Book Review: Baking Me Crazy

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Baking Me Crazy is a friends-to-lovers story. Five years ago, Levi met Jocelyn. He saw her and he knew she was the one for him, she wasn't so sure. They've been best friends since, and he knows he's losing his chance to be with her but he also believes that his family is cursed with love-at-first sight and there won't ever be anyone else. 

I think for the most part this was a cute read. I completely understood where Jocelyn was coming from, she had a relatable and reliable perspective. Her disability was well represented and I could tell the author put some real work into researching the limitations and possibilities. I think that the romance was nice especially since Levi was so good about it all, he was kind and patient and just seemed like a pretty decent person. 

My issue was probably with how clunky the transition from friends-to-lovers really felt. I didn't see the issue of why Jocelyn wouldn't have considered it, it just felt like weird stuff for her to forget/ignore. And then after so long of ignoring it, I have to imagine the chemistry would be off there. I just didn't see the conflict so beyond the lack of conflict it just didn't feel they were all that meant to be until after they were together. So aside from the clunky transition, it was a cute romance, but it was hard to get into. 

Book Review: Burn for You

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

When Bianca finds out her mom has cancer, she commits herself to being there through the whole journey. When money starts to get tight, she scrambles for a solution. Her restaurant is all she has and she wouldn't want to sell it. Enter Jackson, a millionaire who drives her crazy and has just offered to pay for her mother's treatment in exchange for a fake marriage. Should be easy, aside from the fact that he's still driving her crazy. 

This book started out fine, but I was getting really sick of Jackson towards the end. His trauma defined his whole arc and he was obviously holding out on telling us as readers and Bianca until it all comes out after she meets his family. Fine, whatever, but it all felt like sort of weird and out of place reasoning. Then it was all resolved way too quickly and the reasoning behind it all felt stilted and forced. Because of that transition, the whole narrative felt off because it didn't feel like the correct kind of rise and fall. 

Decent start, predictable but fun premise, but the follow through wasn't there for me. I didn't hate it, but there were points I had to stop reading just because of how ridiculous it had gotten. Also, the way that Bianca talked was overexaggerated and it started getting really annoying about halfway through. 

Book Review: The King's Shadow (Gate of Myth and Power #2)

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5

The King's Shadow is the second book in this series, immediately following the dramatic revelation of Chloe's supernatural status. K.M. Shea delivers another quirky addition to her Magiford Supernatural City universe where being able to shapeshift into a cat is actually a much bigger advantage than anyone expected it to be. 

I like Chloe and Noctus and what their alternating POVs provide to the narrative. It's fun and it's camp and feels not so serious but still has a conflict that is engaging and adds action. I've noticed in K.M Shea's books that you don't really know what to expect going in, but the fact that the characters are just as confused as you sort of immerses you in their world. It feels like you discover plot points at the same time that they do rather than being told the plot points directly. 

The romance is subtle and nearly non-existent at this point, it's a fun slowburn where you can feel the character's confusion. Neither of them really understand what's creating the pull and they're both awkward and sort of figuring it out as they go. And the book doesn't neglect the side characters, it provides nice separate support networks. I don't know, they're very authentic and the book make you as a reader feel apart of the action. A super fun and entertaining read. 

Book Review: Hate Notes

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

After walking in on her fiance cheating on her, Charlotte breaks that off and subsequently quits her job at his company. She's trying to sell her dress when she finds a beautiful note sewn inside another and decides to stalk the dude on social media. Their embarrassing first encounter leads to her getting a job, though she doesn't realize till later on that it's at his family's company. With a scheming grandmother throwing them together every chance she gets, they have a hard time battling their chemistry. But Reed has good reason to avoid attachments, no matter how hard it feels. 

I don't know this one is pretty slow. I understand Reed's hesitance, obvious trauma from his previous relationship and fear of the future. It was decent representation of a scary diagnosis. But it just felt like it dragged so much and I'm kind of sick of that "grumpy" protagonist that would be an immediate red flag in real life the way he sort of leads her on then snaps at her about it. It was a nice and realistic ending, but nothing that really stands out as all that special of a love story.

Book Review: Book of the Most Precious Substance

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a standalone. It's a thriller, the sort of thing I feel like people who liked Verity would be all over. Lily Albrecht is alone. Her husband has all but left her due to an illness outside of anyone's control and she sells books as a way to make enough money to support him and all the medications he needs. When she learns about the Book of the Most Precious Substance, she is initially intrigued by the huge commission she could get for securing it. But she soon learns that there are things about the world beyond her understanding, and that in addition to money the book could give her her husband back.

This book was freaky. It was paced in such a strange way, like the side by side journey to find the book and to get to the end of the book and be granted her wish. It felt almost like reading two separate trains of thought. I thought it was interesting, but I also feel it gave the whole thing a dream-like quality that made it difficult to understand at times. And the chronology of it all further confused me and emphasized that dream-like quality, I never knew how much time was passing and if the achievement of the events coincided correctly with that timeline. It made it all a bit jarring and hard to assign significance to the events.

I did like it though, I think it's original and weird in its own way. Kind of dark academia without the academia, but that same sort of literary take. How much I liked the ultimate message was a different story, but I can respect the way that it got there.

Book Review: Dance of a Burning Sea (Mousai #2)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Dance of a Burning Sea is the second book in Mousai trilogy and follows fairly soon after the conclusion of the first. This book shifts to the middle sister, Niya, and her relationship with a pirate captain. They first met four years ago, their encounters ultimately leaving Niya heartbroken and filled with rage towards the man. When he kidnaps her as a bargaining chip, she can't resist trying to get the upperhand on him which does not work in her favor.

Mixed feelings on this one. I hate it when men trick women in books and I hate it when characters are described as all powerful and clever and yet they are constantly humiliated. It felt like we were being forced to watch Niya fail at points and I nearly DNFed cause I was tired of it. I don't feel like she ever got her moment of triumph, even when she was one step ahead he caught up much faster than she did. It also didn't rub me right that their initial confrontation occurred when she was 17 and he was 20,  made it feel like he had an unfair amount of power from the start. I loved the pirates part of it and I love the Mousai, but I don't think it matched up to the first novel. It might have been due to the overwhelming number of quests and side plots, I couldn't get comfortable with the characters cause there was just too much happening.

I do think it gave me a much better understanding of Niya's powers. When I read the first, it seemed obvious who the most powerful sister was, but I can better understand the balance of it all now. The writing all together was very well done, it just could have been a hundred pages shorter and dragged less with a bit more empowerment for Niya threaded in. 

Book Review: In Darkness Forged (Night Elves of Abreia #1)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

In Darkness Forged is the start of a new series by Kenley Davidson. I thought it was a series of standalones but it might be interrelated quests? I'm not quite sure, but this book feels pretty self-contained. Aislin needs to save her family from a cruel lord unwilling to accept their continued deferral on rent. To do so, she risks her life to collect a rare ingredient for a night elf lord on the brink of death. She is paired with another night elf to do so, one who wants little to do with her and is completely focused on his own revenge. 

I was disappointed by this one. I loved The Faceless Mage, even did a reread of it last year. This didn't feel like it spent enough time working on the lore. Though it's in the same universe and maybe we were just supposed to build off preexisting knowledge, it felt like way too much was just happening with sort of the expectation that we would just follow it. Not the worst, but definitely not as good as The Faceless Mage.

I liked Aislin well enough, she seems a bit forgettable but she wasn't overwhelmingly annoying or anything. Not much to say beyond that, I'll continue to read Kenley Davidson but this one just wasn't exciting enough for me.