Book Review: 5 Books All At Once!

Hey y'all and welcome back to my blog! I haven't been posting up anything because of the fact that I've been busy. But since May has been a huge reading month for me, I decided to do five book reviews-all at once. Each book I read I loved (one I really didn't...) but it's okay! June looks like a really good one as soon as I post this up, starting it off with Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong. So without further ado, let's get started with the book reviews!!

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Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh hello Jane and Katherine, nice to see you again. I really enjoyed the book and I’m sad that things didn’t go the way I thought, but at the end of the day, I’m glad that Gideon Carr is dead. I was shocked when I read how he died-I thought Jane was going to kill him, but then Katherine killed him…it was actually pretty dang good. I loved it and now I’m also sad that the duology is over.

I liked the dual POV from Jane and Katherine. You get to see how they are doing while they are dealing with the aftermath of Summerland, then Jackson’s death, then Nicodemus, then them out in the wild west, trying to find their place to live. I actually liked how Jane became a bounty hunter and fell in love with Callie. I honestly wanted them to stay like that forever, until Callie just upped and left. As for Katherine, she was just heading to California with Sue and the others, trying to find a place to settle down. They do-I forgot the village where Jane’s mama was, but she was there, and Jane just felt uncomfortable there, because she wanted to do something else instead of staying in one place.

I enjoyed the pacing, it was really good, and when Gideon Carr finally died, I felt like a weight was lifted off Jane’s shoulder, because throughout the book she clearly has an obsession with Gideon and wanting to kill him so much, and she does see him again, thanks to Daniel Redfern. Even though Jane didn’t kill him, I was kinda wishing that she did. All in all, this was a really good book. I enjoyed it a whole lot. Wish there was another book after this, but I understand why the author made it into a duology.

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Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So this book…first time reading this book after it came out when I was in high school or middle school…and it’s okay. The whole going back in time I really didn’t like, because it threw me off and confused me. I don’t think I’ll pick up the next two books from the library, mostly because of the fear of reading another go back in time and things not sounding straight.

But I did enjoy the parts I like-like Karou using wishes, Brimstone reprimanding her, and then how the doors were burning and everything going to hell. It’s okay, I felt like it could be better but I just dealt with it as the story went on. Some of the chapters were short and sweet, the others were long and explains a whole lot. I did think that Karou going down the slide was fun and meeting Thiago who nearly chokes the hell out of her.

And Akiva…eh…he’s okay. He’s nothing that interesting, tbh. Yes he’s an angel, but all he did was dwell on who Karou is or what she looks like at all of that. He might be big and strong and all that, but to be honest he’s kinda…boring. Sorry if you liked him a long time ago. He’s just boring and not my type, and if he gets more interesting in the book, cool, if not, then okay.

I liked this book, the writing was okay, but I just thrown around with the whole other backstory for Karou/Madigal.

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Neon Gods by Katee Robert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Katee Robert has got a new fan in me. HO-LEE-SHYT this book was so good. I enjoyed this book, mostly because I went in with very low expectations. But the spice was really good, especially when Hades asks for consent. CONSENT YA”LL. That is the most sexiest thing I’ve ever read in a book, and when a man asks for consent, I’m down, I’m done, I’m yours. And the ending. Once again, HO-LEE-SHYT.

But I really loved how Persephone grew in the book, from being society’s darling to becoming her own woman, who won’t take no shit, even from Zeus and from the Thirteen. I think the one thing I really liked from this book is that they don’t have any of their God-like powers. They’re just people like you and me, and it’s almost like a royalty story, with the Thirteen and all that. I really enjoyed this book so much that I’m hyped to read the other books.

My favorite part is when Hades told Persephone, “You are a really shitty custodian to your body.” and that just blew me away. I was mad at first when he told her that, but then as Persephone told him that she didn’t even eat, I can see why. Good lord, girl. I also loved how Persephone trusted Hades with her, because she felt safe, which I started to really love as I kept reading.

I really do highly recommend this book, I really enjoyed it, it threw me around a couple times, and I love Hades and Persephone and their relationship SO MUCH, y’all. So, so much.

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The Affair at the Victory Ball - a Hercule Poirot Short Story by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Basically this mystery was so quick, I felt like instead of Poirot solving the case, we got Rampo from Bungo Stray Dogs solving the mystery, and Atsushi was just…there in a way. I loved how quick he solved it, and even though it was a short story, I wish I knew what really went on in the Victory Ball, to learn and see what really happened. But it was short and sweet and I enjoyed it every much.

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Siege of Darkness by R.A. Salvatore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book wasn’t supposed to be funny-but it was. It was funny because of the fact that Drizzt whacked himself in the face with a tree. But after all that, this was once again a good book to read, and this time, it is a war for Mithral Hall. People did die, some did survive, one fell into his werewolf powers and killed a weapons master, and yes, Errtu was in this, but he wasn’t even that present in the book. Lolth was in the book was well, but good lord she’s very ambitious, even driving one of the oldest Matron Mothers to her death.

