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.