|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1640638474
| 9781640638471
| B07SQLPT9Q
| 3.76
| 188
| Aug 05, 2019
| Aug 12, 2019
|
it was ok
|
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Adam and I I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Adam and I had been kicked out, were running for our lives, and the morning sun hadn’t even risen. Ruth and Adam had a whirlwind romance that had them going to Gretna Green to get married. Adam hasn't been completely honest about who is and plots involving his uncle stealing money that have him in danger, so before they can fully enjoy their happily ever after, evil snatches it away. Fourth in the Advertisements in Love series, The Bewildered Bride gets the story rolling right away, almost too quickly for me. I haven't read the others in the series and for the first twenty or so percent I felt like I was missing some background or key information. There is some lying by omission going on from Adam and he isn't completely honest about how much danger his uncle is, leaving Ruth in the dark in a way that completely hamstrings her. I felt even more lost than Ruth with the plot about Adam's evil uncle, I'm wondering if there was some information about this in the previous book or if Adam and Ruth's relationship starts there, as they're getting married when we first start the book. The middle was a still a bit muddled for me but towards the end, the author untangled everything to make things clearer. “I have to believe the good in him. He did not take me to Gretna Green just to have at me. We married. I was a bride. I was loved.” The star of the show was definitely our heroine Ruth. Since no one in her family ever met Adam, they don't believe she was married, making her family having to rescue her from a brothel and then delivering a baby nine months later, a dark mark on her reputation. Ruth's mother and sister don't believe her story about marrying Adam either, letting their friends say hurtful things to Ruth. I felt for her and her pain was palpable on the pages, it was just the construction of the story plot that I couldn't completely get on board with. On their way back from Gretna Green, they are attacked by men possibly sent by Adam's uncle and it ends up where Adam thinks Ruth is dead and Ruth thinks Adam is dead. Ruth doesn't have any proof that she was married to Adam and Adam has a tough road to travel before he can get back to being in control of his own life again. This is a great set-up for some drama but when our hero and heroine meet back up again, Ruth doesn't recognize Adam (the first time because she doesn't have her glasses on). Adam proclaims some weak excuse for not telling her and for the vast majority of the story, we have Adam lying to Ruth again and some unreliability that she can't recognize him. I just didn't feel the romance between the two. Ruth was a strong and heartbreaking character with all she had to deal with, while I felt like I couldn't connect with Adam and his lying. The evil uncle plot was a bit hard to follow but the author did a great job of portraying the emotional and historical feel of the times; classism and racism. I could have missed some information starting with book four, if you're a reader of the series you'll definitely want to read this for Ruth and if you're starting here, be prepared to maybe be as bewildered as Ruth. Merged review: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Adam and I had been kicked out, were running for our lives, and the morning sun hadn’t even risen. Ruth and Adam had a whirlwind romance that had them going to Gretna Green to get married. Adam hasn't been completely honest about who is and plots involving his uncle stealing money that have him in danger, so before they can fully enjoy their happily ever after, evil snatches it away. Fourth in the Advertisements in Love series, The Bewildered Bride gets the story rolling right away, almost too quickly for me. I haven't read the others in the series and for the first twenty or so percent I felt like I was missing some background or key information. There is some lying by omission going on from Adam and he isn't completely honest about how much danger his uncle is, leaving Ruth in the dark in a way that completely hamstrings her. I felt even more lost than Ruth with the plot about Adam's evil uncle, I'm wondering if there was some information about this in the previous book or if Adam and Ruth's relationship starts there, as they're getting married when we first start the book. The middle was a still a bit muddled for me but towards the end, the author untangled everything to make things clearer. “I have to believe the good in him. He did not take me to Gretna Green just to have at me. We married. I was a bride. I was loved.” The star of the show was definitely our heroine Ruth. Since no one in her family ever met Adam, they don't believe she was married, making her family having to rescue her from a brothel and then delivering a baby nine months later, a dark mark on her reputation. Ruth's mother and sister don't believe her story about marrying Adam either, letting their friends say hurtful things to Ruth. I felt for her and her pain was palpable on the pages, it was just the construction of the story plot that I couldn't completely get on board with. On their way back from Gretna Green, they are attacked by men possibly sent by Adam's uncle and it ends up where Adam thinks Ruth is dead and Ruth thinks Adam is dead. Ruth doesn't have any proof that she was married to Adam and Adam has a tough road to travel before he can get back to being in control of his own life again. This is a great set-up for some drama but when our hero and heroine meet back up again, Ruth doesn't recognize Adam (the first time because she doesn't have her glasses on). Adam proclaims some weak excuse for not telling her and for the vast majority of the story, we have Adam lying to Ruth again and some unreliability that she can't recognize him. I just didn't feel the romance between the two. Ruth was a strong and heartbreaking character with all she had to deal with, while I felt like I couldn't connect with Adam and his lying. The evil uncle plot was a bit hard to follow but the author did a great job of portraying the emotional and historical feel of the times; classism and racism. I could have missed some information starting with book four, if you're a reader of the series you'll definitely want to read this for Ruth and if you're starting here, be prepared to maybe be as bewildered as Ruth. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
2
|
Sep 16, 2019
not set
|
Oct 20, 2019
not set
|
Sep 21, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 0380873877
| 9780380873876
| 0380873877
| 4.04
| 772
| Jan 1983
| Jan 01, 1989
|
it was ok
|
2.5 stars *This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub dis 2.5 stars *This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion. TL;DR - More sedate Bodice Ripper, more like historical fiction saga, very little romance "Now, that is what I call a fateful sighting," Valentine murmured, his gaze narrowed as he stared at the shore. "Do you see what I do, Mustafa, or have I been misled by the mists? Is she mortal, or a Nereid sent to bewitch a weary sailor?" The Turk followed his captain's gaze to the riverbank. Sitting astride a white horse galloping along the shore was the most beautiful woman either man had ever seen. Dressed in green velvet, like the tall grasses growing along the river, her red hair flowing out behind her like a wild flame, she raced the wind with innocent abandon. She would disappear, then reappear almost magically out of the mists rising from the river. Only once did she seem to pause, and then she sat staring at the river, as if searching the clutter of masts for a certain ship. "I wonder who she is," Valentine murmured, vowing he would find out. 'Sdeath! It's Bodice Ripper time! When the TBRChallenge theme for September was Drama!, I knew immediately I had to pick one of the Bodice Rippers on my tbr. Published in 1983 (what a great year ;) and with a parrot AND a jaguar on the cover, I knew this just had to be the one. Surprisingly, while the cover fits in to what is commonly thought of for this period in romance, this is what I would call a more sedate one. In fact, I don't think I would call this a Bodice Ripper but a historical fiction saga with romantic element. I think if you've always wanted to try a Bodice Ripper but, understandably, stayed away because of the many content and trigger warnings that abound in these, this could be the one you'd feel safer trying, if you wanted to experience some of that sweeping epic feeling readers talk about in this romance era. There were a few lines discussing slave routes/trading, a quick, don't really see though, attempted rape, “gypsy” hate (not so much from author's pov as she breathes life into them like any other secondary character, but from English characters), and that old go to of the male main character saved the life of a “Turk”, so he follows him in devotion (Mustafa got an at least shaded in backstory), that I would point out if you're a no go on anything. Broken up into three parts, the first part starts in 1558 Tudor England. It's the time of Elizabeth and you'll get a history lesson (not footnotes though, lol) on the Catholics and Protestants and why there's bad blood and Reformation. I'm aware and decently versed in this time period, so I could take in all the names as I already knew the whos, whats, and whys. If this is brand new information, you're probably going to get lost in all the names and want to bounce when you showed up for romance. Along with taking extra time to set the reader in the story, we get the background romance, on who our female main character is eventually going to be, parents. That's right, this starts before our FMC is even a glint in an eye. Her father was an English privateer and her mother the daughter of a Spanish Don. The Drama! Spanish and English aren't exactly besties at this time and in 1571 when Geoffrey Christian captures the ship of Don Pedro, a Don's daughter's, Magdelena, intended they are brought onto Geoffrey Christian's ship. Clashing and Passion ignites! This is all told in flashback form and, yes, I was hoping at this time that the book was about the parent's romance. Daddy Don is not happy to say the least and disowns Magdalena in typical male hysteria, the intended Don Pedro vows revenge, even though he ends up marrying Magdalena's sister. Geoff and Mag live happily in England and have a daughter named Lily Francisca. When Magdalena gets word that her mother is dying, Daddy Don works on his emotional outbursts and agrees to let her come see her mother one last time. Family trip! But our ol' gal Queen Elizabeth is up to her wily ways and sees an opportunity to send a spy with the Christians to see what the Spanish are up to. A friend of the Christian's, Sir Basil joins the trip, along with a seven year old Lily Francisca. At Santo Domingo, Magdalena gets to say goodbye to her mother, Daddy Don is now a Grandpa Don and delights in precocious Lily Francisca, so, most, is forgiven. It's not all sunshine and roses though, Lily Francisca sees a man with two different colored eyes and overhears something that she can't quite make sense of but knows is wrong, Sir Basil also overhears and sees things that make the spying trip worth it. Englishman Valchamps, the man with two different colored eyes and another man, never named to the readers but known by Basil and written in his journal, are found to be traitors. Knowing they've been outed, they team up with revenge seeking Don Pedro and devise a plan to sink Geoffrey Christian's ship. Geoffrey is mortally wounded but before he goes down with his ship, he manages to get Magdalena, Basil, Lily Francisca, and a seaman to row them to one of the many islands around to try and save their lives. When the seaman sees the ship going down, he panics and takes the boat out alone to try to save lives, only to never return. This is all in the first 15%, then to Part Two and seven years later. With more flashback