Reviews tagging 'Murder'

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

6 reviews

adancewithbooks's review

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

2.25

 
With a title as You Sexy Thing, this book was bound to get a lot of attention. I was interested as well but it took me a while to get to it. I'm not sure I should have. 

With the title and knowing this is about old soldiers getting roped back into something, my curiousity was quite taken. We meet Niko and her crew as they are setting up their restaurant for an exciting night. They were only able to leave the service of the Hive Mind as soldiers if they could show that they were artists. In this case they went for cooking as an art. So they had to start a restaurant. This night was exciting because a food critic would be visiting. They needed to do well. Unfortunately a person gets shipped to them in a crate and the station explodes. Oops. 

It had a lot of potential in ideas but a lot of it fell flat because of the writing. It felt like it was trying an omniscient point of view but it was still too far in characters head for that, which was mostly Nio. It created a very far removed feel from the characters. Not true omniscient but also not a deep enogh focus. I didn't feel like I was truly getting to know them. We'd be in this scene with this character and then the next paragraph we would be in another scene with another character. 

We got a tiny bit of this and a tiny bit of that. But never did we go in depth into a character. The death of a character and the betrayal of a character were barely dealt with. So nothing that happened got much of an emotional reaction from me as a reader. 

Which is a shame because there are a lot of great ideas here. Many different alien races, the hive mind sounds like an interesting concept and a potential enemy. The bio ships like You Sexy Thing that they traveled on, created an extra dimension to their interactions. But a lot of the rest needed a lot of work. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mossgoblins's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ladythana's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jessie_h's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

This book was fun! It took me about 50 pages to get into the omniscient narration style but once I did I didn’t want to put this book down! The idea of an ex-military squadron owning and operating a restaurant was a space opera plot I didn’t know I needed in my life! There’s a reason I love the found family trope so much. The food aspect is compared to GBBO but really there wasn’t as much food content as I expected from the tagline. It more embodies the feeling you get watching GBBO.

This book reminded me a lot of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series. There are some pretty heavy parts in this story but they’re infused with hope and a good dose of sarcastic wit. I laughed a lot but there are some places where I cried. It still makes me sad to think of some of the events of this book.

The other reason this reminds me of Becky’s books is that the aliens are diverse and peculiar. They act alien and not like pseudo humans. I loved the whole crew so much! The Farscape comparison is a good one. 

The story is billed as a standalone and while it ended in a satisfactory way, it is open-ended enough that a whole series could be written from this book. I, for one, am hoping for some more books following this crew and their culinary and non-culinary adventures!

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lycanhood's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

chessakat's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a really fun read! The GBBO comparison is a litttle bit weak - while cooking is featured throughout, the competitive nature of it is only in the VERY beginning. Regardless. the crew and ship interactions are really fun! The plot pacing is a little oddball - it doesn’t have the same sort of arc that I expect from this kind of book. It almost felt like it was at odds with what kind of book it wanted to be - examination of relationships/identity or high stakes adventure-y - it does both, and it works ok but feels a teeny bit herky-jerky at times. That said, unpredictability is not a bad thing and I enjoyed the ride regardless!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...