Ace in a Book

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[aceinabook]

Reread of 6/3/2026 Character 3.5| Setting 4| Plot 3| Writing 3| Enjoyment 3.5

Rating: 3.4

My rating went down on this re-read, unfortunately. I still liked it, but I didn't quite have the impact on me it did the first time.

I do still appreciate the kind of character Katniss is and how funny her low emotional intelligence is.

Rereading this is appreciating due to the foreshadowing; I didn't remember Katniss talking about Johanna! I was like oh! I know who that is!

I think Katniss thinks of herself as cold and heartless, she's not. Just her interactions with Prim and Rue show that. I think the biggest rebellions that she does is for care of others, not herself.

The flowers, the tribute, the berries, are not for her safety it is to for others.

I think Katniss starts to understand midbook what the games will do to you even if you win, even if you survive what the Capitol dishes out to the districts. She talks about Haymitch's alcoholism in this, and how it caused by trauma.

-- Original review of 2/24/2020 I apparently rated this before even though this is actually my first time reading it.

Late to the party, but I'm glad I attended the party. Katniss is such a relief and interest to me. She's strong but emotionally dumb. She doesn't realize her own feelings and even when she does she doesn't seem to care. I don't think she realizes her own worth to other people and that just makes me feel bad for her. I think it's obvious her District loves her, but I don't think she sees it.

One thing I liked was how intense the Pre-game of the Games was. Collins went into detail all of the things they had the Tributes do and I really like that she didn't just throw Katniss and the others into it.

Katniss is Savage in more ways than one and is clever in her own way. I'm excited to read the next book.

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Character 3| Setting 3| Plot 2| Writing 3| Enjoyment 3

Rating: 2.8

This book really disappointed me. I had this audio book and listened to it fast, but I just couldn't really get into Fern's story. I know Fern was meant to disappoint the reader as what Fern was doing was disappointing.

We follow Fern as she moves to open a bookshop near Viv. Fern than starts to feel like this is what she can't do and gets drunk and falls asleep of Astyrx's cart.

I thought that Astyrx grew as a character, but I felt Fern didn't grow near as much as I wish she could. The character relationships didn't feel as strong as in Baldree's other installments.

This is the first book that doesn't follow Viv, and it is also the most action packed novel. I did like Astyrx, and would read another novel following her journey to actually create relationships instead of just moving with time.

I liked Zyll, and i saw that there might be a Zyll novel? I'd be interested in that as you don't see many goblin characters in a main party. I'll still read more from Baldree, but this just didn't work for me.

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June TBR

One Day, Everyone Will Always Been Against This: This is my nonfic of the month. I know Akkad had created a tweet about the war in gaza with this title. I am interested to see what Akkad has to say about this.

The Dream Hotel: I wanted to read this because I watched ReadsWithCindy talked about this and it sounded interesting. Sci-fi Dystopian.

Hunger Games: This is a re-read, It has been like 6 years since my last read. I am getting ready to read Sunrise at the Reaping and wanted a refresher on the series before I did a read of it.

Horse: July's Bookclub pick. I know it's historical about some horse?

Carry me to My Grave: This is a horror that a literary agent sent me through netgalley. I plan to go in with 0 expectations : )

Brigands and Breadknives: Lastest in Baldree's cozy fantasy series. This one follows Fern in an adventuring party i think? Excited to start it!

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Oh, boy! I read some books this month!

Total Read 12

DNFs 1

Wretch: This is a queer horror about a gay man whose husband recently died and how he is handling his grief. It was pretty good read, and the first book i've read from larocca! I want to explore more of his work!

The King Must Die: I expected different story than was received, but it is a historical accurate thesis retelling. It was good, but Renault's writing can be dense so it's not super easy to get through.

The Only Good Indians: This was my first Stephen Graham Jones book, I liked the concept and thought it was interesting way to tell a story as if it was an elder speaking to the children. The characters just fell flat to me.

The Magician of Tiger Castle: This was a nice light read, it was about a magician that kind of sucks at his job and has to try and be good at it and make the princess forget she is in love with a scribe so she marries a prince. It was very funny and it was a fun time.

