Book Review: Love Unsought

 Love Unsought

Kay Bea

2/5

For how long this book was, there weren't really that many snags. I thought it would be more problematic but the story line was nearly completely motivated by easily resolved miscommunications. The actual issues weren't really resolved, there were no punishments dealt for the characters who were truly malicious. 

I understand that the ending was kind of a segue for future books in this universe but it felt so rushed to add all of those semi-connected characters with a couple of lines. It wasn't even separated into an epilogue, it was just kind of thrown to us as the next logical action. The last hundred pages were kind of boring to me in general due to the lack of original plot action, but to throw that in like that instead of building to it really took away from my experience. 

Not terrible overall, pretty original but kind of over-reliant on trashing women. Original characters were introduced pretty much just to reinforce the idea that women are petty. There was some positive depiction with Georgiana and Anne but it wasn't enough to counteract how many times the other women were villianized.

Book Review: Falling for Mr Darcy

 

Falling for Mr Darcy

KaraLynne Mackrory

3/5

This is me trying to read as many of these P&P variations as possible before my Kindle Unlimited subscription expires. This one was okay, it starts on the premise of Darcy taking Elizabeth home after she suffers a minor injury on one of her walks. That's fine I guess, but like a couple of the other variations I read, there was no central misunderstanding. 

I'm reading these because the first one I read so artfully rewrote the central misunderstanding of pride and prejudice that the original so artfully displayed. That's the fun part about variations, seeing how far you can bring the plot away from the original while maintaining the characterizations and the struggles. Here, it was fine as a historical romance of this period, it just didn't feel very accurate to the characters. 

So it was ok, it wasn't extraordinary. The injury at the beginning didn't make as much of an impact on the plot-line as the synopsis leads you to believe, so that's annoying. But there were some good moments here and it ranks pretty average in the available variations.

Book Review: Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices #3)

 

Queen of Air and Darkness

Cassandra Clare

5/5

Call me biased, but I base a lot of my review on how much a book makes me cry. This one had me crying at multiple points, the emotions were high through all 900 Kindle pages. This was an extremely long book, it feels like cheating that TDA is only getting three books while TMI got six, but there were like four books within this one. Every single battle had major significance to the universe, and there were major events happening on basically every page. 

I was so nervous the whole time cause I just need all of these people to be happy. I'm so invested back into shadowhunters at this point and all their lives have so much tragedy in them. Julian Blackthorn and Emma Carstairs have both won places among the top characters in my opinion. I mean, it's so difficult to pick your favorite characters in this universe because they all have such beautiful arcs that so closely relate to the rest of the universe. Cassandra Clare has become an expert at weaving these insanely complicated tapestries of events and characters together. 

The little features of Jace and Clary and Tessa and Jem killed me. Jace was never my favorite man in the shadowhunter universe, when you have Will and Jem he kind of fades away. But he was growing on me here with all his comments and his "maturity". The ending shook me too, I can't wait to see the impacts of that on him and Clary. I know the next series isn't about them, but I'm hoping for some more appearances that really extend the lives of their characters.

I could talk about the characters and relationships in this series literally all day (I won't even get into the perfection that is Blackstairs because this review would be twice as long) but if you're holding off on getting back into shadowhunters you're missing out. I can't wait to read the next series in this universe and to see what Cassandra Clare does next.  

Book Review: Watching You

 

Watching You

Lisa Jewell

4/5

I wasn't sure about this one at any point throughout the book. That's what makes a good psychological thriller, the constant questioning of where everyone stands and what everyone did. While I had a good idea of what was going on, I was still being constantly surprised. 

Psychological thrillers also have a tendency to stress me out a lot. I get attached to characters and even if they make bad decisions, I don't want them to get in trouble for them. I was afraid that my favorite characters here would get into trouble that they couldn't get out of and even for crimes they didn't commit. Luckily, even with all the miscommunications and lies, the police were able to figure out the root of the situation and arrest the real perpetrator. That was sad in its own right, especially given the twist at the end, but it was better than I thought it would end. 

But yeah, if you're into those books that aren't provided chronologically, that keep you figuring stuff out as you go, this is a great book for you. There were some weird story-lines that could get a little tedious, all in all a great read though.

