Rating: 2.5 stars Short review: I'm sorry. I tried really hard to like this, I was enchanted by the premise of a Persian fairy-tale retelling featuring diverse rep and an MC that had a devastating gift, a deadly touch. This, however, felt like a 14 y.o. girl's story written for 14 year old girls. Nothing wrong with that of course, except it’s not what was promised. My advice: I recommend this as an entry point for people who are dipping their toes into the Fantasy genre, this won’t bewilder you with overly complex magic systems, difficult names with apostrophes and 352 maps ?. Lo ..read more

Short review: Booooooring. This turned from a politically intriguing, twisted and painful tale of honour and loyalty into a stale, sappy romance. Bo-ho-horing. My advice: Lower you expectations. No, no, lower them some more. Even more. Theeere we go! Folks, this is purely a romance book. Just to be clear. Long review, no spoilers: The Plot: I think this series had a lot of potential, I found the world to be even more fleshed out and interesting, but there is nothing happening for most of the book. I missed having other characters around and their machinations. I kept expecting Ve ..read more

Short review:  This is such a confusing book. I like it and also I hate it. The world, the politics, the intrigue – a delicious popcorn read. The stakes are raised and danger lurks around every corner - this sequel is full of lies and betrayal. But the angsty thoughts that were all-consuming and distracting the main characters in the midst of a war were very irritating. My advice: This doesn’t suffer from middle book syndrome necessarily – but the first 350 pages are 3 stars and the last 50 are 5 stars, so keep reading because it will get shockingly good. That ending – hwow. Long review ..read more

  Short review:  Uneven. I’ve heard so many great things about this and all of my favourite reviewers gave it 5 stars, but this felt overhyped. It was an enjoyable read, it started out very strong – lots of drama, an interesting setting and plot trigger – but began to feel flat as it progressed. My advice: tweak your expectations: this is YA fiction-romance set in an imaginary world, it’s not fantasy. Long review, no spoilers: Plot: Kestrel, a general’s daughter living in a conquered country, goes to the market one day and – in an out-of-character moment – buys a slave (Arin). Drama ..read more

Short review: It was lovely to be back in this world, even though the story wasn’t unique or ground-breaking; C. C. has a sort of formula for her main characters / their interactions and it’s starting to show here quite a lot. This book doesn’t come anywhere close to the feelings TID and TDA gave me, but I’ll be continuing this. My advice: You need to read The Infernal Devices trilogy first (Clockwork Angel etc), this story spoils everything that happens in there and you will be very confused about these characters and their family tree. Plus, TID is awesome :D Long review, no spo ..read more

Short review: Holy shit, Venus. Hot fudge on a highway, how are they ever gonna untangle this mess? A good sequel with excellent character work and lots of world expansion. I wish the politics were more complex though. My advice: There’s good stuff in here, push through the slow and boring bits. Long review, no spoilers: Plot: Now if you haven’t read book 1, please go away, read it, come back and let’s chat. There will be some Book 1 spoilers down below. The story picks up a few months after the events of Book 1, with everyone and their mothers trying to cope in the Brave New Worl ..read more

Short review: It's honestly difficult to review this because I recently watched seasons 1 & 2 of The Expanse and bits of the show intermingled with the book while I was reading it. My advice: If you plan on picking this up, only watch maybe the first 2-3 episodes and then read the books. The TV adaptation, while faithful to the events, does not respect the book’s timeline and has plotlines from book 2 towards the end. I must commend the Netflix adaptation for the PERFECT casting and their amazingly accurate portrayals of the characters. Long review, no spoilers: Plot: A dual pers ..read more

"I am not feeling nothing". I AM FEELING BORED I absolutely loved Illuminae Files and the Nevernight series and thought this would be a step up, but it felt like a regression. If this had been the duo’s first series and Illuminae the next, it would have made perfect sense. Short review: Childish. After the bucket load of boredom and the wheelbarrow of jokes in the first book, I was uncertain I'd continue this series. My advice: if you loved the first one, you'll love this as well, it's more of the same, with lots of action and shocking reveals (not shocking to ME as I saw those tw ..read more

Short review,: Underwhelming. The more YA I read, the more I suspect I'm over the genre. My 15 y.o. self would have loved and devoured this. My current self sadly was sort of bored. Long review: This is my second most disappointing read of the year (cough King of Scars cough), not because it was bad, but because I had such high expectations for it, eagerly awaiting this novel by my favourite authors ever. I was expecting something truly unique again (akin to Illuminae in concept, not in execution necessarily), and instead I got generic ya space adventure. Ok, in all honestly I do love space a ..read more

hort review: This book is very underhyped and I blame the random comparison to the Hunger Games and the market’s oversaturation of YA dystopian novels. This takes place in the far future and is an incredibly engrossing tale of finding one’s humanity. My advice: Just go in with no expectations and it will surprise you? Long review, no spoilers: Plot: This was everything I ever wanted Dune to be. Politics and intrigue in space, with a dash of betrayal and a bucketload of action scenes. I’m not going to pretend this hasn’t been done before. It’s not wholly original, but it is very w ..read more