form, Lily Francisca, who is now fourteen, relays to readers what seven years stranded on an island was like. Her mother was pregnant, just told Geoffrey the night before, and had a son, Tristram. And after five years of loneliness, Magdalena and Basil find love and have a daughter named Dulcie. This is where we also meet the book cover's parrot Cisco and the jaguar Choco, who Lily took care of when he was baby. There's also a monkey called Capabells and I'm very affronted on his behalf that he didn't get cover billing like the other two. A storm brings a Spanish shipwreck to their shores, where no crew survived but they're able to salvage some trunks full of gold and squirrel them away in a hidden cove, along with Basil's and Geoffrey's journals. Then tragedy strikes when a small boat of a few passengers finds their island. Magdalena and Basil send the kids away as they try to nurse the fever ridden passengers. Magdalena dies first and as he's sickening, Basil makes Lily promise to always take care of her siblings and not to forget the fable he taught her about wild white horses, a different colored eyes witch, and trying to save a Queen. Basil dies soon after and the flashback being told by Lily ends as we're brought two years forward for the Part Two seven years jump. As this was all happening on the island, Valentine, Basil's late twenties sea adventuring (he name drops sailing with Drake) brother learns of his death. Basil's wife and son mourns until she remarries a family friend named William and Valentine vows revenge on Don Pedro and contemplates marrying his lover Cordelia. Cordelia was the beautiful social climber well known in this type of story. I feel like I could be losing some people, I get it, the book almost lost me too. Re-hydrate, bookmark, nap, or DNF, these types of stories are A LOT It's when the seaman who initially rowed Mags, Bas, and Lil to the island finally escapes the ship he was imprisoned on and makes his way to England that Valentine learns his brother might still be alive, that the story gets moving again. With a crudely drawn map from the dying seaman, Valentine sets sail for the island, only to find that, yes, his brother may have initially lived but is now truly dead. There's mistrust from Lily as Basil enforced to her the need to be cautious but eventually Valentine, with some trickery, get her and the other two kid's on his ship back to England. Lily cautiously? forgets to tell Valentine about the treasure cove and Basil's journal. So at this time, the readers know of one traitor, Valchamps, and are trying to figure out from some redherrings who the other could be, infusing some mystery/thriller into the story. Lily's fourteen, so we get major hero-worship love from her towards Valentine but overhears him talking to a jealous Cordelia and says he could never look at Lily in a romantic love way because she's just a child. Lily vows to never reveal her love to him. There's some Drama! over Dulcie being the love child of Mags and Bas, and questions if Tristram really was Geoffrey Christian's or Basil. The cousin who inherited Geoff's estate is of course horrible and by default becomes the kids' guardian, until either it's believed Tristram really is the true heir or Lily comes of age and gets the estate. There's some Valentine leaving for his adventures but promising Lily he'll always be there for them, always can ask him for help and Lily and the kid's suffering having to live with their guardian. Part Three! Jumps three years and we have a seventeen year old Lily. She's too brass and beautiful for the small village and when her guardian decides one night to rape her to make her have to marry him so he can inherit the estate, he actually almost rapes their maid and she screams thinking she killed him. Ten year old Tristram is no help at all and amps everyone up claiming the townspeople will call Lily a witch and burn her at the stake. So, Lily, Tristram, Dulcie, the maid, and two of the stablehands they're friends with, take off to find their nursemaid in the north to help them. Totally best plan. Why no one else? Valentine's off adventuring, Dulcie's halfbrother, from Basil's side is only a couple years older than Lily, and Dulcie's aunts are something something busy. As the group is trying to get away, they run into Romney. A twenties something half-Romani, who has the hots for Lily. He hides them away, goes to the estate to learn what's happening and with some selfishness and good intentions, takes them to his wandering band of Romani and our island kids are now traveling puppeteers. With some bad luck, Valchamps sees the puppet show, based on the fable Basil told Lily, and figures out that Lily may remember more than he wants her too. Valentine also runs into the Romani camp and sees a woman who takes his breath away. Y'all. I know it's been three years and I had quite the glow-up myself from 14 to 17 but, come on. He doesn't recognize Lily. He kisses her and can't wait to get her to his ship but is drawn away for an important meeting. Lily is crushed and more mad at him. Valchamp burns the Romani camp trying to kill Lily, Romney dies, our little group is on the run again. Valentine learns of the children on the run from Simon (Basil's son and who also loves Lily) and they're off to find the nursemaid thinking the kids are going to her. William Shakespeare gives shortcut directions (the randomness of this had me laughing for a good five minutes, it was so wildly out of nowhere) to Valentine and they surreptitiously run into the kids and Valentine saves Lily from drowning, she saw Valchamps club her on the head before she fell into the water. It may feel like I'm long-winded in this review, but this was 600pgs and when I tell you the numerous side-stories and characters I'm leaving out. This is around 66% where Valentine and Lily meet back-up. What's your alls problem, have some patience, my gosh, wanting the romance to start earlier than 50%?? Valentine is mad Lily didn't tell him who she was, Lily's mad he didn't recognize her. There's a Drama! slap Lily gives Valentine. This is around 80% and when I would say (Finally!) the romance feels like it starts up. Lily tells Valentine about Basil's journal, gets him to promise her she can go along to get it and they set sail but the other traitor isn't known and being in their trusted circle, alerts Don Pedro about their sailing plans. They get to the island, Spanish attack, Choco saves the day!, Lily and Valentine get captured only to escape and hide out in the hidden cove. We get our first sex scene between the two at 92%(!!!) and Valentine reads Basil journal to learn who the other traitor is. Val's also a wily one and brought along some other English ships, defeating the Spanish, so they get rescued and head back to England. The cove sex had Val and Lil admitting their love for each other but it's all save the reputation distance until the traitor is dealt with back in England. The traitor is revealed and I kind of guessed it because of how secret the author was keeping it, kind of impactful and kind of, 'kay, moving on. Ends with Val and Lil getting married. If you made it through all that epic journey, you'll realize, not much romance at all and I was kind of disappointed in it all. But, like I said, if you've been afraid of Bodice Rippers, you could safely get a taste of them with this one but just know it's more historical fiction saga than anything else. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 12, 2024
|
Sep 23, 2024
|
Sep 12, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 099037713X
| 9780990377139
| B0182HPHQE
| 4.48
| 1,756
| Nov 17, 2015
| Nov 17, 2015
|
it was ok
|
None
|
Notes are private!
|
2
|
not set
not set
|
Nov 25, 2015
not set
|
Sep 11, 2024
|
ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1800166923
| 9781800166929
| 1800166923
| 3.36
| 11
| unknown
| Mar 28, 2024
|
did not like it
|
1.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Truth Hurts was a romantic suspense st 1.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Truth Hurts was a romantic suspense story about Assistant District Attorney Sylvie Dunlap going back home for the first time after her sister's death eight years ago. The story gets going right away with Sylvie hiking the mountain that her sister Elaine was found dead on, with a six months investigation finding the death to be accidental. Along with Sylvie on the memorial hike, Duncan, who was Elaine's on again and off again high school boyfriend. Duncan had plans of leaving their small Idaho town too, but after Elaine died, who was also his younger sister Jackie's bestfriend, their mother dies soon after on a hiking accident. Duncan is crushed when Sylvie leaves town right after high school graduation without saying goodbye, having had a crush on her but never acted on it because he felt she was too young for him at the time. Sylvie also had a crush on Duncan but with him being her sister's ex and just wanting to escape the town, she leaves without telling him her feelings. Reunited again after eight years, they find their crushes are going stronger than ever and that their hometown isn't done trying to claim the lives of it's young women. I found this story to need a lot of editing, there were numerous point-of-views from secondary characters that went off on tangents that I felt could have been cut for streamline purposes. The pace was slow for me and I felt like I was slogging through for the vast majority of the middle. Even with the book starting right off into the story, I felt like it wasn't really explained why Sylvie decided now was the time to come back home, it just starts with her there. This also was heavier on the romantic thread for the majority than I thought it would be, the suspense lingers around the edges but doesn't really get going until the later second half. There are no flashbacks to give readers a sense of the relationship Sylvie and Duncan had back in highschool, so when Duncan is pretty much all in for Sylvie in the beginning first half, it felt like insta-love to me; within the first thirty pages we have them kissing. What keeps them apart, and felt dragging, was Sylvie's M.O. of only sleeping with men causally, instead of having relationships with them. There's some bedroom scenes between the two and then jealousy when men from Sylvie's past keep showing up, but not a lot of emotional development between the two. The killer gets a pov, so readers know they are around but while there are numerous red-herrings, the identity mystery is left until the later second half. I thought it was pretty easy to guess the killer but there were two other suspects that could catch other's attention. I usually like to get some insight into the villain in stories, but I felt their pov was over-the-top, went into torture porn territory for me with not for the sake of the character but gratuitous shock value. Along with the suspense thread reveal we get a Duncan reveal that I felt came out of left field and didn't make a lot of sense, how I felt about a good amount of threads in this, if things weren't meandering, they felt unneeded or not developed enough. The later half definitely picked up the pace with Sylvie in danger and it's reveals but I'm not sure I cared enough after having to slog through the middle part. The ending kept going, giving us some role reversal with what's now keeping Sylvie and Duncan apart after the danger was over. Each added chapter just felt like dragging the story on to me and I'm not sure it made complete sense how quickly and easily it was for a character to work for the FBI, not to mention Sylvie felt mostly in name only as an A.D.A. This wasn't for me but if you're looking for a long winded, heavier on focusing on the romantic part in the first half, meanders in middle, but picks up the pace when suspense thread comes back into play, this story had decent secondary characters to wander off with for a while. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 12, 2024
|
Sep 29, 2024
|
Jul 30, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062847678
| 9780062847676
| B075QC3G2N
| 3.81
| 420
| Jun 19, 2018
