God just read my first 1-star book of the year and oof.
May do a lil' review on it, we'll see
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@lanx-reads
God just read my first 1-star book of the year and oof.
May do a lil' review on it, we'll see
listen, I think audiobooks are great. I think they "count". I'm not bothered by people calling listening to audiobooks reading. however, I think a large part of the reason people are annoyed by this recently is that there are many, many people online saying, "I've read 300 books this year" and then posting a lot of stuff implying they are superior to (or like to read more than) people who haven't.
But then, all it takes is to scroll back on their profile a little ways to find out that they "read" 300 books because they listened to audiobooks on 3x speed while they were doing other things and flat out didn't listen or absorb any of it and couldn't tell you what 90% of those books were about even if their life depended on it. And THAT is not reading. If you're actually taking in the story, sure, then you've read the book. If you're speed running the process without paying attention, then no, that's not reading. I would say the exact same thing about skimming/flipping through the book.
“I love you as a knife loves a throat”
- when a book is so good you have to instantly jump to make fanart, it was rly a joy to read and I can’t wait for the next one, i am gonna be a menace until it comes out!
Heaven Review
Final Rating: */***** or 1/10
The angel Bethany and her mortal love, Xavier, have already pushed the boundaries of Heaven with their relationship. In this conclusion to the Halo trilogy, the two take their love to the next, forbidden, step: They marry.
At a time when they believe nothing will come between them again, they are faced with their most daunting challenge yet: the Sevens, a military order of angels designed to maintain balance in the universe. These soldiers won't stop until their job is done - capture the wayward angel and send her home.
Secrets, exile, and unexpected allies flavor the rest of this intense love story and adventure.
Beth discovers there is only one way back to earth, but the cost is higher than she - and readers - ever imagined. If she can survive, she can prove to Heaven and Earth that there is nothing stronger than the power of love.
Heaven by Alexandra Adornetto is the Spider-Man 3 of all books and that is probably the highest praise I can give it considering I did enjoy Spider-Man 3.
i finished Heaven and YALL it was a RIDE and i am EXCITED to write up this review lemme tell ya
God I finished they both die at the end and I’m p sure that book killed me bc oh boy oh boy I’m still crying it was so good
In other news I’m officially dnf’ing The Girls as.... blah... I’ll write a review on both eventually
Our Bloody Pearl is finally here!
A standalone fantasy in a world of merfolk and pirates…
The ocean is uncontrollable and dangerous. But to the sirens who swim the warm island waters, it’s a home more than worth protecting from the humans and their steam-propelled ships. Between their hypnotic voices and the strength of their powerful tails, sirens have little to fear.
That is, until the ruthless pirate captain, Kian, creates a device to cancel out their songs.
Perle was the first siren captured, and while all since have either been sold or killed, Kian still keeps them prisoner. Though their song is muted and their tail paralyzed, Perle’s hope for escape rekindles as another pirating vessel seizes Kian’s ship. This new captain seems different, with his brilliant smile and his promises that Kian will never again be Perle’s master. But he’s still a human, and a captor in his own way. The compassion he and his rag-tag human family show can’t be sincere… or can it?
Soon it becomes clear that Kian will hunt Perle relentlessly, taking down any siren in her path. As the tides turn, Perle must decide whether to run from Kian forever, or ride the forming wave into battle, hoping their newfound human companions will fight with them.
Our Bloody Pearl is a fantasy novel, with slight steampunk world building and a bit of both romance and deep friendships. It has a simplistic but endearing plot, with strong themes of family, forgiveness, and home. Prepare for a voyage of laughter and danger while your heart is stolen – if not eaten – by sirens.
Purchase Our Bloody Pearl in paperback or ebook!
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I haven’t talked about this during the month of pre-release info, because these aren’t the character’s defining characteristics and I don’t want to portray them as token diversity to gain brownie points, but because this is the final release post:
Yes, this is an #ownvoice book about a nonbinary, disabled protagonist (who isn’t “healed” by some ablist power of love) and an asexual love interest. Yes, the entire cast are characters of color. Yes, Simone is a trans woman, and she and her future wife do live happily ever after.
For those of you who are enthusiastic about OBP but don’t have the funds to purchase it right now, please note that in the tags when you reblog the post, and I’ll see what I can do for you!
DNF Review: Throne of Glass
Final Rating: */***** or 2/10
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
Throne of Glass isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but it certainly was one of the most infuriating, which is why I was only able to read about 50% of it.
Since I didn’t finish it, I am only going to review the issues and things I disliked within the first half I read of it.
I also wanna note that I did read spoilers for the ending to confirm some thoughts I had and will be touching upon those.
Since this is my first DNF Review, I am gonna discuss why I picked up this book in the first place, the writing style (which is something that, for the most part, doesn’t really change from beginning to end), the premise (rather than the plot since I didn’t finish the book), the things I liked about the book, what I disliked about this book, and finally why I put it down.
Nostalgic Review: Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
Final Rating: ****/***** or 8/10
The undead can really screw up your senior year ...
Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.
So I read Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey a long time ago and remembered really liking it. I decided to reread it and see if it was as good as I remember it being.
Believe it or not, it actually was! For what this book is, it’s pretty good. In fact, I would say that this book is basically what YA paranormal romances should be quality-wise rather than the stereotypical standard we get! I feel if I had read more paranormal YA books that were of this standard rather than the poor standard I read, this book would be more of a three star read, but I digress.
