Book Review: The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I could give this book a thousand stars, I would. This book series has become one of my new comfort reads, and I would read this story over and over again. AnnaQuan might be one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and I wish Helen Hoang wrote another book in this series, but I’m fine with the three. So The Heart Principle is about Anna Sun, a violinist who becomes a breakout star after the video of her playing beautifully, who’s stuck in trying to recreate that moment…but can’t. Each time she works on a piece, she stops and starts over again, hearing the wrong notes each time. Then her boyfriend, Julian, asks for them to be in an open relationship-which threw her way the hell off.

In her therapy sessions, the therapist told her that she might be autistic, in which Anna didn’t believe at first. But the more research she’s done, the more she realize that she is part of the spectrum (which is not a bad thing, though in Anna’s mind in the beginning she didn’t believe it.) When she called and told her sister about it, though…her sister shot it down (in which I hated her the moment she dismissed it.) As for the open relationship, Anna decides that she wants to have an one night stand…

…enter Quan Diep, the cousin of Michael and the brother of Khai Diep. Quan had surgery after he had cancer, and he’s also working with his cousin with MLA (Michael Larsen something, I forgot). He and Anna met on a dating site and their one night stand…two night stand…even the third one didn’t happen, and when it did, it happened in the dark. But their dates were so cute-they talked about their love of ocean documentaries and the octopus, Quan’s company with Michael, and he was there for her when she freaked out or talked through everything.

And then her dad had a heart attack and was sent to the hospital.

Anna, along with her hateful sister (I’m sorry, I really don’t like the sister) and her mother all took care of her father when he couldn’t do anything for himself, which made me think about my grandparents when things like this happen. Anna was getting tired of taking care of her father, and one time her father tried to tell her that he just couldn’t do it anymore. And the way Pricilla talked to their father reminds me of my auntie, of when she would talk to my grandmama and papa like a child…anyway, Pricilla thought it was a GOOD IDEA for them to throw their sick father a birthday party, inviting Julian and pretty much forcing Anna to play for him.

Quan did come around a couple times-once with food and the other times, and Anna was happy that he was there. Whenever Anna talked about him, it was like a light shined on her. When she told her hateful sister about the deal with LVMH, Pricilla immediately said “you know it probably never happen, right?” and that just made me mad. She didn’t know a darn thing about Michael or Quan, so she should sit down.

Then the day came of the party, and everything kinda went to hell. Julian “proposed” to Anna, without her knowing, and Quan came to see her, but sadly it wasn’t the happy times Anna thought thanks to Julian messing it up. Then when it was time to play the song, Anna started to grab her violin, but then, as she came down the stairs, she realized that she couldn’t do it, so she smashed her violin, shattering it into a million tiny pieces, and then when she learned that her sister and her mother wanted to buy her a new violin and told her to play Pricilla’s old one, Anna said no, got into an argument, and left, never speaking to them ever again. She felt so bad for what happened to Quan that she went over to apologize, and the bravery Anna did when she and Quan finally slept together with the lights on almost made me cry.

The ending was sad because the father died sadly, but at least after all the drama, it was good at the end. This book also deals with burnout, but I liked how at the end, she stepped back for a minute to do something else, instead of just working at it. This book also talks about home caring for your loved ones and doing it yourself, without no help. I was with Anna-why didn’t get the help her father needed so he could at least get better??? Because it would’ve been much better and more handled. But all in all, I really enjoyed this book and I’m sad now that this series is over.

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Book Review: Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac

Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I truly enjoyed this one. I thought for a minute that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but as I kept on reading, it turns out that this doesn’t feel like a YA novel-this feels like a novel about a young man wanting to save his home from an evil baron and his daughter, even though it was just him and his brother. His parents were hanging out with the fae under a false invitation, and they came home the moment they heard the younger son’s voice.

This book was a really good fantasy, along with a side of learning Slovak words that I would never care about. It also has a inbetween story about the legend of Pavol the Good, and I had a fear that this tale would take over the novel, but in reality it didn’t. It just enhanced the story as the main character, Rashko, figures out how to fight the evil Baron Temny and his daughter, Poteshenie and her demon cat, Laska. I also liked how the Slovak words were slipped in there, along with the English translation of it, which I was very happy about, because I’ve never read a book like this before.

And the way this book is set up, you wouldn’t believe that Rashko was the only smart boy throughout the series. But as you keep on reading, you realize that he is, but at the same time he loves his family so much that he would do anything to protect them. I liked how in Pavol’s story, he has a pouch on his side and picks up certain things so when it’s time, he uses them to kill the dragons, but only keeps one alive to help protect the castle. And seeing the dragon from the legend was shocking, because I thought he was dead this whole time-not sleeping. But I really enjoyed this book, would highly recommend.


