This is not a book that I feel like I have any right to review or make any judgements or critics of. It's a diverse story that I think everyone needs to read at least once to totally understand being transgender.
McLemore definitely has a very distinct writing style and while the book isn't what I expected...it's very beautiful. Please make sure to take the two extra minutes and read the authors note at the end.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-hDU-al0

2.5/5

I appear to be the odd man out in this because I really found myself disappointed with this book.
I loved the setting a ton. I really love books with politics and retellings but I forced myself to finish this book. I really did not like the writing. There were long stretches were it just felt like the book was idling and nothing was happening.

I love a good villain. Whether they are horrible or lovable or morally grey--I am a fan but I could not STAND Xifeng. She was just a crappy human being--especially to her original romance interest. Anytime she did anything (that I know was definitely supposed to have an impact on me), I just rolled by eyes and thought "I'm not buying this." I wanted more form the character! Not a character who is doing something because she was told to by her aunt (that entire lineage reveal with her aunt didn't make any sense to me either since it never became an important part of the plot).

I found the Emperor really under developed. All I got from him was that he was somehow supposed to be not a horrible person yet had tons of concubines and children he didn't seem to care for.

Rather confused how (and honestly why) this is becoming a sequel rather than a standalone but that's probably just from my negative takeaway of the book.

Ugh! I was just really frustrated with this book. I had such high hopes and it didn't go anywhere for me.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZC5l9ket0

3.75/5 ⭐

I liked this! It's kind of the middle ground between Ready Player One and Warcross.

Theres mystery after mystery after mystery all kinda wrapped up into one big thing that I didn't realize was all connected until the reveal. I kept getting this feeling about certain characters that they weren't what they seemed so I was so apprehensive about everyone! Then everyone changed between being good and bad!

I have a fear about someone dying by the end of this series so I just...I DONT WANT TO LIKE ANYONE at the risk of breaking my heart.

I do wish the main character doing the saving wasn't a man saving the girl he loved (I mean...that's been done to death) but I did appreciate the female sidekick helpers. Besides that, Simon is a sarcastic and very blunt character that intends to bend rules for his benefit yet...he's not really a bad person. Simon has some amazing dialogue but the greatest thing he did was the fighting back against his parents at the very beginning. He definitely develops and grows as he begins to understand exactly what has happened to Kat and the conspiracy revolving around the two VR worlds. He's clearly a good person but not perfect and has flaws that made him realistic (and honestly see pieces of me in him).

I'll definitely pick up the sequel.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZC5l9ket0

I had such a hard time putting this book down and kept pushing off the other book I was reading so I could finish this one! I just couldn't give it a five since I saw the reveal of the murder/conspiracy coming from a mile away.

Other than that, I felt like the book did a great job of casually leaving information that would become useful 100 pages later. They weren't obvious bread crumbs either.

This is a solid historical fiction murder mystery with a strong female lead. Donnelly did a great job of intertwining romance but avoided lots of cheesiness and kept the characters focus on the murder mystery. The ending also did a great job of this by wrapping up everything that needed to be but not having her get married. She got a happily ever after for her career dreams which is exactly what fit Jo's character.

I was totally blindsided by the reveal/unwinding of Eleanor's tragic ending story. it made sense but I wasn't expecting the story to be proven as fiction.

I loved the old timey feel of the city, culture and politics as well as the investigative journalism. The book shows the Stark differences between rich and poor as if they are both a part of and not a part of the same time and place.

Jo grew so much as a character at every new piece of information she found and every new experience she had. With that, she has a really good narration and evaluation of her family and old life.

I adored Fay for her honestly and bluntness and realistic attitude. Her conclusion also made sense but I would have loved a companion tale of where her life goes.

I really appreciated the bibliography at the back! I recently read Radium Girls and want to find some more nonfictions. The topics covered by the books on this bibliography are of a huge interest to me and I'll be searching some of them down.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZC5l9ket0

4.75/5

Simply put, if you like the Shadow and Bone series than I think you'll enjoy this! The illustrations and the colours are absolutely amazing. There's definitely use of some traditional tales like Red Riding Hood but Bardugo made them her and Grisha's own. She managed to keep that Russian influence as well. Now I want to reread to Shadow and Bone and trilogy...and Six of Crows duology...and I need the Nikolai duology now!

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZC5l9ket0

I really really...REALLY struggle to understand why this book was set in this time period. There are so many unique things that could have been done that just weren't. This whole story could've been set in another time and place with the replacement of mammoths with another animal.

I adore historical fiction! I love getting to learn about a new place but Eshbaugh did not paint any picture of this time period that is so under used in YA fiction. At most it was a fantasy but not a particularly imaginative or well done fantasy. It honestly seemed like I missed a prequel novel to explain all this. It may be that I have read The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron, but I had immediate problems with the lack of explanation as to how all these people were talking the same language. There's a lot of topics, vocabulary and ideologies expressed which were not of this time period (so once again...WHY DO THAT IN THIS TIME PERIOD?!). I wish the nomadic lifestyle would have been explained and developed more (societies didn't just randomly abandon that practice) however...my big issue was the type of love in this story. I'm sorry but you have literally a handful of women to have as a spouse and try to breed to avoid EXTINCTION and you keep thinking about modern ideas of love?! Really?! I also really struggled with no real reference to the lifespan and ages of everyone overall. I remember the main character's brother being referenced as 15 when announcing his engagement but what about his parents, etc.! These are all details that were severely lacking and totally removed this book from the realm of historical fiction to me. I think she did some research on the general time period (the reference of bees was quite interesting and I didn't really ever think of bees being around that long ago) but she didn't bring enough of it. I didn't get an idea that she had a passion for the time and that trickled down to me. I literally JUST read These Shallow Graves (by Jennifer Donnelly) and it's obvious she did research (and not just from the bibliography at the back)!

Finally...I particularly dislike the POV and narrative of this. That's more of a personal preference but it definitely did not help my rating. I kept cringing when the book was trying to convince me I was the dudes lover.

I'm glad some others enjoyed it and the cover is really nice but I won't be continuing with this series.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZC5l9ket0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuOiqkrg2pM

This was alright. Not the best WWII historical fiction but definitely readable. My real struggle with this book was the pace. It never really picked up or slowed down so I just felt my attention being lost as the book kept going on and on.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-hDU-al0

This was definitely a rough start of a book and I found the characters inconsistent and the douche-y things thrown out during fights were...problematic but not analyzed.

Character: You're a whore!...I only called you that to hurt you but hurting you hurts me
Me: ...excuse me? girl, slap him!

Thankfully it did get better towards the end and since I own the sequels...I'll eventually pick them up but I'm in no hurry.

Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-hDU-al0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuOiqkrg2pM

Alright...I'm not sure if this was a troll book or serious. If it was serious...then OMG was this cringey! The author literally took every overused plot and character trait in YA fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi and smashed it into one story with a main female lead who spends 75% of the book blushing around boys. Odd enough...it became funny with how cringey it was to me and now I kinda wanna read the next book. Also don't get the Warren thing. him and Adam were dull as hell.

I would also not recommend the audiobook. the narrator sounded like a 5-year old girl which made the make out scenes even more uncomfortable.

I bumped it from a 1 to 2 star because of all the sarcastic jokes I was able to come up with that amused me.