| Jun 19, 2018
|
it was ok
|
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Shiloh is a U. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Shiloh is a U.S. Marshall in the Paranormal Investigation Unit. Her have to be available at all hours job makes relationships difficult, to say the least. However, her current boyfriend Vincent has her wondering if maybe more could be on the horizon, until a Vampire decides to take over a trailer park. It is all on Shiloh as her boss goes missing, black magic is creeping around, and enemies and allies get switched around. First in a new Urban Fantasy series, Stray Magic doesn't mess around in dropping you into the world, so much so, I felt a bit lost and overwhelmed in the beginning. This is the first in the series but I couldn't help feeling I was missing some background in regards to character relationships. There are some info dumps for the world building but with references to super computers and advanced technology alongside a video rental store and flip phones, it was hard to set the story in a time and place. The acknowledgment of some supernatural and paranormal beings, being known to the world, is just that, a brief acknowledgement. I would have liked a more thorough explanation of the world; this feeling was tied into feeling like this wasn't the start of the series. Told in first person from our heroine Shiloh's point-of-view, she is our leader through the story. She is half djinn half human with abilities to grant three wishes and has Quarrel pheromones that are hard for her to control. She is tough, snarky, and fun to follow along with but it was hard to feel her emotional connection to the other characters, thus, making secondary characters feel vaguer. This story is basically Shiloh trying to solve a mystery with supernatural beings and seemingly involved in, not a love triangle, but love quad. Shiloh has her boyfriend Vincent, who, she keeps saying, she wants more with, the vampire Tennyson who she spends the most time with and while it seems there may be more on his side, there are leanings from her, and her co-worker and ex, Jaxon. What we get from her thoughts about Jaxon are mostly, her observations about how hot he looks, how pretty his eyes are, and remembering how much she liked him in the bedroom; it doesn't feel deep. There seems to be or was a deeper relationship between them but we never see it and I never felt it. The mystery/thriller angle of investigating who is behind the necromancy and black magic was fun to follow along with but we barely got to know the villain and the wrap-up of that part was rushed. There are some shocking twists along the way but some felt unsupported making the plot threads feel wild and loosely thrown about. Shiloh was a solid character but emotional connections to secondary characters helping us get to know them and create a setting and world was lacking. There was an outline of the supernatural world but random components (Shiloh's quarrel pheromones, Crux sexual transport) were thrown out there and never really integrated with the story and characters. There are loose ends at the end of the story with part of the mystery not solved and the quad love angle getting a twist. If looking for a female lead urban fantasy with supernatural beings running amok, this would fit the bill, just be prepared for this to feel more like a dry first reading and hope for emotional connections/understandings/payoffs to come in the second. Merged review: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Shiloh is a U.S. Marshall in the Paranormal Investigation Unit. Her have to be available at all hours job makes relationships difficult, to say the least. However, her current boyfriend Vincent has her wondering if maybe more could be on the horizon, until a Vampire decides to take over a trailer park. It is all on Shiloh as her boss goes missing, black magic is creeping around, and enemies and allies get switched around. First in a new Urban Fantasy series, Stray Magic doesn't mess around in dropping you into the world, so much so, I felt a bit lost and overwhelmed in the beginning. This is the first in the series but I couldn't help feeling I was missing some background in regards to character relationships. There are some info dumps for the world building but with references to super computers and advanced technology alongside a video rental store and flip phones, it was hard to set the story in a time and place. The acknowledgment of some supernatural and paranormal beings, being known to the world, is just that, a brief acknowledgement. I would have liked a more thorough explanation of the world; this feeling was tied into feeling like this wasn't the start of the series. Told in first person from our heroine Shiloh's point-of-view, she is our leader through the story. She is half djinn half human with abilities to grant three wishes and has Quarrel pheromones that are hard for her to control. She is tough, snarky, and fun to follow along with but it was hard to feel her emotional connection to the other characters, thus, making secondary characters feel vaguer. This story is basically Shiloh trying to solve a mystery with supernatural beings and seemingly involved in, not a love triangle, but love quad. Shiloh has her boyfriend Vincent, who, she keeps saying, she wants more with, the vampire Tennyson who she spends the most time with and while it seems there may be more on his side, there are leanings from her, and her co-worker and ex, Jaxon. What we get from her thoughts about Jaxon are mostly, her observations about how hot he looks, how pretty his eyes are, and remembering how much she liked him in the bedroom; it doesn't feel deep. There seems to be or was a deeper relationship between them but we never see it and I never felt it. The mystery/thriller angle of investigating who is behind the necromancy and black magic was fun to follow along with but we barely got to know the villain and the wrap-up of that part was rushed. There are some shocking twists along the way but some felt unsupported making the plot threads feel wild and loosely thrown about. Shiloh was a solid character but emotional connections to secondary characters helping us get to know them and create a setting and world was lacking. There was an outline of the supernatural world but random components (Shiloh's quarrel pheromones, Crux sexual transport) were thrown out there and never really integrated with the story and characters. There are loose ends at the end of the story with part of the mystery not solved and the quad love angle getting a twist. If looking for a female lead urban fantasy with supernatural beings running amok, this would fit the bill, just be prepared for this to feel more like a dry first reading and hope for emotional connections/understandings/payoffs to come in the second. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
2
|
Jun 04, 2018
not set
|
Jun 16, 2018
not set
|
Jul 29, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| Brom
*
| 1250622026
| 9781250622020
| B0CQHL43VF
| 4.04
| 353
| Sep 17, 2024
| Sep 17, 2024
|
liked it
|
2.7 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Devil wants me in his belly like a 2.7 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Devil wants me in his belly like a wiggle worm. Evil in Me started off on a fast chaotic note, Adam is trying to fight the voice in his head telling him to kill. He's powerless as he watches himself burn down a synagogue and stab the Rabbi and his wife to death. Readers are let in that it's a ring that has clamped itself onto Adam's finger and is feeding him these urges. As Adam hacks off his fingers trying to get the ring off, it just keeps spider crawling back onto another one until Adam takes his own life. The story then jumps from 1951 Brooklyn to 1985 Enterprise, Alabama and twenty-three year old Ruby. “I am Lord Sheelbeth...your savior, your master.” The flames flared as she spoke. One of my favorite parts of this story was how the author took the time to develop the supernatural background. Taking from religious mythology and giving it some spin, Brom gives us the ring's story. It's from a time when gods ruled and Lord Sheelbeth was in her heyday, until the Baalei Shem cut the ring off Sheelbeth's finger, cut out her eye, tied her to the ring, and imprisoned her in a hell. While Sheelbeth can weave urging magic into songs sang by the souls she has taken throughout her life, that are manifested as worms in her belly, she can't force anyone to act on these urges. This is done by Beel, a shedim (one of god's unfinished souls), who Sheelbeth had previously imprisoned and can possess the body of the ring wearer, controlling their body. I wasn't well versed in these religious stories, so don't fear if you aren't either, I had no problem understanding everything. We get povs from Sheelbeth, Beel, and later another demon, Vutto, controlled by Sheelbeth, to expand their characters and even though they come from a hell, don't be surprised if you start to feel for them. With the beginning giving us the introduction to the ring, it sets-up a great foreboding feeling as we get to know Ruby. She's on her last week of community service, stopped taking her medication for bi-polar, and just trying to white-knuckle it and not lose it over how everyone aggravates her. Listen, she had some legitimate reasons to. When she heads over to Mr. Rosenfeld's home, the same last name of the previously murdered Rabbi, you know things aren't going to go well for her. Sure enough, the ring ends up on her finger and then we're on a ride to save her life. Josh was the Rabbi's brother and manages to give Ruby a heads-up on what's happening, even manages to douse the ring in red powder (angel's blood) to cloak Sheelbeth's power, while they try to find a way to get it off Ruby's finger. While the ring is cloaked, Ruby is still possessed by Beel, but he's been looking for a way to get from under Sheelbeth's control and helps as much as he can with finding a way to break the ring's grasp. I got . . . bored. Help is to be found in Atlanta where Josh knows a Dr. who specializes in ancient Hebrew mythology and theology. There, they learn that if Ruby sings a song from the heart, with the help of many souls, they can compel the ring off. Which is perfect, because Ruby used to be in a punk band and her ex-bandmate just happens to be in Atlanta. The second half gives us ghosts, demons, murder, redemption, and a serial killer. I wasn't really a fan of the Richard serial killer addition, his pov and addition felt clunky added on and honestly the story would have been better without it, wanted kick him out of the band. Along with Richard, Ruby's almost step-father had a story arch that made me think there can be too many musicians in a band, Ruby was the lead singer and could carry this story without those two. The ending was a wild ride and had some of that chaotic punk music feel but like Ruby's band The Night Mares, this story needed a drummer to anchor it, Ruby had enough characterization for lead singer and Sheelbeth and Beel easily could have anchored but they got pushed and rushed aside too much by those characters I wanted cut-out; the story threads were riffing all over the place without a solid connecting feel. This was a supernatural story that had horror, punk music and satanic panic '80s highlighting, and heart from some unlikely places, fun but off the tracks at times. (The author also did a really cool collaboration with a punk band, The Maxines, to produce some of the original songs created in this, make sure to check those out!) ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 12, 2024
|
Sep 25, 2024
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
ebook
| |||||||||||||
| 0451412788
| 9780451412782
| 0451412788
| 3.77
| 1,809
| Oct 06, 2009
| Oct 06, 2009
|
it was ok
|
This is apparently a spin-off series. I highly recommend reading Darkyn, the series it spins off from. Otherwise, you'd be like me and have no idea wh This is apparently a spin-off series. I highly recommend reading Darkyn, the series it spins off from. Otherwise, you'd be like me and have no idea what in the total Earth is/was happening. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 14, 2024
