obsidian_blue's reviews
3099 reviews

The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez

4.0

Honestly this is mostly a 3.5 star read, but I loved the interactions between Charlotte and Seth. I agree with my friend Sam, thought the ending was a big old eh frankly with regards to the stalking subplot.

"The Fall Risk" follows Charlotte and Seth. Stairs are removed from their apartment complex so they are both stuck until the following week when the stairs will be reinstalled. Charlotte is dealing with having to move multiple times because of a stalker. Seth is getting over being cheated on and divorced. However, both of them end up talking and enjoying to get to know one another.

Honestly, the parts with Charlotte and Seth were awesome. I also adored Charlotte's best friend and how protective of Charlotte she was, but also constantly telling her how she was going to overcome what has happened to her before.

I would recommend readers may want to read "Worst Wingman Ever" since this is a sequel to that with some of the same characters appearing in this one. 

The ending though as I said, eh. I just don't know. The whole stalking subplot felt like a different story and the ending to that wasn't that satisfying to me at least.  

The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman

2.0

 

I don't know if this is going to be the last book in Hoffman's series, but this felt like a very weird note to end things on. I have loved the magical realism of the other books, but this one was kind of not hitting it for me. And I think it's because of a common thing that often happens in romance books which I think is going to set off some readers. No spoilers, but I was just disappointed by it.

"The Bookstore Keepers" follows sisters Isabel and Sophie. It's been several years since Isabel has returned and is now happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Johnny. But something occurs that has Isabel waiting for someone that she loves to realize that she's right there, just waiting for them to come back to her. Sophie is also dealing with waiting. Her daughter is about to graduate college but has not come home as much as she would have liked. But now with her daughter returning to the island, Sophie thinks this means she's going to help her and Isabel run the bookstore.

I think that my biggest issue as I said above was that Isabel's story felt very unworthy of the character. I was just disappointed and will leave it at that. But I also think that Sophie did not get enough time to shine. I was disappointed that we really only had glimpses of her in this book story, and we get a little bit more from her daughter Violet, but not enough again.

This story was way too short and I was left feeling unsatisfied. 

Slither by Joseph Delaney

2.0

 

I finished Slither around 2 am today and honestly this was just not good. You know all the ways that made "I Am Grimalkin" so fantastic? Totally missing here. It doesn't help that even though she shows up, we don't get her POV which maybe would have helped. Instead we stay in the head of Slither (a terrible character) and Nessa (an oldest daughter forced to have to deal with the fact her father sold her into slavery and certain death). Also there is way too many plot holes and nonsensical world building in this one and the ending was not satisfying. I don't know if Slither will show up in the next two books or not, but honestly if he does not, the series is missing nothing. This was a filler book and honestly I think Delaney could have said, hey we don't need 13 stories, let's end with 12, but what do I know.

Fair warning, this one is a lot more gory than the other books in the series.

"Slither" follows a creature named Slither who is a Kobolos Mage (and no I have no idea in the real world what this corresponds to, it was so unclear and I just gave up trying to piece it together via other myths) and lives somewhere far north of the County and in a land that does not know about spooks, the Fiend, and even really witches. It's a land where the Kobolos rule and take blood from animals and humans. Slither has an agreement with a farmer that if he dies, that he takes his three daughters to his family, and the youngest are not harmed, but his oldest, his daughter Nessa, can be sold to him. Nessa of course is dismayed at the agreement her father made, but has no choice and does what she can to protect her youngest sisters Bryony and Susan.

The story shifts between Slither and Nessa's point of views. And if you think this is a girl falls in love with a monster story and vice versa, think again. It's harsh reading about what happens to the girls as they focus on getting to the family that they hope will take them in. At one point I even gave up following what was happening because the world building was all over the place. In one chapter we are told that the things that happened when Slither sought sanctuary shouldn't have happened, but then it does and they are forced to flee and then in trouble for the very things that should not have happened. The whole flow was disjointed and got worse when Grimalkin showed up. And it didn't even make sense what happened to her and how she even got there. I think that Delaney needed her to be the big deus ex machina because otherwise the ending would not work.

The ending you think may be going another way until you read that poem/song at the end and you go, whelp that was a dark way to end this. Lovely. 

Exposure by Ramona Emerson

3.0

 

What a bummer, the first book had such an excellent premise and I think that Emerson wanted to have her cake and eat it too with this one. I think that Rita should have been the sole focus of this second book and instead seemed to be stuffed into it and it just didn't work.

"Exposure" follows Rita after the events of the last book. Rita, still a forensic photographer is dealing with the fallout of everyone knowing she sees ghosts. And using what she learned to go after corrupt cops has her being seen as the enemy by those in the police force. Rita though is determined to get her job back, and when called to a horrific scene, she realizes that she may never be healed enough to do her job. The book then jumps between Rita and someone unknown who grows up determined to "heal" those Natives that he sees in New Mexico by killing them and sending them to heaven. Using the frigid temperatures to mask what he is doing, he's gone unnoticed, until now.

