book review blog – takes two to book review

Review: Red City by Marie Lu

July 5, 2025 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis holds Red City above a stone walkway and a tree

Babel meets Jade City ⁣

⁣Alexis: I got an ARC of Red City from my fave indie bookstore at the beach, and it didn’t disappoint! ⁣

⁣The story takes place in an alternate Los Angeles called Red City, and the city is the perfect gritty backdrop. The magic system of alchemy was interesting and well thought out, and even though the first half of the story was slow paced, it really allowed you time to learn alchemy and learn the stakes of the story in time with both of the main characters.

The beginning of the book follows Sam and Ari, two separate alchemy students, during their school years. It definitely has dark academia vibes and some parallels to Babel by R.F. Kuang. The second half of the book is much more Jade City, with dueling alchemy groups that are essentially mobs and some political intrigue.

Lu discusses this a little in the back of the book, but Red City dives into the grittiness of immigrant families and was inspired by her own family’s immigrant story. This is really where I felt the heart of the story was; her exploration of the hardships of the immigrant family was devastating—and in different ways when it comes to Sam and Ari.

⁣This is a darker story (and Lu’s adult debut!) and deals with a lot of dark themes—including grooming, drug use, murder, violence and more. And the tagline of “power always has a price” certainly rings true throughout the story. This was so close to being a five-star read for me, but there were some plot points at the end that didn’t quite work for me.

⁣VERDICT: /5 ⁣

⁣Is Red City on your tbr? Special thanks to Tor Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for a review!

Review: The Enemy’s Daughter by Melissa Poet

May 6, 2025April 26, 2025 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Matcha latte with The Enemy's Daughter in a coffee shop

Alexis:

Happy Pub Day to The Enemy’s Daughter! 🎉

The Enemy’s Daughter has two enemy settlements in a post-apocalyptic world. It follows Isadora, a healer, and Tristan, a boy from Isadora’s opposing settlement. When Isadora almost dies, Tristan does the unimaginable: he offers to save her life using a rare magic. Now, they find themselves bound together, and Isadora finds herself questioning everything she’s ever known.

My main critique was that I think this could’ve dug even deeper into the themes it presented. The first half was also a little repetitive, as Isadora tends to have the same thinking pattern over and over again.

However, I enjoyed Poet’s writing style and the tension. The Enemy’s Daughter is a fun read that moved quickly overall and was easy to binge! ⁣The vibes remind me a lot of the 2010’s dystopian era, so if you’re feeling nostalgic for that, you might like this one.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Description: ⁣

𝐀 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜. 𝐀𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐘𝐀 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬-𝐭𝐨-𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲—𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐜𝐚 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝗪𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚. ⁣

Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me with a copy for review!

Review: The Will of the Many by James Islington

April 9, 2024April 8, 2024 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

The Will of the Many rests on a desk with a cloud wrist rest, a planner, and a cat sniffing the book.

Alexis:

Happy April! I hope you all have been reading some good books. One of my reading goals for this year is to pick up more adult fantasy books. I heard nothing but good things about The Will of the Many, so I grabbed it from the library.

I’m happy to say that it lived up to the hype!

The Will of the Many is one of those books where it’s good to go into it with little expectations. But here’s what you can know about it:

The main character, Vis, is such a great, well-rounded main character. He’s vicious, caring, and intelligent.
A main theme is colonialism and the evils it can bring.
The book is in first person present tense, and it serves the story well.
It’s an Ancient Roman-inspired political fantasy.
It’s partially set in an academy, which gives strong dark academia vibes.
The story has tons of twists and turns!
It has a unique magic system; the society allows a person’s strength, drive, and focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those in a higher societal position.

It hits on so many hard themes, and despite the chunky page length, I was never bored. While Vis is only 17-years-old, this is definitely an adult book meant for adult audiences. That being said, it appeals to me as a mostly YA reader, as well. If you’re looking for a clever fantasy book, I definitely recommend it!

VERDICT: 🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️/5

Review: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

September 8, 2022September 8, 2022 Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

Since I’m unfortunately recovering from lung surgery, I decided that continuing with my rom com binge and sticking to more lighthearted reads might be a good idea.

I read The Love Hypothesis earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised. The writing was easy and accessible and the story was funny and heartwarming.

