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janehoyahusker's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. The premise and characters were unique, particularly with black heroines in a fantasy book and a black author. I enjoyed the story and the world. What didn't work for me is it jumped into the story too fast with little reflection by the characters or time for development.. The entire story takes place over approximately 48(ish) hours and I just didn't buy into the twins abilities to jump into their "powers" so easily. It is a quick read and I'm sure it will find its YA audience, but this one wasn't for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and SparkPress for the free electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and SparkPress for the free electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
megant713's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I really wanted to love this more than I did! The plot was solid, but the dialogue was a bit stilted and not quite natural, and I picked up on one mistake that was missed in editing.
On page 64 Arden is on the top bunk sleeping. On page 76 Aurora then says she gets down from the top bunk, trying not to wake Arden. Then on page 79, Arden is back on the top bunk. (Obviously this is not a major issue and I was able to read around the discrepancy, but this is something that should have been caught along the way.)
I did love the budding relationship between Arden and Devin. If this book becomes a series, I would look forward to reading more about their romance.
On page 64 Arden is on the top bunk sleeping. On page 76 Aurora then says she gets down from the top bunk, trying not to wake Arden. Then on page 79, Arden is back on the top bunk. (Obviously this is not a major issue and I was able to read around the discrepancy, but this is something that should have been caught along the way.)
I did love the budding relationship between Arden and Devin. If this book becomes a series, I would look forward to reading more about their romance.
themoodyambr's review
4.0
So there is going to be a sequel right?
I really enjoyed this story. It follows Twins Arden and Aurora who learn that they have powers before their 18th birthday. Arden is able to read thoughts and Aurora can move things with her mind. When their mother disappears while in London the Twins come together to save their mom.
I liked how all the women in this family had different powers. There was shapeshifting, moving your body from one space to another , sirens. I also loved how all the women stuck together (sometimes .. hello Aurora looking at you)
The mess behind the Twins origins family history was MESSSYYY. The Grandfather know he was wrong for what he did and then had the nerve to agree to what was said at the ending? I really hope there is a sequel because it ended on a cliffhanger.
The trigger in this book includes kidnapping , drugging of girls & abuse.
One thing I wished was in this story is that there was 3 perspectives : Aurora, Arden & the Grandfather. We only are in his head in the prologues and epilogue. It would have been interesting to hear what he was doing throughout the story because he is a sick individual.
Thank you to Sparkspress & Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this story. It follows Twins Arden and Aurora who learn that they have powers before their 18th birthday. Arden is able to read thoughts and Aurora can move things with her mind. When their mother disappears while in London the Twins come together to save their mom.
I liked how all the women in this family had different powers. There was shapeshifting, moving your body from one space to another , sirens. I also loved how all the women stuck together (sometimes .. hello Aurora looking at you)
The mess behind the Twins origins family history was MESSSYYY. The Grandfather know he was wrong for what he did and then had the nerve to agree to what was said at the ending? I really hope there is a sequel because it ended on a cliffhanger.
The trigger in this book includes kidnapping , drugging of girls & abuse.
One thing I wished was in this story is that there was 3 perspectives : Aurora, Arden & the Grandfather. We only are in his head in the prologues and epilogue. It would have been interesting to hear what he was doing throughout the story because he is a sick individual.
Thank you to Sparkspress & Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
onkenzisshelf's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the beginning of this book and the character descriptions and how it was essentially all about #GirlPower, but the delivery felt a little off. The lead up to everything was SO good, but then everything happened so quickly that I found it hard to keep up.
kristinaneil's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This was just so bad. The idea/premise is wonderful but not developed enough to be enjoyable or enticing
bookswhitme's review against another edition
3.0
I think that this story has very strong roots, a great background, and amazing potential for a possible sequel. From the moment you begin reading, it’s clear there is something bigger at play than what you may have expected. The opening scene depicts just how hard black women, human or goddess, have it in a world that shows them no love. How jealousy, greed, and misogyny all work together to attempt to bring us down to our knees, even during out most sacred moments. A plot is unfolding right before our eyes, to capture the almost eighteen year old twin goddesses Aurora and Arden and it is driven by the very things I mentioned above.
