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nclcaitlin's reviews
1589 reviews
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
4.5
This is an example of incredible world-building that has reignited my enthusiasm for fantasy.
Bulkov. City of Walls. Most Holy Mount. Seat of the World. The City of Stairs. Once home to the Divinities capable of great miracles before Saypur killed them.
Now The Worldly Regulations passed by the Saypuri Parliament outlaws any acknowledgment of the Divinities erasing history and persecuting the Continent for their way of life.
When an esteemed historian embassy is killed in Bulkiv, Shara is sent to investigate, a plain, small woman who is in fact the most experienced Continental operative. Her job is to ensure people do not learn that some miracles still work on the Continent ... and they certainly cannot know that some Divine creatures still exist.
Bennett is a master at his craft. The world is rich with detail, fascinating history, rich characters, and a fascinating and propelling plot.
The lore and world-building was stunningly detailed, intricately intriguing, and geared towards creating conversation.
What happens when the oppressed becomes the oppressors? Are their actions justified?
States are not, in my opinion, composed of structures supporting privilege. Rather, they are composed of structures denying it— in other words, deciding who is not invited to the table.
Bennett had some real hard-hitting pondering on human nature, love, and how we force our beliefs on the world, altering perceptions and changing the world.
What is history’s obligation? What should be remembered or hidden or rectified for a better future?
Some of the best characters, world-building, prose, and message I have read in a while.
“Coffee refreshes the body," says Shara. "Tea refreshes the soul."
Bulkov. City of Walls. Most Holy Mount. Seat of the World. The City of Stairs. Once home to the Divinities capable of great miracles before Saypur killed them.
Now The Worldly Regulations passed by the Saypuri Parliament outlaws any acknowledgment of the Divinities erasing history and persecuting the Continent for their way of life.
When an esteemed historian embassy is killed in Bulkiv, Shara is sent to investigate, a plain, small woman who is in fact the most experienced Continental operative. Her job is to ensure people do not learn that some miracles still work on the Continent ... and they certainly cannot know that some Divine creatures still exist.
Bennett is a master at his craft. The world is rich with detail, fascinating history, rich characters, and a fascinating and propelling plot.
The lore and world-building was stunningly detailed, intricately intriguing, and geared towards creating conversation.
What happens when the oppressed becomes the oppressors? Are their actions justified?
States are not, in my opinion, composed of structures supporting privilege. Rather, they are composed of structures denying it— in other words, deciding who is not invited to the table.
Bennett had some real hard-hitting pondering on human nature, love, and how we force our beliefs on the world, altering perceptions and changing the world.
What is history’s obligation? What should be remembered or hidden or rectified for a better future?
Some of the best characters, world-building, prose, and message I have read in a while.
“Coffee refreshes the body," says Shara. "Tea refreshes the soul."
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
4.25
This is how you do dark academia.
Julian is a trust fund baby, perpetually surrounded by people and seemingly destined for greatness. Paul is a nervous, Jewish boy; strange, lonely, and unable to slot himself into the expectations of the world around him. Together they fall into an obsessive relationship that borders on cruelty, affection, and need.
The prose was Donna Tartt level and I highlighted at least something every paragraph.
The explorations of philosophy and how we shape ourselves to fit the mould of society is breathtakingly poignant and gut-punchingly real.
“All most people care about is pretending everyone is exactly the same as they are, and he wasn't, he couldn't be, he knew too much about what the world really is. Those people don't care about anything except reinforcing their own fucking normalcy by making you reflect it back at them—"
Ineluctable Julian is ravenously curious and diffident Paul is quietly raging. Together, they create a dark duo of yearning hunger.
They wanted each other in the way of flesh wanting to knit itself together over a wound.
If The Secret History, The Picture of Dorian Grey, A Little Life, and Real Life had a baby, you would have this delectably deranged, derisive, desperate book.
The ending of this book was perfect and I feel utterly lost and bereaved finishing this incredible story.
Julian is a trust fund baby, perpetually surrounded by people and seemingly destined for greatness. Paul is a nervous, Jewish boy; strange, lonely, and unable to slot himself into the expectations of the world around him. Together they fall into an obsessive relationship that borders on cruelty, affection, and need.
