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wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.
The Good Goodbye is a dramatic and suspenseful novel about two girls and a family full of secrets. Arden and Rory Falcone are cousins and best friends, born only four months apart. They have been together their whole lives but when a fire breaks out in their dorm room leaving the girls in critical condition and another student dead, Arden and Rory's parents end up with a lot of questions and wonder if they ever even knew their daughters at all.
This ended up being way better than I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting anything bad but I definitely got a lot more sucked in than I originally thought I would be. The family dynamic in this book alone is something that gripped me and figuring out how everyone was related and the history between everyone, the secrets, the romances. Arden and Rory are both complex characters who are hiding things and everything comes to light really slowly in a great way over the novel and through flashbacks. The girls were definitely not as perfect as they originally appeared to be, Rory not as pristine and Arden not quite as innocent and I really enjoyed reading along to figure out why they were the way they were.
I really love how little tidbits were given here and there among the story that really made me o "whatttt!" in shock and just really made it hard to put down the book. There's definitely a delightful amount of mystery in the book and I seriously suspected everyone from Arden, Rory, Hunter, DD, Gabrielle. No-one was safe!
The timeline could get confusing at times as there was no point where the reader was told we were heading into a flashback, we kind of had to figure it out but other than that the reading was easy, fast and gripping. I really enjoyed the ride.
The Good Goodbye is a dramatic and suspenseful novel about two girls and a family full of secrets. Arden and Rory Falcone are cousins and best friends, born only four months apart. They have been together their whole lives but when a fire breaks out in their dorm room leaving the girls in critical condition and another student dead, Arden and Rory's parents end up with a lot of questions and wonder if they ever even knew their daughters at all.
This ended up being way better than I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting anything bad but I definitely got a lot more sucked in than I originally thought I would be. The family dynamic in this book alone is something that gripped me and figuring out how everyone was related and the history between everyone, the secrets, the romances. Arden and Rory are both complex characters who are hiding things and everything comes to light really slowly in a great way over the novel and through flashbacks. The girls were definitely not as perfect as they originally appeared to be, Rory not as pristine and Arden not quite as innocent and I really enjoyed reading along to figure out why they were the way they were.
I really love how little tidbits were given here and there among the story that really made me o "whatttt!" in shock and just really made it hard to put down the book. There's definitely a delightful amount of mystery in the book and I seriously suspected everyone from Arden, Rory, Hunter, DD, Gabrielle. No-one was safe!
The timeline could get confusing at times as there was no point where the reader was told we were heading into a flashback, we kind of had to figure it out but other than that the reading was easy, fast and gripping. I really enjoyed the ride.
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.
In A Stolen Kiss Maria, the princess of Opea, was cursed as a child by the sorceress Gilda. Now, Maria, with the help of her maid Sarah, Sarah's brother and stableboy Derric and her betrothed Humphrey set off on a mission to find Gilda and get the curse reversed This ends up in ad adventure full of secrets to be revealed, magical creatures like centaurs and shapeshifters plus one epic showdown with an evil sorcerer.
This was what it says on the tin - a fluffy, fun, romantic fairytale. Most of the story was fairly predictable but it was easy to read and fun while it lasted. I enjoyed most of the characters who were all generally honest and good people. I liked the bromance between Derric and Humphrey and the fact that Humphrey wasn't a cliche preening poncey Prince (though I did vomit every time he said 'Mumsy') but someone with a good heart and a firly good head on his shoulders. I would say that the writing was certainly not the best I'd ever read and the dialogue did suffer a bit from the 'too much being said all the time' thing which ends up in it sounding very forced and unrealistic in my view. Some of the rules about the magic and the curses were a bit confusing at times for me as well but I did enjoy the threads of magic Derric found and how he could use them and how they responded. But for a debut novel, this was a good one and I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a princess/fairytale read.
In A Stolen Kiss Maria, the princess of Opea, was cursed as a child by the sorceress Gilda. Now, Maria, with the help of her maid Sarah, Sarah's brother and stableboy Derric and her betrothed Humphrey set off on a mission to find Gilda and get the curse reversed This ends up in ad adventure full of secrets to be revealed, magical creatures like centaurs and shapeshifters plus one epic showdown with an evil sorcerer.
