Book Review: Snow and Poison by Melissa de la Cruz

Snow & Poison by Melissa de la Cruz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a Snow White retelling that was okay. I liked how the story was-it was entertaining and enjoyable. But when it came to the execution, it was a couple of chapters too long. I did care about the characters, which was good, but when it came to the retelling, it was alright, nothing to run home and tell Mama about.

I did like the relationship Snow White, or Sophie had with her stepmother. I was honestly waiting for the stepmother to hate Snow White and go evil, but instead, she was always helping Sophie, and even helped her when the things she thought she did were evil was actually helping her. Which was both shocking and really good in a good way. I really like that dynamic, and her father is kind of helping her, but at the same time, he really doesn't help her at all. How he died was sad, but it helped the both of them get stronger, in my opinion.

Prince Philip...eh, he was okay. He wasn't the kind of dude I would hang out with, but I can see why Sophie fell in love with him. Placing the story in Bavaria was pretty interesting, and it set the tone of how the story would be told. I think I would like to see more of Bavaria, but then I realized as I kept reading...I didn't give one flying flip about Spain. I don't know why, maybe it was King Ferdinand doing all this horrible stuff to break Philip and Sophie up. Maybe it's because of how Sophie had to escape from his men-I don't know, but I felt like close to the ending it felt flat.

I did like the children in the book and how they all grew to love Sophie when she taught them how to read. All of them were so cute and adorable, and I'm glad that Sophie and Philip adopted them.

All in all, this was an okay retelling of Snow White. Nothing to come home and tell mama about, tbh.

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Book Review: The Coven by Harper L. Woods

The Coven by Harper L. Woods
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Yes, I gave this book a five star. But the more I marinated on it, the more it's just a simple two-star star book-for so many reasons.

1.) Williow Medizza was a flat, boring character. I have never read a one-dimensional character like Williow before. Ever. She was off being a badass without caring about anything else. Her magic was cool, but everything else about her made me want to just skip her whole entire chapters completely. She honestly made me want to go to sleep because she just...didn't want to do anything that would help pertain to the book or the plot.

2.) Literally, no magic was in this book.. The only magic that was in the book was Willow's and no one else's. No other witchy things happen in the book and I got upset because there was no magic in it whatsoever. It was like the author forgot about the magic part about a school, there was no group of girls going outside and doing magic-none of that. I wanted to learn more about the other witches and the magic system, and...and it just wasn't there. No magic system, no explaining the different types of witches and their magic, no nothing. It felt like it was bare and nothing happened in the magic that screamed magic.

3.) The mystery was okay. It was alright, nothing to run home and tell Mama about it. I wish there were more figures out than Willow trying to fix everything and such. The investigation was bland and I didn't have time to find out who did it and why. Why didn't she go deeper? Who was doing all of that to these students?

4.) I only cared about Thorne and no one else.. Thorne was the most interesting character I've ever read about, and I honestly cared about him. He can say terrible things to me and I'll thank him for it and ask him what's next. Thorne was such an interesting character that I loved so much that he's one of my book boyfriends. But everyone else can go away and I'll never see them ever again-just give me a Thorne-focused book and I'll be happy as a lark reading all about him.

5.) There was only one class in this book-no other classes. If you're going to write a dark academia-type novel, write a novel where the characters go to classes and see how they feel during those classes. Having one class in the book makes me feel like no one else goes to this school, and they only go to this one specific class every day. I found that not realistic, and on top of that, there was no information about the school or how the school functions with the Covenant being skeletons and things like that.

I don't think I'll pick up book two, even though the ending shocked me. I wish this book gave more than it did, without falling flat for me.


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Book Review: A Dynasty of Monsters (Warhammer: Ange of Sigmar) by David Annandale

A Dynasty of Monsters by David Annandale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book...blew my mind.

Lauka Vai can step on me and I'll thank her for it.

I was expecting this to be the thing I need for this autumn season and this blew all my expectations out of the water. It was dark, it had the vampires in them who were monsters but were the most human out of all of them, and it also shows how someone who believes so hard in their city becomes a zealot to do whatever they can to keep the so-called "monsters" out of their city, to protect the people who can't fight at all but want to protect them.

I was mad, nodded at some parts, gasped at some parts, and also went "daaaamnnnn" in my mind as I read this. I learned about the Avengorii and how Lauka Vai makes sure they don't succumb to their bloodlust as they help the people of the Colonnade fight the beastmen and their people. The only that that irritated me throughout this book was the fact that the bard was the villain this whole time, and no one knew about it, only his brother did. I did like that in the end, he got his just desserts, and I also like how the councilor tried to save her city, just tried. But after learning the whole truth about her city, and how pure they wanted to be and betraying the Avengorii and Lauka Vai, that's when she just snapped and killed almost everyone that she thought she called friend and family, and also that Vash fellow was just so annoying. I'm glad he got his as well.

