Whimsical Whispers

Sofware dev chatting about books and more. She/Her - 30+

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Review of Wings of Life by Meghan Le Fay... 2.5/5⭐️... minor spoiler warning...

First of all, I just wanted to say that I had a very difficult time trying to figure out what rating I wanted to give this and I am STILL not certain I have the right score. Bare in mind though, these are just my opinions and what I look for when I am reading and in no way should be taken as objective fact. What could be a low score for me could be a perfect score for someone else -- reading is always subjective!

TLDR plot: Merida from Brave (Disney) gets forced into an arranged marriage with a young Stoick the Vast (How to Train Your Dragon), moves to Berk (How to Train Your Dragon) and has to learn to adapt… quickly… while also doubling as a spy for her Father/country. Magic and dragons are present.

A couple of things influenced this score for my personal tastes… I'll start with those first.

Pacing. There is a major pacing issue that happens right after the beginning towards the middle that I would say dips in and out until the end. The majority of the story nothing is really happening and the characters are constantly "training". Training for this, training for that, they are ALWAYS training. It's monotonous and repetitive and it makes the flow of the story really start to drag in these moments. It was a good few hundred pages of this and I honestly debated dropping this because I felt like the plot was at a standstill and refusing to move forward. I think a good chunk can be cut out easily, maybe 30% of this book, and still keep to the same story. I felt like the beginning was so fantastic and had really good momentum going into it but it absolutely died off with its pacing issues. I honestly would not be surprised if a large number of readers chose not to continue midway because of this as I feel this is the number one issue that can be fixable.

Suspension of disbelief. I think this only affected me later on in the story with some of the character choices. I had a hard time believing some of the evil characters would do what they did compared to their earlier version of themselves we first met. Particularly of the reveals for some of the more traitorous or scorned characters. I just had a hard time believing these character are just straight up black or white in evil disposition without nuance or reason in the midst of a world where nuance and mistakes are present and forgivable. Growth was never a factor. Overall I think it just made the characters more shallow and lacking the complexity that is more common in a young adult book than an adult book.

This is where I start getting a bit spoiler-ish…

Conflict. This ties into the same pacing/repetitive issue. We got SO many pages dedicated to Serae's training and skills and nearly zilch using it. The few times things did change it up it was over just as soon as it started. Until the end of course. I wish we had more battles or something else to stir things up other than a laughably shallow scorned ex here and there.

Sarae's capabilities. For a girl who spent nearly the entire book being trained by both her new family and her new dragonbound friend, she was easily fallible. I feel like despite all her abilities she was constantly taken down and beaten so easily it felt like her training was just pointless. She is the only one who can do what she can do and yet she can still get cut rather easily, pass out, and spend the next few days sleeping off her injuries.

I also felt a little icky about one particular couple because it felt entirely too close to stockholme syndrome and I just was not vibing with it. To each their own.

Now onto what I DID like…

The world. The worldbuilding is actually much better than I ever anticipated, including the cultural norms between kingdoms and the histories. I really loved learning about the various customs Serae herself also picked up on and the various terms they used to describe titles and expressions. The dragons too had a whole section on their history. The magic they used to bind with people and how it impacted the world and themselves felt unique and I really enjoyed the relationships between the bounded. I honestly would love more dragon involvement.

I also LOVE arranged marriage plots and this one definitely hit that for me. It's not for everyone, but the little miscommunication nugget between the MMC and FMC when she finally realized who she was engaged to was actually hilarious. I was yelling at her of course, but still amusing. This girl took WAY too long to put 2 and 2 together and let me tell you my faith was washing away.

That's basically all my thoughts on this and I again want to emphasize this is merely just opinion. I can easily see both views on why someone would love this series and why others may decide it's not for them. I may raise my score later as I sit longer on this or I may not. I don't think I will continue personally but I'm not writing it off either.

But, if this sounds like an interesting story to you, I implore you to give it a shot. I feel this is a book where you can honestly go either way.

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ARC Review for Prince of Swords (Arcana Academy #2)... 5/5⭐️

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wowowowowow. If there was a perfect match for Arcana Academy, this would be it.

The story starts immediately where it Arcana Academy left off and things are just as crazy for Clara as they were before. Now surrounded by enemies loyal to the crown and on the run, Clara must survive again using her wits and powers to take down the Oricalis royalty and change the world. But, as the Wheel of Fortune, luck is on her side once more.

There are twists and turns, shocking moments and confirmations. Every other page felt like something significant got plopped into your lap for proper indulgement. There is never a dull moment and in fact, the stakes are much, much higher now. Clara's goals remain the same but the world around her changed drastically the minute Ravin captured her. Together with her friends, family, and Kaelis she must fight her hardest to create the world they all need -- a free world.