Meanwhile, while all of this is unfolding behind the scenes, Arden and Aurora should be getting ready to happily celebrate their eighteenth birthday, but instead they are dealing with the fallout of their mother, a famous opera singer, being called back to work. Her absence sets off a chain of events that leads to her twin daughters to not only uncover an evil plot, but discover what their mother has been hiding from them for all these years: their destiny and powers as twin goddesses. The wins are in a constant battle against each other and themselves, but now they have to find a way to move past the differences and insecurities if they are going to find out the truth and rescue their mother.
Overall, I think that the premise for story is great. Because it’s set during present day, there was not any extensive world building, but we do get to see a mythological story unfold during the telling of the twins’ family history. I think that may have been my favorite part of the novel. Learning how all of this came to be, about the goddesses themselves, and the love, hurt, and pain that happened helped to shape an understanding of how the kidnapping plot and the circumstances surround the family’s mystery. Everything, including the history, is told in the voice of Aurora and Arden who are two very modern teenagers and it comes across in the writing. That being said, it’s very…teenagery…idk if that’s how I want to say it, but it is very YA and I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
The girls as characters themselves were interesting, but I do wish they were a bit more complex. You get to see Aurora’s struggle with her relationship with her mother and sister and how out of place she feels, why she rages all of the time, and her insecurities, but I didn’t feel like we got that opportunity fully with Arden. Yes we see Arden coming to terms with her powers and coming into her own as a goddess, but I would have loved to see her own up to her hand in the relationship with her mother in a deeper way. I don’t feel like we explored their mother enough, and it seems to be that we just barely scratched the surface on her personality, motivations and her life. I would loooove to learn about what makes her tick and actually see why she treats being a mother the way she does. I just think understanding her more would have helped me to connect to her better.
As far as other characters that are introduced, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t care for them too much. It felt like they were sort of too good to be true given the circumstances of the story. I won’t reveal whether or not my suspicions panned out or not though.
I enjoyed the bones of the plot and where everything was going, but I will admit that the futher into the book we got, the more rushed things seemed to get. The climax and ending came so fast and I expected a bit….more. Now I think some of that could be because of the page count of the story. The shorter a story is, the quicker you have to get things moving and trust me, we’re thrown into the deep end early. I’m hoping that if there is a follow up (which gets set up in the epilogue) we get to dig a bit deeper and explore everything more. Big plus: There’s no cliffhanger here!! There is a romance piece here, but it’s literally only at the beginning and end. I don’t think the story needed it to be honest, because the plot did well without it.
Overall, I can certainly see the potential here and honestly, who doesn’t love a bit of black girl magic?
If you’re even a little bit intrigued then make a point to check this out when it gets released on May 19th!
Meanwhile, while all of this is unfolding behind the scenes, Arden and Aurora should be getting ready to happily celebrate their eighteenth birthday, but instead they are dealing with the fallout of their mother, a famous opera singer, being called back to work. Her absence sets off a chain of events that leads to her twin daughters to not only uncover an evil plot, but discover what their mother has been hiding from them for all these years: their destiny and powers as twin goddesses. The wins are in a constant battle against each other and themselves, but now they have to find a way to move past the differences and insecurities if they are going to find out the truth and rescue their mother.
Overall, I think that the premise for story is great. Because it’s set during present day, there was not any extensive world building, but we do get to see a mythological story unfold during the telling of the twins’ family history. I think that may have been my favorite part of the novel. Learning how all of this came to be, about the goddesses themselves, and the love, hurt, and pain that happened helped to shape an understanding of how the kidnapping plot and the circumstances surround the family’s mystery. Everything, including the history, is told in the voice of Aurora and Arden who are two very modern teenagers and it comes across in the writing. That being said, it’s very…teenagery…idk if that’s how I want to say it, but it is very YA and I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
The girls as characters themselves were interesting, but I do wish they were a bit more complex. You get to see Aurora’s struggle with her relationship with her mother and sister and how out of place she feels, why she rages all of the time, and her insecurities, but I didn’t feel like we got that opportunity fully with Arden. Yes we see Arden coming to terms with her powers and coming into her own as a goddess, but I would have loved to see her own up to her hand in the relationship with her mother in a deeper way. I don’t feel like we explored their mother enough, and it seems to be that we just barely scratched the surface on her personality, motivations and her life. I would loooove to learn about what makes her tick and actually see why she treats being a mother the way she does. I just think understanding her more would have helped me to connect to her better.