My favorite character has to be Kavak. He reminded me a bit of Alucard from Castlevania, but at the same time, he saw the evil going on in his old city and wanted to save them, but then he saw that his brother, his own flesh and blood, was doing all of this...well he wanted nothing else to do with him. I also loved Lauka Vai and how majestic and elegant she was. She didn't even bat an eye at the people looking at her because she was different. She was the perfect commander to lead her Avengorii and her Vengorian Lords to war. That was so good and fun to see and I want to know more about Lauka Vai and the Avengorii in more books.

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Book Review: This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book pleasantly surprised me. I wasn't expecting to love it, but when I did get down to the nitty-gritty and get past the plant parts of the book because, to be honest, I was getting bored of them and was about to go to sleep with all the plants. But when you bring up Greek Mythology, that's when you got my attention. I really liked how Briseis took care of the plants and explained what they were. I also really liked Karter up to the end of the book. And Marie might just be one of my favorite characters because of the fact that yes, she's way older than Briseis, but at the same time, she's smart and she kinda of reminds me of Undead Murder Farce's Aya Rindo-without the not having a body part.

The way the magic system works in this book made me think of the D&D druid. She's growing flowers, including poisonous ones, and she does her research on who Medea was and why her family is a descendant of her and always prays to Hecate. I also like Briseis's mothers and how they were always protective of her, though I really didn't like how her mother passed. I really didn't. I was also kind of suspicious of Mrs. Redmond and how she was so nice, but in reality she wanted the heart for herself for a really stupid reason, to be honest. Just because you're a descendant of Jason doesn't mean you can just get it and you can walk among the gods. Nah. Don't work that way.

Kaylnn Bayron's writing pulled me in, and I'm so glad that I read this book. I was scared a little bit that I wasn't going to enjoy it, but the more I read it, the more I did, and I liked how the plants and the Secret Garden and the mythology all seamlessly combined to make a really good book. I would like to read more from this author as I expand my reading and find out what I like and don't like.

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Book Review: The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Hanna Alkaf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Grimoire of Grave Fates is the first anthology that I didn't have to read for class, and also it was really good. I enjoyed the interconnected stories about the many students that go to the school, and figuring out the mystery of one terrible professor who died. I really enjoyed reading this anthology and trying to find out who killed the terrible professor-which I really didn't like the moment he appeared and was talked about the whole entire time.

The ending fell short for me, mostly because I wasn't even expecting the Vice principal to actually commit the murder. I thought it was one of the students who really hated him for all the terrible things he said and done. But for an administrator to do it? And somehow put poison that turns your blood into sand? That oddly interested me throughout the book, and I wish we'd gotten a part where the professor or one of the students actually explained what the hell was in Hourglass Poison.

The only character I really didn't like was the professor. The more the students brought up who he was and what he said to them, I felt happy that he was gone. No one should suffer under than man, though the real question I posed throughout this book was, Why didn't they fire him and throw him out on his keester if he's saying and doing these horrible things to the other students?, that was something I wanted to know. And how come no one even suspected the Vice Principle? I find that kinda of messed up, but then, no one even knew about her, tbh.

Those are the only parts I didn't like and what I had on my mind while I was reading this, but other than that I enjoyed this book so much.

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Book Review: Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald

Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This...this was the most UNHINGED slow-burn book I've ever read. Ever. I did look up the CWs for this book, and, um...that didn't prepare me for this unhingeable book about a girl who keeps causing problems, always, and the girl who can summon water, but it turns out she was actually stealing water from other kingdoms. What's the idea the girl gets (her name's Emanuela) to stop her? Oh, she's going to try to steal the water back.

But before she can do that, she has to deal with a little problem on her wedding day: a woman called the watercrea comes and takes her up the tower in the Ruby Veil, where she starts to drain her blood. Well, Emanuela didn't like that, not one bit. She escapes the Watercrea's castle and then she goes to her supposed fiancee's house, where it turns out that he married another girl two days after she was taken up to the tower, just when she was taken because of her omens that she had hidden on her side and had never blossomed ever since she discovered it when she was seven. Emanuela was shocked that her best friend, Ale, got married again-and that's when the watercrea shows up again, trying to get her back into the tower.

Emanuela said "Bet" and...well, she pushed her and killed her.

Then she and Ale went underground in the tunnels into a new city, where they sneaked in and met a girl called The Heart and her brother, and that's when things started to get so unhinged that I couldn't even believe it. From one thing to the next, the action just jumps off the page and you don't know how this story is going to end until the end, when Emanuela and the Heart, Verene, was in an iron cell and Verene swears that she won't work with Emanuela escape or even work with her because she hates her so much. Emanuela, once again, said "Bet" and at the end, a girl escaped the iron cell. Who was it?? Was it Emanuela? Was it Verene? Whoever it was, I can't wait to find out who it was that escaped when I finally get to book two.

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Book Review: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am shocked and pleased that I have enjoyed the Atlas Six. I had a fear that I wasn't going to like it, but to be honest, I truly enjoyed it. I didn't care for the plot, since it is a slow build. I cared about the characters more than I ever did the plot, and on top of that, I may have liked some of them, like Reina, Libby, Parisa, Nico and Tristan. The one I really didn't care for as much as I would've loved to, was Callum. I thought that he was going to die, and I was prepared for it, but then, sadly, it didn't happen, all because Libby was kidnapped by her ex and not killed by anyone else.