I was on edge for the majority of this book, especially leading towards the finale. I feel like Kaelis and Clara's relationship had much more in-depth romance for Prince of Swords than it did for Arcana Academy. I felt much more soul-touching emotion and yearning here that the first book doesn't come anywhere close to, which was something I would have liked to see in Arcana Academy but it showed up here instead. Kaelis is such a great character and their love was one of my favorite highlights of the story.

Though my favorite has to be how the plot and world was carefully crafted. The magic system, the reveals, the secrets --it all comes together like a forgotten puzzle. It makes you want to go back and reread to pick up on the initial clues that have been intentionally left in the beginning. It made the entire experience of both books so rewarding and I am already trying to guess at what elusive details may come up in the future.

This is a fantastic series and I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for a great romantasy with a uniquely arcana-based world and magical tarot card-casting. That being said, if you loved Arcana Academy you are going to love Prince of Swords.

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Review for Heathen & Honeysuckle by Sarah A Bailey... 4.75/5⭐️

This is probably my favorite second-chance romance. And the fact that it was also a sports romance with surfing? Yes please.

This was an extremely emotional story full of angst, deep love, sweet ropmance, and once-in-a-lifetime moments. And yet, even with that, felt like it was also all wrapped up in a cozy blanket of warmth. I cried several times for multiple reasons while reading this.

My only gripes were essentially just nitpicks e.g... 1. There is a spicy scene that I felt was inserted in at the worst possible time. 2. I felt at times the flowery woo-ing prattled on for too long. 3. We never really got to find out what happened to Darby's family in the end other than with Dahlia. 4. I would have liked to see certain character reunions, if you catch my drift. 5. I definitely felt some preachy vibes, even if that was not the intent. 6. Definitely felt a little too corny sometimes.

I also felt myself sympathizing with Darby, coming from a family that could be almost as controlling at times. At times it felt very much like they used shame to control every aspect of myself so I can understand why Darby felt the way she did and why she made the decisions she did. I also loved her relationship with her sister Dahlia and just how far both sisters went to rescue each other when they needed each other the most.

This story brought out a lot of emotions in me when it hit those highs and that's a testament to how well I sank into it. I am definitely continuing this series.

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Metal Slinger by Rachel Schneider... 3.75/5⭐️

Warning... spoilers below...

This was an incredibly interesting book down to the powers and lost princess plot. It was giving Water World and a tiny-teensy bit of Princess Bride (it’s not LITERALLY a clone of Princess Bride). It was fun.

But I had a major problem with the editing aka it was nonexistent. There are many story issues including inconsistencies between character descriptions, really vague turn of events that have you flipping back through pages to figure out if there was actual foreshadowing for it, and honestly one of the worst “twists” I have ever read.

Twists are only good when they are set up. There was no clear setup for this. We were in the main characters head! We should have had at least an inkling of her thoughts prior to her volatile decision making. Nothing made sense. It was a rapid characterization change and did not line up with what I thought were the clear motives nor was there buildup towards it. It was a twist for the sake of being a twist. Just thrown in there willy-nilly and gave me one of the worst reading whiplashes I have had to date. If it was the intended ending from the beginning, it, again, needed an editor to help piecemeal the clues waaaay beforehand. Not a few chapters leading up to it. I can easily see how it ruined the book for so many people.

The world-building was pretty weak as well but more forgivable as we learned a little more as the story went on. Still very vague in some detail about places and things but it did get better. Hoping it is more fleshed out in book 2.

That all being said, it was also one of the most addictive romances I have read to date. There was an amazing amount of buildup and yearning from the MMC which made the love way more believable than the actual story. Show, not tell, was used perfectly everywhere and I was soaking it in. It made me obsessed with the MMC and I wish he had a better story surrounding him. Absolutely loved him.

The FMC aka Brynn was getting on my nerves throughout the book with her indecisiveness and flakey persona. Honestly I felt like this girl was consulting with a magic 8 ball every time she had to make a small decision or playing roulette with people’s feelings.

The writing I found to be pretty good as the pacing felt mostly fine and I never had a bored moment. The only part where it felt excessively long was when they were stranded in the ocean for a good portion of the book. A bunch of that could have been cut and still felt in line with the story.

If the problems with the story building were fixed, this would be an easy 5 for me. Since it has those problems, the highest I can give it is a 3.75. And all of those points go towards the MMC and the romance.

