wardenred's reviews
841 reviews

If you know you should do this thing, if you believe it’s the right thing to do, then it doesn’t matter how hard it is. You’ll find the strength to do it.

I don’t re-read books often. But a couple of people in one of my discord servers were talking about this series, reminding me that I never got past this first book and really would like to continue and finish it. Except I decided I didn’t remember the first installment all too well, given that I read it during a pretty stressful time and what mainly stuck with me were the vibes. So here I am.

It turned out that I actually did remember it, or at least it was super easy to recall. By the time I was a few chapters in, almost the entirety of the story sprang up in my mind. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Amastan is such a great protagonist to follow: a young assassin who starts off immensely relieved when, upon successfully finishing his training, he is informed it’s very likely he’ll never actually get a contract. Then the plot happens. And his entire character arc. And it involves the damn chapter 28 that hits just as hard even when I know what’s coming at every twist. (I both love and hate chapter 28).

The worldbuilding here is simply stunning. It is as much about the assassins as the story itself. The aesthetics is immaculate, with all the roofs literally meant for running and jumping over them. Even more compelling, of course, is the societal structure and how it interacts with the existence of the assassin order among them. The politics of it, the moral conundrums, it’s all just really interesting and engrossing. I also adored the water-based magic system in this desert setting, and the evil spirits, and how, again, both of those factors being a part of everyone’s lives influence the views and morals of these fictional people. And I really liked how the more the story progressed, the more worldbuilding layers opened up, though I also feel like that might be a deterrent for some because it does seem kind of shallow at the beginning. Patience is greatly rewarded, though. 

I also appreciated how queer this book is, especially the super relatable alloromantic ace representation with the MC. Though I must warn you that if you expect a happy romantic subplot alongside the mystery and adventure, you may end up sorely disappointed. I mean, there is a subplot. It is beautiful and heart-rending and I know that other books in the series have different MCs, but if I never witness another interaction between Amastan and Yufit I swear I’ll riot. However. Well. This is not anywhere in the realm of capital R romance, let’s leave it there to avoid spoilers.

A really lovely read, the kind of old-school fantasy adventure that made me remember why I fell in love with the genre in the first place. The worldbuilding with the twists on the societal structure and gender roles was pretty fun, and of course I absolutely adored all the dragons. So many dragons! Seriously, if you love dragons, you have to read this. They come in all sizes and colors here, ranging from monstrous to cute.

And then there are so many lovable human characters here, too. My favorite was definitely Robert . He’s a lovable reluctant dragon exterminator who would rather be friends with that “vermin,“ and he’s really got such a nice arc (as do other characters, to be fair—and by the way, I really enjoyed how those arc intersected and fed into each the same main theme). I started feeling for him from his very first appearance. Especially since that first scene was so relatable—“I’m dead but I’m awake“ is such a strong morning vibe.

That’s another thing I want to mention, by the way: the story is full of those small, humorous moments. Nothing outright comedic / laugh-out-loud funny, more like gently amusing. Lots of clever turns of phrase to keep the reader smile. Generally, the writing style is really warm and compassionate somehow. It gives the book this soft, cozy feel, even though it definitely doesn’t qualify for the cozy fantasy subgenre. It is, after all, quite the classic adventure where our heroes need to defeat an evil wizard and all. There are some pretty dark vibes here now and then, actually (ew, dragon market…), but still, the aftertaste the story leaves is that of kindness and comfort.

I’ve been excited for this book ever since I finished the original series it spins off from. The only reason I kept putting it aside was the hope that the next one would be out soon, because Adhara’s writing is just so bingeable and I wanted a longer stay in this familiar world. Alas, the sequel’s publication date has been getting pushed back, and I had yet another fun convo about *Big Bad Wolf* with friends recently, and, well, I caved.

My impressions, to tell the truth, are… utterly mixed.

I was initially excited to see this was a dual POV book because that’s how I prefer my romance. And when I was reading the original series, I sometimes wished we could get at least a glimpse of, well, everything from Oliver’s POV. But with this book, by the middle or so I was kind of wishing Eli’s POV was the only one. He was really the whole reason I remained invested into the story—not just because he was an already familiar and beloved character, but because he remained thoroughly entertaining, kept gaining depth, and also, from his POV Julien seemed a lot more interesting compared to Julien’s own parts. It’s funny, but maybe if I only saw Julien through Eli’s eyes, I would find it easier to click with him. I would just write off everything I didn’t fully understand about him as, “Well, Eli doesn’t know certain things, so.“

Because the thing about Julien is, initially I was prepared to take his overall opaqueness and the secrets he kept from the reader as a feature, not a bug. He’s an actor, after all, it figures that he can be good at smoke and mirrors in his situation. But the further the story progressed, the more frustrated I was with his scenes, because I just *wasn’t getting to know him*. I still think it was meant to be a feature, but the execution was faulty. And that, naturally, impacted my impression of the romance, because yeah, the dynamic here was theoretically fun and promising… but with one part of the relationship constantly turning into a smoke screen, it was just really hard to get into.