I liked all of the parts with both Rita and the serial killer, but honestly, it felt like I was reading two separate books. It didn't help that in the end, Rita was not necessary to the outcome of this story at all. It felt like she got shoehorned in. I think Emerson wanted to tell a bigger story about war, alcoholism, and the effects of the Church on the Native population in New Mexico. And she was trying to do so, but it just didn't work with Rita's chapters and points of view.

Shifting between the dual POVs caused the flow to not really work at all. I felt disjointed while reading between the two of them and never got settled into the story the way I did in the first book.

The setting of New Mexico reads bleak throughout this book. Except when Emerson has Rita go back to the reservation. I was just in New Mexico and was picturing some of the things described, the highways, reservations, etc. and that was nice that I had a picture in my head from visiting that matched this book.

The ending leaves things slightly unfinished for Rita, but no idea if Emerson plans on another book in this series. 

The Last Apprentice: Lure of the Dead (Book 10) by Joseph Delaney

3.0

 

Well well well. I knew certain people were full of it, and this book shows us who they are. At this point all is revealed to Tom and he is left with a terrible choice. He either lets the Fiend bring the dark (and honestly who cares at this point) or he has to kill someone he loves to stop him forever.

This whole book was just the Spook being shown he is not up to the task of being the Spook and things more firmly being handed over to Tom. But also I got to wonder about that prophecy that was being shrieked at us for four solid books that I assume is not going to come true? Who knows. I guess we see in the last three books of the series.

All in all, I didn't feel that Tom is the hero that the County and everyone needs, instead you have Grimalkin and Alice still kicking ass and taking names. It seems to me, the witches (who are part of the dark) have more sense than the men and lamia's running around. I now wonder if we had followed the witches side of things if I would have enjoyed this series more, but I will never know.

We get more insight into Tom's terrible mother, and he is once again left with a terrible decision tree and since Tom never chooses right, I am just going to guess the last book in this series is going to really tick me off. Also sadly, this book dispatches someone we have gotten to know off scene to speak and it just has Tom going, I won't tell what I know because I don't need more people to hate me. But yes, Tom is definitely strong enough to be the Spook. 

Grimalkin the Witch Assassin by Joseph Delaney

5.0

 

Wow. Just wow. This honestly is the best book I have read in the series and it is now my favorite. This book had everything and even at one point had me in tears. I loved the insight it gave us to Grimalkin, why she was so focused on destroying the Fiend, and what it means to her to be a witch assassin.

"Grimalkin the Witch Assassin" is told in the POV of Grimalkin. Each chapter has her talking to someone (you quickly find out who) and you find out her philosophy on what it means to fight your enemies and do so in honor. This follows Grimalkin as she does her best to stay ahead of the Fiend's followers who want to take the bag she carries with the Fiend's head in it. We all know that Grimalkin is doing what she can to give Tom Ward time to figure out a way to completely destroy the Fiend, but now with her pursuers and something that may spell death for Grimalkin, she may be out of options soon.

Grimalkin is awesome. I really would just like a book detailing all of the things she gets into in the future, but this was good enough. Delaney uses this book to show how she first met and was tricked by the Fiend, what caused her to turn on him, and how she has been secretly training someone to one day take her place. We also have her interacting with Tom's mother's sisters (the lamia still in the tower) and how she seems more than aware of what Tom's mother really was even more than the Spook and Tom.

The plot moves very fast and you really just have one big bad in this one with a monster at it's side so it was easy enough to follow. Of course you also get some hapless humans (per usual).

The ending was devastating and again, we get to see how strong Alice really is. 

Rage of the Fallen by Joseph Delaney

2.0

Rubs eyes. At this point I think that the series is going to have each book with Tom traveling to each country that has ever been in a matter of days and have him take out another big bad. This book always cements the fact that Tom is a Gary Sue. And that Alice is the best thing ever and maybe that is who we should have been following all along. 

"Rage of the Fallen" has our merry trio (not really) traveling to Ireland to escape the fighting that has taken over the County and the island of Mona. Tom though is worried because he keeps dreaming of the witch that Bill Arkwright killed and that the goddess Morrigan is after him and has warned him to never set foot on Ireland. Again, most of the book is trying to escape bad people, getting captured, offered terrible choices, lather, rinse, and repeat. 

I read some other reviews that complained about the changing myths we are supposed to track in this series at this point and I have to agree. It's a lot going on (per usual) and it just felt like Delaney wanted to do a myth mash up instead of sticking with what we had in the first few books. And again if the overall plot is to defeat Voldermort....eh I mean the Fiend, the sidequests the characters keep going on are not that important and just start to read as filler after a while. You just (or I just) got so bored and I don't care. There's no high stakes even in this one because though someone is captured, they are released, we are told there is no hope for them, and then they are back to normal a few pages later. I was like....what the heck? Can we just not have any type of tension in this series? Ever? 

