Book Review: Slaying Monsters for the Feeble (The Guild Codex: Demonized #2)

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

This is my continued reread of the Demonized series to match my progress in the Spellbound series. Honestly though, rereading this has made me want to read this more than Spellbound. The intricacy of the characters is just so much more appealing to me and I can't really put my finger on why. I think it's the idea of overcoming obstacles to relate to someone. Neither of them are really changing themselves, they're just working to better understand one another's worlds. I love it, it's some sort of niche trope that I would like to see in every book. 

So not much to say, my original review from 2021 covers it pretty well. I'm excited to get through the next Spellbound so that I can get back to this series. 

Book Review: The Right Move

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5 

The Right Move follows Indy and Ryan, roommates of convenience. Indy found her boyfriend cheating eight months ago, now she wants her life back but can't afford to have that in Chicago. Her best friend offers her a place, but she just moved in with her boyfriend and Indy doesn't want to bother her- so she moves in with her brother instead. Ryan is a pro NBA player, he doesn't do distractions and that's exactly what Indy is. But it's all just temporary. Until he needs a fake girlfriend to convince his coach of his stability. 

I liked it for the first 100-200 pages, but I could not believe that this book went on for as long as it did. I thought everything was resolved and then we would just delve into another completely random topic. I didn't think the author held out on the confession of secrets long enough, because it made the whole miscommunication based faux pas feel much more insensitive at the end. And then it kept going. By the epilogue, I had lost interest in their lives completely. The actual issues weren't really issues at all, it felt sort of random after we got past that first roadbump. 

So the first two 30-40% was a typical fun sports romance, but it really lost me. I don't think I'll be reading the next about their friend because I don't care to be dragged along anymore. 

Book Review: Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1)

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5 

Foundryside is a fantasy universe centered around the magic of coding. Not computer coding, but magical scrivings that can convince an object to be something that it isn't. Sancia can hear what these codes are saying, which makes her a decent thief but also ruins her life in just about every other way. When she steals a scrived object that actually talks back to her, she is thrust into a quest for the legendary items of their society's godlike missing figures that could also lead to the end of the world. 

I liked this book, Sancia was tough but also realistic in her struggles. I think it was a good balance of struggle and success that gave it all a good flow. I also don't think that the author is afraid to shock his readers and I feel he's pretty decent at doing so- especially through the actions of his main characters. 

My only issue would be the pacing. It wasn't all that excited to me as someone who reads more for characters than plots. I understand that's a personal preference, but the info dumps in the first 100-200 pages were a bit much. I just generally have issues with these sorts of complex magic systems when they are over-explained, I like to understand it all but there's also a point that if you're giving me too much all at once I will zone out. 

All in all, a good book with a lot of worldbuilding and a subtle but sweet romance. I will be reading the next one when I get around to it. 

Book Review: The Alchemist and an Amaretto (The Guild Codex: Spellbound #5)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5 

The Alchemist and an Amaretto is the fifth book in the Spellbound part of the Guild Codex series. Tori and her friends are visiting an elite academy for mages- owned and run by Aaron's parents. It's stressful enough being around all the wealthy elites, add in the mysterious werewolf-related deaths and a demon with near total control of the guy she's starting to develop feelings for an it's not exactly a relaxing holiday. 

I like this series, but it pales in comparison to Demonized. I don't know why it just doesn't hit as hard, maybe too many storylines or maybe the fact that Tori doesn't have magic. I wish we looked into her who familiar angle a bit more, I thought we were going to get into how magic could be accessible to those without the genetic benefit of being related to someone with magic. But instead, Tori is learning to fight which is cool but just makes her feel like a bit of a burden in this world. I do appreciate her willingness to step up to the challenge, but it's hard to see when you know the extent of the powers that they have. 

I think things are going to start picking up in the next installment, I vaguely remember her role in the Demonized side of things so I'm excited to read it all through her eyes. 

Book Review: Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1)

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

This is my reread of the Demonized series because I started her Spellbound series and realized they weren't just related but intertwined and felt the urge to go back for this one and read them chronologically. Gotta say, like two years later and I still love it. Robin and Zylas are so good together in such a weird way. Zylas is a demon, he doesn't understand humanity, same can be said for Robin on demons but it's easier for us to empathize with the human of course. But the beautiful part of this series is that we get to see him figuring it all out. And it's so subtle and creative the way that she introduces elements of humanity into his behavior without overtly stating that he was learning, you just get to see him morph into his humanity. 

So I'm a big fan, probably a bigger fan of this one than Spellbound as I feel that Robin is more relatable and I'm just a huge fan of their relationship dynamic. 

Book Review: Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours #3)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5 

Chain of Thorns is the third and final book in the Last Hours, covering too many characters to list out succinctly. It's the children of the characters in the Infernal Devices, and as their children they're just obligated to get into twice as much trouble. We have demons, we have necromancy, and we have a lot of unlawfulness in a society where the law is hard but it's the law. 

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with this book as a finale. At this point in her career, Cassandra Clare isn't just ending a trilogy summarizing 3-4 years of work, she's ending a trilogy that closes a chapter for our favorite characters from TID and leads into the drama that is TMI, TDA, and ultimately TWP. But it was a major let down. If we put all the continuity issues aside- because I will cut her some slack that it's been like 15+ years since TMI and we're living in a very different world than how it was then- the pacing of the series beyond book one has just been way off. I loved book one, I thought it was one of her best ever because it balanced the sort of plot-heavy vibes of TDA with the sedate yet action-packed rhythm of TDA. But she couldn't hold it together, she started threading in all sorts of things that just felt like they weren't really as relevant to the plot as they should have been. She couldn't mess with the TID parents because she had already written the Clockwork Princess epilogue and guaranteed their survival so she couldn't figure out how to write well-rounded characters where their parents were loving and supporting - since she also couldn't traumatize them by making their parents mean because it would destroy the integrity of TMI. And it felt like she realized with 50 pages left that she had about a million loose plot threads and so she decided to slam them all shut as quickly as she could with just about zero exposition or closure. I liked how we dealt with some of the characters trauma, but I think she committed to so many separate plots that she wasn't really able to do any of them justice. 

To get to the spoilers: she should not have killed Kit. It was cheap and it was lazy. She paired off all the other characters (aside from Matthew, Charles, and Grace) and decided Kit was the one who could die. And the fact that there was absolutely no reaction, that everyone was more upset about Matthew and James being in Edom, was pretty cruel. And we didn't get to see the reactions of his parents, she could have easily banked a few points by giving us some heartfelt mourning especially since most people reading have already bonded with the parents and the aunts and uncles. But no, she used him as a throwaway character. And she let James and Lucie get away with everything way too easily. James in the treating Cordelia poorly for the past two books and Lucie in the committing literal crimes but not even having to testify. Cassandra Clare just decided you know what, I'm going to make him Jesse again and the notoriously brutally lawful shadowhunter society will just deal with it. It honestly was inconsiderate to us as readers who spent years trying to figure out how this series would end (and I mean literal years my friend and I have been tossing theories back and forth since we were in middle school ten years ago) to try and just sweep everything under the rug at the last second. And the absolute cherry on top was James and Lucie losing their powers, which makes no sense to me and is also another cheap tactic. Like, we know that Tessa retains her powers through TDA so how do her kids lose that of which is threaded into their genetic composition when Tessa doesn't? Her father should've just stayed a faceless eidolon demon. 

This isn't really a review anymore more of just a rant, but I felt a little wronged as a reader. There were still good parts, I don't regret reading the series or staying up-to-date with it, but I think that Cassandra Clare should put in a bit more if she wants people to stick with something that has gotten as lengthy as the shadowhunter universe has. Sad that we're closing the story but happy to have seen more into their lives and into the lives of the TID characters (barely). 

Book Review: Dating Dracula (Dating Monsters #1)

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

Dating Dracula follows the story of Anna, a vlogger looking to expose the nefarious activities of the vampires who just went public last week. Unfortunately, her snooping gets her killed. Or undeaded at least, now she's a vampire and somehow this dude wants to kill her for a second time. Oh yeah, she was also changed into a vampire by Dracula himself, a man she's never met but can't seem to stay away from. 

I got this book for free from a list of free Kindle romances last week. I think the concept is fun, but the execution was a little all over the place. Anna was too much and Vlad was too little. It was enough to read through to the end, but I didn't feel invested in their story lines because it all felt a little obvious. Again, it was a fun premise, I just didn't connect with it. 

Book Review: The Song of Achilles

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

The Song of Achilles is the story of Achilles and Patroclus, but in the way that Homer was too chicken to write it out. They're in love, but they're also tragic heroes. So you can probably guess where the book goes if you somehow haven't heard of the myth before. But it's not just a story of their battles and wars, it's a story of their lives and how two people could fall in love during the bizarre and intense situations of a Greek epic. 

My issue with this story was that I did not like Achilles. I thought Patroclus deserved better and that the real tragedy might just have been how everyone treated him like baggage his entire life. I also thought that the ten years within the Trojan War were a little boring, but that's just my personal preference on pointless battle scenes. We kept being told that tragedy was coming, and if you know anything about the story then you're pretty much expecting it the whole time, but they just drag it out with ten years of monotony. In a way, it's great that they got that time together but also they were like hardly interacting at all at that point. It dulled the romance for me. 

