Book Review: Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1)

Soulless

Gail Carriger

2/5

It almost made three stars, but the more I thought about it the more problems I had. Based on description and concept alone, this is a pretty interesting read. Vampires and werewolves in regency era London. Those who can be converted to vampire or werewolf are changed based on the strength of their soul, their polar opposites being the preternatural "soulless". Our heroine is soulless, while in contact with a werewolf, vampire, or ghost, she converts them back to their human form.

There was a lot of conflicting themes which made it difficult for me to appreciate anything in particular. It was a romance, but the romance felt diluted by the plot, the two didn't work together very cohesively and it felt abrupt. I know that there's a prequel which I didn't know about when starting the book, and while it wasn't essential, it would have probably filled in a few of my gaps in understanding.

I didn't like the perspective switches. It wasn't well-defined and I often couldn't tell whose perspective was being given. I appreciate hearing from multiple sides, but I would have preferred definitively knowing when I was in someone else's head. There were a few word choices that also confused me, I didn't know if it was just an attempt at trying to simplify the flow of regency speech, it just didn't feel right all of the time for me.

It wasn't a bad read, I finished it and liked it at points. There was just too much going on and I couldn't tell where the narration was coming from- I thought it was a standalone until I saw that it was a whole series. It's an interesting concept with questionable execution.

Book Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Suzanne Collins

5/5

This is going to be my entirely spoiler-free review because I know a lot of people don't have three sisters pressuring them to read the book as quickly as possible. I didn't have super high expectations going into this because I hate President Snow and I don't usually care for prequels- especially posthumous redemption arcs. I was pleasantly surprised by this one though because I loved it! It had everything that made me love the series as a middle schooler but was able to retain my interest an entire decade later. I don't find many series that can do that, I certainly didn't feel that way about any Harry Potter add-ons. So if you're on the fence about reading this because you don't want to taint the memory I strongly recommend reading it!

Unlike other prequels that come out after the originals, I wouldn't recommend reading this before the main trilogy. It was almost like a treasure hunt connecting all of the dots. The actual games were nearly unrecognizable from the glamor that we grew accustomed to in the originals. Yet they provide such great exposition and background that I never knew I needed. It's been a while since I did a re-read of the originals, but everything seemed to fit so well without any glaring continuity issues. Writing from the future seems to create a lot of those in other series, this one is just an all-around great addition though.

Suzanne Collins did an amazing job of balancing good and evil. I don't think that I was ever free of my hatred for Snow, but I learned more about him and was able to support a few of his earlier decisions. His eventual arc towards President Snow made complete sense and his opposition towards Katniss further clarified. The whole time, I couldn't believe the connections between their stories. I know it was designed that way but it was done so seamlessly that you can't help but forget that.

I'll definitely be recommending this to all of my friends- there's no reason not to read it! It's a little on the long side of things but honestly it goes so fast you don't even realize it. I'm usually against authors stretching things out indefinitely, this made me reconsider that. If Suzanne Collins can so seamlessly blend the story lines of separate stories then I want a Haymitch story too, and a Finnick one and an Annie one and just like all the characters keep them coming!

Book Review: Murder in Chinatown (Gaslight Mystery #9)

Murder in Chinatown

4/5

Victoria Thompson

I didn't know if I would get this far into this series because I've been having a problem lately with keeping up with longer series- but now I can't stop! Sarah and Malloy have officially become an iconic dynamic duo for me, everything about them is amazing and I love them and I'm desperate for more content. The mysteries are great consistently but the overarching plot between these two keeps me coming back for more.

I talked about this in one of my earlier reviews, I don't like how half of the books in this series have just progressed like a normal investigation until Sarah is almost killed/has to dispatch the killer herself. I just don't feel like that many of them would come after her directly or do it so poorly. I either want to see her in real trouble that lasts longer than five pages or I just want to see Malloy more consistently arresting the people in a normal way. I'm still giving this book a high rating though, because I think this is only a problem I have since I'm reading them so close together and they came out with years between them.

It's a great series though and I seriously cannot recommend it highly enough! I can't wait till the next book comes off the hold list so that I can jump back in!

Book Review: Murder in Little Italy (Gaslight Mystery #8)

Murder in Little Italy

Victoria Thompson

5/5

I live for those scenes where Malloy thinks Sarah put herself in danger (which she does a lot) and freaks out. This series is worth much more than those scattered scenes but I love that this book had one because they feel so few and far in between.

Sarah Brandt accidentally came across another scene of potential foul play. A woman whom she delivered a child for the night before is now dead and no one knows why. Given that the husband and family discovered last night that the baby wasn't his, the entire family has a motive. It goes back and forth, involves rioting, politics, and the Italian mob, and by the end resolving how convoluted it has become is a plot twist.

