wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

It's 1260, Persia, as Hulagu Khan continues to ensure the legacy of his grandfather and continue the expansion of the Mongol Empire. In violence, Hulagu conquers Persia crushing local leaders and brave warriors. Kaivon, a Persian general, hates Hulagu but realises the best way pf getting revenge is to infiltrate the Khan's inner circle and destroy it from the inside out while the Khan's new wife Kokochin discovers her own method of rebellion within a secret organisation of female assassins. And closer to home, Hulagu's son Temujin struggles to meet his father's expectations but then discovers a magical gift that could change everything.

This is a book that tries to unpack a lot of history, and tell it in a fast-paced, informative way and I think in many ways it does it really well. The Mongol Empire is a very fascinating, and violent time in human history and I think to try and explain it all in one book is an impossible feat. But this look at the grandsons of the original Genghis Khan, and what his legacy meant for them and the mere ferioucness of the Mongol warriors was enlightening in itself.

I think for me, for some reason I can't quite pinpoint, there was just something missing in this book. And seeing all the other 5-star reviews out there, I'm thinking it must be a me problem rather than the book itself. When it comes to historic fantasy, I'm prepared to take it slow and really fall into the world I'm reading from the history to the characters and that didn't quite happen for me with this one. I think I didn't get on with the pacing of this book, the jumping around of characters and everything felt a little rushed and too easy at times. I would have liked a lot more detail about many things from the travels between cities for Kaivon and the Mongol troops, to Kokochin's training with Layla (and their relationship that went from 0-100 in the space of a sentence). I wanted to really get to know the characters and I really feel like I didn't have the time to appreciate them and who they really were and what drove them (other than revenge and hatred for Hulagu).

I actually think I would have preferred if this book slowed all the way down and only followed Kaivon and Kokochin as people attempting to take down Hulagu and the Ilkhanate from the inside. I actually feel, for me, Temujin's story took away from the interesting chapters that were Kaivon and Kokochin and the magical element in this story left me slightly confused as well (though I know it's historical fantasy so it would be removing the fantasy element but I'm okay with that).

Hulagu's chapters actually felt obsolete because everything we learned about him/from him we could have learned from Kaivon and it would be more fun seeing him from Kaivon and Kokochin's perspective only.

I found this to be easy reading though - and the paperback I had was lovely and floppy which made the reading experience more enjoyable. I still liked this book, and enjoyed my reading experience - I was just disappointed that I didn't get more out of it like I wanted to.

12-year-old Clodagh is delighted when she wakes up one morning and a friendly pony has appeared in the field beside her home. As she gets to know Ozzie, and begins to fall in love with him, disaster strikes and Ozzie is sold to the local riding school - that doesn't have a good reputation on how it treats horses. Clodagh needs to come up with a plan to save Ozzie, and do it fast.

This was a very sweet book that called out to the 12-year-old pony mad little girl i used to be (and low key still am, won't lie). Obviously I'm not the target audience for this book but I still really enjoyed it - it's simple but heartwarming and follows a little girl determined to save the pony she loves.

I wasn't mad about the trope that appeared in this book (and has appeared in other horse books) that people from a more privileged background do horse-riding just for the sake of it and don't really like horses at all which I have always hated and in my own experience, I've found that anyone who does horse-riding as a child is either born into a horsey family or is obsessed with horses. So I hate when that trope shows up in a book.

I also thought it odd that Clodagh's parents didn't really help her when it came to her plan with Ozzie - her mam was clearly a nice person, and they didn't stop her plan to buy Ozzie but it felt very realistic that a 12-year-old with an after school job could save up enough money to buy a horse (so why encourage it?) but I guess it's also realistic that a horse would only be £400.

I liked this a lot(though it was a bit short) and I'm looking forward to continuing with the series.

When her gambling but brilliant father can't follow through on work he owns billionaire Lorcan Garbhan, Alainn Murphy ends up disguising herself as an AI robot to serve as Lorcan's own companion as he locks himself away in a tower from the rest of the world, with only robot servants as company. But as Alainn gets to know Lorcan, she realises she's not the monster she always believed him to be.

