venanana's reviews
24 reviews

What an amazing book, I regret having such bad starting paralysis when it came to Iron Widow.

Wu Zetian is a wildly different person than me, and listening to her unbridled rage made me feel both unsettled, almost afraid of the things she could do. And reveling in her chaos, every plot and plan to become the true nightmare. She's an amazing main character, despite feeling unsettled at times, I was always rooting for her.

Li Shimin, my baby girl. LI SHIMIN MY BABY GIRL. Xiran Jay Zhao and I got beef for what she did to my baby girl, and where she leaves him in the end. I was really expecting the normal standard, stand-offish and cruel man. The way he's introduced as a man so dangerous he must be muzzled and collared at all times. Instead he's literally a teddy bear of a person, who loves reading and wears thick nerd glasses. He's expectedly gentle, and awkward.


And Gao Yizhi... My other baby girl. On her website she describes him as a pretty boy twink and I deeply adore him. He's again another character we're bait and switched on, I completely expected a slip of the mask in the worst way possible. If Wu Zetian thinks about how he really isn't as good as we're lead to believe because even though he knew she would killed if they were found it, he still came around to see her. I was expecting him to get all weird like "oh, you think I'm so good and pure. but really I wanna fuck you so bad" but he never does and thank god. He's like "My fantasy is we get married and live in the woods together and are in love" and that's just... A+++
Then his actual mask slip at the end... S++++++++ 10000/10 best boy, I love my baby girl

For the actual plot, I can only say I love being right. Even small things I picked up for that last twist at the end, because... Well, I am a giant nerd and I've play Xenoblade chronicles. No spoilers, but I love being right. If you liked Xenoblade, you will love Iron Widow!

I honestly don't know how many stars to give it, so I'll settle on 3. I thought this was certainly a book.
I adore Greek myth, Eros and Psyche being one of my favorite myths. If I had not gone in seeing some reviews about it being 'fanfic-y' and being warned to leave what you know about Greek Myth at the door, I would have not enjoyed this /at all/. But Luna McNamara has beautiful prose and the book is very well written, I enjoyed the actual writing and the connections she makes between myths to make it all feel more connected and full.

However there is an overuse of 'considered' for some reason. 'He stopped to consider me' 'Like a lioness considering her next meal' stuff like that. I thought it was weird, but I think a lot of author's have something like.

I struggled to connect with this version of Psyche, now Warrior Princess and not like other girls. Mostly because I absolutely detest the 'I'm not like other girls, I'm above marriage and women's business' character trait. It drives me absolute wild. It's mostly non offensive, but when it's there /it's there'. Psyche demeans her cousin for having an interest in boys, and the wording of scenes with other human women divorces herself from the others. I just didn't love the change for youngest princess of three, who was lonely and isolate despite those who adored her to Warrior Princess Only Child.

I liked Eros far more, expect when he was not comminuting. Maybe, just maybe, before sending your wife to the underworld; MAKE A PLAN and don't just assume she has one. Psyche's plan was assuming Eros had a plan. Made me roll my eyes real bad. I did appreciate he acknowledged that he really should have been completely honest with Psyche. He's not the silly, tricky and vaguely horny Eros you'd expect, he's much softer, more contained character who sees the effects of his domain and it weighs heavily on him.

I listened to the audio book, I'd honestly recommend listening to it more than reading it.

DNF-ed at 50%

First, I think more trigger warnings needed to be added. Like drugging, murder, and the literal genocide of a town. The only trigger warning (at least on the audio book) is for domestic violence, which yeah. Fair enough. But they needed more. I think this is meant to be a cozy fantasy, so excluding trigger warnings felt intentional to keep the label of 'cozy' when this was not a cozy fantasy at all.

I really wanted to like this. It felt like it was exactly up my alley. I love older gay couples, I love grumpy/sunshine, I love necromancy. But I am not exactly sure what vibes I'm supposed to get from this. Is it a low stakes cozy fantasy about a man searching for his missing husband? Or is it a high stakes adventure fantasy trying to stop the king from banning all magic to instead use for his own gain? By the time I got to the town of people who had been murdered, this was not a cozy fantasy. It has all the vibes and prose of one, but it is not.