But let’s start at why this war for Mithral Hall is happening…

Matron Banere, with the help of the old dwarf magically hidden in a tooth, Gandalug Battlehammer, plotted out how she was going to take Mithral Hall and turn the poor dwarfs into slaves. She also wanted revenge for what Drizzt Do’Urden did to her and all of Menzoberranzan, so she starts to plot. Meanwhile, everyone in Mithral Hall is getting ready for this fight between the drow of the Underdark, and they get help from the Harpells, Silverymoon and Settlestone. Wulfgar’s presence was there when they talked about Aegis-Fang and how, if Wulfgar was alive, he would’ve been in the battle, though now I wonder what happened to him when he was caught by the damned yochlol, but I think we’re going to figure it out once I get to the next book.

The war was kinda slow. Jarlaxle was barely in it, in my opinion-he was just there, along with Quenthel and Triel. Even though Quenthel was killed by Drizzt and Matron Banere was killed by Bruenor Battlehammer (good for him), I think they were the stars, along with Drizzt and the others. I also like how the story kept switching with everyone, and the shocking thing in the story was that Lady Alurstriel showed up and helped the war.

There was a time in the book called The Time of Trouble, where magic went away, as if it never existed. Gwenhwyvar couldn’t go back to the astral plane, Bidderdoo tried to find a way to cure himself of being a werewolf, and the magic of Menzoberranzan was gone, and there was a little war breaking out in Menzoberranzan, with House Oblodara attacking another Matron Mother and killing her because she had her psionic powers…it was a whole-ass mess and I loved every bit of it. I can’t wait to read the next book of this series because I love it so much.

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Book Review: Pathfinder Tales: Starspawn by Wendy N. Wagner

Starspawn by Wendy N. Wagner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is totally different from The Crusader Road. How was it different? It has treasure hunters, sea monsters, it does have spiders in it, and also an eldritch horror. NEED I SAY MORE?! This book was hella different from Crusader Road, and it’s one of my favorite books out of the Pathfinder Tales. I loved the action, I loved how caring the crew was to each other, and I also loved how the crew looked after one another, and also I loved Kran. Kran was basically the star of the book, right next to his mother, Jendara.

First off, the book starts on Jendara’s birthday, and how she was waking up and was a bit excited to celebrate her birthday-until a huge tsunami hit, destroying almost everyone and everything on the island. Jendara tried to get everyone, including her son, his dog and his friend, to high ground. Once the tsunami was over and the Milady came ashore, Jendara’s husband, Vorrin, tells her of an island not far from her homeland, and that they had treasure there. Jendara agreed, and the crew set off on this island of gold and treasure.

When they get there, well…they are swirled up in action, adventure, and a ritual to summon an Lovecraftian horror known as Starspawn. They tried to stop it, with Jendara’s speech-disabled son Kran (who is the best boy and needs to be protected at all times) and his dog Fygla (who is the best dog, fight me) throughout the novel. They also witness some animal cruelty with the poor dolphin getting sacrificed to the god, but also they fought spiders. I do have a fear of spiders, so yes, I did take a break after those chapters. But holy shit the way they were falling and nearly dying and having to kill one of their crew when the spider’s poison was close enough to kill her-oof.

We meet the ulat-kini, who are “ a race of fish aquatic humanoids incapable of reproducing without human partners” according to the glossary in the back of the book (which is really thoughtful, thanks Paizo), and they are trying to summon the Starspawn (but why?) and they do succeed…using a scepter and an astrolabe. Turns out..that it was the wrong time to summon the horror, and Jendara sent the Starspawn right back to sleep.

I really enjoyed this book-its my favorite out of the two I read. I am planning on getting more soon, once I get a chance, because this was different but fun at the same time.

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Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, hello, Kaijus.

This book can easily fall under the pandemic literature we talked about in class, because yes, this book takes place during the pandemic. Yes, this book has kaijus-wish it had more so that it could be a more awesome book-but it does deal with one particular kaiju named Bella, but let’s put Bella to the side so we can talk about the characters.

Jamie Gray had just gotten fired by a start up called füdmüd, who then made him go and deliver food (oof). One day, he starts to deliver to a man named Tom, who works somewhere else, and tells Jamie that he’s invited to get another job…which he does. He lifts things-and also help take care of some huge dinosaurs called kaijus. With his friends who are very sciency, they help take care of the kaiju and make sure everything is okay.

Unfortunately, one of the kaijus, Bella, started laying some eggs, and they are watching her closely, since she’s sitting near one of the nuclear radiators I believe it was?? And then one day, she just…disappeared. Through a hole. No one knows where she went, and they came up with a whole bunch of hypothesis…until they decided to go out to where Bella was, to see if she’s alright.