The prose was Donna Tartt level and I highlighted at least something every paragraph.
The explorations of philosophy and how we shape ourselves to fit the mould of society is breathtakingly poignant and gut-punchingly real.
“All most people care about is pretending everyone is exactly the same as they are, and he wasn't, he couldn't be, he knew too much about what the world really is. Those people don't care about anything except reinforcing their own fucking normalcy by making you reflect it back at them—"
Ineluctable Julian is ravenously curious and diffident Paul is quietly raging. Together, they create a dark duo of yearning hunger.
They wanted each other in the way of flesh wanting to knit itself together over a wound.
If The Secret History, The Picture of Dorian Grey, A Little Life, and Real Life had a baby, you would have this delectably deranged, derisive, desperate book.
The ending of this book was perfect and I feel utterly lost and bereaved finishing this incredible story.
Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan
3.25
Gut-punched. Heavy breathing. Aggrieved.
This was waaaay darker than I expected. I would struggle to label this just a romance.
Ambitious college graduate Iris is forced to stay with Caleb, her basketball player boyfriend, because of an unexpected pregnancy. As Caleb viciously separates her from all her emotional and financial resources in violence and manipulation, Iris is isolated as she craves independence and safety for both herself and her newborn daughter.
Caleb’s jealousy is only stoked by his rival, August West who has an instantaneous connection with Iris and can’t seem to understand why Iris stays with Caleb.
“Life is a constellation of decisions, connected by coincidences and deliberations, painting pictures in the heavens. During the day, when things are brightest, we don’t see the stars, but they are there. It’s only in the contrast of night, when things are darkest, that the stars shine.”
This is dual pov which shows how Iris’s persona must change according to her situation and who might be watching. It highlights that, from the outside, we never truly know what battles others are fighting. Even in picture perfect lives we see so meticulously crafted by in this Panopticon age.
What really freaked me out was Caleb’s friend employed as a ‘bodyguard’ for Iris, i.e. a further layer of scrutiny and control.
I couldn’t have known that the first hit, that baptism into violence, doesn’t just sting the flesh. It startles the soul.
There was a time jump about half way through, and I think this was detrimental to the book’s progression. Suddenly, I lost the connection with Iris and we missed her growing and her relationship with her daughter.
Not to mention, the poignant and deeper, meaningful emotions drawn up in the first half felt swept away by the romance and sex scenes later on.
TW: MAJOR TRIGGERS for abusive relationship, rape, gaslighting, violence from a partner, gun violence, past childhood abuse CW: pregnancy
This was waaaay darker than I expected. I would struggle to label this just a romance.
Ambitious college graduate Iris is forced to stay with Caleb, her basketball player boyfriend, because of an unexpected pregnancy. As Caleb viciously separates her from all her emotional and financial resources in violence and manipulation, Iris is isolated as she craves independence and safety for both herself and her newborn daughter.
Caleb’s jealousy is only stoked by his rival, August West who has an instantaneous connection with Iris and can’t seem to understand why Iris stays with Caleb.
“Life is a constellation of decisions, connected by coincidences and deliberations, painting pictures in the heavens. During the day, when things are brightest, we don’t see the stars, but they are there. It’s only in the contrast of night, when things are darkest, that the stars shine.”
This is dual pov which shows how Iris’s persona must change according to her situation and who might be watching. It highlights that, from the outside, we never truly know what battles others are fighting. Even in picture perfect lives we see so meticulously crafted by in this Panopticon age.
What really freaked me out was Caleb’s friend employed as a ‘bodyguard’ for Iris, i.e. a further layer of scrutiny and control.
I couldn’t have known that the first hit, that baptism into violence, doesn’t just sting the flesh. It startles the soul.
There was a time jump about half way through, and I think this was detrimental to the book’s progression. Suddenly, I lost the connection with Iris and we missed her growing and her relationship with her daughter.
Not to mention, the poignant and deeper, meaningful emotions drawn up in the first half felt swept away by the romance and sex scenes later on.
