Roses Book Reviews

I review stuff and things and by stuff and things I mean just books - I rarely write bad reviews because I think it’s mean so this is more of a book rec blog with non spoilery reveiws

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The Shadows Between Us ~ Tricia Levenseller

Damn, okay, I did not expect to love this so much! I usually can’t stand books where the characters morals don’t align with my own but I couldn’t have disagreed with these characters more on so so many things and yet I loved them, it was such a fresh take and while I think the plot could have used some more fleshing out I really really loved it and think it’s definitely going to be a new YA staple, I’m only sad it’s a stand alone I wanted more! It’s 3 am right now, since I refused to sleep til I finished this book, so it’s hard to form my thoughts outside of “wow” and “I loved it” I’ve got to say I’m starting to fall more and more for these morally reprehensible characters, I was rooting for them even when I definitely should not have been but I couldn’t help it.

Who I recommend this book to: anyone who likes morally complicated characters with a killer love story, weird powers, royalty, and overall badassery

I give it 5/5 roses 🌹 I’m already excited to reread it

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Stalking Jack the Ripper - Kerri Maniscalco

Wow! I’ve wanted to read this series for so long but waited until it was completed and I’m glad I did because I absolutely devoured it from beginning to end. The first thing I want to mention is Thomas Cresswell. Beautiful, amazing, scandalous Thomas Cresswell. I fell in love! He was such a kind, intriguing character and I couldn’t help falling for him immediately.

I loved almost everything about this series except for one thing... I’m afraid this series has what I refer to as a “new moon” which is basically just one book that lets the series down. The book that if you were to reread the series you would skip over. So while the third book was a let down the last book more than made up for it and we are just going to pretend that it never happened! I loved the story, I loved how macabre it was! I loved Audrey Rose and how incredibly ahead she was for her time. I loved that in making her they didn’t put down the women around her. This book was filled with smart, intelligent women even if they weren’t as keen to step outside the mould as Audrey Rose was. They didn’t sacrifice her femininity for her forward thinking. There is so much I can praise about this series that you will just have to read it to discover it for yourself.

Who I recommend this book to: If dreamy love interests, badass women, murder, mystery, and mayhem don’t Intrigue you then nothing I recommend will.

I give it 5/5 roses 🌹 I loved this series and will probably reread it again and again and pretend the third book never happened!

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Serpent & Dove - Shelby Mahurin

Whew, I tried to put off reading this book because I know how much I hate unfinished series but the hype became too much and I simply couldn’t resist any longer and then I finished it in one sitting! I’m glad I didn’t, it was amazing but now I am still left wanting to read more and waiting for the next book to be released. Ahhh the pain of impatience. They hype for this book is pretty worth it, I absolutely loved the world they built and the story, I loved the characters and their personalities. I felt the love story could have been developed a bit better. I wouldn’t call it insta love so much as they hated each other, didn’t hate each other? Then loved each other. It felt confusing and not very fleshed out, which made it a little hard to believe. This lost the book some points for me because I’m shallow and a good love story is what can save a poorly written book, or like in this case, a lack of it can take away from an incredibly written book. Doesn’t mean I don’t still need more and I’m definitely very excited for the second book to come out!

Who I recommend this book to:

- Witches - Secrets - Forbidden love - Magic - Crushing the patriarchy

If any of these interest you you will love this book! And if they don’t interest you why are you reading my reviews???

I give it 4/5 roses, an awesome story but just missing something in the romance section

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House of Salt and Sorrows - Erin A. Craig

This book was hauntingly beautiful, way spookier than anticipated and so much fun to read! I loved the story, it was so cruel in a way that made me cry almost non stop and because I’m such a glutton for punishment I somehow see that as a bonus. The storytelling was just the right amount of spooky to have you on the edge of your seat but still pushing forward. I could feel what the characters felt and it all seemed very real. One negative point I do have would be to get the best experience out of this book please don’t try too hard to figure out what the twists are, I found them easily once I thought about everything but when I just looked at everything on a surface level and tried not to investigate on my own too much I found it much more enjoyable then when I’d seen the twists coming they aren’t super obvious but any bit of thought on them it didn’t take me long to figure out the truth for almost every twist

Who I recommend this book to: do you like spooky? Do you like beautiful historical fiction? Do you like mystery’s? Yes or no you should read this book

I give it 5/5 roses 🌹 it was exactly what I needed to get me into the Halloween spirit without being a “horror” themed book, just lots of mild spookiness to dip my toes into the scary spirit!

