roadtripreader's Reviews (357)

I feel protective of these characters, Caroline in the present day, Nella and Eliza in the 17-1800s. Every one of them, these women and the girl-child had their worlds utterly upturned and in essence destroyed. But the rose out of the ashes, reborn and this is the part I wanted more off, especially regarding Eliza.

The Lost Apothecary could be Nella or even her mother or quite possibly the apothecary Nella would have been without that tragic sequence of events in her life. But I also feel as though Eliza is for all intents and purposes, an apothecary and man was she brave and lost to history in essence.

This book takes me back to conversations at the university café and sharing our favorite parts of new lectures that week. The best lectures left us with ample space to question, investigate and just keep digging and would lead to hours of conversation, debates and throwing our own theories up in the air for someone to expand upon.

Now, in the case of Astrophysics, the mystery that keeps on giving remains Lambda
Dear, dear Dark Matter you mysterious entity you; will we actually see you in our lifetime? Will we actually lay eyes on you or, in the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson:

"For now, we must remain content to carry dark matter along as a
strange, invisible friend, invoking it where and when the universe
requires it of us."

At least we all, almost 8.5 billion people share the same invisible friend.

I must say, I was really expecting a ravenous scene where a werewolf woman tears into a human and chews her way right down to the pink pumps or kitten heels and then howls into the night. 

As I started reading it, it quickly became clear that MM/The Mother/Nightbitch was going through post-partum depression and so much more - apparently having a baby is chaos presented in different forms to different people.  I fully expected her to have an actual nervous breakdown, it really seemed like she was having one in most of the pages.  Her childhood pointed to traumas unaddressed and seemed repressive hence the story as one long internal dialogue.

And then - the moment when she actually disasociates is visceral and conjures up a bile or bitter after taste. I found myself wanting to help her, scold her, maybe slap her or berate her husband, tsk tsk tsk and shake my head and then also look on in horror.

The ending feels a little obvious to me - the expectedunexpected , the fact that she was an artist has been mentioned in almost every page by the The Mother/MM/Nightbitch so I did anticipate what was presented as the final chapter and resolution - but a part of me could see this story going in the direction of the character actually going to therapy, rebuilding her studio connections and maybe the child turning 3 and some of the horrors of toddlerdom might have been numbed out. And if there was a peaceful resolution, Nightbitch could slowly transition back to MM.

Instead, the Nightbitch becomes the most dominant element of MM's personality. A visceral, violent part of The Mother and this is meant to be the triumph of the book.

Did she really pull herself together or did she just take her chaos and shove it on stage for everyone to see and digest no real holistic growth to be had.

I closed this book and asked myself "Do I really want to be a mother...because WTF was that?"

Happy Goodreads Asian American and Pacific Islander Month in the US!

I placed this book on my TBR list a few days ago by chance and then saw the Goodreads AAPI banner and thought, well why not? I have recently fallen into the Cozy Mystery abyss and some stories have really warmed my cold cynical heart....just kidding, I have 3 hearts. Anyway, onto the business of Vera Wong. Listen I will fight anyone who says Vera is not a great detective - like hello, her nosy grandmotherliness just gives her an edge. What I wouldn't give to see her and Sherlock in the same universe - it would be hilarious. Just imagine Vera, making tons of food, barging into 221B Baker street, imploring Sherlock to eat and chastising Dr Watson for something or the other. And then, solving there major case all by herself. That would be a book.

I fell in love with most of the characters in this book - even the overly annoyed Sgt Gray always ready to sigh and place her fingers on the bridge of her nose.

One character I did not warm up to is Sana - like okay we get it, you're blocked but her affluenza blues masquerading as self-doubt just rubbed me the wrong way and I felt zero connection to her struggle.
The twists in this story were well thought out and unique - I was this close to thinking Marshall was an international Art Thief pulling off a heist, but then I remembered the genre I was ready and everything fits together in a nice cozy teacup.

Give me more unsolicited advice about how to solve a murder Vera...I have my notebook ready

Whimsical, Cottagecore and Southern Charm

Initially, the first 2 chapters did not sell this book to me and I crawled through them like a sloth. I don't often enjoy first person narrative and the description of the main murder felt so hollow, so utterly boring and for a second I hadn't realized the character was dead it was so unremarkable. The meet cute was different and kept me reading - one could already guess that he was Detective Hayes as soon as the main character found the body of the murder victim.

