annekawithane's reviews
75 reviews

An enjoyable quick audiobook. I didn’t love this one as much as I did the first as I didn’t connect to or know the team well in this book except for ART. I do hope it returns—and characters from book 1. Murderbot is still his media-loving, eye-rolling fien. Something was missing in general for me, not sure what. Couldn’t tell if Murderbot’s narration was slightly different from my 4-5 month memory of the first, the transitional (I hope) plot, or Murdorbot’s contract with some  naive researchers. 

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? Somehow, after taking a year between reading book 2 and this, I came back enjoying the characters (and the story) much more that I did in the previous books. I wasn’t bored. Each of the POVs, since everyone was separated, moved the plot, built the characters, in a way that I liked more. Maybe it was the time away and the second book’s ending, that made me want to know where the characters all ended up. 

I still felt that The One Who Waits was one-dimensional compared to Taristan, Erida, and the wizard. If you were to remove him, the villains could honestly stand on their own. I just never felt the chilling presence; one that you felt from Sauron from LOTR (which I know is a big inspiration for this series). I wanted to see his manipulative influence, the control, his “voice”, his power on the page, which I didn’t think we got a lot of by the end. 

In addition, the ending felt a bit condensed, with some plot threads not weaved in, but it also tellingly open for continuation. Overall, a surprising good conclusion to this trilogy.

Audiobook wise, I continued to enjoy the multiple narrators and their characterization. 

Abby Heringer shares her accounts of growing up deaf and with a cochlear implant. Abby’s recount is informative and general. The (ghostwriter’s) writing is clear and easy to understand alongside’s Heringer’s linear storytelling. It was unfortunate hearing her negative experience with the Deaf community. I think she had a decent balance between sharing her sister’s  relationship & journey versus her own with her implants and speech-directed upbringing. 

I watched Abby the Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, and these chapters are minimal and an overview compared to the rest of this book. You don’t need to watch her season/know her from this franchise to read this book. I was interested though in learning more about accommodations that the producers made for her if asked for. 

Thank you Shari, for taking the time and bravely sharing your experience and processing of the horrors that unfolded in the “house of my mother.” The account was raw and the ghostwriting felt aligned to Shari’s voice. 

This book is not a tell all. It recounts only Shari’s POV and that is the purpose. I commend the firm stance on protecting her sibling’s privacy given their circumstances and age. As this book is coming out only a few years after Ruby’s arrest and Shari awakening from her own consumption of the “kool-aid” as she describes its, I can only imagine the power of reflections 10-15+ years from now after healing, therapy, and new healthier living experiences. It’s understandable that this book is being published at this time to provide as a direct source of information versus non-consented news coverage and documentaries and speculation. I hope all the best to them all. 

Having watched Ruby Frankie’s sister’s vlogs for several years (Ellie & Jared), and only few 8Passengers vlogs, I had seen comments about Ruby’s abusive parenting techniques in forums. Seeing the headlines of Ruby’s arrest was alarming after 5+ years away from viewership. I’ll continue to reflect on my personal (past) consumption of vlogs, media. I think this brings discussion of education versus entertainment distortion of traumatic events. How the rise of social media plays into this. And how our perspectives may shift when our own horrors is aired to the world. 

I’m growing to love this series. Having fun reading this series with my traveling book club. I enjoyed Rooney and Axels bond and the space they created. Having started with Viggo, I love seeing his interactions with family outside of the relationship spotlight and seeing more of his personality. 

Illumicrate editions, I really need you to stop calling my name…….

I love Ava Reid’s writing and Imani Jade Power’s narration, but I don’t think this book was for me 😢. I didn’t connect with the characters or the story. I’m not familiar with Macbeth which maybe had something to do with that, but I do hear this deviates. As usual, Reid leans into their poetic and atmospheric writing. I’ll be looking out for Imani’s future audiobooks. Her voice was soothing. 

This is one book where the teenage writing style and frat boy audiobook narration style (while fitting to the character) and I did not vibe.

I think N.E. Davenport touched well on the themes of racism and misogyny. McKenna is driven and doesn’t take shit when it’s thrown at her constantly; I did find it hard to like her as our main POV. Given her immediate assumption of who killed her grandfather, I wanted more tension or dynamic in that plotline. Her internal monologue was very repetitive in writing. Chapter 12 almost made me DNF had I had a stronger backbone in abandoning books.

The avoidance of sexual terms made it sound really juvenile.

The romance in general didn’t appeal to me cause it came out of nowhere and didn’t come back again.  

Some character had 180° flips in behaviors so I’m intrigued how their character arcs pan out in the sequel if I read it. I also had a hard time believing that a country, who is stated to have had heavy casualties in their last war, would willingly kill 800+ enlistees for a specialized branch of their military every year especially with their ambitious plans. 

Overall, I thought it was okay, but the story nor the characters stood out to me in a rememberable way.I honestly kept increasing the speed of narration.  

3.25 stars

Thank you Hachette Audio and Net Galley for the audiobook ALC! 

This Ends in Embers is a satisfying enough conclusion to the Divine Traitors duology.

In strengths, I liked the character reflection and growth journeys the characters went  through. I think both were indicative of where they were as book began: Faron with Iya reckoning what that means for her values and who she is and Elara as the new Empyrean and the new status and power that gives her. I appreciated more discussion on the impact war has had on them, which was one of my notes of the first book I think. We got to know a bit more about some of the side characters and the surrounding countries. I felt more confident in Elara and Sidney’s relationship as that was the one that actually developed. Farron’s romantic plot line still felt very underdeveloped. Last, having not reread the first book, there were recap sentences throughout the book which did help jog my memory and I was able to understand what was happening without a reread. 

What I wanted more of was deeper integration. There was mention and slight development in the involvement of other countries and characters, but I didn’t feel its impact across the story. I think because the recurring cast of characters stays the same across books, it makes the world/cast feel very small. And that’s for both sides of the war. I didn’t realize the dragon population was so minuscule (that could have been because of the previous war and mentioned in the first book, but I can’t recall). For example the involvement of the other countries or the protests are here and there and very quickly wrapped up in the last 10 or so minutes of the book. There were two big moments in the book where I felt less emotionally moved because I don’t think I knew the characters or dragons enough to feel the impact

(Iya taking over Jesper’s body and the severing of dragon bonds/leaving of the dragons)

. Sidney’s comments helped a bit, but I still felt less emotionally invested given we only have the sister’s POV and what was or wasn’t given in this book alone (e.i. dragon input aside from Lightbringer). Also, there were several moments where I wish sections were shown more than just told they happened. 

Overall, I enjoyed the development from the first book, but I don’t think this series for me. Both books I felt very middle on, but I think it’s a series that others and teens will find enjoyment in. The new cover design direction is beautiful and I think capture the story more.

Audiobook wise, I enjoyed the narration. I liked having the carry over of the two different narrators for the sisters. I was more drawn to Elara’s narrator (Keylor Leigh?) in personal preference. In Faron’s narration, I was really feeling the sentence structure and the slightly flatter inflections. I didn’t change the speed between narrators so that may have been my issue

Thank you Meg Smitherman for the digital ARC!! 

This was a thrilling novella that I read in one sitting on a sick day. Meg Smitherman packs a lot in a short time frame, but the story and the characters felt flushed out enough for the length. I’m finding I like my horror in niche genre mixing and this satisfied me in all areas. There was a nice balance between the sci-fi, horror, and open-door romance. I wanted to explore the planet, get to know the characters, and unravel the mystery. I did think the ending felt a bit snipped, I didn’t want it to end; that being said, I would love to see Smitherman write a full length novel in this genre-mixer. I would eat it up!