There was also a vibe I got from the MC and his husband that I couldn't quite place. Somber, mean monster fighter and his chipper, sunshine bard husband felt really familiar, and then I saw the other reviews say they're just Geralt and Dandelion from the Witcher and it all clicked into place for me. It's Geralt and Dandelion fanfic... Even down to the bard being called Magpie.

I did not like any of the characters, Logan is the worst. I appreciated the moments where the countess was like 'lol. you suck for that one' and he has like one paragraph of self reflection. But it isn't 'oh, i hurt that person' or 'what I did was wrong' it was 'I don't like feeling like a bad person'... Which is certainly a start, but not the take away I would have wanted him to take.

The countess is a sex pest and I haaaaaaaaate that. The countess started as a really interesting character, and so well described I could full envision in my minds eyes, and I really liked her vibes...Until she said she was going with him and I knew I was in for a bad ride. And I was. She makes me uncomfortable. She at some point just crawls into bed and cuddles Logan. Which is insanely weird.

Don't get me started on the divorcees bickering. If I wanted to listen to a heterosexual couple fight, I'd call my dad and put him on speaker phone with my mom. That's all I'll say about how enjoyable Ophelia is as a character.

I stopped where I did because I ran out of spotify audiobook hours. Now that they refreshed I wanted to restart but I found myself dreading it and putting it off. So I decided to DNF, and move on. Hopefully to a much better book. I don't think this accomplishes what it wants to do, because it's torn between being cozy and low stakes but wanting the grand adventure at the same time. I am personally not sure it's possible to pull off both, and if it is, then it's probably incredibly hard to get right.

This book is amazing!
Could have definitely used trigger warnings at the beginning: Racism, Murder, Lynching, Hate Crimes (Both Racial and Homophobic), Homophobia, Homophobic Slurs, Car Accidents, Necromancy, Sexual Assault, Sexual Coercion, Bullying, Gun Violence, Spousal Abuse (Wife striking Husband)

Blood Debts is a perfect stand alone book, that ties up all but one loose end so well I can't even imagine what's going to happen in the next book.

I think the one thing that I didn't exactly love is how predictable it is. I was only ever shocked the once, about the one thing. That's subsequently dropped until the literal last chapter of the book. Which was insane to me, I was like 'wait... we can't just roll past that like that didn't just happen!'

Cris and Clem have completely unique voices, which has to be a godly talent. Cris is very introspective, and notices small details. She pays attention to things like bugs, and smells that adds a lot of depth to her POV. While Clem is very in the moment, feeling his feelings has they happen with not as much deeper thought to where those feelings originate from or what he could do to solve them.

While Cris takes on a lot of internal blame. It's /her/ relationship to magic that ruined her life. /She/ cast the spell that killed her father. Clem blames the external. The world takes everyone he loves away. He isn't going to lose anyone ever again. Which is such a wonderful contrast to each other. They are compared to the Sun and Moon in the book, and I think that's going to carry over into the next book.

Which I am absolutely ready for in a couple of months :)

So Let Them Burn is a perfectly wonderful YA series about two sisters, Faron; the chosen hero baby sister, and Elara; the overlooked older sister with incredible power of her own. The dynamic between them is an unbreakable bond of sisterhood and devotion, it's sorta the whole point. While the affections of each sister don't actually seem that unbreakable, Elara does not share the same 'I would do anything, even betray the gods for my sister.' and I think that's perfect for the tale of downfall that befalls the beloved hero.

The prose is simple and descriptive, easy to follow and easy to imagine but could have used more detail on certain things; like the Drakes. The mech dragons... I was just imagining Seto Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon Airplane instead of what I imagine was much smaller, three person air crafts in the shape of dragons. Another issue with the prose, the sisters don't really have unique voices. I was listening to the audio book, and sometimes when I wasn't paying attention, the chapter would change and I wouldn't realize until I notice the voice was different.

This was also the one time I was not rooting for someone to kiss the nerdy lil ginger, it felt kinda forced until the end with (no spoilers) and (no spoilers) then I was like 'Oooooooo, I get it.' Read the book and you will also understand.

