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Monday, July 22, 2024

Book Review: Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter volume 1 by Reia

Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter (Light Novel) Vol. 1Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter (Light Novel) Vol. 1 by Reia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This might be my favorite light novel of all time. I randomly picked this up because I had nothing else to do and didn't want to read the books I said I would read, and I'm so glad that I picked this book up. I got worried for a minute that this was going to be like every single isekai/fantasy book I've read, but as soon as I got started reading it, I loved every bit of it. I loved it so much that I had to tell my friends about it and begged them to read it.

Iris Armelia had broken her engagement to Prince Edward, the second-born son of the king, and she went back home, fearing that she would go to a nunnery for the rest of her life because of what she did and said to Prince Edward's new girlfriend, Yuri. But her father gave her a chance to turn it all around: by giving her the acting duchy/governor of Armelia. She accepted and went to Armelia and got to work, being a boss bitch and doing everything she could to make Armelia rich and better for everyone, including the commoners. She made a bank, she started her own business, she even went to the villages to tour them, to see what is it that people need and silently give it to them. She even went to see the Mayor and the Merchant's Guild to work with them and see how she can make what she wanted into fruition, which I really, really loved.

I really liked how Iris got everyone that worked for her-from the streets-and she even went to the orphanage to spend time with the children there. She even tried to protect them from a very evil landlord who wanted all of them to get out. Iris is just living her best life away from high society that she didn't even care about them--until the ending, when she got an invitation to go to the Foundation Ball. I also really liked that the people around her wanted her to take a break after working so hard to keep Armelia prosperous, which was something I really, really liked and have also enjoyed very much.

There was a scene where Yuri mentioned that she wanted to disband the military so they can feed the poor, and Iris's brother Berne started to dislike Yuri, even when he went to the country seat and seen what his sister had done while he was away at school. He saw what his sister had done, even with newcomer Dean helping around and making sure that she was doing well and Armelia was thriving.

But now I'm wondering what's going to happen at the Ball and how would Iris feel when she leaves to go back to the high society that kicked her out? I cannot wait to find out soon

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Saturday, July 20, 2024

Book Review: Hooky volume 3 by Miriam Bonastre Tur

Hooky Volume 3 (Hooky, 3)Hooky Volume 3 by Míriam Bonastre Tur
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this whole book in a DAY and my heart was both full of bursting and also in pain. Seeing Dani as the Queen of Witches was heartbreaking to read. It was also heartbreaking when she thought that Dorian was dead and she cursed herself to do so. But the only thing I really liked about this book was that it showed that friends will fight for you, even though it pains them to see you deep in the darkness. But the way they did it was so funny that I couldn't help but laugh and gasp as I read on, and got really worried that they weren't going to free Dani from the darkness.

I was glad that they found Dorian sleeping for three years, but he looked like a skeleton after all this time he was sleeping, and he was being protected by a dragon. It was funny to see him trying to find out how long he was out, and when he did find out, he wanted to go and save his sister. They tried everything to get Dani back to normal, but it was getting hard. The friends-Nico, Damien, Will, and Monica, along with others (because I can't remember who else was there) went to go and find them and try to figure out how to snap Dani out of it, and when all it took was Monica speech about wanting everyone, human and witch, together, and Dorian changing the color of the hats to many colors, Dani broke free of her own curse, and after that she started to get better.

The relationship between Monica and Will wasn't gonna work. Even though they got married like their parents wanted, it turns out that Monica was in love with Dorian, and it also turns out that Will was in love with Damien, but he held it in all this time and didn't know if he would return his feelings. Even though he did, it was funny each time Damien blushed at the kiss and the moves Will put on him, but I loved it nonetheless.

My favorite part about this book was the ending and how all the characters, including the villains, got some kind of ending. For the characters, they got happy endings, like Monica and Dorian dating while Dorian is a professor at a magic school. Dani wanted to do something with her life, so she became Monica's messenger so she could spread Monica's word about humans and witches working and living together. Nico became a fortune teller, but he joined Dani on her adventure and it was so cute. As for Damien, he stayed at the castle with Monica and his boyfriend, Will, and they lived happily ever after, and I really loved that so much.