|
Jun 25, 2024
|
Jun 14, 2024
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1944571663
| 9781944571665
| B0CM733GHV
| 4.53
| 408
| Jul 19, 2024
| Jul 19, 2024
|
really liked it
|
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review With both parents now dead, learning the tru I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review With both parents now dead, learning the truth wouldn’t hurt anyone except herself. Don't Look Back is third in the Evidence: Under Fire series, and while you'd miss out on arriving fully in the know about interpersonal relationships of characters, I didn't have a problem starting the series with this installment. There's enough nudging in of recaps to get new readers in the know and the beginning gives a flashback to a big moment between our leads, Kira is rescued by Rand; readers of the series will feel like they're just picking up where the last book left off. If you've been a reader of Suzanne Brockmann or binged through the tv shows The Night Agent, The Old Man, and Bodyguard (British), then you're definitely going to want to pick this up. She was flattered he wanted to date her, but she had no doubt he would crush her heart even more than her first love had. Kira's father has died and she's found some papers of his that leads to many questions as to why he took so many trips to the island of Malta. With how sheltered her parents kept her, she always wondered if her mother defected from East Germany and her father smuggled her into the United States. After getting kidnapped by a billionaire terrorist and almost dying (#2 Trust Me), Kira decides it's time to get her first stamp on her passport and find answers on Malta. Helping out one of her friends, she's set-up to teach three classes on a military base about respecting and protecting artifacts to soldiers, when she comes face-to-face with Lieutenant Commander Randall Fallon, the Navy SEAL who asked her out before she was kidnapped, ended up rescuing her, and then ghosted her. “Kira, I’m pretty sure I’ll follow you anywhere.” Rand is pretty sure Kira's father kept him away from her by deleting his emails and sending a fake email from “Kira's boyfriend” to get him to back-off. When he see's Dr. Kira Hanson will be on base, he's not going to let this second chance go. As she's shooting him down a second time, they hear actual gun shots and suddenly Kira's life is in his hands again. Since these two previously met in the prior book, Rand's attraction is already built-in and while there is an issue from a previous relationship in Kira's past that has her scared to give Rand a chance, she's also already attracted to him, I missed seeing some of their building attraction. While these two spend the vast majority of the story together, Rand ends up following Kira to Malta, reprising an undercover role, and they have some steamy open-door scenes, the romance still felt like only around 30% of this story, this was heavy on the suspense. She paused, pulling him to a stop. She turned and rose on her toes and kissed him. Brief and soft. “I really like you, Randall Fallon.” If you're into the suspense side, though, you're going to love this. When Kira goes to Malta to search out secrets, she gets way more than she bargained for. Even though her dad went to Malta multiple times, he told Kira he was trying to recover art stolen by Nazis, she discovers her father was involved in spy games. At around the midway point of the story, a big reveal happens and Kira is spun into a world of conniving Russian oligarchs, family secrets, and trying to stop an attack on United States soil. As this is an ARC, I don't want to spoil too much of the suspense plot threads, but just know, some you won't see coming and some tie back into book two. It's all suspenseful and at times the cast of characters really blows-up but it's tightly plot contained enough that, you won't need sleep, you'll need answers. Her past was a mess, but he offered her a future. She wasn’t alone anymore. The research additives, Malta setting descriptions will fascinate you, military jargon and actions give a good enough realism feel, and, because I'm a history nerd, I enjoyed one of my favorite named summits, Seasick Summit, getting a shout-out. Rand did his part as the strong, capable, little hot piece that uplifts and believes in the heroine. I thought the multiple mentions of Kira's social anxiety and feeling shy felt a bit overdone, as her character never showed anything but self-assured and her not believing Rand really wants her felt a little forced as he was always the one to ask her out and pursue. Together, they worked appealingly. The story takes place only a little over a week, and while I could have stood for more romance focus/development, the suspense was suspense-ing, this was packed full of plot threads weaving in, out, and together, delivering a heck of a ride. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 14, 2024
|
Jun 24, 2024
|
Jun 06, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 9798989986804
| B0D2V9PD4C
| 3.59
| 136
| unknown
| Jul 09, 2024
|
really liked it
|
3.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review “On the dotted line I’m Calvin Gold 3.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review “On the dotted line I’m Calvin Goldberg. People called me Cal until the ’76 Olympics. After I got the bronze, well, someone thought Bronze Goldberg sounded funny.” Blood and Mascara was a story with all the noir hallmarks, a seemingly broken down PI, women at every turn, murder, and mystery. The first half felt a little lighter blue noir as we get to know our PI Bronze, he's traveled a heck of a road, from a Judo bronze medalist, to an investigative reporter who solved a serial killer case, to only be almost killed by that killer, to alcoholism to cope with what he saw, fired from his job, to four years of sobriety and working as a PI. There's a sense of hope through Bronze as he has been sober for a while and building up romance between him and his upstairs landlady, Iris. This all gets derailed though, when an adultery case he was working on has Bronze the last man to see a congressman alive before he was murdered. Suddenly, he's working with his old detective friend Roth, and the FBI as they try to untangled a mystery that could involve an international hitman called “The Machine”, which leads into a second half that skips right over gritty and into dark noir. Of course it wouldn’t balance the scales. Not even a little bit. (There was no one watching the scales.) (There were no scales.) As with any good noir, the atmosphere is key, set in 1997 Washington D.C., most of the atmosphere is felt through the characterization and writing style. Bronze smokes his cigarettes, with alcohol always haunting, and he has his share of women playing roles in his life. This had multiple character povs, with Iris getting the second most to Bronze, and she supplied her own brand of world weary, with wanting to keep changes in her writing career, being middle aged, and deciding if she actually wanted Bronze, or the idea of him. The story is laced through with more and more information to what lead to Bronze becoming an alcoholic and losing his job, the final massacre committed by the serial killer, but we don't get the full picture until the end. This story utilized the style of focusing on a character to only fade out to a flashback to give another puzzle piece to why they are the way they are, if you're a timeline linear reader, you'd probably struggle. You’re young and in pain. Then you’re old and hopeless. With the flashbacks that were giving us character pieces, the main murder mystery is playing out and comes fully into play in the second half. It was a bit convoluted with some moving parts but things come into focus as Roth, Bronze, and Iris hone in with their investigation. I thought the ending moment where Roth info dumps the hows and whys of the tale felt unneeded, by that time it was pretty clear what had happened and this felt a little dumbing down. What I also felt wasn't needed, was the serial killer's pov as he commits the massacre. We're all aware of how these men feel about women, I didn't need to sit so long in his thought manifesto, which felt less like character development and more gratuitous. Between this and Bronze's “awe of women” that he mentally hashes through, I was somewhat worn out on how women were being discussed; it's not enough to make you put the book down, but, being a woman myself, it's an exhaustion that I don't search out to feel in fiction. The main character in a story must believe in a lie. The big lie that will come undone in the end. The ending gave us a ramping up that flew back and forth between life and death situations, answered all the questions, and after all the dark and grisly, returned to it's more beginning little light with some hope. I enjoyed feeling the noir atmosphere, the mystery came close to having one too many knots, but Bronze was a character that was memorable and I'd go with him anytime on an investigation. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 14, 2024
|
Jun 18, 2024
|
May 30, 2024
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1538769255
| 9781538769256
| 1538769255
| 4.26
| 10,267
| Sep 03, 2024
| Sep 03, 2024
|
liked it
|
2.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Ophelia was now the eldest Grimm. A 2.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Ophelia was now the eldest Grimm. A dead mother made her much more than an orphan. Phantasma opens with Ophelia's mother dying in the night, causing Ophelia to hurry and perform a ceremony where she is transferred her mother's magic. Her younger sister Genevieve, has always wanted to leave their family necromancy business behind, resenting how it tied Ophelia to Grimm Manor, their home. However, Ophelia won't turn her back on centuries of family history and intends to take over the business of helping people communicate with the dead. Until bankers show up and suddenly they only have a few weeks to pay off a severely due loan their mother inexplicable took out, before they lose Grimm Manor to the bank. Ophelia senses that Genevieve knows more than she's telling and when she leaves a note saying not to worry and she'll be back in a couple weeks, Ophelia just knows Genevieve has entered Phantasma, a haunted mansion just arrived in New Orleans, and plans on entering herself to find Genevieve. For as long as she could remember, the voice had been there, in the darkest corners of her mind, telling her to walk through certain doorways or her entire family would perish. This started off with a really cool concept, a traveling haunted mansion run by devils where contestants can enter and try to make it through levels based on the nine Circles of Hell, where if they are the last person standing, they'll receive a Devil's Grant (basically a wish granted). There's explanation of paranormal hierarchy, with Ghosts, Apparitions, Phantoms, Devils, Specters, and the like, which I thought was going to lead to a pretty detailed structured rich world. Ophelia even enters the mansion pretty early, around 15% to get the story rolling right away. However, I kind of found a lot of the elements added to create atmosphere ended up feeling a lot like window-dressing, leaving me ultimately disappointed in the lack of depth. The golden bauble had been in her family for generations, enchanted with a powerful magic that bound it to its wearer. This takes place in New Orleans but as the vast majority of the story is inside the Phantasma mansion, you won't get the feel for the city. I don't remember the time period being explicitly mentioned but with Ophelia riding in carriages and a motor vehicle being a sensation, along with her dresses and male attire of vests mentioned, it seems like it's supposed to be Victorian era. But the vernacular feels pretty modern, ex. - “I fucked his best friend on the back of a float”, “Who in the unholy fuck is knocking on peoples’ doors this early in