Small Favors: I heard about this a while back and I know Erin Craig is known for her Night Circus. It's about a young girl who is a daughter of an apiarist. This was a retelling, but I didn't know about it until I got to the point where it was obvious what kind of retelling it was. Absolutely loved this.

The Red Palace: A murder mystery set in Korea in the past. It was pretty good murder mystery, I had a hard time figuring out the killer. I liked the relationships between Hyeon and every other character in the novel. It felt realistic.

The Jasmine Throne: This was a re-read, so I knew I'd love this already. I'm getting reading to read the final book the lotus empire. I did not remember most, of course I remember the main beats, but the nuance would have been lost on me. This is about Priya a temple child whose people are being oppressed by Parijhatdvipa. Malini is a princess of the empire who was banished for mysterious reasons. It's got a classic fantasy vibe with politicking involved set in an Indianesque fantasy world.

Girl in the Creek: This is a horror, set in a small town. A podcaster goes to this town in search of her brother, bryan, who went missing 5 years ago. We get to see this small town's problems. This was ok, I thought the fungal aspects were very interesting.

Everything is Tuberculosis: I have actually never read a John greenebook, but I do remember his tumblr days. This was a great and education read. Greene takes you through the darkness of tuberculosis and how we as people found a cure and how capitalism fails us with the cure.

The Descdant of the Crane: I love the author Joan He, she has written one of my favorite books: Strike the Zither Duology. I love He's writing it's eccentric and unique writing. I thought this was a weaker piece she's written. We follow Princess Hessina as her father was killed and she wants to find justice.

An Arcane Inheiritance: I DNF'd this. The writing is honestly why, and I did not care for the banter for the main two characters on this. I got about 40% through this and found I didn't care. I don't think there was honestly anything wrong with this story but it could have used another round of edits.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: This was my bookclub pick for June. It was pretty good mystery! It had me guessing who killed Andie and Sal. I also loved the chemistry between the characters!

A Closed and Common Orbit: This was a good time, I love how Chambers writes Sci-fi, yet it feels cozy and warm. We follow after the events of LWTASAP, Lovelace has been reset and is in a body and she is having dysmorphia and how she handles not being omiscient. We also follow Pepper who is trying to help her. This was a great character study and just a look at what would it look if an AI had limitations and how it could handle it?

[aceinabook]

Character 4| Setting 4.5| Writing 4| Plot 4| Enjoyability 3.5

Rating 4

I listened to this on audio the same time I read Good Girl's guide to murder, and I wish I knew they were both mysteries about murders. I think that may have affected my enjoyment of this, but I still like it!

I've Read one of Hur's works before and I know she specializes in the Korean diaspora, this was such an interesting book.

We Follow Hyeon, a palace nurse. Her mentor gets accused of mass murder and she teams up with a police Investigator Eojin to prove that she didn't do it. This case is actually based on a real story which I thought was super interesting.

What I really appreciated from this is that Hyeon felt so real. She would talk about how bitter she was and envious of others she would be due to her circumstances. I just appreciated a nuanced character that was 100% pure and innocent. She had her faults, but overall she was a character that I rooted to succeed.

Her persistance and the consequences for her actions I could see based on the time period and the social constraints.

I liked Eojin and Hyeon's banter, it felt fun and I was always happy when they had a scene. I did think it was cute that Hyeon would be very no! It's not what you think. She is the queen of miscommunication and misunderstandings.

Overall I felt it was a good story, I did think the killer was too obvious, but I was glad to be on this ride.

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Character 4| Setting 3| Plot 4| Writing 4| Enjoyability 3.5

Rating: 3.7

TW: there is a pet death, it hit me like a backlash so warning you now.

I picked this up for my book club, but I've heard about it before as it is a pretty buzzy book.

I enjoyed Pip, I thought she was an interesting character and we really knew who she was and who the people were around her.

The entire town felt super racist. Even if Sal had killed Andie(precious smoll white girl who could do no wrong -eyeroll-) was super uncomfortable. I'm sure Jackson did that on purpose though it's never written like your supposed to feel the town is right. But It did feel weird how they were always like Sal was perfect, it felt very weird. i don't know if that was the right choice specifically, due to the fact that Jackson showed everyone else's flaws. Look this is a story about teens and teens make a ton of mistakes.