But still a good read, just took me a bit to get through. This was like my third attempt reading it, but I'm glad I made it because it is a beautiful ending. 

Book Review: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Overall: 5/5

Plots and Themes: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5

This is my second time reading this book this year, but I didn't review it the first time so I felt like I'd do it justice here. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me follows Vanessa Mazur, assistant to Aiden Graves AKA the Wall of Winnipeg. He's an NFL superstar and he's been annoying her for two year with his random demands and lack of gratitude. So she's quitting, not in a dramatic way (at first), just in a way that allows her to finally pursue her dream of freelance graphic design work. That is, until Aiden Graves decides he wants her back and is willing to do anything to rehire her, even if it's as his temporary wife to fulfill his visa requirements. 

This book isn't some super deep masterful book, but it's extremely entertaining and I think that's worth more than any classic. If you're the kind of person who appreciates all your standard tropes like marriage of convenience or trauma bonding, this is the one for you. It's not exactly like all the books you see on Tiktok with this trope though, because Vanessa is a well-rounded protagonist who makes her own decisions. She's a little weird at times, but she's entirely realistic and totally relatable. Mariana Zapata has a gift for writing situations that are obviously made for romances but animating them through female protagonists that feel like real people. 

I love Mariana Zapata and this is largely known as her best work. I think it definitely has a chokehold on me and it's just super comforting and I could read it a million times and find all new reasons to love them.  

Book Review: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)

Overall: 5/5

Plots and Themes: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 5/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

This is a reread of a series I read in high school and I'm pretty happy with how the quality has held up. It's inarguably young adult, but the quality of the story lines hold up. A few things weren't as deep as I remember them being, specifically the romances and how they're formed, but it's hard to look at teenagers falling in love when you're not a teenager and understand their perspective. But I still think the story is so clever, the manipulation of fairy tales to this quirky dystopian world is so weird but also at the same time so obvious? I don't know, it strikes the perfect balance and it definitely holds up. The cultural references are still iffy, but I appreciate that she improved her representation in her other series. 

Book Review: Devil in Spring (The Ravenels #3)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Devil in Spring is the third book in the Ravenels but can be read as a standalone. Lady Pandora Ravenel doesn't like balls, she's not looking to get married, all she really cares about is her family and her board games. When she's caught in an "it's not what it looks like" position, a family friend thinks he's helping by forcing the man into marrying her. She's obviously strongly against this. 

It was pretty mid until the end. A pretty standard wallflower-who-is-actually-gorgeous type situation until the author decides to throw a random little danger plot in at the end. That conflict didn't make a lot of sense to me, but it was obviously just for that little extra thrill. I feel it should have built a bit more throughout the book for it to really have that flare that I think the author was looking for. Without it, it was giving that sort of fanfiction-style strategy of throwing something in just for a reaction. Other than that though, a pretty entertaining read. 

Book Review: Demon Magic and a Martini (The Guild Codex: Spellbound #4)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Okay, this series is really starting to pick up. We're seeing some character development and we're finally getting into their tragic backstories that have been dangled in front of us for the past three books. There's a demon on the loose. Perfect comedic timing too, after they all just swore that it's a rare occurrence due to the brutality and utter destruction that these demons can cause. But it's happening, and it's threatening to unearth secrets that have been hold by their little friend group for years. 

I liked it more than I liked the others and it's definitely pushing me to finish the series. But I do have to say, I read Taming Demons for Beginners first and I think I'm going to have to go back and do a reread because I'm lost with everything that's going on in these parallels. I thought the series were separate but in the same universe, turns out they literally intersect. I think I'm going to have to go back and reread Taming Demons for Beginners before I can continue through this series, but I think it's definitely better than what I thought at the end of the third. 

Book Review: The Texan's Reward (The Wife Lottery #4)

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

This book is the fourth book in The Wife Lottery series but can be read as a standalone. It follows Nell, who was a young and crazy orphan in the first book but is now a young woman who was injured saving her friends (featured in the previous novels). She sees the land she has inherited from her guardian and knows that it would be best to have someone to help her manage it all and so she puts out an advertisement for a husband.

Enter Jacob Dalton, who decides that if anyone is going to marry her to protect her it's going to be him. This just got progressively weirder and ickier as the plotline went on, but I chose to ignore the age difference for the resolution. But I was sort of expecting a resolution that cinched all the plotlines and the whole Zeb thing forever, since that's how her injury arc started out. But really, it was a weird combination of different smaller conflicts till the ultimate danger that was over as fast as it started. 

I don't like it in books when a character has something to overcome and the author sort of speeds through the entire journey to getting to the point that it's been overcome. Like, I recognize that we don't want to see someone complaining about an injury for 300 pages. But the ending was lackluster to me because it cut scene right and skipped a couple months and didn't explain it all to us. Other than that, the book was a pretty standard western romance. Definitely not my favorite or my favorite in this series, but it was okay.

