abbythebookreviewer's reviews
86 reviews

The Jade Setter of Janloon by Fonda Lee

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Returning to Janloon felt like coming home. A short, bittersweet novella set before the events of Jade City. Lovers of the series will be happy to see some familiar faces. As always Fonda Lee subtle weaves her world building into the story all while developing characters you can’t help but enjoy (even if some of them make you want to beat their faces in). The Clan is my blood and the pillar is its master. 

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Parker has an immense amount of potential. Writing ornate prose is a difficult style and I think with some fine tuning Parker could deliver a beautifully written novel. However, this novel is not that novel. The problem with this style of writing is that it can lean into overdone & overwritten (purple prose). Everyone will have a different threshold for this style but I hit mine here. When a reader has to trudge through every sentence being a metaphor or analogy or some attempt at being poetically written it starts to feel like a clogged up mess. Those sentences that could have been impactful become so overdone that they lose any importance. We did not need a two sentence analogy just to explain the character was waking from a deep sleep. It’s unnecessary & makes the whole story feel messy. 

The plot: 
I actually enjoyed the plot. While it is nothing groundbreaking, the moon dragons did feel unique. In a world where uniqueness is hard to come by I was pleasantly surprised. The first half of this story reads like an epic fantasy (a genre I would like to see this author attempt). The second half read like any other romance fantasy with the moody male lead & stubborn female lead. 

Characters: 
Which brings me to one of my least favorite elements of this story. The characters. The FMC is so insufferably stubborn (to the point the plot was being stalled due to it) that by the end of the book I didn’t just not like her, I found her nearly unreadable. A good stubborn character I can appreciate. A plot dependent stubbornness? Absolutely not. How are you going to convince me that she is a highly intelligent assassin when she refuses knowledge to her questions? She was a mess and not in a good way. 

Dialogue: 
This story didn’t know if it wanted to be poetic or crass. On one hand you have ornate prose then you have characters saying shit, fuck & damn. It made the story lack cohesiveness. The characters & their dialogue needed massive rewriting to feel like they belonged in this style of story. The overuse of immature dialogue and curse words pulled me from the story every time. 

Overall, this book needed more editing. It needed to cut about half of the later part of the story & determine what style it wanted to be. 

But there were dragons. I freaking love dragons. 

Pride and Prejudice in Space by Alexis Lampley

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

The title of this novel is exactly what you are getting. Pride & Prejudice In Space. How this story is told is going to be what pulls readers in. The use of graphic design & art was unique. It was a creative way to keep the reader engaged and I found it highly enjoyable. However, the uniqueness of the story ends there. The story is exactly the same as the original but onboard space ships, space stations & moons. While I enjoyed the sci-fi aspects I wish the author would have leaned heavier into them. There were glimpses of a more expansive world but they fizzled out into nothing. The whole time I found myself wanting more of the world and that taste remained in my mouth beyond the last page. 
The writing is well done and was easy to read. 
The characters are, again, nearly exactly the same as the original. 
Overall I would have liked to have seen the same uniqueness given to the formatting of the story to the actual story as well. 
It was an interesting read and I would happily read from this author again. I believe with some time she has lots of potential. 

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

funny medium-paced

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

4.0

An exciting story of revenge that had me reading well into the night. I gobbled this story up and I’m dying to get my hands on the sequel.  I am hopeful that we will get more of the slow burn romance in book two. The romance isn’t the main feature of the story but I really enjoyed the subplot and want more of it immediately! 

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

One of the most unserious books I’ve ever read. It made me laugh out loud at its ridiculousness several times. But one couldn’t help but find it endearing, entertaining and one fun ride. I’m sprinting to get the rest of the series. 

Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho

adventurous hopeful sad 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? Yes

4.5

This felt like reading a Becky Chambers novel but with more violence. This is going to be a good book for very specific readers. The plot is slow to get going and everything pertaining to the world is very surface level. The characters themselves don’t have a massive amount of dimension. So why did I rate this so high? Because it’s a found family in space where everyone has parent issues & is struggling to find their place in this vast system. While it is surface level I remained entertained the entire time by the flight sequences, and banter between crew members. The Korean culture woven into the story taught me things I never knew, and the food descriptions made me salivate. The subtle but tension filled romance had me wanting more. My biggest “complaint” is this ends on a cliffhanger & it ends rather abruptly. One of those endings that I flipped the last page and thought part of the book was missing. Spoiler: it wasn’t.  But overall I am more than excited to continue to read from this author. Now, I desperately need to hunt down some Korean BBQ so see ya later! 

The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This series isn’t complete and my opinion may change on this but I do feel that my conclusive opinion on this series is going to be that it could have been a two book series. While I find this story entertaining it is clunky, whimsically written in some areas but unpolished in others. The author still struggles writing dialogue that feels appropriate for the setting. They sound like modern twenty something year olds in a regency era  type setting. As for the actual plot of the second book, in short it is a meandering stretch to make this series more than two books. The characters spend most of the book doing the same wash rinse repeat scenes. Get dressed. Question each other. Almost kiss. eat dinner. Go to sleep. Repeat. By the end of the book I was begging for something of value to happen. It did in the final quarter of this book but the slog of filler to get there bumped this down significantly. Now I didn’t expect this to be an incredibly crafted story (as I had the same exact issues with the first book in the series) but I do expect the author to have enough story to fill a series with. In which this author clearly does not. It is also so painfully predictable that I rolled my eyes several times at the climatic points. If you love easily digestible surface level romance fantasy then you will gobble this up. 

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

There is not a single original thought in this book. But I was still entertained. I don’t need every book to be a super unique never before written story. But a regurgitated idea can still be masterfully crafted and this story is not. 

The writing:  the descriptions were detailed and whimsical but the dialogue felt immature and unpolished. Too modern for the feeling of the story. Which left it feeling disjointed. It was overly repetitive in areas as well. 

The characters: superficial & typical of this type of story. Nothing special. There is a love triangle if you’re a reader who likes those kinds of things. A strong headed female lead, two moody broody men. 

The plot: again, nothing special. Court, religion & magic. It was predictable. Everything (once again) felt surface level. 

Overall: I was entertained but my eyes rolled in several places at the overuse of common romance fantasy tropes and cliches. 

Will I read the second book? 
Yes most likely. This is highly digestible romance fantasy. Kind of like eating a bag of candy. You know what to expect, it’s fun but nothing of actual substance is within it.