However, the sapphics didn't feel forced; they did feel rushed. There is A LOT of story in the book, but the actual lead up to the romance is rather dry. It is mostly Elara thinking 'Wow, Signey is so beautiful, but nooo. I can't think like that; she's the enemy' and then they kiss... When there was a chance for a much deeper connection to be explored through their bond and moments for actual intimacy were just not done. I'm not picky about my sapphics, as one myself, but as queer stories become more and more acceptable, I want more than what I got from So Let Them Burn...

Overall, a pretty good read. If you love a main character who askes "Is this my fault" and you finally get to go "yes, absolutely" this for you! I really liked it, and might be something I pick up in physical form and put on my shelf like a lil serial killer trophy :)

This is a terrible book. It's not a fun read, it's cringey and it's bad.... Yet, I liked it.

I would like to give this book MAJOR props for not acting like P/V is the end all be all of sex, Lowe affirms what they do is sex, and will continue to be sex even if they escalate. Virginity taking (barf) is not some holy grail, and this novel really sticks the landing. We know from her POV Misery is a virgin, but she never tells Lowe, and we never know if Lowe is one or not because it's just not important.
AND it's amazing to see two main characters discuss sex before, during and after sex. They have hard boundaries, like Misery stopping Lowe from P/V without a condom. Lowe sets some harder boundaries for a more intense scene later on (no spoilers). When it comes to their more "intense" interests, they talk about it. When Lowe fears hurting her, they talk about and Misery reassures if it does hurt; they will talk about it.

Misery as a protagonist is kinda the saving grace of the book. She's witty, and she's smart. She actually has a brain cell, which I didn't expect... Sometimes she fails to use it, but those moments are few and far between and don't reflect in her actual actions. It's a nice journey to see her go from Dry wit masking her apathy, even embracing it to see her care a lot about things she swears she hates (Like Serena's Damn Fucking Cat(tm)) And watching her keep her dry wit but with a tender side... That tender side being her back one (haha)

Lowe... Sucks. He doesn't really suck for the first 75% of the book, but that last 25% is like he suddenly wasn't a character and instead a vessel for bullshit drama that didn't need to happen. Boo, Boo, Tomato tomato!! I like him over all, he's the stoic leader who takes too heavy a burden and it lays too heavily on his soul. He's not new or revolutionary in anyway, but he's nice. I will also pretend the description of him doesn't exist and I will cling to long, shabby werewolf man in my cold dead hands. I wish he had just say what he was thinking instead of forcing drama between him and Misery.. It's just so unnecessary... Mfer, you are MARRIED!!!!

The plot is completely predictable. Sometimes painfully so. There was something I speculated in the early chapters when it's revealed (spoilers) was looking into (spoilers) and not (spoilers) and that didn't pay off until the end, so long I started to suspect it wasn't going to happen...But it did. I also saw (spoilers) betrayal from 20 miles away

The last 25% is what makes this book bad. The forced drama between Lowe and Misery. The absolutely way too long, completely mustache twirling, nonsensical Villain Monology. We entered plot twist corner and stayed their for maybe 2 hours of audiobook time.

It is not a good ABO story, but it is actually a really good introduction to the genre. It is too heterosexual and incredibly sanitized. I am honestly incredibly impressed Ali Hazelwood was able to make Vampires even cleaner than Smeyer... And the Twilight Vampires were literally Mormon. It's so bad it's amazing!

Anyways, terrible book. Not a fun read. Read it, if you like ABO or wolf dynamics.

Prepare to get squeal baited in the boringest way possible :)

Is this a literary masterpiece? No...But also it absolutely is at the same time.

Since the point of the book is smut, the plot is more like a loose leaf piece of paper. The plot is very basic and not the driving focus, but if you're looking for a smut book that at least has a plot; here you go! I will say I was genuinely surprised by the twist, because honestly the books I've been reading lately have felt too predictable. When I can guess the ending by chapter 4, that's a bad thing. I did not guess what would happen in the book correctly. I think there's still some room for some of things I guessed on, but other than that I'm very pleasantly surprised.