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Sorcery of Thorns - Margaret Rogerson

I absolutely adored this book, it was magical, the world was so beautiful. I love a book that shows how good vs evil isn’t entirely black and white and this book did it very well. I absolutely loved this world, where books are dangerous and of course they might chew you fingers off if you aren’t careful. Librarians being warriors is honestly one of my all time favourite tropes because all though books in our world might not be able to turn into horrible monsters and kill you they are still just as dangerous and powerful. I loved the characters and mystical and magical elements. I loved every part of this book and the only thing I didn’t like was that it was a stand alone! What I wouldn’t give for more of this story!!! I adored it and I think you will too. Of course let’s not forget one of my new book boyfriends Nathaniel Thorn 💖😭 maybe I loved him so much because Thorn is my last name too and I’m glad a book finally spelt it right or maybe it’s because he’s so wonderfully quirky, incredibly dashing and beautifully sincere.

Who I recommend this book to: anyone who loves romance, action, magic, and most of all BOOKS!

I give this book 5/5 roses🌹 I just wish it was a series because I didn’t want it to end!

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The Star Touched Queen - Roshani Choksi

Wow. I adored this series! It was magical and ridiculous and mystical. I loved all the characters and felt their heart and motivations in my chest. It felt like I was reading a story book and I love that feeling. The whole time I was reading this I was wondering if I’ve just missed all the hype about this book or is it just severely underrated?! While I adored the first book the second was where it really picked up when it changed perspectives and storyline’s and became something else entirely. I loved it, I think you will too. Read it!

Who I recommend this book to: anyone who loves lush fantasy tales, diverse characters, characters with clear motivations and character development, and MAGIC ✨

I give it 5/5 roses 🌹 it was stunning and I am now fighting off a book hangover

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On The Come Up - Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas hit us with THUG in 2017 and it was pretty much an instant classic, which is amazing but when that kind of author comes out with their next book there are always two things that go through my mind

1. Excitement

Because I loved their last book so much, and

2. Fear

Are they going to be able to live up to their last book?

Well I’m happy to say that On The Come Up definitely lived up to the hype.

It was poignant, honest, riveting, and once again an absolutely brilliant take by Thomas. The characters in her books are so achingly human, she makes you cry and laugh and feel.

This book is set a year after THUG but is a different story set in the Garden district. It continues to show how life isn’t black and white, people aren’t evil or good, and things aren’t so simple.

I firmly believe Angie is earning her spot as a future GOAT if she isn’t one already

Who I recommend this book to: anyone who loves characters with heart, with fire, and with humanity

I give this book 5/5 roses 🌹 it was stunning

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Winternight Trilogy - Katherine Arden

I loved this series, it was so ethereal and magical and felt like a story book. It got more personal as the books went on and I was really happy with the way the story progressed. It had a similar feel to The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh, less like your typical book and more like a legend or myth. It was so beautiful and I absolutely recommend it, it helped get me out of a massive reading slump where every book I was reading just fell completely flat. Also Vasya is a feminist icon who doesn’t care what you think a woman’s place is because she will do whatever the heck she wants and be whoever the heck she wants and she doesn’t care at all. Love that. This book is filled with mythical and magical creatures, history, badassery, human nature and all its down falls, and just so much more.

