Book Review: House of Salt and Sorrows

House of Salt and Sorrows
Erin A. Craig
4/5

I really love books that take fairy tales and give them a unique twist. But more than that, I like books that take fairy tales that aren't as mainstream as a lot of the latest rewrites. House of Salt and Sorrows takes the Twelve Dancing Princesses and gives it a paranormal/mythological twist, and it's creepy. It's the kind of the book that makes you question everything you're reading because you're losing track of what's real.

Annaleigh is a pretty good main character- for the most part. She's nice, but she's also prone to outbursts like anyone would be in her situation. She doesn't let people get away with things but she isn't cruel, it works in her favor in the end to have a reasonable amount of doubt and paranoia. Her sisters mostly annoyed me, I did appreciate their relationships with each other, which is what annoyed me about the ending. I don't think that sisters brought together through tragedy and turmoil would turn against each other so fast, I wanted them to be more reliant on each other and their bonds.

The romance was the most annoying part of Annaleigh's arc. It was too insta-love for me, especially considering the ending and not knowing which parts of him were real and which parts were fabricated. Then the ending was super obligatory, the death and the return just felt pointless. The ending was my least favorite part, not bad enough to ruin the whole book, but still lackluster compared to how great everything else was.

This is fairy tales, ghosts, and mythology in a combination that you've never seen before. It has a lot going on but it's done so beautifully I would totally recommend.

Book Review: Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)

Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo
5/5

I read Shadow and Bone, part of the series which precedes this series chronologically in the same universe, and everyone told me that it wasn't worth reading because Six of Crows is so much better. I was like you know, it's not a bad book series so I don't know why everyone's upset. But then I read SOC and I was like wow, this is so much better. I'm not usually a fan of more than two POVs, but I could get behind it here, like everything that was happening was pretty interesting. Obviously I have my favorite characters, but I wasn't totally dying during the other character's chapters.

SOC is about a heist, Kaz Brekker puts together a squad of talented people in order to kidnap a scientist responsible for creating a superdrug that makes the Grisha go crazy. It's considered an impossible task, but Kaz's entire life has been considered an impossible task. I've read books with the underdog plot, literally all the books I read have the underdog plot, and there's a tendency for the group to be too good at what they do. If the underdog is just getting everything right, I don't want to read about them it feels too fake. Bardugo wrote a masterful underdog story, people who have had numerous tragedies in their lives but have risen above them. They are stronger than they were but they're also not infallible, they make mistakes and they own up to their mistakes.

Kaz Brekker especially, I feel like he's the favorite for everyone who I've seen reading this series. He's morally gray, not a great guy, but he's also not hopeless. He's someone who had to grow up and who has faced horrible situations and toughened himself to deal with them. I love his tragic backstory and his cleverness, but I also love how he isn't inhuman, things effect him and hurt him. Same with Inej, her life is so sad and everything has been so hard, but she is still such a great person. When I read books about hardened characters, people turned to assassins cause of circumstance like TOG, I need to see redeeming qualities in the character. I need to see their humanity but also feel their brutality, Inej is just the perfect blend of that.

I would recommend this series, and I honestly don't even want to finish the Shadow and Bone Trilogy now. I don't know what happened to Leigh Bardugo that had her shift from such a basic storyline and stagnant characters to such a diverse group, but like shoutout to her because I love it.

Book Review: Technically, You Started It

Technically, You Started It
Lana Wood Johnson
2/5

Someone recommended me this book, as like a light read for the bus or something. The premise is that Haley gets a text from Martin Nathaniel Munroe II and doesn't know who he is, she knows him and his cousin but they coincidentally have the same name and she thinks she's texting the one that she likes. I thought they would like be less involved in each other's lives, Another Cinderella Story type thing, but no they see each other and Martin knows that she doesn't know who he is but he just keeps going.

The format of this book irritated me a lot. That's a little on me, I probably should have DNFed, but I wanted to see how they ended up together. This whole book is via text messages, and not even in a way that's like convenient to follow, I was constantly forgetting who was talking because the only distinguishing factor between the two characters was the shade of gray of the text bubble. I had a straight headache from it all, and I was expecting it to be an easy read so my review is really biased on that point.