This was what it says on the tin - a fluffy, fun, romantic fairytale. Most of the story was fairly predictable but it was easy to read and fun while it lasted. I enjoyed most of the characters who were all generally honest and good people. I liked the bromance between Derric and Humphrey and the fact that Humphrey wasn't a cliche preening poncey Prince (though I did vomit every time he said 'Mumsy') but someone with a good heart and a firly good head on his shoulders. I would say that the writing was certainly not the best I'd ever read and the dialogue did suffer a bit from the 'too much being said all the time' thing which ends up in it sounding very forced and unrealistic in my view. Some of the rules about the magic and the curses were a bit confusing at times for me as well but I did enjoy the threads of magic Derric found and how he could use them and how they responded. But for a debut novel, this was a good one and I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a princess/fairytale read.
This one was alright. The bits with the baby were definitely funny, particularly Robert and Maryse's reactions which were so unexpected, but I can't help but feel like it's too fast for Magnus and Alec. Isn't Alec only like 18 or 19? Surely he should be living a life before he decides to adopt a baby. I don't know. I just couldn't stop that voice of reason and responsibility in my head blabbering on to be able to accept what was going on with the weird warlock baby adoption.
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.
When Lissa's grandmother dies unexpectantly, she is suddenly thrown into the role of resident witch among the Russian community in her Canadian neighborhood. As a koldun'ia, Lissa makes special eggs every new moon on request - for fertility, for pain, for sleep, etc. When her stepsister shows up, Lissa has to try and hide her other life while also dealing with the arrival of Maksim, a man who is long-living and cursed with a violent nature - and he needs her to help him.
This seemed to have a great premise, not to mention a beautiful cover but ultimately it was a big fat disappointment. The story started off very clunky for me, the writing seemed sharp but not in a good way and I felt like it was trying too hard to be a bit edgy and gritty. Lissa, Maksim and Nick - a human infected by Maksim- all have their own POV's in the book but each one is always very short and I felt like I never got the chance to really feel the character and by the time i was grasping on to them, it had moved on to the next person. I ended up having no connection to any of the characters. Lissa was really boring and uptight and never seemed happy about anything ever!
Nothing actually happened either. A majority of the book was Maksim and Gus hitting each other and Lissa making eggs. The best way to describe the 'kin' who are made up of Maksim, Gus and Nick - are non-green The Incredible Hulks. They just get very angry and seem to want to fight all the time and basically don't live every good lives from the looks of it.
This book just bored me. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen and it just didn't.
When Lissa's grandmother dies unexpectantly, she is suddenly thrown into the role of resident witch among the Russian community in her Canadian neighborhood. As a koldun'ia, Lissa makes special eggs every new moon on request - for fertility, for pain, for sleep, etc. When her stepsister shows up, Lissa has to try and hide her other life while also dealing with the arrival of Maksim, a man who is long-living and cursed with a violent nature - and he needs her to help him.
This seemed to have a great premise, not to mention a beautiful cover but ultimately it was a big fat disappointment. The story started off very clunky for me, the writing seemed sharp but not in a good way and I felt like it was trying too hard to be a bit edgy and gritty. Lissa, Maksim and Nick - a human infected by Maksim- all have their own POV's in the book but each one is always very short and I felt like I never got the chance to really feel the character and by the time i was grasping on to them, it had moved on to the next person. I ended up having no connection to any of the characters. Lissa was really boring and uptight and never seemed happy about anything ever!
Nothing actually happened either. A majority of the book was Maksim and Gus hitting each other and Lissa making eggs. The best way to describe the 'kin' who are made up of Maksim, Gus and Nick - are non-green The Incredible Hulks. They just get very angry and seem to want to fight all the time and basically don't live every good lives from the looks of it.
This book just bored me. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen and it just didn't.
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.
2.75 Stars (I couldn't decide between 2.5 and 3 stars so I'm compromising)
The Last Gasp tells the tale of a slowly-dying planet earth and its human occupants ignoring the obvious signs of illness. An eco-disaster is growing and become irreversible and as environmentalists crying out for the world to change, and for people to take notice, they're killed off by a corrupt government. Slowly, the air becomes poisonous, the sun grows hotter and people and animals start to mutate.
This book was a tough read and there were several times I thought I wouldn't make it through. At almost 800 pages, it's not only long with a very small font, but it's dense too and not just in scientific facts. At first I was like 'oh, no' when I began to read and I realised this wasn't going to be the thrilling survivalist novel I was expecting but I did find myself getting into the story and I did want to know the end conclusion. I can't say I loved the book though. I didn't find myself wanting to pick it up when I wasn't reading it. The science in the book isn' too hard to grasp and it's quite easily explained in most parts so the damage done to the world and the effect it's having is actually understandable - and scarily, very realistic.
