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amberimagines's reviews
265 reviews
Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
medium-paced
3.0
This was cute. If you're looking for a low stakes, chill YA fantasy you would probably enjoy this. Very light romance and light magic use. There really isn't a clear plot until like 50% in, but still overall it was fine. The worldbuilding was cool!
The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna
Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.
Just did not like this. The series started off great in book one, but the second book and this one kind of went off the rails for me. At this point the story is so unserious.
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Publishing for this eARC. Of Jade and Dragons is a YA silkpunk fantasy following Ying, who must disguise herself as a boy to uncover the secrets of her father's murder so she can get revenge. Most of this review is going to be under a spoiler warning! From the beginning, Ying's motivations in this book felt somewhat off to me because despite claiming to love her father, she ignores he dying wish to NOT get revenge, even after she told him she wouldn't? It felt so disrespectful lol especially because she didn't listen to the very reasonable advice of everyone around her (which is very typical of MCs but still). She then runs away from home and joins the Engineering Guild to figure out who killed her father, but most of the book she's not even doing that! There's like one time she accidentally stumbles into an opportunity to investigate the murder but other than that it's like she completely forgets this is what she set out to do. In the middle of the book there's just a lot going on, Ying is completely focused on passing the tests of the Engineering Guild, there's a ton of time devoted to this and her hanging out with the other boys in the Guild, then there's the romance subplot between her and Ye Yang, and then there's this other subplot of the war between their kingdom and the Empire also going on. It just felt very random and like we lost the plot a bit. The romance was pretty lackluster in my opinion, like one second their friends then suddenly they're in love (this is also pretty common in YA fantasy, but still a little annoying lol). It's only after the very predictable betrayal by the male love interest that Ying suddenly returns to wanting to investigate her father's murder. Then when she finally figures it out the whole thing is so underwhelming. She also places blame for his murder on people that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Overall I thought this book was pretty predictable. It felt like reading a YA fantasy I've already reads dozens of times, just dropped into a slightly different universe. So I think it could really work for some people! Mostly what disappointed me was the meandering middle of the book where Ying seems totally disconnected from her original goal, then suddenly comes back to it at the end. It wasn't bad, and I would try another book from this author in the future, but this was just was kind of a snooze for me.
Somewhere in the Gray Area by Jeffrey K. Davenport
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
3.5
This book is very unserious and the plot is so silly, but it's funny and I had a great time! I loved James's voice in this story - he is hilarious and although he continually makes very questionable decisions it fit well with the humor in this story. Overall I enjoyed!
Game On by Seressia Glass
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
This one just wasn't for me unfortunately.
James by Percival Everett
5.0
Incredible Incredible book, James is now one of my favorite fictional characters, ever! This was adventurous and emotional and tender all at the same time. The writing had me really feeling like I was there in the story, feeling all if the fear and tension but also the joy and love and laughter with the characters. This is my first Percival Everett book, and I can't wait to read more from him.
The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
1.5
I read an ARC copy of this book, my review is based on that! I was very excited for this book, but unfortunately I did not have a good time. The premise of this book sounded so excellent and epic, but the execution felt so stale! It's been marketed as a romantasy, but where is the romance!? lol. I think because the idea of this book is like fated love the author didn't spend as much time building up the chemistry between the couples and making their romance feel believable. It was like reading about strangers who we are told "love each other" or have this incredible attraction and then that's it, from their we are expected to believe it. I wish the author had spent more time really building a connection between the characters. Actual romance is more present in one of the timelines, and I definitely enjoyed Don Xian and Liu Xin's timeline the connection between them was developed more.
Also, speaking of timelines, this book features three timelines that are supposed to be interwoven resulting in a love transcends time (this is from the official summary so no spoilers!). This love transcending time was what drew me to the book in the first place, but again the execution was poor in my opinion. The interconnectedness of the timelines is very obvious early on and I felt that took away from any sense of wonder for the reader. There is also very little world-building so you have to do a lot of creation as the reader to imagine the unique aspects of each timeline.
This next criticism is very unique to me, but the marketing of this book as "genre-bending" and "challenging what we know about true love" created an expectation in my mind of this truly epic, eternal romance, but the tone of this book actually is very silly and not very serious and in my opinion didn't match with the way it was described. The tone also didn't really match what I think the book was trying to do, and it made it a bit confusing trying to understand exactly what we're supposed to be taking away from this story. I'm not sure what about this book challenged anything about true love lol. And finally, the characters themselves were not well developed. I wish we had more time in the heads of all of the characters, I think that would have helped us understand who they are more and make us more invested in their romances! I wish this had happened with all of the main characters, but particularly Dong Xian because that would have helped understand his choices. There were so many instances in this book where I felt that things were just happening randomly, and characters were making completely random decisions, but I think more time developing the characters would have helped give more weight and meaning to some aspects of the plot and the conflicts.
Overall I feel like this book took on a plot too large that it wasn't able to fully realize. I hope that the finished copy is better edited and the plot is more aligned. This book honestly felt like reading a first draft attempt before someone went back and tied everything together. It was kind of a mess and unfortunately was a disappointment for me.
Also, speaking of timelines, this book features three timelines that are supposed to be interwoven resulting in a love transcends time (this is from the official summary so no spoilers!). This love transcending time was what drew me to the book in the first place, but again the execution was poor in my opinion. The interconnectedness of the timelines is very obvious early on and I felt that took away from any sense of wonder for the reader. There is also very little world-building so you have to do a lot of creation as the reader to imagine the unique aspects of each timeline.
This next criticism is very unique to me, but the marketing of this book as "genre-bending" and "challenging what we know about true love" created an expectation in my mind of this truly epic, eternal romance, but the tone of this book actually is very silly and not very serious and in my opinion didn't match with the way it was described. The tone also didn't really match what I think the book was trying to do, and it made it a bit confusing trying to understand exactly what we're supposed to be taking away from this story. I'm not sure what about this book challenged anything about true love lol. And finally, the characters themselves were not well developed. I wish we had more time in the heads of all of the characters, I think that would have helped us understand who they are more and make us more invested in their romances! I wish this had happened with all of the main characters, but particularly Dong Xian because that would have helped understand his choices. There were so many instances in this book where I felt that things were just happening randomly, and characters were making completely random decisions, but I think more time developing the characters would have helped give more weight and meaning to some aspects of the plot and the conflicts.
Overall I feel like this book took on a plot too large that it wasn't able to fully realize. I hope that the finished copy is better edited and the plot is more aligned. This book honestly felt like reading a first draft attempt before someone went back and tied everything together. It was kind of a mess and unfortunately was a disappointment for me.