the morning?”, and “For fuck’s sake,”. I'm guessing the clothes are Victorian era to help set the Gothic tone this was mentioned as having but Gothic stories are all about atmosphere, usually a big chunk created from the restrictions of the time, and well, language plays a decent part of helping to mesh the time period with the reader and I can't say I felt the Gothic atmosphere at all, the clothes were window-dressing. Phantasma. The Devil’s Manor. A place often spoken about in whispered rumors and haunting cautionary tales in the dark. The romance comes in when a Phantom named Blackwell, who Ophelia actually met before entering Phantasma, makes a bargain with her, he'll help Ophelia get past the levels if she helps him find a heart and key, what he told her needed to be set free from Phantasma when they first met but can't remember saying. Blackwell has no memory of existing outside of Phantasma but picks someone every time the mansion starts it's games to try and help him get free. A locket Ophelia wears around her neck that has been passed down through generations of women in her family warms when it's around Blackwell and she takes this as sign to trust him. She's also pretty physically attracted to him. You probably can tell where this is leading and a little before the half-way point, we start to get “Good Girl” scenes. The dirty talk was there but the emotion was not for me, there just wasn't enough emotional or relationship depth developed and as such, all those physical scenes may have used the trendy hot words but they were window-dressing and I found my eyes glazing over whenever the clothes came off. “Ophelia,” he repeated, tasting every syllable. Her name on his tongue sounded like a wicked prayer. “You are exactly the person I’ve been waiting for.” Along with being a lifelong romance fan, I've been a lifelong horror fan, why I was so excited for this but while the levels would occasionally have some gory descriptions of deaths, window-dressing in place of any actually feelings of horror, tension, or fear. This felt more New Adult to me, in regards to maturity of characters and tone and I'd put Christopher Pike books ahead on the feeling horror scale. The levels Ophelia has to complete don't last very long and while we get to know some other contestants and devils, they're more blip on the radar secondary characters. As we raced through the trials when it's time to complete them, lingered on Ophelia wandering through the mansion trying to find what Blackwell's looking for, and hopped from physical scene to physical scene between the two, I felt the middle second half started to feel stretched out. A deep sense of dread began to sink into her gut that being within Phantasma wasn’t going to be the thing that broke her. The ending really rushed Ophelia's and Genevieve's plot, but delivered on answers. Ophelia learns some family secrets and what Blackwell's story really is, and while it is pretty obvious (I would say blindingly obvious and Ophelia should have realized much sooner) what the answer was to what connects and could solve Blackwell's issue, it was an enjoyable plot thread. Once Ophelia and Blackwell figure out some things, the ending again feels a bit rushed as it jumps to give readers a quick look at where things are and are headed. One element that I thought worked really well and want to mention is Ophelia's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, since this was a paranormal book, I was wondering where this element was headed. Ophelia hears a “Shadow Voice” in her head that causes her to have to do things in threes, otherwise the voice says her family will die. The story showed how this tormented Ophelia and the struggle of how living with such a form of OCD can effect people and I thought how Ophelia battled it showed a care and respect for this aspect of her character. While I found a lot of elements to be window-dressing and the romance didn't have the depth to deliver the emotional connection I like to feel from my romance leads, others who like a little descriptive gore without the deep emotional horror feel, trendy dirty talk scenes, and a New Adult vibe, might want to give this lighter horror and romance mash-up a try. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 14, 2024
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
May 10, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250244056
| 9781250244055
| B0CFJSP5N1
| 4.20
| 10,254
| Aug 06, 2024
| Aug 06, 2024
|
liked it
|
3.4 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review No one noticed that Cordelia moved 3.4 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review No one noticed that Cordelia moved in unison with her mother. No one ever did. When a Sorceress Comes to Call was a historical magical realism story about a coming of age girl gaining the strength to fight back against her mother. Cordelia is fourteen years old and having stopped attending school years ago, only gains a sense of normalcy when a local girl Ellen can randomly meet up with her on one of her rides. Cordelia begins to realize that having a mother that is so controlling, not only of her thoughts but through what Cordelia calls “obedience”, where her mother actually controls her body, is not normal. It's when Cordelia gets a painful realization of betrayal that the only other friend she thought she had, her mother's horse Falada, tells her mother everything as her familiar and her mother does something that shines the light on what a true monster she is, that Cordelia begins to fight back, with some help. Fear took her suddenly by the throat, a formless dread with no name, no shape, only a sense that something was wrong, something terrible was coming this way. I thought this was a little less eerie than What Moves the Dead but you'll still find gruesome animal body horror, magic, supernatural elements, and thriller aspects. This was mainly told through Cordelia's eyes and the creepy tension and fear she feels from her mother was woven in strongly throughout the book. Once of the most powerful scenes for me was when Cordelia learned of Falada's betrayal. At this point, he's been her rock and the only one that seems to give Cordelia strength and when she lost that I hurt so bad for her and felt the numbness this gave her. (I must have some residual horse girl leftover from childhood because I refused to stop thinking that Falada wasn't on the side I wanted them to be for an embarrassing long time) We get a different pov when Cordelia's mom decides it's time to get a new benefactor, after she deals with her old one in a gruesome manner, and sets her sights on a squire a few towns over to marry. The squire's spinster sister Hester comes into the picture and with a little bit of magic herself, she senses right away that this new woman is “Doom”. My mother is a sorcerer. Around the midway point, Cordelia confides into Hester her fears of what her mother is and that she needs to be stopped; after what Hester has felt and seen, she doesn't need much convincing. The second half brings in more characters with friends of Hester that she writes to, under the guise of a house party, but really she's calling for reinforcements. Along with friends, she invites Richard, her old lover and the man that once asked her to marry him. Through them we get a little tiny romance thread that I enjoyed with their second chance romance and Hester finally mature enough to decide love is more important than letting the glare of societal expectations rule the day. Hester's more mature pov paired with Cordelia's youth, delivered a well rounded hitting all those emotions story. And part of her— a tiny part that she had never quite lost— wanted to be there and wanted it all to be true so that her mother would love her and maybe things would change. The ending delivered a, kind of quick, magical explanation (hitting the right “notes”??), along with the story's continued message of “water, wine, salt, and holy ground” dramatic end. There were winners, losers, and probably a lifetime of trauma from what was witnessed. The story was an enjoyable ride with it's really likable characters, a great seasonal read to pick up. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 12, 2024
|
Sep 15, 2024
|
May 05, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| B0CH3M969M
| 3.60
| 367
| Jul 23, 2024
| Jul 23, 2024
|
liked it
|
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review After five years of not seeing her, Magnus ha I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review After five years of not seeing her, Magnus had to know what trouble she was up to. It's been five years since Magnus walked away not only from their crew but from Celeste. Now, an antiques store owner by day, but not able to give up the thrill of thieving, Celeste works with Bea, a young woman she's befriended and trained. When a job has Celeste running into Magnus, and the death of their mentor, Dr. Doris Grant, has them working together again, the heat reignites between them. As they go on a stealing treasure hunt that Doris set-up for after her death, they'll have a second chance to decide what's really important and what they want out of life. And rather than see the woman he cared for jeopardize her life again, he left them all behind. Jewel Me Twice started off with a little bit of movie True Lies and Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes that instantly captured my attention. The danger and heat simmering when Celeste and Magnus run into each other for the first time in five years while on a job, was definitely felt. The tension continued when they get delivered a red envelope alerting them that their mentor and the one who recruited them into her crew of thieves, has passed on but wants the old crew to get together at her home, where she'll send them on one last treasure hunt. It was, oddly, when the treasure hunt began that I thought the flow lost some of it's way. Celeste gets left Doris' diary and we get sections of what she had wrote. It becomes obvious that Doris feels some responsibility for how everything went down after a job failed that caused Magnus and Celeste to split. Doris sending them on the treasure hunt is her way of getting them back together and giving them their second chance to get things right. Did they truly know each other? Beyond the intimacy they shared? Celeste and Magnus were older characters, forties, that were more set in their ways. There was some towards the end realizing how each was at fault for how things ended but Celeste's chip on her shoulder was a bit too real for most of the book for me. Her attitude towards Magnus fooled me even as the reader and I started to feel that she did only want Magnus for bedroom scenes and didn't have or want that deeper emotional connection with him. Some of her antagonism is from Magnus growing up rich, even though his parents died in a car crash when he was young, and knows he didn't start his thieving career from necessity, like her. There's also friction from Magnus not liking how Celeste takes chances and Celeste thinking he's too controlling on jobs. They have some working out about these feelings but I still felt the bulk of their relationship was bedroom scenes that, albeit, read on page hot but not emotionally grabbing and giving the depth I like and have me believing and connecting with their relationship. Along with Bea, there were two other secondary characters from their old crew, Lawrence and Santiago that brought some outer world rounding out; Bea and Santiago very much feel like they could be set-up for their own book. While they travel to Estonia and Sweden, we don't really spend a significant time there to really feel the settings and they were pretty efficient at their jobs, so, except for the last one, the heists felt more like a blip (since I'm personally obsessed with them, I have to mention, Fabergé egg bonus moment!). The last job brought in a princess and Interpol agent with some tangents that I felt didn't quite fit. I thought this started off strong but there was some not fitting quite right pieces, the riddles, treasure hunt, emotional connections, diary entries, that ultimately hurt the flow for me. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 20, 2024