Who I recommend this book to: anyone who loves a good story that really thinks about the psychology of why people do the things they do and is filled with beautiful creatures with dubious morals

I give this series 5/5 roses because I loved it and it broke my slump 💖

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Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi

I read this book in a few hours was such an easy read, I mean... if you ignore all my crying... I just couldn’t put it down!

I love books that make you think, that make you hurt, that make you understand the characters you’re supposed to hate. The villains aren’t just evil caricatures made to oppose the protagonist in all things, they actually have reasons for their actions (even if those actions are still evil)

I’m lucky to live in a country where police brutality isn’t a large issue, but this book was written with parallels to the political climate in the USA and other countries where unarmed black people are so easily killed and those deaths are so easily excused, especially when they are killed by members of law enforcement.

It’s an incredible book and definitely worth the hype, if you liked the falling kingdoms series you will love this book, the same morally ambiguous characters and a very similar overall feel and immersive world

I would recommend this book to: Anyone who wants to feel things and love books with in depth worlds and good vs evil fights that aren’t as straight forward as they should be

I give this book 5/5 roses 🌹 I can’t wait for the rest of the series!

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An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Hank Green

Okay so for the record I am a massive Hank Green fan. I was excited about this book from the moment I learned it was being written which was well before I even knew what it was about. For someone who was so excited this review may seem a little late... but I have an explanation! Because I am such a massive Hank Green fan I preordered a signed copy from America and apparently express shipping from the US to Australia takes a month. So there’s that. But I finally got it and I finally read it and holy cow was it worth the wait! So I get that I almost exclusively review YA books and this kinda isn’t one of those, but April May is only 23 and also there was no way I could not review Hanks book. I met Hank at vidcon Australia earlier this year (I mean the first time I officially met him was the day before vidcon when I ran into him in the street, professed my love for him, apologised, and then called my mum and cried... but I prefer to remember the other times) anyway what this means is that this review may be biased and I may have read this book with rose coloured glasses or whatever since I already support the author so much BUT I don’t think it is? I think it really is amazing and that’s not just my fan girl self talking. But anyway enough about me and my weird Hank love here’s the actual review-

This book. This book was just so different from anything else I’ve read, it was both so far from reality but so close to everything that is currently going on. April May is not a perfect protagonist. I loved this story, I loved the characters I loved the feeling I got when reading this book. There was a moment for that I remember perfectly. I was a few chapters in and all of a sudden I just turned to my boyfriend who wasn’t even paying attention to me and just said “wait a minute this just got ominous.” That was the moment when I got this feeling that stuck with me for the rest of the book, a feeling of needing to know what happens, of trying to figure out what things might mean. It was almost something I could physically feel in the bottom of my non existant gut. There were so many things I just didn’t expect and moments that completely caught me off guard. It was the perfect mix of real and unreal, of familiar and fantastical. This book was written in the perspective of April May as she reflects on all that has happened, which i thought was the perfect format for this story. Speaking of this story I loved it, I thought it was clever, relevant, refreshing but most importantly I CAN NOT DEAL WITH THIS CLIFF HANGER I have so many questions that need to many answers and I can’t wait for book 2 to come out! You should all jump on this and be excited and impatient with me because more people need to be talking about this awesome book!

Who I recommend this book to :

Do you like bisexual protagonists?

Do you like mysteries?

Do you like weird robots?

Do you like aliens?

Do you like good books?

Do you like good political commentary?

Do you like flawed characters?

Do you like character development?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you should read this book, also if you answered no to any of these questions you should read this book because hopefully it will help to improve you taste.

I give it a gold rose 🥀 see this might be where my bias is coming through, sure I could just give it a 5/5 but I can’t make myself do that. Knowing how hard Hank worked on this book and how proud I am that it’s finally here and that he is also now the author brother and so many things I have to give it gold.

