I’ve been reading when I should be studying. In my defence, norovirus + a cold + a series of migraines + a chesty cough have combined to kick my ass this last month. Reading is medicine.
Book: “Sadie”
Author: Courtney Summers
Source: Netgalley ARC (advance review copy)
Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖
Plot: the story of a missing girl pieces together through an epistolary style narrative
Positives: characterisation, structure, genuine twists, the ending. It’s gut wrenching
Negatives: …
Book: “Gold the moon eater”
Author: I.M. Bones
Source: Netgalley ARC
Rating: 💖💖💖🖤🖤
Plot: a magic wielding demon is an assassin for the family business
Positives: Gold/Silas, the murderer, is a pretty good narrator in a twisted Dexter kind of fashion
Negatives: I didn’t really care about the other characters and the breaking of the 4th wall was predominantly clumsy and patronising
Book: “Poison orchids”
Author: Sarah A Denzil & Anni Taylor
Source: Audible
Rating: 💖💖💖💖🖤
Plot: two backpackers are rescued from something that’s left them bloodied and traumatised… but their stories don’t match
Positives: twisty and unpredictable with some brilliantly written characters
Negatives: occasionally too far fetched, hence the 4/5
Book: “Godsgrave” and “Darkdawn” (books 2 and 3 of the “Nevernight” Chronicles
Author: Jay Kristoff
Source: Audible
Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖
Plot: tricky without giving anything away. Mia continues her journey to avenge her family and discovers more about herself along the way
Positives: blood, gore, sex, passion, magic, death, creatures, sarcasm, poison, sword play, swearing
Negatives: the fact it’s all over and I’m going to have to find something to cure the book hangover
Book: “Jane Anonymous”
Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz
Source: Netgalley ARC
Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖
Plot: a young woman, Jane, is kidnapped and held by a manipulative, game playing captor. When she escapes, she doesn’t truly escape
Positives: brilliant character study, exploring the impact of trauma. It took a long time to disentangle myself from the story
Negatives: some of the plot twists weren’t all that twisty but I think that was deliberate, anyway, so the reader is ahead of Jane
Book: “Belle Révolte”
Author: Linsey Miller
Source: Netgalley ARC
Rating: 💖💖🖤🖤🖤
Plot: set in a classist, misogynistic world with magic, two young women switch places to access education and end up embroiled in war
Positives: in many ways, it was a new, unique depiction of magic and Miller definitely paints the settings effectively
Negatives: really shallow character development so, despite flipflopping the narrative between the women, they felt and sounded like the same person. The plot was pretty flat until well over half way through. Overall, I’m grumpy because I loved the author’s last book (“Mask of Shadows”)
The brain fluff of a bibliophile 