Taegen is a very basic protagonist, and Zorvut(I had to look up his name bc I can never remember it) is a basic 'your mine' interest. I think in a story that's meant to drive on the main relationship, I would have liked deeper characters. It isn't necessary a bad thing, I think they've got good chemistry for the most part. They like the chat a lot, which is nice :)

The smut is exactly what I wanted. It did make me laugh, which probably wasn't the intended effect. But I listened to the audio book, so it's a different experience. It gives that good-good tum bulge, which is what I came for and what I will stay for as I will absolutely read the next books too.

Harrowed does not even begin to explain how I feel about this book.

Trigger warning for; Kidnapping, rape, rape of girls under the age of 18, death by car accident, murder, assault, blood, sorta copaganda, police abusing power, confined spaces, prolonged captivity

The Return of Ellie Black is a well thought out mystery that has a bunch of really small details that had me pulling out my Criminal Minds knowledge to figure out who the criminal is. I had a joke guess in the bigging, but as more of these tiny details piled up and I thought "why is this important, does this really need to be here?" to the immediate conclusion "oh shit, this IS important!" because this book is well crafted and so intentional that these little details DO mean something. Not 100% of the time or this book would be insane. Other details mean to build character and relationship, add to the already atmospheric setting of the book.

There is such a theme of sisterhood and motherhood and the connection between those two things. It's so evident from Kat's first chapter and her thinking "my baby, my baby, my baby" over and over while she runs to be with her found daughter, I nearly cried. Kat and Jimmy's chapters were incredibly emotional for me, grieving parents trying reach their traumatized daughter where she it. It sets up the later half of Ellie's chapters and her connections with sisterhood and motherhood.

Who ever casted the audio book needs to have some sort of reward because they did an amazing job; the voice casted for Ellie is actually perfect. She sounds like a young teen girl and it felt me feeling cold and adrift while she's talking about the worst parts of her story that no teen girl should ever have to go through.

The mystery isn't the most ground breaking thing, but it is still well planned and doesn't swing and hit you with something out of thin air. It is genuinely harrowing at times and doesn't ease up. There are moments of hope, and you really get to cling to those and hope. I think the last chapter isn't completely necessary and could have ended with the second to last, which left me struggling not to cry at work while I listened.

This has an incredibly strong start, it's atmospheric and takes the time early on to establish what Lore's motivation is and why we should care. The cover is also incredible, I am on my hands and knees for Green...

I don't want to say the second half gets a lil wishy-washy because that's not accurate but also isn't /not/ accurate, yknow? It's just weaker towards the end. I think if you've read other reviews of mine, I hate when the last hour of the book has the True Villain has their mustache twirling monologue to squeal bait or wrap up the plot in the last few pages. There's also some really fucked up shit in the end that just isn't given the weight I'd expect for something of the gravity. It's described very matter-of-factly and Lore doesn't have that visceral reaction I would have expected.

I really love Lore, she's strong and confident yet gentle and generally curious, everything I want in a protagonist. I never felt she did anything stupid, or reckless. I do wish she would have asked some pretty basic questions, and maybe the end could've been avoided, like "How do you know this?" "How do you know that?" "What's up with this stupid book?" "How do you know each other?" right. If she asked people how or what they knew, she'd get to the truth WAY faster, but she never asks other people questions.

The chemistry between the two love interested is incredibly skewed it is painfully obviously who like the End Relationship would be. Which really sucks because I was hoping for some Haters to Lovers with Asher and Finn and they'd be Lore's too boyfriends. But the way Asher and Lore sorta arrive at their relationship a little too quickly was my warning sign, I knew from the cover there was another guy coming and I knew it was over for Asher. Not even in the running my brother in Goddess.

Another thing that really bothered me is both relationships start off the same way. That fake "enemies to lovers" where the guy is really stand-offish and a lil mean, and the girl is all like 'jerk! why is he so mean >:(' like... I get it, they're both emotionally constipated, but it would've made a bigger impact is one of them had been actually friendly in the bigging, or maybe mischievous; Helping Lore at a price instead of like 'she's the main character, they have to help' reasons.

To be incredibly clear, this is in no way enemies to lovers, because Lore is not enemies with Asher or Finn ever, neither of them like her to start with but that doesn't make them enemies.