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Catwoman: Soulstealer -Sarah J. Maas

Ladies, Gentlemen, and all the other fine folk out there; she has done it again. SJM, a queen, an icon, a goddess. It took one sitting for me to devour this book and I loved every second. I mean who doesn’t love a bad girl? Especially when her reasons are so damn good. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn come together to wreak havoc on the fine city of Gotham. Bonus, you don’t need any DC knowledge to love these books, it’s completely stand alone, but is part of a series written by different ya authors. Basically, this book was sick and you should read it. Some excellent things about this book that add to the awesome are:

The love interest is black, which is something I personally am really glad to see finally becoming a thing in YA books! POC can be more than just the best friend! So yay

Harley and Ivy 💕 need I say more

It touches on racial profiling, corrupt police and racism so that’s freakin great

Who I recommend this book to: all of you, especially if you like morally ambiguous kick ass female protagonists who kick ass and take names

I give it 5/5 stars

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Sky in the Deep - Adrienne Young

I liked this one, I mean I’m already super emotional so I don’t know how much this counts for, but I was crying like the whole time I read it. It was so easy to relate to the protagonist and see things through her eyes and feel for her. The story itself was a little two dimensional and usually a plot I would expect for the first book in a series, not a stand alone. (Although goodreads is showing me that there is an untitled companion novel? Not sure what it will be about though) anyway, it was good, I enjoyed it. I just wish there was more. More plot, more character development, more angst. The general pace of the story was good but I felt like the relationship building could have been spread out more. I get with it being a stand alone there’s not that time to develop relationships before the end of the book, so I guess I’m just saying I wish this wasn’t a stand alone. I wish it had been spread over two books with a few more sub plots thrown in. But that’s my only complaint.

Who I recommend this book to: Do you like feeling things? Do you like Vikings? Do you like lots of fighting? If you answered yes to any of these questions you should read this book.

I give it 4/5 stars which sounds silly because my main complaint was that I wanted more of it but it is what it is

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Daughter of the Burning City - Amanda Foody

Alrighty then... this book had such an awesome premise, the second I read the blurb I was interested, it hooked me from the moment I started reading... but then it lost me, bit by bit, until I was forcing myself to keep reading just to get the answers. Which maybe would have been okay, if those answers hadn’t been so disappointing. The twists were either predictable, or so far out of left field you didn’t even feel bad for not guessing them because no one possible could have with the information we’d been given, it felt like a chore to read this book, which is ridiculous. I mean a disfigured bisexual protagonist and a demisexual love interest? Sounds like my cup of tea, yet I still couldn’t have cared less. I don’t know what went wrong with this book, it just didn’t deliver where I really wanted it to. This book would make a great movie, like someone really needs to come and make this book int a movie, it would be awesome! But it’s not a great book.

Who I recommend this book to: lovers of diverse characters who ever fantasied about running off to a magical circus

I give it 2.5/5 roses, because the idea was so original and intriguing

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Falling Kingdoms

Okie dokie, this series is six books long, and somehow manages to get better with every book? Death for people you assumed were safe, forgiveness for people you had previously hated, hatred for people you once loved, shifting loyalty’s and lots of drama. When I read the first book I really didn’t expect to love this as much as I did, it felt really impersonal and I kind of felt indifferent to everything that happened, but slowly I really began to care for some characters more deeply than I thought I could especially after their horrible pasts. No one in this series is a lost cause, even the most seemingly irredeemable, and that’s something I really like about it. The story was great, the characters were complicated and well fleshed out with complex motivations and I grew to love them all. I’m really sad I’m finished, like what do I do now after reading this for six books? Where do I go? Ugh I have a definite book hangover.

Who I recommend this to: Anyone who loves fantasy, war, fights for power, characters who are never just black or white, and magic.

I give it 5/5 roses 🌹 when I read the first book I really considered not continuing, I didn’t dislike it I just wasn’t sure it was worth it, I’m SOOOO glad I kept it up!

