You know what? I was pleasantly surprised with how this prequel went in terms of reclaiming feminist power back in the gold mining days. This could have absolutely been one of those historical fiction type books where the female lead’s only goal was to to find a husband and live happily ever after (not like that wasn’t the premise but whatevs).

The twist was insane and I was surprised by some of the kill methods, but there were points in the book where I felt like I was reading on just to get to the next big part of the story and some shocking developments I figured out before they actually happened. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I will say that she is wonderful at character and world building to the point where I was sucked in like a member of the Darker Family.

*listened on audiobook* I’ve seen so many movie adaptations of this story that it was finally time for me to read the original source material and it was a wonderful way to start off the week of Christmas. I highly recommend the audiobook version because it was beautifully done and really brought the story to life.

THIS WAS SO FUCKING FUN! I'm going to read this every single year!

I was hoping to learn a little more about who Mera is as a character, but overall it was bit of a letdown. The dialogue and the artwork were great, but maybe Mera/the Aquaman universe is not my thing. TBF I had a lot of high hopes for this one after reading the Catwoman 'Under The Moon' book so my opinion might be biased.

I chose this book because I was looking for books to read for New Years and I definitely was not disappointed with this one. It covers a lot of hot button topics than I was expecting out of this story and is absolutely one that I will be recommending to everyone.

*listened on audiobook* Very happy that I listened to this on audiobook so I could hear the proper pronunciations for the Nigerian language the author included. I understand why this was in short story form, but I do wish that it was a full-length work because I was very interested in the author's family background and what her experience was like coming to America for school. Looks like I will need to check out her other works.

This is one that I highly recommend reading in separate scenarios:
1. while you are single
2. while you're in a relationship (the length of the relationship also makes a difference)
3. revisiting over the course of your life

I understand the goal of this book is to prep people for marriage, but I've also found it helpful in navigating non-romantic relationships while also seeing how my love languages have shifted over the years.

Definitely a page-turner like the rest of The Hunger Games series and an interesting insight into early Panem. It answers a lot of questions about how President Snow became so cold-hearted and why he felt Katniss was such a threat in the original trilogy. Highly suggest reading this first and then the remaining Hunger Games books.

So I’m a huge Black Cat fan and was absolutely pleased when she had her own little story weaved though this collection (kind of recommend reading through that first before the other stories because it flows better. Other than that I really enjoyed seeing more from current ladies that are currently running around in the MCU. I do wish that this collection had a little more stories included just for diversity sake but otherwise it was still a fun group of stories.