TW: MAJOR TRIGGERS for abusive relationship, rape, gaslighting, violence from a partner, gun violence, past childhood abuse CW: pregnancy
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
3.5
Once upon a time there were three sisters. Juniper, the youngest and wildest; Agnes, the carer and the tireless; Beatrice, the oldest and wisest.
Now reunited in New Salem there are whispers of witching as the sisters pursue the Lost Way of Avalon which would bring magic back as it once was. It is time for the women's movement to become the witches' movement.
Set in the 1890s, Harrow transports you right in to New Salem with all its seedy underground joints, its different class and race boundaries, and the tense and fragile precipice of violence.
Harrow masterfully covers a range of important and pressing topics as she normally does in her books. Queerness, abuse, feminism, the suffragette movement, racial equality, labour rights, motherhood, identity….
Witching and women's rights. Suffrage and spells. They're both..." She gestures in midair again. "They're both a kind of power, aren't they? The kind we aren't allowed to have."
Per usual, Harrow demonstrates exquisite prose that reads like its own fairytale, adding to the dark, foreboding atmosphere that builds throughout the book. This is especially aided by the interspersed fairytale snippets that is told that connects in some way to the main plot.
The ending was bittersweet but suited the story and reminded me a lot of Ten Thousand Doors of January. However, I do think this is my least favourite of Harrow’s work. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it - I was bewitched! It just didn’t carry that same magic I have got from her other books despite it being arguably the most rooted in magic.
“Surely trust is never truly broken, but merely lost." Beatrice's lips twist.
"And what is lost, that can't be found?"
Now reunited in New Salem there are whispers of witching as the sisters pursue the Lost Way of Avalon which would bring magic back as it once was. It is time for the women's movement to become the witches' movement.
Set in the 1890s, Harrow transports you right in to New Salem with all its seedy underground joints, its different class and race boundaries, and the tense and fragile precipice of violence.
Harrow masterfully covers a range of important and pressing topics as she normally does in her books. Queerness, abuse, feminism, the suffragette movement, racial equality, labour rights, motherhood, identity….
Witching and women's rights. Suffrage and spells. They're both..." She gestures in midair again. "They're both a kind of power, aren't they? The kind we aren't allowed to have."
Per usual, Harrow demonstrates exquisite prose that reads like its own fairytale, adding to the dark, foreboding atmosphere that builds throughout the book. This is especially aided by the interspersed fairytale snippets that is told that connects in some way to the main plot.
The ending was bittersweet but suited the story and reminded me a lot of Ten Thousand Doors of January. However, I do think this is my least favourite of Harrow’s work. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it - I was bewitched! It just didn’t carry that same magic I have got from her other books despite it being arguably the most rooted in magic.
“Surely trust is never truly broken, but merely lost." Beatrice's lips twist.
"And what is lost, that can't be found?"
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
2.0
DNF @ 67% - PLEASE EXPLAIN.
I don’t know what I’m missing. This is so many people’s favourite - people I have very similar tastes to - and I couldn’t wait to dive in! Sadly, I can barely tell you the plot of this almost 1,000 page mammoth. Except a lot of prostitution, running cows, horse riding, mentions of Indians, bug eating, and rape.
Doing this via audiobook is NOT recommend. The quality was not great and keeping track and invested in all the characters was not easy.
To be fair, I have never been interested in Westerns. Historical fiction, cowboy romances, western inspired fantasy… For some reason, I never quite click with them.
Still, I am kind of disappointed this didn’t work for me.
I don’t know what I’m missing. This is so many people’s favourite - people I have very similar tastes to - and I couldn’t wait to dive in! Sadly, I can barely tell you the plot of this almost 1,000 page mammoth. Except a lot of prostitution, running cows, horse riding, mentions of Indians, bug eating, and rape.
Doing this via audiobook is NOT recommend. The quality was not great and keeping track and invested in all the characters was not easy.
To be fair, I have never been interested in Westerns. Historical fiction, cowboy romances, western inspired fantasy… For some reason, I never quite click with them.
Still, I am kind of disappointed this didn’t work for me.
