I received a review copy through Xpresso Book Tours for The Rule of Many blog tour. This does not affect my rating or opinions..

2.5 stars.

Twins fascinate me, especially identical twins raised together: identical nature and nurture. But I do still feel like they should be distinct narrators to some degree, which Ava and Mira really weren't — so the narrative is pretty homogenous. I had trouble sympathizing with either since they were pretty judgmental of everyone around them, quick to cast blame and jump to conclusions. Some of their observations and remarks just don't make logical sense to me, and there are several plot holes that I hope will be addressed in the next book.

That said, the worldbuilding is fascinating, and I bet I would've loved this book as a teenage fan of YA dystopia. The stakes are high, the characters are vivid and humanly flawed, and the story is easy to follow.

2.5 stars.

This was alright; I don't know why I keep trying to read romance when it so rarely goes well. The premise sounds more interesting than it was (I'm really not a fan of "lack of communication" as a pivotal trope), the characters were mostly likable but not particularly engaging, and the sex scenes weren't especially hot either.

content warnings:

Spoiler

explicit sexual content, domestic violence, physical/verbal abuse, slut-shaming & objectification

I received an advance review copy through Netgalley. This does not affect my rating or opinions.

I'll be honest, I've never been a huge believer in magic - though I do try to keep an open mind, and I do believe in luck and the possibility of higher power(s). That said, I probably won't be actually trying any of these spells anytime soon (also because, despite the disclaimer that you don't need special tools or ingredients to perform spells, few of the included spells can actually be done without gathering specific things that I don't happen to have on hand); they do seem simple enough, and almost all are definitely doable in 10 minutes or fewer.

The writing is straightforward and appealingly conversational, which I do like. However, there are a lot of seemingly arbitrary historical / linguistic / scientific facts - they kind of serve as introductory sentences for the section, but their relevance isn't expanded upon. And speaking of relevance, the illustrations throughout this book are pretty but don't really seem to serve much purpose beyond decoration. Superficially they're related to the passages around them, though for the most part they don't add to the reader's understanding (though in some places they could, for example when describing sigils and runes) and in fact kind of break up the flow of information. So again, they're aesthetically pleasing, but not well incorporated.

One of my biggest pet peeves has always been "See my other book for more details about [topic being discussed]" - especially in a guide that's supposed to be accessible! I do understand the desire for brevity and focusing on the main ideas, but if these details are really as important as the author claims, then they should be included for the reader's convenience.

I received a review copy through Netgalley. This does not affect my rating or opinions.

For a title and synopsis that lead you to expect a narrative about parenthood, there's a lot of anecdotes about the author's childhood — I would guess that they comprise at least half the book. They're interesting anecdotes, and I wholeheartedly agree that the way we're raised has a huge impact on the way we parent, but the connections between past and present (or her childhood vs. her daughters') is frequently not clarified, so many of the anecdotes don't seem relevant and break up the narrative flow. Additionally, there is a lot of unexamined privilege — while the author does acknowledge that she was lucky to grow up socioeconomically well off and to have parents who made her feel loved and valued, there are many generalizations about parenting and love that aren't applicable to all cultures / families (which I found a little ironic since America, the focus of her "case study," is lauded as a Great Melting Pot of cultures).

I have a lot of admiration for multilingual people, being one myself, but the number of self-contradictory passages (including "Memento mori" followed by "The true meaning and the true beauty of a human life, in a way, is to forget about death") makes me wonder whether something was lost in translation somewhere or I'm just not understanding the point; there were also a number of philosophical passages . I'm also open to reading viewpoints I disagree with, but I was more than a little put off by the author's repeatedly framing her opinions as controversial.

Overall, this was an interesting read, but the organization and underlying assumptions didn't work for me.

There were a LOT of parallels, but they actually worked. Both the prose and poetry were beautiful, insightful without being preachy. My only reservation was the third person present-tense POV, which felt slightly awkward.

I really appreciated how she was in between girl next door and unrealistically quirky. And I think that the author did a good job making a love plot seem simultaneously bigger than an interaction between two people and in itself being "enough."

These stories have the same distinctively hilarious, engaging voice as the YouTube animations that James is famous for (and that I have marathoned during weekends and over this current summer break) — in fact, I'm pretty sure several are word-for-word identical to his video scripts, with a few passages changed and/or inserted here and there. Of course, you do have to remember that since James is only twenty-something, naturally there are only so many interesting life stories that he'll be able to think of to tell and of course some of them will already have been used as animation ideas.

So although I would've loved to see even more new stories (including memories with the older sister who rarely gets mentioned, though for all we know she's requested not to be included in his stories, which is of course valid and should be respected), and honestly I would've loved to read a more traditional memoir-/autobiography-style recounting of James's childhood, behind the scenes of making videos, off-camera moments with other friends (from fellow YouTubers like Jaiden and Adam, to childhood friends like TJ), et cetera ... but I'm pretty happy with what we do get in this book. And maybe someday we'll get another book with more stories!

1. [b:The Rule of One|36584870|The Rule of One (The Rule of One, #1)|Ashley Saunders|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1522429384s/36584870.jpg|58330787] | 🔥🔥 1/2

I received a review copy through Xpresso Book Tours. This does not affect my rating or opinions.

I was hoping that this would be more thoroughly developed than the first book, but I still had trouble understanding or sympathizing with the twins' decisions, and the two new POV characters didn't have distinct voices either, which was frustrating. Certain lines left me in disbelief or straight-up confused, such as

Spoiler

the twins, who allegedly speak Spanish, having "no idea" what "pinche idiota" means

. The actual writing could've used some more editing, but several plot developments and emotional epiphanies didn't make sense to me either.

The plot was alright, pretty standard dystopian rebellion stuff, and I just didn't feel invested in their success, their triumphs and losses. If the series continues, as I'm guessing it does after that ending, I highly doubt I'll keep reading.