The biggest issue with this book is that it really did not age well. Maybe if I'd read this book when I was younger I could've focused only on the good, as the bad would've been less jarring, but unfortunately that doesn't change my opinions of this book today.

This book is very much a high-school style book of its time (2013). There's your cliques, mean girls, the brooding bad boy, etc. There's cringy cursing (with 'beeyotch' being the most commonly used), the narrator uses an odd valley girl accent for certain female characters, and it all just feels very tropey. There wasn't, thankfully, too much girl on girl hate and slut-shaming, something another book I read from this era had an issue with, so this aspect of the story was more annoying than harmful.

My biggest issue with this book was its outdated terminology regarding marginalized characters, ideas regarding virginity, and its odd avoidance of the existence of queer people (which is also indicative of it's time, but it's still very noticeable now). First, this book is laden with terminology that is actually quite offensive. Luckily, these words are generally used once or twice, but it still was jarring to read.

Spoiler

The terms included 'oriental', 'gypsy', and 'slave-driver', with the latter more frequently repeated.

Second, there is an odd emphasis on the main character's virginity, from the very beginning of the story. The MC is warned that being a virgin might not be a good thing, or to at least not let this one guy/dragon in school know, because that dragon race is notorious for being very into virgins and wanting to defile them (also odd side note, but this race name changed from sunblast, to fireblast, to sunblast again throughout this book?). But then, at the end, the MC is the only one who can complete a special quest because she's the only virgin, or 'true maiden' of the group. It just feels so odd (and slut-shamey) that the MC is considered special for this reason, and that it makes her a 'true maiden'. They could've just... not. Lastly, there was just something very off-putting in this book that made me realize that this book is only straight characters. There's a special bond in the book that happens between a dragon rider and dragon very rarely, and when it's between two people of opposite genders, it means love/marriage etc. However, when it's between two people of the same gender, it's only considered as a brothers/sisters relationship. The strength of the bond is shown as intense and intimate, and the fact that romance can only occur, or is only seen as an option, when the two are of a different gender just straight up erases queer relationships. Like, this book is from 2013. Gay people existed in 2013?

The book itself wasn't much stronger, even when the impact of these above issues is ignored (if you even can ignore it, as a reader). I honestly feel as if I predicted all of the upcoming plot twists for this trilogy within the first 50%, and the only way I'd continue this is to see if I was actually right. Nothing really happens for most of this book besides annoying high school drama, and the characters themselves don't add much instead as they all feel super tropey. The only reason that this book isn't 1 star is because I was mildly invested in where it would go by the end, and I am still mildly tempted to continue to see what happens next. However, I don't think I will, because the above issues would bother me too much.

Overall, I feel like this book very much fit in the YA Fantasy of 2013 (not that it excuses the problematic issues it has now), and it just doesn't feel like a book that belongs in 2021 due to the issues outlined above. Even just an update to fix some of the outdated terminology would help a lot, but would still only elevate this to a 3 star for me at best. I was intrigued, but in the end, this wasn't for me.

First, I would like to thank the author, publisher, and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book. While an egalley was provided for me, my thoughts and opinions are my own.

This books covers a lot of sensitive topics that don't often make their way into YA (polyamory, HIV/AIDs, bisexuality, homelessness, and other sorts of trauma. However, I don't know if I can say this was well-balanced. While I can't comment on the exact rep for most of these topics (except for perhaps bisexuality, which wasn't really a focus), it generally seemed like the book was trying to do too much, and wasn't able to give any one topic the space it needed. I also don't think Sabine was the sort of character to handle being in this type of story, as she was a very selfish character and the spotlight was mostly focused on her grief and trauma after learning her father had another lover. Her disgust with being lied too wasn't distinctly separated from the fact her father was queer (poly + bi), and it felt uncomfortable sometimes. While I don't think this was the intention, more space could've been given to showing that Sabine didn't have an issue with her father's queerness, but an issue with his lies. This was the general idea, but some comments just felt off. But in general, there was just too much going on and too little room to properly give those topics the space they needed to be discussed.