Book Review: Two Witches and a Whiskey (The Guild Codex: Spellbound #3)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

The third book in the Spellbound series, Tori has joined in to help prevent a guild of pirates from binding a fae water god to their will. In doing so, she accidentally binds him to herself. Now, they're still struggling to evade MagPol while having to prevent the fae lord from draining all her energy.

I liked the message of this one more than the other two. My biggest issue with the universe is the idea that magic is so defined by heritage. Which happens in a lot of books, of course, but it's hard to read when the protagonist is starting off with zero because I like it when the protagonists are special. Annette Marie is dealing with that here, and I appreciate the direction that their arcs are going. We're also finding out more about other character's powers and the magical universe in general that I feel I lacked in the sequel series, so it's good to get that background.

That being said, I'm finding it a bit hard to follow through. I think it's time for some sort of bigger revelatory event, and I think we're kind of getting there. 

Book Review: Dark Arts and a Daiquiri (The Guild Codex: Spellbound #2)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

In the second installment of the Spellbound series, Tori finds herself facing down with a suspected supernatural kidnapper. This is personal for her, which is why she doesn't really blink when the little bait mission goes from routine to including her own personal kidnapping.

I had similar feelings for this one as I did the last, nothing has wowed me yet but I like the characters. It's hard to balance such an incredible fantasy world with a protagonist who doesn't have any magic because you really have to be careful with their reactions to all this stuff that they never would've heard about before. I think Tori is a fearless individual, but it also takes away the significance of the danger she phases and makes it seem a bit boring.

But I think it could get better, there's a lot of potential for growth and it's a really interesting universe that Annette Marie has created.

Book Review: Three Mages and a Margarita (The Guild Codex: Spellbound #1)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

Three Mages and a Margarita is Annette Marie's first Guild Codex book. The main character, Tori, has a bit of an anger problem. She's been fired from a few jobs in the last few months and she's not keen on relying on her brother to cover her half of the rent. When she sees a bartender position offered and they let her do a test run night, she feels like she's finally found a place that will work with her problems. Unfortunately, it's part of a dangerous supernatural underworld she never knew existed.

I liked the characters well enough, but I think I'm rating a little harshly because I've read the second part of the Guild Codex universe and liked the characters a lot better. And the romance that is being pushed (because there are three guys and this isn't why choose) feels a little dull and the chemistry between her and one of the other guy's feels a lot stronger.

But it's a good start to the series and despite all the sort of in your face drama and risk, it's pretty interesting to read.

Book Review: Project Hail Mary

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Project Hail Mary is the latest sci-fi novel by Andy Weir, author of The Martian. It follows a somewhat scattered story of a man trying to save the world from an algae-like alien that is consuming the sun. If you're a fan of the realistic science-fiction, this is the book for you because I feel like this has to be extremely realistic though I don't really have a thorough knowledge of microbiology.

My issue with it would be the author's attempt to balance the somewhat heavy science stuff with a goofy scientist and alien side character. I loved the friendship, I thought it was fun and I would hope if earth was about to face that sort of disaster that there would be as someone as nice and amiable at the forefront, but it felt a little too forced. The way he wouldn't curse was especially annoying, I feel like if a woman wrote this book or if Ryland Grace had been a woman, not one would've respected him the way that they did. That might just be a personal bias though.

Overall, enjoyable read that was a bit weighed down by the science but still easy enough for someone who isn't a STEM person to follow. I think it might be a lot more enjoyable as a movie (which I never say) so that those processes could be presented rather than just written out.

Book Review: Funny Feelings

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5

Funny Feelings is a standalone romance, or romcom really, that follows the journey of Farley and Meyer. They've known each other for three years, Meyer has been helping Farley on her journey to becoming a famous comedian for nearly as long. When she's finally being offered her big breakthrough tour moment, they recommend creating a bit of drama with a staged romance. Being her best friend, a pretty famous comedian in his own rights, and a little in love with her, Meyer agrees.

This book really surprises me because I don't tend to like it when kids are involved or friends-to-lover stories. But the friends-to-lovers element of this was so well threaded with flashbacks of their three years together that it felt like a natural transition. That's where they typically lose me, with the awkward pacing and the unrealistic chemistry as I think that people can be friends with the same gender that they are attracted to. But Meyer and Farley just feel like they work together really well and that their romantic chemistry was definitely there.

The only issue I had with it really was the other character roles in the book. They could have been developed as a better support network to the characters to really give depth to their lives, I felt the situation was supposed to be representing larger life events without giving us any insight into any other personal relationships. Other than that though, super cute and would definitely recommend if you're looking for a feel good romance.