A Bright Heart by Kate Chenli
I saw LB’s review of this and thought it sounded intriguing enough asa premise that I bookmarked it so remember for later. I still need to read the second one in the duology but overall enjoyed this. I will say, I was trying to overcomplicate this one a little bit with my guessing so you know, this might be more enjoyable as a read to just let it happen. As Mingshin lays dying at the foot of the throne at the hand of the man […]
My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas
My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas was a historical romance book club pick from The Ripped Bodice. I sped-read the first half and didn’t return to it last year. And then in February, I remembered, and it was so worth finishing. Ying-Ying, aka Catherine Blade, is a badass. She was trained in martial arts because her guardian/stepfather, Da-Ren, was a Chinese warlord. She makes an enemy of Lin, a dangerous assassin, who relentlessly hunts her across the globe. When the story begins, she is hiding […]
A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
This is one of those novels I kept going back and forth on whether I wanted to read it – beautiful cover, epistolary novel, mystery – all of these sounded like elements I’d be into. On the other hand, reviews were generally positive but overly so and I didn’t know anyone personally that had read it that I could use as a gage. But I finally decided to dive in (pun intended), and this could have been a pass. It’s not horrible, there are some […]
The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott
This wasn’t quite the novel I was expecting – there isn’t anything inaccurate about the novel’s description but I was expecting a fun, fast paced fantasy/adventure novel and instead got more of dense road trip novel that was so slow paced it would almost be cozy if not for the dark subject matter. Elen is a courier in a sleepy town at the edge of the empire. Elen and her recently deceased sister Aoving settled there over a decade ago, along with Aoving’s son Kem, […]
A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L Jensen
Ugh. I know the author’s other work is a 5 book series so I had assumed that this, too, was setting up a longer series and then discovered halfway through when looking up the sequel that it was the first of a duology. Based on what happens in book 1, I’m very much thinking this story would have been better served as a stand alone novel. Here is the thing – it’s hard to write a story that has a twist that is going to […]
Gilded by Marissa Meyer
Cursed by Marissa Meyer
I have been struggling lately with books – just feel like I keep starting novels that aren’t quite hitting the spot. They aren’t bad or anything (I think) but they aren’t pulling me in or the tone is slightly off. I have had this one on my Kindle for a few months now and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect but it worked out for me. Marissa Meyer has been a bit hit or miss for me – I mostly enjoyed The Lunar Chronicles (especially […]