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Book Review: Her First Christmas Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Her First Christmas Cowboy by Maisey Yates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A outlaw on the run, and a teacher trying to grade her students grades meet in this age-gap Christmas cowboy romance. I thought that I would immediately hate this book because of the age-gap trope–it’s an ick of mine, but this novella makes me want to reconsider it a tiny bit, because this was written so well that I didn’t hate it. In fact, I enjoyed it. It also helped that the outlaw, Clayton Everett, sounded like Arthur Morgan in my head.

Tala Nelson was having a lovely night drinking chamomile tea and grading her students homework when her door opened and…a man dressed in black bust through her door, bleeding like hell from a gunshot wound, and he falls down on her floor. So what does she do as calmly as she can? She helped him clean up his wound (the bullet grazed him), and fixed him some food. Clayton Everett, the outlaw, agrees, and the two settle into the cutest domesticated relationship that bloomed into love, something I never thought I liked, but I did.

The domestic relationship between Tala and Clayton was so very cute. She got worried about him while they settled into a really good and comfortable relationship before they made love one night. I also liked that Tala was curvy, which was a plus. And the fact that Clayton can cook too? BOY I WAS SOLD. I wish there was more to the story, because I would’ve loved it more, but now it makes me want to read more outlaw novels because now I want one that can cook and kiss me. Darn it.

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Book Review: Keep Me Warm at Christmas by Brenda Novak

Keep Me Warm at Christmas by Brenda Novak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Keep Me Warm at Christmas was very different. It was Christmassy, yes. But it was also about grief, pain, and two people living in a house together falling in love, all while living in the small town of Silver Springs. It also shows the author’s research when the female MC, Tia, talks about her past life as a Mennoite woman, and even though I wouldn’t live there, I understand and respect them. Because I, too, like Seth, though it was like the Amish, but it’s not.

The story starts off with Tia coming to live in Maxi’s house. Maxi is a friend of hers and let her stay in the guesthouse, since Tia had an accident and the side of her face is messed up. She has to take care of the bird Kiki, and Tia thought it was a good idea-no one will bother her, she will be in the guest house, and everything is going to be fine…right???

Enter Seth Turner. The artist who is a widow since his wife died a long time ago. He moved into the guest house, and he was supposed to be alone and leave Tia alone…right?? That was the plan, not finding ways of getting her out of the house and falling in love with her. Also, he has to deal with his wife’s parents trying to get money outta him-which sucks, btw. Turns out, the father in law has a gambling problem, so that’s an oof. Also on top of that, Seth and Tia has to deal with a man who works for the paparazzi who wants a picture of Tia’s face-something Tia doesn’t even want to happen because she wasn’t ready yet.

Tia didn’t want no one to see her face-in fact, she’ll always find ways to hide her face from everyone. But as the story went on, you see her slowly start to relax and be okay with showing her face from the world. She was even brave enough to call People magazine to do a story on her, and they did it with so much grace that even she was shocked.

The whole thing with Ray Kouretas getting a shot of Tia and hounding her like that was a weird plot line, but as I kept reading, I understood completely, seeing that it connected to Tia. Though seeing Ray go through all those hoops to get her to give him what he wants was a bit of an oof to read.

And I really loved Seth’s mother, Aiyana, who helped Tia get to where she was today, and it was so sweet and cute to see her worry over her son while he’s dealing with everything that’s happening with Ray and his dead wife’s parents. All in all this was a cozy book to read, really liked reading it, and Brenda Novak’s work is pretty darn fun to read.

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Book Review: Curio and Shadow of Night by Evangeline Denmark and Deborah Harkness

Curio by Evangeline Denmark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was very interesting to me. I haven’t read a steampunk book that can pull me into the world that fast. Even though it took me a while to read it, I truly enjoyed the story, the world and the writing was very good. Curio was a place I don’t think I’ll like if Lord Blueboy is still running the place-I think he’s some kind of porcie vampire-but all in all, I really liked this book.

I also like the tiny magic system when it comes to the Chemia, but the whole potion ration thing was confusing. I didn’t get it, even though it was brought up throughout the book. The world of Curio and the hierarchy was different but can also be scary. All the words they use to describe movement-”are you still ticking?” is one of them, I believe-would confuse me if I did go and visit there for a bit. The broken porcies, even though it feels like a dark place and you want to help them, are trying to live their lives the best way they know how, until they started a revolution over clean water.

