sup3r_xn0va_maya's Reviews (387)

Salt in the Wound is a novella retelling of the love story of Tristan and Isolde (and Mark) and this novella is chronologically #0.5 in the Lyonesse trilogy by Sierra Simone. I'm excited to see how I like novel #1 in the series because I only somewhat liked this. 

I've previously read Sierra Simone's Priest series and I definitely expected that series to be in some part about religion because it's about a priest and his family. I didn't expect Salt in the Wound to be about religion at all but it was and from my atheist point of view it was a bit distracting. The male characters keep manipulating Isolde and they were using her religion to do so, I hope she's able to get back at them. I expect there to be more mention of religion in the sequel "Salt Kiss" and I'm wondering if it's going to be as prominent as it was in this book. 

I don't like Isolde with Mark, he's too old for her. I mean he's in his mid 30's (I think) when she first meets him, she's only 17 at the time. There are time skips in this novella so, Isolde stars the story off at 17 and ends the story in her early 20s, but in my opinion Mark still comes off as a predator. Don't even get me started on Isolde's Dad, what a trash can of a person! My goodness. He disgusts me. 

The ending was my favorite part

Isolde meeting Tristan at the end pieced everything together for me, and honestly it re-sparked my interested in the sequel, Salt Kiss.

The spice in this was alright, I really didn't like the last scene

because of the blood, it grossed me out

. I'm giving this 3 chilies out out 5 chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️ worth of spice. 

Overall this book was okay, I'm interested to see how the rest of the series is going to play out. I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5
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I listened to this for free on the library website and app - libbyapp.com

My Love Story Vol. 4 was a mix between "I like this part" and "I don't like this part", let me explain. In My Love Story there are usually two major storylines and I didn't like the first storyline but I really liked the second one and I also enjoyed the bonus story. 

The first story was about

Sunkawa's adult college aged sister, Ai, and how she has had a crush on Takeo since he was in elementary and she was in middle school. It made me uncomfortable that an college aged adult was trying to entertain or be entertained by a high school student. I also didn't like the guy who had a crush on Ai, her college colleague and fellow student. He was just a source of aggravation for me, he was pushy and didn't take "no" for an answer.

The second story was about

Takeo having to run a Swedish relay race at his high school. He proceeds to help a girl train so she can run faster so their relay team can achieve victory, and Yamato catches them together practice and when Takeo is helping the girl home (after she hurts her ankle) and Yamato gets jealous. This manga was basically about relationship jealousy.

The last story takes place when the characters are in kindergarten, it was absolutely adorable. 

Overall I enjoyed this manga so I'm giving this 4 stars out of 5
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Play of Passion is the 9th book in the Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh. Snowdancers Indgo and Drew are the main characters of this book, I liked them together well enough. 

There wasn't much action in this book, it was mostly about Drew and Indigo's relationship. I was frustrated with both of them at one point, because of the miscommunication trope going on. They kept miscommunicating and doing careless things that would hurt the other person. 

We don't hear anything about

Pure Psy

until the end of the book, the end of the book is also where most of the action starts happening. There's also a shocking revelation that happens at an interesting meeting at the end of the book and I'm excited to finish the series to see how all that plays out. 

The spice in this was okay, I'd say there could have been one or two more scenes. 
I'm giving this 3 chilies out out 5 chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️ worth of spice. 

Overall this book was okay, I liked it but it wasn't my favorite Psy/Changeling story. I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5
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I listened to this for free on the library app hoopladigital.com

This is like a Pacific Rim fanfic, but it's really good! 20 minutes after I finished it, I'm still thinking about the ending and I'm really excited for the sequel. 

So in this book there are these monsters that attack the cities that the main character Zetian lives in and around, and these male celebrities with their female concubine partners get in giant animal shaped robots and they fight these monsters. The woman often die after going into battle so there's always a need for female concubine pilots. The main character has a big sister who was sacrificed in battle as a concubine pilot and she wants revenge. Her plan is to get chosen to pilot along side the man responsible for her sister's death. 

Okay, so I really love how the

love triangle was handled, and as a polyamorous person, I'm so happy to see polyam representation in this book. This is the first time I've read a book where the author decides to make a trio out of the "love triangle" and it works perfectly!

I liked how much action there was and I loved how the action scenes played out, it was like I could imagine the scenes in my head while I listened to the audiobook. 

I really loved the twists and turns in the book and I'm so happy that I didn't get anything spoiled for me, because those surprises were worth the wait.