This is a slightly sci-fi esque retelling of Beauty and the Beast if it's not already obvious and think there are parts of this that worked really well. Lorcan's backstory with his germaphobic parents being the reason he doesn't leave his tower was interesting, though I do believe we could have had just that and not had him also reviled because of his scars. I would have liked Lorcan's germaphobia to have been resolved or at least some positive steps taken by the end of the book as it's clear he's been a victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

The romance in this was sweet but I would have liked more to have been developed between Alainn and Lorcan other than it just feeling like they fell for each other simply because it was just the two of them in the tower. I also wasn't §00% on Lorcan's relationship with Shelby - he dumped her fairly quickly for a robot, and that's just plain weird.

The world building was fairly poor in this book and I couldn't figure out how there were such superb AIs and a world of automatons yet the bus service was poor, and Alainn and her family were living on scraps (yes their dad was a gambler but Alainn and Colby were full grown adults). I would have liked to know more about the rest of the city and how robots helped run it and the lives of ordinary people -not just the downtrodden like the Murphy's or ultra rich like Lorcan.

The pacing in this book also felt a bit off. I did enjoy the first half of the book but then the second half was a bit clunky, and I think it was a bit too long and dragged out (we honestly didn't need any of the Rose court scenes, and I could have done without the surprise twin pregnancy reveal too).

When Athena Liu dies in front of her, June Hayward is obviously devastated over her friend's death but doesn't tell anyone that right before she choked to death, June read the first few pages of Athena's manuscript - a story no-one else in the world has read or even knows about. Now June has Athena's novel with her, and with a few changes, she passes it on her own and becomes an instant bestseller - but then the critics come in, those that wonder about the similarities between 'Juniper Song's' book and previous work from Athena as well as the rightful critics of a white woman writing about Chinese history.

This was very readable, and I don't know if enjoyable is the right word because there were times I felt deeply uncomfortable with June's behaviour and some of the things she said, as well as highly embarrassed or anxious about everything was going to turn out. But I think if you didn't feel these things (especially as a white woman) you probably weren't getting the message of the book even though it's very clear.

As someone who has been reading books her entire life, and active in the book reviewing community for ten years, I did enjoy seeing the parts of the publishing industry that you don't get unless you work in the industry or you're an author.

June Hayward is not a likable character, and she's also quite an unreliable one and it does make the story quite fun as we really hope she does get caught out yet seemingly again and again, she gets away with it - and uses her white woman tears to full advantage. I also appreciated how RF Kuang explored how no matter what you do, or what you write (though let's be clear here, what June did was VERY wrong), you aren't going to please everyone and there will always be someone who will have a criticism somewhere as we see when some of the Athena haters come out even within the Asian-American community.

This is actually the first RG Kuang book I've read though her fantasy books have been on my TBR for ages and this is the final push I need to finally give them a go as the writing in this was sharp, entertaining and really compelling. 

This is an interesting one for me as I think the first half is about a 3 stars for me, and the second half is a 4 stars. If you are at all interesting in film making or movie producing, this book, while fiction, may be the perfect book as once the movie gets going, the book really takes off!

This book follows the journey of several people involved in the making of a motion picture about a young superhero called Eve Knight, and anti-hero character Firefall. The journey starts with the inspiration and the creator of the original Firefall character, moving onto director Bill Johnson years later and his producers as they try and make the movie of Nightshade happen and all those that make an amazing motion picture come to life from the big name actors to the runners, production assistants and make-up artists,

This is a chunky book, and there were times it felt long. I thought the first half of the book slightly lagged on pacing as Tom Hanks really wants everyone to know everything about the characters, and I mean everything. At times, we were just short of knowing the timings about their bowel movements. So for a while, I feared I wasn't going to like this book and I didn't want to do that to Tom Hanks! But as the movie began to take shape from the location to the set design and casting, the story picked up and things got really exciting. I was actually sad that this movie doesn't exist in real life - albeit, it was basically another Marvel movie (or Agents of Change movie in this fictional world) but it sounded good!

