brimelick's reviews
347 reviews

This was a fascinating look at what historians consider the bloodiest war fought in North America and how it has been written into American memory. The King Philip's War occurred during the 1670s, primarily in New England, between the Narragansett and Wampanoags against the English settlers. As much as I enjoyed the exciting comparisons that were made regarding the Indigenous people and the English, it was hard to take a lot of it as fact. Lepore has written a book that was thoroughly researched. Yet, the limited writings and the heavily opinionated writings of the time make this an interesting take on the history of King Philip's War. What was lacking in this narrative was a brief history of the war and the tensions leading up to it. It essentially banked on you already knowing a ton about the war.

Oddly enough, I think this book has an interesting premise that I wish could be explored more. Not my favorite, but there were some enjoyable parts.

As many trilogies go, this one held all the vibes of a second book in a trilogy. Many questions were answered, and more plot lines were to further the overarching plot, but I felt less attached to the characters in this book than I did in the first one. I hope that gets rectified as I read the third. As an avid reader of Victoria Aveyard, it is not surprising that I enjoy reading the villain's POV more so than the group of Companions. Erida is such a power house character that I almost want to root for her as she continues to take over kingdoms and collect crowns. What a boss bitch. I also love a man who is happy being the queen's consort rather than plotting for the crown himself. What a man.

I do not often pick up a suspenseful novel like this one, but one of my reading prompts this year pushed me to expand my horizons. I listened to Never Lie last year and thought this one had an interesting premise, and I was not disappointed. The plot itself was quite easy to follow, but it was the characters themselves that made me rate this book higher. This book has an exciting mix of characters. It's the characters who did it for me; they were fascinating to read and showed the reader just how unreliable people's perspectives of other people can be, and why many men and women who are abused are often not believed, cause gosh, "he/she/they, are just such great people, I can't believe they would do that to you!" This was great to listen to and I think that kept my attention. I might just be picking up another one of her books.

Adam Barnett (sorry if the spelling is wrong; I listened to the audiobook)
Classic hot guy who charms everyone he meets and thinks he can be a different person to everyone to fit his needs, and no one is going to find out? He is a classic narcissist who uses isolation as his key tool. He is a best-selling author who writes his crimes down on paper and is shocked when he is finally discovered. Marries a beautiful outgoing women and almost immediately begins to verbally and mentally abuse her, this turns into manipulation and isolation after their marriage. It is evident on many occasions that he is cheating on his wife, but from her perspective, you can see just how easy it is for these tactics to work, and she ends up feeling as if she is deserving. He meets our narrator, Sylvia, who is down on her luck, and as fate would have it, he has a job opening for a companion to his wife, who has *shock* had an 'accident' that gave her severe brain damage. Prick.

Victoria Barnett
The wife. When we meet her, she is paralyzed on one side of her body with nasty scars on her face, months after surviving a trip down the stairs that gave her severe brain damage. She needs 24/7 care from her husband, which has become a new version of abuse. She is almost entirely nonverbal and uses her diary, written when she first met Adam, and a few selected words to tell Sylvia just how much danger she's in. Whether what Adam or Maggie said is true, what happens to her ultimately is utterly devastating. Every time Victoria is described after her accident, it is emotional because you just know who the culprit is.

Sylvia Robinson
The woman found by Adam to be the companion to Victoria, who learns that she is a bit more capable than Adam is willing to admit; she constantly mentions that Adam is hot and ends up sleeping with him after he's played the 'I'm lonely, and need someone.' card. She has a bad feeling about the house and the couple, yet decides to move in with them to be the companion to get away from her clingy ex from high school. The money is good, and so is the story Victoria tells in her diary. This leads Sylvia to start being more suspicious of Adam and even stops giving Victoria medication that makes her essentially a vegetable for half the day.

Maggie
The cleaning lady is also gushing over how hot Adam is. She's got a boyfriend but is also sleeping with Adam. See a trend here? This leads her to incorrectly warn Sylvia about how crazy Victoria is and help Adam with something terrible.

Eva
The nurse who hates Maggie and Sylvia and cares deeply for Victoria as her patient. Does not trust Adam, for good reason.

Mac
A paramedic who worked with Victoria and truly loved her warns her about Adam's abusive behavior, and Sylvia would love to ask him questions. Still, she can't quite track him down, suspicious.

Freddie
Sylvia's clingy ex swoops in at just the right moment.

First, I would like to thank Netgalley, the author and publisher, for the chance to read this book; I appreciate it!