All of these mysteries have been intricately designed and deserve their own credit because even though some are more predictable than others, they always have at least one element that surprises me. If you love mystery novels or historical fiction then you have to read this series!

Book Review: Texas Rain (Whispering Mountain #1)

Texas Rain

Jodi Thomas

3/5

Rainey Adams is running from an arranged marriage, she's just trying to make ends meet and that involves stealing a horse. Unfortunately, it was in range of Travis McMurray, a Texas Ranger with a pretty strict definition of the law. She makes a clean getaway, pretty much because he lets her, but he can't stop thinking about her.

I think it was a little more authentic than the other westerns I've been reading. I like how they built their relationship through a little bit of correspondence before meeting again, that gave their relationship a little substance. It was fun to see Rainey try to balance her independence with her need for a family that actually cares about her, it would have been a very realistic worry for someone in her position.

I didn't like most of the action. I had a problem with this in the other Jodi Thomas book I read. The action is hard to follow and the first fight scene felt pretty irrelevant too. I get that it meant a lot later on, but it felt so thrown in and random at the time that it gave me whiplash. I was also waiting for Rainey's past to catch up with her, same as I was waiting in the last Foster book. It never did though, I was sure the media attention she got from the whole kidnapping would lead her father right to her or cause the rangers to realize she was wanted for robbery. The time wasn't very conducive for good communications, it just kind of irked me that there was that opportunity for drama and it was squandered.

Overall though I wasn't really all that disappointed with it. If you're looking for a western romance this one is easy to read and not super graphic- I know that's a general problem that some people can have with this genre.

Book Review: Cherish

Cherish

Catherine Anderson

3/5

I'd say that this book was pretty good, a fast read that gave a lot of fun historic facts. After seeing both her parents and the rest of their convoy brutally murdered, Rebecca seeks solace with the cowboys who rescued her. Race has been fighting fate every day of his life, he's a quarter Apache and has used people's natural fear to his advantage. It doesn't make sense to him how Rebecca trusts him so completely, but he's determined to protect her.

I think the main problem I had with it was how sporadic the threat seemed to be. If these people were actually so good at being outlaws and murdering and robbing people, how were they so bad at stealing this money? There was at least half an hour where they had murdered everyone else besides a young woman in debilitating shock. I don't think it would take all that long to find a secret compartment in one of the wagons, yet they ran and didn't even look? Then failed in every subsequent attempt that stretched out over an entire month? It didn't speak very highly of Race's skills that he was barely able to defeat these idiots.

I don't know if the main characters clicked all that much. It felt a little sketchy, she put all her faith in him to protect her because she was all alone in an unknown area and he gave her an ultimatum. I don't know if that's a little Stockholm Syndrome-ish, she was desperate to fit in and be needed and like did what she thought she had to. In the context of her life though I guess it made more sense, she was really willing to marry whoever she was told to marry and she at least knew him.

I did appreciate that he didn't try to majorly change her. She had ditched her belief in God, understandable after everything she witnessed. But he didn't roll with that, he assisted her in adjusting to a new reality. It was weird how completely she adjusted to a life outside of a cloistered religion though, she just ditched her brainwashing completely? I don't know if I could see that happening but I do understand that it was an insane trauma. I don't understand how she maintained her weird formal speech in the epilogue, eight years after living with only illiterate cowboys. I'll just assume that she communicated enough with her religious cloister that she maintained that pattern in stressful situations.

Overall, it was good and nice with weird spacing. I liked it and think it's a decent western romance but it was probably too long for the events that actually occurred in the book.

Book Review: Murder on Lenox Hill (Gaslight Mystery #7)

Murder on Lenox Hill

Victoria Thompson

5/5

Maybe it was the anticipation since this is the first book in the series that I got put on a hold list for, but I loved this one! After discovering a pregnant young woman who would have never come to that state on her own, Sarah gets involved in a even more sinister plot involving a corrupt preacher and possible murder. Malloy is simultaneously trying to solve the cold case of her murdered husband, now funded by Sarah's father who seems to want to ruin the dead man's image.

I have mixed feelings about what's going down with Tom Brandt. The series kind of moves slowly on all front, as is what I see as the norm in books with individual mysteries like this. I don't really have a problem with it since there are so many books out, but oh my god it's taking so long to figure this one out. I really hope that Tom Brandt's character isn't sacrificed in favor of pushing Malloy and Sarah's romance forward, though I doubt that that would happen. It's getting interesting though and I can't wait to see how it goes down.

In the first book of this series, I wasn't sure if I liked Malloy because he seemed too controlling and negative. He's really grown as a person though, I know he may have had good intentions from the start but he's just a good person now. I really can't wait to see how he deals with the Tom Brandt situation along with satisfying Felix Decker and keeping Sarah safe at the same time. It's going to be a wild ride for sure.

Book Review: The Bride Wore Spurs (Inconvenient Brides #1)

The Bride Wore Spurs

Sharon Ihle

3/5

This book had a lot of good moments, but it really barely made three stars for me. It follows Lacey, a young woman fresh to Wyoming and really fresh to the real world in general. She has spent her entire childhood in an insane asylum after the death of her parents. As such, she is still prone to spells in which she completely dissociates from the world. She wants to live though, and is hoping that getting away and getting married with her only friend as mail-order brides will solve it all. Her new husband doesn't want her at first, it was just done as an afterthought by his neighbor. Despite all of her shortcomings, he's soon convinced that it could have been a good idea.

The annoying part of it all was how much build-up there was for such little revelations. Lacey's condition is hyped up the entire novel and then at the end it's solved with a few sentences. The entire main conflict of the book is also wrapped up in a few sentences- was it that easy to get away with stuff in Wyoming? Probably, but it felt weird and rushed to me. It also kind of annoyed me how totally useless Lacey was at points. I get that she was raised in a sheltered environment, though I would have expected her to have been forced to learn more tasks at the asylum considering her relative competency. But she couldn't do literally anything at first. I don't know, it was just very annoying.

Hawke was okay but he felt a little too forceful for my taste. He said he was going to be gentle or whatever and then he was like this is my god-given right. He didn't want to get married and all of the sudden he was just all in? Again, it felt like there was a lot of waffling at first and then no bridge into the actual event, just diving straight in. I didn't hate it at all, it entertained me and I finished it very quickly, it just wasn't all that special.

Book Review: Master and Apprentice (Star Wars)

Master and Apprentice

Claudia Gray

4/5

I've never been a Star Wars fan, not sure if I really want to call myself that even now because people will straight come after me for it. Watching the movies though, I've always felt like there were a lot of plot holes. I feel that way with a lot of movies though, I feel like you can't just read a ton of books then be satisfied with the lack of exposition which books provide. People think that's snobby but I'm not trying to say that movies all sucks, I love movies they can just be difficult for me.

That being said, this book provides a lot of the background that I feel like I missed. I kind of see Star Wars as more of a fantasy series than a sci-fi series. They're in space for sure, but there's so much wild magical stuff happening. I don't know it's confusing because it has a weird vibe for me where it won't ever concretely fit in either category. I loved the political intrigue in this one though, it felt like an extended episode of the Clone Wars where we could really get into the character's heads.

Some of the progression was a little dry, that would be my only criticism. That could be on me, I don't typically read books like this I'm not a focused enough person. It did get me feeling really emotional though, I wish Qui-Gon hadn't died so early on in the series because he really could have been a great character. I loved Pax and Rahara their arcs were super interesting and I think they deserved more. I think Star Wars should spend more time outside of the novels focusing on characters outside of those related to the original trilogy, there are so many opportunities for great characters like them.

If you like Star Wars, I'd totally recommend this one. It was recommended to me as a great place to start if you want to get into reading the books because it's early on and gives a lot of background. I also love Claudia Gray so that made it a lot easier to read.

Book Review: The Texan's Wager (Wife Lottery #1)

The Texan's Wager

Jodi Thomas

4/5

I haven't read a western romance in a long time but maybe I should find more cause I kind of vibed with this one. Bailee is in jail with her two friends after confessing to the murder of a man who tried to rob them and kidnap her friend. They haven't found his body but the sheriff can't just let them off without any punishment, he'd fine them but they don't have any money. So he offers a trade, if they get married and have their husband pay the fine then they're free to go rather than hanging. It was kind of a bluff because the sheriff knew no jury would ever convict them, but it worked out for the better when Bailee meets Carter.

Carter is extremely quiet, his parents were killed in front of him when he was five and that kind of trauma doesn't just go away. It also helps to understand that his mom was deaf, even before her murder they didn't really talk much vocally. It made me so sad when we learned that though, the sheriff saying that he was signing and yelling in a language that no one else could hear. Carter was super sweet too, not aggressive just very awkward. He never pushed Bailee and really all he wanted was to build a relationship based on trust.

Bailee was a strong character, she led her whole group through the desert after they were abandoned by the caravan. I wish we had gotten more on her backstory though, that was one of the problems I had with this book. They kind of said stuff and never really gave us further support on it. I guess it went along with the lack of real talking that the couple did, I mean they talked about their feelings a bit and all it wasn't super insta-love they just didn't talk about their pasts. I know they didn't want to dwell on it but like, Bailee killed a guy can we talk about that?