There are some triggers in this for sexual assault, specifically rape. There are a few scenes in which rape is mentioned, threatened or implied, and the book fell into the trope/trap of the world falling to pieces and the menfolk thinking that meant they had a free pass to rape any women they came across. I hate that trope in such books.
I did like the end, mainly because right up to it I was despairing for the characters and I had no idea how they were going to get out of it. I really enjoyed seeing you know who come back and save the day as I had wondered where he had gotten to.
Overall, I can't say I enjoyed this book...but it was interesting.
2.75 Stars (I couldn't decide between 2.5 and 3 stars so I'm compromising)
The Last Gasp tells the tale of a slowly-dying planet earth and its human occupants ignoring the obvious signs of illness. An eco-disaster is growing and become irreversible and as environmentalists crying out for the world to change, and for people to take notice, they're killed off by a corrupt government. Slowly, the air becomes poisonous, the sun grows hotter and people and animals start to mutate.
This book was a tough read and there were several times I thought I wouldn't make it through. At almost 800 pages, it's not only long with a very small font, but it's dense too and not just in scientific facts. At first I was like 'oh, no' when I began to read and I realised this wasn't going to be the thrilling survivalist novel I was expecting but I did find myself getting into the story and I did want to know the end conclusion. I can't say I loved the book though. I didn't find myself wanting to pick it up when I wasn't reading it. The science in the book isn' too hard to grasp and it's quite easily explained in most parts so the damage done to the world and the effect it's having is actually understandable - and scarily, very realistic.
There are some triggers in this for sexual assault, specifically rape. There are a few scenes in which rape is mentioned, threatened or implied, and the book fell into the trope/trap of the world falling to pieces and the menfolk thinking that meant they had a free pass to rape any women they came across. I hate that trope in such books.
I did like the end, mainly because right up to it I was despairing for the characters and I had no idea how they were going to get out of it. I really enjoyed seeing you know who come back and save the day as I had wondered where he had gotten to.
Overall, I can't say I enjoyed this book...but it was interesting.
Short and sweet! Nice for a quick read before bed and the characters all had a lovely quality to them and the story played along nicely. I was afraid of being left feeling like I wanted more but I think I'm happy enough getting what I got in this one.
Ruin and Rising is the conclusion to the Grisha trilogy that started with Shadow and Bone and continued with Siege and Storm.
Right from the get go, I'm so glad that this book didn't suffer from some of the stale nothingness that happened in Siege and Storm. I was a bit afraid that Alina and gang would be a long time in the Apparat's caves while Alina figured things out but all of that was done and dusted in the matter of the first chapter and I really loved that. There was a lot more action in this one as well, and I really liked seeing everyone in action. I also think we got to have a look at some of the other Grisha a lot closer than in Siege and Storm like Zoya, Nadia and Harsham (and Oncat). I loved the dynamic that blossomed and continued to grow in our little Grisha group and I adored the few genuine moments between some of them, like when Alina shared the dresses and the rings with Tamar, Nadia, Genya and Zoya and they all just got to be girls for a while.
Okay, so I have been very focal about all the ways I didn't like Mal in the previous two books but I have to eat my socks now and say that this book totally turned him around for me. I had a bit of a problem of how he just didn't accept Alina for all she was in the other books, and how I felt like she would have to give up her power to be with him, and that whole message (girl giving something up just to be with a guy) doesn't sit well with me, Mal definitely improved so much. He treated Alina so mucch better and respected her for who she was. He no longer seemed to punish her for something she couldn't control which is what I hated in the other books. I will always have a bit of a warped thing for the Darkling, but I get why she didn't choose Nikolai in the end. Their relationship, while sweet at times, wasn't as genuine and it always had that political gains string to it. I think Alina would have always wondered if Nikolai liked her for her, or for the power she could give him as his Queen.
There was definitely something a little bit bittersweet about the ending of this trilogy. While they won, Alina lost something huge in herself. I would love another series about Nikolai as well and how he dealt with the aftermath of what happened to him. I also just want more Nikolai all the time.