So I rated this three stars, and there are several reasons why I think this book is below the age of 'Young Adult'; I genuinely believe this is more of a middle-grade book. As a 25-year-old, I found it challenging to get into this book. It had a wonderful nostalgic vibe of New England Falls, and that was its shining moment for me. As someone who has never watched Gilmore Girls, I cannot tell you whether that was the vibe. The characters were WAY too underdeveloped for me, which is one thing I cannot do when reading a book. The mother was more of a friend than a mother. Lucy was far too irritating about everything, and I have no idea how her friends handled her for as long as they did. But as someone who remembers their teenage years vividly, I definitely had my Lucy moments. The story follows Lucy, the daughter of a woman who owns the local coffee shop in town and has a deep-seated hatred for the over-commercialized Pumpkin Spice Lattes (which very quickly can be made with natural products rather than fake stuff), but I get it. It was a bit like 'I'm not like other girls,' which turned me off. She realized that the new cute student had moved to the area because his parents owned a hugely popular coffee chain location, and Lucy automatically assumed the worst about them. Cue a series of one-sided dislikes to slight romance. All in all, it was a great ambiance but definitely not a book that I would have picked up for myself. It would be perfect for someone in late middle and early high school!

I thoroughly enjoyed every single part of this book, EXCEPT Chaol's attitude for most of the first part. I understood it initially, but after a few chapters, it was like he was mad just to be mad. I love him dearly, but I wanted to launch a few of Aelin's shoes at his head. The development of the storyline picked up so quickly that I'm a little upset it will be next month before I can read the tandem. I am craving more of the banter, and I'm very much looking forward to all the battles and warfare and AelinxManon moments.

After looking at these books for so long, I finally decided to try them.

The Ritual is book 1 of the series, which takes place at Barrington University. This story is about Ryat and Blakely, who are involved in a secret society known as the LORDS. Ryan is the stereotypical rich boy who has been handed everything. During his time at Barrington, he undergoes trials to become a full-fledged member of the LORDS. That is when he gains respect, power, authority, and a chosen girl. That Chosen is Blakely. A Lord is not supposed to fall in love; they are supposed to have an arranged marriage and go on to fill positions of authority in the world. Cue a story of sex, lust, power, murder, lies, secrets, and betrayals. It was a good, well-written story, and the smut was great, but I was losing interest after 400 pages. I will be reading the others, as I am interested in what is happening in the rest of the LORD's world.

This disappointed me. The FMC was determined not to let the MMC get away with keeping her and her children and not making him work for it. Three-quarters of the book was about her being strong and fighting him, and they instantly folded as soon as he touched her. Then suddenly, in the end, she was all okay with being married and was all for being with him. I literally wanted to strangle her.

First, I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an ARC reader and a profound apology for the review coming a bit late (my car got totaled, so it's been a month).

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book, even those I didn't love. Being a lover of the original Dracula by Bram Stoker, I always thought the character of Lucy was severely underdeveloped and could have added so much to the story than just being the sexuality aspect of the story. She was always the spoiled and petulant child, and I wanted to see her through a different lens; here, Kiersten White gives us that chance, and she does NOT disappoint. We follow a cycle of POV, including the present day, Lucy's diaries, Lucy's therapy sessions, and later on, some side characters POV's as world-building, but we also glimpse Mina and Dracula POV's. We follow primarily Iris, the heir to an MLM scheme in the United States, who is in England trying to escape the cult-like industry her mother left for her. Compared to most MLMs, this one runs on the life-enhancing and life-saving blood of the Goldaming family Iris was born into. Iris is saved by a lovely girl named Elle, who just so happens to work at a museum and can tell Iris what the home and old belongings are worth (or at least, Iris *assumes* that Elle works for the museum she called). Iris finds the diaries from Lucy and learns about her life, love for Mina, hatred of her overbearing mother, and the three suitors that her mother keeps throwing at her. She finally agrees to marry one of them, and the diaries follow the plot of the Dracula story, which I won't spoil for those who have yet to read the book.

The diary entries and therapy sessions give us a glimpse into Lucy's solitary and heartbreaking life and the undead story of her teenage years and her time before meeting Iris. The book's second half focuses on Lucy teaming up with two of the three leading figures in her life after death, trying to track down Dracula, who remains mostly a figure in the background until closer to the end of the book. While Lucy does that, Iris makes the people involved in the MLM think she is giving in to everything while biding Lucy more time. The last few chapters focus on the most complicated aspect and theme of the book: what would you do for someone you love, and what would they do for you if they truly loved you back? In the acknowledgments, White writes that Lucy deserved a girlfriend, and shes right. I always agreed that Lucy fit the characteristics of similar characters like her that were written at the time for many queer characters that were essentially forced or coerced into these straight romances and straight lives. In this story, Lucy, rightly so, finally gets the girl.

This was enjoyable and entertaining until the end when he locked her in the basement to force her to stay with him. It felt very out of pocket and out of character for Xavier and Marissa.