Review: Akarnae ~ Lynette Noni

 

 Image from Goodreads. Click on the image to learn more about this book.

Format I Used:E-book

Pages: 373

Running Time: 13h:3m

My Rating: 4 stars

Publication Date: February 1, 2015

Spoilers so read on with caution.

 

This book came out back in 2015, but I'm just now reading it because I'm desperately wanting to feel the same love and emotions that I felt when I read The Prison Healer trilogy.

Did I? 

 

No. 

 

Not yet at least. It was a very sloooooow moving book (but so was The Prison Healer) So with at least 4 more books in the series, I'm hoping it will start to pick up. There was a lot of world building and set up going on. It has a lot of potential, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

I liked Alex's friendship with Bear and Jordan (who keep showing up in my head as Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin for some weird reason), and even DC, however there were a lot of timing things that were off a little and had me all sorts of confused. I like how Alex proved herself in her... combat? class and got the respect she so rightly deserved from those classmates.

 Also, looking at reviews after I finished reading it, I saw where a lot of people are comparing it to Harry Potter and other similar books, and I can 100% see where that's coming from. I definitely made those observations while I was reading it.

As far as DC being a princess, I did not see that coming at all, that was a surprise. But I did figure that Darrius was going to be Headmaster Marselle. That jumped out and screamed at me from the moment he showed up.

I'm excited and nervous to see what's going to happen next, so wish me luck.

Review: Salt and Sugar ~ Rebecca Carvalho

 

 

Image from Goodreads. Click on the image to learn more about this book.


Format I Used: Audiobook & E-book
Pages: 368
Running Time: 10h:25m
My Rating: 2 stars
Publication Date: November 1, 2022

This book almost pushed me to my limit. All the lies, and backstabbing, and fighting, and...pettiness? was so so so stressful. But I finished it! Plus no one ever wanted to sit down and attempt to have a civil conversation to sort things out. They just all wanted to go straight to yelling and accusing. It was a lot.

It was interesting to see how the characters grew throughout the story, although it felt like it took forever to make any kind of progress.

This one wasn't my favorite, however, if you like a drama filled family story then definitely give this one a read.

Review: The Dead Romantics ~ Ashley Poston

Image from Goodreads. Click on the image to learn more about this book.


Format I Used: Audiobook
Pages: 368
Running Time: 10h:24m
My Rating: 4 stars
Publication Date: June 28, 2022

Despite the fact that it took me forever to read this, I enjoyed to so much more than I was expecting to. Which, I guess, shouldn't have surprised me. I enjoyed the Geekerella series that was written by the same author.

I really enjoyed the family aspect of this book. Their dynamic was so interesting to me. Of course they had their issues, but I liked watching them work through it (for the most part)

There were a couple of things that I saw coming from a mile away (Mr. Benji Andor not ACTUALLY being dead. But for SOME reason, when he showed up as a ghost on her doorstep literally not that long after they had their meeting at the club I was shook. Shocked. I literally went WAIT! WHAT! HOW! I should not have been. I KNOW I should not have been. Because it's something that gets mentioned in the synopsis of the book for crying out loud! But my brain and a little blip and made me all confused for a minute.

Did It Make Me Cry? No

A to Z of 2022

Hey! I actually finished an A to Z reading challenge for once in my entire life. Here are all of the books that I read.

 

 

Review: Prince Of Song & Sea ~ Linsey Miller

Image from Goodreads. Click on the image to learn more about this book.


Format I Used: Audiobook & E-book
Pages: 352
Running Time: 7h:28m
My Rating: 5 stars
Publication Date: October 4, 2022

 

Oh okay 2023, I see you coming in strong with a book that I loved so much. (this was the very first book I finished for 2023, btw. I'm just now getting around to posting the review here though.)

Also beware of possible slight spoilers

But for real, I want about a million more books like this.

Eric is one of my FAVORITE Disney Princes. Flynn Rider is second. So imagine my surprise and delight when I found out that Disney Prince novels were going to be a thing. And ERIC was going to be the first one? Yes please! Sign. Me. Up.

But even with all that said, I put off reading this one for a while, because I was skeptical if I'm being honest. I wasn't sure how they were going to pull it off. Because as much as I love Prince Eric, I didn't know how they were going to make the story from his perspective interesting. And sometimes books like this can be a miss.

But they did make it interesting!

The author did a great job weaving new things into a story that I already knew like the back of my hand. Is it perfect? No. Don't go into reading this thinking that you're going to get a brand new story, because that's not what's going to happen. It's LITERALLY Little Mermaid from Eric's perspective. Don't go into it thinking it's going to be a story that changes everything around.

Do we get to learn new things about Eric and his life and what's going on? Yes. Does it make me think about the story of The Little Mermaid differently? YES. I thought it was so interesting that Eric was cursed, and it made me look at the story from a different perspective. He wasn't just some oblivious dope during the Kiss The Girl scene, he was literally trying not to kill anyone. He had so much more depth. He didn't come of as just a pretty boy.

I also love the addition of Sauer, Nora, Gabriella, and Vinny, and the pirates/souls thing. I could literally read a whole spin off series about adventures that they all have with that.

There were a few things that I wish had been a little more fleshed out, like Nora and Gabriella and the whole "surprise" mermaid thing, but overall it was a HIGHLY enjoyable read.

Did It Make Me Cry? No.

 

Review: Seasparrow ~ Kristin Cashore

Image from Goodreads. Click on the image to learn more about this book.


Format I Used: Audiobook & E-book
Pages: 624
Running Time: 16h:37m
My Rating: 4 stars
Publication Date: October 27, 2022

 

As usual, random spoilers, some vague some not. Read on at your own risk.

