roadtripreader's Reviews (357)

 Post-Death midlife crisis? - maybe not crisis. But this whole dead and then coerced to reincarnate ad infinitum today would be hell. Just imagine reincarnating in our current almost dystopian hellscape. You can keep that mess.

Also if I were chit chatting with God, I'd want an honest to god (hehe) explanation for plaguing summer with mosquitoes - like why God? Why?

Worldbuilding/Plot/Storyline/Themes:
The highway just after death is depicted in a most fascinating and utterly lonesome way.

The combination of first person narrative (God Capital G) and speaking to "you" second person narrative (the 48 yr old man is technically the reader) was done really well. It was also unnerving.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Maybe there isn't emotion in the afterlife? Don't know how I'd feel about that.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
Wouldn't mind walking and talking To God in the endless void.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 
■I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said. (GOD breaking down death to the recently departed )
■"Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine.: (I like this God - seems nice enough )

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
Conversing with an omnipresent was intriguing because you know ... not a lesser god but the G.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Science Fiction books by 2025 

 So it's decided - Bishop Martinez can come reno my house anytime. Their style is my style - couple of off-white archways, marble countertops, cobalt grays and silvers, bamboo this and that and don't get me started on the subtle touches in the guestroom Colin stayed in. Freydis really painted a picture here, all gothic yet modern, sensual, haunting and hypnotic  - which is exactly this story, this house, these characters.

As my very first MM Romance, (and it was my first book with transgender,Trans-Male characters.) I am blown away. I love to expand my knowledge base and understand people of all walks of life.  This kind of representation done with amazing prose - pardon moi while I add more Freydis Moon books to my tbr.

Romance Plot/Storyline/Themes: For a novella, the attraction and the hints towards attraction are subtle, sultry, almost slow-burn but not quite. They float in elusive body language - tracing angelic ruin tattoos on Collin's wrist curiously, or noticing the "plush pinkness" of Bishop's lips. Tiny details, here and there before the deeds - well executed.

"Bishop rested the bottle against their plush, pink mouth. Colin course-corrected his thoughts—plush to poltergeist, pink to perpetual haunting—and sipped his beer, too." This got me good and fast

Character Development/Favorite Character:
●Colin is an enigma. I love his choice in attire, I mean attire. He's so buttoned up but not stuffy - he oozes this suave sex appeal despite trying to use formality as a block for physical connection.
●Bishop is like a rose, so pretty when you meet him, secrets like the petals covering the bud and walls up like the thorns.
I love these types of layered characters.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
The first "exorcism/banishment" performed by Collin in the kitchen with only the house and the uninvited spirits as witness. He radiated power.
"Man of God,” the spirit croaked, “do you find me wanting?”
“I find you damned,” he whispered.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:  insanely quotable because the prose is that good.
●"Houses with heartbeats, never failed to spark Colin’s interest" (Colin on his nature )
●Always wringing hands; always war-torn and worried Helicopter homeowners hoping for a miracle. (Colin on Homestays )
●Nothin’ wrong with a little magic, right?”
“Depends on the magic.” (Colin and Bishop plant shopping)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts: Modern Day exorcist who seems to be a man of the cloth yet simultaneously might not even belief in an omnipresent God

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance books by 2025 

 Tree magic people, well deserved spotlight on tree magic - I snuggled right up to this novella and was utterly satisfied with the resolution.  Usually I want more and more pages but this one just hit the spot in a bittersweet way.

Worldbuilding/Plot/Storyline/Themes:
There's a gentle sweet romance subplot laying on top of a dark obssesive past "love". It's interesting seeing the modern day wooing of Tobias with stories (looking at you Henry Silver) compared to centuries ago, a man obssessed and possessive and Tobias stuck forever. 

"Clever fellow, Tobias thought with a sudden bitter fondness. Clever, generous, good-looking fellow, who kept coming back to show him the stories he’d found like a child with a butterfly trapped in a jar." - This crisscross stitching leading up to something tragic was woven so well.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Henry Silver is lighthearted, loving, open, kindness, naivety, adventurer and blushing cutie oh and adorable.

Tobias is steady, patient, powerful, imposing but not in the physical way one would expect of his size. I was fascinated with his resignation to emotionally adopt Henry without realizing it.

It's a tender haunting story.

Favorite/Curious//Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
●Bramble protecting an injured Tobias.
●Henry Silver singing folk songs to a bewildered Tobias.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 
♡"Leave people things to people, dear heart.” (Tobias on counselling a Dryad ) 
♡"Tobias had no doubt that whatever he said next was getting written down in that little notebook, pinned on the page like a winged thing dying" (Tobias on Henry Silver )
♡"Bramble was strong, but it was tree-strength, patience and slow growth, and the thing that was waking in Greenhallow by the week’s end was beyond her power" (On the limitations of a tree )

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts: The Protector of the woodland is nurtured and sustained by the woodland and ultimately is it's prisoner. Symmetry for the win
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy  books by 2025 

 Experiments in love and healing - this was utterly adorable

So this would be my second Milo novel and from what I've heard she does scifi smut really well. So I went in thinking this was going to be all levels of debauchery - I did not expect to big AWWWWW the entire time. I mean come on, loveable characters from the opening exposition chapter which I don't usually go for. I had a 2 week holiday book slump and this woke me right up, gave me the blush and the warm and fuzzies

Romance Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I loved seeing the romance develop through the eyes of this alien, in fact the entire book is the perspective of the alien species and I love his mind.
Character Development/Favorite Character:
So much emotion conveyed through subtle study of human non-verbal communication - Scientists have such open minds and the main character is no different. He has this childlike wonder to this new alien and it's so cute
Favorite/Curious//Ludicrous/Unique Scene:: I mean way to many, let's see:
1. Nancy just straight up peeing in the "habitat" set up for her as a test subject and Simmi proceeding to lose his shit.
2. Erecckk discovering R.E.M Sleep in humans
3. Simmi slapping himself wildly because - hair

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
"You're so ugly you're beautiful", I feel compelled to tell her (Errecck on the nature of fugliness )
"A cough can become a plague" (Don't we know this)
"She's a high-powered source of lumens to my formerly candlelit world" (On Nancy/Skynan)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts: Loonjag

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance books by 2025 

 Lazy Researcher Review - For those if us simultaneously reading too many things, half-watching something , prepping to go out or cancel, on a losing mRpg campaign, or whatever list of things you've got going on but still want to get in some edutaining facts to get the brain stimulated.

Information Accessibility scale:
If you're a novice at the topic. Let's look at it like this (1 being the easiest it could be and 5 meaning you need at least an undergrad to get this)
■1.Bob Ross- you can paint a pretty picture with it! don't overthink it, just enjoy vibe.
■2. Bill Nye - Let me break it down for you in fun nite size chunks.
■3.Neil de Grasse Tyson - It might get a little heavy but in the end it'll be worth it.
■4.Feynman, Hawking, Einstein, Kaku, Curie -it's concept heavy, theoretically dense and linguistically advanced - need more data.
■5.Christopher Nolan in his Tenet/Inception time distortion era of wait what- is that even possible??? Might need a dissertation to bisect this.

LEVEL: This is at a 1.5 It's friendly and fun not theory dense, more like a momager waxing nostalgicabout the birth, growing pains and subsequent world domination superstardom of  their kid - in this case AI & Robotics.

Rabbit hole Worthy or Nah?:
Most reference books tend to compel me to want to do more research, especially in fields I'm interested in. This is one of them. I spent the better part of what should have been a self imposed "tech-free" day, getting deeper into the AI research black hole. In that regard, yes, Bentley outlines a ton of concepts and provides a skeleton key of sorts which you can use elsewhere to dive in deeper.

Snore inducing or Willing All-nighter :
This book moves in flashes of info in pictures and short succinct paragraphs. If you're studying and need extra info for an essay you'd get through it fast and still have time for a couple of hours sleep.

Spotlight on Theorists: 
●‘Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.’ (Stephen Hawking, 2014)
●It is almost as though words are objects that you can move around and manipulate, perhaps transforming them, in the same way that the rules of mathematics allow us to manipulate numbers. (on Symbolic AI)
●Logic is a very powerful kind of representation. Anything expressed in logic ?ust be true or false, allowing us to represent knowledge; for example: raining is true; windy is false. (on rules of Logic )

Significant Concept:
The two Winters of AI followed by the current AI summer. It just goes to show that progress is not instantaneous.  Also, some scientists were mad with euphoric excitement and spewing what sounded like nonsense at the time.

OVERALL:
Okay but seriously, this was an entertaining acvount of the inception and progression of Artificial intelligence and Robotics to date. I also didn't feel like I was studying for a semester exam which is  bonus because my college years are done and dusted and sometimes I just want to relive them without the threat of a B-.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 NonFiction (Sciences) books by 2025 

 Nostalgia beaten to a pulp - but it still looked good and I loved it.

With a shout out to a ton of popular imagery and literature pieces including my fave Neil Gaiman  - we were off to the gallows built by a wickedly hot evil StepQueen with nary a huntsman in sight at first. Good Times.

Romance Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Crashing out of the Sleeping Beauty Timelines and falling right into Snow White was epic and really added to worldlayering. I do love a macabre plot twist and besides, Sleeping Beauty is Zinnia Gray's comfort zone. It's too famìliar. Snow white was a welcome spanner in the works and perfect to knock a down a oeg or two, she was getting way to comfywith dimension jumping.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Zinnia Gray is a character I found myself completely falling for in the first book. How could I not, the Dying Girl who resigned herself to her fate but still had enough of a hero streak to go save other girls in other dimensions. In this book, Zinnia's denial of her impending death by way of dimension-galaxy jumpung has caught up with her and she starts out the story in a world of self-pity with a side order of nonchalance and dark envy. I like her even more.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:: 

Introducing the Evil StepMother Queen Badass

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 
♡“it’s hard to feel existential dread when you’re full of churros and beer.” (Zinnia on treats and booze)
♡I still dream of my own death sometimes, except now it’s a memory instead of a prophecy. (On meeting the Evil stepmother  )

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:

I love the idea that you can get yanked out of your dimension by some deadly queen looking to settle some scores.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy Books by 2025 

Angels or Devils - The carnival of sins blurs the lines  

The playlist threw me off, I've never seen that before. But, I don't hate it. So, on that front - I loved the uniqueness. Now that's out of the way - this was a scorcher. I mean call the fire department already there were flames.

"What if I’m more afraid of myself and the lines that I didn’t even know I was willing to cross." (Awakenings come in different forms, this one is one of the most sintilating)

Romance Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Character Development/Favorite Character:
●Jackson is bad to the bone. Well not really but for the purposes of this outward persona,  he's a dark night hottie with a dark heart.
"I think I can tell before he can that this guy isn’t someone he wants to mess with." (Blair on Jackson)
●Blair is the stereotypical belle breaking her high society chains and searching for a thrill. Still, for all her predictability- I do like her.

Favorite/Curious//Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
Uhm ... Jackson identifying claustrophobia and then coming up with a temporary fix in the form of a mask.  See, he's definitely not as bad a dude as he thinks he is.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 
♡I have a tendency to write checks with my mouth that my fists have to cash later. (Jackson on that hairtrigger temper)
♡"There is no place here for perfect Blair " (Blair's awakening coming on fast)
♡“We are two machines barreling down the tracks at full speed and at any
second we will crash into each other, an explosion that would rock this
carnival to its core” (Blair on love)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:  I forgot about Carnivals, this brought back memories and then promptly squashed them under spice.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance books by 2025

Meanbot-MurderBot  
Murderbot is devolving and evolving at the same time. Evolving in the sense that it continues to find fault in human interactions in an almost hazardous way and devolving as in it is increasingly annoyed by its bot-to-bot interactions of the humanoid or sapient bot varieties i.e ART was superior to Murderbot whilst Miki is inferior to Murderbot and yet both grate its nerves. And most curious in this contradictory in this duality is Murderbot's sense of jealousy and envy.

In this installment, Murderbot sounds less like complex sapient AI endearingly uncomfortable with humans and more like the bot version of an "edgy" Not Like Other SecUnits meanbot. The juxtaposition between Murderbot and Miki aside - meanbot were the overall vibes.

Worldbuilding Plot/Storyline/Themes:
This futuristic world fild with bots continues to expand and develop in fascinating ways. In this installment, Murderbot moves closer to the edge of CorporateRom and floats closer to areas where SecUnits are illegal because of the sentient-sapient uncanny valleyness of their nature. And also the fact that they are violent killing machines.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Miki was the star if this book. My heart aches

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
All the scenes between Murderbot and Miki.

"I expected it to ask me how I had managed to take over its feed, how I had gotten onto the station. I thought I’d managed to anticipate most of the questions and had my answers ready.
It said, But why not? I tell Don Abene everything. She’s my friend.

When I’d called it a pet robot, I honestly thought I was exaggerating. This was going to be even more annoying than I had anticipated, and I had anticipated a pretty high level of annoyance, maybe as high as 85 percent."

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 
"Finally, I had gotten these fucking people back on this fucking shuttle." (Meanbot still being a protector)

"In my feed, Miki said, I never talked to a bot like me before. I have human friends, but I never had a friend like me" (Miki being the sweet Petbot )

"If you had to take care of humans, it was better to take care of small soft ones who were nice to you and thought you were great because you kept preventing them from being murdered." (Murderbot on client options)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
The human race being so incredibly invasive that it has spread throughout galaxies along with its "condition/collective consciousness" and spread its tech everywhere as evidenced by the fact that Murderbot had to edit itself in the previous book to present more like an augmented human  as opposed to a secUnit.  All of this in order to travel worlds somewhat undetected.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Science Fiction books by 2025 

I hate these characters - this book is horrifically excellent.

