Book Review/Discussion Blog

rabbit | 26 | he / they | currently reading: How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

[illiteraterabbit]

Hi! I'm Rabbit - a very unremarkable little creature. I'm a hobbyist artist, D&D enthusiast, and a victorian dandy at heart.

I LOVE to talk about books, but I have discovered shoving a book into my loved ones' faces and ranting about the plot and characters isn't as fulfilling as having a discussion with people who have also read the book, so here I am.

Please don't expect any of the reviews I write to be "professional" in nature - I am a being driven by emotion, and all of my writing reflects that. I like to think of a review as a conversation. It's nothing more than me barking at a wall and getting all my feelings out. My passion leads me to hand out 5 star ratings like candy, but I do mean those 5 stars with all my heart.

I am a particular lover of historical romance and historical fantasy - especially if the romance is of the LGBTQ+ variety. Otherwise I read mostly fantasy, romance, gothic fiction, and a smattering of horror.

My favorite authors are TJ Klune and T. Kingfisher, at least as of now.

I have a particular passion for books I can deem "whimsical". I have no way of describing my own personal definition of whimsical, but it is a real and specific thing in my heart and I am always on this quest for whimsical fiction written for adults.

I'm always open to book recommendations! ✨

A Link to My Goodreads Profile

( NOTE* This is a sideblog! Follows on this blog will come from @likedrotten )

[illiteraterabbit]

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

★★★★☆ (4/5)

Date Started: 18 February 2024 Date Finished: 24 July 2024

This was the book that inspired my reading slump, though through no fault of its own. It was just difficult to keep reading a book all about death, in one way or another, when in the midst of it I went through such a loss myself. Regardless, I returned and conquered these pages. Olivie Blake's prose is maddeningly poetic, which is something I love to find. However, that being said, the timeline of this particular book was even more maddeningly twisted. At nearly any given point, I could not definitively tell you what was happening between any two given characters, as I was desperately working out the context.

That being said, there were things I absolutely LOVED about this book. Piecing together the story of Fox and Brandt was definitely the highlight of this book. The sheer amount of angst, longing, and most of all drama that kept those characters orbiting each other was enough to keep me fed for lifetimes. That being said, the other two couples in the book felt a bit lacking to me. I wish I could have seen MORE of Cal and Mayra, and maybe a little less of Vi and Tom. ALL of the characters in this book are endearing, though. Blake definitely has strength in character writing, especially when it comes to writing snarky dialogue between a group of endlessly snarky individuals... But that being said, I felt as if some of the characters in this book were less necessary than others. If Vi and Tom's page time could have been sacrificed in favor of more of Mayra and Cal, I would have been VERY satisfied.

Really, I went back and forth on whether I was going to give this book three and a half stars, or the full 4, but after how much I cried during the last about 80 pages, I think it would be unfair to deny this title that last full star. Especially considering just how philosophic it is as a whole! This is the sort of book that makes you really think about what it means not to live, but to live just one single lifetime. There is definitely something beautiful to be found there. You never realize how meaningful it is to have an end to look toward, regardless of whether you fear it or embrace it.

Again, beautiful prose, beautiful characters, and some absolutely stand-out plots, but a few extra threads that really could have stood to be trimmed. I would still recommend this book just for Fox D'Mora alone, though.

[illiteraterabbit]

You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian

★★★★★ (5/5)

Date Started: 20 July 2024 Date Finished: 22 July 2024

Long time no see, my bookish friends. After a few strenuous life events, I found myself in quite the reading slump, but I am very glad that this is the book to pull me out of it!

This is, to put it simply, a beautiful book. While this is not my first Cat Sebastian novel (I was quite a fan of The Queer Principles of Kit Webb,) I can't say that I am an avid reader of either baseball fiction or historical fiction centered in the mid-1900s. And yet, despite not being a perfect fit to my tastes by any means, I was absolutely and entirely engulfed by this book.