Out On a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young
3.0
Sex on Halloween turns into an unplanned pregnancy and two sunshine characters who really want to make it work. Not romantically, just co-parenting colleagues.
The platonic relationship was the focus of this story. Yes, there was sexual tension, but mostly Win wanted to keep everything PG so not to complicate things with Bo and their situation.
The friendships were the best part.
The friendship between Win and her two childhood best friends she’s constantly third-wheeling in the cutest way possible.
The banter and caring between Bo and Win which kept this light and breezy and endearing.
Bo’s Dungeon and Dragon group which just adds another layer to Bo’s nerdiness and made me resemble the gooey-eyed emoji.
”I have a bachelor’s degree in how to take people canoeing for their mental health, essentially.”
“Don’t do that,” Bo says sternly.
“What?” I blink at double speed.
“Dismiss yourself like that. That sounds really fucking cool and important to me. Don’t trivialise what you accomplished.”
“Oh, uh, well… thanks.”
THERE WAS AN A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES REFERENCE! I caught that!
However, I think I was expecting…. More. Expecting to be gut punched. Emotionally healed. This was just meh. Sorry Booktok, this was a letdown.
If you want something similar in terms of hard-hitting romances - Seven days in June, Yours Truly!
The platonic relationship was the focus of this story. Yes, there was sexual tension, but mostly Win wanted to keep everything PG so not to complicate things with Bo and their situation.
The friendships were the best part.
The friendship between Win and her two childhood best friends she’s constantly third-wheeling in the cutest way possible.
The banter and caring between Bo and Win which kept this light and breezy and endearing.
Bo’s Dungeon and Dragon group which just adds another layer to Bo’s nerdiness and made me resemble the gooey-eyed emoji.
”I have a bachelor’s degree in how to take people canoeing for their mental health, essentially.”
“Don’t do that,” Bo says sternly.
“What?” I blink at double speed.
“Dismiss yourself like that. That sounds really fucking cool and important to me. Don’t trivialise what you accomplished.”
“Oh, uh, well… thanks.”
THERE WAS AN A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES REFERENCE! I caught that!
However, I think I was expecting…. More. Expecting to be gut punched. Emotionally healed. This was just meh. Sorry Booktok, this was a letdown.
If you want something similar in terms of hard-hitting romances - Seven days in June, Yours Truly!
Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter
3.75
THIS HAD ME SQUEALING AND KICKING MY FEET!
Bailey and Charlie meet on a plane flight where they immediately decide they get on each other’s nerves - polar opposites yet connected over their parents’ divorce.
Three years later, they are both in training for the same job at Planet Funnn where the funniest friendship and text messages occur.
This might be one of the funniest rom-coms I have read. Bailey is an uptight rules follower while Charlie is cynical and charming. Charlie is stellar at getting Bailey involved in his hijinks.
Yet, not only is it light and cute and amusing, it also covers deeper topics, delving into changing family lives and how we can be affected by our parents and their lives. Wanting your own happiness and comfort and security as well as wishing for theirs too even when this may diverge.
I think this is one of those books that worked so well for me as I digested it through audiobook. I think otherwise reading it might have been too cringy for me with the dialogue and teen angst. However, the narrator did a phenomenal job and I throughly enjoyed myself.
Get ready for Taylor Swift references, bookstagram shoutouts, and a cute kitten called Puffball.
Mr Nothing and Glasses have my heart!
Bailey and Charlie meet on a plane flight where they immediately decide they get on each other’s nerves - polar opposites yet connected over their parents’ divorce.
Three years later, they are both in training for the same job at Planet Funnn where the funniest friendship and text messages occur.
This might be one of the funniest rom-coms I have read. Bailey is an uptight rules follower while Charlie is cynical and charming. Charlie is stellar at getting Bailey involved in his hijinks.
Yet, not only is it light and cute and amusing, it also covers deeper topics, delving into changing family lives and how we can be affected by our parents and their lives. Wanting your own happiness and comfort and security as well as wishing for theirs too even when this may diverge.
