bookishdaylight's reviews
303 reviews

Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

funny fast-paced

3.0

Hear me out, It was surprisingly good if you know want you’re getting yourself into. Most of the time, I was cackling in some scenes due to how ridiculous things are in the story itself. No, I am not making fun of the concept but there are some things that I seem to find weird and yet it was also fascinating?!

When it comes to the characters they were quite undeveloped considering how fast paced the book was, which is the same case with the plot almost being nonexistent. The only thing that I didn’t like was what Vektal did to Georgie when he first found her.

Lastly, I blame Ellias for making me so intrigued about this book that I made myself pick it up. Did I regret it? No I don’t.

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

I AM NOT OKAY. I AM NOT OKAY.
This trilogy literally had me on a chokehold. To be honest, I am still utterly distraught about everything that has happened and even though it kind of ended nicely, this book traumatized me in some way I’ll never be able to recover. 

Every book in this trilogy had me crying and this one, oh my god.. I never thought it could get worse and sadder than the first two books and yet this brought more pain than relief. 

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

This is much more intense than the first book and I liked how it kept me hooked for the majority of the story. It’s also refreshing to see the development most of the characters had and it made me like them more as a character. There were so many things that I had to keep in mind when I started reading the second book and choosing a side again is not what I anticipated considering I already chose what side I was on the first book and now seeing different perspectives of the characters made me indecisive in which characters to root for. 

I’m not gonna lie, Ali grew on me as a character and now seeing him more grown up and having more understanding around his world made me like him more. I know that there are some moments that he can be rather annoying but at least, it’s not as intense in the first book. Nahri, has became more cynical as a character and I love her for it. Dara is my favorite character out of  all of them yet seeing his actions throughout the story, saddens me so much. It’s kind of hard to root for a character especially if you don’t want them all to die. 

I’m still quite torn on everything and I don’t how it’ll be resolved in the next book…

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

The first half was very slow in where it was mostly about the introduction of the world itself and the characters themselves. Even though it was action packed in those chapters, I was very confused in the storyline and I was having a hard time to keep up with the pacing of it. 

There were moments that I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at a certain character which is Ali the other main considering he was rather clumsy and mostly scared half the time yet he is known to be one of the greatest fighters out there and he acts so foolishly?! 

Another thing that didn’t sit right with me was the age of the main characters where we have Alizayd who is 18 and Nahri who is 20 then we have the djinns, shafits and other beings that are older than them for a century or more and I find it utterly ridiculous that Ali and Nahri are the ones who are supposedly make change to their world. They could’ve atleast made them more a bit older to not make it seem ya. 

I really did like this story but those are the ones that stick out to me that I needed to comment on. On the other half of the book mostly near the ending, that’s where we get more action on the city Daevabad where we get more high stakes on some situations that got more and more serious down the line. 

In the last few pages I sobbed on a certain chapter because of a certain character and that alone brought immense pain to me. There would be no peace to that…

Lastly. I am disappointed with the main characters and their actions throughout the story.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 “ It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for. His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery. “

In the beginning of Dorian Gray’s youth, he was innocent, young and adored but throughout the years he became corrupt and acted shallow towards people that made him unlikable towards others. It was showcased in this book that in their time, beauty and youth was the most desired by everyone and only the exterior part that mattered. In which this is one of the influences that Mr. Gray chose to grasp on by staying  young and beautiful. 

Dorian Gray could have stayed as a nice person yet he was so focused on the outside of his character that he didn’t even think about how it will change his very being on the inside. This is where he allowed to be overrun by his own wickedness by deferring responsibility for his actions that made his figure leading to a pity and inevitable doom.

I really find this book fascinating with its premise and the idea of seeing the core of your very being by the sins that you acted upon and how it’ll show who you are as a person by just merely looking into your painting.

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

This was so well written and I loved the Arabian representation that it has along with its culture in where you get to understand more of it as the story progresses. 

This was magical in a way how the characters were presented in the story. I truly adored them so much and their character dynamics. The plot was slow and it didn’t bother me at all considering  I couldn’t get enough of the zumra and their witty ass banter that kept me sane throughout the whole book. As much as we know that there are so many stakes along the way, the mains really brought comfort in me, Making me cry and laugh in serious situations. 

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

4.0

This was surprisingly good in where I was very hooked in terms of knowing more about the story and the characters themselves. When it comes to the plot, there were some twists and turns along the way that made the story more interesting considering there were little moments that started to get slow and I needed something to hook me to continue reading and it did. 

The one thing that bothered me was the writing style. Usually I don’t mind them at all but it was in two perspectives of the mains Zafira and Nasir and in their perspective, it’s in third pov in where we  just read the narration of what they see and sometimes it can get a little confusing. I tried not the writing style bother me since I really wanted to finish reading the book for the reason that I liked the story itself and how it progresses. Thank goodness that I had the patience of easing myself to this writing style because if I didn’t, that would be a bummer considering how good this book is. 

Echoes and Empires by Morgan Rhodes

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

3.0

Magic and technology of the modern world makes the build-up of the story rather confusing. For having technology with gadgets, they can’t seem to capture the warlocks and witches for thousands of years. There was only little development of the magic system within the world-building in where there was little to none knowledge about it in the story. 

For the characters, I find them quite tolerable and not that memorable because of the short given time to know them. It was rather an insta love for the relationship that they had considering they’ve been with each other for two days and suddenly she cares about his well-being and acts like she really knows him. Overall she knew him for a month and she’s falling? Yeah, that’s to quick for me. No tension at all but only bickering between them.

Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

Sofia and Gideon are probably my least favorite characters in this whole trilogy for the reason of their on and off relationship with each other. For me, there was only a small build-up to their relationship considering everything about the plot that complicates things. 

Moving towards the plot, it was intense with the stakes with everything with the six mains. I had a great time learning more about Sofia and Gideon's characters, especially with them uniting with the other mains where we encounter some twists along the way.

Overall this was a great wrap-up for the trilogy.

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

Even though this takes place on a different planet with a new set of characters, I still had a great insight into what's happening after the disappearance of the Icarus spaceship. This was thrilling in a way you get to understand more about the whispers and how their power evolved in just a few months. So mysterious yet adventurous that made me more enthralled in reading. I adored Jubilee and Flynn and their dynamic with their witty-ass banter.