I was pleasantly surprised by this; because it had a couple of red herrings in here and I felt like the mystery was good, I had a hard time figuring out we did it until near the very end.

I want to talk about the dog death, it brought conflict to Pip and gave her hesitance to stop. I hated the dog death, it was shock value meant to rock you. I would rather Jackson used something else. I get it Pip needed some conflict; I thought it was Ravi who would have been kidnapped or something, but that didn't happen.

I really liked the character dynamics they were cute, and the puns were fun. They felt like teenagers and not just characters written by an adult to be teens.

Overall I really enjoyed this and I am thinking of continuing with Pip's story as well!

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Character 3.5| Setting 4| Plot 3| Writing 4| Enjoyment 3

Rating: 3.5

I read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet 2 years ago, which isn't that long, but I forgot a couple of things and they arn't really that important to this, but I do wish I did a reread for some of the nuances.

I really liked that we dealt with AI in a physical body and how it would affect the AI, can they do things sapient races can do, and how they have to keep their secrets living along sapient races as not a tool, but a person in society.

How an AI could be a friend, how it could figure to change its own programming. I thought this was an interesting take and Becky Chambers always talks about societal issues that could be brought up with technology and Sci-Fi.

Becky Chambers has such a unique voice in sci-fi and I want to continue to read more from her.

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Character 3| Setting 4| Plot 3.5| Writing 3.5| Enjoyability 3.5

Rating: 3.5

Girl in the Creek is the story of a small town and the mystery of what happens as people go missing in this town. Erin's brother went missing in this town 5 years ago, which is her reason for coming to the town.

I thought this reminded me early on of the start of a slasher film, but ended up showing us the mysteries and weirdness of this town.

i thought the characters felt a little on note; I wished there was a little more development. This was a short read, so Wagner could defintley afford to do it.

I could tell Wagner researched mushrooms and Mycelium. I went to the museum a few years ago and they had this documentary on fungi and there was a line in this that felt ripped out of it. So I appreciated the mushroom facts as fungi is so interesting. There is a reveal later that I rolled my eyes at, I won't say exactly what as I don't want to spoil anyway, but huge eye-roll for me.

This felt lighter than an average horror novel, but still had a lot of horrific elements. I'm interested in seeing what else Wagner puts out, because this had a lot of potential to go even deeper than it did.

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Character 3.5| Setting 4| Writing 4| Plot 3.5| Enjoyment 3.5

Rating: 3.7

I have loved Joan He writing; I love how eccentric it is. This work felt very different from her Strike the Zither series and The Ones Were Meant to Find. She is an author that I always find her writing is very different from her peers. I love it and well pick up anything she writes!

I would have to say this is my least favorite of her works, but I still enjoyed it. I don't think I clicked with most of the characters here, which might be where my problems with this lie. I thought this world was intricate, I thought the political maneuvering was cool, but I just didn't seem to care about the cast.

The chemistry between Hesina and Akira was not there for me, but then they ended together and I was surprised, because I felt like they had a friendship, but not a romantic one.

I did call the twist at the end, because a certain someone was very sus.

It did take me about 50% before I could get into this as we get some very interesting information.

Another great read by Joan He, I can't wait to see what else they write.

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Character 3.5| Setting 3| Plot 3| Writing 4| Enjoyability 4

Rating: 3.5

Thank you to the author and Saga press for this ARC e-copy.

I did not know what I was getting into when I got this arc, a saga representative sent this to me to read and review, it took me a while to get to this so i'm sure it's out now.

We follow Simeon after he loses his husband Jonathan to cancer and he is so deep in his grief he can't handle life.

This was such an interesting look at grief, gay identity, and what we do with our relationships.

Honestly, I don't know if I fully understood what LaRocca was putting down, you could really analyze this text, I feel there is so much imagery and foreshadowing here. I've never read anything from LaRocca and am very interested in reading something else by him.

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Character 3.5| Setting 3| Plot 3| Writing 4| Enjoyability 5

Rating: 3.7

I picked this up, because I heard Sachar released a fantasy book?! It's been so long since we received a book by this author! I was so excited!