The whole thing about Parisa's past and Callum just casually bringing it up was something I really didn't like at all. I was mentally going "Bruh, for real? Now? For real?" And then him just...manipulating Tristan while Libby is trying to figure out what he can do and all that was fun, especially when they did what I THINK they did (LibbyTristanParisa with absinthe) and then the mystery of Nico and Gideon and how Nico was protecting Gideon from his mama (which is fair, seeing as that she gives me the bloody creeps).

I was kind of side-eyeing Atlas the whole time, because there was something about him I just didn't like at all. He made me sniff and look at him with a very deep side eye because he's supposed to be the "Caretaker" but in my opinion, he didn't do much caretaking to me. But then when it came to Ezra's point of view (and I straight up hate Ezra) and seeing what Mr. Atlas was planning...I immediately hated him and wished him to go to doody town as much as I wanted Nico to go until he grew on me, and where I want Callum to go because I really don't like Callum at all, to be honest.

I am going to read the second book because I really enjoyed this one so much.

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Book Review: A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book a long-ish time ago, and reading it now for a reading challenge made me grateful to get it (because if I didn't, I'd be running around with my head chopped off trying to find this book) and when I say that I enjoyed this book friends, I ENJOYED IT. I enjoyed it so much that I wrote down so many quotes that screamed at me to write because it was so good. I wanted to go to Dalloway and spend time with the girls from Godwin House and go to their little Night Migration sessions and just have fun, and also before Felicity because that's how much I truly enjoyed and adored this book.

I wasn't keen on Felicity at first, with the story sounding all kinds of weird and not right when she talked about her dead girlfriend Alex Haywood, thinking that either she or Margery had come back to haunt her. She came back to school to finish up her high school diploma, and during her time in school, she met the rest of the Godwin House Girls and the one and only Ellis Haley.

Ellis Haley was a prolific writer who wanted to write about the Dalloway Five, five young witches who had died quite horribly. Felicity, who once upon a time was obsessed with the story and with witches and witchcraft, didn't want anything to do with Ellis's project. But she got roped into it, and soon enough she was helping Ellis with how some of these young women die, along with trying to straighten out her own mind and to also find out what really happened with Alex.

One night, she and Ellis went to Alex's grave, and Felicity knew that there was nothing in her grave-in fact, she knew that the grave was empty. Ellis offered to dig it up, and Felicity told her no. Instead, that's when Ellis gave her The Secret Garden to read to Alex, and the next morning the book showed up, along with a piece of hellebore in the middle-the hellebore that grew on Alex's grave.

At this point, I thought that it was suspicious that The Secret Garden showed up, along with the hellebore, but then things just started getting weirder and weirder and weirder, to the point that Felicity went back to Alex's grave, dug it up, and found Clara there, dead.

I was shocked too when I read it.

Scared out of her mind, she went to talk to Ellis about it...who, it turned out, killed Clara the same way one of the Dalloway girls was killed. Then the final showdown between Felicity and Eliis, which didn't end well, and at the funeral, Ellis's mothers tried to give Felicity her book, but she turned it down. Years later, Felicity came in contact with the book again in London, and when she read the thing in the beginning of the book I cannot remember, she quickly shuts the book and goes to her flat with her girlfriend.

I truly enjoyed this book so much. I want to read it all over again because of how good it was. It had the dark academia vibes along with the queer ones that I really loved.


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Book Review: Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though this book is supposed to be Gossip Girl meets Get Out (never seen it before) I thought it was Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars, and it was SO PERFECT. Black Dark Academia trying to stop someone from trying to ruin their lives, while also uncovering who they are and stopping them? My god this was perfect. I honestly bought this book because of the title (yes, Motorhead did come to my mind when I saw the title) but now, after reading this book and really loving it (please check the CWs because GOOD LORD) I didn't want this story to end.

Chiamaka became my favorite character in the book. I was worried about Devon while I was reading it, because of the fact that his relationships seem to go wrong, and he was getting betrayed left, right, and sideways. Chiamaka's relationship with Jamie then Belle looked like it was going swimmingly, then it got ruined because of Aces spilling her secrets. When both Chiamaka and Devon team up to find out who Aces is and why they are doing this to them-the only black students in a predominately-white school. But when the both of them found out about the history about the school and how the black students that went there disappeared...

Wow.

Oh my god.

I wasn't expecting it, it came out of nowhere, and my mouth DROPPED.

I wanted both Devon and Chiamaka to expose this horrible school for what they did and are doing to the black students that went there. And they tried at the Snowflake Ball, but sadly, it looked like everything was going to backfire on them, when the protest happened and the school blew up. I did get worried that Chiamaka wasn't going to be a doctor, and thank god that she did. I'm also glad that the both of them are in really good relationships and that they are fighting the system.

This was a really good black and queer dark academia novel, might be one of my favorite books of this year, and I highly reconmend all of y'all to read it.

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