Needless to say, I picked up Love on the Brain. And I have to admit…I’m a little baffled.

Was this fun to read? Yes. Like its predecessor, Love on the Brain contains so much interesting science talk (as well as a focus on neuroscience) and you can tell Hazelwood knows what she’s talking about.

That being said, I got major déjà vu when reading this book. I kept thinking, “Have I read this before?” There were so, so many scenes, moments, and plot points that were almost the exact same as The Love Hypothesis.

Now: yes, I am aware that both books started out as Reylo fanfic (but I like to keep an open mind!). So I knew there would be some similarities. However, both of the main characters, Bee and Levi, were nearly carbon copies of the main characters in The Love Hypothesis, except Bee somehow managed to be a more unhinged version of Olive.

At least I liked Levi’s character. But there was also a plot point at the end that was honestly so ridiculous that it made the story unredeemable for me.

Final thoughts: It started off as a fun read, but I wasn’t able to enjoy or get sucked into the story because it was just a worse version of The Love Hypothesis.

Review: Among Thieves by M.J. Kuhn

January 10, 2022January 9, 2022 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

A copy of Among Thieves rests on a gray blanket next to a candle and a dilute calico cat.

Alexis:

Among Thieves was actually the last book I read in 2021!

It’s a heist novel set in a dark, gritty world. We follow many POVs, but all of the characters are working for Callum Clem, the leader of the Saints gang. In this world, there are magical people called Adepts who are brainwashed and owned as slaves by the people in power.

There were many aspects of this book that I loved. Kuhn’s writing, and writing style, is great. She writes great descriptions, and she describes people especially well. Each time we meet a new character, we get a very Dickensen description, so that we not only know what the character physically looks like, but we get a sense of what each person is actually like, as well.

The banter is fun and quick. The magic system is interesting and feels different from other magic systems.

But there were a couple of things that kept me from being fully invested in the story.

Cursing is realistic in adult fantasies like these, but I often felt like Kuhn could have been a little more choosy about where she inserted swear words, and it would’ve made more of an impact. Instead, the amount of cursing tended to pull me out of the story.
The worldbuilding was thrown at you. I had a hard time getting through the first 100 pages because my brain was trying to play catch up, all while reading from multiple new POVs.
And finally…I wanted a map. I know this is a small thing, but a map definitely would’ve helped me imagine the world a little better.

Overall, this was a fun read. I think if you like heist novels like Six of Crows but are looking for an adult version with a full cast of characters, then you might like this.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐.5 /5

Review: Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

August 28, 2021 Anna and Alexis1 Comment

A hand holds a library hardcover copy of Ariadne over a gray blanket. A stack of books, including Circe and Percy Jackson, sits behind it.

Alexis:

It’s disappointing when you don’t end up liking a book you were looking forward to.

I love myth retellings, especially Greek myths. As someone of Greek heritage myself, I find it fascinating that my ancestors wove such intricate, and often brutal, tales about the world around them, and I’ve loved learning about Greek myths ever since my Percy Jackson days and my Latin classes!

I almost DNFed this book 50 pages in, but decided to stick with it. Ariadne follows, you guessed it, Ariadne. In Greek mythology, and in this book, Ariadne is the Princess of Crete. Hero Theseus arrives in Crete after offering himself up to be sacrificed in place of a child to go through King Minos’ labyrinth, and face the Minotaur, a half-bull, half-human creature. For Ariadne, she falls in love with Theseus at first sight, and she devises a plan to help him make it safely through the maze.

The book is mostly from Ariadne’s POV, but also features the point of view of Phaedra, Ariadne’s little sister. However, the dual POVs did not work for me. The voices were too similar, and while I liked Phaedra’s storyline at first, it quickly did a nose dive. I felt like both she and Ariadne didn’t have good character development.

Despite being in first person, I didn’t feel like I got to know Ariadne as much as I wanted to. And honestly, though not too slow-paced, the story bored me. I felt like it kept leading up to something, to a big event, but it never did.

And the ending. Oof. Saint definitely went the Greek tragedy route, without modernizing this story, telling a different version, or fleshing it out enough. Unfortunately, I don’t think this book added anything to Ariadne or Phaedra’s voices or stories.

VERDICT: ⭐⭐/5