 

So this book... was not my absolute favorite book of Kristin Cashore's... But at the same time, I also didn't hate it. I have very very mixed feelings about it. It felt like it was very anticlimactic. There were so many things that were happening, and it was building to something big, and then it kind of just fizzled out. (for me at least)

It was so hard for me to keep how old Hava was straight in my head. She's 21. She literally says it out loud (or maybe she thinks it when she's talking to Linny, I don't remember for sure) But her actions and thoughts, and the way literally everyone talked to and treated her made it hard to remember. It all made her feel very very young to me, and maybe that's the point? Because of her upbringing?

The thought of Hava and her Grace was so interesting to me. Maybe it's because I feel like a chameleon sometimes, so the fact that Hava can actually turn herself into things that will make her blend into the background and go unnoticed made me feel a kinship towards her. She was set up for failure from the beginning. She was so suspicious of everyone around her and only thought they wanted to use her for something, but that's because that's really all she knew. She never had the chance to make friends and learn about expressing herself, etc. etc. There were times I just wanted to shake her, because she was so focused on herself at times that it was detrimental to everyone including herself!

It was a very slow going book (a molasses kind of read is what I like to call it.) This was very much a character growth kind of story and not much of an action read (like Cashore's others) There's really no big bad guy that we're fighting against, and the biggest issue kind of just fizzled out (with the foxes).

SPEAKING OF THE FOXES THEY WERE ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK. I was so invested in the safety and adventure of these little precious babies, and when the one died, I literally bawled and raged about it. 

Linny was my other favorite thing about this book. He was so sure and steady the whole way through and he somehow managed to sneak his way into my heart. He's PRECIOUS.

I thought it was funny that the most dangerous thing they encountered was a plain old polar bear. Yeah, the way they described it gave me chills too, but out of all the scary monsters and people with Graces, and plain ol' polar bear was one of the scariest things that appeared.

There was also a lot of crying in this book (almost as much as in Winterkeep)

 I would have sworn that Bitterblue was pregnant (spoiler alert: she wasn't) by how nauseous and whatnot she was for basically the ENTIRE book. But no. She was literally just seasick.

BRO we get to see my favorite Brigan again! He's the best, the bees knees, and no one can tell me otherwise.

Did It Make Me Cry? Yes. The aforementioned foxes caused me to cry QUITE A BIT.

 

Review: Forging Silver Into Stars ~ Brigid Kemmerer

 

 

Image from Goodreads. Click on the image to learn more about this book.

Format I Used: Audiobook

Pages: 560

Running Time: 17h:28m

My Rating: 4 stars

Publication Date: June 7, 2022

 

Another promising start to a new series by Brigid Kemmerer. This one is a companion series to A Curse So Dark And Lonely, and we get to see some of our favorite characters again.

I didn't KNOW it was a companion series at first. I just saw it on Goodreads and went "Oooh, another Brigid Kemmerer book? Yes please!" I just dove straight in without looking at the summary. But as I started reading, things were starting to stir a sense of... deja vu. That's when I actually went to Goodreads and found out that it is, in fact, a companion novel.

I thought that it was interesting to be able to see characters we know and love from a different perspective. It was interesting to me, because the way Grey and Rhen were portrayed before, I didn't really like Rhen. I was pretty much always Team Grey. But in this book, we see a different side of things and Grey is the one in a bad place and having to make hard decisions that don't paint him in the best light. I like Rhen much more in this book than I have in the past.

I didn't much care for dear Cally-Cal. Both she and Jax were in not so great places, and although they both made poor choices, she was too stubborn about admitting she was quite obviously wrong about a lot of things, and by the time she started figuring it out, she was in way too deep. It will be interesting to see how her character develops in the next book.

I also REALLY didn't like Alek. He's dangerous, and a gaslighter, and I don't remember much about him from the ACSDAL series, but I don't like him at all. Unless he changes MAJORLY, he's going to remain one of my least favorite characters.

My brain is trying to remember what else happened, but it's kind of on overload, so I'll probably add more to it.

Also, make sure to check out the Trigger Warnings other people have posted. The one that got me was animal death. But there are also a few others in there that could be of concern.

My End Of The Year Reading Wrap Up 2022

Well whoops, this was supposed to have posted on January 1st. Oh well, better late than never.

I love love love seeing My Year In Books on Goodreads. It's one of my favorite things. If you'd like to see every single book I've read this year, you can check out my Year In Books. But here is some details that I enjoy:

I finished a total of 393 books

89 of those were audiobooks

 

280 of those were Manga/Graphic Novel volumes

 

24 of those were a combination of traditional e-books and physical books

 

18 of those were ARCS I was asked to read and review

 

 

I read a grand total of 87,874 pages which averaged about 223 pages per book. (shorter than normal because I read so many manga this year. It was totally worth it.)

 

 

The shortest book I read was Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood at 112 pages

 

The longest book I read was House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas at a whopping 805 pages (yes I finally finished it annnd, oh boy the ending.)

 

 

 

3.7 stars - my average rating for the year

First Book Read in 2022--Maid Sama vol. 4 ~Hiro Fujiwara

 

 

 

 

Last Book Read in 2022*-- Matcha Made In Heaven vol.1 ~Umebachi Yamanaka

 

 

 

Most Popular Book--Book Lovers~Emily Henry (1,237,063 people also shelved this book)

 

 

 

Least Popular book-- Monster To Parent by Ichi Sayo (0 people also also shelved this book. It was worth it though )

 

 

 

Stay tuned for a break down of my favorite, least favorite, and my A-Z of 2023, coming at you in the next few weeks.