I'm glad I picked this up after I was reading a lot of heavy books. I read a book about Fascist Italy and the myth of Theseus: these were both very heavy and with everything going on in America It paralelled the Italy book and was such a heavy read.

This was a breath of fresh air and I think I enjoyed it so much due to that so your mileage may vary.

This is an adult novel, but it felt more YA. The pacing felt YA and even though our narrator is in his 40-50s it was about things happening to our two teenage characters.

I really enjoyed Anatole, he was kind of a loser, but I loved him dearly because of all his faults.

This was such a funny book as well, if you need a good laugh then Anatole will deliver. I really did want Anatole's poor decisions to comeback to him, they kind of did, but not get the gratification I hoped for.

Very fun and light read!

[aceinabook]

Character 3.5| Setting 4| Plot 3.5| Writing 3.5| Enjoyability 3

Rating: 3.5

This is a buzzy book, I heard a lot about it. This may have risen my expectations.

I thought this was such an interesting concept, I just couldn't get super into it. This was pretty gritty and gore-y, there is some pet death as well.

I liked the narrator was distant as if orally telling the story to a group, and I liked how the Elk got some perspective towards the end of the chapters. My favorite part was the last part of the book, it felt like a traditional slasher, but with some indigenous lore.

I think this would make a great make a great movie or tv show. I hope someone picks this up, because the potential of that would be fantastic.

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Character 5| Setting 5 | Plot 4| Writing 4| Enjoyability 5 Rating 4.6 I heard about this book a while back and that it was a small town horror. I didn't really expect much as I have never read Erin A Craig, who I know is known for her Night Circus. I wasn't really aware that this was a Rumplestilskin retelling, but oh boy this has got to be one of my favorite spins on the rumplestilskin story. We follow Ellory and her family in their small town the goings happenings and the dramas and changes happening between Ellory and her twin distancing and just the havoc being caused around town and strange happenings. I come from a rural area, so I know what it's like to know going about town and everyone knows everyone, it's a perfect place to set an idyillc horroresque life. You deal with these people everyday, everyone has small gripes. I absolutley loved the way Craig tells this story, she makes you attached to these characters I knew who they were. There were characters I loved and hated. I thought the chemistry between Ellory and Whittaker were so well done and the banter between the two was so sweet. I absolutley cried with these two! There is kind of mystery that I called early in, but I felt Craig do such a wonderful job at foreshadowing that I think the credit should all go to the author here. She created a fantastic world and I loved being in it. I only wished we could have explored a little bit more on Sam's resentment to Ellory, I didn't quit understand why he seemed to hate her?

[aceinabook]

Character 3| Setting 4| Plot 3| Writing 3| Enjoyability 2.5

Rating: 3.1

I first want to say, this is a good book! I had a lot of trouble getting into it for about 70% of the book, but the 30% at the end was very good!! I did have different expectations for this, then I saw delivered.

I saw a comment about this book when I was first interested that said there was a queer relationship between Theseus and the Minotaur(Asterion), which is what got me interested. That is not true, and I want to find that commenter and strangle them!

This story follows Theseus from childhood, and ends just as he leaves Crete after defeating the Minotaur.

I am familiar with the main story about Theseus needs to kill the Minotaur, Ariadne helps him by giving him the thread to get through the Labyrinth. What I really liked about this retelling is Renault is using historical context and mixes it with Mythology to show us a realistic telling of this.

Theseus is arrogant, and I hate him. I do think that Renault did such a good job of showing his flaws and showing his virtues. There would be times someone would say something a little racist and Theseus would be like all people are equal don't be an ass. I was like damn Renault your making me agree with Theseus. I did really enjoy even if I didn't like this man, I still felt like he was a strong character.

i just wish we spent some more time on Theseus's relationships with other people. I never cared too much about his relationships with other people, it seemed like it was there and it happened and now we need to move on. It might be because The King Must Die does cover a lot happening, but I wonder if we slowed down and developed his relationships a bit more it would have felt a little more real.

I don't think I will move on to The Bull and the Sea(sequel), but I do want to check out her Alexander the Great retelling.

