Book Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*clears throat*

Hello, my name is Brittany, and this is my first sci-fi novel that I actually enjoyed.

I don't read sci-fi that much, but when Anna said that this was the next pick for the book club, I had to pick it up and read it, to see if I was either gonna hate it or not. It turns out that this cozy sci-fi story is actually pretty good. Sure it didn't have that much action in it, but it does have a tiny bit of romance in it, some really good sci-fi soap opera, and of course, space stuff. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was really good to the point that I just picked up another one (actually, Doc wanted to know someone's thoughts about the second book, and I just checked it out once I got done with this one to see if the second one exceeds my expectations like this one did.)

So this book is about a woman named Rosemary Harper and she was hired to be on this ship called the Wayfarers, and she meets the crew-Sissix, Kizzy, Ohan, Dr. Chef, Ashby, Jenks and a AI named Lovey. They get a job from the GC, and they go to different places to get their supplies and relax a bit before they go to Hedra Ka. Rosemary and Sissix get together and it was so cute that I was shocked when they did. To tell you the truth I didn't see it for a moment, but I think when they were in the market and she saw how Sissix handled that other Aandrisk woman, Rosemary felt sorry for Sissix and thought that there were something missing in her life. They even went to her homeplanet and met Sissix's children (or egg children or something like that).

I liked the relationship with Ashby and Pei. Yes, it's a sexual relationship, but the way they cared for each other and how they had to keep their relationship a secret because of the fear of the blacklash from the Aeluons. I liked how they like each other enough to care for each other, and then when she heard what happend to Ashby, she decided to come and see him, not giving a fuck about the blacklash or anything.

But the thing that shocked me the most was when I learned the Corbin was a clone. A clone. Now that...that shocked me the most. I thought he was a normal human who got on the Wayfarers, but it turned out that he wasn't. And reading his backstory of how he came to be...oh my god. That was the saddest thing I've ever read ever. I felt sorry for Corbin and who is father was. And that his father is in jail. Like Space jail. Holy hell.

I really enjoyed this book, and now I'm off to book two!

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Book Review: Rich People Problems (Crazy Rich Asians, #3) by Kevin Kwan

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rich People Problems...aka just put my whole entire family in this whole entire book because good lord they act just like the family in this book. Anyway, getting off track, now to the book review...so Rich People Problems is about the Shang-Young family coming together after the death of their patriarch, Shang Su Yi, aka Ah Ma. It was a sad moment...truely, it was...

Actually, no it wasn't. Because honestly, the way Eddie Cheng fussed and fought and screamed and hollered over a frickin' house reminded me so much of my own uncle (who's like Eddie Cheng 2.0). He thinks he's hot shit, he thinks he can do whatever he wants when he wants, and he also thinks that he was going to get the house. WRONG. (No, seriously, he thought he was going to get Tyersall Park). Then they thought that Su Yi wanted to sell the house, and they started getting these offers, but the Nick, the brightest man in this WHOLE ENTIRE BOOK, decided to make a deal with his aunties that he can raise the money to buy the house. It didn't work, so after finding somethings out with his Ah Ma, he went to Thailand to meet with a prince, and he found something about his Ah Ma that changed everything, thus turning Tyersall Park into Tyersall Park Hotel and museum, thanks to a mysterious backer.

And that mysterious backer is...

Kitty Pong Bing. Yes, that Kitty Pong, who in the last two books did so much crazy shit, but she got away from Benard Tai and married Jack Bing, who is the father of Colette Bing, who tried to poison Rachel. Following along? Good, because it's about to get even crazier from here. In this book, Kitty has an arch nemesis...which is Colette Bing, the new Countess of Parsilver or some fancy title like that, and Kitty HATES her. She wants to do everything better than Colette (gee, who does that sound like? An auntie of mine) and tries every crazy thing she can think of. But at the end, she decided to secretly buy in Tysersall Park and turn it into a museum.

