Review: The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

OK. I'm going to come at this from the angle that everyone (except Rhoda, Hestia, and Leandros' two friends) were absolutely abominable people and therefore it was a bit like watching a fantasy mystery romance with characters from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

That doesn't really make sense, but that's how I felt. Maybe the Gang could be considered Slytherins.

Alessandra and Kallias are some pretty terrible people. As the author herself said, these characters have "questionable" morals and aren't exactly heroes. However, watching these two awful people fall in love and kind of learn to be a teensy bit "better" was fun. I enjoyed the ride, and found myself rooting for Alessandra and Kallias despite the shitty things they had planned for other people. Frankly, I thought it was hilarious when (view spoiler)[Alessandra is finally accused of murdering her first boyfriend, and after sending the police away, Kallias laughs his ass off and says she's perfect for him. (hide spoiler)]

So overall this was a good read. Nothing mind-blowing, and honestly for all the talk about sex and being liberated it seriously missed the opportunity to put in a couple hot sex scenes, but I guess we can't win all the time.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. My opinions are my own.

View all my reviews

Review: The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier

The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I'm surprised I enjoyed this one so much. At the beginning of the Kindle edition is a list of names and their pronunciations, which threw me (I have no idea why but it sort of made me feel a little overwhelmed with all the different names and I knew approximately how they were pronounced anyway but there were SO MANY), and the opening few lines did not grab me at all. But I came on Goodreads to check out other reviews, and there were so many positive ones (that actually had some good info) that I decided to keep going. Good choice on my part.

The story is interesting, although not one that we haven't seen before. The main characters start off on an island where they're training to be secretive fighters who apparently also do spy duties. There is a little tension set up in the beginning between Liobhan and Dau, and a bit of apprehension on the part of Brocc, but otherwise not much is gained through such a brief look at their training.

I appreciated beyond belief that this was NOT a love story! There were no real hook-ups (outside of the ending, which made sense and I'm not going to spoil it), there was a little bit of attraction here and there but nothing overt. Instead we got an actual story free from the angsty teenage pining that tends to take over a lot of the fantasy I've read lately.

The magic was subtle and explained well. I liked how some of it was a tad bit unpredictable (although I did guess at just about all of the "twists" and was not usually wrong). The relationships between the characters were done thoughtfully, with definite character evolution throughout. I think Brocc was the most wet-noodle character, though. He just sort of goes with the flow, although that can sort of be explained by his back story which is revealed as we go along.

My favorite character though was Dau. He goes through such an emotional transformation that I was left feeling happy for him while still sad at all he had to endure to get there. He is definitely someone that I would like to read more about, maybe in book 2.

Speaking of book 2, it's already on my TBR list even though it doesn't have a title or plot yet. So I definitely recommend this book for all lovers of fantasy. Like I said, it's nothing new or revolutionary, but it is a great tale and I enjoyed reading it a lot.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

View all my reviews

Review: Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp

Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

Most of this book was pretty mediocre. Several times it seemed that things were getting sinister, supernatural, and that something really bad or interesting was going to happen. Nothing ever did. There was so much emphasis on Kyra's "psychic" abilities, and none of it was ever explained. A lot of supernatural things happened (the voices, the shadows, the garden blooming in the middle of winter, etc.), but none of it was ever accounted for. Aaron's revelation at the end was not the murderous plot I was expecting after all the junk I had to slog through. And the ending was ridiculous - Corey just flies away and decides she isn't going to bother telling Kyra's story because no one would believe her and she gave up the letters Kyra wrote but never sent, so the whole damn "adventure" was for nothing.

Also, Corey was a shitty friend.

The book was okay, so two stars. But I wouldn't recommend it, especially if you're looking for a good thriller. Thriller this was not.

View all my reviews

Review: The Witch of Painted Sorrows

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

I don't even know where to start. This book was far from perfect, but I enjoyed it a lot. I tend to give bad reviews to books that have some holes in them, but this one made up for it in the story. I was completely surprised by the ending, which probably makes me a dunce because looking back it seems like it would be obvious.

There was a lot going on in this book, and I didn't quite understand all of it. The whole side story with Dujols and his occult friends seems almost meaningless by the time the end came around. I still don't know who was willing to help Sandrine, and who only wanted to use her.

The sex scenes were completely unbelievable, but boy were they great even so. They weren't typical romance-novel frequent, but there were enough of them to get the point across. I'm glad this was more of a fantasy-occult-mystery than a romance, even though love was at the center of the story.

I do think there were parts where the story was trying too hard to be something it wasn't, but I can forgive it for the fact that it was simply very entertaining.