Another disappointment was the mystery itself. It was as exciting as most of the mysteries in the original series in terms of set-up, but the actual investigation kept losing me. I kept wanting someone else to take over. Not even Cooper and Oliver necessarily, though I wouldn’t have said no to that. Just, I don’t know, someone more… competent? More capable of making the process of solving the mystery exciting? More proactive in some ways? I don’t know, I’ll be musing about it for a bit more, I guess.

But! To finish on a few high notes, I really enjoyed every part of the snowy, wintery setting. There was this strong sense of place throughout—I felt like I was actually present in every building or outside location, got affected by the weather, breathed the same air. I enjoyed the banter, especially in the second half of the book, and I definitely loved seeing the leads from the original series again, no matter how briefly. And the overarching plot has enough interesting details that I do still want to pick up the next installment when it’s finally out. 

The only other book I’ve read by this author was a romcom, so I was curious to see how a YA horror would compare. I actually think I might like Kosoko Jackson’s approach to this genre even more. There were some flaws here for sure, but overall, I found this to be a highly entertaining read for the spooky season. The cover reflects the vibes of the spooky forest around the mysterious and prestigious Regent Academy spot-on. I loved every part of the book that took part in those woods and/or dealt with the weird creatures that inhabit them. I also enjoyed how the supernatural horror elements were braided with the more mundane, social horror ones. On one side, we’ve got the scary forest with monsters and curses, but on the other side, we have institutionalized racism. The monsters, come to think, feel friendlier.

I thought that the beginning of the story felt a little rushed, like the author was in a hurry to introduce the exciting elements (there’s something going on in this school! the woods are weird! someone just died and nobody remembers!) and get the action going. I’ve got nothing against getting to the meat of the story fast! I often love in media res beginnings, even. But in this case, it felt like hurrying to get there sacrificed a bit of the set-up and made me struggle for a bit to vibe with Douglas as the protagonist. However, once the pacing evened out a few chapters in and the narrative started feeling more balance, I began to really enjoy experiencing the story through his eyes. He’s a really angry guy, which is understandable given what he’s been through, but underneath that, he’s also pretty kind. I like characters like that. I also really felt for his relationship with his mother.

I do wish the magical powers Douglas got were a bit more strictly defined and less convenient, and that the monsters were somewhat harder to deal with because they didn’t always live up to their own hype. But overall, the power scale felt appropriate enough for a YA book, I guess. And the horror and dakr academia vibes were so good throughout. 

A few years ago I really, really tried to get into the tv show based on this book because so many of my friends were gushing about it. Long story short, I just couldn’t vibe with it despite trying. Recently, the same friends started talking about it again, and about the fanfic for it that they were reading and writing, and the fanfic sounded interesting enough that I thought, hey, maybe I should tackle the canon again to be in the know. Maybe it will work for me better in book form.

It… both did and didn’t work for me better in book form. The super amateurish translation sadly didn’t help—the resulting prose was of such low quality and full of such weird turns of phrase that it was legitimately hard to focus on reading. Instead of getting immersed into the story, I kept poking at odd sentences and/or thinking, “I wonder what the actual author meant to say here and what the effect would be if I could read it in Chinese“ (sadly, I don’t know Chinese). 

But despite that, when I did manage to get immersed, it was pretty good? Wei Wuxian was an entertaining and interesting protagonist to follow, and I was fascinated by the worldbuilding. And the plotty bits were seriously good. Actually, in a weird turn of events, I was more interested in all the external/setting-focused plottiness than the relationship developments, especially when it came to the main relationship. Apparently, no matter the medium, the hype and I are just. Completely on different pages with this story. It’s strange, because the tropes here are the ones I usually enjoy, and the dynamic should be pulling me in, but every time the book focused on Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, I was like, “Yeah… cool… can we another evil ghost encounter or something now?“

Guess it’s one of those cases where a popular story just doesn’t resonate with me enough, but I’m still glad I gave it a chance and I’m actually interested in picking up some other danmei books now.

