kimreads14's reviews
180 reviews

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I listened to the audiobook, and I’m pretty sure that it’s why I can’t get myself to rate this higher. 

The story was exciting, fast-paced, and truly addictive. But the narration 😬 for some reason regardless of which speed I listened to the book, it felt like every sentence just ended with a question mark. At times, it was truly annoying and took me out of the story. 

I really enjoyed it though. It’s a great legal/political thriller with all the elements for a great read. I guess if I had read the book in digital or physical format I would have ranked it a bit higher, but unfortunately the narration really made it hard at times to keep going. 

I loved the characters, from Avery to Justice Wynn. The Chief Justice, Noah, and all the other secondary character helped with the overall story telling. I also really enjoyed how Abrams used side characters to get Avery to explain her reasoning to the reader. 

Overall a great read, but one of this few occasion where I thought a physical copy might have made the story better over the audio version. 3.75⭐️ I will happily read the next one. 

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

1.0

Ok hear me out! It’s not because you’re writing a book on the people who compiled the OED that you have to use flowery prose to blow up your page count! 😒

Also, after finishing this book, what was the point! It took more than 200 pages for the author to eventually admit that the story behind this whole thing is actually false! Are you kidding me?

Winchester clear ableist bias also translates when he just keeps pushing on the madness of Dr Minor, and all the crazy things and aspects of his life, even though he himself states at one point that by modern standards, Dr Minor probably suffered from a schizophrenic disorder. But hey, let’s keep just talking about how offbeat and mad the guy was, while saying in the end that if he had had access to modern treatment Dr Murray would just have… lost his genius? 👀🤦‍♀️

I don’t even want to discuss the absence of women in this book. Oh I’m sorry, actually women are there: they’re “whores” or servants. And let’s not even talk about the freaking idea that Sri Lankan GIRLS swimming naked was the starter point for Dr. Murray’s mental problems? Just… WTF? 🤪 who’s crazy really? 

This was truly a waste of time on my part, and paper on the part of the author and editorial team. 

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

2.0

You know how sometimes you’ll stumble upon a movie or some trashy reality show and you just can’t get yourself to turn it off? That’s what happened for me with this book. 

I binged it in one day. Yes even though within the first 10% I knew I didn’t like it, I just had that weird feeling that told me I needed closure to see how badly it could go. And well… it went. Bad. But it also felt so good? 🤪 

The 5 million plot twists were so ridiculous that they were brilliant in how grotesque they were.  

It was like watching a test car crash in slow motion, you can’t stop yourself from watching even though you know it’s going to get ugly. 

The 2 ⭐️ really comes from my weird enjoyment of this. 

Blood and Mascara by Colin Krainin

dark mysterious

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

3.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book as an e-ARC.

Overall, it is an enjoyable read. I really enjoyed the poetic prose and the noir mystery of the story. 

If you enjoy a fast-paced novel, this might not be quite the book for you. The story's start is pretty slow-paced and picks up about halfway through. I was glad to be reading this book on an e-reader because there were quite a lot of characters to keep track of and at times, I found myself having to use the search function to remember who was who. 

The characters are well-crafted and multi-dimensional. But here is the thing, I just didn't like any of the characters 😕 I just... I don't know, as I said, the characters' work was well done but I just really couldn't get myself to like any of them. Or even enjoy the fact that... I didn't like them 🤷‍♀️ I'm really struggling to explain the why/how, etc. It just didn't click.

I did like it though, not to the point of raving about it, but still a nice read ☺️

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark funny mysterious

3.75

I’ve finished it. And I still don’t know if I understood even half of what happened in this book! 

HOWEVER, I would read ANYTHING that has Gideon and Harrow because they are PRECIOUS! 

Sometimes, just like in everyday life, you won’t be able to understand everything. I only accept it wholeheartedly when I fall in love with characters. In this instance, I did, I just love Gideon, Harrow, Sextius, Camilla… even the weird tweens. 

Be right back, need to run to the book store to get a copy of Harrow The Ninth. 

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

4.0

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK! 

I need more from Muderbot. Will be editing this a little later when I have more time to write a full review.

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake

2.0

This book was such a let down 😭

I enjoyed the first book in the series, I loved the second book, but this one…. 

For some reason, the characters seem to have changed since I last read The Atlas Paradox. I don’t mean in a “as any human being they have grown, and are now better/worst because of their experience”, no no! They just seemed like completely different characters. 😕

I think it’s no surprise to anyone who has read the first two books that someone or multiple someones were going to die in this finale… but like that? Just…excuse me why? 😡 

The structure as well was so confusing, the first two books also had multiple POVs, but this time around I just kept getting lost. I mean so many time I kept thinking: “wait where am I in the story again?” 

I wanted to love this book so much, to get the ending it deserved, and yet! It just was so badly executed 😭

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.75

Just like Bookshops and Bonedust was a cute, feel-good, cozy fantasy, Legends and Lattes is precious. Is it worth 5⭐️, I don't think so. But if you need a pick-me-up book with low stakes, this is perfect.

I would say though that the cast of characters did feel a bit copy and paste with different names 😬 but because the recipe for Bookshops and Bonedust (yes, I'm aware that this is technically a prologue published after Legends and Lattes ) worked so well, this second book just worked as well. There's a bit less mystery this time around though

Really enjoyed it, perfect for a winter cozy read I'd say ☺️

The List by Yomi Adegoke
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

Nope, just nope. 

I’m sorry but this is a big DNF for me. It’s just so problematic, and the characters… yeah nah.