The Astrid storyline I enjoyed the most-mostly because it's like she's finally getting everything she ever wanted and then everything came crashing down the moment that sex tape of her and Charlie came out thanks to Charlie's ex-wife, Isabel, having a psychotic breakdown and nearly killing herself. Then Astrid disappeared, making Charlie worry about her and he started to search everywhere for her, asking around and all. Then he went to Palawan where he and Astrid reunited, and I HOPE TO GOD THAT THEY GET MARRIED BECAUSE I LOVE THEM TOGETHER AND I WANT THEM TO GET MARRIED OKAY.

All in all this was a really good book and I enjoyed myself so much. I'm sad that I'm going to be missing my family because I feel like a part of me is with this family now. I'm going to miss every crazy thing they have every done to each other. But one day I shall revisit them. So for now I'm going to say goodbye and that I shall see you soon.

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Book Review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett is my first novel and first step into the Discworld, and I have to say, I enjoyed it. From the summoning of dragons to reading a dragon getting arrested, this has to be one of my favorite books of this year. I'm so glad that Anna chose this book to be read as the first book of the book club, because I love this book. SO MUCH.

My favorite character has to be Carrot. Best boy in this whole book. YEETED A BOOK TO KILL SOMEONE. Sends his monthly pay to his mother. I can talk more about this boy because yes, he's baby (to me he is-he's baby fight me) and also he ARRESTED A DRAGON. A DRAGON, y'all. My second favorite has to be Lady Sybil Ramkin. I love her so much, mostly because she raised dragons, healed up Vimes (get to him later) and also helped out the guards as much as she can. I honestly wanted to be her because she's awesome.

But Vimes...Vimes HAS to take the cake to being the best boy. Best captain, best everything in this book. Because he stood up for pretty much everything (forgive my brain, I'm trying to remember what happened and I can't, but slowly but surely I'm remembering things that happened in the book). I got worried a bit when he got locked up by Wonse and wasn't going to get out, but he did (even though he forgot the key).

But the best part was Errol and him trying to fight the dragon, only to find out it was a female and he was in love with it. The two are maybe living happily ever after, while Vimes and (hopefully) Lady Ramkin get together, Carrot stay baby because HE'S BABY DAMMIT LET HIM BE BABEY and also the Brothers are somewhere being happy, especially Brother Dunnykin.

Brother Dunnykin is also best boy, and I shall not take anymore questions at this time.

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Book Review: White Witch Black Curse (The Hollows, #7) by Kim Harrison

White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alriighty then, Kim Harrison....this is my first time reading you, and I enjoyed it, I truly did, BUT...but good lord woman the action in this book....it was heart-pounding and magical, I must say...but it kinda fell flat for me. I tried to read the book on audiobook when I found it online, but the more I listened to it, I just returned it. Then I brought the book and now that I've read it...I have to say I did enjoy it.

I only didn't like the fact that Rachel was shunned because everyone thought she was a 'black witch' when she keeps swearing up and down that she's a good witch. I know it's because of her demon markings and all, but to just brand her a black witch, just because she's helping people (and also makes deals with demons and is going to the ever-after to train with one, holy hell...) so just get off Rachel's back, yeesh!

So this book is about Rachel Morgan trying to find her boyfriend Kisten's killer. But with a banshee on the loose with her husband and a baby, that's kind of hard...especially when said banshee's baby is sucking out auras and making people weak (weak as in, it made Rachel weak). Then on top of that you have a ghost that's been trying to contact you for a whole year and has finally have...in the form of your demon boss who has him as a familiar now.

I know, she's having a grand ol' time with this, isn't she???

Then after that she goes to the jail with her roommate Ivy to visit Skimmer, a vampire who got locked up because of Ivy (I think), that's when Rachel remembers a little bit what happened to Kisten and who Kisten's killer was (Kisten died twice that night) and that's when things take a turn.

The banshee trying to run away, Mia, pretty much at the end fed on Rachel, tearing up her aura and when she was knocked out, she started to remember what happened that night when Kisten died. Once Mia was taken into custody and Holly was in Ford's care (also Mia's husband Remus was in it too, and he got arrested, and Piece is now in Tom's body, which is weird), Rachel, Ivy and Edden went down the tunnel to find the vampire that killed Kisten.

They found him, and Edden said something about the I.S. cleaning up, and Rachael didn't want that happen, so she pulled a Yennefer and cursed the door, burning the room up and putting a black curse on it, making sure no one comes down and finds this room/vampire's lair ever again. And also in the end Pierce came through and kissed Rachel (yep...he's totally Rachel-bait) and that was it. I don't know if I'm going to read more of this series (or pick up the first seven books) but I really did enjoy the book and I do recommend it.

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Book Review: A Hill of Beans (Chuckwagon Trail #3) by William J. Johnstone

A Hill of Beans by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Hill of Beans...a book I was in the mood for, and was okay, to say the least. Even though it was book three of the Chuckwagon Trail series, this is my second western I've read by Mr. William W. Johnstone, and I have to say, I really enjoyed reading this one. Yes, I gave this book three out of a five stars, but it was because it stared real slow, and then it picked up and it felt like a real western.

This book introduces Dewey "Mac" Mackenzie (well to me it introduces Mac), a man on the run from his past who one night hears a rumbling of a cattle stampede. He had two choices: either get stomped on by the cattle, or help the cattle rustlers get the heard under control. He gets them under control, and joins up with the group called the Rafter B.

At first, they didn't like him-no one warmed up to him. But the more they spend time together, even firing the horrible cook and making Mac the Chuckwagon cook, they liked him so much that they kept him on the trail till they meet trouble-trouble in the form of Van Horne and his men, and of course the Forrests, Belinda and Herbert. The Rafter B outfit moved across the trail, and they have narrowly escaped the Kiowa Tribe (I'm trying to write this in a respectful manner because Mr. William did a good job depicting them), and the action was just so beautiful. Even the scrap between Mac and Roman over Belinda was really good.

The one thing that made me a bit upset was that Mac and Colleen didn't get together. I thought it was okay for him to finally let his guard down and be with her, but it looked like it didn't happen as she fell for Malloy, the new member of the group and also a Texas Ranger. But one thing ticked me off SO MUCH was Belinda betraying them, using her feminine wiles to try and get what she wanted, even having to lie to poor Mac about what was going on until he overheard her and her husband talking and then making love (which was uncomfortable to hear.)

I wish I read the rest of this book series (or the first two books introducing Mac to me) because I really like Mac and I wish he didn't have to go to California and stayed with the Rafter B...but maybe one day it'll happen....one day....

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Book Review: Queen of Shadows, a Throne of Glass Novel by Sarah J. Maas

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Queen of Shadows...oh. My. God.

This book...this WORLD.

Hello Erilea, I missed you so much. Oh, and hello to you two, Rowan. I MISSED YOU SO MUCH AS WELL.

There is so much stuff to unpack with this book, so I'm going to start with Aelin and her returning to Rifthold to stop the Valg demons and the King (which shocked the unholy hell out of me once I read it). So Aelin returns to Rifthold and had been forming a plan to take down the evil King and his Valg commanders, and to also free her cousin and save Prince Dorian, who is trapped beneath a collar and is under the control of his father. So her plans had to deal with Aborynn (in which I fucking cringed, like holy hell I hate Aborynn SO FREAKING MUCH), which resulted in her and Lysandra becoming friends and her taking down Aboryn by letting her kill him in his sleep. They did have to save Lysandra (by 'they' I mean Aelin, Aedion, Rowan and Chaol), all the while meeting Manon and her Thirteen, and also seeing the King again and Valg!Dorian. Once they put their plan into motion-using hellfire to destroy the glass tower to bring back magic-it almost didn't work, mostly because of the King and the power of the valg, but when the King said he killed Chaol, Dorian forced the demon out of his head and ripped the collar from his neck, then with Aelin's help, they destroyed the glass castle and killed the king.

Now Manon and her Thirteen...whoo boy. Those Blackbeaks, I tell ya...hooly hell those girls went though hell, I tell ya, hell. Because Perrigton wanted to breed the witches, and Manon gave up the Yellowlegs. But once she found out what they were doing to them (thanks to Elide Lochan) she didn't send any more witches down there, even when she talked to Asterin and found out what her grandmother did to her (which was fucking terrible, by the way) and also, also...

THEY MET.

WHEN DORIAN WAS UNDER THE VALG.

MANON AND DORIAN MET.