Also, again, Tom doesn't tell the Spook something and there are zero repercussions for it. 

Honestly, the best thing that happened in this book was that Tom gets trained by Grimalkin, and she seems to be the only character with any common sense outside of Alice. 

Rise of the Huntress by Joseph Delaney

3.0

I don't know why Goodreads showed me giving this four stars, I did not. This was three stars, at best. Taking up soon after the events in Greece and Tom and Alice doing something really dumb (again) we have the two of them and the Spook returning home and realizing it's been destroyed and the County has been overrun. They decide to flee to the island of Mona and once again, they have some evil doers out there, some in league with the Fiend (again) and some just doing their own mess, and we get an older villain who is now out for revenge against the Spook and Tom.  

Honestly this was so long and I wish that the last book had been longer. There is just way too many things going on in this one that even make sense and I just rolled with it. I think there should just be one big bad per book because otherwise it's just a collection of characters that are hard to track and even make sense of things. 

I think that the book flow was really repetitive though, they kept trying to escape and got captured by so many different big bads in this one I got tired of it. 

And of course you have Tom still keeping secrets from the Spook and I am sick of the and then I told him everything that always seems to happen. I think that what the biggest part of the series fall for me was that Delaney changed who the Spook was in the last book so much it just made no sense to me. And I really think if he wanted to make this a spectacular series, he needed to actually give Tom hard choices to make instead of him still doing the dumbest thing per usual and everyone screaming about how he is the only thing that matters. Tom is a straight up a Gary Sue at this point and he's not the most interesting character anymore. 

The Last Apprentice: Clash of the Demons (Book 6) by Joseph Delaney

2.0

Whelp, this was just not good at all. 

Compared to the length of the other books I can't believe I am going to say this, this needed to be longer. 

Too much got cramped in here, too many reveals (no spoilers) and way too short of an ending to move onto the next thing. I was interested in how things were going to go down in Greece, but geez it was rushed, it didn't make a lot of sense, and of course if you know your Greek mythology, you don't really need too many things explained to you, but I still felt irritated by the thinness of the plot. 

I think that Delaney probably plotted things out and just needed this book as filler so to speak, but it really was filler. 

And honestly, one character, Tom's mam is a hot old mess and I thought that there was too much left unsaid about what she did and didn't do to set some of these events in motion. And I felt for Tom's brothers who it is apparent she does not care about at all, or the things that were done to them because of her and Tom. I really want someone to read this character for filth, but I don't think that is ever going to happen. And I am really tired of everyone saying with the Fiend walking the world things will get worst...um they weren't a bag of sunshine before! I think that's why I don't believe in this whole epic quest to defeat the Fiend nonsense. 

And of course, again, Tom makes the worst decision tree decision ever and I maybe smacked my forehead because I was just officially done at this point. And we have heard through 5 books now that the Spook does not agree with those who turn to the dark for their own ends, and he makes a decision that was out of character, didn't make sense, and I think that Delaney lost a chance to really set up a tougher road for Tom about what he should do. 

The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye (Book 5) by Joseph Delaney

3.0

I thought the fifth book in the series was just okay, there were some really bad plot elements in this one and I think the book fast forwarded a bit to get to the next book in the series (spoiler alert, it was not good) and better time would have been spent setting this up better.  We have Tom being sent off to train with a new Spook so he can learn about different types of witches, but also more one on one combat. Also, there's additional details being provided about what makes Tom so different than the Spook's that have come before him. The biggest reason why I gave this three stars though is that I swear that every time Tom is in a bad situation, he makes the worst decision possible. At this point I need to create my own Tom Ward decision making tree and just see if I am right. 

"Wrath of the Bloodeye" has Tom sent to go and train with another Spook for 6 months named Bill Arkwright. Tom doesn't want to go and per usual is angry that Alice can't come and holy moly I am sick of hearing about Alice. Probably because everything the Spook has said about her is true and Tom has no common sense at all in my mind. Tom eventually goes and meets Bill Arkwright and per usual can't help snooping and being angry he's not being treated like a snoop. There comes of course a new villain on the scene, a new witch who is the daughter of the Fiend (sorry I still think including the Devil in this series was the dumbest thing ever) who is determined to kill Tom so her father may walk forever because Delaney borrows a bit from the Harry Potter series to have it that if the Fiend kills Tom he won't be able to walk forever, etc. etc. 

Tom is just aggravating in this one. Probably because without Alice he's not that interesting of a character. Everyone keeps telling us how important he is, but so far, eh. 

I was interested in the character of Bill Arkwright, he had a hard life and I found him to in some ways be a better master to Tom than the Spook is. And frankly, I think I prefer his method of dealing with witches than what the Spook does and continues to do. 

The setting of this book in a new place with water witches and other water based demons was a nice change of pace. 

There's more secrets at the end of this one to be revealed to Tom by his mother who is apparently coming back from Greece.