First of all I'd like to apologize to my mother for reading this. And now that that's out of the way, we're going to get into the nitty gritty. No lonFirst of all I'd like to apologize to my mother for reading this. And now that that's out of the way, we're going to get into the nitty gritty. No long review for this anthology, there isn't much to talk about. It's all PWP involving various kinds of monsters. I'm going to post my overall rating and then the individual ones.
some of you might be wondering "really, chelsea? the alien romance book gets five stars?" and you'd be right but uh yes. yes it does. i finished it insome of you might be wondering "really, chelsea? the alien romance book gets five stars?" and you'd be right but uh yes. yes it does. i finished it in one sitting and i'm 100% about to go and see if the target has book two. i have no shame....more
This was a weird one for me. Did I like it? Yes. Could it have been so much better? Also yes. Most of what I didn't like about this one had to do withThis was a weird one for me. Did I like it? Yes. Could it have been so much better? Also yes. Most of what I didn't like about this one had to do with the weird stop-and-go pacing. The beginning was fast! Then there was a standstill in the middle where all the ✨spice✨ happened... And then all the action just SMACKED back into it. I dunno, lads.
The rest of it was pretty okay. The spice wasn't overly descriptive, the plot was interesting, and the characters were... meh. I enjoyed Tanith as a heroine, but Oren was the real problem child here. I find the concept of the Pied Piper absolutely terrifying. The fact that we, as humans, have a kind of folkloric collective fear of something that came and stole and entire village full of children and then just... fucking... disappeared? Terrifying. Oren? Not so much.
Even in the beginning, he just wasn't all that and a bag of chips. So this one was just a solid three for me and it's onto the next one!...more
i'm highkey in love with this series and can't wait to read more of them, should mr martin chose to grace us with further books. (please i'm highkey in love with this series and can't wait to read more of them, should mr martin chose to grace us with further books. (please ...more
i honestly can't remember why i didn't review this. we're going to go with... i finished it at like 3am and immediately passed out afterwards. i wasn'i honestly can't remember why i didn't review this. we're going to go with... i finished it at like 3am and immediately passed out afterwards. i wasn't expecting much of this one, to be truthful with you, but i was pleasantly surprised.
this is a straight up re-skin of eros and psyche. but instead of psyche royally fucking up her godly relationship, the heroine of this one only fucks up her cry husband's entire life and possibly the fate of his kingdom. idk. i haven't gotten to the sequel yet.
ANYWAYS if you're looking for something short and sweet to read on KU or a nice little ebook to pick up in the fantasy romance genre, this is a safe bet for you....more
dnf @ 35% - i wanted to like this one SO MUCH!! it's steampunk fantasy, the monsters are just big ol' bugs, it's post apocalyptic, some of the gadgetsdnf @ 35% - i wanted to like this one SO MUCH!! it's steampunk fantasy, the monsters are just big ol' bugs, it's post apocalyptic, some of the gadgets and references have a definite fallout vibe but... there's no plot. i got 25% in before the first plot point happened. that a 1/4 of a book's worth of introductions and filler and no a whole lot else. it comes in at just shy of 300 pages so that's 75 pages of... nothing. i'm mad about it, too, because i feel like this world has so much potential for fun but i'm sitting at chapter fifteen and the main plot is barely off the ground :(...more
this one snuck up on me. it combined several things i don't like: present tense, YA novels, and enemies to lovers stories that are more like "vague dithis one snuck up on me. it combined several things i don't like: present tense, YA novels, and enemies to lovers stories that are more like "vague distaste to lovers" and actually made me love it ...more
i keep going to write this review and not finishing it. what's wrong with this book can be summed up by: forgettable and rushed. this comes in at a tei keep going to write this review and not finishing it. what's wrong with this book can be summed up by: forgettable and rushed. this comes in at a teensie 255 pages and it needed to be much longer. the characters made so little of an impact on me that i just... can't remember what they were like. the author did a descent job of world building, but it was so overwhelmed by the rushed romance and the fact that the plot was, despite what the author's note says, really just disney's beauty and the beast but with sex ...more
DNF @ ch. 3 - sometimes i can just tell that i'm not going to vibe with a book and this is just one of themDNF @ ch. 3 - sometimes i can just tell that i'm not going to vibe with a book and this is just one of them...more
08/17 update: i don't know if i'm ever going to be able to write a real review of any of the redwall books. it's mostly because of nostalgia reasons b08/17 update: i don't know if i'm ever going to be able to write a real review of any of the redwall books. it's mostly because of nostalgia reasons but, like, i genuinely love these books. they're gruesome at times and i question the wisdom of marketing them to children, but since i'm an adult now that doesn't fucking matter at all. anyways, love the writing and the stories and mossflower is a strong followup to redwall and i fully intend to re-read the entire series. so, onto the next....more
1) It deals with the way that science and magic might react with each other if they were real. 2) Time travel?? 3)I had such high hopes for this book.