Do I ship them? Not yet, but slowly but surely I am. Am I glad the kingdom is safe once again? Yes...yes I am. Am I fucking worried that now Perrington and Maeve and Erawan is about to let loose a war that I hope everyone on the good side wins? Yes.

And also RIP Kaltain Rompier and I'm fucking sorry Perrington treated you like shit and did horrible things to you.

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Book Review: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen, 1) by Joanne Fluke

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*stands up on a podium* Hello...my name is Brittany, and...I enjoyed this book.

This was actually my first cozy mystery I've ever read in my life. I've never read anything from this genre before, and this book interested me. So I sat down and just...read it (finished it tonight, actually). And the recipes (that I really wanna try but can't because of my diabeetus) sounds so good that I wish I can eat them (in my mind I can, so that's a win-win...right?)

So what was this book about?

It's about a woman named Hannah Swensen who owns a bakery called The Cookie Jar, and she found the dead body of a man who worked at the dairy. She partners up with her brother-in-law Bill to find out who dun it and put them away. Along the way, Hannah found clues about what happened, and even roped her sister Andrea into it. The more I read this book, the more worried I gotten, so I kept on reading, and what do you know...even though the ending was fast, she found out who did it (it was Judith, which was a shame really, I never even thought about her) and I was almost at the edge of my seat trying to figure out who did it.

I liked the way the story flowed, as if I'm watching a little soap about a murder around town, and Hannah's in the middle of it. I loved Moishe, Andrea, and even Delores. I loved the little clues here and there, and I also loved how she kept dodging her mother who's trying to marry her off to every man in Lake Eden. And funny thing is,, I didn't hate the mama like I thought I would...huh.

All in all, this was a really good book and I might pick up more books from this series when I get a chance.

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Book Review: China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich Asians #2) by Kevin Kwan

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book took me completely by surprise.

First, Rachel and Nick are engaged and is about to be married. Everyone that Nick and Rachel knows are invited-well all accept Eleanor Young, who didn't like Rachael in the first book. They did get married in California, but then the wedding was slipped, and Eleanor showed up-but not because she wanted Nick's forgiveness.

Eleanor found out about Rachel's real dad, Bao Gaoliao, though his son, Carlton Bao, that looks exactly like Rachel. Once Rachel found out her dad was real (and no, not an alien), she and Nick was whisked away to Shanghai, China, to meet Rachel's rich side of the family. Of course, Bao Shayoen, Carlton's mother, didn't want her husband to meet Rachel, thinking that Rachel will destroy pretty much everything she'd worked on, even though in the beginning of the book Carlton got into a car accident and someone died in it.

Of course Bao Shayao told her husband never to see or speak to Rachel ever again, even told her own son this. But then Carlton met Rachel and Nick, and found out that Rachel is the most sweetest girl ever. This book also introduced Colette Bing, a spoiled little rich girl who thought she can get away with poisoning Rachel, though her guard took the blunt of it. Even at the end, when Colette tried to manipulate Rachel into talking to Carlton, only to get her rich ass chewed out calmly and left...woof that was good.

The other thing was the Teos and how Michael was acting all rich and shit because he got money and is acting like a big shot. Astrid was legit worried about him, and even told her woes to her friend Charlie Wu, who I wanted her to be with, but at the end she left him. She didn't like how Michael was acting, even acting like a brat because she decided to leave with the maid and her son, Cassian. Michael even thought that she was fucking Charlie Wu because of all the emails and text messages they were doing, which wasn't right for him to pry into and get drunk over it.

The last and final thing was Kitty Pong/Kitty Tai and Shanghai's answer to Spencer Pratt, Bernard Tai. Basically Kitty was staying in Shanghai/Hong Kong and staying away from her crazy husband, who was pretty much treating their daughter and their whole lives like crap. He even moved them somewhere in LA, and life there sucks. She even brought a famous painting called The Palace of Eightteen Perfections and hired Corrine, whom I really didn't like. But as the novel went on, I saw why Kitty was never in LA with her family, because life there sucks so many balls. So she devised a plan to "kidnap" her daughter and took her to Singapore, where she's having the time of her life there and raising her daughter right, instead of the way Bernard wanted to raise her.

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