I actually enjoyed this far more than Boyfriend Material, the first in the series this one spins off from, although damn, I had to suspend my disbelief more times than with some fantasy novels. I’m kind of concerned that neither Alexis Hall nor any of the beta readers and editors this book might have had know how muting works on phones. Also, a big part of the plot is the MC getting a concussion as part of the inciting incident, and like… Yeah, sure, the type of accident he has should result in one, except as someone who’s had two concussions, one nastier than the other, I failed to recognize a single symptom. Not that he even displayed any symptoms, short of getting tired more easily, but only when it was convenient for the plot. So that constantly took me out of the story, and I had to struggle to shove myself back in.

Outside of that, this was fun. The premise is that a store manager is trying to convince his boss to please not fire him and his team (that includes characters like a guy who keeps ruining expensive mattresses and stuff, but he’s got a grandmother to take care of, so Sam, the MC, doesn’t have the heart to fire them). The attempt, taking place in one of the chain’s stores, kind of escalates. An accident involving a shower cabin happens. And then the MC ends up concussed, a misunderstanding results in the doctor and his boss both believing he’s got amnesia too, and since there’s no one who can come get him and take care of him, Jonathan, the boss in question, steps in. Probably to avoid getting sued, but also maybe, just maybe, because he’s a semi-decent human being underneath all the grump, although that’s not something Sam considers just yet. And then they end up as roommates at Jonathan’s mansion, and Jonathan’s family keeps showing up assuming they’re boyfriends, and Sam really tries to use the entire weird situation to protect his job and his team, but it just all keeps getting weirder and messier. Oh, and there’s a fair amount of Christmas party planning involved, because while it’s not immediately apparent, this is actually a holiday romance.

There are lots of crazy shenanigans here, intersperse with pretty touching and heartfelt moments as the two characters get to know each other better and start to care far more than they ever wanted to. I did feel a little cheated out of the promised grumpy/sunshine dynamic, because while Jonathan is an exceptional 10/10 grump, I didn’t find Sam particularly sunshiny. He’s mostly kind, yes, and has a strong sense of what’s fair and what’s not, and he’s not bad with people, but also not always pleasant to be around and has a decidedly mean streak. I feel like characters that embody the “sunshine“ part of that trope shouldn’t lash out quite so much at their grump counterpart, no matter the reasons. I did like Sam and relate to certain aspects of his personality a lot, it’s just not really that specific trope. 

I liked a lot of the side characters, especially Agnieszka the housekeeper, and pretty much everyone in Jonathan’s family, and also, the lovely, ugly cat (reminded me of one of mine). There was plenty of super funny banter, even if sometimes it bordered on a tad too mean-spirited for me. Loved how the Christmas tree thing was handled, and all those points where Sam and Jonathan’s clashes resulted in them actually explaining and understanding their conflicting points, and that last chapter before the epilogue (damn that one reveal, so heartbreaking). Also, this is one of those instances where I feel the regional accent was really well handled in writing.

Would recommend to those who like wacky romcoms with lots of bickering and are more skilled than I am at ignoring the glaringly underresearched parts. 

The story here picks up exactly where the first installment in the series left off, no breaks, but it does fill very much like a separate sequel, not just the second half of the same book. The stakes here are definitely higher and the characters have to deal with more external conflicts. I was really worried for them both more than once, and there were moments that gave me a lump in my throat. But just like in the first book, the narrative here exudes so much kindness and hope. Shit happens, but both characters constantly have someone who has their back through it, and they get to emerge happy on the other side.

I really loved the growth both Alex and Eli go through, especially in relation to their developing relationship. They do so well confronting their own and each other’s flaws and nipping problems in the bud. That one scene where they consciously decide how they’re going to tackle arguments? Chef’s kiss. I actually read it twice. Healthy communication is my catnip, especially when it’s done this specific way: not as something that 100% comes naturally to everyone involved, but as something the character have to and want to put in the work to achieve.

Once again, I really appreciated the way disability and mental health were handled. The found family vibes from the team warmed my heart, the domestic scenes were so cozy, and Hawk remains the best doggo. The cat got kind of lost behind everything, though, and that’s my single complaint: I wanted more cat!

