westernskynaida's Reviews (147)

This was my first intense dark romance (with a higher level of spice I’ve read before)

And honestly? I definitely enjoyed it. I have come out of this knowing where some of my limits are, but I’m able to get past them if the story is interesting enough (I don’t do well with in depth descriptions of body parts, but I know that’s a romance/spicy novel thing)

Honestly? I’ll recommend this to people who are wanting to try to get into darker romance as a good stepping stone

I may have to sleep on this one to see if I give it a full 5/5, but I really enjoyed this book

I read this one because I was looking for a book that reminded me of Metaphor Refantazio. And this one did not disappoint. Kian and Cerise were so fun to read and I loved Kian’s characterization right when I met him

I didn’t realize this was the first of a series and now I’m definitely curious for book 2 when it’s announced/released

This book finally got me out of this rut I’ve been in 

I don’t know if it’s the edition or how this is written but I’m just not feeling it. Maybe I’ll try with a different edition…maybe the audiobook? We’ll see if I tackle this again in the future 

I don’t know if I just wasn’t in the mood for this, or previous similar books changed how I viewed this one. I may try to pick this up in the future but right now I’m going to move on and see where things lie for the future 

Man, our bookclub picked the worst year to read this…

It took me 3 formats before I was finally able to get through this book (started with physical, tried ebook and finally landed on audiobook)

This book is a beautiful telling of effects of colonialism, feminism and revolt (I’m sure I missed some ideals as well)

The first third of the book takes quite a while to get through but then once things fall into place, it’s like you’re on a marathon and your only reprieve is when they give you glasses of water or oranges

If you choose to read this, just be aware there are some heavy topics and be prepared 

So some context before I start the review. It’s 2025 and I’m 33 at the time of writing this review. When I was in elementary school (sometime between 1st and 5th grade), our librarian read to us this book. As I got older, I forgot the name of this book, this was definitely a formative book in my little brain years and I believe is actually the book that started my itch for horror books

This book is written in the perspective of a boy who has to spend the summer with his great aunt because his parents are going to France for work. Within the first couple of days, he meets a ghostly boy who looks exactly like him and they switch places

Even for a middle grade book, the way it’s written for the anxiety of depersonalization and possibly forgetting the core of your person is a terrifying idea - it’s no wonder it stuck with me for decades

I highly recommend this book - whether you read it to your younglings or read it when you’re older

Before I read this, I saw a review saying this was a cozy romance. Which I can definitely agree to that

Augustus and Mara’s chemistry was actually fun to watch and finding out what happened to Melbounes’s magic

I also really enjoyed the different mentions of the various supernatural species that were in the book

I’d definitely recommend this to someone who wants a romance that isn’t on the level of erotica

Reading this one was a different experience than how I’ve read the other books for SH. This particular story was used for a mystery puzzle

I’m going to try not write this based off the experience and more the story

This story is after Holmes and Watson have established their partnership for some time and Watson is reminiscing. There were some red herrings and I didn’t see the actual culprit (though it did make sense after the fact)

Where to begin with this…

Before I read this, I did see some of the reviews about the allegories in the book.  To me, I feel like everything was relatively subtle - some where obviously more straight forward, but as someone who isn’t religious it was fine

I really enjoyed the character Zane. He reminded me of Jack from Rise of the Guardians. I am a bit disappointed that Helen still couldn’t read any thing from the texts (though they didn’t really look at them by the end) but maybe that’ll be brought up in the rest of the series?

All in all, I would recommend this book. I feel like it was more taking winter folktales with some religious undertone. And as someone who usually DNF’s heavy religious books when they’re way more in your face, I enjoyed this one

Sherlock’s first “failed” case. It was also one I feel he genuinely had fun with. We get more disguises. I’m also glad this was a more private case rather than working with SY