Just like the other book, I'm kinda sad that this series is over, but I'm glad that I read it and had so much fun reading it :)

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Friday, July 19, 2024

Book Review: The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White

The Excalibur Curse (Camelot Rising, #3)The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The ending of a series is something I sometimes dread but I greet it with a smile. The Excalibur Curse was an okay book, but there was nothing to run home and tell Mama about. It was a fun time reading about Guinevere's growth and how she could love a lot of people, like Branigen, Isolde, Lily/Guinevach, Mordred, and Arthur. I still think that Guinevere and Arthur had the driest relationship throughout the series, so I felt like I was reading about a dry wine. Guinevere wanted some romance, and I felt like she got it with Mordred before he left them (I was worried that Mordred was gonna die, but thank god that he didn't) and Arthur not listening to Guinevere when it came to her unmaking herself because she wanted to give the Guinevere she thought was dead and wasn't her a life she deserves, and I'm glad that it didn't go that way, because I don't think I would be interested in the new Guinevere and she just goes back to being Nimue.

The addition to the new characters was actually pretty fun to read about. I liked reading about the Picts and the Saxons, and also how Fina joined up with them so she could become a knight. When Guinevere wanted to betray Arthur so she could go and free Merlin at the end, I thought it was a great plan. But how it was executed was very weird and odd and it really didn't make any sense at all, even when Lancelot used Excalibur to break the spell on the rocks so she could go inside and confront Merlin, only for Guinevere to turn around and create a devil's trap for the Dark Queen. Then when Merlin asked for the sword, over and over again, Guinevere said no and she killed both of them...which was fine, though I really didn't want Merlin to die, tbh.

I did like it when Guinevere, thanks to Morgana, went through her friends to see how they're doing, only to find out that Morgana was just using them to get information and to kill Arthur, but when they were in the Green Church, it got flipped around and she was killed by Arthur, all because Merlin told him to and to not listen to anything she said, which was fucked up but I was sad that Morgan died.

Was I happy about the ending? Not...really. It fell flat for me, and I wanted more from the book, and Kiersten White making Guinevere choose both Lancelot and Arthur was okay, I guess. I wanted more, but when it ended like that and everyone was happy that Guinevere didn't unmake herself and become a new Guinevere, and also Arthur gave Excalibur back to the Lady of the Lake. Oh, and Guinevere has no more magic.

I really enjoyed this book series and I don't know if I'll read it again, but it was really fun reading it.

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Sunday, July 14, 2024

Book Review: The Camelot Betrayal (A Camelot Rising Novel) by Kiersten White

The Camelot Betrayal (Camelot Rising, #2)The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book was pretty good. I enjoyed watching Guinevere grow in the book and how she was such a badass, but at the same time, she was thinking/worried about her knight Lancelot and how she's always protecting her and is always around her, talking to her and what not, and also thinking and dreaming about Mordred, which she's like, "I really shouldn't be thinking about him, I should be thinking about Arthur and how much I love him." and, to be fair, she does. I'm happy about that, but to be very honest, I feel like her relationship with Arthur is dry, like very dry, very respectable, but at the same time, it feel like love but to me, it doesn't for some reason.

The love between Guinevere and Arthur feels flat and boring, but at the same time, it feel like Arthur really loves and cares for her, but she wants to fall in love and have a kiss. When she brought up children, I'm was surprised and glad that they talked about it, and that Arthur wants to wait until she was ready for it.

At the same time, she was trying to figure out her sister Guinevach. At first, she thought that Guinevach was working with the Dark Queen, and she tried so hard to suss her out, with everything she had, but it turns out that Guinevach, or Lily as she wants to be called, was actually trueful and she knew the real Guinevere, and Guinevere thought and feared that Lily could see right through her, but she didn't, and the two became like sisters.

The relationship between Branigen, Isolde and Tristan was perfect. I really loved the twist on the Tristan and Isolde story and made Isolde gay. I really loved it and I'm glad in the third book they are together. I hope they do stick together forever, because I love them so much.

Now when Morgana le Fay appeared, first as a old maid named Anna who followed Lily to Camelot to her true form...tell me why the first person I thought of IMMEDIATELY was Katie McGrath?? I was wondering what she was doing, as Morgana, in this book, but then as I kept reading and found out what happened with her and Mordred, I was shocked and I wanted to know more. I wanted to see how powerful she was, even though she escaped.

With Hild and the dragon, I was happy about it, seeing Hild for the first time, even though I never heard of her before. But when it came to the dragon and how all of Hild's brothers hunted it down and killed it, I was so mad when they did that....but when they went to free Isolde from her terrible husband King Mark, I was worried that it wasn't going to happen, but when Guinevere tried to escape, the king nearly hurt her, but then she erased his mind and now she feels guilty about it.

Now that she made a barrier to hide Camelot from the Dark Queen, only for it to backlash and for Mordred tell her that the Dark Queen was coming for her, and to make Lancelot mad...how would Guinevere get out of this one?

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Saturday, July 13, 2024

Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first started reading this book, I wanted to DNF it-Anna was annoying, she didn't know what she wanted, and she hated her father, a best-selling author who writes terrible romances. But in Paris, the City of Love, it sounded like Anna wasn't going to have a good time and was working hard to go back home to Atlanta, where everything was normal and something she was used to.

Instead, she meets and falls in love with a boy named Etienne St. Clair, who has his own problems. From having a girlfriend, hating his daddy, and wishing he was in California with his mama, but can't because of his father controlling everything he wants, St. Clair sounds like a treat. But with the miscommunication trope huge in this book, and seeing Anna discover her own Paris while she was enjoying her senior year at SOAP (weird name for a school, but I'm going to let it go), this was fun, and I'm so glad that I stuck with it.

I was kind of worried at first that I wasn't going to like this book, because it had the miscommunication trope in the book, with Anna overthinking things and St. Clair running to his girlfriend Ellie what seems like EVERY SINGLE BLOODY TIME, I actually enjoyed myself reading this book, and like I said, I'm glad that I read this book. It was fun, I felt like I was back as a teenager again in my senior year, going through the motions with Anna and St. Clair, and watching them fall in love during the whole year of them in school. I don't know if I'll pick up the rest of the books in the series, but I'm glad that I read this one. It was really fun and I enjoyed myself.

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Friday, July 12, 2024

Book Review: Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent

Six Scorched RosesSix Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book had Castlevania Dracula x Lisa vibes the MOMENT I opened this book, and I'm so glad that I started this book first. I loved every bit of it, and the only thing that I wish would make it perfect is that it was longer, but hey, it's okay. I really enjoyed it and I loved Vale and Lilith so much. I also like the science part of the book, and how the both of them worked to find a cure of her sickness.

I also liked how they fell in love, which was very sweet. The six roses in exchange for blood were cool, and I liked how they tried to keep their relationship on a professional level. When they started to fall in love and it became more, to the point that a god came down and cursed her, and Vale killed some of the god's acolytes in order for Lilith to survive and to also get away from him.

I also thought while I was reading this book that lowkey Lilith wanted to be a vampire so she could go around the world and learn stuff, and also she wants to see the world, and I was hoping for her that it happens, even though it did and I was happy for her. This book didn't disappoint and I loved it, and now I want to read every single book written by Carissa Broadbent because they were that good.

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Thursday, July 11, 2024

Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Love, TheoreticallyLove, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hi hello I loved this book.

Was it because of the diabetic rep? Yes.

Was it because of Jack Smith-Turner? Also yes.

Was the romance perfection? Yes.

Basically, this might be my favorite Ali Hazelwood book that I've ever read, and I enjoyed every minute of it. For once, I really didn't care about the romance that happened in this book. All I cared about was Elsie's growth from creating a lot of versions of herself to finally finding the strength to tell people what she really thought. I really did cringe a bit at the Twilight reference, but I pushed them aside. The only thing that nagged me throughout the book was the fact that she wasn't doing the things I was doing with my diabetes, but then when she said that she was Type 1, I let it go and continued reading.

Jack Smith-Turner kind of reminded me of a sciencey Nanami Kento without the whole "WORK I SHIT!" vibes that I love very much. He's sweet, kind, and focuses all on Elsie and wants to protect her and help her create who she is and help her be as honest as she can, which is a huge plus for me, because I'm starting to like heroes like that. And Elsie going through so many emotions and then going through five stages of grief is kind of fun to read and I enjoyed myself reading this book and need to Ali Hazelwood as usual. Thank you.

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