That being said - this book grew on me like ivy. I went from huffing and sighing heavily as I rolled my eyes into oblivion to smiling as I read about Maggie the cat, Aunt Fran and Aunt Clara, Amelia, the island-county of Charm, North Carolina, and delicious sweet tea. Honestly, having been raised on John Grisham, Michael Connelly, Robert Harris and so many of my father's favorite authors - Cozy mysteries seemed to be play acting at the whole point of murder mystery. But, this is the year I read anything and everything (within reason) and Cozy mysteries have been beckoning for a while now. This was fun and reminded me of the MeditationMelodies channel on YouTube - there is an Afternoon Tea Party melody that literally sounds like it could be the soundtrack to this book.

What a good read! Looking forward to the rest of the series.

World-building 101, immerses the reader into an imagined world with as much imagery as possible without long boring descriptive sentences littered with metaphors and similies. This book gets itand creates this world in the first 3 pages. It reminds me of Bright in some small way (without the Will Smith character) and the otherworldy dimensions echo "The Conjunction of Spheres" idea. But there are a few unique elements to this story as well.

So what we have is a world that is multicultural in both mortal and supernatural terms.

1. A mysterious dead djinn complete with horns, talons and humanoid face and the color blue.

2. Lower-Order Djinns. Zombies (different name, same premise), sorcerers and Ancient Egyptian Gods.

3. Secretive and sometimes scheming power-hungry "Maybe-Angels" and not the visuals of hot winged human form ala Tom Ellis in Lucifer...nope; these are multi-limbed, winged and mechanical celestials but enchanting nontheless.

4. Mortal realm:Coptic Egyptians, Islamic Egyptians, Albanians, Greeks, Turks, Abyssinians, Soudanese and the remnants of English Settlements in Cairo.

5. Time and Era: turn of the century, end of Ottoman rule, dirigibals, gliders, gas lighting ( not to be confused with gaslighting) and carriages abound. Very atmospheric. Feels Steampunkish.

Makes for an interesting landscape..

Character Development

Fatma (somewhat androdgynous looking) is steadfast, calculated and bares all the hallmarks of the first women allowed onto the police force once equal rights were afforded to both genders at the time: she contends with the male gaze despite donning men's tailored English suits complete with a cane typical of that era.

Aasim is her partner and represents the bigots and misogynists littered throughout her society. They work well together because she doesn't rise to his instigations. This dynamic is familiar in our world today; so I would like a Ghul to feast on her partner's still beating heart ( okay yes, that's a bit extreme - well, Aasim is bloody annoying).

There are wrought tensions between the ethnic groups of the mortal realms and it's really just a powder kegg waiting to be lit by the more cunning supernaturals.

I do love a story that brings to life cultural folklore and contemporary ideas of fantasy and just subverts them. This was a pleasant surprise.

*I hadn't realized that I'd been listening to Natalie Holt's "The Princess" motion Picture Ost/Score whilst reading this. It gave it a decidedly epic and busy atmosphere. I might just do this for all my upcoming books on my TBR list*

I started this on Thursday, got to page 18 and then lost interest. Rambles Upon Rambles folks just messing with my reading streak and creating backlog.

This was a chore. Not because it's a bad book or the writing is bad. Oh contraire. But for the love of god, do we need three paragraphs to describe the sky? And then another couple paragraphs to describe blood.

Also the stream of consciousness that is Koh was interesting at first but a whole lot of unnecessary descriptions.

It was beautiful even beneath all the rambling. Hidden in the extra paragraphs, a beautiful if not entirely predictable story - both doublecrosses and big shockers were obvious from the jump (even for a novice in the Stormdancer series). The Guild, The Twins (who actually sits on the throne) and Koh.

Still, as my first foray into Jay Kristoff's work, I am weary of these longass descriptions. We get it, there is air pollution in Shima. We get it the mountains are beautiful and the sky is blah blah blah. This Novella could have been 90 pages.

There is beauty in being succint.And getting to the point and you can still write beautiful prose without being long-winded.

Book 2 of 7 in this Palette Cleanser Series!