This is a story about time-period accurate homophobia. More specifically, it is a story about the looming threat of time-period accurate homophobia. Be not alarmed, my friends, this is the epitome of feel-good fiction, but not at the cost of reality. The world is the antagonist in this story, but despite it all, the couple does not once give up. They navigate an emotionally charged obstacle course with grace and patience and perhaps more than a little snark on one side of the pair. This is the kind of story that shows that queer people have always been around, and not only that, they have always found their happiness.

I am easily stressed when it comes to the inherent dramas found in the pages of your standard romance novel. A third-act breakup can feel catastrophic to me and make me bite my nails in absolute misery as I slog through last few pages of a book. Thankfully, Cat Sebastian saved me from this strife with this particular novel.

This is an ooey, gooey feel-good kind of book. It is the kind of romance you feel seep into your bones. The kind that gives you hope that human beings really do look for the best in each other. I LOVED both of the characters. It's a standard black cat golden retriever kind of pairing, but I, personally, NEVER get tired of that trope. The communication, while mostly non-verbal, between this pair is unmatched, and I found myself finding a validation I didn't know I was seeking right alongside Mark Bailey as I tore through these pages.

I know I hand out 5-star reviews like pieces of candy, but I don't regret it. This book made my heart soar, and that's all I can really ask for.

[illiteraterabbit]

So This Is Ever After - F.T. Lukens

★★★☆☆ (3/5)

Date Started: 17 February 2024 Date Finished: 18 February 2024

This book really almost lost me in the first half. Don't get me wrong! The premise is super interesting, and I expected some sort of cozy read out of it, but I didn't exactly get that? In part, maybe this book was a bad pick for me because I'm already not much of a YA reader. The writing style of this book just was a bit too simple for me, and I'm also really picky with anything written in first person... It didn't help that Arek was a rather annoying narrator.

I almost dropped this book entirely after the first 100 pages, but through stubbornness and willpower I carried on. Thankfully I was awarded for my stalwartness, as the book got MUCH better in the second half. I don't think I would have survived if it hadn't - the cover was just too beautiful! I needed to like it at least somewhat.

Least favorite thing: all of the boner jokes. Arek is like the least loyal MC ever. He is constantly commenting about how hot all of his friends are, and I mean ALL of them. Not just the one he's supposed to be pursuing. And mostly it's comments about the women in his adventuring party? All of those jokes just gave me the ick.

This is a book based on miscommunication, which is a plot device I personally HATE. These boys literally say nothing of meaning to each other, and it does nothing but cause them emotional trauma. For something meant to focus on the romance, there are very few scenes that actual feel heart warming between Arek and Matt. These boys break each other's hearts over and over again until the very end of the book. The general plot idea of "let me try to woo all our friends one at a time and force my best friend who is obviously in love with me and who I am also in love with help me the whole time against his will" was just. I don't know. I hated it.

At about the halfway point of this book, Arek seemed to mostly give up on that harebrained idea and things became much more tolerable. He started to focus most on his feelings for Matt, which is all I really wanted, even if at this point they were just two depressed teenagers that still couldn't communicate with each other.

The ending of the book was sweet, even if the confessions came so very late. I was happy with the ending, really, and just more or less dissatisfied with what it took to get me there. I think, at least in part, this plot of this book is something that would genuinely work better as a movie romcom rather than a book romcom.

At the end of the day, I would say I enjoyed it enough, but I don't think this would be my first choice recommendation if someone wanted a fun little fantasy romance. But I really am just glad it got better in the second half, haha!

[illiteraterabbit]

A Power Unbound - Freya Marske

★★★★★ (5/5)

Date Started: 10 February 2024 Date Finished: 16 February 2024

"The past could turn you into a strip of paper with a single side, so that comfort and vulnerability slid away down the invisible channels and couldn't be grasped."

Kind of funny to post only a review for the final book in a trilogy, but unfortunately this blog didn't exist when I read the first two, so consider this my personal review for the series overall. Note: It is going to be a glorious, glowing and raving review focusing on this third book overall as it is what primarily weighs on my mind. All three of these books are firm 5 star ratings in my heart of hearts, and I will not budge on the matter.