|
Jul 30, 2024
|
Mar 22, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0063235811
| 9780063235816
| 0063235811
| 4.05
| 2,696
| Jun 11, 2024
| Jun 11, 2024
|
liked it
|
2.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review He gave her a small smile. “Keep yo 2.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review He gave her a small smile. “Keep your friends close...” “And your enemies closer.” After finding an old gold coin in a box of her father's things, Anna now finds herself on a mission to prove that he didn't steal it, along with a Ruby Red necklace. Owen's been wanting to find his great-aunt's heirloom necklace for her for years and when he sees a news story about a gold coin that could be the first clue in years, he's not going to leave Anna's side. As a private investigator, Anna feels she has it covered but Owen's worried she'll lie to protect her father's reputation, so they find themselves working together and deluding themselves that “Once to get it out of our system!” is the solution for the building chemistry they find between themselves. Owen honestly hadn't known he was into sharp, cynical, feisty firecrackers with a side of sweet, but apparently there was a first time for everything. The Summer Escape is in the Sunrise Cove series but borrows from the setting, rather than continued character story lines, you could just pick this up. Anna's our late twenties character, who has the more interesting job of private investigator, but other than a grab your attention beginning dealing with the consequences of such a job, I'm not sure it was fully utilized to it's potential. Her father died a year ago and she's still dealing with the grief when she finds the gold coin. With her older sister Wendy pushing her, she takes it to a pawn shop to get appraised, which kicks off the whole chain of events. Wendy plays a decent sized role in this, she's eight months pregnant with triplets and because she's on bed-rest, feels the need to “come along” with Anna on her investigation (Go-Pro and Air Pods). We also get povs from Wendy, which fine, but your enjoyment of this story is going to come down to if you get annoyed with Wendy being “there” in a good portion of Anna and Owen scenes. I fell more on the annoyed side, especially when Anna and Owen were getting to know one another and some chemistry was trying to build, only to be “humorously” interrupted by Wendy. Your mileage may vary. “We said this wasn't happening. We're wrong for each other.” She didn't like the desperation in her voice. If you're a frequent Shalvis reader, you'll get some of that easy flowing sweet and flirty chemistry that she's known for, but a little less of the fun and light. This had Anna dealing with her grief, and fear that her dad was a thief, tarnishing his halo a bit to her and Owen having some of his own grief with his great-aunt suffering and declining from dementia. These two ruminated in these emotional upheavals, along with Anna not thinking she was good enough for Owen and Owen, faintly, because he seems just about all in pretty quickly, shaking off his playboy demeanor/past. I missed more of the fun falling in love, with some emotional hurdles, that I love Shalvis for, because this was more of rinse and repeat Anna saying a relationship between them would never work. If you like your characters to therapist chair talk to each other (this could be me being a tad dramatic) instead of flirt on, like, a kitchen counter, this would be more for you. She met his gave. “We can't get too attached, right?” And wasn't that the problem, because he was beginning to realize he was already very attached, and...he wanted more, far more. The investigation to find out who stole the coins and necklace, was fairly weak, I kept waiting for our private investigator Anna to do a lot more. She has a police officer friend give her the name of suspects from the original theft case, and there is some going to talk to a few people, but overall, didn't feel super active (which, I guess, real but not real entertaining) A danger blast from the past arrives later in the story to give us some action in the end and answers to the coins and necklace questions. The danger gives Anna a chance to open her eyes and realize what she really wants from life to give us the HEA. He was pretty sure her smile made his heart skip a beat. If a very pregnant sister cutting in and more emotional rumination than fun flirting, with a little side investigation that delivers some danger sounds good to you, then Shalvis always has that smooth flowing writing that is easy to pick up. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 07, 2024
|
May 28, 2024
|
Mar 22, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0063291789
| 9780063291782
| 0063291789
| 4.08
| 1,080
| May 14, 2024
| May 14, 2024
|
liked it
|
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review She hated the very sight of him. The Amethys I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review She hated the very sight of him. The Amethyst Kingdom is book five in The Five Crowns of Okrith series and brings us the conclusion. As it's the last book, I do not suggest jumping in here, you'd be extremely lost. If you're a reader of the series, then you're probably anticipating the last kingdom crowning their ruler and the violet witch that has been plaguing Okrith through the whole series, getting her comeuppance. As has been the style of this fantasy series with humans, Fae, and witches, each book centers on characters working out a romantic relationship and here we have Lady Carys and Lord Ersan, two Fated mates who were separated when Carys saw his keeping a secret from her as lying and have spent the last couple years apart. Last we spoke. She hated the way he said it. He made it sound like they were old friends who'd simply lost touch and not Fated mates who were split apart in a brutal breakup by his lies. This pretty much starts up right where book four left off, The Eastern Court trials to pick who will wear the crown for the Eastern Kingdom are about to start. The trials work to bring Carys and Ersan together, Carys has been in the East working to stabilize their kingdom and is all but their queen already but must go through their tradition. Ersan shows up to compete in the trials, claiming he just wants the crown, even though he is a Lord in the Southern Court. As this was all told from Carys' point-of-view it was extremely hard to get to know Ersan, he's definitely more to the side in the first half. All the reader really knows is that at the bequest of her father, he never told Carys about her halfling (half human, half Fae) sister and refuses to fully explain why he, in Carys' eyes, lied to her. The first half has two of the trials performed and the lingering danger of Monroe, the violet witch, but it felt a little slow going as I knew this was the book to wrap up the whole series and the build up of Monroe finally making an appearance and pretty much zero movement on the romance front, felt glacier moving. That's who they'd always been to each other---swinging between light and dark, love and hate. The middle had Monroe getting captured, creating a very anti-climatic feeling but finally movement on the romance front with Carys and Ersan being paired up on the trials and going out on the road together. While they finally spend some time together, Ersan's character still didn't get flushed or felt out to me, as it was a constant Carys being mad that he won't tell her why he lied and him just gritting his teeth and not talking; this was the epitome of if they'd Just Talked/Big Misunderstanding. The reasoning gets more flushed out towards the end as both talk about their past selves when younger and how spoiled and self-centered they were and Carys mental health issues, struggling with depression, get worked into the reasoning but it honestly got dragged out far too long for me. It was time to kill that witch once and for all. The later second half ramps up the action when past characters all come back to the Eastern Court and Monroe makes her final move to have violet witches take the crown. It was great to see past characters, there were some battle scenes to deliver action and emotion and while initially Monroe's appearance felt anti-climatc, there was a final scene to deliver the emotions you'd want after reading five books leading up to this battle. His eyes dipped to her mouth. “Some might call it Fate.” This would probably be the one where I thought the romance was the weakest, I never felt Ersan showed up enough here, but it had multiple open door scenes in the second half if you're looking for more physical over emotional (I typically need to feel their emotional connection so I can feel the heat in their physical). The first half was pretty slow going with the trials feeling like something they didn't necessarily need to be focusing on when the big villain of the whole series, Monroe, was directly in the picture and in fact, the trials get pretty much forgotten in the end in favor of the final Monroe showdown battle. A must read if you've followed along on this journey for the battle of the Okrith kingdoms but just prepare for slower going until the final showdown. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 24, 2024
|
May 05, 2024
|
Mar 15, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0063320819
| 9780063320819
| 0063320819
| 3.78
| 1,187
| Jun 11, 2024
| Jun 11, 2024
|
it was ok
|
2.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review And there it was, looming over them 2.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review And there it was, looming over them like a skyscraper, steepled black against the starry sky: Providence I. Twenty years ago, a crew was assembled and placed on a ship that had the newly harnessed black matter engine that only the chief engineer, Halvorsen, seemed to understand and was set to take off for an exoplanet that could sustain life. Horrifyingly, the world watched as their hope for an escape from an increasingly weather destabilizing Earth, was poofed out of existence, literally. As Halvorsen did the countdown and got to one, the crew and passengers disappeared. Halvorsen went into hiding and one year later disappeared. Now, in 2061, Cleo and her friends, Kaleisha, Abe, and Ros, execute their “Space Heist” plan and break into the facility that houses the spaceship Providence I. Only, as they search for clues to what happened, the heist is on them and the spaceship's dark matter energy fires up and they're suddenly on the way to the exoplanet. With the help of a hologram, courtesy of the ship's original Captain, Billie, who uploaded her brain into the ship's computer, Cleo and her friends will work to discover the truth of what really happened, traverse space and time, and fight for progress with love. And four of them decided, idiotically, that if no one else was going to solve the mystery of Launch Day, they were going to do it themselves. The Stars Too Fondly was a scifi story that was told almost exclusively through dialogue, leaving character development feeling not as there to me, thus bereft that I knew these characters. The first half is told a lot from Cleo's point-of-view, as she talks to her friends, readers learn a little about the world in 2061, how Earth is heading more and more towards desolate. There were also archived documents from communications between the captain and the chief engineer, with newspaper stories to create kind of flashbacks to let the reader on what happened in the past in between the chapters; while informative, I did think it hurt some of the flow for me. One thing that didn't quite make sense to me, the horror of not understanding what happened with the Providence I launch, is said to keep anyone from wanting to try such a thing again but the excitement of building it was also said to have inspired the new generation to all become STEM graduates? It's alluded that the companies are scared, so they see no profit but all these