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maddy707's reviews
125 reviews
Stealing Sorcery by Andrew Rowe
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I enjoyed the friendship between Velas, Landon and Taelien in this book. The different Paladin challenges were interesting. But, I listened to this book over such a long time that I honestly spent all of it confused about what was happening. Too many characters and too much going on for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Not pulling me out of my slump yet but still good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I’ve decided to re-read this series to try to pull me out of a massive reading slump. This was the first series I ever read as a child and I loved it. All these years later and I loved this book just as much. I love the writing of this series, I love the Baudelaire siblings, I love the mystery of VFD. The nostalgia is just what I needed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Pedophilia
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Extremely nonsensical. The plot, characters and writing made no sense. I spent almost the entire book confused.
The Siege of Macindaw by John Flanagan
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
An average instalment in this series. I still don’t understand why the author decided to make Will a full Ranger already. This series is Ranger’s APPRENTICE. It’s eliminated the best part of the series, Halt and Will’s relationship.
I enjoyed the banter between Horace and Will. It shows that they are still young but have grown since the beginning of the story. It was nice to see Alyss and Will together. Though the romance isn’t well developed.
Overall this was fairly average.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
A Thousand Broken Pieces by Tillie Cole
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
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? N/A
4.5
This book was incredibly emotional. I teared up at like 95% of the chapters. This book explores grief in such a wide and hard hitting way. I loved learning about the different ways grief is viewed in different cultures. The main characters emotions come through so strongly and is easily the best part of the book.
The only thing I had issue was how all-consumed the two main characters were with each other. I just personally don’t like that in romance because I feel like a bit of their personalities and journeys were lost and they both just didn’t exist outside of each other. But this is remedied by the end.
I love how they handled Cael’s journey but they could’ve focused on Savannah more. Her journey felt sidelined at times to make room for Cael’s.
You shouldn’t read this book looking for a romance. You should read this book for its amazing exploration of grief.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
dark
reflective
sad
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
2.0
I appreciated the LGBTQ+ and Asian representation in this book, but outside of that there wasn’t much I liked.
The writing style of this book was just not for me. It felt very disjointed. The character’s thoughts and feelings were all over the place and we jumped from P.O.V to P.O.V every few paragraphs. This made things very difficult to follow and understand.
I am just not the right reader for this book.
But I really want a donut right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and War
Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book was an entertaining highschool movie. I could picture the whole thing perfectly in my head. It had those laugh out loud movie moments and I was entertained throughout.
I loved Wes as the main love interest. He was funny and charming and had great chemistry with Liz. Liz on the other hand was a little flat for me. The pacing of her character development was very rushed at the end. I also didn’t like that she lied to her best friend about everything for basically no reason. I get that she was scared to open up to her, but at the same time she didn’t need to lie about everything, like going to a party. She probably has the worst communication skills of any teenager I've ever seen.
The whole “fake dating” plotline was a little convoluted because they weren’t really dating at all. A more accurate description would be “fake talking-stage”. It sort of feels like they called it fake dating so they could use that in advertising the book. Also this isn’t an “enemies to lovers” more of a “rivals to friends to lovers”.
However, I was really entertained by this book and had a good time reading it. 3 stars for Wes and .75 for a cute relationship, banter and chemistry.
Btw what the heck kind of name is Mr. Fitzpervert.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer
slow-paced
1.0
Boring. History books are not for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Forging Divinity by Andrew Rowe
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The audio performance for this book was great. The book itself though was quite info-dumpy. Part of me can understand that as this is the first book in an entire universe and I understand that things need to be established and lore needs to be explained. It just felt like 50% of the book was the characters explaining the world and asking themselves questions about how it worked. I did find the main characters enjoyable.
I particularly liked Taelien and look forward to seeing how his relationship with Lydia develops. Lydia was also a character I enjoyed and I am glad she lived. I loved seeing such a competent FMC without the cringeness that can sometimes come with it.
The middle of this book was a little confusing, but in the end it made sense. The author could have made some aspects a bit clearer. As with most high fantasy worlds, there were a whole lot of names of different places, races and people and I didn’t really understand all of them. It wasn’t until about halfway through that I actually began to understand the different races and religions. Even then it is still a bit confusing.
Even though I listened to this on audio, there were a lot of repeated phrases, particularly, “quirked a brow.” I swear I heard this said at least 50 times. Does the author not know any other ways of describing interest/confusion? And I swear the author never uses another word besides “said” when the characters speak. I think the author's writing style could definitely be better, but it wasn’t horrible.
My favourite part of this book was the chapter 8 fight scene. It was spectacular, I was actually at the edge of my seat while listening to it. It’s one of the best fight scenes I've read/listened to in a book.
Overall I found this good an enjoyable listen and look forward to listening to the next book and seeing how the world and the characters grow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail