Book Review: Bring Me Their Hearts (Bring Me Their Hearts #1)

Bring Me Their Hearts

Sara Wolf

4/5

I love a good enemies-to-lovers romance, but when there are lives on the line I tend to get pretty stressed out. Zera is a Heartless, a race despised the general public due to their servitude to witches and their need to eat hearts. To prevent another war between witches and non-witches, Zera is tasked with stealing the prince's heart and making him a Heartless. If she does so, she gets her own heart back- the ultimate goal of all Heartless.

Obviously, she has to manipulate the prince to get this done. They have a lot of genuine moments, but it's all tainted by the fact that she will eventually have to kill him. I got very Throne of Glass vibes from this though thinking back on it I can't pinpoint exactly why. At the bare minimum, a girl with excellent sword-fighting skills is trying to deny her true nature to save a prince. There are other nuances that I felt there that I can't really explain.

For a kind of book that typically stresses me out, I still enjoyed this one a lot. It was a fun read with enjoyable characters (even though they could be kind of stupid at times). I won't be over that last scene anytime soon though it was very emotional and confusing. I really just want everyone to be happy so these reads are hard for me. I'd recommend it though and I'm looking forward to getting into the second book.

Book Review: White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Robin DiAngelo

5/5

In an effort to re-educate myself on racial issues during this period of unrest, I've been trying to read some books about racism and systemic oppression. White Fragility forced me to think about how I interact with everyone, and my own intrinsic behaviors. The overarching message is that everyone is racist, that by turning the word racist into something that people only associate with lynchings and horrible acts of violence, we've only further internalized the problems that are truly oppressing POC in America.

This book is only around 170 pages, but it's still hard to get through. Not because it's boring, but with every highlight I made I had to think back to my own life. This book was written by a white woman, but she fully acknowledges her inability to fully understand how people of other races feel. It's a book by a white person attempting to communicate problems to white people that they are creating.

I'm a strong believer in the sentiment that everyone should do their best to self-educate themselves and try to stop themselves from offending anyone else. Race is a super tricky issue, but if everyone put the time in to try to read books like this and stopped to think about what they were saying, we might have a more inclusive society. I would recommend this to anyone feeling hopeless right now, there's always some way that you can try to make a difference.

Book Review: Murder on Lexington Avenue (Gaslight Mystery #12)

Murder on Lexington Avenue

Victoria Thompson

5/5

Another great book in the Gaslight Mystery series! When the father of a deaf girl is murdered, Detective Sergeant Malloy is called because of his relationship with the deaf community. He discovers a convoluted web of rivalries within the deaf and hearing community- along with among the family members of the murdered man. When the widow of the man goes into labor, Malloy can't stop Sarah Brandt from becoming involved.

I love the dynamic of these two characters at this point. Eleven books ago I would have never guessed that Malloy would grow so much on me, he's really an awesome character at this point. Sarah has also grown a lot, she has Catherine now and is much nicer to her neighbor (which sketched me out about her at first). Overall, I'm super satisfied with the progress of the internal arcs.

The mystery here was also super interesting. It shocked me, I really didn't see the murdered coming. Or maybe I saw it coming a little, but I definitely didn't anticipate all of the wild character shifts. I've said it before, but this is an amazing series because of how well it integrates the overarching plot development along with the small little mini-plots of each novel. I might be twelve books in, but I'm far from bored.

Book Review: Beach Read

Beach Read

Emily Henry

5/5

January Andrews is an author, she writes women's literature and she's proud of what she does. She usually writes happily ever afters though and she's in a place where she doesn't want to write that. When she finds out her new neighbor is her college nemesis, another writer who specializes in dark cult fiction, they make a bet. He writes a happy ever after, she writes a darker novel without one. First one to sell their book wins.

When I tell people that I like reading contemporary romances, this is exactly what I mean. The perfect balance between contemporary and cliche, utilizing characters that are serious with real-world problems but that have a world-changing romance. To top this one off, they're both authors and make constant bookish references. January writes women's lit which people constantly scoff at her for, I think that people constantly scoff at people who read it too which make her extremely relatable to her audience.