You know that age old saying "Books are little worlds" or something like that - yeah, I love exploring psychedelic scifi-fantasy-nonfiction-sciency-gothic-mystery-thriller worlds. But once in a while, I want to visit a pretty world that is whimsical, light-hearted, ghibli-ish and oh so very cottagecore. This one ticks soo many boxes:

⦁Seaside cottagecore vibes (ccv): Everly lives and works out of a gorgeous place right on the beach. It's pretty common for the cottagecore aesthetic to be rooted in the countryside, gorgeous farmland, but don't knock seaside ccv. It feels like a vacation just reading about the views.

⦁Mid-Century/Victorian Architecture: Sun Sand And Tea as well as Everly's home is a moody house complete with elegant finishes and a carriage house.

⦁Intuitive, thoughtful almost anthropomorphized animals: The resident seagull who visits the cafe daily and stares into Everly's eyes feels like he could be an old wise wizard. And the cat, the cat that just chose her one day and is fiercely protective of her it's almost ... familiar (okay okay, she's not a familiar but still, almost).

⦁Southern Charm: I've only traveled to bigger southern cities on my few visits stateside, and I loved it. the small island town in this book is literally called Charm. It is a tourist destination during the spring and summer months but for the most part, it's one of those smaller quaint places with about 10 000 or so in local population.

⦁Comfort Food: Every time I pick up one of these cozy mysteries, I find myself taking a 5 minute break to make something that is in the book. We're not talkin' MasterChef or Great British Bake Off recipes, these are just everyday dishes that you probably make anyway. This installment has showcased a wedding cake that no one got to taste, some delicious tacos, ice-creams, sweet teas and sandwiches.

⦁Quirky kooky Aunts who remind me of Sabrina's; a sweet childhood-into-adulthood friendship and a friendship slowly moving into the love story territory.
⦁Some light conflict and a murder mystery that is not meant to be a deep whodunnit. I figured out the killer by chapter 8 but the entire journey to get to the reveal was delightful.

The only real negative would be that this is the second book where the main character - a teashop and café owner - is literally embroiled in multiple murder cases and becomes the target of the killer. This can't possibly be the case for the next 5 books - the jig is up right? But once again, that's too much thinking for a book that requires no contemplation.

So yeah, if I say books are my worlds, I love to visit a world like this. Cozy, Easy, and Gentle.

At the heart of this is unhealed Trauma. It's written so well that the techno-socioeconomic-landscape muddies the waters, covers the brokenness of many of the inhabitants of the city and in particular Amelia's world. She never had a chance to heal and to mourn. She had to shield herself, move within and then fight to survive outwardly through menial job after job including the Friendrr app. And yet, Amelia remained committed to her escape even through just the windows of her imagination. Every other thought inbetween the hopelessness of her situation was of Mars (not the silver screen Mars where one could wear pretty dresses outdoors and stroll out of cardboard prisons) the red planet where settlements lived in domes, drink recycled urine as liquid sustenance and worked to build the colonies.

Three Things:

⦁This book came out right on the cusp of the same technological advancements in our world, real-time. If that overpriced nonsense Apple VR at $3400 is any indication - we are hurtling towards this dystopian biotech future at breakneck speed. If global currencies and inflation are any indication - were more than half way there. Looking at you Turkey, and Argentina and heck too many to count.

⦁The relationship between Lucia and Amelia was almost maternal and gentle at times. Amelia probably witnessed her mother die after being her caregiver for 2 years. Although Lucia was a client, she was in an unspoken way, a pseudo-mom and pseudo-sister because as Mars is my witness, Martha was a colossal piece of trash.

⦁Amelia is inspiring...she didn't mess up and even if she did, she decided that she couldn't just give up and be one of the old women begging for a tajadero on the bus, she refused to. Sometimes, it seemed like a delusion, to save pennies upon pennies to get to Mars - but it was her lifeline. When Amelia was needed, she changed the course of her successful-life trajectory to be there for her dying mother. The cards she was dealt thereafter were Martha's cruel, conniving, callous cards. I hate Martha.

And there you have it. So, if we're moving to colonies on other planets. can I get a Class B Visa to Europa or Titan. I'm not down for living in a red space desert drinking recycled bodily fluids thanks.