1) It deals with the way that science and magic might react with each other if they were real. 2) Time travel?? 3) It's written as a memoir type narrative by one of the main characters and it's interspersed with diary entries and letter ala Dracula, which is such an interesting concept that isn't used by a lot of authors.
So when I picked it up at the local BAM it was love at first sight. I even cracked it open to make sure I liked the writing style before I bought it and I did! It's really well written and I love the way Mel keeps censoring herself while she writes because women who are (view spoiler)[stuck in the 1850s (hide spoiler)] don't exactly pepper their diaries with "fuck." At least, none that she's met have.
The book deals with Mel--who's full name is, rather unfortunately, Melisande--a translator of dead languages and her shadowy secret agent crush, Tristan. (Neal Stephenson names his characters like I do.) It follows them in their quest to figure out why magic disappeared from the world in 1851. They figure it out in the first part of the book, which was where my interest waned and left me sticking this 600+ page monster on my DNF shelf.
Did I mind that they resolved that little problem less than 100 pages into the book? Nah. I'm sure there's more to keep people occupied. HOWEVER, it's the way it was resolved that made me set the book now. Most of the first 120ish pages are all about physics and how physics is going to solve the magic problem. Normally, I wouldn't have any kind of issue with that. The sciences are interesting and learning about them, even in a fictional setting, can be tons of fun!
But this was like attending a lecture with dialogue and six dudes named Vladimir.
It made things that should have been so SO interesting and left them dry and flat and spoken in an info-dumpy dry tone by a man named Tristan. By the time I finished the first section and finally got the time travel part, I didn't fucking care about anything that was going to happen in the rest of the book. (Especially if it involved Tristan explaining more things.) I hesitate to use the term "man-splaining" (mostly because I hate it and it makes me roll my eyes every time I see it) but, honestly, this kinda strays into that territory.
There were a host of other things that I just... didn't like about this book outside how dry it was, but, for the sake of my sanity and the length of this review I'm going to condense them into a few bullet points:
- They enlist the help of a Japanese-America scientist by calling him "sensei" because that shows that they "respect his culture." I read that and my brain just went ????????????????? Which, I'm not Japanese, so I can't speak to how accurate that is or isn't, but it feels WILDLY condescending and over simplified.
- Mel somehow remembers things word for word months or even YEARS after things happen. I can't even remember what I was doing last Monday other than I watched Kitboga's stream in the evening; so when you ask me to believe that someone can write situations word for word after so much time, it kinda ruins it for me. UPDATE: I just checked the Wikipedia page to see about the spelling of Erszebet's name and the book takes place over FIVE YEARS. I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened to me in 2015, let alone write a detailed narrative of its events!
- Erszebet Karpathy? Annoying. Her whole introduction was entertaining at first. (I mean, (view spoiler)[ a centuries old witch contacting Mel through Facebook? (hide spoiler)] Priceless.) But it quickly devolved into girlish jealousy and Mel feeling inferior because of how Erszebet looked. Girlish jealousy happens in real life all the time, but sometimes I just want to skip it in my fiction. She's also lowkey named after Elizabeth Bathory and that annoys me even more for some reason.
I got to the beginning of the second section and found myself not at all caring what happened to any of the characters. I just... don't care. I tried setting it down for a few days to see if I could muster up enough interest in it to continue. Spoiler? I didn't. I moved onto other things and found myself just staring at it whenever I walked passed my TV stand. I know I don't normally rate the books I DNF, but I felt like I read enough of this one to provide an informed opinion to tack onto a starred rating....more
updated 01/28/2021: i don't... i don't remember not reviewing this. anyways, if my memory serves and the four stars are anything to go by, this was a updated 01/28/2021: i don't... i don't remember not reviewing this. anyways, if my memory serves and the four stars are anything to go by, this was a good one....more
i'm starting the year off strong with five stars right off the bat. not too surprised, i do love a lee martinez and i've enjoyed every book of his i'vi'm starting the year off strong with five stars right off the bat. not too surprised, i do love a lee martinez and i've enjoyed every book of his i've read lol...more
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