Reviews – Page 6 – takes two to book review

Review: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

October 20, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Slippered feet standing by three pumpkins a book, The Female Persuasion

VERDICT: 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 / 5

Anna: I’ve been meaning to read The Female Persuasion for years, and I’m so glad that I finally did! This is a sweeping coming-of-age novel that takes a lot of energy to read but, in my opinion, had a high pay off.

The book follows Greer as she begins her freshman year of college at Ryland. The child of two stoners, Greer has been studious and high achieving all of her life—perhaps rebelliously—so. She was meant to attend Princeton or Yale alongside her equally brainy high school boyfriend, Cory, had her parents not messed up her financial aid forms. In the beginning of the book, Greer is riotously angry about attending what she sees as a second-rate school.

When the book starts, Greer is infuriatingly naive in a way that unfortunately reminded me of myself when I started college. Her anger at being at Ryland is also frustrating as a reader. But after experiencing a sexual assault that is brushed aside by the school, Greer attends a lecture by a famous feminist, Faith Frank. She subsequently falls quickly into the world of feminism and into an obsession with Faith Frank. Very quickly her righteous anger at going to Ryland redirects to anger at the patriarchy.

As Greer becomes more educated and exposed to women’s issues, her passion for feminism and women’s rights becomes her chief interest and passion. After college, Greer finds a job working for Faith’s foundation. At first, she’s starstruck by Faith and impassioned by the chance to make a difference in women’s lives. She can’t believe her good fortune to work at a job she really believes in, while making an actual difference in women’s lives. Meanwhile, Cory and her best college friend, Z, encounter hardship after hardship in the corporate world. But everything isn’t what it seems, and soon, Greer is forced to confront the hypocrisy of Faith Frank’s breed of white feminism.

This book took me back to some of the hardest years of my life—figuring out what to do with myself after college. Though the book starts in her early years of college, that’s ultimately what this is about. As Greer gets older she becomes more aware of the darker side of the foundation and of Faith. She slowly realizes that everything in her life is controlled and warped by men, including the foundation and the woman she dedicated so many years of her life to.

I also liked that though Greer was by no means a perfect, she had autonomy and was a driving force in her own story. She didn’t just let things happen to her, which is something that can sometimes frustrate me about the protagonists of coming-of-age stories. I also liked that this book spanned so many years and had a satisfying ending. It was really such a good exploration of the good and the bad of feminism—or any social or political movement—and the importance of standing up for what you really believe in once you’ve figured it out.

Review: To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

September 22, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A Kindle with To Cage A God sits on a gold book cart next to a stuffed pumpkin

Alexis:

I really enjoyed To Cage a God! I loved the wintery, brutal, Russian-inspired world.

The cast of characters were definitely my favorite part. I loved how both Galina and Sera, the two main characters, are strong, but in completely different ways. Their backstories are so interesting and sad that it made me want to read a prequel! I even enjoyed the POVs that came later in the story, including a princess who is a recluse. I’m usually a 1-2 POV kind of person, so that’s saying lot from me!

I also enjoyed the two different romances (one of them is sapphic) though they didn’t come into play until the second half of the book. That being said, the slow pace in the beginning, loose plot, and the sometimes vague imagery kept it from being a 5-star book for me.

If you’re looking for a new adult romantasy with a brewing rebellion, fire and ice powers, and caged dragon gods, I recommend it!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for my e-ARC!

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost.

With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn.

While Sera reunites with her estranged lover turned violent rebel leader, Galina infiltrates the palace. In this world of deception and danger, her only refuge is an isolated princess, whose whip-smart tongue and sharp gaze threaten to uncover Galina’s secret. Torn between desire and duty, Galina must make a choice: work together to expose the lies of the empire―or bring it all down.

Review: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

Hello, hello!

It’s been a while! I did read a lot of books in August, but I mostly read romance books, and I don’t feel inclined to review romance books as much. My reviews usually end up looking something like, “This was cute! A fun read!”

I recently finished Ink Blood Sister Scribe, which was the perfect way to start off September and the almost-start of fall (it is, unfortunately, still 92 degrees outside here).

This book has magical books and a creepy library. Powerful spells and books. Magic mirrors. Mysteries galore. I loved it!

Törzs’ prose is lovely; you can really tell she’s a short story writer, because on a line level, her writing is great. I loved the tension and the juxtaposition of the grim atmosphere with the humor. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and how they all came together in the end. Plus, there’s a dog (named Sir Kiwi) and a cat!

My only real critique is that the beginning is a little slow. However, it sets up a lot of the plot and the characters in the end, and there was enough tension and questions to keep me reading. Plus, the plot twists 😯

Overall, if you like mysteries, creepy magical books, blood magic, and family secrets, then you might like this one.

VERDICT: 🖋️🖋️🖋️🖋️🖋️/5

Review: Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool

July 25, 2023July 24, 2023 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

Garden of the Cursed lays on a laptop keyboard with sunglases next to an iced matcha latte

Alexis:

If you’re looking for a fun, mysterious YA fantasy set in a gritty world, you might like Garden of the Cursed!

Synopsis:

Garden of the Cursed follows Marlow, who works as a cursebreaker in Caraza City. When her ex-friend, Adrius, asks her to help break a curse cast on him, Marlow reluctantly takes on his case. While she works to break Adrius’ curse, she begins to uncover what happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared a year ago, and she is drawn into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies.

What I Liked:

Worldbuilding

I found the word to be really interesting. The Five Families, a group of powerful and corrupt families who control spellcraft, run Caraza, which makes the city itself feel very mysterious and dangerous. The world definitely gave me Six of Crows meets City of Nightmares vibes. There’s a lot of gangs, fighting, and talk of corruption and power.

I’m also a huge fan of curses in stories, so I enjoyed learning about the magic system, which features cards, and how Marlow breaks curses.

Plot

I found the plot to be very fast-paced, fun, and mysterious. I don’t want to give anything away, but I think the different plotlines worked well together.

What I Didn’t Like As Much:

To be honest, I liked pretty much everything about this book! Yes, at times, the dialogue is a little too on the nose. But I like Marlow’s gumption. I obviously liked the world. I like that there’s a cat named Toad and commentary on social classes and power. There’s even fake dating.

The one aspect I’m not a huge fan of is Adrius’ character. He’s supposed to be charming and flirty, but I honestly thought he was just annoying. It made the romantic subplot a little lackluster for me.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you’re looking for a YA fantasy filled with curses, gangs, plot twists, mysteries, and a lot of parties and balls, then I recommend Garden of the Cursed!

Review: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

July 15, 2023 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

A stack of all three books in the Drowned Empire trilogy sit on a black bookshelf.

Alexis:

The Bone Shard Daughter, the first book in the Drowned Empire trilogy, is one of my favorite books. The magic system and world are really cool and interesting, and I love the characters, including a talking otter-like creature named Mephi.

I finally got around to reading the last book in the trilogy, The Bone Shard War. I tried reading it on my Kindle, but for thick fantasy books, I really need a physical copy.

To be honest, I struggled to get through the first half of this book. Well I actually liked the multiple POVs in the first two books, I felt like I was drowning in the different perspectives. Jovis and Lin are really the main two characters, and their chapters got a little lost in the middle of the other ones, especially Nisong’s, who I didn’t really care about.

I also thought this entire book would be a war. And while there technically was a war, there really weren’t that many battles. A lot of the chapters focused on traveling between places.

I also find myself frustrated by some of the character arcs. Well I did enjoy the second half of the book, and the ending wrapped up well, the character arc of Jovis, my favorite character, went backwards. But, as always, Stewarts’ worldbuilding and the magic system are still awesome, and there was yet another great reveal.

Regardless, I still love the series. I think if you only want to read the first book, you can. Each of the books in the trilogy has amazing plot twists and reveals, but if that doesn’t make you want to read it, Mephi definitely should!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Check out my review of The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor!

Review: Dark Water Daughter by H.M. Long

July 11, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A Kindle ARC copy of Dark Water Daughter lays on a desk on 2 notebooks and next to a pair of pinkish-clear glasses and a candle

Alexis:

Happy Publication Day to Dark Water Daughter!