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Akarnae - Lynette Noni

Ughhhhh I couldn’t finish this book I’m sorry. It was just so unbelievable, I found it ridiculously hard to get into. This review will contain spoilers for the first few chapters of the first book but don’t worry because that’s all I read. It begins with Alex talking to her parents while in the car on her way to a new school, turns out they are going to study under a famous archeologist, which for some reason means they have to go to some dig site in Russia which for some other reason is completely off the grid. No email, no phone calls, absolutely no way of talking to their daughter for EIGHT MONTHS. So let’s ignore how unlikely it is for this dig site to exist and for anyone to plan to spend eight months there, with no way of contacting the outside world, and let’s ignore that a couple who have a child, that they are apparently forbidden to bring with them, would even go on this dig in the first place, knowing they couldn’t even speak with that child for EIGHT MONTHS. Okay let’s just ignore how convenient and lazy that whole thing is. Alex arrives at the boarding school where she will be living, only to immediately be assaulted by some girls for no apparent reason. Cool, now she has an excuse to hate the school she isn’t even properly enrolled in yet, how freaking convenient. What next? Oh! She steps through a doorway only to end up in some weird forest IN ANOTHER WORLD? And how do we imagine Alex taking this news? Does she break down and cry? Does she refuse to believe it? Does she react appropriately at all? Nope, she just accepts it. And the author thinks she can get away with this by having a few side characters remark on how well Alex is taking this news, as if that makes it all better. What’s more? Some creepy character makes mention of a prophecy, she follows some boys back to their school where apparently the only person who can bring her back has just left and won’t be back for months, but it’s okay because they’ve also been expecting her and guess what?! She can start classes tomorrow, they have a room ready for her filled with everything she needs... but what’s this? Is there a twist? Oh my it seems like this girl... IS GOOD AT EVERYTHING, especially the things she’s never done before! How unexpected. I just couldn’t deal with this.

Who I recommend this book to: maybe someone who is 12 or younger and doesn’t actually realise how impossible and ridiculous this is.

I give it 2/5 roses because I didn’t HATE it, I just couldn’t read it.

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Stolen: A Letter to My Captor - Lucy Christopher

This review is so difficult to write, because this book is so difficult to read. It makes you feel things against your will, it manipulates you into rooting for something you don’t believe in completely against your own logic or belief, it forces you to forget the nasty side when you know you need to remember it. It’s smart, it’s clever and it’s brutal. I first read this when I was about 11 or 12 and I loved it. I don’t think I really understood it back then, I think back then it was just a nightmare from front cover to back. I read it as a horror, a complete terror, I didn’t understand as much as I do now so many years later. This book is more complex than that, it twists and turns and leaves you almost hating yourself for the way you feel, blaming yourself. Which is so clever. It makes you feel what Gemma, the main character, is feeling, the same confusion and anger. It’s brilliant. It’s so incredibly difficult to read because I couldn’t do it without being so angry at myself. And I think that’s exactly why this book is so great.

Who I recommend this book to: someone who likes a smart book that can make you feel everything, even the things you don’t want to.

I give it a 5/5 purely for the way this author could manipulate me through her words.

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Ondine Quartet - Emma Raveling

Okay to be honest this surprised me, I first read this series a couple of years ago and I absolutely loved it, so I thought this would be really enjoyable. It wasn’t. I don’t know what’s happened since I was 16 but this series that I was absolutely in love with is just no longer doing it for me, which is strange because I still love most of my favourite books from when I was like 11. I actually still have my old review of this book and what surprises me most is my deep love for the main character which I definitely wasn’t feeling so much this time around. I admit, I never thought she was likeable but I thought she was realistic given her circumstances, and while I still agree with that, I still couldn’t really stand her. So I don’t really know what to say when I loved this series so much but now I can’t even finish the first book. It’s like I’m reading a completely different series. Oh well, I guess tastes change. Even mine.

Who I recommend this book to: are you sixteen? If yes, you might really really like this book the way I did when I first tried it. It’s got a badass main character who doesn’t conform into what the world thinks she should be, a cool supernatural element and a fairly realistic character development.

I give it 3/5 roses because I did realllllly love this book once upon a time even if I can’t quite understand why now.