I don't know, wouldn't really recommend to anyone. The ending wasn't even great, I'm expecting a certain cliche cheesiness to my meet-cute romances and this one just fell flat. It was a funny premise, but not something I felt was good for a months-long relationship.

Book Review: Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1)

Scythe
Neil Shusterman
3/5

In the Scythe universe, no one dies, they have cured all disease, there is no war, there is no crime. Because of this basic immortality, there's the potential for serious population problems so certain individuals have been chosen as scythes. These scythes have absolute authority on gleanings, where they get to choose people to die based on supposed statistics from the Age of Mortality.

The premise had the potential to be like really amazing, but I might just not be into dystopian right now, the market just feels so oversaturated and tired. I just couldn't get on board with the idea that they would allow these deaths to be so brutal. Like why wouldn't you give them all pills? I don't see how society would allow that absolute authority. Maybe I'm over-analyzing the premise, but like this kind of thing could never really fly.

Even aside from it being non-realistic, the characters weren't really anything I could get behind. The POVs were switching with no real rhyme or reason and I just felt as though Citra and Rowan were very distant. I liked Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie, they were both characters whom I could believe had been doing this for over a hundred years.

Again, I liked the premise. I think it's a fairly good dystopian, but I am also a little lost on all the hype for it. It also could be that I'm biased against the genre at this point, but I just don't think the writing was super interesting. If you prefer your characters to be more distant, then this is a great book for you, I'm just way more involved.

Book Review: Shadow and Bone (Shadow and Bones #1)

Shadow and Bone
Leigh Bardugo
3/5

So I've finally done it, successfully finished a book in the Grishaverse. I've never been against this universe, it's just never worked out for me. Shadow and Bone gives us our first look into the world of the Grisha, humans with a variety of magical powers. The government picks them off early, lets them live in the lap of luxury and basically brainwashes them into service. Alina was able to shield herself from her childhood testing and preserve the simplicity of her youth. This changes when she discovers her powers saving herself and her childhood bestie, Mal, from an evil creature in the Fold. From then on, she becomes a pawn in the game of the Darkling.

I don't mind this book, so many people told me to skip it and go straight for SOC, but I think it definitely has its merits. I would like to say I'm currently missing how the Darkling is the most powerful person, or why being a Sun Summoner is so amazing. It's like, she generates a little heat and a lot of light, it's cool but it doesn't strike me as something that changes the world. I know it has more to do with the context of the Fold, but I really just did not understand the big deal with it all.

There were also some historical elements that I was confused with. Like, it felt like Russia but there were also a bunch of weird things that took away from it. More of an awkward hybrid of Russian culture, which I guess could be it considering this is a fantasy universe. It's just weird that so many elements were taken from one culture without actually owning up to the fact that these elements were coming from that country. I'm not angry about it, I'm just confused and feeling like I missed some major foundation elements of the universe.

I'm going to read SOC before I finish this trilogy, so I'll probably weigh on the debate as to whether or not it's worth reading. At this point, I think I'd recommend it because it's still a fun girl-discovers-her-powers thing, just kind of cliche and forgettable. Also, I hate the Darkling a lot and I hope he dies that's all thanks.

Book Review: Immortal Reign (Falling Kingdoms #6)

Immortal Reign
4/5
Morgan Rhodes

At this point I'm pretty sure I was only in the series for Cleo and Magnus. The other characters were like eh for me, I respected Jonah but he's literally so bad at everything he does. Lucia is a serial killer and I don't trust her, don't think she really did much to redeem herself. Amara was my least favorite of all, I really hate that she got her redemption arc, she didn't deserve that.

Like I said in my last review, Morgan Rhodes has really grown as a writer and I really appreciate what she was doing here. There were some plot twists, I hadn't expected the whole Kindred possession thing, I hadn't expected Magnus to get buried alive and have to make his way back, there were somethings that really made the series special. But again, I was just here to see where Cleo and Magnus went. Their storyline wasn't all that special, it was just something that I could really get behind. Their reunion and subsequent interactions in this book just got me.