I would still recommend the book though! Super sweet and super fun with adventure and gunfights and everything you would expect from Texas in the 1800s. If you're afraid to read it because of misogyny I would say don't be afraid, we have strong female characters and men who know the right time to step aside.

Book Review: To Beguile a Beast (Legend of the Four Soldiers #3)

To Beguile a Beast

Elizabeth Hoyt

2/5

Helen Fitzwilliam is running, trying to save herself from a life that she doesn't see as ideal for herself or for her children with an abusive man. She makes it to Sir Alistair's remote castle and thinks herself safe as his housekeeper, obviously not knowing the relationship which would spring up between them. Learning a new job and trying to balance this new freedom with protecting her children, Helen tries to navigate a new world. 

It was fine for a while. The relationship felt weird because Alistair was supposed to be this angry crusty guy but he was almost immediately in love with her and her children. That was fine with me because I think prolonging the angst is annoying, but he was really being portrayed as something that he wasn't for a while. I also felt like Helen deserved someone who cared about her and her children because she had really been through it and I wanted him to be that nice guy. 

What really got me was how he treated her after he found out that she was a duke's mistress. I get that it wasn't a respectable career and I'm coming from the perspective of someone who is many centuries removed from that atmosphere, but he handled it so poorly. He called her a whore and insulted everything that she did when he admitted to going to prostitutes and their relationship wasn't much better than her being his mistress. He was a total hypocrite and I wouldn't have stood for her it if I were her- but it came at a time when she couldn't afford to turn down his help. I found this on a list of strong heroines and honestly she's not a strong heroine. She could have been for the way that she left a situation that made her feel bad despite the obvious wealth and comfort that she was provided, but she blew it by allowing a man to bring her down like that again. 

I know that this is part of a bigger series and I just zoomed to the third, you can read it without reading the others. I don't think that I'll be going backwards or moving forward, I just don't think I can get behind the characters. 

Book Review: Murder on Marble Row (Gaslight Mystery #6)

Murder on Marble Row
Victoria Thompson
4/5

Another great book in the Gaslight Mystery series and I've finally hit a roadblock- there's a hold for book 7 so it'll be even longer before I can finish it. This one followed a murder closer to Sarah's home, another family whom she had grown up with has seen a gruesome murder. She works closely with Sergeant Malloy once again with the inclusion of her mom and her dad.

I love the progression that we're seeing towards a relationship between the two of them. They seem to have come to terms with their feelings for each other in the most minimal sense possible. It feels like Sarah has accepted their eventual relationship while Malloy has accepted his feelings but denied any possibility of them ending up together. I like that it's slow because obviously people with this kind of trauma aren't going to rush into things but I'd like to get a better definition on the timeline, it's confusing me on how much time is actually passing between the books.

The murder here was great, I liked the plot twists and I liked how it broke away from the typical progression of events that I was saying that I was getting bored with in my last review. I see a lot of potential going forward and I can't wait to get the next book!

Book Review: Someone to Love (Westcott #1)

Someone to Love
Mary Balogh
3/5

This one was weird but I give it props for attempting to diverge from a lot of the typical tropes of this genre. Anna Snow has just discovered that she's the only legitimate child of an earl and is thus entitled to all of his enormous fortune. This alienates his other three children who had lived their entire lives thinking they were legitimate, but given her a nice set up for her entrance into society. She meets Avery Archer, the Duke of Netherby, who was her brother's guardian and is now assisting this transition to society.

There were some weird things happening- the whole thing with marital arts was weirdly not descriptive. It felt like an attempt to add some diversity to the book without actually attempting any research or exposition on the character. It was nice though, that he was not a typical kind of guy and that we saw a little into the backstory about how hard it would have been for someone with a different physique to survive at this point in history.

I think another main reason why this wasn't rated lower despite how boring it felt at times was the strength of Anna Snow's character. I know that I would be terrified to enter a society which I knew nothing about but she did so with poise and grace. I appreciated that she didn't lose any part of what made her who she was, even for the sake of the plot. I don't know if that's historically accurate, I get differing opinions on how strict society actually was at this point and I think since she had so much money she'd probably have been fine.

The romance was also strange, they had very minimal interactions and then were engaged and then were eloped. Strange for it to happen like that when so much of their family was involved (and I mean a lot of characters like I couldn't keep them straight at all). It was nice at the end though, I do believe they understand each other a lot better than characters in regency romances typically do.

I don't know if I'd recommend it. It was interesting at points, but overall it was a little dull. It had its ups and downs but I don't think it was super extraordinary in anyway.