Book Review: The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1)

 

The Maze Runner

James Dashner

2/5

I read this book for the first time maybe five or six years ago, when the movies were first coming out and a lot of people were really into them. I wasn't impressed enough to continue the series, but I own the book and decided to give it another go. I wasn't entirely disappointed by it, it had some fun moments, but it felt so much more like Lord of the Flies fanfiction than it did the first time I read it. If you loved Lord of the Flies and you love science-fiction and somehow haven't read this book yet, it really fits that niche. 

I don't understand a lot of what happened because a lot of the book felt like stalling in favor of praising and building up Thomas's character. Thomas makes a lot of poor decisions, he's sixteen and in an impossible situation so that's fair. There's a lot of idolization though, the fact that the other "geniuses" are in the maze for over two years without a hint of escape until Thomas shows up and solves it within a week kind of speaks for itself. 

Unfortunately, I think that the character deaths hit me a lot harder when I read it the first time. It goes along with building up Thomas through directly saying he's an interesting person rather than showing us it. He had "friendships" with the other boys but only because he was telling us he thought of them as friends rather than any legitimate connection between the characters. The eventual romance got off to a weak start for me too, I didn't feel any real connection between them. 

I know that this is YA and so you could argue that the actions were simplified for a purpose, but I've reread a lot of my favorite YA recently and I stay relatively up to date with what's current. YA doesn't mean you have to totally sacrifice character development in favor of making something that's kind of dark seem lighter and easier to read. I understand the angle that Dashner was going for and I appreciated it at times, I would prefer to have a better developed connection with the main protagonists though.

Book Review: Rumours & Recklessness

 

Rumours & Recklessness

Nicole Clarkston

3/5

Another Kindle Unlimited JAFF because I'm bored and these are amazingly easy to get invested into. The variation here regards Mr. Bennet, who falls from his horse and puts his family in a dangerous position. This expedites the process of Darcy's proposal and sets the stage for future misunderstandings and confusion. 

The earlier proposal took away the major conflict of the original book. There's barely any time at all when Elizabeth is actually angry at Darcy for his pride, where there's that critical misunderstanding where both think they're doing the right thing yet are completely missing each other. I'm not saying that that makes it bad, it just makes them all kind of out of characters and departed from the tropes which P&P established. I know that the point of these books is to add a twist to the original, but I'd like for it to remain relative consistent with established characterization. 

It had fun parts though, like any variation. I think these are so interesting and fun to read even if they take the characters away from who they were. It was a little long though given the content and the trials which the characters faced. It felt like it was being drawn out for no reason at certain points. I don't think it's all that historically accurate at all, Elizabeth would get into much more trouble for the scenes she and Darcy created but I also think they were fun. Not great as an accurate representation, but still an interesting read.

Book Review: Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)

 Lord of Shadows

Cassandra Clare

5/5

This book destroyed me wow I haven't been more upset about a Cassandra Clare character death since City of Glass- which I read in like 2013. It isn't just the drama and the shock of forbidden romance/death here. Clare has created a crazily interwoven narrative that follows the lives of so many people that aren't entirely centered on any specific issue. They all have such complex issues and arcs and it's just really captivating. I was hesitant to get back into Shadowhunters because I didn't have a great experience with City of Heavenly Fire, but this series is redeeming it entirely. 

There's a lot going on here. This is a sequel series and can be read as a standalone? I suppose? But I wouldn't recommend it at all. Like TID and TMI could be on their own no problem, but these books weave in so much of that history. I'm struggling to keep up with it all cause I read TMI so long ago. It's not a bad thing it's just a difficult thing to sell people into at this point in the universe. I don't regret continuing at all though, I said this with Chain of Gold and I'm saying it again here. I'm glad that I went on because these characters are so endearing and just amazing to read about.

People have told me over the years that the newer Shadowhunter books are way more inclusive. That's totally true, she's covering a lot of bases here in terms of sexuality and orientation. It's not taking the story over though, not to say it shouldn't but I know a lot of people feel that her diversifying her characters takes something away from the universe. It doesn't at all, anything that's added to give further depth to the characters could never take away from the story. I think that Clare does it artfully and I wish more authors would actively acknowledge their constant inability to represent everyone the way that she does. 

So read it for sure. If you loved TMI or TID, you're going to love this series. I've already downloaded the last book in the trilogy and I'm ready to be even more upset in the best way.