Analeigh makes this book incredibly atmospheric and is really good and making the world feel full and lived in. The small details provided really add a lot to the books charm, and I deeply aspire to have that attention to detail!

To wrap it up, if you're looking for a solid romantasy, here is it. The plot and the goings on are really the strength and I sorta wish this had been a standard fantasy instead of a romance, but oh well! It's still good :) give it a read

I really, really wanted to like this book. This book needed another round of developmental editing.

To start, I am a white reader, it is not my place to comment on the Chinese culture, experience, and traumas. It is not my place to comment on if this a colonizer romance, but I do have some opinions on the dynamic outside of the potential it is a colonizer romance. While my experience with this book was not a pleasant one, I want to make it very clear this is purely about the craft and the story itself rather than a reflection of the creator, the cultures, or the real events this story had been inspired by.

The prose leaves a lot to be desired, it all purple and flowery and certainly detailed. Detailed in all the wrong ways, we spend far too much time in Ruying's head instead of in the story, doing nothing but having the almost word-for-word same conversation about her power, about keeping her family safe, about how she can't trust Antony...But he's so dreamy and he cares. Sometimes, she repeats herself within a page or two, or uses the same few phrases and the moment I picked that up it drove me CRAZY.

There is a total of maybe 11~12 actual scenes in the whole book, that's how much time is spent in her inner monology. The scene with her sister, one with her childhood friend, then her other childhood friend who appears twice and is never mentioned again, one with her grandma, THEN the actual inciting incident where she's kidnapped, her assassin training, there's a mini scene where she visits her family home but monologues the whole time and no dialogue happens, another scene with her sister, a scene with Antony's brother who tries to drug her(again) and Antony says he trusts her(why?), one with her childhood friend again, then a scene with the foreign Emperor, and the scene on the boat.

There aren't characters and there isn't a plot. Nothing happens in this book. INSTEAD, this book should have started at the 25% mark when Ruying is kidnapped and made Antony's assassin. Then spend the first 50ish% training her, working her on small jobs and manipulating her into properly trusting Antony into revealing more about her family; why she cares so much about protecting them that she'd become a killer. Then the second half should be where Antony takes Ruying to the neighboring kingdom that intends to ally with Rome.

Speaking of Rome; and genuinely what made think 'this book is dumb! who edited this!?' is when Antony is mansplaining to Ruying, he mentions GREEK gods, not just Roman....Why the hell did he mention Zeus and Hades? HE'S ROMAN???? At that point, why not just throw in Jesus Christ while we're here. Also why do we have cars? Why are there cars? How did they get the cars across the veil? What are they using to fuel those cars, there aren't gas stations around. That is all I'll say about the worldbuilding.

Ruying is a passive protagonist and it's "on purpose" because Ruying is a coward, she doesn't believe in any real causes, and she believes a life on her knees is better. There are a million better ways to write a coward of a protagonist than just having her no do anything all book. You can feel the author making these choices because no character has enough presence to make any of their own. Ruying doesn't have much personality either, we keep being told she sasses Antony and he thinks it's funny but that's never shown, only told in the inner monolouge. I would have LOVED to see her be witty and standing up to asshat #1.

Don't get me started on Antony, the slimy lil weasel is my enemy and it is on SIGHT!!! Again, it is not my place to comment on if this is, or is not a colonizer romance. It is still deeply inappropriate and kinda disturbing for him to say things like "Remember who I am. Then remember your place" because that implies he completely understands the power imbalance-despite also claiming he saw them as "equals"- Then to protect her with his own body, even though the attack was FOR HIM ANYWAYS! He is a manipulative little worm and I hate him. The romance is FORCED. They kiss once and he calls her "my love" bro...why? why are you in love? How? there's not enough scenes in the book for yall to love each other.

This book needed more time spent editing, less time in Ruying's head. Even if she's a coward who doesn't want to rock the boat, she can still do things. She can find ways to get around her deal, to plan to get her family to safety, to escape once they're far away. She doesn't have to do nothing, even if she resigned to her fate like maybe getting more involved in the politics part of the world?

I do not recommend this book, I am genuinely so disappointed because I thought I'd really like this book. It sounded right up my ally with death magic, assassin, wayward princes, and cool women with cool powers.