siglerbooknook's reviews
174 reviews

This was my second Darcy Coates read and I loved it. The best way I can describe this book is "cozy thriller". It has all the aspects of a thriller, a good ghost story, creepy problems, haunted house, a mystery, and a damsel in distress. However, so much of her character building is wholesome, sweet, and loveable that it perfectly offsets the tense moments. 
The story was set at a very quick pace and some things felt a little rushed, but I still enjoyed the plot.
The ending was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 
The mystery was just creepy enough to send a shiver up my spine, but didn't keep me awake or leave me tense when I had to put the book down.

I can't wait to read another Coates novel.

I appreciate this book because it's the foundation for Little Pilgrim's Progress which is a favorite of mine since childhood. I did find the old English of the adult version difficult to follow in places and often had to reread a paragraph to fully understand what was being said. 

I found it interesting that the religious turmoil of the age in which this book was written were very evident in the story.
I couldn't quite figure out whether this book was meant to be an allegory, or a story. It fell oddly in the middle in a way that was a bit jarring.

Over all, I still love the story and it was interesting seeing a more mature version of a childhood favorite. It was definitely worth reading, but I can say honestly that Little Pilgrim's Progress is my clear preference when I decide to reread this story again.

This book was a childhood favorite, so when I saw this beautiful illustrated version I had to have it. I had forgotten how lovely this story is.
This was my first time reading it as an adult and I found myself pondering many of the questions put forth and the differences in Christian's pilgrimage verses Christiana's. 
Though a children's book, I think there is a great deal of encouragement and learning to be found for people of all ages.

This is my first time reading Two Towers and I can't believe I waited this long. This has to be one of my favorite classics. I've always loved the movies and couldn't imagine the story being better, yet as always, the book was even more amazing.

I love the bits that are the same as the movies. The nostalgia factor made me smile every time. I can't believe how much more fleshedol out the characters are! Villains and heroes alike.

My favorite character has to be Faramir.

I truly enjoyed that the first part of the book focused on Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn, and the second part focused on Frodo and Sam. It was much easier to follow than the back and forth. 

I can't wait to see how the story ends in Return of the King.

Despite its ups and downs I enjoyed this novel. Floriane is a great example of a strong capable woman who has believable skills and isn't a mean person. Ruvan was also well written with flaws, fears, and wants all fleshed out.

As always, Kova's side characters are my favorite. While some mannerisms became rather redundant, for the most part this group made me laugh, feel the second hand embarassment, and wish for a happy ending.

The plot itself dragged a little. The push me, pull me tension in the romance definitely could have been shorter and I skimmed some areas. I did figure out who the villain was well before the book told me, but the solution was delightfully unexpected.

The magic system introduced for the Vampir is excitingly unique and imaginative, and the underlying principals of the story were heartwarming. As always, I can't wait to dive into the next Kova novel.

🌶️🌶️

I usually hate self help books. I've never had success applying them to my life.

This is a marriage book I think every woman (especially ones who have experienced trauma or don't know what to expect in marriage) should read.

This book sets realistic expectations, and focuses on what we as women can do to find happiness in our relationship with God, our own daily life, and peace in our marriage. It doesn't promise a fairytale ending, after all, this isn't a book about pointing fingers at our husbands. This book delves into where we might be falling short, or letting bitterness and hurt take the wheel, and how to work through true forgiveness and be willing to work with our spouses. How to stop making decisions and demands based on fear and make the space for our husbands to lead so we can be who God has called us to be also.

I hope you find this book as helpful as I did.

No plot! It's just thinly veiled smut and there's not even any romance. And I'm 200+ pages in!

Lost interest. Probably will try again at a later date

There were several things I didn't like about this book. 
Starting with the most technical, I really didn't like the writing style. There are so many partial sentences the book felt choppy, like the author wasn't sure how to finish one thought and start the next. Maybe this was supposed to make it feel more tense, but it was more confusing than anything.

There are several places where the author starts describing a scene or a movement by a character, but the description is vague and when the next movement would happen it would clash hard against how I had pictures the last bit of information. 

The author also relies very heavily on miscommunication, and often no communication at all, there are pages and pages of dialogue and I know no more at page 200 about what's going on than I did at page 1.

The love triangle, in my opinion, is poorly written. This doesn't feel like she can't decide, or even like an open relationship, it feels like a toxic relationship filled with cheating which I couldn't enjoy even when I tried. And to top that off, when she would start to write a decent romance scene that could have at least broken up the tension, there was so much anger and the internal monologue was so jumbled that it was more confusing than enjoyable.

The descriptive words used were so repetitive the book became boring. By oage 200 I should know more than that the characters are all angry, desperate, and never think. They have learned absolutely nothing from book one. There is more to a powerful female character than being angry and demanding all the time.

Violeta is an increasingly unlikeable character. All through book 1 she makes choice after choice to protect her loved ones, refuses to work with them, talk to them, or slow down and think, and gets herself into this sticky situation. For 200 pages of book 2 she has done nothing but whine, complain, blame the Lord Under, and throw a fit when he says no. Then for no explained reason at all, suddenly she wants him, starts playing with his emotions, and using him, all the while yelling at him for using her.

Lastly, even the side characters are no longer enjoyable for me. It's like the author forgot how she was writing them all, and gave them all new personalities hinging on the worst of their original traits. 

At least at this point in the book, the story is reading like a fanfiction by someone who was crushing on Thranduil in the hobbit movie, and wanted the Darkling and Alina to end up together, but wanted to add extra tropes to be unique. Instead if succeeding it feels confusing and slow.

With the above mix of technical writing issues and personal dislike for the tropes used, I can't get into the book enough to finish it even though I hate DNFing

When I tell you I obsessed over this book in high school it is not in any way an exaggeration.
So of course, it was required reading now that I'm an adult to see if it was truly as good as I remembered.
My finding was rather complex. The over all plot was much more boring than I remembered, very slow, fully of miscommunication, and no real information until the very end. However, I caught many many details I didn't remember from earlier reads, including huge differences between the book and movies it inspired.
Over all I still enjoyed the story and this is one I'm glad to have in my collection to read again in future.