I'm not sure if this is really a four-star book, maybe I'm biased because I read all the other books in the series and I motivated myself to get to the end so like I feel like I had to like it all to a certain extent. If you get past the first two books, I really recommend finishing the series. It can get dull at times, but the magic doesn't really culminate until the sixth book. It's not earth-shattering, but it definitely has it's moments.

Book Review: Crystal Storm (Falling Kingdoms #5)

Crystal Storm
4/5
Morgan Rhodes

I'm writing this review after finishing the next book in the series, I hate doing that but like I just forgot to write it all out. This is the fifth book in the Falling Kingdoms series, so if you've gotten this far I think it's safe to say you're kind of invested in the characters. Morgan Rhodes writing gets better every book, I think this series really helped her to grow.

There were some plot things that made no sense. Like Lucia and Lyssa and Jonah is just a very weird plot line and felt very rushed here. There were a lot of gaps in the storyline covered by blackouts and thunderstorms that just made no sense. I don't know if I would honestly even be invested in finishing the series if it hadn't been for Cleo and Magnus's story. I don't know if I want to support Magnus or not, their relationship is very back and forth and everything about this book stressed me out. But as characters they both grew an amazing amount so I'm really here for it.

Would recommend this book series just because it gets so much better as you go. If you like books where you have no idea where the characters will end up, this is the one for you.

Book Review: Dance of Thieves (Dance of Thieves #1)

Dance of Thieves
Mary E. Pearson
4/5

When I started this book I didn't think that I would like it. It felt choppy to me, the POVs kept switching off and it was mixed with flashbacks that just made everything confusing. It got a lot better though, the characters really won me over.  Kazi is young, but she has already earned her place as one of the new queen's most trusted guards. She is a little impulsive though, and she is sent on a mission to find a fugitive and redeem herself from a past mistake. Jase is a new leader, his father has just passed away and he's the patriarch of a very large family and quasi-kingdom. Both characters know that they have their own secrets and people to represent, but they can't help it when they start building a relationship with one another.

I like Kazi's story. I like characters who work their way back from nothing, and Kazi certainly has a success story on that front. She was a street rat and now she's a royal guard, she pretends to be strong but some parts of her past are still tormenting her. I appreciate her as a character because she's so good at fighting and sneaking around, yet she still has moments of vulnerability and moments when she fails. She has trained tirelessly for her position but also she's only human.

Jase is great because he's a complete foil to how Kazi was raised. A large family, pretty wealthy, the ability to make his own choices. Though he also has had to deal with tragedy, and he's also struggling to make his way in the world. I think one of my major problems with this book was how it's marketed, describing both Kazi and Jase as thieves and like sneaky people?  I don't think there was that much treachery or sneaking involved, they were both just trying to represent their own interests. They didn't even do it very well a lot of the time, secrets by them weren't very well kept. I appreciate the idea, but it wasn't as sneaky as I'd like a book all about thieves to be. I need more of the shadow thing, more spying and just more stealth.

I would recommend this book- it's a little more heavy on the romance element than it is on the fantasy. I never finished the Remnant Chronicles, so you can definitely read it without reading that. Overall, it's had a lot of hype and I can see why people like it.

Book Review: They Unhoneymooners

The Unhoneymooners
Christina Lauren
3/5

This book was cute. It was awkward, uncomfortable, amazingly cliche, but also a fun and enjoyable read. When Olive's twin sister and the entirety of her wedding party gets sick, only Olive and her new brother-in-law's brother make it out unscathed. Olive doesn't like Ethan though, and Ethan doesn't like Olive, but they aren't about to let this all-expenses-paid vacation go to waste. It's like your dream rom-com, but it goes a little past the honeymoon so you get a dose of them dealing with the real world too.

Books like these go by so fast for me, I literally blow through them because they're just so easy to read. I think I read this one in like two hours last night, it really was just that fast. If you've read the synopsis, I don't think you go into it expecting anything more than it is, you want a cute romance with relatable protagonists and that's exactly what you get.

For a protagonist advertised as awkward and unlucky though, Olive didn't really strike me as awkward and unlucky. I swear, she said that she was curvy and bragged about her boobs like a thousand times and then like tried to use it as something to complain about too? I don't like when authors use the whole I'm quirky thing so liberally, and there was just too much of that here for me to really give it anything higher than three stars. I didn't dislike Olive, she was really a pretty nice and relatable person for a lot of it, she just had way too many of those moments where I was just incredibly annoyed with how she was written.

I was on the wait-list for this book forever because it was just so popular on the library app. I don't think I was really disappointed, it's pretty much exactly what it's advertised to be and that's just what I was looking for. Would recommend for people who love that awkward relationship with all that realistic animosity, and for everyone who wants a fun little read.

Book Review: Beyond a Darkened Shore

Beyond a Darkened Shore
Jessica Leake
4/5

Beyond a Darkened Shore is a fantasy romance with a bunch of historical elements. It's set in a changing world, a blend of Celtic and Nordic legends that creates a really beautiful atmosphere. It's advertised as an enemies-to-lovers trope, and while they are enemies who do fall in love, I never really felt and true animosity between them.

It's a pretty cliche plot base, but Jessica Leake really wowed me with her plot-twists and how deeply she understood and utilized the very different cultures. Ciara has powers that terrify and alienate her family, but she hasn't lost her faith in her kingdom. She's a great heroine because she is dedicated yet adaptable. Leif is a very supportive character, he didn't shine much for me aside from how great he was for Ciara. That's not always a bad thing, but I would've appreciate if his personality had been fleshed out a bit more.

I think that there might have also been a little too much to the story, it dragged a little at parts and then the actual battles felt a little clunky. Also with Ciara's powers, they kept saying she hadn't unlocked them yet but it felt like her glow-up wasn't much of a step-up from what she had always done. It would have been more interesting if we could have seen a different utilization of these powers. I don't know her almighty godliness fizzled out a bit for me.

I really love the universe, I read Jessica Leake's other book in this universe, Through the White Wood, first and I think that I liked this one more. I would totally recommend it to people who love history and love a good cliche but heartwarming romance.

Book Review: Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell
4/5

This book is so wholesome. I went in on a recommendation and I was a little skeptical because I don't really like reading books about high schoolers, but it's set in 1986 so it also doesn't make me feel that old. Eleanor is the new girl, she's awkward and she comes from a not-so-great household, everyone around her seems to be against her. Until the boy who gave her the empty seat next to him on the bus, Park, starts talking to her and they embark on their romance.

WHOLESOME, like it wasn't too much for me, it was just so cute. They're both so awkward and the world seems like it's constantly against them- Park being the only Asian in a small town and Eleanor being new, kind of plus-sized, and eccentric along with her horrible stepfather. I was so nervous the whole book, I hate it when books start off by basically saying that the two protagonists are going to be ripped apart. I spent the whole last hundred pages on the edge of my seat waiting for some heinous murder or something.

I was a little let-down by the ending, that's the only reason that I gave it four stars and not five. Like, the whole book was spent saying that the two were growing into each other, learning how to be the people they really wanted to be. Then the end? Lackluster, rushed, and just sad for me. It's a personal thing to not really like open-endings like that, it just feels like the author is being lazy and not giving us the closure we need. But I could understand it more here, since the whole story is being advertised as something nostalgic and stuck in the past, we don't get to see where they end up in the future. I would have liked it more if there wasn't that weird like one year time jump? Like that huge clump of events before the last sentence of the book. A little bit of a let-down, but didn't make the entire book horrible for me.

I would one hundred percent recommend this if you're into cutesy romances. It's a short read but a lot goes on, and it's pretty realistic to the way that high school works. I was like screaming the whole time. It won't change your life, but it'll definitely be a nice, wholesome and fun read.

Book Review: Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms #4)

Frozen Tides
Morgan Rhodes
4/5

By the time I've invested enough effort to get through four books in a series, I'm obviously there for certain aspects. Honestly, I'm just super here for Cleo and Magnus. Makes me feel guilty because Magnus has been not nice, but like I love a good redemption arc. This book got the most stars out of any of the other books in the series because like we finally got the culmination of Cleo and Magnus's slow-burn enemies-to-lovers type thing and I am absolutely living for it.

