mallorieluna's reviews
95 reviews

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This hooked me from the start, the history of the Paladins was gripping and through line for the whole of the work, I really enjoyed the characters and the trouble they got into. The story is much more about the characters than the plot though as this is the first in a series I believe the plot will continue to build through the next books and I'm looking forward to getting more of that and filling in the gaps left here.

Consent by Jill Ciment

emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

My one real complaint is that, I wish it had been longer, I wish there had been more about the magic and the creatures. It is technically a self contained story but I found myself wishing I'd gotten more from all the characters.

Sword in the Stars by A.R. Capetta, Cory McCarthy

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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? Yes

4.0

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous funny slow-paced

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

2.75

While I don't think this book is as bad as I've heard many people say, I don't think it's nearly as good as others would like us to believe either. It suffers a great deal from pacing issues, the story only really starts in the last 100 pages of a nearly 500 page book. I think it could have benefited from a few more rounds of editing. 

I liked the dragons, I wish there had been far more of that in the story, and the fighting/combat scenes were well written and easy to follow, not getting tangled up in trying to figure out where people were or what they were doing at any given moment. 

This feels more like a first draft though, at the end of the day. Something that needs a little more polish and a far more critical eye from an editor to cut out the fluff that bulked up so much of the first 3/4s of the story. It feels like it's suffering from an identity crisis, uncertain if it want's to be a more generic YA with a love triangle and the old familiar beats that we're now more than used to, or a more adult story about war and betrayal and loss. With some work it could have been something pretty great, but as it is, it's definitely lacking. 

The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.0

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.0

Anne of Greenville by Mariko Tamaki

hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

I really liked the start of this book, the set up of Greenville and Anne's family and the dynamics of the other students and various characters around town. The stakes felt very real in many cases, the stress faced by Anne's mother, and Anne herself when faced with truly vile bigotry. My biggest gripe is that there was very little time at all devoted to a resolution in all of this. For all that we got example after example of how awful those around Anne were we never got any satisfying resolution to what they did, no true consequences for anything done. And I suppose a part of that is true to reality, bigots in small minded places rarely face any real comeuppance, but its not the kind of catharsis I'd hope for in a story that's attempting to be as hopeful and uplifting as the end of Anne of Greenville seems to want to be. Even if the result is not full acceptance for Anne, some measure of real change would have been nice to see, or even just more of everyone working together to pull off the school play rather than having it happen in a sort of montage scene that glosses over any kind of character growth that might have happened in that time.