Obviously Tom Hanks has worked in movies for a long time so he was able to really show off this knowledge in this book but also I think his general love and appreciation for the business and everyone in it. The book shows how it's not the big name star in the title role that makes the movie but it's the combined effort of everyone on set from the big names to the local runner who makes everyone's day a bit easier by knowing where to get the good coffee and food. And also how the person with the ego who shows up on set, disagrees with the boss and isn't a team player can wreck the entire thing (would love to know if Okay-B was inspired by anyone).

I listened to this book on audio and it was narrated by Tom Hanks (which was lovely) but also had a full cast for other characters including Rita Wilson, January LaVoy and Holland Taylor. So it was a very well done audiobook with some sound effects and some money put behind it to make it really good.

The ending of this actually had me a little emotional which I was surprised at! 

A truly beautiful, at times devastating book about a woman's realization of her own self worth, and her journey to escape an abusive history and face the truth of her childhood - and adulthood- of abusive relationships.

“And what is love? I human, I have feelings. I with the man. Of course I love him. Yet, the way he love me does make me hate myself.”

This book tells the story of Alethea, an almost 40-year-old woman living in Trinidad and daily having to hide the marks her common law husband gives her every night. As we get to know Alethea - her intelligence, her independence and her childhood, the reader begins to understand the reasons why Alethea 'allows' herself to be trapped inside an abusive relationship. But when a woman is shot dead by a man in a 'domestic incident' outside the shop she works in, Allie can't help but see herself in the victim, and the potential of something just as deadly happening to her.

This book is addictive as you grasp onto Allie's story and all the hardships she's dealt with in life and you just root for her to stand up for herself and somehow get away from Leo and make things better for herself. It was lovely seeing Allie reconnect with her cousin/brother Colin, and her childhood friend Jankie and I enjoyed the emphasis on female friendship and support and kindness from others.

There are some really hard moments in this book - not only the constant abuse and fear Allie feels around Leo but also as we learn from her childhood, the sexual abuse she received from her uncle from the age of 5, as well as the daily physical and emotional abuse of her mother. And from there, the stream of men Allie found herself with that treated her the same, so she really knows nothing but abusive relationships and men who will put her down - physically and emotionally.

There were some interesting topics in this book as well around race and colourism. Allie is a white woman though we soon learn her grandmother was a Black woman - and Colin is a Black man. Allie details ways in which she has noticed she has been treated differently to Colin due to their skin tones.

Really enjoyed this though as I've said it was a hard read at times. Allie's story is tough, educational yet inspiring. 

Agnes Green is 21 years old and believes herself to be stuck in the downtrodden town she lives in with her religious mother and younger sister, cleaning houses for a living. When the daughter of a client, Emily, takes an interest in Agnes and introduces her to the world of 'Sugar Babies', Agnes moves to London and begins a glamorous lifestyle beyond her wildest imaginations.

This was a really enjoyable read that I flew through in under 2 days. Agnes as a main character is refreshing and someone you want to see get the best in life - we follow her as she deals with the religious trauma she feels growing up under a 'fire and brimstone' religious mother, and a childhood that equated sex and sensuality with hell. During Sugar, Baby, Agnes steps into her role as a beautiful woman and for the first time in her life, takes back the power she always felt beyond her grasp and owns herself as a woman who can make men fall to her knees - and while she still struggles, she stops being so ashamed of her sexuality and her enjoyment of carnal pleasure.

It seemed absurd not to make the most of its potential for pleasure when the pain came guaranteed

Agnes is also a woman of colour, and we see her experience is a bit different to that of her sugar baby friends, not only due to her skin colour but also her working class background - she doesn't have a rich family she can fall back on, and can't take off to family holiday homes when it all gets too much. It's not just a bit of fun to Agnes, but the only means she has to make a living.

I also enjoyed that while some alarming things did happen to Agnes, nothing happened that really hurt her or was against her own wishes (there could be a discussion about this in terms of Gloria's money/the Miami party but I think we still see Agnes 'in control' of the sexual interactions she had during that. Not to say that, as Agnes says herself, there might be delayed trauma response to it all). We see Agnes play at her Sugar Baby lifestyle, really give it a go, have a good fun with it as she says to Jess, and then decide if she wants to keep at it.

This book is fresh, sexy and fun with a touch of risque and glamour that makes it different and enjoyable.