The book is fluffy for the most part, though dives down and deals with some interesting issues. Jessica learns that sometimes, life isn’t always so black and white, true and untrue, while Lucius deals with what having freedom means. It’s actually quite interesting, especially the latter, as it’s an issue I don’t usually see tackled in books like this.
This book is a romance and it treats itself as such. The plot is about the romance, the characters, their interactions, and how they grow as people and for the most part, the character development is really good, especially Jessica’s. Lucius’ development isn’t quite as smooth as her’s, but it’s not bad per se.
Though this book has a sequel, it works 100% fine as a stand-alone novel. Both Jessica and Lucius are decently fleshed out characters and both kinda stand out from other YA main characters as well. Jessica’s parents are also amazing characters and I enjoyed reading a YA book of all things where the parents are important characters and know what’s going on as well.
The romance is also well done. It’s cute, fluffy but doesn’t rot your teeth out, and is also slow burn. Very slow burn. There’s actually quite a bit of angst in this book after all the fluff. As someone who adores slow burn romances with balanced angst and fluff, I really enjoyed these aspects.
The vampire lore isn’t the most developed, but it’s interesting enough and enough thought was put in it to carry the non-romance plot of the book.
The writing is serviceable. The book is in first person POV, but that’s a standard here. The writing isn’t utterly amazing by any means, but it’s not bad either. It’s quite average all things considered.
The side characters aren’t quite as good as they could’ve been. Mindy, the best friend, was pretty typical and not that interesting to me. Faith, the slutty cheerleader archetype, was a bit of a disappointment and a bit of a lackluster villain. However, when I was reading this book, I read it less of Faith being a direct villain and more of a symbol of Lucius losing his grasp on himself as he greedily gave into his newfound freedom. Faith was still not a good villain though as she was just a stereotypical slutty cheerleader.
Another portion of the book I liked was the fact that Jessica wasn’t super skinny. She was described as a dress size of 10, which isn’t fat per se, but the book made it clear she wasn’t super thin or conventionally attractive, which was nice. However, in doing so, it did put down size 0 girls and super thin girls. Considering it was from Jessica’s POV, it wasn’t a surprise, but it’s still body shaming that wasn’t addressed much.
Likewise, there was some implied homophobia and transphobia. Mainly from Lucius, who grew up in a conservative household, who made the implication that women and men had to marry and that all women and men were cis. It’s nothing super noticeable and I don’t think anyone who reads it would notice unless they are sensitive to those sorts of things or are practiced in pointing it out. Honestly, even calling what was said (through dialogue, not narration, tho the narration did not challenge the ideas) homophobic and transphobic a little too far. It’s more assumptions of straightness and cisness rather than anything actually malicious. Personally, it didn’t bother me too much besides the initial catching of it.
Besides all that, I really did enjoy this book. It was a nice and light read that made me feel kinda warm and fluffy (for the most part!) and was just an entertaining read. If you wanna read something cute, entertaining, with some vampires, then I recommend picking up Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side.
****/***** or 8/10
I’m so sorry this blog has been dead I fell outta reading again XD
I still have my Throne of Glass review halfway typed up tho!! And thanks to an ask game I’ll try and write up a review for a book I reread a week or two ago
I can’t promise if this blog will be anymore active, but welp.
Do you take book recommendations?
Sure do! Though I have a lot of books on my list so it may take me some time to get around to it ^^
LOOKIE WHAT I JUST GOT 😍😍😍 Too bAD I CAN’T READ IT YET I’M TOO BUSY
you know whats weird?? the fact that I wanna reread a lot of books I own, but the ONE series I used to reread at least once a year?? the one series I used to love?? I don’t. Feel like reading. Like.
Idk.
And ofc that series is harry potter.
Maybe its bc i’ve read and reread the books so many times but I honestly just have no desire to reread the books. maybe its bc jk rowling is.... jk rowling... and stuff that is canon is just... hmmm no to me now. Idk.
Like I still think its a good series and I still consider it one of my childhood series but idk... I feel like I may not ever feel the need to reread it again
and that fact doesn’t even really make me sad.
ik I should read one of the many books I just like... bought.... but what if I reread captive prince instead........
I’M CRYING
(WARNING: LEAH ON THE OFFBEAT SPOILERS)
I just. Enby rep. I have never read enby rep before and it’s such a small thing but I’m overwhelmed right now.
A book about being bi, being fat, and with some enby rep and even. Using the termology. I just.
I love it. I love this book.
I started Leah on the Offbeat as I’ve been SO excited abt this book since Leah is Almost Literally Me and I’m honestly?? Loving it so much. A book abt a unashamedly day bi girl is just. Amazing.
I wish this book could’ve come out when I was younger. I really do. It would’ve helped me out so much during high school
Jesus I can’t wait to be able to finish it. I’m halfway through and it’s for sure a 5 Star read for me I think
Hades Review
Final Rating: */***** or 2/10
Bethany Church is an angel sent to Earth to keep dark forces at bay. Falling in love was never part of her mission, but the bond between Beth and her mortal boyfriend, Xavier Woods, is undeniably strong. But even Xavier’s love, and the care of her archangel siblings, Gabriel and Ivy, can’t keep Beth from being tricked into a motorcycle ride that ends up in Hell. There, the demon Jake Thorn bargains for Beth’s release back to Earth. But what he asks of her will destroy her, and quite possibly, her loved ones, as well.
Hades by Alexandra Adornetto is the BEST book I have ever read!
And of course, I mean that in a completely IRONIC way. This is quite possibly the best terrible book I have read so far in my entire life.
There’s actually a lot to talk about so I’m just. Gonna start. I guess.