Legendary by Stephanie Garber: A Review

2.5 Stars rounded up to 3 on the 1 to 5 scale because I liked this one more than Caraval and I figure the extra star should show that.

To start off with, the story held my interest better than book 1. I wanted to see the conclusion to the search and understand the different threads that circled around Tella. It didn't feel as if there were scenes or characters meandering around and forcing the story to move along to where it needed to go. Instead, it felt more natural, as in of course this is happening, it's the next logical point for the story. I didn't get that sense in the first book but it was there in this one.

Concerning the characters, I definitely like Tella considerably more than I ever liked Scarlett in either book. Scarlett still bothered me in this story but she's barely around so my interest grew in Tella and the people that worked with her. Tella was stronger overall, more focused and aware, which allowed for a clearer sense of the book.

War by Laura Thalassa: A Review

So after really enjoying the first book in this series, I am giving War a hard NOPE.

Seriously, I just do NOT in any way, shape or form, enjoy reading about a couple where one of them is the over-the-top, piece of shit, jackass who makes demands and expects their every whim to be obeyed while the other partner actively hates the other but can't help being physically drawn to the sadistic asshole they were paired with.

Complete and utter malarkey.

It took until at least the 80% mark for War the character to start making the right efforts towards Miriam but by that point, I was forcing myself to finish this because 1). I wanted to see if Pestilence and Sara from Book 1 showed up and 2)..........

Yeah, nevermind, there is no other reason. Maybe I just hate having to mark books as DNFs. There is so much to hate about 2020 already without throwing a DNF into the mix. Let's end the year with a bit of my dignity intact, please and thank you.

Anyways, 80% or more is too far gone to convince me that a couple like this works out in the long run. Just going to mosey along to the next book in this series and hope for the best.

Rating on my Blog Scale: 1 STAR. I'm just so sad that I did not like this book one measly bit. When I started reading this book, I'd already made the decision to order the books in paperback and was patiently waiting for my copy of Pestilence to arrive in the mail. But by the time I hit maybe the 44% mark, maybe, who the hell cares about the specifics, I was very much thinking NAH, don't need this one in paperback just yet.

I mean, if book four really kicks ass, and I buy that one in paperback, most likely I'll get the whole series to sit on a shelf, but the point is that I bought it for the sake of being matchy-matchy and NOT because this book made me swoon.

Just thought I'd point that out.

Across the Void by S.K. Vaughn: A Review

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways*

Overall, an interesting read. I enjoyed May as a character and her journey in the book. I especially liked Eve, whose interactions with May were some of the best parts of the story.

Basically, the reason why my rating is not higher is because of pacing. The story has the main present storyline, with May trying to get back home, which is where the plot was at its strongest. The book moves back and forth in the present between May, out in space, and her estranged husband, Dr. Stephen Knox, back on Earth, as they try to solve how to get May back home. It is all very straightforward, and the suspense is in the fact of not only figuring out a rescue but also trying to discover what caused the demise of the entire crew of the ship. However, the tension felt in response to her plight was cut into by chapters focused on past memories inserted at odd intervals in the book. I understand its purpose but in the end, the jumping back to those points in time did not keep me engaged in the book.

Add in a bit of trying too hard to be funny dialogue that just fell flat, and some villains that could have been anyone thanks to not enough development, and I was left feeling the book was good but not great.

I am grateful for the chance to have read this book and hope to see more from this author in the future. 

 

Rating on my Blog Scale: 5.5 Stars

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton: A Review

The truth about Kate Morton books is that I get to the end of them and still wish there was more to the story.

I'm also finally making good on my word to follow through on reading all of Kate Morton's books. Honestly, I own each and every one of her books. I just haven't sat down and read them all yet.

This one hurt a little, though it did end on a very wistful final image and that is why I am giving it 5 stars instead of 4. (Side note for Blog Readers: Goodreads only rates on a 1 to 5 scale but I'm more nitpicky about Stars, so I rate 1 to 10 here). The Forgotten Garden left me feeling grumpy and griping about all the unfair things that had been revealed to the reader but not actually resolved in the book but The Distant Hours manages that better than its predecessor. It still has those secrets that readers have to hold onto for the book characters but it does not feel like a burden to know all the facets of this story, only leaving this reader with the wish that more could be had and seen about this world.

At least I still have 2 more Morton books to read before I have to find something to fill the void her writing leaves when I have to wait for a new work to be published. Guess my new goal will be to get a hardback copy of The Lake House so it matches my whole collection. And then wait patiently for a new Kate Morton book to finally arrive.

 Rating on my Blog Scale: More like 9 Stars if I want to be honest. So much of this is just bittersweet, you have to love the characters to be happy with the ending they got. I'm just not entirely happy with the ending they got because I have a mean bone in my body that makes me want to exact vengeance on book characters that deserve some kind of comeuppance. I take my reading very seriously, I tell you.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell: A Review

I'm leaving this unrated. After everything I've seen about issues with the story, the facts behind it and so on, I am just not comfortable rating this.

In the end, I think this book is just difficult to get through. I was considering putting this down as a DNF but I convinced myself to finish it. The shifting timelines, the shifting beliefs, the drawn out story all made me feel like it was too much to handle in one lump sum. I wanted someone to come forward and stop that monster, I wanted someone to believe Vanessa, I wanted more suffering for the villain of the book because yes, I think he was a villain. On the other hand, I thought the book was almost too much, too long, and then I felt bad for thinking that and kept reading.

Despite it all, I did like the way it ended. Maybe it felt a bit abrupt but I think for a story with this subject matter it needed to end in an open way that leaves questions. It can't be summed up and tied off with a bow. It had enough of a note of hope that I did not feel disappointed at the way it finished.

I will say that whatever Russell publishes next, I will most likely end up reading it.

The Deep by Alma Katsu

Something is haunting the Titanic on its doomed maiden voyage. Before anyone can figure out what is truly causing so many disturbing events on the ship, disaster strikes and the story we know of the Titanic takes over the page.

This story follows maid Annie Hebbley, a woman haunted by her survival, who is now on the Brittanic, working as a nurse on the ship that has been made over into a hospital ship during World War 1. Annie's memories of her past are vague but when she happens across a soldier she recognizes as a survivor of that horrible night, she realizes that there was more to the disaster than she realized. Annie needs to figure out what haunted that maiden voyage because now it is following the Brittanic, and it is ready to cause tragedy all over again.

Lack of Updates

So apparently the nice little added help of being able to post your review on Goodreads and have it appear over on your blog does not actually exist anymore?

I've tried going through all of my reviews and checking off the option to post my reviews here at the same time. So far, nothing has appeared here. And obviously I am NOT tech savvy enough to manage how to correct the issue.

Instead, I will have to go through all of my Goodreads reviews and just recreate each review here.

Seriously, it's sad how empty my blog looks, really, I was so happy to have that middle step cut out so I could just believe everything was still coming over here.

I know, it was naive of me, I get it. Moving on.