There are obvious plot things that don't make sense about the series. The writing is still kind of eh for me, much better than the first one, but there are still sentences that feel a little choppy and incorrect. One of my friends pushed me to read the series, and whenever anyone recommends anything to me I have to read it cause if you like it enough to push it on other people there has to be good elements of it. It's Morgan Rhodes' first series so I'm just really happy to see the way she's growing as an author, it's been a great transition.

Honestly, Morgan Rhodes has absolutely no qualms with killing side characters. We've lost some brave fighters along the road. That's probably the main way that this series is similar to GoT- we have these main characters that survive basically anything and then then constant death of the side characters. I don't typically like that, it feels like using people to progress the plot in a cliche way (Theon in the first book was the worst of that) but I'll tolerate it here because some of the deaths have just shocked me.

I don't like some of the characters, Lucia is honestly killing me at this point, but the multiple POV thing isn't the worst. I'm looking forward to the last two books of this series cause, like I said, Magnus and Cleo have finally culminated, and the writing is only getting better as we go.

Book Review: Night Latch (The Locksmith #1)

Night Latch
Anela Deen
4/5

Night Latch is an urban fantasy following the life of Sam Alvarez, a small town locksmith with the secret ability to open any lock. His abilities put him on death's radar- like not death but Death who's actually a young (kind of) woman who goes by Alice. You've read those cringy paranormals where death is super attractive snarky dude, get ready for a twist on that along with a cool magical plotline that you haven't seen before.

I liked how Night Latch wasn't as unrealistic as those, it didn't have the same degree of forced humor that I feel like these paranormal-type books think are so funny. I liked the magic because I think it's a cool skill that could definitely go under the radar, but be super helpful. I think Sam's transition into the supernatural was also a lot better than many of the ones I've seen, he questions things and all but he's not the cliche type to reject the "impossible" even though it's right in front of his face. He's a pretty likable hero, relatable with a nice small-town-guy-vibe.

I didn't like some of the pacing choices, the whole magic box plot divergence felt kind of random to me. It's like this additional character, Nick, was thrown in and suddenly relevant like he'd been mentioned previously. It felt a little strange, but I also appreciated the magic of the box because it was so funny. I liked Moreau as a character, more of him would be super appreciated cause he also was weirdly phased out. The side characters deserve a little more focus or development or I can't really recognize them as intrinsic. Looking forward to the sequel to see where it all goes.

I received an ARC of this book via Anela Deen in an exchange for an honest review! My honest opinion is that more people should be into Anela Deen's writing, this is the second book I've read by her and I think that she has a diverse skill-set and genre-expertise. Can't wait to see how this duology ends.

Book Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1)

Stalking Jack the Ripper
Kerri Maniscalco
3/5

Stalking Jack the Ripper is a young adult historical fiction written about Audrey Rose, a girl defying societal conventions in order to do forensic research with her uncle. Unfortunately, it's in a time period packed with gore as Jack the Ripper has just started prowling the streets of London. Because it's fairly locked in YA, I don't feel like it gets all that deep into the issues. There are attempts at it, but I still think it's fair to call it YA.

I don't know with this one. I love historical fiction, Jack the Ripper books are usually interesting and I love a good female detective. But Audrey Rose, I swear she said she was "quirky" or "different" at least a thousand times and I was getting a little annoyed by it. It just felt like a poor imitation of The Anatomist's Wife, like the author was trying way too hard to make her edgy and create conflict in random places. A lot of the book was me just trying to get through all of those horrible references to how alternative she was and it ruined many of the elements.

The relationship was ok, I felt like it wasn't as genuine as it could have been. It wasn't insta-love, but I also feel like they didn't talk that much before she was sooo in love with him and I didn't like that. It's like the plot, I wasn't in love with it but also it wasn't a bad read. It was just kind of average on my scale of things.

This series is popular so I was kind of excited, but also it's endorsed by James Patterson and I've never liked him. I'll probably read the next one just to see if it picks up, but right now I'd probably just rank it as likable but not life-changing, a simple kind of read.