Unfortunately, the story beyond these issues isn't much better. Sabine is cruel, using harsh methods to get what she wants while acting innocent and kind. She gets a friend forcibly removed from their house and separated from their father, and she also is the reason that her family is evicted from the house they are renovating as a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people (under the pretense of wanting to go back home/have a home to herself/not wanting to stay in that house with her father's lover). She consistently places the needs of herself over those around her, and I don't think the book properly punishes her for those choices. She very quickly makes amends to those she hurt, and all seems fine in the end. (These also characters also all have very strong faults that they often apologize for, only to continue doing. So it's not even that I felt the side characters were compelling). I'm also unsure if Sabine's compulsive poetry was meant to be a representation of compulsions and/or tics, because it was never really truly explained. It may have been a side effect of the trauma of losing her father, but it was half explained that she had been doing for a while. It was only ever named here and there as some 'literary disorder/tic/compulsion', and I just don't know if this is supposed to be more of quirky trait of the character or representation. It felt off to me.

The romance also felt quite toxic, yet seemed to be held up as Sabine's great love. Sabine literally enacted revenge against Kai's best friend because she was trying to 'steal him', and Kai let the best friend be led on/didn't push off her advances even though he was with Sabine and didn't care for his friend like that. It just didn't seem like a good relationship at all, or that there was even any chemistry beyond the fact that he was the only one that didn't mock Sabine's poetry.

Overall, I feel like this book just didn't have the space to fully deal with everything it brought up, and it made the book feel weak and shallow, and possibly even harmful in it's generalizing representation.

This is a book that hurts, but it's also beautiful while it does so. It took a while for me to fully connect to it on an emotional level (maybe either because I feel, fragile right now and was extra walled off or I was trying too hard to be connected to it based on my friend's reviews) but some of the things Nora said at the end really hit me hard.

Even when I wasn't being emotionally dragged by this, I was appreciating the writing, the character, the world, etc. There's just something about the idea of your many lived lives, and the ability to try them out for a while and see if they fit. There's so much in this world to do and see, and the idea of having only one life to do everything you want is terrifying. The focus on regrets and learning to let go of them, or learn that you never really regretted them at all, was well-done, and I loved seeing Nora work through her biggest and smallest ones. I also loved the blend of science and philosophy come together, as different theories and ideas came in to try and explain the Midnight Library. It was also just overall well-thought-out I felt, for such a short book.

But what moved this book from 4 to 5 stars to me was the connection made in the final few chapters.

Spoiler

Nora's piece of writing, written in the final few pages and after having experienced a lot of her other lives, just hit me hard. Even the title, 'A Thing I Have Learned (Written By A Nobody Who Has Been Everybody)' hit, and then Nora's words only backed it up. I felt it when she said 'We don't have to doeverything to be everything,' as trying to do too much, to do everything and not miss out on a single dream, is something I struggle with.

This chapter made me realize that I was connected to the book, and that it hurt.

I loved this, I loved Nora, and I definitely know a few friends I want to share this story with already.

For some reason I was under the impression that I wasn't that into the historical genre? But I think reading this book in basically one sitting starts to disprove that theory.

I don't know what it was about this book, but I was invested from the beginning. Maybe it was the whispers of small magic that seemed to imbue each scene and moments with a little 'extra.' Maybe it was the main characters I loved quickly and quietly. This book isn't all that fast, and not much really happens except some build-up towards the end. Still, I couldn't put it down. I still fondly remember the day I sat outside most of the day and just focused all my attention on this book. It'd been the first time in a while I felt so relaxed.

This is a story of families, magic, and society. It discusses wealth and its role in marriage in this society, how status isn't everything if you don't have what it takes to back it up. It's about clawing your way back up to where you think you belong, no matter who you hurt in the process, and how maybe being at the top isn't all that it seems. But mostly it's a story about love, how it builds and breaks you as a person, and what people are willing to do to keep it once it's found (and reciprocated). This story is a soft one, and I feel like you need to expect that going into it to properly appreciate what it's trying to do. For me, it was a safe spot to take a break for a bit, a space where I could just stop and breath, and spend some time with characters I was growing fond of.

I loved Mexican Gothic, and seeing the range that Silvia Morena-Garcia has in these two books has me excited to read even more. I genuinely enjoy my time spent in the unique worlds she builds up!

I was thrilled when I saw my wish was granted by the publisher to get an arc of this book. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for granting me an egalley to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and they are built off an advanced copy of the novel, meaning some things might change before release.

