Book Review: The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)

 

Overall: 5/5

Plots and Themes: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 5/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5

I read this book for the first time in like 2011, before any of the movies had come out. I haven't read it since. I did read the prequel when it came out a few years ago and I was shocked by how well-written it was- not to hate on the original but only because I feel I'm often disappointed by books I read in middle school. Really though, the quality of this book holds up. 

It's firmly YA, but it's done in a way that doesn't belittle the intelligence of the age group. It's well-written and it has deeper themes that come together so nicely. I think that current YA books struggle to balance themselves that way, they either dumb it way too far down or they stray too far into new adult or even adult territory. This book is covering something truly horrific, but I don't believe it's too gory or traumatizing for the age group. I think it teaches valuable lessons and it continues to deserve all the hype it gets.  

Book Review: Hummingbird (A Charade of Magic #1)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Hummingbird is the first book in a new trilogy by Helen Harper. I've read several series by her and I find that when she hits, she really hits. But I've also read a few misses, and this one is no Firebird or Slouch Witch. It's falling somewhere in the middle of all of them. It exists in an alternate Glasgow, where brutal mages control the city and the magic. The protagonist. Mairi, has been especially wronged by this system as a mute orphan who seems to possess magic- something the mages will allow no woman to possess. 

Part of the problem was that I hate when a character is written in with a disability with the implication that it is temporary. I would rather that they learn their strengths work with their disability rather than trying to say they were broken. I liked that premise, I didn't like the follow-through. The taste of romance we get is entirely too rushed and honestly just feels weird in the circumstances. It was another case of initial interest but poor follow-through with weird pacing. 

So it was pretty good, but I don't know if it was good enough to continue the series. It didn't entice me enough and I'm not on the edge of my seat looking for more. 

Book Review: The Raven Song (A Conspiracy of Magic #2)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

The Raven Song is the second book in what I believe is the Conspiracy of Magic duology. It follows Edwina, a witch grappling with a recent traumatic loss and the more general loss of quite a few things. She has an unusual magic that makes her a target and is trying desperately to outsmart him and protect those close to her. 

I loved the first book in this duology. This one wasn't as significant to me. It lost a lot in the last fifty or so pages when we got the final culmination of all that loss and drama that we'd seen throughout both books. It was anti-climatic and felt pointless in the grand scheme of things. It all felt rushed, the whole books took two weeks total compared to the months and months of not knowing things. I kind of felt like the series was going to be a trilogy and then, like all the best Netflix shows, it got canceled and it scrambled to provide some sort of closure and ending. 

I liked it but I was definitely expecting more from an author that I like and a series I had previously connected with. I still enjoy the whimsical element of a magical London in the 1800s, of course, and the more complex ideas of fae that were being integrated into the plot and society. But I think that they were much wider than the 500 pages of these books allowed for.  

Book Review: In the Heir (Westerly Billionaire #1)

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 1/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

When their grandmother installs a new condition on their inheritance - be married or have it donated - one of the Westerly siblings decides to fake an engagement to gain the money. Alisha has been a friend of the family for forever, so when Spencer asks her if she'll lie for him she's completely on board. Things only start to get complicated when she starts having feelings for his brother. 

Honestly, my bad for downloading this book hoping for a simple and straightforward conflict-solution romance. The book lacked any real problems and felt shallow. They argued back and forth for 100 pages then said you know what, maybe we should actually try to fix it, and then you can guess what happened next. That's the spoiler-free run through, it just felt like there wasn't any point to any actual problems between them. I don't like books that argue a point into the ground then just decide to ignore all of the aforementioned previous arguments. 

My least favorite part was at the end leading into a sequel. The dialogue felt pretty consistently stilted, that little piece at the end being the worst of all. I won't be reading the next book in this series and I probably should have DNFed this one. 

Book Review: Through a Darkening Glass

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

London in 1940 is on the precipice of war, no place for a literature student like Ruth Gladstone anymore. So she escapes to the country with her grandmother to visit a great-aunt she never knew existed. While she becomes engrossed in the town rumors and wartime gossip, she investigates the long-standing urban legend of a white lady ghost who haunts the hillside with the help of her new neighbor, a wounded soldier with an even more wounded wife. 

I liked quite a few parts of the story. It had a lot of POVs and it did a good job bringing the townspeople to life through them. Ruth was a great protagonist to follow with her curiosity and strong drive to get to the bottom of things. Though she probably felt closer to 18-20 than 25, she also lived a sheltered life. Her relationship with Malcolm was strange and very deliberately ambiguous at the end. I think it makes sense, and I'm glad we didn't try to vilify Elise for her circumstances, but I also think we spent a whole lot of time to basically get nowhere. 

The ghost story took the back seat through the whole narrative.  It was convoluted and it wasn't all that fun to follow because the ghost wasn't really doing anything. Rather than a ghost story or a mystery, I think this book would be better framed as a way to depict the more common WWII stories, what many of the people did to escape the tragedies of wartime. Not the most exciting thing out there, but the reality for many people and an interesting time in history. 

Book Review: Most Valuable Playboy

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

It's the annual charity auction - FOR THE CHILDREN - and football superstar Cooper is being threatened by a radio personality who could destroy his reputation. He doesn't want to upset her but he definitely doesn't want her to win a date with him. Thankfully, his good friend Violet was able to use his money to win the date for herself. But it looks like their little hometown romance is benefitting them both, so they decide to play it up for a bit. 

This book was original as far as these books go as it was entirely narrated by the man. I don't know if I've ever seen a book in this genre do that. That also might have been why everything felt so quick, women are written with so much more self-doubt than he was. I don't even know if he hesitated a second, it was all about his wants rather than hers. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way. 

There was no real conflict, no drama, everything just sort of fell into place. It was also like the starting point kept shifting and I found myself wondering why they had never discussed being together in the first place. It was strange and weird pacing. I didn't hate it, it was entertaining enough, but I would have liked to see more depth. 

Book Review: Digging Up Love

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

Digging Up Love is a standalone contemporary romance that follows Alisha, a baker who feels trapped by her familial obligations, and Quentin, a paleontologist desperate to prove himself. They meet when Alisha's grandparents accidentally discover bones in their backyard and the chemistry is pretty instant. 

It was a cute story. I don't feel like I've ever read a book featuring a paleontologist and the dedication of both characters to their careers gave them depth. It was original in that respect and it was fun. The only issue, which really interrupted the flow for me, was the lack of conflict. It felt like we were just rehashing all of the reasons why it shouldn't work without really backing up those thoughts. And maybe that's personal preference, I can totally see this happening in the real world outside of the fact that I doubt there are many 33-year-old hot paleontologists out there that would be sent to a discovery of this magnitude. But it was just all too real without any of that gut-dropping whirlwind sort of thing that I love to see in a romance. 

So definitely average with decent characters if nothing else. But also probably not one I'd recommend for people looking to use romance as a way to escape the monotony of life.