STEM graduates haven't inspired or gained scientific knowledge to build up a space program again, when it seems direly needed? I also struggled mightily with the vibe of this, the first problem, the characters were all late twenties but this definitely has a Young Adult feeling to it and the second, vernacular doesn't seem to have changed at all in the future. I don't know if this is a futuristic version of The Tiffany Problem, but “dude, slow your roll”, “pray tell”, and “It helped, she quickly learned, to think of the passing days aboard Providence I like a montage in an eighties movie— a training montage, a getting-the-team-together montage, a “dancing and sock-sliding through the empty rooms” montage.”, said by a twenty-seven year old in 2061 doesn't trip you up and take you out of what is a scific story, like it did me, then you'd probably enjoy this more than I did. “My friends call me Billie.” The hologram blinked at her. Once the ship takes off, you get some of Cleo excited to be on the space adventure and Kaleisha angry, because she had a good life on Earth and didn't want to leave. Abe and Ros are around but, for the most part, aren't focused on for too much of the story in the first half. The second half gets more scifi and we get more of it told from Billie's pov, I wasn't a STEM student, so the science parts sounded somewhat believable for a scifi fiction story, but I have no idea if they'd pass a sniff test to others in the know. The second half answers some questions with Halverson accessing powers from a different dimension, that he was warned away from and the consequences of his ignoring. Cleo and her friends get powers from the dark matter engine and those powers help them immediately, Cleo and Kaleisha suddenly can get the ship to jump in distance so the original seven years to get to the exoplanet, will only take a few months, handy. Cleo can also see into the past and future, with Ros getting some of that future ability too. It gets a little hard to follow in that way scifi can, but it becomes clear that Cleo and her friends are working with what gave the warnings against Halverson, whose disappearance gets answered, along with what happened to the passengers of the ship. But anyone with half a brain— like, say, tiny lesbians with mommy issues and a fear of commitment, or starship captains who have lost everything— knows that love can hurt too. The romance aspect wasn't filled out or developed enough for me and it's going to hinge on if you think a programmed hologram representing an uploaded brain can be sentient. Cleo and hologram Billie are snarky with each other and then a little into the second half, I guess that snark was love, not sure I can say I felt it. It becomes even more your mileage will vary when Cleo finds out what happened to the passengers and her and her friends fight to rescue them, bringing the “real” Billie into the picture. The ending gives us a battle (with an extremely found quick answer for defeating), a sex scene that felt forced in, and an abrupt back home. This explored different dimensions, profit and progress, and what constitutes love and it's power, but I think it got lost on its way more than landed. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 06, 2024
|
Jun 08, 2024
|
Mar 04, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 006124502X
| 9780061245022
| 006124502X
| 4.05
| 2,030
| Oct 01, 2007
| Oct 30, 2007
|
liked it
|
2.5 stars
|
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 29, 2024
|
Mar 07, 2024
|
Feb 29, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250886023
| 9781250886026
| B0BQGGBCXC
| 3.56
| 4,266
| Dec 05, 2023
| Dec 05, 2023
|
liked it
|
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Sir Edward Chenowyth was laid out in the mid I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Sir Edward Chenowyth was laid out in the middle of the orchard beneath a verdant canopy, with lace-like bits of sunlight breaking through the leaves casting a pattern on the ground below. At first blush one might assume the fellow had fallen asleep watching the wind play in the leaves above, were not his body contorted in a peculiar serpentine position. Or were his face not ripped beyond recognition. As with any good Gothic, a dark and broody manor Penryth Hall resides in the Cornish countryside where the village citizens believe in curses and our intrepid heroine, Ruby, gets mixed up in a murder mystery told all from her point-of-view. Ruby's been to this Hall before and had made a promise to never return, her former bestfriend and intimate partner Tamsyn lives there, with her husband. After feeling betrayed by Tamsyn and turning her back on the life Ruby thought she'd live with her, Tamsyn married a baron. However, the fatherly figure, Mr. Owen, who has taken Ruby under his wing, has a trunk of books for Ruby to deliver to that area. After ignoring a letter from Tamsyn, begging Ruby to help her, Ruby decides this is fate telling her to check in on Tamsyn. “Ruan, I need to know something.” “What?” “Are you or aren’t you a witch?” After “meeting” Ruby, learning her trauma that she still holds from being a nurse in WWI (it's 1922), the murder mystery gets going fairly quickly. When Ruby agrees to deliver the books to a Mr. Kivell, she's in the Cornish countryside within a few chapters. There, fate seems to have her meeting Mr. Kivell, first name Ruan, in a fated way and within the first night of her checking in on her former friend Tamsyn, the baron is found murdered. Again, as with any good Gothic, the question of whether it is human or paranormal forces at work is swirled around. Ruan is the countryside's Pellar (a good witch), and with Ruby being an American, she instantly has friction with Ruan and everyone's thinking that it's the “Curse”. The family Tamsyn married into is said to be cursed by a witch because of the baron's ancestor falling in love with the wrong girl, and the baron's uncle and aunt were previously murdered, actually allowing him to inherit. Ruby doesn't have the best reputation, she was sent over from America by her family because of a scandal (she was caught with a married man) and this embittered her in ways. Then when the war started, she volunteered and was put on the Western Front and the death and destruction had her viewing life and priorities differently, along with falling in love with Tamsyn and to only feel betrayed by the decisions Tamsyn then made. So, when the townspeople think the curse has returned, they see Ruby as the possible witch who brought it back. The woman pointed a finger at me. “She will destroy you. Take everything from you until you have returned to the earth from which you were born. Leave the morvoren-born behind, Pellar. She can bring you nothing but death.” This has Ruby put in many almost death situations, Ruan has to save her from a stoning, enough dangerous situations that my American butt would have noped out very quickly but Ruby still has emotional ties to Tamsyn and she promised she'd stay to figure out the murder mystery to protect Tamsyn and Tamsyn's son. With Ruan being the Pellar and the most trusted in the area, this has them then working together to figure out who killed the baron. There's credible red-herrings all over the place and the middle did start to drag for me a little bit as one too many avenues started to appear on the way to solving the murder. There's also a little romance with the pushing tension turning into pull between Ruby and Ruan. “I have a feeling about you. And I can’t say whether I hope or fear that I’m right.” I read this with the mindset that it was a standalone and I think that wound up affecting my rating, this clearly is setting up to be a series, at least I hope so because the ending leaves numerous threads dangling. The focused on murder mystery here is solved but Ruby and Ruan's connection is obviously not done being explored and the epilogue seems to set-up Ruby to go on another adventure. The mystery was a bit too dragged out with one too many redherrings and their side stories, the edging in of paranormal was just about right with Ruan being a pellar and his Sookie Stackhouse ability, the underneath light romance was dashed enough in to call it a thread, and the main heroine Ruby had enough facets in her personality to draw me in and make me interested in her as a reader. I liked this, but with thinking the story was going to be contained in one book, wanted things to be more snappy. If you're willing to settle in for some meandering and can handle not all being explained, the setting and atmosphere in this was Gothic fun. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 27, 2023
|
Dec 14, 2023
|
Nov 25, 2023
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250866901
| 9781250866905
| 4.21
| 116,864
| Feb 20, 2024
| Feb 20, 2024
|
really liked it
|
3.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Because wherever Rune Winters went, 3.5 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review Because wherever Rune Winters went, her carefully crafted reputation came with her. She was an informer. A witch hater. A darling of the New Republic. Rune was the girl who betrayed her grandmother. The Crimson Moth series is a planned duology (so brace yourself for that cliffhanger) about a fantasy world where witches once ruled but two years ago, there was a revolution by the Blood Guard and the ruling three witch queen sisters were killed. Now, The New Republic has outlawed witches and the Blood Guard have hunted them to the point that very few are ever seen, identifiable by their scars cut into their bodies to supply the blood they need for their spells. Rune was sixteen when the revolution happened and forced into an impossible situation that had her surviving but drowning from guilt. She also gets a shock when, as a later bloomer, she gets her menses and it's revealed she's a witch. Knowing her survival depends on staying hidden, she uses her aristocrat lineage to pretend to be an empty headed society miss, but wanting to fight back, Rune also becomes the Crimson Moth, a vigilante that rescues captured witches and ships them away to freedom. Gideon Sharpe. Rune’s lip nearly curled at the name of Alex’s older brother. Devoutly loyal to the New Republic, Gideon was a ruthless, bloodthirsty witch hunter who’d sent more of Rune’s kind to the purge than any other member of the Guard. He’d also famously helped assassinate the Sister Queens, sparking the revolution into a blaze. The older brother of Rune's bestfriend, Alex, is Gideon a captain in the Blood Guard and helped start the revolution but killing two of the witch queens. When they were kids and Rune met him for the first time, she had a crush on him, until he was rude and dismissive to her. Now that she's eighteen and he's twenty, Rune tries to avoid him as he could be the cause of her death if he ever found out what and who she is. With chapters that alternate giving us Rune and Gideon's point-of-view, we get a good luck at Gideon's character and learn important information about his past, thoughts, and feelings. His family was poor until the queens favored his parents for their dress designs and while that should have made things better for their family, it was their downfall. Gideon catches the eye of the youngest queen, Cressida, and from there he's forced into a relationship that he initially wanted but then can't escape as she becomes murderously jealous and Gideon can't escape people knowing about his relationship with the witch queen and knows he has to stay with her for his remaining family member, Alex's, safety. Gideon has reasons to hate the witch queens and when Nicolas, the commander of the Blood Guard, lays out a way to get his revenge, he takes it. He was a witch hunter. He suspected her. He was closing in on her even now. And yet. I flew through the beginning first half of this, the world-building that was starting to be laid out with Rune having to remain hidden for her survival but having two friends, Alex and Verity, a girl Rune becomes friends with after Verity tells her the story of how she's not a witch but her two sisters were and her