I'm not new to Andy Weir's novels and style of sci-fi, having read The Martian, so I was excited to jump into some more 'scientific' sci-fi. Weir did not disappoint on this aspect, and honestly I was glad I recently took a physics course because otherwise a lot of this would've gone right over my head. I felt smart reading this, and I kind of enjoyed the feeling this book gave me. I mean I obviously can't guarantee every piece of science used in this book is 100% accurate, but this book still contains a level of detail that not all do, and while it feels like you have to stretch your brain around some of the content, I enjoyed that aspect of the story. It does make parts of the story feel slow moving, but it causes you to focus on the small discoveries as a reader, like Grace does in the story.

My favorite part of this book is what sets it apart from The Martian. In the latter, the main character is largely isolated, with only blips of contact with Earth. While Grace is still isolated from Earth, a secondary character does come in about halfway into the story, and the interactions between Grace and this character made the story so much more enjoyable for me. There was just something in the excitement that ran through most of their discussions, and their strong desires to save their home worlds, that was the final touch on this story for me. It would've been interesting without this character, but nowhere near as enjoyable.

However, there were two things I really didn't like about the story, and what hurt an otherwise 5 star read. I really didn't like the big 'twist' that the past and present storytelling was leading up to (though I did like the way this type of storytelling was otherwise utilized), as I felt like it undermined the character too much. Grace no longer feel genuine but instead hypocritical. It also just didn't seem to fully match the characters motivations in both the past and the present, and just overall frustrated me. I also didn't care for the ending, as it felt way under-planned and under-explained vs. the rest of the over-explained book. It was a jarring change and it in turn made it feel miraculous compared to the rest of the book. There were also just some odd statements and quirks that, while trying to explain the possibility of the ending, I really could've done without. Honestly, I felt the book would've been stronger if it ended without the epilogue/final chapter.

Overall though, I really enjoyed my time with this book, even if the final chapters frustrated me a bit. I still can't wait to see what Weir writes next, and still need to read his sophomore novel too!

Fireborne was one of my unexpected favorites of 2020, and while I had high hopes for Flamefall, it still managed to blow all those hopes out of the water.

I still find the overall concept of this series extremely unique, and love that it focuses on what happens after the revolution happens, not just the build up to it. This series details how easy it is to fall back into the same patterns you once fought against, to pick the same unfair resolutions to problems of poverty, hunger, and more. It questions what is fair, and if the mindset of 'doing whatever it takes' is actually a good one.

And yet, this book doesn't just tackle these big questions surrounding societies and how they rise and fall. It also has a fantastic cast of characters, a riveting plot, an in-depth world, and of course, dragons.

If the social commentary wasn't enough, Annie and Lee (and now Griff) are such flawed yet interesting characters to keep you invested anyways. You get to watch all these characters grow and change, stumble as they make mistakes and try to learn from there (or instead get more stubborn in their resolve). You feel their pain when they lose those around them, either due to those mistakes or to things beyond their control. In the end, you feel such a strong connection to these characters that they almost feel real.

Additionally, I loved how the plot of the story and history of the world melded together to create an ongoing story between all these nations. They all struggle with different forms of oppression, and all choose to handle it (or not handle it) in different ways. Griff may be in a different region from Lee and Annie, but still deals with the same larger questions, especially regarding what he's willing to do for his freedom, and what he's willing to give up for the greater cause.

And even if all this somehow weren't enough to make you enjoy the story, there's still the dragons. By now I've read quite a few interpretations of these creatures, and I still have to say the dragons in this series are some of my favorite. I love how they themselves don't necessarily have an attachment of good or bad, but take on that of their paired rider. I also love how the bond between dragon and rider is shown throughout the series, especially in terms of connected emotions and feelings. The battle scenes are also well-written, and I'm able to picture how they work in my head (which is a feat, considering sometimes normal battle-scenes are difficult to follow).

Overall, I feel this series is criminally underrated, and I can't wait to see where this story keeps going!

Despite my 3-star rating, I don't think this is a bad book. It just didn't make it to a 4-star book for me, unfortunately, because too much bugged me.