As far as other characters that are introduced, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t care for them too much. It felt like they were sort of too good to be true given the circumstances of the story. I won’t reveal whether or not my suspicions panned out or not though.
I enjoyed the bones of the plot and where everything was going, but I will admit that the futher into the book we got, the more rushed things seemed to get. The climax and ending came so fast and I expected a bit….more. Now I think some of that could be because of the page count of the story. The shorter a story is, the quicker you have to get things moving and trust me, we’re thrown into the deep end early. I’m hoping that if there is a follow up (which gets set up in the epilogue) we get to dig a bit deeper and explore everything more. Big plus: There’s no cliffhanger here!! There is a romance piece here, but it’s literally only at the beginning and end. I don’t think the story needed it to be honest, because the plot did well without it.
Overall, I can certainly see the potential here and honestly, who doesn’t love a bit of black girl magic?
If you’re even a little bit intrigued then make a point to check this out when it gets released on May 19th!
bahareads's review against another edition
2.0
*NetGalley ARC
*1.5 star
Oh, this book drew me in! The premise and set up before reading "The Goddess Twins" was phenomenal. I loved the fact that "The Goddess Twins" was written by a Caribbean author who had strong Caribbean women in her book. The concept of the magic and mythology of the book were *chef kiss.* It had a very Percy Jackson type feel about it.
However, the Aurora and Arden were pretty one dimensional; all of the characters were one dimensional. When the twins assume their powers, they somehow have this hold and understanding of magic when they've supposedly never heard of magic before; it was pretty unrealistic. Aurora annoyed me, and I could NOT sympathize with her at all.; and on occasion, Arden was not much better in my book. I wished the message of women power was more subtle; it was being shoved down the readers' throats with the evil villain and the magic plot. It could have been portrayed A LOT better. The romance in the book was WEIRD and cringe, I'm all for a good "we-are-mates" type romance, but this rubbed me the wrong way. The plot was predictable, but sometimes predictable can be useful; in this case, it wasn't bad; it was 'meh.' The climax of the plot had me screaming at the characters for their dumbness, and I feel like we did not need a second book. "The Goddess Twins" could have just been a longer book.
*1.5 star
Oh, this book drew me in! The premise and set up before reading "The Goddess Twins" was phenomenal. I loved the fact that "The Goddess Twins" was written by a Caribbean author who had strong Caribbean women in her book. The concept of the magic and mythology of the book were *chef kiss.* It had a very Percy Jackson type feel about it.
However, the Aurora and Arden were pretty one dimensional; all of the characters were one dimensional. When the twins assume their powers, they somehow have this hold and understanding of magic when they've supposedly never heard of magic before; it was pretty unrealistic. Aurora annoyed me, and I could NOT sympathize with her at all.; and on occasion, Arden was not much better in my book. I wished the message of women power was more subtle; it was being shoved down the readers' throats with the evil villain and the magic plot. It could have been portrayed A LOT better. The romance in the book was WEIRD and cringe, I'm all for a good "we-are-mates" type romance, but this rubbed me the wrong way. The plot was predictable, but sometimes predictable can be useful; in this case, it wasn't bad; it was 'meh.' The climax of the plot had me screaming at the characters for their dumbness, and I feel like we did not need a second book. "The Goddess Twins" could have just been a longer book.
ellemnope's review against another edition
2.0
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
For me, this is the case of a book that was not fleshed out enough or edited hard enough and was sent to publication too soon. It has a good premise and some good content for creating a solid magic system, but there were a lot of things that fell short.
Perhaps the biggest feeling on this one was that it felt like a YA novel shoved into a middle grade form. There wasn't enough nuance or subtlety to the writing, resulting in a plot that squeezed quite a bit into too few pages and didn't give enough to get me involved in the story. The writing did way too much telling instead of showing and a little additional description could have gone a long way. Similarly, there was a lot of info dumping rather than world-building that I think hurt how well this could have been put together. As a result, the characters felt flat and the pacing inconsistent. The bones are there, but the execution needed some nurturing.
Character development was a problem because it was lacking. What was present really just made me dislike the majority of the characters. Arden was the only one who really had any characteristics making her likable, but I didn't feel like I got to know her well enough to feel invested in any way. Because I didn't really care about the characters, I had a hard time caring about the story.
