This was great. A great adventure, great world building and characters. I adore this book. I’m starting the second now.

The only thing I have to say is that I’m ready for Everley (I feel like I’m missing a letter or two there) to be done with the whole moody, angsty teen bit. But that’s how I was when I was 17 (minus the obsessed with revenge because someone killed my parents bit) so I’ll cut her some slack there.

I bought this awhile ago but have been itching to read it ever since and the books I’m reading on Libby just gave me that opportunity.

Whew. This book is a rollercoaster. I loved the high speed starship battle scenes, the slower and more tense planning stages, and mostly, I loved the pages that were just Ettian and Gal.

Though I do have a question: are the names of children of royalty not known in this world? It seems like people know an awful lot about the rulers but then are totally shocked to find that Gal is *that* Gal. Just saying.

Anyways, I had a huge amount of fun with this book and it was just the palate cleanser to read in between heavy chapters of The Lies of Locke Lamora. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

In Other Lands took me a while to get into (about 2/5s of the book), but once I was in, it paid out. I got really attached to the characters, even if most of them are well meaning but obstinately oblivious. This is a great slice of life fantasy. It’s endearing and charming and surprising in small ways. A great light and fun read with a great cast of characters (and queer representation!).

Gosh, where do I even start with this book? It’s bittersweet, nostalgic and chilling. It’s one of those books where you’re either really into this kind of book or you’re really not. (I’m in the really not camp.) That being said, it was beautifully written and wonderfully told. It’s just not for me.

Sweet and adorable. A light, charming read and a well told story with great artwork.

Given how much I loved Brightly Burning, I was rather disappointed by The Stars We Steal. Alexa Donne has a great way of creating characters whose relationships amongst each other all make perfect sense. You feel not just the chemistry between Leo and Elliot, but the bond between sisters, the disappointing inattention of a mindless father, the hope and joy of new friendships. And I got so caught up in all the emotions of these relationships that the ending just felt being pushed out of an airlock. There’s a whole number of things that are mentioned a few times and then ... never resolved. One relationship changes and another ends, both in very unsatisfactory ways. And all over, the ending is disappointing.

This is an easy, cute read with some interesting things to say about social media and doing things for the people we love. One of the characters had some great things to say about the educational system and I wish the book had taken that further. But really, that’s my only qualm with this book. A great, charming read.

I’m kind of surprised by how much I like this book. There’s a lot of things that are good - but only just - about this book: good characters, good world building, good dialogue. With few exceptions, I didn’t find too much of that memorable or distinctive, but I never found that I was reading the book in spite of any of that either. I would find myself getting pulled into the plot like a leaf in a tornado, and completely losing myself in the book. It had me worried for a few pages that it was going to end on a sour note but then it really turned itself around and I’m looking forward to the next book.

ALSO Night Spinner gets EXTRA BONUS IMAGINARY POINTS for being... I don’t know what the right phrase is here. The MC has a disability but the book never handicaps her, if that makes sense. It never expects less of her for her disability. Only she expects less of herself for it and that changes as she goes through the book (and not because the disability magically disappears). So props for being the book I can point to next time someone asks me how fantasy books are supposed to handle disabilities.

This was a difficult book for me to read. For whatever reason, my eyes would just slide off the page. I’d turn the page and realize that I had no idea what happened on the page I just read. I truly have no idea why. It’s a book that’s perfectly aligned with stuff I would normally read - a slightly fantastical mystery. And I kept pushing myself to read the book because I was really enjoying it. It was just a difficult read. (I did find that as I went through the book, it got easier to read, so that helped.)

I loved the intrigue and mystery of it all. I truly didn’t see the ending coming. I loved that while Miéville did a fantastic job of building this world where two cities occupy the same space, there’s a few details he doesn’t give, a few questions he doesn’t answer. He just leaves you to intuit your own answer to those questions and the world feels more meaningful for letting you have your own impact on it.

Truly, I would read an entire series set in this world.

This book is a whirlwind - in the way you want a book to sweep you off your feet. I had problem putting this book down and then once it was over, I think I actually went into withdrawal.

The characters are wonderful. I loved Alex’s journey of self-discovery and Henry’s battle of how much he has to give up for the crown. There were so many things that I expected to come into play and then didn’t, and I don’t mind at all.

I also really loved Paz’s flamboyance and that it isn’t used in a way to say, “GAAAAAAYYYY.” Like, it’s just Paz. Bright colors on every colorable surface is just how Paz is. It’s not a side effect of any queerness and it’s not used to tell us that Paz is queer.