First off, I want to say that I think this book is important due to the discussions it brings to the table, and the space it creates for Black readers and gamers to discuss their experiences in both communities. Obviously this book isn't meant for me in this specific aspect, but it does force white and other non-Black readers to pay attention to aspects of the media they consume that they might not have otherwise, specifically character customization options in popular games and media (as this is definitely an issue in the Picrew trend as well). I feel like this book is good for the audience it's aimed for as well, and is a good way to bring diverse issues to YA readers, and if I were a teacher, I would choose to have this book on my classroom's bookshelf in a heartbeat. There were just a lot of important discussions going on, and sometimes too many points can make a book feel muddled, but I feel like Morris gave enough space to each issue to make a reader understand them instead of feel overwhelmed, even if they're coming from a place of ignorance. This story tackles discussions from the token Black friend to slurs used online, stereotypical & harmful representations of darker-skinned characters in fantasy/sci-fi video games to the untrue idea of Blackness as a monolith. Overall, this aspect of the story was really well done.

My main issue just comes from how unbelievable the pretense of the story was. Our main character, Kiera, was somehow able to code an entire, realistic MMO VR game with hundreds of thousands of players in a few years, with little experience coding/designing games beforehand. It'd be one thing if the world felt a bit more sci-fi/futuristic, but since the story is so set in our current political climate and our society today, it was harder to suspend disbelief that this single person (with some outside help) would be able to do a project of this scale. I mean, World of Warcraft is run by a huge team, and even that doesn't look as good as this game was supposed to. It just made me cringe whenever the MC mentioned the 'how' behind the game, as it just felt out there, and it took me out of the story. (Another small issue I had was the fact that there were moments where a large portion of the player-base was online and active when honestly... a lot of these huge games have so many dead accounts that have 20% of all registered accounts online is absurd, and there were moments where that number was said to be way larger). I also felt the game was overly complicated, which took away from the story at times. There seems to be this whole MMO grinding aspect alongside the actual dueling card game concept, but it felt underexplored, which led to it being more confusing to the reader instead of adding to the game as a concept. Like, players had houses and lived in villages and worked different jobs based on the region they called home, but this was never explained enough to fully understand how that all works (and just makes me question the economy and basis of the game more). I feel like more focus could've been given to the card game instead, and that not only would've made the game easier to explain and picture to the reader, but also may have seemed more feasible for a single teenager to design, code, and create on their own.

Overall, I feel torn on this book because while I really enjoyed the new perspectives it brought me on the discussions I mentioned above, I just didn't enjoy some aspects because of the issues I had with the gaming/game-making aspects of it. I do still recommend it for what it did well, but to be mindful of what it didn't.

I think my rating for this book is 100% due to the fact that I might be outgrowing YA sci-fi a bit, and I'm just not exactly the perfect audience for this anymore. While I still love my YA, I just notice more and more that there are some books that are definitely just aimed at a younger audience, and don't always work for me anymore. I feel like I would've loved this when I was still in high school.

I honestly loved the pretense and concept of this book, and I loved that this sci-fi has actual variations of aliens that are diverse in how they view the world. Ever since reading books like Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series, I just always notice when aliens are just, off-brand humans. It always kills sci-fi books for me because it seems so unrealistic that aliens would look and think close to how we do, so I enjoy when a book thinks about how other societies and species may have developed and evolved, and how their customs might be different. (It's also always a plus when those aliens aren't forced to conform to the same binary gender standard humans do, because once again, it's very unlikely they'll all have the same ideas on that as us).

I also enjoyed where the plot went, and how it explored why this world was the way it was, and what hands (metaphorically or literally) may have played a role in the way it was shaped and formed. While I do feel the villains were a bit too obviously evil at points (yes, we get it, you think everyone that is unlike you is inferior, you don't have to say it every two seconds), the discussions that were brought up in terms of what do we recognize as equal to us, in terms of alien life, were interesting.

Unfortunately, even though there was so much alien stuff going on, there was still an annoying focus on humans. While our main character herself isn't necessarily human, she mainly spends time with other humans, even on board her alien spaceship. More characterization was given to these human characters as well, making them feel like fully fledged characters, while the aliens felt more like oddities, instead being described by what made them different as a species from humans instead of their individual personalities and traits. The human characters almost all received romances between each other, hopes and dreams for the future, while when it came to aliens, all we got was wikipedia style facts. It made it feel like there was a clear division between humans and aliens, instead of them feeling like a single crew or family.