I may read the next one, I may not. I may just end up annoyed and mad again so I’m 50/50 on continuing at this point. We will see…

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The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez... 4.75/5⭐️

This is my first book by Abby Jimenez and what can I say? Abby knows how to do yearning and building a relationship to make it believable. It was romantic full of angst, want and heart-aching yearning. This is a closed-door romance, no spice present but honestly it doesn't need spice.

It was written at a good pace and there were no points I was bored or felt like anything dragged on. The writing flowed well and I completely immersed myself in the story. There were so many little snippets and quotable phrases that I found myself highlighting to emphasize just how well Abby puts her heart and soul into her characters and passages. It's clear to me Abby was meant to be a writer and I saw part of her soul put into her character Larissa.

There was only one thing that truly bothered me while I sank myself into this universe… I am docking review points for the needless amusement regarding their dog decimating the local wildlife population. I found that in poor taste. It wasn't the animal deaths so much as it was how it was handled as a joke every time the dog murdered another animal. It gave me major ick and is the only reason I could not give this book a perfect five stars.

But other than that? This book was near-perfect. I'm glad I bought a physical copy when I did.

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Review for Kissed by the Gods by Caty Rogan... 3.75/5⭐️

Alright, I got mixed feelings on this one but they're generally pretty positive with a few gripes.

I'll start with the gripes: 1) Something about the writing, especially towards the middle, feels disjointed and discombobulated between chapters and sometimes even scenes. There's no real transition for a lot of them e.g. Leina is going through training with her group and the next scene suddenly they are somewhere else in the mountains 3 months later. It's like whiplash and it made it very difficult to stay engaged. Every time I would feel close to immersing myself that would happen and immediately take me out of the story or make me genuinely confused. It needed an editor's touch. I am hopeful some of these issues are fixed prior to its official publication.

2) The romance was basically non-existent. It was a fantastic introduction between the two characters but it's basically insta-love for him and a quick love for her. No tension, no emotion, no build-up and nothing to make me feel like I should care about their relationship. It's too vapid for me and made the scenes with high stakes less believable.

The story itself, aside from its writing issues, is fantastic. You got a very unique world full of its own rules, lore and creatures. You have your own Witcher-like warriors aka Altors that are granted godly powers and ride their own godly horses aka Faravars aka fancy Pegasi. I saw some comments comparing it to Fourth Wing and honestly, outside of the beast comparison, I honestly don't see it and never felt that way while reading it. It's the same as comparing it to any other fantasy military academy book just because it's a fantasy military academy book.

I actually immediately was drawn to the relationship between Leina and her Faravar (which arguably had more build-up and anticipation than her relationship with Ryot). I loved the way her Faravar was described and how their connection was displayed in battle. Easily the highlight of this book.

Overall… with the gripes… I think I would initially put this at a 3.75/5. May bump it up later as I sit on it…

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ARC Review for Under the Oak Tree Volume 3 by Suji Kim... 4/5⭐️

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Under the Oak Tree is a novelization of the Under the Oak Tree webcomic by Suji Kim. In Volume 1, the story focuses on a young noble lady, Maximillian, and her growth as a new wife to the most reputable and fearsome knight in the kingdom, Sir Riftan. Faced with challenges in the previous book, we saw Maxi slowly begin to accept herself and her new role in an ancient, monster-infested world. In Volume 2, we saw Maxi gain confidence in herself as Lady of Anatol as well as learn new mage healing abilities.

Volume 3 picks up where Volume 2 left off. This is probably the most exciting of the three volumes so far. Maxi has grown as a mage and looks to help as often as she can to aid the Remdragon Knights as well as Riftan. Volume 3 presents new challenges for both Maxi and Riftan both in their relationship and as they face circumstances beyond their control. This is the most action-packed novel across all the volumes released so far. This is also the most emotionally intense volume as a lot more trauma comes into the fold between some of the characters. I am still not a fan of Riftan, but there was one particular moment where he almost redeemed himself (manwha readers should know) in my eyes.

I also feel that the first 25% of the novel did not translate well from comic to novelization. It was incredibly slow and difficult to follow whereas the comic probably had more visuals carrying it along where I felt the actual story was very weak. The rest of the novel was a lot more entertaining.

The star of the show is obviously Maxi. We saw her growth in the first few volumes and we continue to see it here. Gaining her powers in Volume 2 really got her confidence to bloom and seeing her become more of her own person in Volume 3 was a real treat and I cannot wait to see more of her soon.

Sidenote, pay close attention to the note from Suji Kim about difficult and complex themes in the beginning up the book. This will be your trigger warning for some of the more sensitive topics in Volume 3.