Synopsis

Dark Water Daughter is an adult historical pirate fantasy. It follows two main characters: Mary is a Stormsinger, a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Samuel is an ex-naval officer who now works as a pirate hunter—with a unique power of his own. Both Mary and Samuel must come face to face with pirate lord Silvanus Lirr as he hunts down Mary for reasons yet unknown while also coming to terms with their pasts.

Worldbuilding

The thing I love most about this book is the worldbuilding and magic systems. At the beginning of each chapter is a tidbit from a guidebook that details an aspect of the world. I love how this feeds us information about the world without it feeling forced and without having to info dump.

As for the worldbuilding itself, we have ghistings, or spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of Mary’s homeland and the figureheads of ships. I absolutely loved how unique and ghostly ghistings feel!

On top of that, we have Stormsingers, as mentioned above, but there are also people who can see into a world called the Other, and yet other people who can influence others. The world and magic is so rich and vibrant, and I loved reading about it.

Atmosphere and Characters

The atmosphere is great: think forest/sea/winter. Think Pirates of the Caribbean but darker. I love both Mary and Sam’s backstories. There’s a whole host of side characters, but they never feel flat. And there is an amazing twist in the second half that really gets the story moving and gives it another edge.

Critiques

My only main critique is that the middle of this book lags a bit, especially when Mary and Samuel set off on separate adventures—I kept waiting for their storylines to cross again! This book is also in first person perspective, and sometimes I wanted to hear more thoughts and feelings from both Mary and Samuel. (However, this is a common critique I have of adult fantasy books, so it could totally just be me who feels this way!)

Why you should read it!

If you’re looking for an adventurous and dark pirate story with a unique magic system, a complicated plot with a great twist, and plenty of forest, sea, and winter vibes, definitely give Dark Water Daughter a shot.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with an ARC for review!

VERDICT: ☠️☠️☠️☠️.5/5

Also, Happy Publication Day to A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow! You can check out my review of this heartfelt YA space opera here.

Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

June 29, 2023 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

Alexis:

Look what came in from the library! And yes, I did sit down and binge-read it in two days.

I want to start out by saying that I know that Fourth Wing has been EVERYWHERE. Like, I have seen it not only on book accounts, but just all over the internet in general. And by the time I realized this might be a book I should read (especially since it’s my genre), it was sold out of bookstores. So, thank you to my local library!

Due to this book’s hype, I’m not going to include a synopsis here, so feel free to look up what this book is about if you’ve managed to miss the frenzied discussion around it.

First off, I want to start off with my criticisms of this book.

Fourth Wing is in the same vein as A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Serpent and the Wings of Night with a dash of Eragon on top, so if those are your jam, this might be for you.

This certainly isn’t a unique book, and honestly, that in itself is my main criticism—there were a lot of moments that were just too close to those of other books. I also found the plot to be extremely predictable. I can’t go into it that much without revealing spoilers, but I found that Yarros dropped too many hints about what ended up going down in the ending. The writing also does lean more YA, which honestly doesn’t bother me (this is NA people, that’s the point—adult themes but with the voice and snapiness of YA) especially because they’re in a college.

I also wish we got to see more of Violet’s dragon bonding. And I found Xaden, the love interest, to be exactly like every other love interest in the fantasy romance space and honestly not the most interesting character.

Yet, that being said, I couldn’t put this book down. It has that thrilling, adventurous feeling that’s addicting. Yarros’ writing style is easy to devour, and I appreciated the amount of action scenes in this book. There’s never a dull moment!

The Basgiath War College, aka the dragon riding college, in itself sounded super cool. I loved the brutality of both the college and the world. And I really appreciated the Ehler-Danlos syndrome rep, and I thought Yarros did a good job of exploring how it affects Violet’s training and her confidence.

This book was wholly engrossing, and I definitely think it’s a good start to the series. I’m glad we don’t have too long of a wait until the sequel arrives this fall!

VERDICT: 5⭐ reading experience

DNF: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

June 27, 2023July 24, 2023 Anna and Alexis3 Comments

Alexis:

Whelp, I DNFed Tress of the Emerald Sea. Given all the rave reviews, this book wasn’t what I expected.

