reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

There's so much backstabbing and drama in this, and I loved it.

The diving stuff was really interesting as well (both the Olympic and police aspects), I don't think I've ever read a book about either. 

I also really enjoyed Jen's POV - she was both the centre of attention and completely removed from the 'fame' of her life's events. 

The ending was maybe a little rushed for my liking.

This is a really interesting and informative book, while being written in a very digestible style. 
 
I could relate to so much of it, especially about not having a social life/close friends where I live, and it felt so personal to me at times. Maybe it will help me to get out of my current funk. 
 
There were also topics I wasn't that interested in - especially the improv/comedy stuff which took up a large part of the book. Maybe because I come from a performing background so didn't find any of it that groundbreaking.
 
I was also annoyed by a couple of things. Firstly, that Pan was constantly ringing celebrities to help her with research/ideas, but never acknowledged this privileged position, or gave guidance on how 'normal' people could seek this advice. Not very useful for a self-help styled book. She also never mentioned any monetary barriers to being more social, which I think was remiss of her.   

I'm so glad I continued reading this series! What a book! 

My only gripe with it is that there were about 30 pages where Fire's feelings about Brigan were so over the place I nearly got whiplash. First she's scared of him, then thinks he's a caring person (when he pets her horse), then she's scared again (he shoves her up against a wall), then she literally almost kills herself for him, then she thinks her presence takes all the joy from him, then she "couldn't help but like him" after he does his job to try not to get her killed? This topsy turvy attitude made no sense in the context of the book, and was never really explained, it was baffling.
 
However, part from those 30 pages, I really enjoyed myself. I loved how Fire was repeatedly having to correct her own assumptions that only men can fight in armies. It showed that it's ok to make mistakes, the best thing is correct yourself and move on. 
 
I also truly think this is the first book I've read where periods are mentioned so realistically and frequently, especially in books that have blood smelling/consumption as a main topic. In no vampire book have I seen anything mentioned about periods, ever. 
 
The fantasy ideas in here are so unique, the characters are well rounded, flawed, and realistic, characters STAY DEAD, and it's intriguingly dark, emotional, funny, and tense. Tears were shed.  

What a disappointment. I was really looking forward to this sequel, as I adored the first book, but this did nothing for me, and I ended up hate reading it towards the end. I've realised that the thing I really liked about the first book was the trans experience, and the rest of the plot was just background for me. As there's basically no trans stuff in this one, it was left to the plot, which was pretty weak in my opinion.

At 50% in, there was no plot apart from Leonie fucking off to Europe, which ended up being pretty pointless in the grand scheme of things to take up so much of the book. 

Ciara's character was all over the place. She was evil and didn't care about anyone or anything (e.g. calling Theo a 'cunt'), but also cared a lot about everything? All she did was moan about how little she could remember of her life, and when it was 'revealed' it wasn't even that interesting. I had zero grasp of her character, and her chapters were pretty blah - she wasn't evil enough to be interesting, or wanting redemption enough to make me want to route for her. And her 'friends' accepted her back in WAY too easily, that was wild. Did they also forget all the horrible things we've been told she did?

   

Also, the 'women good, men bad' theme started to feel really forced and unnatural in this book. I thought it was a good commentary in the first, but in here there was hardly any nuance to it, it was very surface level. It started to irk me when EVERYTHING a woman ever did wrong was blamed on the actions of men. There needs to be some responsibility taken, and evil women can exist on their own too. Also, there was not one mundane woman in this book to compare their reactions to magic against those of men, which I think would have added much needed nuance to the story. 

And what a weird, confusing ending. Mile was Lucifer the whole time, but now his dad can't remember him at all??? What the actual fuck? And I just can't see Theo going rogue, it made no character sense at all. She'd been so principled throughout, then just suddenly switched?

This has gone from being one of the series I was most excited to finish, to one I am now dreading continuing. Maybe I'll read the third book when it comes out, and if I do I hope it is a lot better than this one. 

I was hate reading this for a little while, but that was only enjoyable for the first 90 pages. I can't get through the entire book.

I've never annotated a book before this one, but the burning annoyance I felt 14 pages into this compelled me to hate annotate. 

What a load of poorly written drivel. Did an editor even touch this??

This book is truly hilarious, heartwarming, surprisingly dark, and at points even strangely erotic. It brought up really interesting moral questions about humanity and if 'bad people' can be rehabilitated:

However much I enjoyed it, it did keep reminding me of Chamber's A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and could not quite hold up to it. The ending also was a bit of a let down for me, it didn't feel quite as special as I was hoping for. 

However, still a beautiful and hilarious book I'm very glad I read. 

Admittedly I've only read a small amount of this book, but already I don't like how it talks about Chinese people basically as if they're idiot savages who don't deserve autonomy in their own country, the way their speech is written is pretty offensive, that the first and only woman mentioned so far is a dumb blonde American. 

Also not very interested in all the ship/mechanic stuff. 

I don't think this book is for me.

What a gorgeous book! I don't think it feels quite as cosy as the first, but the ramped-up action makes up for it. And what fab action it is - really entertaining and a nice change of pace for this book.  

It was also so nice to read about an actual bookshop, not the publishing industry, for once. And I just loved the books within the book - especially when I realised that they somewhat reflected the plot of Viv's story: she reads a romance book = starts dating, reads a mystery book = murdered body shows up.

And that epilogue! What a perfect ending. So many authors would ruin it by making exactly the same plot points feel cheesy, but Baldree writes with tremendous warmth, vulnerability, and authenticity. This definitely lived up to Legends & Lattes, and I'm so happy about it. 

Two chapters in and I was already impressed with how this book is written. Unlike other similar books which force things down our throat, it doesn't actually set every single bit of worldbuilding and context out immediately and leaves us wanting the answers.

And yes Oraya is unique and talented, but BECAUSE she's been training her whole for this. It makes SENSE. In so many similar books she'd have been a shy little villager thrown out into a mad world and magically being the best, this time it actually has meaning/reason.

The ending was a tad cliche, however I thought the rest of the book felt pretty fresh for the kind of book it is. 

I really wanted to read this, but I didn't realise one of the characters has my deadname. Too uncomfortable to listen to sadly.