overlysalted's reviews
47 reviews

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

5.0

i adore this series and with this installment it will remain a top 3 favorite series for me. legacy was a lot slower and differently paced than the first two, as it spans a couple decades, but fonda lee handled it masterfully. i’m so sad to say goodbye to the kaul family. what an absolute masterpiece of a story. 

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

5.0

this is literal Black girl magic in one of the most delightful middle grade reads available. i wish i had this when i was a kid. it was adventurous, real, and so so so much fun. can’t wait to get book two! 

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

adventurous fast-paced

2.0

i. really didnt like this. it was so hyped and i was really expecting a lot more than it gave. it definitely felt like a story that had the potential to be on the same scale as priory of the orange tree, but somehow ended up with about as much depth and emotional maturity as twilight. 

pacing was all over the place, characters were predictable and flat, dialogue was clumsy and juvenile at best, and the worldbuilding was tragically uninspired for being a world that included dragons and mermaids??? it was such a disappointment. i wish i could give this a better review but unfortunately this just wasn’t it for me. 

Padawan by Kiersten White

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i always love to be in the star wars eu. this was sweet, heartfelt, and a little silly at times. it’s definitely reminiscent of the old jedi apprentice books, but lighter and more upbeat with honestly, a little bit of an environmentalist slant that i wasn’t mad about. it wasn’t anything exceptional, but it was everything i wanted it to be which was simply an adventure with padawan obiwan. 

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

adventurous medium-paced

2.0

this was. not that great. i felt like i was getting whiplash reading this because the writing sure likes to tell you what the characters think and feel, but their actions do not reflect what you're being told. that, or it'll tell you super obvious things and spell it out for you as if you didn't get it. overall it was annoying to read and hard for me to suspend any disbelief. idk. disappointed because i wanted to love this. the world itself was so beautiful, but the characters and the story just fell flat for me. 

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

4.0

this was delightful. the main characters are so cool, they literally jump off the page at you, they're whole real people to me and they stole my heart. the world is also so vibrant and so clear to read about, you feel like you're there. this steampunk cairo has my whole desert-loving heart. i want to be there so bad. the plot was meh, i found it kind of muddy and the stakes did not feel as high as the writing tried to make it. but the characters and the world will get you through the blah plot just fine. 

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

the mistborn trilogy is top tier fantasy and timeless. this is something you can recommend to a beginner to the fantasy genre or a veteran reader. this world is unlike any other i've ever read and sanderson's creatures and races and histories are so intricate and fascinating to read. book three is the slowest of the three for sure, but a great finale to the series. i absolutely loved everything about this. except for elend. f*ck you, elend. 

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

this was a lovely read and i'm really happy pamela decided to take her narrative into her own hands like this. i'm also glad she fought to write it herself because she's a wonderful writer with a very romantic, whimsical feel to her words. absolutely loved this. finished it in a little over 12 hours. 

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

this is my favorite series of the year, i already know this in the depths of my soul. john gwynne can write a woman and has written some of my favorite female characters of all time with this. this is so brutal and violent and gory and tragic while ALSO being so full of heart and friendship and family and love. i can't get enough of this series and i think about it constantly. 10/10. absolutely no notes. 

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

2.5

I think i’d have been into this if i read it 10 years ago. The writing is really good and it reads super quick, but i don’t know that stories about weird sociopathic boys aged well. the twist is really what saves the book from being a total miss to read in 2023.