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ARC Review for Mayhem and the Mortal by Shanora Williams … 2.5/5⭐️

Thank you to Red Tower for the ARC!

This was a cute little romantasy! Here are my personal thoughts after having finished this book starting with what I did not like and what I did like.

What I did not like:

1. The writing. I think a lot of people will appreciate the writing, which I found to be very personable and light. As for me, I feel like it felt too flat more often then not and I never really got 100% pulled into the story. I also felt both the beginning and ending were too abrupt with not enough transition or setup to flow into the next parts of the story. E.g. For the beginning suddenly her sister is gone and bam we're now trying to track down help. I also feel like there was a lot of tell and not enough show, especially for fighting scenes. To me, I feel like more editing could have helped these issues.

2. The characters. Similar to the writing, everything felt a little too one-dimensional to me and though the characters sounded great I never felt attached to any of them nor did I have a lot of drive to continue being invested in any of them. I do feel like they all had a lot of great potential but just lacked a bit too much.

3. The world-building. Again, great on paper but the setup could have used more background. I feel like some was inserted along the way but I feel we could have had more detail about the world prior to some of the character introductions.

What I liked:

1. The premise of the story -- You got a fantastic story with a classic heroine and grumpy hero in a fantastical world full of debauchery, magic and mystery.

2. The MMC! I loved his allure when he was first introduced and his magic powers.

Overall I fear the writing was the biggest impact to being able to fully enjoy this, so my final rating will be a 2.5/5.

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Review for Still Into You by Erin Connor… 4.25/5⭐️

“I SHOULD BE OVER ALL THE BUTTERFLIIIIIIIIES—I’M INTO YOU” [Still Into You - Paramore]

A cute second-chance romance obviously inspired by Paramore of the same titled hit.

While I wasn’t “in love” with some of the characters, there were a few things I did appreciate that stood out to me:

1) The early tension and yearning. This book laid heavy into the push/pull method of sweet simmering tension, and sometimes quite literally. I honestly could have done with more but understandably this is second-chance romance so we know the feelings are already there.

2) The premise was so good and often similar band stories just fall flat or feel like the same repetitive story told over and over. This one is a little different.

I do wish I could have had a reason to like Dax more but I just was not feeling it. Some of the characters like him just were too surface level for me. Additionally, some bits felt like a bit of a drag to get through and it took a bit to push through.

But other than that this was a nice little “punk” second-chance romance that I would definitely recommend if you want a little spicy band contemporary.

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Review for Slipstream by Madge Maril… 4.5/5⭐️

I liked it. Sue me.

It was a nice surface level f1 romance where you could predict the sequence of events a mile away.

I will say the spicy scenes got a laugh out of me because it went from “uwu what if we held hands?” to “I’ma wife you up and put a baby in you” lickitly split.

This book is the perfect example of “not for everyone, but definitely for me”.

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Review for Firebird by Juliette Cross... 2/5⭐️

Oooh yeah I did not like this one.

"Penis here. Penis there. Penis, penis everywhere." -- This book, probably

Started like a fascinating car crash in real time but it just got worse as it went on. It kind of blows my mind because the intro was actually pretty rad. So what the heck happened? I won't even touch on how disappointing the ending was either.

Not to mention the master-slave relationship dynamic which never felt cute. Not even a blip on the heart monitor. It was... icky. Did NOT get into that at all.

It felt like this was trying to be almost like an omegaverse situation but with phallic-obsessed dragons instead. Maybe it should have gone fully in that direction? Even the whole Roman theme and lore felt unnecessary. Weak worldbuilding (minus the intro) and just bizarre choices here. Definitely more along the dark romance side than anything else.

TLDR: A giant pissing contest with hedonistic debauchery between dragon-shifter douchebags.

2 stars for the cover art and pretty edges.

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ARC Review for Tides of Fortune by Lauryn Hamilton Murray... 4/5⭐️

We are back to the land of Earth Cleavers and Storm Weavers. Whoo!

There are a few main things I would like to address in this review but first I will start with what didn't work for me:

Admittedly, I am not a fan of multi-POV unless they serve a unique plot purpose other than just seeing what everyone else is doing and thinking. I don't see that being the case here. I strongly feel two of the three POVs used in this book made sense while one of them felt like they were better suited for a novella or just a simple one-off scene. It did not feel important to the story and did not hold as much weight as the other two.

I think this imbalance with POVs made the first half of this book feel much, much slower than it was and I struggled to maintain interest in continuing it. The fact that most of the characters weren't really doing much in this part didn't help that feeling. It wasn't until the latter half where I felt a shift was made and things started to pick up.