Right from the get go, I'm so glad that this book didn't suffer from some of the stale nothingness that happened in Siege and Storm. I was a bit afraid that Alina and gang would be a long time in the Apparat's caves while Alina figured things out but all of that was done and dusted in the matter of the first chapter and I really loved that. There was a lot more action in this one as well, and I really liked seeing everyone in action. I also think we got to have a look at some of the other Grisha a lot closer than in Siege and Storm like Zoya, Nadia and Harsham (and Oncat). I loved the dynamic that blossomed and continued to grow in our little Grisha group and I adored the few genuine moments between some of them, like when Alina shared the dresses and the rings with Tamar, Nadia, Genya and Zoya and they all just got to be girls for a while.
Okay, so I have been very focal about all the ways I didn't like Mal in the previous two books but I have to eat my socks now and say that this book totally turned him around for me. I had a bit of a problem of how he just didn't accept Alina for all she was in the other books, and how I felt like she would have to give up her power to be with him, and that whole message (girl giving something up just to be with a guy) doesn't sit well with me, Mal definitely improved so much. He treated Alina so mucch better and respected her for who she was. He no longer seemed to punish her for something she couldn't control which is what I hated in the other books. I will always have a bit of a warped thing for the Darkling, but I get why she didn't choose Nikolai in the end. Their relationship, while sweet at times, wasn't as genuine and it always had that political gains string to it. I think Alina would have always wondered if Nikolai liked her for her, or for the power she could give him as his Queen.
There was definitely something a little bit bittersweet about the ending of this trilogy. While they won, Alina lost something huge in herself. I would love another series about Nikolai as well and how he dealt with the aftermath of what happened to him. I also just want more Nikolai all the time.
This story is told through a monologue of a young Pakistani man talking to an American man in the marketplace of Lahore, Pakistan. The man tells the American of how he himself once lived in the US and begins to describe his life over there and all the reasons he didn't stay.
This book was interesting for its unusual way of storytelling. You really felt like the protagonist was talking directly to you, and I felt the atmosphere of the marketplace in Lahore really came through the pages. However, I really hated the protagonist. He didn't seem a particularly nice person and there were so many things he did that left me feeling a bit 'ugh'. I also didn't like his love interest Erica, and he seemed a bit possessive over her in a way that creeped me out.
The ending ultimately left me feeling a bit confused, even when I read the past paragraph over again. I'm not 100% sure what I'm supposed to think happened.
This book was interesting for its unusual way of storytelling. You really felt like the protagonist was talking directly to you, and I felt the atmosphere of the marketplace in Lahore really came through the pages. However, I really hated the protagonist. He didn't seem a particularly nice person and there were so many things he did that left me feeling a bit 'ugh'. I also didn't like his love interest Erica, and he seemed a bit possessive over her in a way that creeped me out.
The ending ultimately left me feeling a bit confused, even when I read the past paragraph over again. I'm not 100% sure what I'm supposed to think happened.
I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.
Alexandra is a bruja - a Latin American version of a witch and when she comes into her powers, her family hold a deathday celebration where her ancestors can bless her. But Alex is afraid of her powers and when she performs a special canto (spell) to reject them, she accidentally sends her entire family into the bruja version of hell and needs to go and get them back.
This was really enjoyable and full of all sorts of magic I’ve never encountered before. The history of the bruja/brujo was really seeped in legends and stories and gods and goddesses to worship. Los Lagos was full of amazing and terrifying creatures and the Devourer herself was a great villain. I enjoyed Alex’s character development and how she gradually came into her powers. I also loved her relationship with Rishi. I can’t wait to continue on with these stories and find out more about her family. I’d love the next books to focus around the POV of Lula or Rose as well as I really loved them too.
Alexandra is a bruja - a Latin American version of a witch and when she comes into her powers, her family hold a deathday celebration where her ancestors can bless her. But Alex is afraid of her powers and when she performs a special canto (spell) to reject them, she accidentally sends her entire family into the bruja version of hell and needs to go and get them back.
This was really enjoyable and full of all sorts of magic I’ve never encountered before. The history of the bruja/brujo was really seeped in legends and stories and gods and goddesses to worship. Los Lagos was full of amazing and terrifying creatures and the Devourer herself was a great villain. I enjoyed Alex’s character development and how she gradually came into her powers. I also loved her relationship with Rishi. I can’t wait to continue on with these stories and find out more about her family. I’d love the next books to focus around the POV of Lula or Rose as well as I really loved them too.