I think this is one of those books that worked so well for me as I digested it through audiobook. I think otherwise reading it might have been too cringy for me with the dialogue and teen angst. However, the narrator did a phenomenal job and I throughly enjoyed myself.
Get ready for Taylor Swift references, bookstagram shoutouts, and a cute kitten called Puffball.
Mr Nothing and Glasses have my heart!
Wait For It by Mariana Zapata
4.0
Don’t wait for it. Read this book.
Like all good romance books, this starts either Diana saving a stranger being beaten up on her street and meeting his grumpy older brother in only his boxers.
This hurt me and hugged me and smothered me in all the emotions.
Diana is the aunt and guardian of two young boys - five year old, adorable and naive Louie, and 10 year old, gentle and observant Josh after her brother died.
She is also Mexican (family gatherings beware), has a complicated past with previous relationships, her mum, and is incredibly sensitive yet strong. And she takes no bullsh*t.
Then there’s her neighbour Dallas. Dallas who seems to hate her.
But also has the gentlest heart.
Not being a parent myself, I could still appreciate the humour and honesty. Zapata’s books are never only romance books. They are deep dives into important issues, perceptions, and personal experiences.
”When am I supposed to have an afternoon to poop in peace?"
Yes, her books are slow-burn. Yes, this book that will make you think. Sob. Laugh. Snort snot.
Yes, I recommend it.
There was a lot of things about love that you could only learn after you'd faced the real kind. The best kind wasn't this soft, sweet thing of hearts and picnics. It wasn't flowery and divine. Real love was gritty. The real kind of love never quit.
Ranking:
1. All Rhodes Lead Here
2. Wait for it
3. The Wall of Winnipeg
4. From Lukov, With Love
5. Under Locke
Like all good romance books, this starts either Diana saving a stranger being beaten up on her street and meeting his grumpy older brother in only his boxers.
This hurt me and hugged me and smothered me in all the emotions.
Diana is the aunt and guardian of two young boys - five year old, adorable and naive Louie, and 10 year old, gentle and observant Josh after her brother died.
She is also Mexican (family gatherings beware), has a complicated past with previous relationships, her mum, and is incredibly sensitive yet strong. And she takes no bullsh*t.
Then there’s her neighbour Dallas. Dallas who seems to hate her.
But also has the gentlest heart.
Not being a parent myself, I could still appreciate the humour and honesty. Zapata’s books are never only romance books. They are deep dives into important issues, perceptions, and personal experiences.
”When am I supposed to have an afternoon to poop in peace?"
Yes, her books are slow-burn. Yes, this book that will make you think. Sob. Laugh. Snort snot.
Yes, I recommend it.
There was a lot of things about love that you could only learn after you'd faced the real kind. The best kind wasn't this soft, sweet thing of hearts and picnics. It wasn't flowery and divine. Real love was gritty. The real kind of love never quit.
Ranking:
1. All Rhodes Lead Here
2. Wait for it
3. The Wall of Winnipeg
4. From Lukov, With Love
5. Under Locke
Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
2.5
No one is more gutted than me… :((
Zélie believed she had won. She seized the royal palace. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Yet now, Zélie and her fellow comrades are locked in cages and trapped on a foreign ship. The Skull King wants her and her magic.
This felt like an entirely new book rather than a finale to a series. It discounted all the conflict of the first two books to concentrate on uniting against a foreign power.
Whilst this felt almost like a cheat out of the building plot from the first two books, I did like seeing more incredibly vivid worldbuilding as our characters ventured further from their kingdom.
I do appreciate that the romance never overtook the main plot as tends to happen in YA series. There was actually a nice twist which I thought enjoyed and think other readers will too!
“I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.”
This was extremely fast paced and oddly short for what I was expecting. Yet it meant I flew through it, and I think this will appeal to transitioning readers.
However, the sudden change of purpose of the series and shortness did mean that certain arcs felt incomplete and certain characters were just never brought up which was a shame. Cough cough, Roën.
Moreover, the ending was extremely abrupt and left me feeling extremely dissatisfied.
All in all, I am crushingly disappointed. Book one was one of my favourite releases, but the series struggled to continue this momentum.
