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ladyelfriede's reviews
159 reviews
The Book in the Bottle by Raymond St. Elmo
4.0
The lesson we can take from this book is punch college kids
This book deserves a full review that I will update someday just not now.
Notes in rabbit notebook
3.9/5
This book deserves a full review that I will update someday just not now.
Notes in rabbit notebook
3.9/5
Seasons of Albadone by Élan Marché, Christopher Warman
4.0
Let's address the Thrush in the room and get this out of the way.
The prose and flow of this is horrible for 3/4 stories.
Which ever one of you authors did the last story, go into dark fantasy you need a career change, man.
That story alone leapt this to 4 stars even though the rest of the stories are lack luster in performance issues.
It enraptured the raw emotion and vibe perfectly. I won't spoil what it's about because it spoils literally the other 3 stories.
Worldbuilding while not creative, was comfy in a way that you knew it wasn't pushing too many boundaries. Does that make sense? No? But cozy fantasy people kinda know what I mean.
Either way, this is a debut and hard to judge too harshly, but I applaud what you two were trying to do. Prose, pacing, and the overall flow needed a massive rehaul. But y'all did something a lot of writers would dream of doing:
Publishing SOMETHING
(Future me, refer to rabbit notebook.)
4/5
The prose and flow of this is horrible for 3/4 stories.
Which ever one of you authors did the last story, go into dark fantasy you need a career change, man.
That story alone leapt this to 4 stars even though the rest of the stories are lack luster in performance issues.
It enraptured the raw emotion and vibe perfectly. I won't spoil what it's about because it spoils literally the other 3 stories.
Worldbuilding while not creative, was comfy in a way that you knew it wasn't pushing too many boundaries. Does that make sense? No? But cozy fantasy people kinda know what I mean.
Either way, this is a debut and hard to judge too harshly, but I applaud what you two were trying to do. Prose, pacing, and the overall flow needed a massive rehaul. But y'all did something a lot of writers would dream of doing:
Publishing SOMETHING
(Future me, refer to rabbit notebook.)
4/5
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
1.5
Horribly boring if you're an adult. Go in for vibes only, that's what Novik did well with but nothing else. Everything was spoon fed and too on the nose.
Future me, refer to the rabbit book for notes.
1.5/5
Future me, refer to the rabbit book for notes.
1.5/5
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
4.5
Baldree improved his craft with prose and you can really tell with his sequel prequel.
Imo, a lot more comfier than L&L and the fact its about books and a bookshop?
Fuck yeah.
Comfy as shit
4.5/5
Imo, a lot more comfier than L&L and the fact its about books and a bookshop?
Fuck yeah.
Comfy as shit
4.5/5
Bronze Rank Brewer: A LitRPG fantasy adventure by James Ghoul
5.0
Equally this also needs a full review at some point.
Weirdly the comfiest read of the year bar none. Bookshops & Bonedust was close if not for some weird food imagery descriptors, but this was...oddly near perfection.
Bottle up The Long Dark and cozy fires and simplistic food in a book and pair that with a simple quest of brewing the best possible beer the MC can make.
Are the characters deep? No.
Worldbuilding? No but I am very interested to see why Thrush is feared.
5/5? Fuck yes.
When you love a book the imperfections are minor and this is that book. A whopping 800+ pages for comfy vibes at 5 bucks and also on KU? It's a good book to read near a fire or at bedtime.
If you love cozy fantasy, here's your winner.
5/5
Weirdly the comfiest read of the year bar none. Bookshops & Bonedust was close if not for some weird food imagery descriptors, but this was...oddly near perfection.
Bottle up The Long Dark and cozy fires and simplistic food in a book and pair that with a simple quest of brewing the best possible beer the MC can make.
Are the characters deep? No.
Worldbuilding? No but I am very interested to see why Thrush is feared.
5/5? Fuck yes.
When you love a book the imperfections are minor and this is that book. A whopping 800+ pages for comfy vibes at 5 bucks and also on KU? It's a good book to read near a fire or at bedtime.
If you love cozy fantasy, here's your winner.
5/5
Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker
4.5
Barker deserves a ton of love for this series and I will do have a full review in waiting but for now, my thoughts.
It's good it's so far the closest to scratching the Soulsbourne itch. Needed more gods and creative with them though and the last 33% of the book I did not care about. The best was past 33% mark where we didn't have to deal with the shit villagers and dealt more with the forest. Wanted more of that forest.
Solid prose, love the worldbuilding, just needed more of it, less shit villagers.
4.5/5
It's good it's so far the closest to scratching the Soulsbourne itch. Needed more gods and creative with them though and the last 33% of the book I did not care about. The best was past 33% mark where we didn't have to deal with the shit villagers and dealt more with the forest. Wanted more of that forest.
Solid prose, love the worldbuilding, just needed more of it, less shit villagers.
4.5/5
A Coup of Tea by Casey Blair
2.5
My biggest disappointment of last month. I wanted to rate this 4 but I went into the story with 0 expectations and still was disappointed.
For a YA book, it's a solid 3. From an adult perspective, I wanted to know more about the tea making process, tea leaves, the Cataclysm. Basically, the world Blair presented was solid, but she devolved into it a usual YA plot which was eh.
Not to mention usual stereotypes of brown people was a big eh. Can no one do anything original besides have night markets and assassins for once?
Should have focused more on the tea imo.
2.5/5
For a YA book, it's a solid 3. From an adult perspective, I wanted to know more about the tea making process, tea leaves, the Cataclysm. Basically, the world Blair presented was solid, but she devolved into it a usual YA plot which was eh.
Not to mention usual stereotypes of brown people was a big eh. Can no one do anything original besides have night markets and assassins for once?
Should have focused more on the tea imo.
2.5/5
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
2.0
Reads like a fairytale or if you're trying to teach your kid morals.
The story was enjoyable, it did have stupid stereotypes of North Africans, Middle Eastern people and women. It is dated and I hope Coelho has learned from it.
If he didn't have that shit going on, it would have been a 4/5, but it's a 3/5 and I doubt he's losing sleep over that rating.
3/5
The story was enjoyable, it did have stupid stereotypes of North Africans, Middle Eastern people and women. It is dated and I hope Coelho has learned from it.
If he didn't have that shit going on, it would have been a 4/5, but it's a 3/5 and I doubt he's losing sleep over that rating.
3/5