However, all that aside, I think the romance in this book has been some of the best in the series. I even had a moment where I had to put the book down and squeal in glee. I think the author does an excellent job conveying emotion through her characters and it really pays off when it comes to the yearning and will-they-won't-they romance. One of my absolute favorite YA romances to date.

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Mini-Review for Half-City by Kate Golden... 4/5 ⭐️

 Not bad! It reminded me a bit of Harry Potter meets the Witcher meets Kpop Demon Hunters.

The majority of the story felt like mostly running around doing this and that which was okay but didn't really have any big "wow" moments. Honestly the best part of the story for me were the found family characters. Sophia was a delight.

It does pick up closer to the end and gets way more exciting. One of the most interesting characters gets their debut towards the end as well and honestly makes me want to read book 2 just to see more.

So all in all a solid 4/5.

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Wattpad: pay me monthly 🤩 and we will remove ads for you. also free offline stories I guess as long as you keep paying me. but we have censorship so keep your kinks to yourself. what we don’t have is tagging systems, so good luck trying to find what you want or avoiding what you don’t want to read lol

meanwhile AO3: so everything is free in our house. read whatever you want offline. also no ads. no capitalism. no censorship. be as wild as you want with your fics. also we have tagging systems so you can search or avoid any specific tags, pairings, relationships or characters. whatever you want.

I’m sorry but if you’re still complaining, you don’t realize how good you have it with AO3, one of the last platforms on the internet that is free of capitalism and censorship. just artists and writers creating and sharing their works with the community for free and for fun. just authentic love between artists, their works, characters, stories and audiences.

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Review for Project Hail Mary… 5⭐️

I am so glad I went into this blind and for that reason I am leaving this review as vague and generic as I possibly can.

Weir has a particular way of writing that feels like you’re being inserted into the character’s brain scramble. It was present in The Martian too. I can see how some people are going to either love it or hate it whenever Ryland (the main character), starts inner dialoguing. For me it was mostly okay but could get to be a bit much when he was completely alone.

The story at heart emphasizes the need for companionship that spans across space-time as well as stresses the importance and beauty of empathy and friendship. And though I enjoyed the plot, I feel everything else pales in comparison to Weir’s characterization, charm, and wry humor.

Easy five stars! Amaze amaze amaze!

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Me getting a notification on goodreads:

Me getting a message on goodreads:

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ARC Review for To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast ... 3.5/5⭐️

** Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review **

Hmmm... This has been a tricky one to review. I may have set myself up for failure on this one as I think I expected more than what I actually got as far as characters and story crafting. The premise was good--fantastic even. I am no stranger to a good dystopian novel and I typically foam at the mouth for them. This time? Eh. I'm a bit undecided.

To start, I feel like the pacing and story structure at the beginning was perfect. It kept me curious, invested and it teased the dystopian world including how common violence is a part of every day life and survival. I was immediately pulled in and followed the main characters along with ease.

But after the beginning and for a good 70% of the book, it felt extremely stagnant. I kept holding onto hope that something different would happen or some twist would occur and would make everything go topsy-turvy but it wasn't until around the last 10% of the book where it really started picking up again. By that point, I was just wanting to finish it to find out what would happen rather than take my time and enjoy it.

The ending was actually pretty interesting (even if predictable) but honestly it was the middle that was the most difficult to push through. At one point I said to myself, "I feel like I am just stuck reading the novelization of the show '60 Days In'". It gave 60 Days In: The Soap Opera.

To me, that part was the most was the most disappointing thing but I also really expected everything to be way more high-stakes than what it was. They're in one of the most deadly prisons if not the most deadly prison of the area, why can they just dilly-dally and wander around doing whatever they want without serious repercussions like getting caught or blatantly cheat? It was very difficult to suspend my disbelief and therefore stay invested in their survival.

Also, I had no interest in the love story the minute I figured out that it was instalove. Honestly, I am sad about this because I absolutely LOVED them both when they were first introduced. Bah!

But I will say, this is probably one of the more unique dystopian books I have read in a while and while I wish it lived up to my personal expectations, it was still decent. The writing was easy to follow and there were a few characters that quickly became my personal favorites. I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys things like Prison Break or 60 Days In because I do feel it leaned more on the prison setting than the dystopian setting.

Regardless... these are just my personal opinions and they no way dictate how anyone including YOU should feel about this story. If you want to read a YA-like dystopian romance with 60 Days In and Squid Game vibes, this might just be for you.

3.5/5