Did I really need to read this, to push my boundaries and get out (way way out) of my comfort zone? Probably not. Did I do it anyway? Hell yes? Do I regret it? Emphatically.

It made me wonder at 2am, which wire is glitching to produce a necrophiliac or a cannibal? Like nuerologically, can a doctor pinpoint the thing that's missing or blunted, underdeveloped, crisscrossed ... WHATEVER. Or is this just the depressing black abyss of humam psychiatric mysteries?

Worldbuilding Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I think what makes it uncomfortable (amongst other things) is that the narrator comes across as SANE even in his insanity. He seems almost *shudder* likeable, pardon me ad I throw up.  You know, if it were a human craving sex with the undead in a fantasy setting, it would be erotic and practically normal. Instead, the Jimmy Savaillness of necrophilia is just too disgustingly realistic and could be happening right now somewhere on this rotten planet of ours that's home to all sorts of the depraved coexisting next to norms and "normality" and parading as common.

"I imagine her colder, paler. She could be almost perfect, if she wasn’t oozing all that spritely vitality. There is no greater tragedy than beauty needlessly wasted."

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Oh but do I have to look at the nuances of these characters? Whhhhhyyyyyy? I mean they have depth but I hate them so much and I hate that I feel like I can almost empathize not in a sympathy kind of way but understand that the chemistry of their brains is so fucked up they never stood a chance. I can't decide who I hate more, Helen or the guy. I do know who I fear more, it's Helen.

Scenes I hate the most::
●Helen in the abortion clinic with the narrator/necrophiliac/security guard watching.
Let's keep it all the way real - I hated all the scenes. They were so well written but my own conscience keeps reminding me that to love any of this treacherous book is self-condemnation. I would like to sleep at night. I hate Helen.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 

●"You can’t put a label on me. You wouldn’t want to". (PERSON HERE )
●"Her eyes twinkle a little, which repulses me; I wish they’d stay dead-looking. She should take some more pills." (On Helen Winchester)
●"Something has been set in motion. I don’t know what it is, or how I know it, but I am afraid." (On Helen Winchester )

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
That he's not a violent creature. Bullshit.

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 HORROR books by 2025 

Eat Organic. Love Orcs. - Sweeter than the first book.

Book 2 deals with the complexities of a world now run by Evil and monsters are not just common place but they're a necessary integral part of society. They have cultures, ancient traditions some beautiful and fragile others kind of violent and barbaric.

Kate Prior give her Orcs the reverence treatment, usually reserved for awe inspiring elves. I was not prepared to fall in love with Khent either - so Janice and I are simpatico.

Romance Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Slow-burn romance with outstanding worldnestling. So we're neck deep in Evil Empire and there is everything from Orcish calligraphy, Webmd but for monsters DoctOrc.com, Monstrouspedia, and even Monster Pharmacy. Monster Resources Ithe equivalent of HR. I love that HR has tapes for dealing with how humans respond to Supernatural beings like don't bait werewolves, cursed people need safe spaces and so much more. Heck even the FDA is EFDA as in EvilFDA.

Character Development/Favorite Character:
Janice was already in the first book in the series just doing her HR duties and turning a blind eye to The Boss and Secretary basically engaging in sexual rituals in the office. Ahem. I do love Janice but man she is wound up tighter than a corkscrew in her own story.

Khent is tender, sweet, socially anxious, all about consent and damn fine.  The almost 10 foot tall Orc, uh..ma'am that's a giant, a titan...an orc? Okay then, Kent is a giant, smoldering orc. Also the breadth of his shoulders is as wide as some couches- Janice's words not mine. Girl that should be terrifying not sexy...but darn it, it is way to sexy.

I spare a glance at his arms, which are probably about as wide as one of my thighs, if I had to guess. (Janice on Orcs)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene::
●Orc Spa Sauna. Every single minute. From waiting in line to ...ahem🔥 but also💕the illustrations are chef's kiss.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes: 
●Getting as much space from him as
possible was what Monsters Resources instructed. Eventually, my vulva would receive the messag. (Janice on fighting Blood Fever)
●"I’m not prepared for this. I need notecards and a little binder outlining the steps of what a satisfying apology looks like so I can check them off as I go, I need a powerpoint presentation to point out the steps I’ll take so that I never elbow another co-worker in the face again—" (Janice on Apologizing )
●I don’t think I could emotionally withstand Khent being protective of me, even if it’s a year too late. I can live with being horny, but being cared about might cross a line. There’s HR paperwork we would need to file for that.. (Janice on one of Khent's most endearing qualities)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
●Blood Fever: Drawing blood is an Orc betrothal custom. .

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025