If you enjoyed this series, I would recommend The Gilded Ones!
Thank you to MacMillan for providing an archive of in exchange for a review!
Zélie believed she had won. She seized the royal palace. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Yet now, Zélie and her fellow comrades are locked in cages and trapped on a foreign ship. The Skull King wants her and her magic.
This felt like an entirely new book rather than a finale to a series. It discounted all the conflict of the first two books to concentrate on uniting against a foreign power.
Whilst this felt almost like a cheat out of the building plot from the first two books, I did like seeing more incredibly vivid worldbuilding as our characters ventured further from their kingdom.
I do appreciate that the romance never overtook the main plot as tends to happen in YA series. There was actually a nice twist which I thought enjoyed and think other readers will too!
“I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.”
This was extremely fast paced and oddly short for what I was expecting. Yet it meant I flew through it, and I think this will appeal to transitioning readers.
However, the sudden change of purpose of the series and shortness did mean that certain arcs felt incomplete and certain characters were just never brought up which was a shame. Cough cough, Roën.
Moreover, the ending was extremely abrupt and left me feeling extremely dissatisfied.
All in all, I am crushingly disappointed. Book one was one of my favourite releases, but the series struggled to continue this momentum.
If you enjoyed this series, I would recommend The Gilded Ones!
Thank you to MacMillan for providing an archive of in exchange for a review!
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
3.5
Roscille is a bride gift to the Lord Macbeth to secure an alliance, her unearthly beauty called death-touched. Poisoneyed. Witchkissed.
Roscille knows that there are the two fundamental aspects of wifehood: Open your legs to your lord husband and bear a child.
Yet, she is determined to survive as a foreign bride in a place where she is hated as a suspected witch.
Can the canny mind of a weasel exist within a bird's fragile, feathered body?
This is unlike anything Ava Reid has written before. It encapsulates feminine rage and power and wiles, and what men will do for power to feel strong and in control. Whilst the story is more akin to Juniper and Thorn in terms of themes, the prose was more similar to a Study in Drowning. I think this will make it appeal to all her audiences.
Roscille is extremely clever, wry, and coldly strategic. However, as she becomes her husband’s weapon, she is stuck between disgust at her own guilt and her desire for survival.
Roscille isn’t physically strong, yet her manipulative wiles and the way she uses her mind makes this a riveting, psychological, haunting and dark read.
This is the greatest of men's aspirations, to — whether through love or through violence —draw screams from women's mouths.
I do think however, I wanted more. It felt too short. I could see the percentage ticking up and I couldn’t see how Ava could wrap this altogether in the time she had left. It didn’t end in the middle of the plot or anything, but it did feel rushed and incomplete. Maybe this is me saying I really wanted MORE.
Thank you to Del Rey for providing an arc in exchange for a review!
Roscille knows that there are the two fundamental aspects of wifehood: Open your legs to your lord husband and bear a child.
Yet, she is determined to survive as a foreign bride in a place where she is hated as a suspected witch.
Can the canny mind of a weasel exist within a bird's fragile, feathered body?
This is unlike anything Ava Reid has written before. It encapsulates feminine rage and power and wiles, and what men will do for power to feel strong and in control. Whilst the story is more akin to Juniper and Thorn in terms of themes, the prose was more similar to a Study in Drowning. I think this will make it appeal to all her audiences.
Roscille is extremely clever, wry, and coldly strategic. However, as she becomes her husband’s weapon, she is stuck between disgust at her own guilt and her desire for survival.
Roscille isn’t physically strong, yet her manipulative wiles and the way she uses her mind makes this a riveting, psychological, haunting and dark read.
This is the greatest of men's aspirations, to — whether through love or through violence —draw screams from women's mouths.
I do think however, I wanted more. It felt too short. I could see the percentage ticking up and I couldn’t see how Ava could wrap this altogether in the time she had left. It didn’t end in the middle of the plot or anything, but it did feel rushed and incomplete. Maybe this is me saying I really wanted MORE.
Thank you to Del Rey for providing an arc in exchange for a review!