And in the middle of all of this is Grey Haward, a young woman who was out late on curfew and gave her portion to her friend Whit, who was “striped” because of touching her (which is so misogynistic, tbh), and Grey insisted, over and over again, that she takes the punishment. But the Chemists wouldn’t let her, and something deep inside her-the blood of the Defenders, an extinct race that fought a bloody war with the Chemists and lost-helped her fight back, if only a little bit. Sadly, her father and grandfather were either turned into stone or taken in, and her grandfather’s helper took her into the shop, cut her wrist or palm, and told her to “bring him back here.”

The “him” in the story is Blaise, whom the porcies called the “Mad Tock '' because of the way he either looked or something like that, and he basically fixes broken porcelain citizens and also get into a fight with Lord Blueboy. Blaise stayed in Curio for a long time, fixing broken porcies and fighting at the same time, and when Grey fell into the world, he helped her try to get away from Lord Blueboy, but when something goes wrong, he nearly gets hurt, and then his left wing was broken during the attack on the water thing that I can’t recall right now.

Now back to Lord Blueboy, aka Benedict. I don’t like this man. One, he’s all sweet and nice, then he turns around and drinks from one of the maids like he’s a bloody vampire. Then he claims that Grey is his and no one else, and nearly got his ass whippped by Blaise when he wanted to turn him into dust. But Adante…he has to be my favorite villain in the book. He was cool and calculated, always sulking around the shop, and he got his when Grey beat him.

Now Whit’s whole arc in the book was an eh to me. He wanted to repay the Hawards for what they have done, and he found Marina and Maverick, twins who wants freedom I believe from the Chemists. They lived in the mountains and also they helped Grey’s father, and Whit wanted to help. The he got high on a potion that one of the potion makers made, and that was…kinda funny, in a way? But this was an good book, had some action in it, and it was quite fun to read.

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Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book along with the official ALL SOULS FB group, and I have to say, this book might be my favorite book out of the trilogy. I really enjoyed how the world expanded from London to Prague to Sept-Tours to France. I felt like I was on a tour of the past of Elizabethan England and learning so many things about the history and the people and the world that have brought this book to life.

I did call Matthew switching from modern day to Elizabethean Matthew a ‘switch’ because that what it felt like when he and Diana came to 1590. I thought when that happen, that we will lose the Matthew we know and love, but he calmed down, even when they had that talk about vampire literature and how vampire courted their mates in the book. When it came to Philippe de Clermont, I was kinda scared of him, to be honest. I didn’t know what to think about Philippe when Diana met him, but when you get to know him, it felt like it went all away when he became lively. BUT THAT FIGHT IN THE BARN WITH MATTHEW….my heart was in my throat. I was worried about Matthew, but to use that as an example to show Matthew’s blood rage? I was mad. But then, at the end, I was glad that it was over, and that Philippe accepted Diana.

As for Diana, learning about Elizabethan England and how they lived and worked and how she fit into this felt like I was learning along with her. Then when she finally learned magic and learned what she was-a weaver-I was excited. I was worried that she won’t learn magic while they were there looking for the book, but the more she learned about Ashmole 782 and magic and everything around her, the more the darkness was creeping over her and Matthew.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the talk Diana and Matthew had about children, because I felt like that was a very healthy conversation between a couple who didn’t know if they wanted to have children or not. Even though Diana got pregnant once and lost it, to me to felt like Matthew was grieving so much (Diana did too) that he acted like an freaking idiot and didn’t touch her. But at least they go back together and went to Prague…

…aka the Simping Court, because Emperor Rudolf II was simping HARD for Diana, not even giving her time to bloody BREATHE. I was so angry for Diana for having to deal with the Emperor, simping RIGHT IN FRONT OF MATTHEW like he’s not there. That’s like fawning and trying to get with someone else’s woman, which I don’t think he knew it was wrong. But I was SO GLAD that she got away from the court, even though it was by Louisa’s hand.

Meeting Lousia like this was scary, but at the same time, I was shocked and worried for Diana (basically my emotions was all over the place while reading this book) but the sweetest thing happened when Matthew saw Louisa and Kit jousting for Diana-Jack Blackfairs came and asked him if he was having a nightmare. Matthew said yes and held his hand, which was so cute. I really enjoyed this book and I was happy to meet new characters, like Gallowglass and Philippe and Jack and Annie. I have an side eye for Father Hubbard because I just don’t trust him, but at least Diana knows her firedrake (the coolest part of the book, honestly, I loved that firedrake) and that she can weave any spell now.

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