hate enough to want dead but didn't like enough to root for.

content warnings: discussions of sexual assault and domestic violence, alcoholism, murder, loss of a loved one, sexism, racism, bullying
representation: hard of hearing chubby bisexual main character, lesbian main character, bisexual side woman of colour, side f/f relationship


“Be careful what you wish for; Not all lost things should be found.”


My thoughts on this book are extremely complicated. There were some things I really enjoyed, some things that made me really bored, some things I loved, some things I hated.

Spellbook of the Lost and Found is set in Ireland and follows a group of different teenagers as they discover a spellbook that is supposed to help them recover lost things, but there is a price to pay for getting their things back.

This book has three POV characters, and several side characters for each POV.

⇢ Olive wakes up after a party, not remembering much from the night before and unable to find her best friend. When she does find Rose, Olive starts to realise that something about her has changed and has to try to help her friend.
⇢ Hazel is a teenage runaway who is squatting in an abandoned house and illegally working at a pub with her brother, Rowan, and their best friend, Ivy, the girl that they're both in love with.
⇢ Laurel discovers the spellbook along with her two best friends, Ash and Holly, and they decide to cast the spell to recover their missing diaries. They end up finding more than their diaries, though, including a mysterious boy called Jude.

Personally, I didn't find the amount of characters confusing or overwhelming because I'm used to reading books with large ensemble casts, but I can definitely understand how that could be confusing for some.

I found myself unable to really connect with any of the characters, though. I didn't dislike any, and I have my favourites (Hazel, Rose and Olive), but they ended up feeling too mysterious for me. And until the last quarter of the book when there are some plot twists, I just didn't care about Laurel's portion of the story because it mostly just boiled down to how infatuated these girls were with Jude.

On that: the romance in this book really didn't do it for me, any of it. For one, everyone's a complete horndog in situations where they should clearly be focusing on other things. Hazel and Rowan are both in love with Ivy, and Ivy and Rowan are actually hooking up, but then Olive and Rowan have a connection, and Hazel and Rose are catching feels, then there's Ash, Holly and Laurel who are all in love with Jude and all having sex with him. It just became way to much and it made the story really drag for me.

Moving on to things I actually really enjoyed, I liked Olive and Hazel's portions of the plot. I liked the family drama that was woven into the overall story about the spellbook, and the ways in which their families connected to the spellbook and the links between the past and the present. The writing of this book is also gorgeous. It's so luscious and everything is described in a way that makes it beautiful, which could get annoying but Moïra Fowley-Doyle never overdoes it so it's just right.

There was a twist at the end that I just didn't need.

Spoiler

I have no problem with Ivy being Hazel and Rowan's half-sister, but the twins being in love with her felt so unnecessary, especially as they both get different love interests anyway.

Overall, this was just okay, if mostly for the writing and setting, and I probably won't pick up another book by this author.

2018 pride reads #6
lgbt+ rep: side f/f romance

God, I wanted to enjoy this book so much , especially after so many people I trusted had enjoyed it, but I don't know what they all saw in it that I didn't.

The two aspects of this book that I enjoyed were the plot and the writing, but even those had their flaws. The plot was really interesting but there's about 200 pages of build-up and then 150 pages of really interesting plot, which was a ratio that didn't work. It meant that anytime something happened in the latter third it felt rushed and convenient. The writing was pretty good but there was something that kept annoying me: the use of the word 'like'. These are some examples just from the first chapter:

"... in our beater car that smells like French fries and stale coffee and plasticky strawberries..."
"... so red it looked like she'd cut herself."
"... that smelled like expensive French soap and wet Yorkies."
"She sucked in smoke like it was a milk shake..."
"The news hit me like a depth charge..."
"... it smelled like diner coffee and the smoke twining up from her cigarette."
"... walked straight-backed out of the room, like there was something she had to do."
"It even smelled like it had been sent from the past."
"... typing it up on an old Selectric, like the one in the..."

And that's just the first chapter, it continues throughout the whole book. Sometimes it's really effective (my favourite example was "It felt like stars had crawled into my joints and exploded." ) but mostly it was just annoying.

Now let's get into the things I didn't like. The characters and the relationships.

Alice was such an annoying main character. She was meant to be a complicated teenager with anger issues but she came off more like a whiney brat. That would have been fine but it seemed, at least to me, that she had absolutely no character development. She's also incredibly entitled, but I'll touched on that later.

Finch was fine. He served his purpose. He was too nice for his own good and that's about it. Every other character was incredibly forgettable and I felt like I had seen them all somewhere else. The only exception was Ella and, to be honest, I would have been more interested in reading a book about her childhood and her on the run with Alice.