I'm already a well established fan of historical fantasy, so when I stumbled upon A Marvellous Light back when I still worked at Barnes and Noble it felt like a matter of fate. I was in love with the world from the start and knew I would read as many books as it took to get to the end of the overarching plot line. A Restless Truth enchanted me just as much as the first book, though in a completely new and different sort of way. It was refreshing and fun and left me in dire anticipation for the release of the final book of the trilogy.

And that brings us to A Power Unbound. A book hasn't stressed me out as much as this one did in ages. And I mean that in a good way, of course! The stakes felt appropriately high, and that meant they felt apocalyptic. It might seem impossible to weave a romance within the lines of a book of apocalyptic stakes, but Freya Marske absolutely managed it.

The violent, aggressive, off-putting love between Alan and Lord Hawthorne felt just as desperate as everything else. It was a force to be reckoned with, and it knocked me off my feet every chance it had. Robin and Edwin may still be my favorite couple, but the romance between Alan and Jack definitely felt the most satisfying. Maybe it's because it was at least partially stretched across two books - maybe it was just because it was so... Well, everything it was. I don't know, but I did love every second of it. I don't like to talk plot much when I review books, because I personally hate reading a glorified summary when I seek out other reviews, but I can tell you that this book wrapped up everything perfectly. The ending was satisfying in more ways than one, and the epilogue perfectly reminded me how much I loved every single character throughout this series. I could not recommend this series any more intensely. If you are searching for a wonderful queer fantasy, it's waiting for you here.

I can't wait to see what Freya Marske writes next. I promise I will be a dedicated reader for life.

And with that:

"I would take your heart between my ribs and guard it like my own. Is there any way I could make you believe it?"

[illiteraterabbit]

In The Lives of Puppets - TJ Klune

★★★★★ (5/5)

Date Started: 07 February 2024 Date Finished: 10 February 2024

Somewhere along the way, reading a TJ Klune book always seems to morph into some kind of self prescribed torture for me, one that I still return to gleefully time and time again like a crazed masochist. It seems like everything he writes is perfectly designed to make my cry my eyeballs out. Thankfully this one didn't get me as badly as Under the Whispering Door had. It took me days to recover from that read in particular, but never the less the last 40 pages of this book had me a sniveling mess for longer than I'd like to admit.

This book caught me by surprise. Despite having bought it the very day it released, it took me a long time to actually get around to reading it. The premise was just so different from the other two TJ Klune books I had read. It was an out there premise, and I am not much of a Pinocchio fan, so the idea of a retelling didn't inspire much in me regardless of how much I love Klune as an author. I was afraid I would enjoy it as much as I had The House in the Cerulean Sea or Under the Whispering Door...

And it IS different. But God, it's so good. The writing in general is great, of course. Simplistic when it needs to be, but still effective. Most of all though, this man knows how to write endearing characters like no one else. Nurse Ratched and Rambo will follow me forever, and don't even get me started on Victor and Hap. Klune's characters burrow so deep into your heart that all their emotions and flaws start to feel like your own, and that is what makes the story feel so impactful. This book is funny. It is sickeningly sweet. It has more meaning packed into it than I have brain cells to unpack, but that doesn't take away from it in the slightest. This book had me constantly calling my partner over so I could read sections out loud to them, because it was just so funny that I felt the undeniable urge to share it. The banter between characters feels so natural, even if they're all robots in a somewhat post-apocalyptic setting. Their world solidifies around you until it's too late, and you're caught up in all the drama right alongside these characters you've been giggling alongside for over 100 pages.

It aches - this book aches. In a fun and bizarre way that you don't expect it to. Or at least that I didn't expect it to. I loved it. I was enraptured by it.

The slow romance between Victor and Hap happens so naturally that it felt undeniable. It was beautiful. I really couldn't recommend this book any more intensely! It was such a delightful read. A unique book in every way.

I do wonder what it was originally supposed to be - it is mentioned in the author's note that this book changed a lot between the first draft and what was eventually published. While I am curious as to what came before it, I love what it ended up being.

Serious. What a good book.