ridleyreadsthings's Reviews (789)

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. It wasn't bad, I just couldn't find myself to care about the characters. Chad was awesome but Bailey was a bit...dull. That might be a bit harsh but I feel like his personality was drowned out by Chad's. 

It was steamy and the smut was decently written without the use of needless adjectives to describe a penis that alot of writers favour, so I appreciate that! 

But it all felt very low stakes and predictable, even though it was trying to be high stakes and twisty. 

It was a cute read, and I liked the whole Rivals to lovers aspect, and the sense of family in the Frats, but I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit bored by the end. 

This sequel was brilliant and I enjoyed it so much more. It still revolved around the same card game, with some cosplay thrown it. Time we follow Jasper, who left the plot of the last book due to a family emergency, and he is such a sweetheart. 

Instead of a road trip, this time its a treasure hunt to track down some rare cards and i really feel that the fact they stayed in one place is what made me love this more. It gave the characters more room to grow, and they felt more fleshed out as we say more of their everyday lives. 

Milo was such a reckless disaster but I appreciated his will to fix things and change. I also like how Jasper held him accountable and was strong enough to say what he was thinking, especially where the past was concerned. 

The friends to enemies to lovers was done so well and it felt like such a natural development. The characters were complex, the story adorable, and again, the heavier themes were woven in seamlessly without dominating the narrative. A little steamy, but this falls more on the sweeter side of feels.

3.5 

Geeky and gay? Sign me up please. 

The story revolves around a battle card trading game (think legends of runeterra or yughio) which was such a cool concept to focus on and was one of the main reasons I picked it up. It was so much fun to immerse myself into this nerd world. 

I liked how sexuality and gender was dealt with matter of factly, and how the escape of the card game balanced with the heavier themes of adult life. 

The "everything goes wrong," aspect was hilarious but you could kind of tell everything was going to work out in the end, so the predictability kind of ruined it a little, but there were a few nice curve balls thrown in.  I loved the  cast characters, and I thought the main pair were cute together. 

This was a fun, new adult, road trip,  enemies to lovers story which I enjoyed alot, but there I felt there was something missing, but I can't really put my finger on. I feel like maybe with all the driving and racing from one place to another we lost the characters a little? 

An orc retires from the brutal life of mercenary work and opens a coffee shop. That's it. That's the plot. 

And it was so, effing wholesome and relaxing, I would have finished it in one sitting but, sleep, you know? 

I loved the old school fantasy vibes. It felt a little like early days world of warcraft, with a bit of a modern vibe to it. 

There is a little bit of trouble but it's not one of those books where the characters have to deal with this throughout the plot as it leads up to an inevitable conflict. That's all mostly a five minute side quest and all very low stakes. 

It's a slice of life novel and a lovely Sapphic romance - which isn't a focus either. Coffee and cakes, that's the focus. 

Like I said, an orc opens a coffee shop is literally the plot and the whole point. It's a cosy little story about friendship and family. The quality and heart that went into this is amazing and its such a fantastic read, with all my favourite fantasy elements without any of the pressure or journeys most protagonists endure.

This took me a hot minute to get into, but i dont remember the exact point where i went from duitfuly making my way through it, to being unable to put it down. Days later, im still thinking about it.

I loved the blend of historical fiction and urban/high fantasy. It was such an interesting plot, with great mythology and potential as the series goes on. I love that we fully don't understand or get a whole info dump on the old world, because even the characters and players in the know, don't fully know much about this lost time. 

It was dark, and gritty, and violent. While I do believe this series is going down the queer, slow burn root, much like Captive Prince, this mostly just lay the ground work, instead focusing on friendships and family, and the epic battle between a small force of good against overwhelming evil. 

The characters were amazing and I loved Will and Violet, and even James (or Jamie as I call him)

While I started to suspect some things about halfway, the delivery of it all shocked me, and it was done so brilliantly. I cannot wait for the second book. 

