zoeelizabethk's Reviews (642)

I think I did not realize that this is a thriller. Granted I haven't read many thrillers, but this feels more like sci-fi thriller than fantasy to me. But also, I didn't feel like it was that thrilling of a thriller. There wasn't a big mystery really. There were some bigger revelations, but most of that happened early on it felt like. This was very character focused so if you like Victor and Eli I think you'll Vicious. For me, I just didn't find any of the characters super fascinating. And the focus wasn't really on the superpowers or "magic" all that much. None of these are really negatives, just good things to know. I enjoyed Vicious and I read it quickly. I think the book did what it set out to do: present a corollary to the traditional good superheroes with complex antagonists. I just didn't care enough about the characters to love Vicious and there wasn't enough else for me to love it despite the characters. 

Wow, I think I cried more reading Flamefall than I have about any other book this year at the very least. Not even at Robin Hobb's books. I loved Fireborne, but Flamefall really took it up another level. This is a very dark book and Munda does not shy away from dealing with the difficult topics the revolution, war, oppression idealism, loyalty, and different types of family bring up and the consequences of difficult, impossible choice. All that juxtaposed with the fact that these are older teenagers who are being put in impossible situations. I get that the book is technically YA, but this is a very adult YA just in terms of the themes and how much the book makes you reflect on those themes. I personally love the combination of fantasy, fiction, philosophy, and history that Munda weaves all together. But despite the almost heady topics, Munda does such a great job with her characters, and it makes it all the more heartbreaking for that. Flamefall does end on a cliffhanger, but even without the cliffhanger I would still be anxious to read the next one immediately.

How does one rate a short story, especially one that was not intended to give a ton of extra info. It's a good easter egg and adds some depth to Kelsier and Gemal, but it doesn't do a lot, and that's ok.

I have pretty mixed feelings about The Wall of Storms. Ken Liu is doing something amazing with The Dandelion Dynasty. And I like a lot of it, but some of the way that he organizes the stories really irks me. I really liked the first half of WoS, which was primarily politics, dealing with factions, and figuring out how to administer an empire. And I loved that. I think the worldbuilding really shone in this, and there were some great character moments. But then Liu shifts to a different character for several hundred pages, we introduce other parts of the world, go back in time, etc. And it all builds to an epic battle during which we learn about yet more things that have been going on in the background but that affect the battle. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of those details, but I wanted that information at a different time. For me, this book would have been better if there were alternating POVs instead of sticking with one or two people for several hundred pages. And I would have appreciated a lot of the discoveries to be built in from earlier on so that they didn't disrupt the flow later. I think this is harder to do, but I think that these two things would have helped the pacing of these books. I get that this is personal preference, but it still bugged me. All in all, a very impressive book, but to get to a five star I either have to have a bit more from the characters or a more organic structure.

I enjoyed People We Meet on Vacation and am looking forward to reading more from Emily Henry. I found the back and forth with the timelines a bit challenging. I eventually got used to it, and in the end it was effective for the story Henry was telling, but nevertheless it was not my favorite plot device because it felt like it broke up the narrative. Overall, a sweet friends/exlovers to lovers romance.

Padawan has so many of the things that I love about Star Wars Republic Era stories. 

Obi Wan, newly apprenticed to Qui-Gon Ginn, struggles with finding his purpose as a Jedi. When an opportunity comes up to leave the Jedi temple on a mission to a mysterious planet, he jumps at the chance. There he encounters what appear to Force-users, but things are not all as they seem, and Obi Wan will have to learn to trust himself and the Force.

The good: I loved the vivid settings, the variety of people Obi Wan meets, and glimpses of familiar places and characters. I thought the plot was well done, and I'm curious to see whether Padawan will have any kind of sequel because there still are some unanswered questions. 

The bad: Obi Wan spends so much time doubting himself. It really does get annoying because of how overdone it is. BUT as you go on, this improves as characters grow. It is definitely YA, almost bordering on middle grade feeling at times, but that did not prevent me from enjoying and I think the characters were well developed for the most part.

Overall, I enjoyed Padawan and would definitely recommend it for people who enjoy high republic stories and don't mind a younger feeling book.

I listened to the eAudioARC narrated by Gary Furlong, whose narration was great. The audio sounded a bit echo-y/computer-y and I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not or a side effect of listening at 2x speed. 

Thanks to Disney Audiobooks and Netgalley for an eAudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the concept of Pride and Premeditation, and Price made it fun, but I just never could get myself to believe that it was truly set in regency era. I know the author acknowledged that she took liberties, but I would have liked the book better if it were a contemporary I think and P&P was very slightly more hidden in the story.

I liked the audiobook narrated by Morag Sims.

The last 25% of Fool's Fate is one of the best conclusions to a series ever. Overall, I'm not sure that I enjoyed Fool's Fate *quite* as much as I enjoyed Golden Fool, just due to structure and plot elements, but wow the buildup and climax of Fitz and Fool's arc over the course of really all the past books is just incredible, at times tragic at times achingly hopeful. I didn't care as much about the very end wrapping up things, but I did feel like it was fitting based on the themes, even if I didn't care as much. I'll be thinking about Fool's Fate for a long time, I can tell, and I already can't wait to reread it!

I wish I had known more about Dennis Mombauer and The House of Drought before agreeing to review. I think if I'd known more I'd have known that this was not going to be for me. The House of Drought is a speculative fiction novella centered around a house that seems to be involved with strange events in the local area. I think that if you like odd speculative fiction that plays with storytelling, if you like unsettling horror, or you're a fan of The House of Leaves, there's a decent chance that you will appreciate The House of Drought.

However I'm not really into any of that. Like with House of Leaves, I can kinda appreciate what Mombauer is trying to do, but I don't enjoy it. I also found the storytelling style hard to follow. He dumps you into the story but then backs up and the story is told through almost episodic scenes from a couple different perspectives. But additionally there are several different timelines, each of which do this skip-hop-jump kind of framework. The author allows you to try to fill in the gaps to figure out what's really going on. It increases the unsettledness of the story since the story feels broken and creepy. But I mostly just found this frustrating since I didn't care about the story and didn't want to read.

All in all, I think there are probably people who are going to like this novella and appreciate it, but sadly I did not like it very much.

Thanks to Stelliform Press and Book Sirens for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ok I have my first 5 star romance book! Book Lovers was so lovely! I loved pretty much everything about this book: I loved Charlie and Nora; I loved Nora and Libby's sister bond and struggles; I loved the inverted discussion of place/home; I loved the discussion of grief and loss; and I LOVED that miscommunication was not the climax conflict of the book. Emily Henry is quickly becoming one of my favorites for her ability to write something her own and not overly relying on the standard romance tropes. She doesn't write closed door, but there's much less spicy bedroom action than in many romance nowadays which I appreciate (at least in the contemporaries that I've read - I think she does write spicier/erotic books so I don't think it's across the board). There were things that were convenient, the relationship was a little insta-lovey at least on one side for me, but overall I just really enjoyed it and appreciate what she managed with Book Lovers.