When they go there, they saw that all of their equipment was destroyed, and the only thing that had evidence was Tom’s phone, which was dropped on the ground. Jamie picked it up, and they unlocked it to find a video of someone taking Bella somewhere else-to the other side. Earlier, Jamie had to take around his old boss and a Colonel, and he tricked his old boss into going outside and scaring him a bit with the white bug crabs. Even though he was scared and he learned the truth, Jamie thought that Rob had learned his lesson with trying to get something on a kaiju and bringing it home (he actually tried to bribe a pilot to bring him closer to Bella…didn’t work).

Turns out the whole time it was Rob who kidnapped her and my god, he sucks as a baddie. He really does. But at least he died quite pathetically, and Bella was returned to the forest in the New Earth. After that, everything was good. I was expecting more about Kaijus, but I kinda understood why, and that in my mind, there’s a bunch of kaiju scattered around that they’re looking at, and more and more people are coming to appreciate these beautiful kaijus. I really enjoyed this one, had a tiny bit of memes in it as well, but it was really good, really enjoyed myself.

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Book Review: Pathfinder Tales: The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole

The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first time reading a Pathfinder Tales novel, and I have DNFed this book before, mostly because I didn’t have to read it. But this book was kinda homey and good, nothing to run home about.

It’s about a family who’s been kicked out of court, and they are moving someplace in the woods to start over. It has a boy named Jerrad who is called “mouse” all the time, and he’s basically training to be a wizard, even though he didn’t think there were magic users in his family. In this book, we see Jerrad grow from the so-called “mouse” he was called multiple times by his sister, to someone who’s learning magic and would defend his family from the usual goblins and ogres. Even in the book, he kept putting himself down each time someone called him a hero, saying that he’s not like his father, who turns out, is a Broken Man (he doesn’t know it yet). He does fall in love with a girl named Nelsa Murdoon, and he saved a sprite from a cage. Honestly, I liked Jerrad’s growth, but throughout the book, he started to get on my nerve about “not being a hero” when he’s learning and doing these incredible things, but at least he stood up for the village to Lord Blackstone, and everyone got the whip (ow).

His sister, Serrana, got on my nerves as well. She complained the first part of the book, wanting to go home, believing that she doesn’t belong here. But after the goblins attacked, everything just…changed for her. She stopped complaining, picked up a bow and arrow, and became an archer. She fell in love with Creelisk’s son, and the two are becoming leaders in their own right.

Lady Tyressa, the star of the book in my eyes, is more of a leader than the two people that tried to over throw her. She took everything seriously, thinking of her people as they settled in Silverlake. She thought about everything carefully, and fought hard. She thought about her husband in this book as well, even though he came at the end of the book, but the way she took out the ogrekin was beautiful.

Now that bad guys were sneaky, typical bad guys that only wanted to take the Vishov family down. One kept lying, but he died in the goblin attack, and another was a lord that got the Vishov family lands who got poisoned by another lord (Lord Blackstone). All in all, this was a okay book, and I enjoyed it. I wish that Jerrad did more magic in the book, and I wish there was a book two, to see how the family is doing, but other than that it was good and I enjoyed it.

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Book Review: A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was really good and I loved the relationship with Luella and Eldas. I actually fell in love with Eldas because the way the author described him, I thought I was reading a Thranduli fanfiction. Because, um, I fell for Eldas. He’s my little meow meow and I love him so much.

For about 20% of the book, I really hated Luella because all she does is complain and swears up and down and she wants to go home, but then she’s working in Willow’s shop and finding out how to break the cycle, which I’m like..why??? And then the question of her loving him…after she keeps fighting him step by step and swearing up and down that ‘oh, Eldas doesn’t love me, he’s using me.” and finding out, after shouting at the coronation that she loved him…and him saying it back…it kinda sweeten it a bit, but…I felt like it took a long time for her to say it. But then, it wouldn’t be Luella without her battling her feelings for someone that just came to her village and said that she’s his wife.

And King Eldas, my little meow meow…he was kinda worse like her. He honestly was like ‘well I like you, but you need to do your duty’ and was kinda controlling her, like ‘you must do this’ and ‘you must do that’ and those two butted heads all the damn time. But I do like that throughout the book they got together and started to work together, even when she figured out how to break the cycle, which…to be honest, pissed me off. I really didn’t want her to break the cycle, I wanted her to figure out how to control herself when it comes to the redwood throne, but once she figured it out and went home, she realized that for once in her damn life, she actually loves him. Close to the end. Like, what the fuck, my guy???

Hook is best character throughout the book, change my mind.

Willow is also best character throughout the book as well.

Harrow, I wanna punch in the face. As hard as I can. Then yell at him for believing Aria’s bullshit and taking drugs. Because by then, he’ll get punched again. But I’m glad he’s alright.