Does Zetian fall under the "evil cripple" trope that is apart of the "magical disabled persons" trope? I don't think so, I don't think Zetian is evil, though I think she's emotionally evolving. I think her character walks the line of the "evil cripple" trope though, so I could easily see how some people think she falls under that trope. 

<blockquote>"Typically, the disabled characters are limited to four types: the “magical cripple,” the “evil cripple,” the “inspirational cripple” and the “redemptive cripple.” An Evil Cripple is a villain or generally morally perturbed character who also suffers a debilitating physical condition, often taking the form of paralysis requiring the use of a wheelchair. The Evil Cripple doubles as the Genius Cripple a lot, providing an intellectual threat to compensate for their physical frailty. Alternatively, the Evil Cripple can become a physical threat if they use futuristic enhancements to overcome their disability, such as replacing missing or defective limbs with super-strong Powered Armor or cybernetic parts."

- tvtropes.org</blockquote>

Overall, this was a really good book and I enjoyed it very much. I'm giving this 
5 out of 5 stars. 
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libbyapp.com

 

The Changeling is a very interesting story and I honestly am not sure how to rate it. This is my first time reading a full length dark fairy tale and I'll say that I enjoyed it for the most part. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than I enjoyed the second half, probably because at the 3/4th mark in the book it gets a little bit confusing and is a little hard to follow.

I don't want to say too much because this is one of those books where the reader should start reading this with as little information on the book as possible. Overall I'll say that this was really creative and I really enjoyed LaValle's writing style. I felt creeped out a few times so this is the perfect read for spooky season! This wasn't my favorite book and I didn't feel completely fulfilled by the ending, I do however respect and appreciate the creativity that went into this story.

I'm going to give this 3.5 stars out of 5
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This is the story of Cinnamon, a spice famer, and Fallon a demon. The book starts out with Cinnamon out in town square, drinking and eating cheese at a festival in her town. She promptly gets drunk, walks herself home, and then she runs right into a demon named Fallon! The demon reveals

that the goddess that Cinnamon's people have been worshipping is actually an evil witch, or a litch.

Soon, they embark on a journey to stop the witch in disguise, they end up meeting a few friends and running into some enemies on the journey. 

All in all this was super cute and it had a good balance between the spice and the storyline. 
I'm giving this 3 chilies out out 5 chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️ worth of spice. 

I really loved this, I'm giving it 5 stars out of 5
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I listened to this for free on the library app Libbyapp.com

Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu is the first book in the paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele.
This story is about Delilah a metal welder, sculpture, and artist and Hari, an immortal man stuck in a 2 thousand year old box. Without knowing there was a spell or curse on the box, Delilah buys it while she's in China. Well, she opens the box and out comes Hari, a 7 foot tall buff muscled man with a tattoo across his chest. 

The beginning of this was interesting and then then towards the middle and the end, it really started to drag on. The audiobook was 13 hours and the story honestly didn't need to be that long. I just remember wishing the story was "over already" and I still had 3 hours left of the audiobook.

Delilah gets kidnapped towards the end and I honestly think something in the middle could have come out to make the story shorter, because it didn't need to be that long!

This was just okay, I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5
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I listened to this for free on the library app Libbyapp.com

Bonds of Justice is the 8th book in Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling series. Max the New York cop and Sophie, a J class Psy end up meeting while working on a case dealing with a serial killer named Booner. I liked the beginning of the story and the end of the story but everything after

Booner breaks out of custody is a hot mess.

It was just messy for me. 

I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5
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I listened to this for free on the library app hoopladigital.com

My Love Story volume three was just as cute as volume 2! I loved it so much! 

Takeo and Yamato go hiking in the mountains and that gets kind of exciting. Then Takeo, Suna, some of their bros, and Yamato and her gals go to the beach together. Last, Takeo starts to take his education more seriously when Yamato mentions wanted to eventually go to the same college together.

We get to see more of Takeo's parents (wow, his father is REALLY handsome!) There's more swooning from Takeo and Yamato because they're so in love with each other and it's adorable. Sunakawa is a great friend and chill as always. This series just warms my heart, and I'm so happy that I found it. 

Overall I enjoyed this manga so I'm giving this 5 stars out of 5
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So, I bought a copy of this manga in 2013 and I just read it today (Sept 5th, 2023) for the first time. It was good for a horror & mystery manga and I'm glad that I finally got around to reading this, I really liked it. The stories were creepy and so was the art. 

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is a group of college students who help grant the disgruntled dead their final wishes. All the members have something special to add to the team, and they basically solve crimes together. 

At one point the puppet character calls the main character the R slur, I'm removing a star because of that. 

Overall I'm giving this 4 stars out of 5
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