On the same subject of describing aliens, I also just didn't vibe with how we were given information about different alien species and the history of this connected universe. I feel like again this is where I made comparisons with Becky Chambers, as both authors give us a wealth of information about the aliens in order to build a fuller picture of the world the story takes place in. However, Chambers delivers the information in a more lasting way, connecting it more to the story itself, where in this story, it was more Tina spouting out whatever information came to her head when faced with an alien. It didn't usually have anything to do with the characterization of that particular alien or the ongoing plot. It meant most of the information didn't really stick beyond a specific scene, and I left the book still not being able to really name species or their specific customs.

There was also a lot of repetition for such a short book, and I felt like Tina kept having the same conversations in her head and with her friends. It made the short book feel quite long, and it honestly started dragging a lot by the end.

Overall, I didn't hate the book at all, but it just wasn't for me. I did like what it was trying to do, but it didn't fully work for me.

I love most stories that deal with mythology and gods, and what it means to be divine. This book delivered exactly what I wanted in that regard, and I think in the end I really enjoyed this and the time I spent in the world, but it did feel like a book much longer than it actually was.

For this reason, I don't think this book is necessarily for everyone. I did listen to the audio of this, which helped in the moments the story may have dragged otherwise. I may have had more issues with the length and pacing of the story had I been reading this using my eyes instead. The story overall was a really long journey, interspersed with some action here and there. However, there are many moments where the main character is alone, or isolated in a group of people, and a large portion of this book is told through the main character narrating her story to us vs. lots of dialogue. We spend a lot of time with just the main character, to the point that some trains of thoughts can begin to feel repetitive. However, even with the length of this story and it's many slow moments, I feel like Long did a good job of keeping Hessa's thoughts unique and interesting, and seeing her grapple with her beliefs was interesting. And, while the story did feel noticeably long, I was never tired of it, forced to pause my audio and take a break.

However, my favorite part of this book had to be how it dealt with divinity, and the many layers the lore of the story had. I loved how it explored what it meant to be a god, to have followers and powers and magic, and the assumed connection between the two that is tested. I can't explain much here without spoiling, but the lore of this world felt like a closed rose opening, with each new petal unfurled revealing a new hidden layer of the magic of this world. It kept me hooked even when much wasn't happening at the time in terms of action/plot. I can't wait to see this world further explored.

The writing style also matched the story well. I really enjoyed the descriptions of places and people, and the battle scenes were also extremely well done. In those sorts of scenes, it's really easy to lose the reader in the clashes of swords and fists, but Hall of Smoke both explained the combat well enough I was able to follow it, while also remaining realistic in a sense. I also really loved how magic was explained in this story, and how well the very existence of it was woven into Hessa's experience of the world. For example, her goddess gifted her with fire magic that she channels through her mouth, and there were many moments where the story describes the build up of this magic in her lungs and throat to show Hessa's rising anger or frustration in scenes. And even though I don't know what it feels like to swallow down rising internal fire and taste ash in my mouth, the fact that Long tied this to emotion makes it easy for the reader to relate to and 'feel' alongside Hessa.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot, and thinking back on it is making me realize just how much. I can't wait to see what Long writes next, and I'm excited she's writing more in this world!

This romance was so soft, I loved it so much.

I knew going into this that Sally Thorne is my favorite romance author, but this book just solidified that permanently. The range that this woman has! Every single one of her romances have been entirely unique while still being fantastic, and I love that she hasn't fallen into just writing the same thing over and over again after seeing it works. She easily could've written 50 The Hating Game variations (and I probably still would've loved them all), but I love that she's able to write such varying main characters and love interests so well.

One of my friends said this is basically Howl and Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle but in a nursing home AU, and honestly she couldn't have been more right. The dynamic that Ruthie and Teddy have! I was smiling throughout this entire book, and I loved seeing their friendship blossom. I also think this is the first romance novel where I actively cared less about the physically romantic part of the relationship when compared to the mentally romantic part (think their banter, closeness, emotions, etc), and this had nothing to do with the former being bad or boring. The closeness these two grew into was just so insanely good that I didn't even need anything else. I'd honestly rec this book to people who generally aren't into romance, because the character development and banter these two have just carry the whole book.

I can definitely see myself rereading this particular romance over and over, and I can't wait to see what Sally Thorne writes next! I think this one might be my favorite of her published books so far, and I never thought something could top The Hating Game!