I know it looks like I’m bashing the book (I’m not, I promise) but I really enjoyed it. I love the relationship between Eldas and Luella, and how headstrong Luella is. Luella just got on my left nerve for a bit, and also I wanted to punch Harrow in the fuckin’ mouf. Not mouth-mouf.

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Book Review: The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well. I wasn’t expecting this to be a five star, honestly. I had to put it on pause because I was dealing with schoolwork and doing a project. But since I’m out for Spring Break, I read every bit of this story, and lemme tell ya…this book got me through Mass Effect while I was playing it (got the legendary edition and I’m done with the first game). So I’m gonna break it down by character like I would do Game of Thrones, because this book was a lot:

Kestrel: So let's start with Kestrel. Kestrel is thrown into prison by the Emperor for what she did in the second book, which is be a spy for the Herrani (called herself the Moth) and tried to play by the Emperor’s rules, but thanks to her father, she was secretly thrown into a very terrible prison. Everyday she wakes up, goes to the mine and works till she eats dinner and goes to bed. She is also drugged, and for those horrible months she is just waking up, eating while resisting the way her body craves the drugs they give her. Arin comes to rescues her, only to find out she has amnesia. She, with Arin, escapes the prison and since Herrani/Dacra are currently in a war with the Empire…she joins, swearing an oath to kill her father. During her time as a soldier, she pretended to be a scout, led the charge for the Herrani gunmen that was under her control, and she came up with a plan to kill the Emperor. There was some hiccups, like the Emperor’s son being there, Risha showing up, and the thought of seeing her father (which she did) but at the end, she killed the Emperor by playing a game of Bite and Sting, and letting him touch the poisoned shiny tiles (smart). At the end, Kestrel married (though it is implied) Arin and they lived happily ever after.

Arin: This boy…this boy right here…I love him. He’s currently at war with the Empire, and he’s working with Roshar, his friend who is the prince of Dacra. He has been trying to forget Kestrel, only to find that he can’t. He comes back home to Herrani, only for Sarsrine to tell him that there was someone to see him. Arin puts it off, but then finally he goes and sees the person who tells him about the woman who spoke Herrani perfectly without no accent, and who gave him a moth, but it died when a Empire solider stepped on it. Not believing it for a moment, he had to think about it before he realized that it was Kestrel, and he snuck in to kill the guards to save Kestrel. Seeing her without any memory of who she was, it hurt him a bit until she started to slowly get her memories back, and the two fell right back in love, and she became a fine soldier. He did as well, trying to keep Kestrel away from the deep parts of the war, letting her do whatever she want as long as she doesn’t see her father. He did almost kill her father, but he decided not to, and he thought he did the wrong thing. Kestrel tells him that he didn’t, and at the end, her father was left alive and not going to die (ha ha).

All in all, this was a really good book and I really enjoyed this one.

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Book Review: The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski is the second book in the Winner’s Trilogy, and this one was much, much better than the first one. This one has more political intrigue, more action, a tiny bit more romance, and also, betrayal.

Let’s start off with the upcoming royal wedding between Kestrel and the Emperor’s son, Verex. It was supposed to be a happy time in Kestrel’s life-she’s getting married, she’s about to become Empress of Valoria…but instead, Kestrel turned into a spy for the Herrani people, secretly using Moths to tell Tensen information about things and also sneaking around in a maid’s outfit. When the Emperor learned about what Kestrel did though, thanks to her father finding Tensen, reading the letter and then killing him (and also because he’s in the Emperor’s back pocket). Thus her confession was rewarded-with her going to the camps to work, while the Emperor fabricated some story about her and his son eloped and moved to the south, but she got sick and died.

WTF.

In the words of Ser Clegane, “FUCK THE KING.” In this case-FUCK THE EMPEROR.

Over on Arin’s side of the world, he went to Dacra to try and get an alliance with the queen, even though he got caught and had to be a prisoner in Dacra. But before all that, he was trying to be a leader for his people-making sure they were alright, they had some food and also do everything the Emperor wants him to do (which, may I reiterate, is bullshit). Then one day he was invited to the Empire for a ball for Kestrel and Verex…in which he kissed Kestrel behind the curtains and tried to get her to confess, I think. But it didn't work, and then he got cut by Kestrel’s original dagger, so now he has a scar on the side of his face.

Oof.

Then he left to go to Dacra, where he became a prisoner to the Dacran royal family, doing everything he can to get the alliance-following the brother around and doing all the queen’s dirty work, learning the language fast, even making out with the queen and nearly sleeping with her, only to realize that he loved Kestrel and went back to the Empire to tell her.

Everything went to hell after that, and now our lovers are torn apart. Now I wonder what’s going to happen next because now I wanna know.

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