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Reread as if 5/7/2026

Character 5| Setting 5| Plot 4| Writing 4.5| Enjoyability 5

Rating: 4.7

Did I love this better than last time? I did slightly, honestly. I reread this because I plan on getting to the Lotus Empire and I didn't really remember the nuances of the book and boy am I glad I did. I read this originally read this back in 2022 and I didn't remember much of this?

This is such a good book so it really bums me that I didn't remember much of this, but I did remember how much I loved it and loved Priya and Malini.

Like I said in my earlier review, the politics in this world are really interesting. We have Malini who is an expert in politics and we have Priya who is more good at fighting. I like how different these two women are and how great their chemistry is.

I loved what I said originally, " If you love Women who are gentle, who are scheming, or who are just tired of men's shit in a world that tramples on them read this book."

This was such a great read, and I love the world Tasha Suri describes, it's very tangible and you can feel like your inside of it.

- Character 4.5| Setting 5| Plot 3.5| Writing 4| Enjoyability 5

Overall Rating: 4.4

When I first heard about The Jasmine Throne, I was excited. The premise sounded interesting and I am a slut for anything with Queer rep.

I heard a lot of booktubers be like this book is so boring. but nah man this book was so interesting from the politics of the empire, to the al hirani people's culture… it was very good and I was interested the whole time. this was a 20 hr audiobook by the way so that's not an easy task!

Tasha Suri takes you to a world of fantastic politicking and dark fantasy.

I loved falling in love with these characters that went through so much in the course of only like 500 pages. I'm excited to see where Priya, Malini, and Bhumika's lives go forward.

If you love Women who are gentle, who are scheming, or who are just tired of men's shit in a world that tramples on them read this book. I'm excited to continue.

[aceinabook]

Writing 5| Research 5 | Understand-ability 5|Enjoy-ability 5

Rating: 5

I picked this up for a Good-Reads challenge about last years winners. I heard about this and it was getting a little buzzy, but before my challenge I wasn't totally convinced I'd care about this.

Please if you felt like I did do pick this up, I learned so much about TB and John Green does such a great job of making this information very accessible and very easy to understand.

John Green takes us on a journey with him as he visited a Hospital in Sierra Leone a country in Africa, a relatively poor country. Where he meets Henry, who is a someone who is dealing with TB.

John Green shares some funny facts of TB, shares serious facts of TB, and shares terrible things that people have caused to worsen TB epidemic.

As Green starts this book he talks about how he thought TB was a thing in the past, to be honest I felt the same until I read this, and his friend tells him "Nothing is as so privileged as thinking history belongs in the past" That line hit me and felt so powerful.

TB is called the White Man's Plague, because they believed Black and other people of color did not contract it, we know they did, but racist America is central here. After Emancipation of the enslaved black community were poor and huddled in small spaces where disease is rampant, Dr J F Miller says, "they weren't sick when they were enslaved, if black people are enslaved they'll be cured!" A couple things about that….

It is very interesting to see how TB has been seen as a disease as first for the artistic genius and then when cured among the rich now its a disease of the poor and disenfranchised.

There is a point in here where Green mentions Johnson & Johnson; and I was like oh boy here we go. I read No More Tears by Gardiner Harris in February which is all about Johnson & Johnson's questionable business practices. And of course they are again at the scene of the crime.

TB is curable, we have a cure. There is a Drug resistant form of TB, but there are ways to go against it with other drugs which J&J developed, which was paid for by American Tax dollars, and J&J is charging exorbitant prices, which is why poorer countries can't afford it! This just enraged me so be prepared to be enraged by J&J.

Green really shows us ways people can help prevent and what causes TB. What history tells us of TB, and how it will still effect us today.

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May TBR

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: My June bookclub pick. I've heard of this before so I know it has a pretty good reputation

An Arcane inheritance: This is an ARC that I am just getting to since it is now out....anyway better late than never 2% in. It's dark academia i believe? I saw the author post about it on insta and was intersted.

Everything is Tuberculosis: This is my nonfiction of the month plus it is doing my goodreads challenge. This was the winner of the nonfiction goodreads winner of 2025.

The Jasmine Throne: This is a reread for me. I am rereading this and the oleander sword before I get to lotus empire. I'm 35% way through.

The King Must Die: This is a historical about the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.