I read in several reviews that there was a cute f/f romance in this book. There is an f/f romance in this, but it's so brief I don't even know if I can comment much on it. Let me put it this way: there was more about the relationship in Heir of Fire between one of the cooks and his mate than there was the relationship in this.

Finch and Alice's dynamic frustrated me because it was mostly her treating him badly (or just not giving a shit) and him being nice. Ella and Alice would have been a good dynamic but Alice was so unlikeable I didn't give a shit.

Back to Alice's entitlement. Almost every review has mentioned this, but I'm going to anyway: Finch is biracial (half white, half African-American) and there's a scene where Alice is driving, Finch is in the passenger seat and they have a confrontation with a police officer. Alice is being rude to the cop and afterwards Finch tells her how uncomfortable he was that she did that. Alice seems to understand why Finch would be uncomfortable but doesn't care. He calls her out for being privileged, which she throws back in his face because he's rich and she's poor so how could she be more privileged than him. And then it's never brought up again. Alice is never called out on it past this point, and never seems to care. The fact that she can't understand that in a racially charged confrontation she, a white woman, is more privileged than Finch, a black man, infuriated me to no end. Especially because Finch literally says "He could've dragged me out of the car because you were being an idiot. You think rich matters in this situation? You think a cop looks at me and sees rich? You're pretending you don't get it, but you do."

Okay, rant over. My final thing is the most minor of nitpicks but whatever. Early in the book they're in drama class and reading lines from The Glass Menagerie , which is a personal favourite play of mine, and Alice starts shitting on Laura. I get she's not a great character but it just rubbed me the wrong way for some reason?? Idk, told you it was minor.

Basically, this book had potential but fell really flat. I might pick up some of Melissa Albert's future books but I won't be picking up anything she writes that's part of this particular world.

Review also posted to my blog.


content warnings: violence, murder, discussions of parental loss, classism, misogyny, manipulation, descriptions of burns/being burned, allusions to homophobia, unwanted sexual advances (no assault), anti-immigration sentiments
representation: sapphic latina protagonist, sapphic latina main character, f/f main relationship, latinx main and side characters

“In a battle between two men trying to control her, she'd chosen herself.”

The fact that this hasn't been getting more hype astounds me! This is an #ownvoices latinx-inspired dystopian featuring political intrigue and a romance between two women, how is everyone not reading this?!

We Set the Dark on Fire follows Daniela Vargas, the top student at the academy which trains young women in the art of being either a primera or segunda, the two types of brides wealthy men will marry. On the night of Dani's graduation, a member of a resistance group threatens to expose her biggest secret - she and her parents illegally crossed the border. In an effort to protect her secret, Dani must help to uncover a conspiracy, protect her identity, and ensure that her falling in love with her husband's other wife doesn't complicate things too much.

Let's start off with the world building, because it was fantastic. There was never a moment while reading this that I found it too info-dumpy (which is a big trap books like these can fall into). The reader is only ever told information about the world when it is necessary, with smaller details of the culture being woven naturally into the story. Each chapter starts with a small excerpt from textbooks on being primera's and segunda's, which was a tiny and effortless way to enforce your knowledge of how this society functions.

A large part of this book is focused on politics, both overtly with the political intrigue going on as well as more subtly among the themes. This is a world very inspired by our own, something which is most obvious in its discussions of immigration. There are several times when characters talk about the border wall and keeping illegal immigrants out, and that's just the start of it. There's also fantastic commentary on the view of women in this society, which is essentially either a sidekick to a man or the woman producing his children. It's only mentioned a few times, but there are also implications that within Medio at least, queerness is not the norm and is actively frowned upon. And these discussions all feel organically woven into the story. There was never a moment when I thought that the topics brought up were heavy handed or out of place, which is in large part due to how well-written the book is.

This book isn't all just political intrigue and social commentary, though; it also has one of my favourite romances of the year so far. The segunda, Carmen, is initially presented as an enemy of Dani's, but quickly becomes an ally as the two women become closer. The romance is fairly slow-burn, Dani not realising her feelings until nearly halfway through the book and then it's much later until anything actually happens. Their quiet moments together were so sweet, and I loved both of them together as much as I did as seperate characters.

I only have two major negatives, one which isn't even the books' fault. 1) This book was marketed as a fantasy, which it most definitely is not. It's a dystopian which, sure, could develop into a fantasy in book two but sure as shit isn't one now. 2) There were some times when Dani would overhear or see something that felt just a little bit too convenient, and I wish the author had come up with some cleverer ways to have her access the information she knew.

Overall, this is a fantastic diverse dystopian with biting social commentary, interesting political intrigue, and a fantastic romance. If any of that sounds interesting to you, then I would highly recommend checking it out.

content warnings: loss of a loved one, grief, marijuana use, mentions of aphobia and homophobia
representation: gay main character, asexual side character, sapphic side characters, gay side characters, demisexual side character


“Opinions are like sphincters in that most people have them, just some are louder than others and can be terribly messy if not handled correctly.”


