keddy4306's reviews
179 reviews

White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Go to review page

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

3.5

Percy Jackson/Twilight-esque. Really enjoyable read. 

I wish Zayne didn't have a sister-complex
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 8 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I'm very glad that the end of the book had
Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Mu Qing and Feng Xing (and I guess the state preceptor, Mei Nianqing) battling Jun Wu together. Xie Lian's little inner circle warms my heart.


He gazed at Xie Lian. "If your dream is to save the common people, then my dream is only you. "

Relying on his memory, Xie Lian asked with a trembling voice, "But...you won't...be able to rest in peace...like this...?"

"I pray to never rest in peace," Hua Cheng replied.
page 116

Hua Cheng exploding into butterflies will always make me cry, but reading was a lot easier this time knowing what was coming.


After much hesitation, he decided to be blunt. "Why is the evil qi...internal? It's...it's coming from inside your body. "
page 159

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the extras this time around. I was under the impression they weren't very good when I read them in 2021, but they're so sweet. While tgcf is definitely not smutty, the book is still very clear on how exactly Hualian's relationship progresses.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 7 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

dark emotional funny 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

This is
mecha battle
book haha. 

One of my favourite scenes is the reveal of Jun Wu being the one behind everything. I got chills when Xie Lian looked into the sword and saw Jun Wu's true reflection.


Hua Cheng is really putting in a lot of work saving the Heavens and the Mortal Realm, all for his gege. It's not surprising that he came up to rescue Xie Lian from Jun Wu, but it was still amazing (and they had time to be cute).


Jun Wu being a foil for Xie Lian is honestly heartbreaking, despite all the horrid things he did. I do empathize with the Crowned Prince of Wuyong since we saw first-hand how desperate both Xie Lian and Jun Wu were to help their people.


Shi Qingxuan using beggars to save the world was very cute, I missed him very much. He Xuan lending spirit powers to him so he could use his fan was bittersweet.


Our Crimson Rain Sought Flower rolling a 1 before going back to Mount Tonglu made me want to be sick...
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 6 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

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

5.0

The book starts off with stalker-thriller energy.
Hua Cheng's pottery barn is unveiled by Mu Qing and Feng Xing. Xie Lian is just blushing and going "ooooh I have a fan." the whole time hehe.


The later 2/3 of the book goes over
The white-clothed Calamity, White No-Face, Wuming, and Xie Lian's second ascension.


Help me
Help me, help me, help me.
Help me, help me, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help me!
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts...it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS!
Why can't I die?
WHY CAN'T I DIE?!
page 256

The book concludes with the
creation of Ruoye
,
rise of the white-clothed Calamity
and the
death of Wuming.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny slow-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? No

4.5

We start off with Hua Cheng being
reverted to a small child. This is absolutely adorable and the reveal of him growing back to normal size is so sweet.


I think my major complaint with this book is that while I generally love two characters discussing lore to themselves, it does come across as info-dumpy in this novel. We went through
Yin Yu and Quan Yizhen's backstory, as well as Pei Ming and Rain Master's.
Most of the book they are traveling through Mount Tonglu and we get more info-dumps about the
people of Wuyong.


The pda levels are increasing
(there's so much hugging Im gonna die of cuteness - when they were trapped in the wall together? Ugh so hard to focus on dumb Yin Yu and Quan Yizhen)
and Pei Ming is very likeable for this entire book.  Every time anyone says
your San Lang or your Crimson Rain Sought Flower
to Xie Lian, I just about die.

This seemed like a pretty decent slow-build for the next book (and comedy relief) before getting into the next book where we learn about the Fourth Calamity.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

This is phenomenal from start to finish. There isn't a second of "down-time".

We jump right into the blackwater arc and as we all know, the ships sink in black water demon lair
RIP BEEFLEAF.


THE COFFIN SCENE
and
Hualian rolling around on the floor fighting for spiritual power
are my tgcf Roman Empire.

At the very end we're left off with a delightful and heavily Princess Bride-esque conversation between Xie Lian and
Ling Wen while he proves she is the original creator of the Brocade immortal.

Sparky Sparky Boom Man showed up at the very end and reveals there is evil demon qi
on Xie Lian's lips (hehe)
and Xie Lian runs away
carrying a small bandaged child - we're back to our roots.


Xie Lian reporting the theft of the brocade immortal by Ling Wen to Ling Wen - peak comedy
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 3 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

dark emotional funny sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

TW: Child death (gore)

The start of this book is brutal.
After getting Xie Lian's ascension, meeting Honghong-er and getting more time with Mu Qing and Feng Xing, we start the long and arduous fall of Xianle and the birth of the human-faced disease.


This book has one of the most upsetting scenes I've ever read with that baby being crushed under its father after they fell from the city walls. The description is so graphic


The back half of this book rewards us with lots of cute Hualian moments like 3000 lanterns, their first kiss (underwater too) and then practicing calligraphy


And then the cherry on top is a small domestic scene at the end, and then the start of the Blackwater arc. Here we go, it's time for Beefleaf!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

dark emotional funny sad 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? Yes

5.0

This book has such an amazing start. Gamblers Den arc leading into
Hua Cheng and his perfect butterflies whisking away our darling of the Heavens.
After that we Jump immediately into the
Fangxin reveal
as well as spending a great deal of time abusing Qi Rong. 

Lang Qianqiu reminds me a lot of Jin Ling (mdzs). 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Go to review page

dark emotional funny slow-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? Yes

5.0

Starts off very slow, with the bride-groom fiasco, but it's a charming reread knowing who all the characters are. Xie Lian is way funnier than I remember. 

As soon as our favourite San Lang is introduced and we start the Banyue arc then it becomes everything I love about this series. The flirting is so cute I could die.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
病案本 [Case File Compendium] by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.
Chapter 1
The first chapter isn't actually real, it's the gong mmc writing  novel about how he loves the shou's sister. Thinking back, I don't know why this was included because he's a film student in university?

There is so much self-harm that it stops being jarring because it happens all the time.
Instead of saying any particular mental illness, like when going to an insane asylum, they just call everyone "mentally ill"||
The lgbtqia+ hate is so bad from both the mmc's it's disgusting (very homophobic at every opportunity).
The "first time" between the two mmc's (that hate each other) is a graphic 3 chapter long SA scene where the one character drugs the other. Every scene between the two of them after that is only SA

The "science" behind the one character's abilities is canonically explained with saying "So you know how in resident evil there's 'the Red queen'...."

The plot is complete and utter nonsense and the characters are for some reason all acting in a movie even though the shou is an ex-doctor/professor, his friend is a cop, and then the gong is a student.

Chapter 96
I just read a very long scene where the characters were going to down and the gong PLAYS 'MY HEART WILL GO ON' THROUGH HIS PHONE and then puts the shou up onto a part of the room that isn't flooded yet
Expand filter menu Content Warnings