maddy_reads1's reviews
103 reviews

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Such a great first read of the year! I really enjoyed this, Rebecca Ross is just such a brilliant writer and her words are beautiful and truly moving. There was a few things that stopped this being a 5 star feeling, it was slow at points and I actually found it quite dark! But overall it was such a good and unique story line, with such interesting and well fleshed out side characters. I loved the romance, Jack and Adaira remind me of Iris and Kitt, just timeless and incredible!

Animal Farm by George Orwell

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

I found this quite cringe and the dialog was hard to read. Words like “nevah” instead of never and “dis is da…” instead of this is the, was just way too much for me and totally put me off the book. I do think the premise is interesting but I just couldn’t get past the writing!

The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was enjoyable and had such a good concept, and I enjoyed it for the most part. But I found the relationship hard to connect with, it was a little cringey and oversold. I also thought the world building lacked a little, the rules in each echo and its limitations weren’t really explained. I also couldn’t understand why they waited so long to uninvited Rai, why not just ask the whole party to unitive all echos? Could have saved a lot of time.

Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

The Christmas Carol story was great, I really enjoyed that! Some of the other short stories I could have done without, the Haunted Man was a bit of a slog although the meaning behind it was nice. Over all it was a good book, I could see myself reading A Christmas Carol again but perhaps not the others for a while!

The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore
Did not finish book. Stopped at 4%.

A full romance book is just not my thing, I’ve gave it a good go with this interconnected series but it’s just not for me. This first 14 pages just made me cringe and was too far fetched to keep going 

The Whispering Night by Susan Dennard

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was okay, definitely not as good as the first two. The hunting moon finished on a big reveal that I thought would make this book start really fast and tense, but the first 200 odd pages were very slow. Some of the songs were cringy and I didn’t like how the author tried to include physics in the book, especially when some of it was incorrect or overused, I don’t want to see “photon” written down again! But it was a nice but predictable ending to the story, just wish I enjoyed this as much as the last two.

The Star-Child by Oscar Wilde

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

I really enjoyed some of these short stories, they always have a hidden and deeper meaning so it was very reflective. Some of them towards the end were a bit long and repetitive. Ifs clear Oscar wild has a distinct writing style from some of these stories. My favourites were the  happy prince and the selfish giant!

Until We Shatter by Kate Dylan

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this! Probably my favourite illumicrate so far! It was really fun, short and sweet with an interesting magic system. I did see the plot twist coming that Lena wasn’t dead, but I didn’t see it coming that she would be Chase’s twin! All in all a great story!