//ETA//

I realized reading another review I meant to mention the "sleep rape" scene towards the mid-end of the book. That reviewer is not the only one who noticed it, and the fact that people would defend it as not rape is pretty bad. If the author intended it to be a positive thing, I must seriously question her idea of rape. If Sandrine had actually woken Julien up, and he consented, then cool. But he wasn't awake, not completely, and arousal does not equal consent. End of rant.

View all my reviews

Review: Elizabeth is Missing

Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a review.]

I can't say too much about the actual story of this one without giving pretty much everything about the book away. But stylistically it was beautifully written. It grabbed my attention from the start, and as I read page after page of Maud's descent into either Dementia or Alzheimer's (it's never mentioned which one it is in the book, and I'm not sure if it was meant to be known) it broke my heart piece by piece. Maud's one focus, the repeated statement "Elizabeth is missing," leads to the story of a completely different missing person. Her first-person narrative jumbles between the past and the present. I wanted to know throughout the entire book: Where is Elizabeth? And what happened to Maud's sister? The end took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting to even enjoy the book, but I definitely loved it.

I received a Kindle Edition from NetGalley, and I believe it was before the release date. There were some typos, fairly non-impeding to my read. Mostly spacing issues and some words got stuck together. Otherwise it was done well.

View all my reviews

Review: Despair: Servant of the Fates

Despair: Servant of the Fates by Val Panesar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I was provided a free Kindle copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.]

Firstly, I must apologize to the author for taking so long to read this. My review should have been done in October, early November at the latest, but some other things came up, and reading on my phone is difficult. But I'm done, finally, and now to the review.

Despair is the first in a series of books and short stories (I have not read the short stories), and it's a good start. The book itself felt like it needed a professional editor as the sentence structure and punctuation was off in a lot of places. I had a bit of a problem with information not being offered in the beginning and then the reader is expected to know it automatically (e.g. when Aysir points out he can't use magic halfway through as if it's an obvious thing). I also didn't really understand how (view spoiler).  //Note: The author does have extensive end notes (footnotes were intended, according to the author, but didn't work with the Kindle); my personal preference is to have all this explained in-line.  I also had trouble reading them on my phone app because they kept going to the end notes, but then not back to where I was in the text, so I didn't use them that much, hence I missed a lot of the history.  I feel if end notes are needed they should be minimal at most.//

The battle scenes were hard to visualize, I ended up just picturing people Final-Fantasy-style hacking at each other. Speaking of Final Fantasy, it felt like the characters took a completely unnatural amount of damage and still didn't die, and those who did die had relatively minor wounds in the grand scheme of things.

What I DID like was the storyline. I appreciated that it was part mystery, part fantasy. Who was killing all the people? What was going on in the mist? Why were the royals so against finding out what it was? Some of this was answered, some of it wasn't. The ending was interesting, albeit a little confusing, because there was something "revealed" about Arabella that didn't seem to fit with her actions, and didn't explain much either.

Overall it's an interesting concept, and I appreciate the opportunity to read and provide a review. My thanks to the author, and my apologies as well for taking so long.

View all my reviews

Review: The Forbidden Book

The Forbidden Book by Joscelyn Godwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the Goodreads Giveaway]

Overall, this book was just "okay" for me, but since it wasn't bad I didn't want to just give it two stars, so that's why it gets three.

Minor spoilers after this point.

I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, but felt that it was trying to go in three different directions, none of which matched up quite as well as it seems the authors had wanted. It's one part mystery - who killed Angela and kidnapped Orsina? - one part mysticism - the Baron's magical powers and those he is trying to pass to Orsina - and one part, well, just plain weird - the Baron's influence over his "students" in getting them to blow up monuments to make it look like the Muslims are behind it. I understand where the authors were trying to go with that last bit, but I really don't think they arrived.

Inspector Ghedina is a fool of a character, Orsina's weak, as is Angela, and Leo is the only one worth much of anything in the grand scheme of things.

The sexual aspect was... well, gross. Again, I get where the authors were going, and I see its relevance to the story, but it kind of grossed me out. Plus the fact that Orsina just (view spoiler)[glosses over her attempted rape and says she'll have to figure out how to live with it, then moves on to something else (hide spoiler)] kind of makes me feel like she's vapid and shallow, with no real emotions to speak of other than her love for Leo.

I guess if you were a fan of The DaVinci Code and other such nonsense, this book might appeal to you. I didn't mind it, it wasn't offensive, I just didn't really find it compelling. And there was so much Italian in it that even with translations it was distracting.

View all my reviews