When it came to the story itself, I return the idea that this felt like a middle grade read in some ways. Dialogue was immature (sometimes in keeping with the characters, but sometimes just awkward) and inconsistent. One character's accented speech seemed to come and go with no explanation. Everything in the plot was overly convenient and there were little to no consequences for bad actions or choices. Even when characters did something stupid there seemed to be a silver lining so things worked out exactly how they wanted them too.
Given the potential for the storyline and an interesting world/series, I was very disappointed in this read.
For me, this is the case of a book that was not fleshed out enough or edited hard enough and was sent to publication too soon. It has a good premise and some good content for creating a solid magic system, but there were a lot of things that fell short.
Perhaps the biggest feeling on this one was that it felt like a YA novel shoved into a middle grade form. There wasn't enough nuance or subtlety to the writing, resulting in a plot that squeezed quite a bit into too few pages and didn't give enough to get me involved in the story. The writing did way too much telling instead of showing and a little additional description could have gone a long way. Similarly, there was a lot of info dumping rather than world-building that I think hurt how well this could have been put together. As a result, the characters felt flat and the pacing inconsistent. The bones are there, but the execution needed some nurturing.
Character development was a problem because it was lacking. What was present really just made me dislike the majority of the characters. Arden was the only one who really had any characteristics making her likable, but I didn't feel like I got to know her well enough to feel invested in any way. Because I didn't really care about the characters, I had a hard time caring about the story.
When it came to the story itself, I return the idea that this felt like a middle grade read in some ways. Dialogue was immature (sometimes in keeping with the characters, but sometimes just awkward) and inconsistent. One character's accented speech seemed to come and go with no explanation. Everything in the plot was overly convenient and there were little to no consequences for bad actions or choices. Even when characters did something stupid there seemed to be a silver lining so things worked out exactly how they wanted them too.
Given the potential for the storyline and an interesting world/series, I was very disappointed in this read.
pages_and_procrastination's review against another edition
I was given a digital copy of this title, free, in exchange for my honest opinion.
The cover pulled me in. I requested this without knowing what it was about -only that it looked like speculative fiction. Then I found out that it was written by an author of color and I knew then that it didn't matter - I was going to read it. I really wish that I could say that I loved this book - I wanted to. What I can say it that it is good for what it is and the author has so much potential. I would definitely read something else by Williams, probably not in this world though. While I think that there is enough unanswered questions to warrant a second book, I don' think the story requires it. Especially if it's going to follow a predictable storyline. For this one - it was decent for what it is: a YA fantasy for an audience that is just dipping their toes into the genre. The things that I enjoyued the most was that it was short and easily readable. We didn't get enough Arden or Aurora to be able to distinguish which perspective you were reading from. The characters carried this story and it was wobbly. There are moments in the story that I enjoyed and I felt rose above just being decent. Though these were few and far between. There was a lot of telling and not enough showing. This probably would have read better if it was a fleshed out stand alone instead of a the beginning of a series (or whatever the plan is).
The cover pulled me in. I requested this without knowing what it was about -only that it looked like speculative fiction. Then I found out that it was written by an author of color and I knew then that it didn't matter - I was going to read it. I really wish that I could say that I loved this book - I wanted to. What I can say it that it is good for what it is and the author has so much potential. I would definitely read something else by Williams, probably not in this world though. While I think that there is enough unanswered questions to warrant a second book, I don' think the story requires it. Especially if it's going to follow a predictable storyline. For this one - it was decent for what it is: a YA fantasy for an audience that is just dipping their toes into the genre. The things that I enjoyued the most was that it was short and easily readable. We didn't get enough Arden or Aurora to be able to distinguish which perspective you were reading from. The characters carried this story and it was wobbly. There are moments in the story that I enjoyed and I felt rose above just being decent. Though these were few and far between. There was a lot of telling and not enough showing. This probably would have read better if it was a fleshed out stand alone instead of a the beginning of a series (or whatever the plan is).
ioduok's review against another edition
4.0
The pacing is quick and engaging, and the character voices are distinctive. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew the personalities of the two protagonists. The ending hints at a possible sequel, and I would definitely follow the future adventures of the Goddess Twins.