Words cannot describe how much i love this trilogy. While I much prefer the first two books in this series, I still really enjoyed this one. 

Fitz. Poor Fitz. He has gone through so much throughout this trilogy and my heart was aching for him in this one. He's complex, complicated and so relatable and he's easily now asserted himself in my "top 5 protagonists of all time." 

It moved at a much slower pace than the other ones, but this was really about Fitz discovering himself, something he's never really actually been able to do,  while trying to hold to his promises while things that have been building came to a head.  

As always, Hobbs beautiful writing style is unmatched. She really knows her stuff, and her storytelling is incredible to follow and watch play out. Normally with other fantasy books when characters are trying to get from A to B for hundreds of pages, I feel bored to tears, but the way Hobb has crafted this tale, it just moves so smoothly. 

I did feel like the ending came way too fast and was rushed a little, compared to hundreds and hundreds of pages on the road, but still, I know this isn't the end of Fitz story so it didn't bother me too much, and the quickness of it made sense considering how it all went down. 

But all in all, this was a thrilling,  bittersweet conclusion to The Farseer Trilogy. 

A great ending to this series. 

This series doesn't exactly have the most unique, jaw dropping plot - far from it, but that doesn't matter. 

It's not really a series you read for the plot. I mean, it has one, full of adventure and magic and quests, but at its heart, this is about the characters and that's why people fall in love with these misfits.

Although this final installation did have a larger element of danger than the rest of the series and it did take the violence up a notch. 

The writing is beautiful and it really drags you into the pages with Blue and the boys. We finally got some answers to questions that have been bugging me from day one, some relationships that have been burning ever so slow came to a full raging fire, and everything came full circle, while still somehow maintaining some mystery around it all. 

I'm so happy I gave this another go, because it made my heart happy and I have fallen hard for every single one of these characters, especially Ronan and Adam - I'm excited to start the next trilogy.

I admit, I did knock off half a star cause at points it did feel a bit disconnected and some things happened a bit suddenly  but it didn't really detract from the story. 

This was such an epic conclusion to this trilogy. 

More brutal, bloody and action packed than the last one, and I didn't think that was possible. Kristoff pulled out all the tricks for this final chapter in Mias story and somehow managed to keep it unpredictable and thrilling, with so many twists and turns it made me feel sick with anxiety. 

With Darkdawn, everything just fell into place so perfectly, and moved flawlessly towards its conclusion. This one definitely tugged on all of the heartstrings, and Kristoff knows exactly how to torment and break you. He's an evil genius. 

The characters were incredible - How can you not fall in love with a rag tag bunch of misfits with a love for foul languag and a penchant for booze and sex. They made me howl with laughter so much. I never expected a found family element to this series, so that was delightful. 

I also loved how meta it was in a way, and that Kristoff took the piss out of his own book, writing style, and himself. It was refreshing and hilarious.

I am sad that its over but I feel so satisfied with the way it ended, with everything wrapped up and just enough left open for a potential spin off. 

I enjoyed this sequel so much more than Nevernight - and it actually made me appreciate Nevernight more than I originally did. I honestly think my conflicted feelings on it was because in jumped in straight after Empire of The Vampire and I was feeling slumpy and hungover. 

I loved the whole vibes this book took. It was vastly different to the first one. It still gave me "Elder Scrolls Dark Brotherhood," vibes but combined with "Sparticus," and "Gladiator." 

I really felt like we really got into Mia's mind more, and saw glimpses of who she truly is, instead of a pretty cold bitch. She's still a cold bitch, but underneath that she has a heart of gold. 

I didn't expect any of what went down to go down. Even though i see this book talked alot about on booksta, Jay Kristoff has this way of writing and telling a story that just constantly surprises you, and it's such an incredible experience to go through. 

This was brutal and gory and so, so epic and one of those books you just cant put down because there is so much going on at once even when your not fully aware whats going on - but you can feel Kristoffs hand behind the curtain waiting to drop a bombshell or deliver a twist that will have you screaming.

It was epic.