From the subtitle and some of the reviews I’ve seen, I expected a more or less even mixture of heavy life stuff and dark humor. There were, however, very few pages that made me smile. For the most part the book put me in a melancholy mood and made me feel sorry for most of the people I was reading about. I did recognize the humor and vibed with it, though, even if I didn’t find it funny. What I mean is, I’ve got a bunch of stuff, like entire parts of my life, that I never talk about much because when I used to retell those parts as what I thought were fun anecdotes, it always made for awkward moments and shocked people and me slowly realizing that instead of something humorous I’ve said something really morbid. The humor in here is much like that—likely super funny if you’ve been there, but few else get to laugh—and it was really, really relatable to me.

All in all, this is a rather thorough exploration of one family’s many, many issues, with a focus on the author’s father who may or may not have committed suicide and her complicated, difficult grief for him. All the dysfunction is portrayed with a lot of compassion, and the art and prose blend very well together, though at times I did feel like the choice of words was a bit… pretentious, maybe? But it also made me pause and squint at some not-so-familiar words, and thus focus more on specific moments of the narrative, so in hindsight, I rather appreciate the effect. Altogether it made for a relatively quick yet not easy read that’s going to stick with me for some time.

This book has an absolutely kickass premise: former big damn villains band together for one last job—to deal with an organization of religious fanatics who are far worse than necromancers, demonologists, vampires, and pirate queens. When there are no heroes willing to tackle the new evil, why not turn to monsters instead, right?

I was really excited for this story, especially since it started off pretty strong. The prologue painted a vivid and intriguing picture of the “before.“ The first appearance of the fanatics showcased their horribleness nicely. The scene where Dalia sought out Maven to start the process of getting the gang back together was so well done, with great dialogue, hints of dark humor, twists woven neatly into the narrative—it had it all. My excitement just kept growing.

And then the rest of the book happened. :(

I don’t mean to say it was all terrible or anything, but really, so few parts of the book live up fully to its own beginning. The obligatory “getting everyone together one by one“ part dragged something awful. I usually like these parts in such stories! I loved the same part in The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, and in Kings of the Wyld, and in Sarah Beth Durst’s The Bone Maker. Here, I just couldn’t wait for it to end and the real action start. The problem for me was, I think, that while the villainous characters coming together were fun, each of them separately, the dynamic between them just didn’t give those “we used to share everything, then we ended up far apart, now we’re coming back together as changed people with the same old habits“ vibes the other book I’ve mentioned have in abundance. Yes, there were occasional mentions of past exploits, but the way the characters acted and talked, they could as well be just coming together for the first time.

The adventure itself definitely had its cool moments, but again, the interaction between characters was constantly lacking something to keep me invested. They were all cool and badass and evil to the core in ways that at the very least started out fun. But they just didn’t work together in the ways I expected them to. I suppose it actually makes sense, what with them being very definitely villains, not to be confused with vaguely well-meaning morally grey types. But I’m a fan of the “Even Evil Has Loved Ones“ trope, I wanted a corrupt, awful, villainous found family, lol.

It also didn’t help that the promised humor all but left the building before the first act was through, and there was so much violence that didn’t add anything to the story. Utterly repetitive scenes that seemingly existed only to remind me that this was a grimdark book. Very dark. Much grim. Just in case I was beginning to have any doubts, you know.

Amidst all this, there was some cool action, some fun character moments, and some really excellent worldbuilding. I liked all the demonology a lot. But, eh. The beginning set too high a standard, and now I kind of really, really want to read the book I thought this one would be. Not enough to commit to writing it myself, though. Definitely not enough. Not going to even go there. Don’t ask me why I’m keeping my fingers crossed, it’s none of your business.

Much like with the first book in the series, I enjoyed the combination/juxtaposition of a historical setting with historical problems and a rather modern style. There’s something so quirky and fun about how the author handles it. I also absolutely lived for all the appearances of the characters from the first part. Good thing there are so many! I loved seeing how Beth and Gwen carried on in the aftermath of their happy ending, and their parents, and Alfie and Meredith (though I wish there were more scenes with Meredith actually being there).

That said, the actual main romantic storyline sadly didn’t grip me at all. :( I liked both Bobby and James as separate characters, but their romance didn’t work for me very well. From the blurb, I expected enemies to lovers, but honestly, they weren’t so much enemies as two people critically allergic to communication. I think they both thought the communication was the real enemy? Seriously. They spent such a big chunk of the book trying to talk and mutually ruining each attempt, and then suddenly things progress so quickly. And then James just keeps physically running away from every problem they predictably have, and I don’t know, it just got so tiresome after some point. The main thing I always want from romance as to see two characters make each other’s lives better. Here, all too often I felt like the opposite was happening, but the way the narrative was constructed also stubbornly presented this mess as cute, romantic, and worth rooting for. Sorry, it was not.