This is a super weird book. It's about a twenty-nine year old, Gustavo Tiberius, who is not a normal person; his stoner dad is dead, he owns a DVD rental place, he has a ferret called Harry S. Truman, he spends his night reading encyclopedias, and he knows every Academy Award winner and nominee in history. Then an asexual stoner hipster called Casey moves to town and Gus has Feelings.

I said it was weird, okay, and this book is definitely not for everyone. This was my first T.J. Klune book and from what I've heard this weirdness is fairly common for him so I'm definitely hyped to read more from him.

The plot of Gus trying to become more 'normal' could have gone really badly and turned into a 'change everything about yourself for the guy you like', but it didn't go that route. Instead the book leaves you with the message that you shouldn't change yourself to please somebody, but also that change itself can be a good thing.

The characters are easily the weirdest part of this book. It's set in a small town, so obviously wacky people live in that town. There's Gus, obviously, but then there's also Lottie, Casey's aunt who owns a cafe and is kind of Gus' friend. My personal favourite characters were the We Three Queens, three elderly biker women who are either sisters or in a polyamorous relationship (Gus hasn't asked).

Casey is asexual, and the exploration of asexuality in this book was so good. All the conversations about it are very open and honest, and when Gus doesn't understand something he finds out before he can make a mistake. There are multiple discussions of consent throughout the book, and every time the two of them hug or kiss one of them will always ask the other if it's okay first. Also, the hugging in this book was really cute. More books should have their love interests hug. Also, this book has the greatest love confession of all time.

Throughout the book, Gus keeps remembering his dad, Pastor Tommy (not an actual pastor). There's a really nice look at grief as Gus remembers his dad, and I loved seeing that they were extremely different people but they still loved each other so much.

Look, I totally get if you don't like this book, but I had a great time reading it and am excited to read the other T.J. Klune book I have, Wolfsong.

1) Burn Zone ★★★★
2) High Heat ★★★★

content warnings: mentions of homophobic family members, discussions of past death of a partner and family members
representation: Mexican-American gay protagonist, demisexual protagonist, m/m main relationship, pansexual side characters, m/m side relationships

“‘There’s always been something so right about holding you. Always,’ Luis whispered.
‘Yeah.’ He had to swallow hard. ‘I wish—’
‘No wishes.’ Leaning down, Luis silenced him with a soft kiss across his mouth. ‘No regrets.’”

I've been loving Annabeth Albert's Hotshots series as I've been reading it this year and this is by far my favourite, which is kind of strange because trope-wise it's easily the least up my alley. I'm normally not into second chance romance but Annabeth Albert might just convert me because I loved how it was done here.

When they were teenagers, Tucker and Luis were madly in love and convinced they would stay together forever even with Luis moving away. Now at thirty-five, not having seen each other since Luis left, the two meet again and, against their better judgement, start falling for each other all over again.

This is different from a lot of Albert's other books, most notably in the ages of the characters and what this means for their relationship. She's had older main characters but they're always paired with a twenty-something, which is it's own incredible dynamic, but there was something refreshing about having two guys in their mid-thirties fall in love. Tucker has two teenage boys and an ex-wife, and that complicates their relationship in ways that never felt trite or cliche. I also loved that Tucker and Heidi, his ex, are still friends and just kind of fell away over time. I'm pretty sick of only ever seeing miserable exes in fiction, even if as a child of divorce I can say that it's not at all unrealistic, so having Heidi and her husband Isaac have such a positive relationship with Tucker was nice to see.

Tucker isn't the only a-spec main character Annabeth Albert has had, and hopefully won't be the last. Finding character on the asexual spectrum, especially in smuttier books, is so difficult so I really appreciate that Albert has now done it on more than one occasion (in addition to having side characters on the asexual spectrum).

It is with a heavy heart that I say there was not a major dog character in this book as there were in the past two... But there was a cat! And she was a real cutie-patootie who I would like to cuddle. All romances should be required to have a cute animal as a major character. Honestly, I don't know why they all don't already do it.

This series is so great. I'm very happy to see that I was mistaken when I claimed this was a trilogy because there seems to be a fourth book coming next April. I'm so not ready to give up this series yet and I hope it has many more entries — or Annabeth Albert goes on to write another fantastic series similar to this and Out of Uniform. If you've liked any of Albert's previous books then you'll almost definitely love this one. It has everything great from all of her other books (well-written sex scenes, loveable characters, a central relationship that's easy to root for) plus a cat! What more could you want!

I received an ARC of this book for free as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review.