The relationship isn't instant-love and it also has that classic enemies-to-lovers feel. I love that trope, but it can get annoying when they spend too much time going back and forth and can't decide whether they want to be together. Here, there are obvious emotional traumas blocking them- they don't get completely stopped by it though. There's a flawless progression from their first meeting as neighbors to their romance, it feels simultaneously natural and fantastic.

I would 100% recommend this to fans of contemporary romance. I read it in one sitting, it's so fluffy and serious and had me laughing and crying. One of the best releases of 2020 so far for sure.

Book Review: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #1)

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

Roseanne A. Brown

4/5

I'm going to be honest, for the first 40 percent or so of this book I couldn't see myself getting into it. But then it took off and it totally shocked me. I've seen it advertised as "Jasmine and Aladdin if they were trying to kill each other" and that fits it pretty well. Malik is a poor boy from an oppressed people and Karina is the princess of the kingdom which has been oppressing them. His little sister makes a mistake and finds herself ensnared by a demon, he promises to kill her to save her life. Karina lost her mother by an assassination and needs the heart of a king to reincarnate her. She offers the role of king to the person who wins their much anticipated games that only occur every fifty years. 

Obviously, Malik fakes his way in in a typical Aladdin fashion and then lies about who he is. They're trying not to get close to each other because they're planning on murder, but they kind of just fall into place. I really appreciated how the prize of the games was offered regardless of gender- they normalize LGBT relationships on multiple fronts and I thought that was cool. I feel like every LGBT decision doesn't have to be a huge statement, casually including acceptance is cool too. 

I had some problems with Karina at points cause I felt she was being needlessly mean. By the end though I was supporting all of her choices because obviously everyone deserved it. Honestly though, the plot twist at the end redeems her pretty well so if you find yourself losing interest I would really recommend pushing onwards. 

If you love enemies to lovers romances then I'd recommend this series. The romance was kind of eh as it built up here and as they were both trying to kill each other but I think that a great foundation has been established. Can't wait to see where this series goes!

Book Review: King of Scars (Nikolai Duology #1)

King of Scars

Leigh Bardugo

3/5

I think I fall with the general majority when I say I didn't like the Shadow and Bone trilogy all that much, I loved Six of Crows, and I'm kind of indifferent here. Nikolai is a cool character, I'll never get over how Alina turned him down in favor of Mal like I understand it I just don't vibe with that choice. That being said, him getting a duology feels like a great move. It was good and I'm glad we see more about him, but I feel like I was losing track of his plotline in the mix of it all. It took me so long to read this book because I just kept getting sidetracked and I wasn't really interested in most of what was going on. 

The ending did surprise me. I think people were mad about it but it felt like the logical way to go for me. I won't spoil it cause you know why would I do that, I just think that it'll provide a necessary and more central conflict to the duology. The original trilogy isn't void because of it, it's just a continuation and if it's done well it'll be fine. 

I don't know if I should keep reading these books because like the hype is astronomical but they kind of fall flat for me. I don't know if I'll read the next one when she puts it out, but I'm glad I've gotten this far with the characters. 

Book Review: Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

5/5

I've recently realized a need to educate myself more thoroughly on the nature of race in America. This book was recommended to me by a friend on Instagram as a way to do so and I completely understand why. Told as a letter from himself to his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates narrates his perspective on the oppression which Black Americans feel every day. I think that this is a pretty essential read, especially given the confusion which some people are experiencing as they consider the nature of the current protests. 

I've read a lot of books, but I don't read a lot of non-fiction. When I do read non-fiction and they center upon tragedies, they make me feel more helpless than anything else. If a character dies in a fictional book, I get upset and maybe I cry about it and think about it randomly for years to come. But when an individual needlessly dies in a book and I know that nothing I can do or imagine could bring that individual back to life, I never forget those books. This is the constant fear of Black America, the fear of a random and meaningless death. A society which Coates suggests is built upon violence towards black people which is beyond heartbreaking.

If you don't understand what would cause a group of people to riot and protest during a global pandemic then you really need to read this one. I completely understand the need for everything happening right now and yet this book still taught me so much and gave me so much perspective. It's tragic and it's sad and it needs to be stopped. I hope that through books like this, people will be able to educate themselves and see beyond their personal interests for the more pressing need for change.