beccaannekent's reviews
620 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A frantic, insane rollercoaster. I loved every page and thank god we can start considering IF as a blip.

I’ll probably do a reread and another more comprehensive review once my brain has stopped screaming.

Dance of Kings and Thieves by LJ Andrews

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Bringing back all the characters from the first 3, introducing characters and events for in future series (HELLO EVER KING) and just *Kase Eriksson* makes these an inevitable 5 star read. This is the Avengers Endgame of books and how two series should collide

Game of Hate and Lies by LJ Andrews

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was concerned that this might drag out the “lost memories” storyline too long, but thankfully it was quite action packed.

I’m learning to love Kase and Malin more and more as their relationship develops, but what got me the most with this book is the found family trope. It is genuinely one of my favourites and it has been orchestrated so beautifully in this series.

If I remember anything from the first Trilogy in this series, the third book is going to hurt. I’m picking it up immediately, but I’m not sure I’m ready.

Night of Masks and Knives by LJ Andrews

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Continuing on with my journey of The Broken Kingdoms series…just quite a few months later than I expected too!

I already love Malin and Kase more than the previous trilogy. It feels darker, grittier and with a bit of a Viking twist!

This is a book where the side characters are just as developed and easy to love as the main characters, and it is why I found it just so easy to read once introduced to them.

It is marketed as spicy but it seems to be upper YA/NA level than actual “spice” which is a disappointment, their second chance love story is so good that it DESERVES to be more detailed!!

The Songbird & The Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Unfortunately, I might have gone into this with too much expectation and it hasn’t lived up to its predecessors.

I couldn’t picture the scenes being set by the author at all, which I really struggled with. I’m such a visual reader, but the description of where they were was so convoluted, my brain couldn’t recreate it. I was aware it was Dante’s Inferno-esque but walls, floors, grass, sand, air? Who the fuck knows what they were walking on, cos it definitely wasn’t me.

Alongside this, I couldn’t grasp the length of time they had been exploring the underworld? It seemed like hours one minute and then weeks the next. At one point Mische mentions she has only been learning shadow magic for months and I nearly gave myself whiplash returning to that sentence to confirm I read it correctly. I’m not sure if this was intentional, because the characters were also disoriented but it potentially should have been discussed more to give that understanding to the reader.

We definitely spent too much time exploring the underworld and not enough time flashbacking to both Mische and Asar’s past. I need CONTEXT.

The altar scene was hot af 😮‍💨

We didn’t get to know the MMC enough before we were with him 24/7. I couldn’t get behind the feelings developing and the relationship between him and Mische. He seems obsessed with her (and okay fair cos once I went and found character art of her, I agree because she is STUNNING), but it hit out of the blue.

A final point, the side characters were not fleshed out enough. The two travelling with Mische and Asar? I couldn’t tell you they were. I’ve forgotten, and I finished the book mere minutes ago. We know this author can do some excellent side character building, and I’m so sad that in this one we’ve missed out.

P.s. Luce is the bestest good girl forever.

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced