emmirosereads's reviews
394 reviews

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC for an honest review of this book. 

This was about exactly what I expected it to be. Nothing more and nothing less. If you like apocalyptic stories or maybe you're new to the genre I think this would be a great place to start. It's unique in some of the premises, like the backdrop of an abandoned bookstore and are main character Liz who might seem a lot softer than a typical character in a story like this who's been hardened and has to survive. I like that contrast and the premise of the disaster that brought on this end of civilization as we know it was interesting as well. I also thought it was interesting how the story was told. How we flip flop from present day to the past and also little bits of other people's story that's written in a book our main character has. 

While there's a lot of promising aspects and I had enjoyment while reading this overall I felt like the story itself and the relationship between our two main characters just felt very basic and predictable. Neither I felt like had any crazy character development and growth and what little there was felt very rushed.  I just didn't connect with the characters or story as much as I would have wanted to.  

I'm having such mixed feelings about this book. Up until about the 80% mark this was a solid 4 star book. It wasn't perfect but I was enjoying it. Though as I finished and as I was thinking about it, the less and less I liked it and the more problems I saw with it as I read reviews. 

This had so much potential. What I did like about it was the intertwining of greek mythology and Indian lore. This made for a rather rich backdrop for this world to be set in and these characters to be built up in, I loved the themes of feminine rage, Manisha serving justice and giving these monstruous men what they deserved. I also really appreciated the messages weaved through out this book, of what really makes a monster a monster? Though our characters maybe could have had a little more dimension to them I did overall really enjoy them as characters.

This book is dark, and heavy. While we were more than adequately warned of the contents of the book and I knew what I was getting into it was still extremely difficult to get through most of the time as a lot of the violence against woman is on page. It seemed like a very fine line of getting the message of the book across and simply throwing as much pain and trauma onto the pages as possible and I'm unsure of if that line was crossed or not. 
As I was reading other reviews to kind of gather my thoughts and see if people could better voice what I was feeling, one review made an excellent point that ties into the above point and maybe the reason it felt like that line was being so toyed with. It was the fact that all of the abusers and rapist in this story almost felt like 2D caricatures. They were sleazy men that were very clearly bad from everyone's perspective when in reality most abusers do an excellent job at pretending to be model citizens. They are people we know and often people we trusted. I'm bad at wording things properly but when that was pointed out that was another thing to add to the list why this book felt off to me. 

Ultimately though the biggest issue I had with this book was the writing and the pacing. Many reviewers have pointed out how the writing came off as though written for a middle grade novel, while having the contents of an upper YA/adult novel and I would have to agree. That in itself was quite jarring. It's also just extremely slow paced. We don't even get to the meat of what we're told into the synopsis until we're about 100 pages in. It also feels like we don't get a whole lot more then what's in the synopsis.  While I appreciate the method of jumping back and forth between the present day and timeline, it ultimately came off a little jarring and choppy trying to realign with what was going on with each new perspective shift. 

I feel like I have many other thoughts but it's getting late and this review is getting long. Overall this book had a lot of potential. I appreciate it for the message it was trying to convey but overall it just fell flat and didn't quite reach my expectations. 

This was a fun and mostly lighthearted read that I really needed in the moment after finishing a heavy sci-fi! I loved the set up we have of two queer characters in an arranged marriage that end up falling for a female knight and the prince. The relationships are what really stands out in this arthurian legend inspired story. I adored seeing the sibling relationship between Gwen and Gabe and the eventual blossoming friendship of Arthur and Gwen despite them having zero romantic interest in each other. I also adored the romance though it felt like the romance of either character didn't get nearly as much sceem time as I would have liked making both feel a little flat in comparison to the friendships but still highly enjoyable. 

Xiran Jay Zhao held back absolutely nothing for this novel and I respect them so damn much for that. I have never loved and hated an antagonist as much as I did with Qin Zheng and this is the morally grey characters we need in media. 

I absolutely ate up all the feminine rage, and the pure manipulation between him and Zetian.  This is definitely a different vibe than Iron Widow but in my opinion it was everything I wanted and needed this book to be. I honestly think I preferred the heavy political intrigue of this versus more physical battling and fighting that was the vibe of book one. 

Literally my one and only complaint is that we don't really get much of the throuple but I can't even complain that much because I know they entirely had good purpose and reason for doing so. The tiny bits of romance we did get made it all the more sweeter. 

So many wild twists and turns throughout this book and I'm so invested and ready for the third book whenever it comes out. 

This was such an adorable read! As someone who loves dnd and musicals this was right up my ally. All of the nerdy references were so fun. I feel like this is one of the most realistic depictions of the fake dating trope and it was so well done! Though never has a YA book made me feel so old until this one. Saying Weird Al made parody music back in the day and Riley saying she listened to Hamilton in elementary school. 

This book was exactly what I expected and exactly what I wanted it to be! As someone who has always loved animals and zoos and started down the path to become a zookeeper and someone who loves fantasy and fantasy creatures this was the just the read for me!

 I adored the concept of this magical zoo, getting to see the parallels to our contemporary zoos and getting to see and learn about these magical animals. You can tell just how knowledgeable and well researched this book is and I appreciate that so much. I loved our main characters and the sapphic relationship. It was quite the slow burn and I wasn't sure how I was liking that for it being a stand alone book but in the end I think it was paced just right. I'm so used to reading insta-love romances so it was honestly quite refreshing. 

I can't deny that some plot stuff was a wee bit predictable, but even with me having an idea of where it was heading I still found myself feeling the same emotions I would if I hadn't seen it coming. I also got a bit annoyed and frustrated with some of Aila's choices and thought processes which knocked a smidge of enjoyment off for me along with the plot being a bit predictable but even with those things this still is up in the list of favorite reads of the year. 

If you are a lover of animals and or an avid lover of cozy fantasy I think this is definitely a book worth picking up and one you will really enjoy. 

This book had a solid base and premise, a lot of potential that I was really excited for but unfortunately it fell pretty flat for me. I think my biggest struggle with this book was the pacing. I can't exactly put my finger on it but right from the start it just felt oddly paced. Picking this up it almost feels like it's a book in a interconnected stand alone series. Like we could get by well enough reading it on it's own but if we read the first book we would have a lot richer experience, except for the fact that there is no other book. It was quite a struggle for me to stay focused and engaged the whole book. 

I found I was simply not emotionally invested in these characters and this world as much as I wanted to be. It was definitely fun and enjoyable in a lot of parts but very run of the mill fantasy with nothing really show stopping about it. 

This was exactly what I expected it would be and what I wanted from it. Just a cheesy, spicy, Christmas novella. There was quite a bit of insta love and there were some parts of the spice that were just a little much more me but overall enjoyable! 

I'm so glad I was finally able to get to the third and last book in the Montague sibling series. This was everything I wanted it to be and more. It's been a long time since I read the first two books but I remember loving them and it was so good to see some familiar faces again. Especially getting so much of Monty. This was equal parts hilarious and heartwarming and heart wrenching all at the same time. 

Obviously everyone experiences anxiety and mental health in different ways but for me this was the most raw, and real anxiety representation I have ever read in a work of fiction. It hits even harder since this is a first person narrative. We get every thought Adrian has and sometimes it just hit me in the gut how much I related to it. I saw so many similarities to Adrian and me in 2019 when I was first getting diagnosed with GAD and the years before when there was something so clearly wrong but I had no idea the words to even describe it. I feel like it's so easy to push aside anxiety disorders and not realize just how debilitating they are unless you have one yourself and it was so refreshing to read a book where it was so clear on how and why an anxiety disorder is so debilitating. 

I just absolutely loved the journey Adrian goes on both mentally and literally. The relationship he forms with his long lost siblings and just everything else. The audiobook was also very good for this! I most definitely want to pick up and read the the first two books again.

I will say that I definitely struggled quite a bit with starting this one. I normally love short chapters but these were almost too short it was jarring in a way? Especially when I was starting with the audiobook. I was jumping back and forth between digital and audio with this one. Like I would get into the story and what was going on and then new chapter and new chapter title. So I think my biggest struggle with this was the flow and pacing of the book.

Once I got used to that though I started enjoying this a little more. The best way I can describe K. Ancrum's writing style is whimsical. It's very beautiful and when I started connecting to the story and characters a little more it was very moving and emotional. This is a pretty simple and sweet love story, very loosely inspired by the myth of Icarus and Helios. Icarus's backstory and history was very interesting to learn and discover throughout this book. 

I think my favorite thing about this, and why I ended up enjoying it in the end was the depiction of Icarus being such a strong and isolated character and throughout this story becoming so much softer and opening up more with the people he can consider friends. The love he has for his friends and later for Helios feels so soft and warm and I loved that and so atypical from how a lot of relationships and romance is depicted in media. I think it's really worth reading for that alone. I also loved seeing the very difficult relationship he has with his father and how he emotionally handles and deals with that throughout the story. 

Overall if you like more character driven and lyrical stories and don't mind a bit of a slower paced story  I think this is definitely something you can enjoy as well!