mother turned them in, set-up magic, danger, and then intrigue when Gideon came into the picture. Verity pushes Rune to find someone to court and then marry who has access to information so they can safely rescue even more witches, but does think Gideon could be too dangerous. Alex also has tried very hard to never betray his brother and refuses to completely side with Rune against him. However, since this is romance along with fantasy, Rune has a little bit of that drawn to Gideon and tells herself and friends that she's only going to use Gideon for information. Since we get Gideon's povs too, readers also know that Gideon's friends Harrow and fellow guard Lelia, also encourage him to pretend court Rune for information, when it's found out that Rune's family business of ships helped the last witch escape. So a really great cat and mouse dynamic is set-up with Rune and Gideon trying to use each other but also ultimately developing real feelings. The hunted had fallen for the hunter. The second half slowed down for me some as the romance became more of the focus and it stagnated with rinse and repeat of Gideon feeling he couldn't give into his feelings for Rune because he knows his brother Alex has romantic feelings for her and Rune, rightly so, scared that Gideon would turn her in to be killed if he discovered she's a witch. There was an open-door bedroom scene but I thought the best scenes between the two was when the tension ramped up because both are trying to fight their chemistry and both have some fear, Rune getting discovered and Gideon thinking he could be getting played and wanting to protect his brother. The latter second half also brought in some love triangle that I really didn't like and lead to a component of the ending that didn't quite deliver on the desired emotional impact for me; I'm not sure that character was flushed out enough. She was the Crimson Moth— a wanted criminal, not to mention a witch, hiding in plain sight. The last twenty percent picked up the stagnated pace and we get a rush of movement with a reveal that some will probably guess early at, some battle, and Rune and Gideon more divided than ever. This is tagged as a YA and it has some of that feel in the beginning but by the end I'd say it was more New Adult, the open-door scene and the method of how they kill the witches might be a little gruesome for the lower end of YA (but for YA/NA I loved that Rune used her menses blood for a source of power, using that blood so she wouldn't have to cut herself and have scars signaling she was a witch). There were characters I would have liked flushed out more, The Good Commander had such an impact on Gideon's life that I really missed seeing more scenes of the two together, not to mention Gideon and Alex. As I mentioned in the beginning, this ends with a cliffhanger and while I wanted more depth in some places, I'll definitely be in line for when the second comes out as in one aspect Rune got what she wanted but it may have just put her in danger from another foe and Gideon is going to want revenge even more. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 29, 2024
|
Mar 04, 2024
|
Nov 02, 2023
|
Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 3.62
| 56,909
| May 07, 2024
| May 07, 2024
|
liked it
|
2.7 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 'We have time-travel,’ she said, li 2.7 stars I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 'We have time-travel,’ she said, like someone describing the coffee machine. ‘Welcome to the Ministry.’ Set some time in the not too distant future, The Ministry of Time opens up with an intriguing concept, time travel exists and the United Kingdom's government controls it. Told all from the point-of-view of a woman who previously worked in the languages department, she applies for an internal job wanting the higher pay. When the Ministry section of the government hires her to be a “bridge”, her life changes. I thought this started off strongly with an intriguing concept, The Ministry has selected people from different timelines that from recorded history, they know die in their own timeline. Our narrator's a bridge (someone who stays with the “expat” for a year to help them transition) for a Commander Graham Gore. Graham's an actual real historical figure which I thought gave this a slight fanfiction feel, to it's scifi and speculative fiction. Ideas have to cause problems before they cause solutions. It's all a little murky as to why the government has decided to pick these people and what exactly they're doing, our narrator's a company woman and doesn't question too much in the beginning. After I thought was a strong scifi start, the middle stagnated in pace and we get lost in our narrator's head for awhile. There's the transition of assimilating a man who died in 1847 to a twenty-first century London, along with the narrator's attraction to him. A lot of the attraction was already built as she's read his personal letters, knows his story, and romanticized him through this knowledge and liking a daguerreotype existing picture of him. For Graham's part, since we don't have his pov, he's a not a clear readable character; it seems he could be attracted to her but it could also be him trying to play his cards right. I've seen Outlander comparisons and I would caution reading this for the romance because you'd probably be disappointed (there were a few open door scenes but those alone do not a romance make). The middle also explored inherited trauma and warring with helping your country but not enabling their same made mistakes. Our narrator is the daughter of a Cambodian refugee and she carries some of her mother's trauma which creates some push and pull in “just following orders”. We get introduced to some of the other bridges and expats, with two of them, a WWI soldier and black plague survivor playing bigger secondary character roles. Through their experiences to the new world, we get some discussions on gay rights and feminism. The truth is, it won’t get better if you keep making the same mistakes. After the more sluggish middle, the latter second half picked up speed with the building spy thriller aspect and what The Ministry is actually trying to do. There are some hints sprinkled throughout that you could kind of guess where the story is going (I wasn't hundred percent correct) and we get some action and takes on climate change. When dealing with time travel, there are always going to be some holes, this had those with some of the “whys” not fully answered and the “hereness” and “thereness” not completely making sense. The romance wasn't the strongest and the thriller aspect waiting around too long to fully hit, giving some of a rushed ending feeling. The discussions and takes on racism, trauma, sexism, imperialism, and other issues had some mealy mouth, I get the narrator is working through them herself, but it left me feeling like not a lot was said when done. This was a whole bunch of elements mixed together that I'm not sure all fully got realized and created a got lost on it's way middle that really slowed the pace and dented it's impact for me. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
May 07, 2024
|
May 12, 2024
|
Nov 02, 2023
|
Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0778305236
| 9780778305231
| 0778305236
| 3.51
| 3,490
| Mar 26, 2024
| Mar 26, 2024
|
liked it
|
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review No, the question is not whether fox spirits I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review No, the question is not whether fox spirits exist. The question is: If one comes for you, can you resist it? The Emperor and the Endless Palace was a drug and sex fueled Cloud Atlas like story woven from Chinese fables, mythology, and historical fiction. Following three timelines from individual point-of-views, Dong Xian 4 BCE, He Shican 1740, and River Present day, the reader is taken on a reincarnation journey as three souls are forever intertwined. “To put it as simply as possible, our souls are caught in an endless loop. No matter how many lifetimes we endure, we will not be released from an ancient curse. And once upon a lifetime, I made a promise to you that I would break it.” As the reader travels in and out of each time period, commonalities are revealed and a picture of tangled love and a magical force working to interfere becomes apparent. What is not always so apparent is which reincarnated soul belongs to whom and who are the souls that truly belong together. There's some initial good vs. evil going on but I liked how as the story went on, it does murky up some of that conventional thinking and shows the battles of temptations and freedom of will playing their part. Dong Xian, this whole time you thought that you were playing the game, only to realize you are the game. Each timeline, whether it was Dong trying to strategize for power and influence in the Emperor's Palace against the Emperor's grandmother and cousin, He Shican trying to find where he fits in life and escaping his father's disappointment and unrequited from a doctor who took care of him, or River exploring his sexuality and living out for the first time, provided inner workings and deeper layers into these souls. I thought Dong Xian's timeline was the most thought out and worked the best, He Shican's was the most fantastical and River's looped and jumped around a bit too much creating a “does this all make sense?”. And I don’t know how else to describe a bittersweet feeling inside me— in this moment that I meet him, I realize I might be lonely for the rest of my life. His name is Joey. I would consider this at least straddling the erotic line, sex, and drugs, are constantly playing their part. I don't think I could say I felt the, modern conventional, love between the souls but the endlessly drawn to feeling came through. The writing created an easy pace, if not the story always being clear, and I flew through this. If looking for a reincarnation story that plays with temptations and freedom of will, the setting and influence of Chinese fantasy and historical fiction make this an interesting one to pickup. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 16, 2024
|
Mar 25, 2024
|
Oct 27, 2023
|
Hardcover
|
WhiskeyintheJar
>
Books:
mystery-suspense
(520)
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 3.76
|
it was ok
|
Oct 20, 2019
not set
|
Sep 21, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.04
|
it was ok
|
Sep 23, 2024
|
Sep 12, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.48
|
it was ok
|
Nov 25, 2015
not set
|
Sep 11, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.36
|
did not like it
|
Sep 29, 2024
|
Jul 30, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.81
|
it was ok
|
Jun 16, 2018
not set
|
Jul 29, 2024
|
|||||
|
| Brom
*
| 4.04
|
liked it
|
Sep 25, 2024
|
Jun 17, 2024
|
||||
|
| 3.77
|
it was ok
|
Jun 25, 2024
|
Jun 14, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.53
|
really liked it
|
Jun 24, 2024
|
Jun 06, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.59
|
really liked it
|
Jun 18, 2024
|
May 30, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.26
|
liked it
|
Aug 23, 2024
|
May 10, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.20
|
liked it
|
Sep 15, 2024
|
May 05, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.60
|
liked it
|
Jul 30, 2024
|
Mar 22, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.05
|
liked it
|
May 28, 2024
|
Mar 22, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.08
|
liked it
|
May 05, 2024
|
Mar 15, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.78
|
it was ok
|
Jun 08, 2024
|
Mar 04, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.05
|
liked it
|
Mar 07, 2024
|
Feb 29, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.56
|
liked it
|
Dec 14, 2023
|
Nov 25, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 4.21
|
really liked it
|
Mar 04, 2024
|
Nov 02, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.62
|
liked it
|
May 12, 2024
|
Nov 02, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.51
|
liked it
|
Mar 25, 2024
|
Oct 27, 2023
|
Loading...