The thing that threw me off the most was the narration style. Even though Sanderson explains this in the back of the book, it wasn’t working for me (or the story, in my opinion). The narrator is a character who appears later in the book. So even though the story is in 3rd person POV from Tress’ point of view, it’s technically actually in 1st person from the narrator’s POV.

The narrator is obnoxious. He’s constantly making side remarks and comments and cracking dumb jokes. It ended up completely taking me out of the story.

It doesn’t help, however, that I feel like I barely got to know Tress as a character. The romance is one dimensional, and the characters also feel one dimensional. The pacing felt off. The spore sea was interesting (the ocean isn’t actually water, but made of fungi spores) but everything else made me put this book down.

(Also, yes, I’m aware that the book is flipped in the photo 😂)

DISCLAIMER: I haven’t read Sanderson’s Cosmere series, which is where this book is set. I know I would understand the world more if I did! However, since this book is a standalone, I am reviewing it as a standalone book.

Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

A library copy sits on a green blanket next to the spines of The Hunger Games trilogy. A lit candle rests above the book.

Alexis:

When I saw the new trailer for the The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie, I thought, Well, I guess I’d better read the book!

Like a lot of people, when the book was announced a couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. President Snow is the villain of The Hunger Games, after all.

Here’s the thing about this book: compared to Katniss’ close point-of-view in The Hunger Games, this prequel feels very distant.

The book is from Corolanius’ point of view, sure, but it’s a distant third. We’re not bathed in his fear, horror, and opinions like we are Katniss’. When the Hunger Games happen, we’re nothing but a spectator alongside Corolanius, watching from the outside. Because of this, despite it being a literal life or death situation, it didn’t feel like it actually was a life or death situation, and I found myself skimming the depictions of the Games. There’s also a myriad of side characters, and most of them felt rather flat and blurred together.

All of that being said, I thought the ending was well done.

Overall, this book was just okay. I think Collins’ publishers were probably like, “Hey, you need to write a prequel,” and she just had to roll with it. However, I do think it will translate better on screen when we can be more involved in the Games, so I still plan on watching the movie!

Review: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library follows Ivy, who is the last living descendant to the Blackwoods, which means she inherits an estate called Blackwood Abbey. The abbey is grand yet dusty and old, but Ivy is drawn to its mysterious library. Despite warnings from the abbey’s staff, Ivy begins to peruse the library. But with time, she learns that there is something sinister in its shelves.

The thing I most loved about this book is the atmosphere. It has all the markings of a good Gothic story: creepy house, ghosts, and a dark mystery. I also really enjoyed the setting as a whole. The story is set in the aftermath of World War I, and Fox does a great job showing how the war impacted both society and the veterans.

Of course, I love the emphasis on books, as well!

While I really enjoyed the first half, and everything it sets up, there were a couple of things I got hung up on while reading.

Ivy. While I liked her first, she was just such a naive main character that she dragged the story down with her. Despite copious amounts of warnings (and even things she sees for herself), she continues to make very bad decisions throughout the story.
The plot becomes a little convoluted in the second half of the story. The mystery also drags on a little too long.
There are some spoiler-y things that I will mention below!

Overall, I enjoyed the concept, the atmosphere, and the setting.

VERDICT: 📚📚📚/5

SPOILERS BELOW:

I’m going to elaborate a little on the plot here. The plot focuses heavily on memory and memory loss, which I like the idea of! However, as a reader, I did feel a little blindsided because we would be told that something happened, alongside Ivy, but have zero idea it happened because of her memory loss. I wish there was a way for us as the readers to have more insight as to what was happening.

This also made the romance feel lackluster to me. The hints were all there, but because we didn’t get to see Ivy fall in love, it fell a little flat to me.

Last point, and the one that bothers me the most: It was randomly thrown in at the end that Ralph just doesn’t remember who his parents are (despite him working with them everyday) because of his PTSD from the war?? This felt like a very important yet random development that was thrown in at the end just so that he could relate to Ivy’s memory loss.